The back of the Jeep is open and half-filled with food and supplies. I call Howard’s name inside the house, but I don’t get an answer.
I have to find him. Now.
I quickly check the perimeter of the house, ending up in the backyard near the storage shed.
“Nice to see you again, Zach.”
It’s Mike. He steps out of the shadows by the side of the house. He has Howard next to him, clamped by the elbow. Howard’s face is pale.
“Don’t hurt him,” I say. “He’s innocent.”
“He was innocent, but not anymore. You signed his death warrant the moment you told him who you were. That was back in New York, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I say. No need to lie now. It’s more important to keep Mike engaged and talking. Lying to him is only going to make him angry.
“That girl in New York, she’s the one who turned you.”
Samara’s face appears to me, dark curls falling to her shoulders the way she looked the first time I saw her.
“It had nothing to do with her,” I say. “I had faulty orders, and I tried to set things right.”
“There are no faulty orders. Only faulty soldiers.”
“You helped me in New York,” I say. “You knew I deviated, and you kept my secret. Whose orders were you following?”
“It wasn’t about orders. I kept your secret because I wanted you alive. I thought you were redeemable.”
“I’m more than redeemable. I’m an asset,” I say.
“An asset to who?”
Howard struggles to get free, and Mike clamps down harder on his shoulder.
“Let him go, Mike.”
“That’s not going to happen. I don’t really give two shits about this kid, but you do. And I’d like to know why.”
“He’s my friend.”
“There are no friends. Not for people like us.”
“People like you, Mike. Not me.”
“Oh man, now I’m really feeling bad about myself.”
“Maybe you can go to therapy and talk about it.”
Mike’s gaze shifts behind me, and he smiles.
“Looks like it’s going to be group therapy,” he says.
Tanya appears behind me. I feel something sharp and metallic against the back of my neck.
“There is a knife against your spine,” she says loudly. “If you move, I will paralyze you.”
I can’t see her face, but her voice is steel, no trace of the Tanya who kissed me a moment ago.
Mike says, “Program ahead, Program behind. What’s a traitor to do?”
I can feel the pressure high on my neck, the blade touching flesh between my C1 and C2 vertebrae.
Mike gestures to Tanya. “Bring him to me. Slowly.”
She hesitates. “I have capture orders,” she says.
“I’m overriding them,” Mike says.
“They come directly from Mother.”
“I’m the commander in the field,” Mike says. “Right now, my authority trumps hers.”
“What are you planning to do with him?”
“Not your concern,” he says. “I take full responsibility. Now bring him to me.”
“Yes, sir,” she says.
Tanya nudges me forward, and I resist.
“Don’t fight me,” she says.
She gets me moving with a knee to the back of my thigh.
As the shock of Tanya’s betrayal fades, I focus on a way to disarm her. Mike must sense this, because his grip on Howard becomes a stranglehold.
Howard chokes and looks at me, his eyes desperate.
I take slow steps, allowing Tanya and her knife to set the agenda.
“This is beautiful,” Mike says. “I should have known it would take a cute girl with a knife to bring you down. You love girls and you hate knives. It’s the perfect combination.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” I say.
“You don’t get it, do you? I tried everything to save you and bring you back to The Program. It’s your fault we’re here now.”
Howard grimaces from the pressure Mike is putting on his neck.
“You wandered, you deviated, you questioned,” Mike says. “Everything you’ve been trained not to do, you did. I thought it was growing pains, but no more.”
“What do you think now?”
“I think you’re broken, and broken things need to be discarded.”
I continue to move toward Mike, prompted by Tanya’s knife.
“You’re going to let him kill me?” I ask Tanya.
Tanya whispers in my ear. “Trust,” she says.
Mike knocks Howard to the ground.
Tanya directs me forward, delivering me into Mike’s hands, her knife still at my neck. I’m within striking distance of Mike, but I do not make a move.
Trust.
Mike reaches for me. “Good job,” he says to Tanya.
That’s when she strikes.
She uses my body as cover to camouflage a knife attack against Mike. I feel the blade withdraw from my neck, then Tanya pushes me away as she simultaneously leaps forward, planting the knife deep in Mike’s side.
He howls in rage and jumps back, grasping the handle of the knife that is inside him, using his flesh like a sheath to prevent Tanya from withdrawing the weapon and striking at him a second time.
With his free hand, he pulls a gun from his pocket.
Tanya freezes in place.
I watch Mike’s gun barrel track from one of us to the next. Three shots, three kills. He’s more than capable of it.
I assess the knife in Mike’s side, measuring the blood seeping through the fabric of his shirt. It is a survivable wound, high on his right quadrant. It may have punctured his lung, but nothing more.
The wound has to hurt, but that will not stop someone like Mike.
I know because it wouldn’t stop me.
Mike stares at Tanya, his eyes glassy with pain. “What did Zach do to you?”
“He didn’t do anything,” she says. “It was me. I made a choice.”
“To leave The Program?”
“Not exactly. It’s more like I chose him over you.”
He looks from me to Tanya and back. Howard pulls himself up from the ground and stands by us.
Mike says, “Bad things happen to the people who care about Zach. Friends, girlfriends. They have a habit of dying. But I’m sure he told you that, didn’t he?”
I glance at Tanya, a plan communicated silently between us. I indicate for her to move left as I move right toward Howard. The more distance between us, the longer it will take for Mike to adjust and complete his shots, and the higher the survival percentage in this scenario.
Mike says, “Come to think of it, there’s not a friend of yours who has survived a mission, is there, Zach? Except the mayor of New York. And he’s been in mourning since he met you.”
The mayor trusted me enough to let me into his home, and he gave me his blessing to date his daughter. Now she’s dead, and his life is changed forever. Mike knows the story, and he’s rubbing my face in it.
He wants me to suffer before I die. I will not give him the satisfaction.
Mike brings up the pistol, preparing to fire.
I jump away from Tanya, knowing that even though I will be shot, the added distance between us will increase her odds of survival as Mike resets for a second shot.
I brace myself as I fall—
But the gun does not go off.
When I look back, Mike has disappeared.
I glance over at Tanya. She’s as confused as I am.
“Where did he go?” I say.
“He disappeared through the bushes,” she says.
“Why?”
“I have no idea,” she says.
Tanya grabs Howard, checking him for injury.
“I’m okay,” he says. “Just scared.”
I run to the place where Mike was standing. There’s no trace of him.
“Maybe he was hurt worse than we thought?” I say.
“No, he could have fought with that wound,” she says. “It’s my fault. I went for a kill strike, but he moved at the last second and I missed the mark.”
“You still saved our lives,” I say. “I figured either you turned, or you’d been lying to us all along.”
“Did I scare you?” she asks.
“Not a chance,” I say.
“You scared the crap out of me,” Howard says.
“Thank you,” she says, pleased with herself.
“What’s the plan?” Howard asks.
I imagine Mike’s next move will be reporting back to The Program, maybe blowing the whistle on Tanya. If so, The Program will be after us with a vengeance.
“I’m thinking we stick with the plan,” I say. “What about you, Tanya?”
“I agree,” Tanya says. “Let’s get off the grid fast.”
I kick open the storage shed, hoping to find camping supplies or outdoor survival gear. But there’s nothing we can use.
“What now?” Tanya says.
“It’s time to go shopping,” I say.