Crossing the Line (26 page)

They listened intently, taking in my direction.

“There's a main entry hall here,” I said. There were five hallways that branched off. I pulled the cursor toward one of the halls. “This is the biggest room they have. I'm sure that's where the hovercrafts will be, and if the missile is still in production, it'll probably be there too.”

I dragged the mouse back through the main entry hall, and down one of the opposite corridors. At the end, the hall widened into a second smaller atrium. I pointed to the room along the back wall. “That's the control room. If we need to shut anything down, it'll have to come from here.”

“Where will you be?” Travis asked.

I met his eyes for half a second, then pointed at the second floor. “They keep recruits and agents in these wings,” I said, running the cursor down three of the lower halls. “And prisoners here.” I moved the mouse in circles over the two remaining halls.

“Why would we find you there?” Rachel asked.

I looked up at her sharply, expecting to see some kind of smug or cocky look on her face, but instead there was a genuine question. I stared at her for a moment. Then Cody leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened, and I knew she understood.

“We still have a few things to go over,” I said, and I started handing out other tips and tricks on navigating KATO. After three hours, I couldn't think of anything else to say. Sam had disappeared halfway through to get familiar with the operations center.

“Is that everything?” Cody asked. He'd taken in every word I'd
said. I was expecting some kind of resistance from him and Rachel, but I never got it. Rachel still clearly hated me, but she was completely on board.

I sat at the monitors in front of us, double-checking everything. “I think so.”

Cody turned to Travis. “We should plan for our part.”

Travis nodded. “We will. We'll have a day to prep in Russia.”

I felt a strange peace come over me when he said that. I knew what I would be doing while they were prepping and I felt—calm. I could do this. I could handle being inside KATO. I just had to be the old me.

T
he plane we took to Russia was a small one—only big enough to fit twelve people. I sat alone with my eyes closed, putting myself in the right frame of mind. I shut out every other sound—the engine, the chatter—and tried to focus. I was so caught up in my own world I didn't realize Travis had sat down next to me until he touched my shoulder. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, focusing on him. A slim smile spread across his lips.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head, and his smile got a little bit wider. “A couple months ago, you never would have let your guard down enough for someone to sit down next to you without you knowing.”

“Well,” I said, trying to meet his smile but coming up short, “I guess I've got other things on my mind.”

He got more serious. “You doing okay?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think I am.”

He tilted his head to the side, surprised. “What changed from earlier?”

I shrugged. “I realized that I've been doing this for years. Like you said, I've never been the brainwashed agent they thought I was. I've been playing this spy-double-agent game since I found out my
parents were IDA, and I've spent the past year actively trying to get away from them. I've been a traitor and they had no idea. The only difference is now I have another agency—I have an out. It'll be worse if they catch me, but they haven't caught me so far. I just have to keep it up.”

Travis nodded. “And you only need to keep it up for twenty-three hours.”

“Right.” That's what I had to remember.

“And listen.” He tipped his head closer to me. “I know you're planning on taking care of most of this before we get in there, but keep in mind that we need to be able to find you. Don't do anything that's going to make our job harder. If you need to wait for us to do any real damage, then that's what we need you to do.”

I inhaled through my nose, and agreed. I believed him when he said he wouldn't leave me in there, and the last thing I wanted was for him to get caught trying to find me.

“Try and keep my cover,” I said, even though I didn't need to.

“Don't worry,” Travis said. “We'll do everything we can. If it goes well, they'll think you're doing a really good job and that we believe you're one of our own. Once we're in we can pretend we've just stumbled on to their bigger operation.”

I nodded and leaned back, closing my eyes again. He lingered for another moment, then gave my knee a squeeze and left me alone.

I had the bench to myself for about an hour before I felt someone else sit down. I wasn't looking for company, so I kept my eyes shut, hoping whoever it was would think I was sleeping.

“Oh, knock it off,” Nikki said. “I know you're awake.”

I smirked and opened my eyes. “Did Travis send you over here to check on me?”

“No,” she said. “I sent myself over.”

“I don't need to be checked on,” I said.

She shrugged. “Maybe not. But I'm bored and you're my friend.”

I smiled. “So I'm supposed to entertain you now?”

“Not quite.” She reached into the pocket of the chair in front of her and came out with a stack of cards. “Ever play Uno?”

