CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1680 Words
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Maya sat on the edge of the bed in their room at Engelberg. Sara sat on the other bed beside her, her knees drawn up, staring at nothing in particular. The TV was on, playing some old sitcom on one of the few American channels they got at the lodge, but neither of them was paying any attention.
Agent Watson sat in an armchair near the window, his gaze directed passively at the television. If he was thinking anything, he wasn’t showing it.
Maya’s anger had assuaged from the confrontation in the streets of Zurich earlier. She hated to admit it, but her dad was right. Faced with an opportunity to help, to keep people safe, he couldn’t turn it down.
She knew that she wouldn’t have either.
What bothered her most was the faraway look that had returned to her younger sister’s eye. It was strikingly similar to the look Sara had had in her eyes for the past few weeks, ever since they had returned home, and she very much hoped that her sister wasn’t backsliding into a stupor again.
“Our flight back to the States doesn’t leave for a few more hours,” Watson said suddenly. His voice was quiet but deep enough to feel as if it filled the room. “You girls should eat something.”
Maya wasn’t hungry, and she doubted Sara was either. “This hotel doesn’t have room service,” she muttered instead. As soon as she said it a notion struck her, a possible opportunity for a temporary escape from the vacuous silence that would reign until they were ready to leave. “But I saw a pizza place not far from here, less than a block. They don’t deliver, but I’d be happy to run and grab a pie.”
Watson arched an eyebrow in her direction. “I don’t think that would be wise,” he said slowly. “I’d rather order in—”
“We could go together,” Maya suggested instead. If she couldn’t go alone, at least she could get out of the hotel room with an escort.
Still Watson seemed dubious. Clearly he didn’t like the idea of them leaving the room at all until it was necessary. “Tell you what,” he said as he rose to his feet, “I’ll ask at the front desk, and if it’s as close as you say, I’ll run down there and pick us up something.”
Maya’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Lock this door behind me,” Watson told her as he shrugged into a jacket. “And here. Take this.” He reached into a pocket and removed a black plastic fob with a single round button in the center.
Maya took it from him. “What is it?”
“It’s a panic button. Push that and it’ll instantly send an alert to my phone.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re not babies.”
“No,” Watson agreed. “But you are children, and you’re Zero’s children. From where I’m standing, that means something. Lock it after me.” He pulled the door open, looked briefly left and right, and then closed it again behind him.
Maya sighed as she twisted the door lock. Then she tossed the panic fob onto the bedspread. “So much for getting some fresh air.” She paced the floor a few times before she noticed the thousand-yard stare on her sister’s face.
“Hey,” said Maya, gesturing to the fireplace. “I have an idea. Let’s get a fire going. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Sara only shook her head. “Don’t want to,” she murmured.
Maya sighed. She lowered herself on the edge of the bed beside her sister. “Okay. Then let’s just talk. I want to know what’s going on with you, Squeak—”
“Don’t call me that,” Sara said quietly.
“Sorry. I want to know what’s going on with you, Sara. Much as it pains me to say it, Dad was right. Talking about this kind of stuff can help.”
“I know,” Sara admitted. “It’s just… it’s not what you think.”
Maya frowned. “What do you mean? Talk to me.”
Sara shrugged. “I’ve just been… I’ve been thinking a lot about Mom lately. How she always knew what to do to make things better, no matter how bad it seemed.”
Maya couldn’t help but smile at that. It was true; their mother did always have a knack for saying and doing the perfect thing to cheer them up when times seemed tough.
“And,” Sara said in nearly a whisper, “I keep thinking that if she was still here, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
Maya wrapped her sister in a hug. “Maybe not,” she said. “But we don’t know, and we’ll never know, because Mom’s gone, Sara. But I know what she would want if she was here. She’d want us to be strong. She’d want us to be able to take care of ourselves, the way she took care of us. You know, even if… even if Dad doesn’t keep this job, he’s not going to be around all the time. I’ll be off to college soon, and so will you only a couple years after. Then we’ll be adults. So I think maybe it’s best if we learn that now. We take care of ourselves—and each other—and what happened will never be allowed to happen again.”
“Yeah,” Sara agreed, resting her head on Maya’s shoulder. “There’s something else.”
“What is it?”
“Earlier, Dad said something to you, before he left. He said, ‘like father, like daughter.’ He said that if you want something to stop you have to be part of the people trying to stop it. What did he mean by that?”
Maya bit her lip. She was still dead-set on the goals she had outlined for her father, of going to West Point and joining the CIA. But she wasn’t prepared to tell Sara that; the last thing her sister needed was the knowledge that Maya planned to put herself in the line of fire.
