“Don’t do anything stupid,” I whisper.
“I’d give you the same warning,” he says, “but it seems we’re a bit late for that. Take off the watch.”
Not good. That watch is my only means of escape.
“Now.” He punctuates the word. I keep one hand raised as I lower the other one and slip the chain over my head to hand the watch to him. “Thank you,” Alpha says, then he waves the gun back, ordering me into the room.
Alpha shuts the door and points the gun toward the nearest stool. I keep my hands up as I lower myself onto it. I scan the room even though I know it. I had a class in here. There are three rows of long tables, each with six stools behind them. There’s a whiteboard at the front of the room and cabinets at the back.
“Where’s the notebook?” Alpha demands.
“In a safe place.” I try to keep my voice as calm and flat as I can. Because the truth of the matter is that I have that notebook tucked into the back of my jeans, and I can’t believe in this moment that I have it with me. So stupid.
“You’re going to need to get it.”
“No problem.” I smile. “Just let me go, and I’ll fetch it for you right away.”
Alpha doesn’t blink. “Nice try,” he says, but I know that he’s at a crossroads, same as I am. He needs that notebook back so he can destroy it. And I need to keep holding on to it.
Alpha walks over to a Bunsen burner set on the first row of tables. He switches it on, and it sputters a second before the smell of propane wafts toward me and a blue flame flickers up and sends my stomach plunging into a frigid ocean of fear.
“Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” Alpha asks. His voice is changing. There’s desperation in it.
I don’t answer. I stare at the flame.
“Where is the notebook?” Alpha barks.
“I don’t have it!”
And then before I know what’s happening, Alpha grabs me and yanks me to the first row. His fist clenches around my wrist, and I turn and scream and kick; but he has me pressed against the table, and I can’t move. My hand lowers toward the flame, and the heat pricks my palm. Tears roll down my face and I choke.
“Why?” I sputter. “Why are you doing this to me?”
And then the flame goes out, and the Bunsen burner goes crashing to the floor. It clatters against the linoleum. He unhands me, and I stumble back, gasping and panting and shaking.
Alpha raises the gun and points it at me, and I flinch. But only for a second. Because then I look at his eyes. Something’s changed. They’re still dangerous, but now there’s fear and resignation lurking behind them. I need to act.
I raise my hands so that they’re chin level and slowly extend my right. “Give me the gun.”
Alpha doesn’t lower the gun, but he also doesn’t put his finger on the trigger.
“Please give me the gun,” I say. “My dad wouldn’t want this.”
Alpha blinks but doesn’t say anything.
“You and my dad were friends,” I say. Right up until the point you had him killed.
I stare at Alpha’s hand. The one holding the gun. Waiting for any sign, any moment of hesitation or relaxation.
“I never meant . . .” Alpha’s eyes shift from me to the side, and I take my chance. I leap at the gun. I grab on to it and try to force it down, but then Alpha snaps back to attention and twists away from me. He raises it to my forehead, and I suck in my breath.
“Stop it!” he yells. “I told you I was anticipating that!”
“You don’t want to hurt me,” I whisper. “I know you don’t.”
He doesn’t respond, but I know I’m right.
I think of the hostage negotiation training I had right here on this campus and choose my words carefully. “Tell me what happened. Why you got mixed up with this in the first place. I’m sure it’s not your fault.” It’s a lie. He’s totally to blame. But I need him on my side.
“I can’t fight them,” Alpha says. “They’re too dangerous.”
Yes!
“Who? Who’s too dangerous?”
“XP.”
Chills race up my arms. “Who is XP?”
Alpha shakes his head, as if he’s trying to snap himself back to being the collected, professional, authoritative figure I’ve always known, not this man who’s on the verge of breaking.
“I’m not dragging you into it.”
“I’m already in it!”
“Not like this.” And then he lowers the gun. He’s still staring at me, and for once I see the glimpse of a different man. A man who’s regretful. A man who knows he’s defeated. I hold out my hand for the gun. He waits—staring, reflecting—and then he starts to hand it to me.
“What the hell are you doing, Julian?”
The door opens behind me, and Alpha retracts his hand and jumps back. I whip my head around to see Headmaster Vaughn walk in. His silver eyebrows rise when he sees me. “Hello, Amanda.”
He’s a man I used to admire, someone I used to want to emulate. He fought in Korea. He was a spy during the Cold War (well, this is unconfirmed but highly rumored). He was a close adviser to two presidents. He treated his students with dignity and respect. He listened to us. Counseled us.
But all along he was buying the past, and now he’s standing here before me, not even trying to deny it.
“Hello, Cresty,” I say.
Vaughn’s mouth creeps up into an amused smile. “Amanda, dear, I know we’ve trained you better than that. I’ve seen your transcript.”
“What, don’t antagonize the enemy?”
“No, don’t be stupid in captivity. It could get you killed.”
With those words, everything fades away. The truth floats through the air and settles in my lungs. Vaughn is a bad man. A very bad man, and this situation is very real and very dangerous.
“Sit down,” Vaughn tells me.
“Don’t sit down,” Alpha says, the gun hanging to his side. He turns to Vaughn. “It’s over. Can’t you see that?”
“Nothing is over,” Vaughn says coolly. “You’re in this until the end. You knew the terms when you took the deal.”
“I want out,” Alpha says.
“Do you now?”
The two men stare at each other with such ferocity that I forget to breathe. This is a standoff to see who’s going to blink first. Vaughn does.
“Very well. Have it your way.”
And then I know what’s going to happen. I open my mouth to scream, but before a sound can form on my lips, Vaughn has reached into his shoulder holster, and there’s a Glock and a shot and Alpha crumples to the floor. Vaughn kicks Alpha’s gun out of his hand and sends it spiraling across the floor. It bangs against a trash can.
A scream is out of my lips before I can think. He was going to surrender; I know he was! I sway to the side and slam into the table. Vaughn grips his gun with his right hand and yanks my shoulder with his left.
“Shut up!” he says as he pushes me into a stool. “I told you to sit down.”
I lower onto the seat and look at the table. Not at the floor. But I can still see Alpha lying there in a puddle of red out of the corner of my eyes, so I close them.
“Start talking,” Vaughn orders. “I want to know everything you know. And please don’t insult me by lying. I spent thirty years training intelligence officers and then students to lie. I’m going to know.”
He’s right. I’m so dead.
Vaughn gives me a pointed look. “Talk!”
“I found Alpha’s mission ledger. I figured out how to decode it.”
He nods. “Mmm-hmm, very good. Now where is it?”
“It’s in a safe place.” That’s not exactly a lie.