I squinted at the cards. “Not since I was really little,” I said.

She gleefully launched into an overview of the game, giving me enough to refresh my memory. It was exactly what I needed to keep my mind off things. We played for hours, until I felt my eyes start to get heavy. Nikki noticed and collected the cards. “You should sleep,” she said.

I shook my head. “I'm fine.”

“You've got a long day ahead of you,” she said. “You should sleep while you can.”

I wanted to argue with her. Despite what Travis seemed to think, I still wasn't sure I was comfortable enough to sleep on a plane with other people. But Nikki made a good point, and I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I leaned my head against the window and let my eyes drop shut.

 • • • 

A hand on my shoulder startled me awake.

“Whoa.” It was Travis. “Sorry,” he said. “I said your name a few times, but you were out.”

“It's okay,” I said. “Are we there?”

“Just landed. The others are pulling the equipment out of the lower level. We've got an old hotel we're using as our home base here, and the IDA is getting a location for a safe house in Pyongyang,” he said.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up straighter. “I have to get in touch with KATO. Is there anyplace we can say we're going to be? Someplace they can get to me without giving up your base?”

He nodded. “We'll find something and come up with a reason why on the way.”

The IDA had a car waiting for us. We passed what looked like an abandoned warehouse on the way to the hotel. I could tell KATO I was checking it out as a possible location to set up a mark. The details wouldn't matter too much. Their plans were big enough for them to ask me back here, which could, as far as they knew, blow my IDA cover. They had bigger concerns than my trivial IDA mission.

I contacted KATO once we agreed on the time and location. We'd given ourselves an hour in Russia before the meet. I was ready, but I still felt like I was about to walk into an explosion.

“Okay,” Travis said once we were all settled in the hotel lobby. “In an hour, Joss and I are going to go back to that warehouse, then the rest of us have to prep a rescue mission.”

“Hold on,” I said, raising my hand to get his attention. “
You're
not going to the warehouse. Who knows what they'd do to you.”

“I told you we're going to do everything we can to keep from blowing your cover,” he said. “That starts now. If this were a real IDA assignment, you wouldn't be sent to scout a location by yourself, and there's a really good chance they know that.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Nikki's voice overpowered mine. “But she's right. It can't be you.” Travis's eyes narrowed, but Nikki pushed on. “We don't know what they'll do to the other person. You're point on the rescue mission because you know more about KATO than any of us. If you get taken, we don't have enough information to get you both.”

Travis drew a tight breath, visibly torn between wanting to fight her and seeing her point. “She can't go by herself.”

“I'll go.” I turned around. It was Cody, leaning against a pillar behind me. He laughed at me. “Don't look so surprised, Secret Spy. I'm on your side.”

“I didn't mean—” I stumbled. “I just didn't expect—”

He smirked. “I know. I get you.”

Travis still looked uneasy, but after a moment he nodded. “Okay. Let's start getting a plan together.”

 • • • 

I separated myself for most of the hour, and this time, no one tried to bother me. Cody and I set out when the time came. The warehouse was only five blocks away, but it felt like so much farther. Cody didn't say anything, content to give me my quiet time, but I found now that I was so close to KATO, my nervous energy was too much to silently contain.

“Why did you agree to this?” I asked.

He looked down at me, curious. Probably more surprised that I had said anything than he was about the question itself. “Because I get it now,” he said. “I get that you really didn't have a choice and what it meant for you to pick the IDA.”

“That doesn't seem like it's enough for everyone.” I grimaced
thinking of Rachel. She'd barely spoken to me.

Cody shook his head. “Don't let Rachel get to you. It's just how she is.”

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “She has a right to be like that. I hurt her.”

“Yeah,” he said. “You did. But you were working for KATO.”

I shook my head. “That shouldn't matter. I still chose to listen to them.”

“Maybe it shouldn't,” he said with a shrug. “But to some people it does. To
me
it does. You were keeping yourself alive.” He shook his head, seeming annoyed with himself. “I should have trusted Travis. He had more encounters with you than any of us. If he could trust you, that should have been enough. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did. I owe you.”

Now I had to laugh. “After everything I've done, you think you owe me?” I shook my head. “Why don't we call it even?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think I can live with that.”

We walked for a few more seconds in what seemed to be an oddly comfortable silence.

