Based on my writing skills I asked the grand commander if I could start writing our history. He informed me anything I write will be subject to his approval and review. Somehow I think this journal will provide more truth than what is to be written down and preserved for our descendants.
—The journal of Isaac Ryland
The terrain was more mountainous than Andrew had expected, but he hadn’t seen a single house or sign of a person for miles. Even the pavement had given way to a gravel road. He turned off and started driving along the rocky landscape, Carter’s headlights flashing in his rearview mirror. It didn’t take long for Andrew to reach a destination he thought safe enough. He paused and turned the car off. There was a chill to the air, and a shiver ran down Andrew’s spine. He hoped wherever Mia was, she was safe. He shook his head. He knew she was safe. That was the only way he could keep moving. A knock on his window startled him from his thoughts. Carter was waiting. Andrew pushed open his door and stepped outside.
“You left the agent alone?”
Carter lifted up his keys and jingled them in front of Andrew’s face. “If he wakes up he’s not going anywhere.”
Andrew opened the back door and started handing Carter the bags they’d collected from the youth home. Andrew walked around to the passenger side and grabbed the rest of their belongings. He stopped in the back and lifted the trunk. There sat the two cans of gasoline.
“Are you going to blow up this car too?” Carter asked.
“No,” Andrew said.
“How did Mia know that gas would destroy the building?”
“She grew up on a farm,” Andrew said. “Gas is flammable.”
“Oh,” Carter said.
Andrew picked up the two gas cans and left the trunk open. He took solace in the fact that maybe an animal would call it home. He walked toward the other SUV, his arms full.
“What time is it?” Andrew asked.
“Two,” Carter said.
“We have a few hours,” Andrew said. “You should try to get some sleep.”
“I’m not tired,” Carter said.
Carter opened the back door and set his bags down. He walked around and opened the trunk. Andrew set the extra gas cans down and closed the hatch. The two men stood next to the car.
“You want to hit me,” Carter said. “I can tell.”
“I want you to tell me everything,” Andrew said.
“I found out my dad was still alive when we made it to Affinity,” Carter said. “Grant let me speak to him once a day. He gave me a time limit. Mia for Grant. That’s all I know.”
“What does he know?” Andrew asked.
“That we’re coming back to America, that we are with a group of rebels,” Carter said.
“Does he think we’re coming to destroy the Registry?”
“I’m not sure,” Carter said. “He may assume that, but he didn’t hear it from me.”
“How does he know we’re here now?”
“Not from me,” Carter said. “Before we left for France I told him I couldn’t call any longer. It was too painful to hear my dad. All I said was I would be there with Mia by the deadline.”
“You don’t think a man that clever could figure out we were coming in with foreign aid?”
“How could he know that?”
“Because the whole reason Florence was here was for his wedding,” Andrew said. “You don’t think he’s clever enough to put two and two together?”
“If he was wouldn’t we have been greeted by him at the airport?”
Carter did have a point.
“You’re going to call him,” Andrew said, “and tell him that everything is going according to plan and you’re still with Mia.”
“Why?”
“Because as long as he thinks she’s with us he won’t go looking for her elsewhere.”
“I can’t,” Carter said. “It was dangerous enough calling him internationally, when I didn’t care if he knew where I was, but if I call him now, from inside America, he can trace me in a second. Then he’ll kill all of us, including my dad, and then he’ll know for certain Mia is inside the country. That creates more of a risk.”
“Affinity had a medical contact; maybe there’s some technology guy they know who could help us,” Andrew said.
“In America?”
“Why don’t you stop shooting down my ideas and start coming up with your own?”
“I’ve been trying to think of an alternative for weeks,” Carter said. “I can’t get my dad without Mia. I was hoping she would be willing to trade and then we could break in and save her.”
“Why don’t we break in and save Rod?”
Carter was silent for a moment.
“That might work now,” Carter said. “Before I thought we were going to get too close to the deadline, but there’s no more cross-country visiting trip. We can make it to the capital area and Grant’s house in a few days, then scope it out and decide how to break in and save him.”
Carter’s mood elevated.
“Mia is meeting us in three days,” Andrew said. “And I don’t want her to think she has to sacrifice herself.”
Carter frowned for a second, then his smile returned, but Andrew noticed the hesitation.
“By the time she returns my dad will be safe,” Carter said.
“I can tell you don’t believe me,” Andrew said, “but she wouldn’t abandon us. This mission is too important to her.”
“What if she has?” Carter asked.
“Nothing has changed,” Andrew said.
“What do you mean?”
“Mia is getting the information she needs to prove her identity,” Andrew said. “Then we continue on with our plans.”
“What about my dad?”
Rod had been nice to Andrew. He was one of the only men who ever was. He had given Andrew advice on how to handle his feelings toward Mia and taught him to act like a soldier. Andrew owed the man too much to ever walk away.
“I promise you,” Andrew said, “I will do everything in my power to make sure we get him out of there, alive.”
“Thank you,” Carter said.
“Grab the bag with the identification,” Andrew said.
Carter opened the back door. The RAG agent did not wake up. Carter walked back around and Andrew grabbed the bag from his hands.
“We need to find three agents who look similar enough to us,” Andrew said.
Carter reached in and pulled out a stack.
“That’s why I hid, you know,” Carter said.
Andrew stopped and looked up at the other boy.
“If I died nobody would ever know that Grant had him,” Carter said. “It wasn’t because I was scared for my own life. I would die for Mia or you. But I’ll never put anyone above my father. From here on out I won’t run, as long as I have your word you will get him out, even if I die.”
Coward. That was the word Andrew thought of for Carter, but with Mia missing Andrew appreciated what Carter had done. If their group had been under attack and Andrew was the only hope Mia had, he would have hidden too. Andrew nodded his head at Carter and the two went back to sorting through the identification.