Luckily she didn’t have to explain, because there was a brisk knock at the door to their room. Maya jumped a little at the sudden noise, and then laughed at herself.
“I bet Watson forgot his wallet,” Maya said. “Hang on!” she called out, loud enough to be heard from the other side. She rose from the bed and crossed the room to the door, but she paused before her hand reached the lock.
What if it’s not him? They were two teenage girls in a foreign country, vulnerable and alone. She didn’t know who else might know this quickly that their dad had left, but it wasn’t worth taking a chance. Like Watson said, they were Zero’s kids, and while she wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, it meant something to him. Besides, she had just been telling her own sister that they needed to be stronger, better prepared.
The tiny black stun-gun her dad had given her was in her coat pocket, hanging on a hook near the door. Maya reached into the coat pocket and pulled out the small black stick, concealing it in a palm.
“Who is it?” Maya called out.
There was no answer; not a verbal one, anyway. But a knock came again, more urgent this time.
“Don’t open it,” Sara said in a whisper. Her eyes were large as saucers and her face had paled.
“I’m not,” Maya promised her. “I want you to stay right there unless I say otherwise. And get the button.” If they pushed the panic button, they should hear the alert to Watson’s phone through the door. “It’s on my bed there—”
Before she could finish there came a thudding crash. The jamb splintered and the door flew open, the knob cracking the wall behind it. Maya let out a small shriek as she jumped back in shock. Sara sat bolt upright, frozen to the spot.
The man that forced his way into their room was tall, white-skinned, with dark hair and a beard and wearing a black leather jacket. He held both his hands up, palms out to show the girls they were empty.
“Maya, Sara,” he said breathlessly. “Thank god you’re okay. I didn’t know if someone was in here with you…”
“Who are you?” Maya demanded, her voice sounding surprisingly small.
“I’m Agent Nolan with the CIA,” he said quickly. “Something’s happened to Agent Watson. He was jumped by three men right outside the hotel. We have to go, now—”
“What?!” Maya exclaimed. Watson was jumped? And who was this second agent?
“I saw it happen but I couldn’t help him,” Nolan said quickly. “My orders were to stay hidden unless something happened to Watson, and then get you to safety. Please, you need to come with me.”
Maya’s mind raced. This was happening fast, too fast, and nothing about it seemed okay. Her dad’s words from earlier ran through her head: Don’t trust anyone that isn’t us or Agent Watson. She glanced over at her sister and saw the clear distrust in Sara’s eyes.
“Credentials,” Maya said suddenly. “Your agency credentials. I want to see them.”
Agent Nolan shook his head as if in disbelief. “I don’t have them on me. I’m undercover.” He stuck his head out in the hall and looked left and right. “Girls, please. We might have only seconds before someone comes for you.”
There must be something, Maya thought frantically. There had to be a quick way to prove this man’s legitimacy. “You know Watson?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you friends?”
The man huffed impatiently. “Yes.”
“Where was he injured?” Maya asked quickly.
“What?”
“Watson’s injury,” she demanded. “Where was it?”
“It was… uh, his left arm,” said Nolan. “Now can we please go?”
His wrong answer jolted Sara into action. The younger girl bounced from her position on the bed with a lurch and reached for the panic button on the twin bed beside hers. Nolan caught the movement and acted instantly. He shoved Maya out of his way, hard, and she crashed into the wall, pain shooting through her shoulder. The miniature stun-gun fell from her grip and skittered under the bed.
Nolan grabbed Sara by the wrists before her hands could close around the button. He hauled her off the bed, even as she screamed, and he dropped her unceremoniously to the floor.
“Like it or not,” he growled as he put one black boot on Sara’s back, “you’re coming with me.” His right hand snaked inside the leather jacket.
Gun, Maya’s mind screeched at her. He had a gun, and she wasn’t going to wait for him to show it. She ignored the pain in her shoulder and jumped onto him, wrapping both arms around his neck and pulling with all her weight.
He let out a choking sound and spun twice with Maya on his back. His strong hands reached up for her, grabbing her biceps in a vice-like grip, and the next thing she knew she was toppling forward, thrown over his shoulders, and landing in a painful heap in the narrow space between the two beds.
When she looked up again, “Agent Nolan” had a sleek black pistol in his fist. It wasn’t pointed at either of them, but the mere sight of it sent a chill of terror down Maya’s spine. “I’m not going to tell you again,” he said with a sneer. “You’re coming with me. Now.”
- Writer
