“See anything bad, Carlos?” I whisper.
“Nope.” His eyes roam over the small valley. “But that doesn’t mean there’s no one here to ambush us.”
“Shh, let me listen,” Hector says, and I think we all hold our breath. He points toward the water. “Someone’s breathing over there.”
“Hope it’s them,” Carlos says as he follows Hector’s direction.
It better be, because we’ve already used too much time getting here. If we’re supposed to infiltrate The Phantom’s base by tomorrow, we need to be working towards that now. As we approach the waterfall, I can feel the water splash at my feet. Hector pauses, and then whispers, “There’s rustling…like clothes, I think. It’s hard to tell with the wat—”
Before he finishes, a figure emerges from behind the rocks and tackles Bea. Brady goes into attack mode, but stops short when the person says, “Mija! Are you okay? We’ve been so worried.”
“Rosa!” I exclaim just as three more figures appear.
“If we get out of this alive, you three are grounded until graduation,” Alejandro says. “You should have told us you were involved—I shouldn’t have heard it from Fiona’s brother.”
“Sorry,” Bea says.
“Now, now, best intentions were had.” There’s a click and then light—Miles looks relieved as he holds the flashlight to his face. “Glad you’re safe, Fi.”
“Took you long enough,” Lee Seol grumbles as she messes with her super phone.
“I was kinda busy.” I head to Miles and pull him into a hug. “Really wish you could have been there for it.”
He tenses at the words. “I take it the drug worked? We lost sound on your mic when you went underground.”
“Yeah, it worked for a little bit,” I whisper, the image of myself in the mirror already seeming like a dream.
Miles nods as he pulls back, and his eyes look haunted. “It happened so fast, Fi. Me and Lee Seol were in the living room working on the cracked network. Mom was sleeping since she had a late shift yesterday. And then we heard her scream. By the time we got up there, the blood was on the wall and they were gone. The Phantom must have taken Radiasure so he could pull Mom through with him.”
I gulp, unable to say anything at the account.
“Bastard,” Lee Seol says. “I had no idea wall walking wouldn’t set off alarms, but apparently he can go right through lasers no problem. He must have been planning this for awhile, because he didn’t appear on any of the cameras I put around the house. He knew the blind spots.”
Seth swears. “We need to do something now. Do we even know how to get into The Phantom’s base?”
“It’s underground,” Lee Seol says. “I’ve been able to get a basic layout of the place, but Crisis put extra security on the passwords to open the doors. He’s trying to get me out of their system, but I’m hanging on. Those doors won’t open without the right code.”
Brady flexes his muscles. “What if I punch my way in?”
Lee Seol shakes her head and pulls out what I think is a folding screen. She opens it until it’s about the size of a piece of paper, and then an image lights up on it. It’s a blueprint. She points to a bunch of round things by what looks to be a huge door. “See these? They’re bombs. Rigged to go off at the slightest attempt to use force. So unless you are also indestructible, I wouldn’t recommend punching.”
“Shit,” Carlos says, and then Rosa smacks him. He gives her an incredulous look. “What am I supposed to say, Ma? There is a fortress under our SuperMart—look at that thing!”
Hector lets out a long sigh. “And we thought we were so safe here.”
“There’s no such thing as safe,” Alejandro says as he sits down on a nearby rock. He looks up at us, his face set in determination. “You only have one choice, but from what Miles told me you might not like it.”
“What’s that?” Seth asks.
“What could possibly be so bad at this point?” I say. “I’m up for anything if it means stopping that psycho.”
Alejandro scratches the back of his head. “Well, you’re gonna have to talk to your dad, Seth. There’s no doubt John has the codes.”
The shock on everyone’s faces is unanimous as Brady says, “You knew?”
Alejandro nods, and suddenly Bea’s dad will never look the same to me again.
Chapter 41
“No,” Seth says before Alejandro can get another word out. “I saw what he does—I’m not talking to him ever again. I don’t care if he has what we need.”
I want to argue with my boyfriend, since my mom’s life is on the line. But I can’t blame him for feeling that way. “He said if we interfered again he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt us.”
“He’s a traitor,” Brady growls.
Hector holds up his hands. “Hold on now—what are you talking about? I thought your dad didn’t do anything but alcohol and drugs.”
Alejandro lets out a long, tired sigh. “That’s his way of coping with what he’s had to do all these years, mijo. Just after his wife died, Juan was already threatening us. Everyone knew what Brady was, and Juan wanted to indoctrinate him early. They were coming for us, too. We didn’t have a lot—you think they left us alone just for the money? No, John was part of the deal. He agreed to work for Juan as long as he could remain undercover.”
While it all makes sense, it’s hard to take. “So he really does work for Juan?” I ask.
“Yes, unwillingly.” Alejandro looks sad and tired, but also relieved, like having the secret out is a weight off his chest. “It was either him or our kids. How could I tell him not to do it? So I said I’d take care of you guys like my own, make sure the construction company was run well. It was the least I could do when he was sacrificing his soul for us.”
Seth balls his fists, looking away. “Don’t make it sound like he’s noble. You think I’m happy to know my dad became a murderer for me?”
“I’m not asking you to think of him as noble,” Alejandro says. “I’m just telling you this because you need his help and I believe he will help you. He only gives Juan the bare minimum. Because he’s undercover, he gets all the information first and then filters what he wants to Juan.”
I can’t help thinking of all the holes in The Phantom’s information—how he knew I was here and yet not that Seth can see me, how he seems to know someone is hacking but not that Spud is here, how he knows we have the merinite but not that it’s in a cave. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I say, “That does make sense. He must have a lot of stuff on us—and it’s obvious Juan doesn’t have all that information.”
Seth purses his lips, and my guess is he doesn’t have an argument for that.
“If this code is half as jacked as the last one,” Lee Seol grumbles, her eyes glued to her super phone, “then asking him is our best shot.”
I want to demand that we go with this plan, but when I look at Seth and Brady I can’t. They are so pissed about this—and their feelings do matter to me even if my mom is at stake here. Taking a deep breath, I say, “What do you think? Should we?”
Seth raises an eyebrow, and then looks to Brady. “How do you feel, bro?”
Brady frowns. “As much as I don’t want to talk to him, we can’t let Fiona’s mom die.”
Seth nods. “I’ll do the talking then. You can stay outside.”
“Sounds good,” Brady says.
“Okay, enough shitting around. Go kick some ass.” Lee Seol comes up to me, the big-screen map in front of her. “Get a good look at this layout, Fi. It’s not a huge place, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to find her.”