“They'll probably only knock you out,” I said. “They've got too much going on at the headquarters. The last thing they're interested in is dealing with an extra body.”

“Don't worry about me.” Cody flashed his charming smile. “We've got a plan in place.”

My nerves intensified as we got closer, but I was resigned. When we were a block away, we flipped the switch and just like that we were acting, playing the parts of two IDA agents scouting a building. We'd entered the warehouse, and after a meaningful look, Cody said, “We
should split up. Cover more ground.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Good idea.”

My heart was pounding with so much force I could feel it in my hands. Then out of nowhere something heavy hit my head, and my world went black.

I
woke up groggy and it took me a moment to remember what was going on. Once I did, I fought the urge to jump up. I had to
want
to be here. I pretended to sleep for an extra beat. This was it.

My eyes fluttered open. I was back in my old room, lying on the thin mat on the ground. The calm acceptance I had felt at the start of the mission had settled back in my stomach.

“Look who is finally awake,” a voice to my right said in Korean. It was my handler, Chin Ho. I blinked a few times and focused on him.

“How long was I out for?” I asked. I glanced around the room. We were alone.

“Only about an hour,” he said. His voice sharp and gruff, as usual. “When was your last injection?”

I swallowed hard. “Right before I left.”

He considered me critically, then nodded. “Good.” He pushed himself out of the chair. “Come with me.”

I followed him without question. He led me out of my room and up to the main floor. We ended up on the other side of the building, standing outside the biggest room in the facility. My heart jumped. I had a good idea what I was going to see behind that door and I wanted no part of it. Chin Ho typed a code into the keypad and the door slid open. Behind it were rows and rows of big, round
hovercrafts. Even though I was prepared, my breath caught.

They were finished, and from the looks of things, fully operational. KATO had everything they needed to cross the DMZ.

“We're ready to invade?” I asked.

“We will be starting the missile prep momentarily,” he said. “It needs a day and a half to prepare before it launches.”

I kept myself calm and my breathing even. “What do you need from me?”

“We are pulling you out of the IDA for the time being. As far as they know, you have been kidnapped by your former agency. When we invade, we are stationing you in South Korea.” I felt like I couldn't breathe. “Once the situation stabilizes, we will send you back to prepare for phase two.”

It took me a minute to find my voice. I focused on the hovercrafts, doing my best to appear in awe of them so I didn't have to talk. It must have worked because a few moments later, Chin Ho said, “You should be very proud of your role in this.”

“Thank you,” I said, my stomach roiling. I stayed transfixed to hide how fast my mind was working. I had planned on the hovercrafts and the missile being in the same room, but they weren't. Everything was too spread out. I'd have to disarm the missile, take out the hovercrafts, and get the hovercraft technology out of their system. If they still had access to the tech, there was nothing to stop them from rebuilding and starting the process from the beginning. I didn't want to wait for the others, but I remembered what Travis had told me on the plane. They would be more at risk if they had to search the whole facility to find me, and there was no way I could get to all of those pieces without exposing myself. I needed to alter my goals. If I
could spend my time here getting as much intel as I could, I would be able to pass it on to the rest of the team when they arrived.

“Let's go. I have some training to put you through,” Chin Ho said. “Your job is going to be to blend into society and eliminate any Southern uprisings. This means you cannot be associated with us. We have to be creative about how we get you across the border.”

I had plenty of questions, but I followed him silently. I was expecting him to lead me to the training room, but he threw me off when he opened a small closet door. Inside was a relatively compact trunk. Chin Ho opened the lid and pointed. “Get in.”

I blinked a few times. He couldn't be serious. This wasn't the kind of training that was normal even for KATO. I wasn't even sure I would fit—and if I did, I would be crammed in tighter than a sushi roll. “What?”

I was out of practice and I never saw his fist coming. I stumbled and the right side of my jaw stung. When I straightened, Chin Ho gave me a deeply disapproving look. “It looks like you have had too much time on your own. Don't forget, you're not in charge of your own Gerex in here.” I let a flash of fear cross my face; it just didn't mean what he thought it did. “You have to be packed into the hovercrafts, and you have barely more than a day to get used to it.” Then I understood the plan. I couldn't be seen by a Southerner getting off a North Korean vessel. I would also bet most of the military members who would be on the hovercrafts wouldn't be cleared to know KATO was putting a spy on the ground. This way, I could be brought into the South covertly, as a supply chest, without any South Korean or unauthorized military official knowing about me.

I got in the trunk without another word. I had a plan, but I waited
a few minutes to make sure I was alone before enacting it. Fortunately I could reach my boot. There were lock picks embedded in the soles. I'd been prepared in case I needed access to a room without an air duct, but now I was just glad I could pick the trunk's lock from inside. My joints were starting to ache when I finally lifted the lid and breathed in the quiet of the room.

My eyes adjusted quickly to the dark. The room was small, but the ventilation shaft was just as big as the rest in the facility. Since Chin Ho was letting me “practice” in small spaces, he had no reason to come looking for me for a while. I pulled myself up into the vent and got oriented. I knew the layout of these ducts better than the regular floor plan. I had only been caught once, and punished enough that no one ever thought I'd try it again. They didn't know that to me it only meant I had to be smarter.

I found my way to the director's office. It was empty, which wasn't too surprising. With something this big going on, he was probably a very busy person. I crawled to the vent a few rooms over—the conference room. It was packed with leaders and military officials discussing plans of attack. I'd never seen these two groups working together like this.

“We're sure the missile will work?” one of the military officials asked.

“It passed every simulation,” the director said. “And we have the developer in the facility if anything goes wrong.”

I bit my lip to keep myself from making a sound. Dr. Foster was in here. There was a good chance he was even on this floor. They wouldn't want to expose him to too much of headquarters.

I didn't have a lot of time. I knew KATO wouldn't let me starve and dinnertime would probably be within the next ninety minutes.

I moved through the vents expertly, checking each opening for anyone who might be Dr. Foster. I couldn't help him, but if I knew where he was, the others could when they got here.

I was ready to give up and head back to the closet when I found him. He was a few doors away from the hovercraft room. He was either asleep or unconscious, but I could see his chest rising and falling. He was alive.

I crawled back to my closet, then settled in the trunk again. I was there for about a half an hour before Chin Ho came back with a tray of some unidentifiable food. I hadn't thought about the food before I left, but now that I was back the idea of eating it made my stomach turn. But I didn't have a choice. He was watching me. I took my time, eating slowly. When I was done, he ordered me back in the trunk, saying he'd be back in the morning.

I picked the lock again. When I got out I stretched out on the floor. It was a huge shift from my comfortable bed, but I couldn't help feeling like I got off lucky. They left me alone. It was so much better than I could have hoped for.

 • • • 

I could never let my guard down at KATO. It wasn't until I got to the IDA that I realized how I'd adapted to being half asleep. I had fallen back into that routine easily. That night, I got enough sleep to be rested, while still being constantly on guard, ready to jump back into the trunk if I had to. I startled awake when I heard a key turning in a lock and curled up back inside the trunk.

Throughout the course of the next day, Chin Ho brought me out only to eat and use the bathroom. In between I crawled around the vents, checking on Dr. Foster and seeing if there was anything new I could find out. Aside from confirming Foster was still alive and
learning that the missile prep had, in fact, been initiated, I hadn't come up with anything else.

After I finished lunch, Chin Ho pulled a vial and needle out of his pocket. I froze.

He misread my fear for excitement and smiled. “I figured you'd be ready. And you've been so good with your training, aside from that one incident.”

I bit my lip, hard, trying to figure out how to get myself out of this. The only thing I knew was that there was no way I could let that back in my veins.

But I couldn't fight him. There was no logical reason for me to fight this. If I showed even the slightest resistance, Chin Ho would know and he'd interrogate me, then he'd kill me. He tied a tourniquet around my upper arm and I swallowed hard, thinking of the detox ahead of me, and how much harder it would be now that I knew what to expect. He filled the syringe with the Gerex. I breathed through my nose, trying to keep it together.

As he moved the needle closer, I was forced to admit that this was really happening. And now that it was so close and so real, I
wanted
it. Goose bumps came over me as the needle hovered above my skin. I braced myself for the wonderfully familiar searing burn, and the moments of bliss that would follow. I hadn't let myself think about the good part in so long and now that it was unbearably close, I felt overwhelmed.

A chill shot through me as the needle touched my elbow crease. I wasn't just ready for it, I was
desperate
for it.