Gone (4 page)

“I know,” Ed said. Boy, did he know. He knew all too well.

GAIA FELT TWO QUICK VIBRATIONS against her hip as she slammed the door to Skyler's apartment Someone had left her a voice mail.

She quickly parked herself on the couch with a magazine, making sure she would look appropriately oblivious for Skyler's entrance. She'd made it back in time. He'd have no idea she'd ever left—no idea she'd witnessed his entire secret meeting. She wiped the sweat from her face with her sleeve and reshuffled her hair into a smooth ponytail. Then she took a moment to subdue her breathing after her marathon sprint from the subway station. Once she
was calm and collected, she ripped her cell from her pocket and checked the message.

“You have… one… new message,” the cold-hearted phone lady announced. And then came Jake's booming voice. His voice was so loud and intense, she had to pull the phone back from her ear just to listen.

“Gaia, I thought we
talked
about this…,” he growled.

“Ugh, Jake, calm down,” she muttered, as if Jake could somehow hear her. But then she heard Jake's voice utter these words:

“Chris Rodke is ‘God,' do you understand? Chris is the one dealing Invince in the park….”

Her body froze. The truth was suddenly echoing thought her head, buzzing like an insect lodged inside her ear—the despicable truth about Chris Rodke, her supposed
friend.
So Chris was a part of it, too. A
huge
part of it. Now she knew for sure. It was hardly even a surprise at this point. The Rodkes' little pharmaceutical plot just grew sicker by the minute. It seemed Gaia wasn't their only lab rat. Every skinhead and Invince freak in the park was a lab rat, too. Apparently all of New York City was just a cage full of lab rats to the Rodke brothers.

Her entire body was aching to rise up immediately and hunt Chris down so she could riddle his body with kicks and punches. She could picture herself
doing it—laying into Chris's skinny frame with every ounce of her rage—one kick to the face for every act of violence those “Droogs” had done to her and to Jake and to the countless other innocent victims that she didn't even know. And then, finally, a body slam—one brutal, spine-cracking body slam—for what they'd done to Ed.

But she could do none of the above. Not right now. Because she could hear the key entering the lock of the front door. And right now she had to fold up all that rage and stash it away somewhere. Right now she had to give Skyler Rodke the performance of a lifetime.

Rule number one: Appear startled.

This was something she would have to watch very closely in Skyler's company. If she was going to keep him in the dark, she needed to act just as skittish and rattled as she had been before. She tried to remember all her old pathetic behaviors. Behaviors she would much rather have forgetten.

As Skyler shoved the door open, she threw her hand over her heart and let out her best approximation of a gasp. “Jesus, you
scared
me,” she said, locking her eyes with his as he closed the door behind him. Her father had taught her a great deal about lying in a crisis situation. The golden rule of lying: Always maintain eye contact.

“Sorry.” Skyler smiled, dropping his keys on the side table. “Didn't mean to scare you. Who are you talking to?” He tilted his head quizzically.

Now, with a clear head, she was easily noticing all the little giveaways that she had been missing before. Skyler was so obviously suspicious and uncomfortable whenever she had the least bit of contact with the outside world. The Rodkes wanted her all to themselves.

“It's a message,” she replied. She knew she should have shoved her phone back in her pocket when she heard the door being unlocked, but in this case an exception had to be made. She had to be sure Jake wasn't going to drop any more bombshells on her voice mail.

“Jeez, who's leaving the message?” Skyler giggled, sitting himself down on the couch as close to Gaia and her phone as he could possibly get. “He sounds pissed. I can hear him shouting from here.”

“It's Jake,” Gaia said, rolling her eyes for effect.

Rule number two: Tell as few lies as possible.

Another key lesson Gaia had learned in her crisis training. The key to a good cover was to stick to truthful statements as often as possible. This way you didn't get overloaded with lies to remember and maintain.

“Well, what's his problem?” Skyler asked.

“What
ever,
” she groaned, quickly punching the key on her phone to delete his message the second he was done. No more bombshells, thank God. She shoved the phone back in her pocket and turned to Skyler. “He's still freaking out about this whole stupid prom thing,” she lied. “He's not thrilled that you're taking
me. Hell hath no fury like a macho man scorned.”

“God, what a loser.” Skyler sighed. He smiled at Gaia, but she could still detect the slightest suspicion in his eyes. And her instincts told her what she needed to do next if she truly wanted to shake that suspicion. It was the one classic female spy tactic she had thankfully always managed to avoid. Perhaps because she knew that she would be very bad at it. But if there was ever a time to use it, she felt the time was now, no matter how much nausea it was going to induce.

The fact was, Gaia had always tried to avoid the sexual tension issue with Skyler—even when it was staring her right in the face. Even on that most unfortunate occasion when she had actually let him bathe her, she'd tried to desexualize it in her head, convincing herself that his intentions were noble. But God help her, she was about to change that. She was about to bring it right out into the open. Because she was forming a plan of her own.

Her skin was crawling already….

Memo

From:
L

To:
KS4

Need all KS ops to report in now. Any sightings of CR yet? What is the holdup?

Memo

From:
KS4

To:
L

Nothing yet. Have extended the search area, but still no signs. Any further leads from J?

Memo

From:
L

To:
KS4

J will be reporting in, but this is
unsatisfactory
work. Subject is still out of pocket and under the influence. Have your team redouble its efforts and get me some intelligence on CR location ASAP.

“WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?” OLIVER was glaring at Jake in the doorway.

“I got here as fast as I could,” Jake said, slipping by him. He made a beeline for the kitchen sink, poured himself a glass of water, and guzzled it down.

Oliver followed him to the kitchen, itching with impatience. “Well, have you spoken with her or not?” he demanded.

Jake lowered his head and then poured himself another glass. “I left her a message,” he uttered almost inaudibly. “She still hasn't gotten back to me—”

“A
message.
We don't have time for
phone tag,
Jake.”

“I know, all right? I know.” Jake dodged Oliver's disappointed glare and moved to the couch, plopping down in a heap and running his hand through his hair. “If she won't pick up her phone, there's nothing I can do about it…. I'm sorry.”

Oliver took a breath and calmed himself. He tried to dial down his own frustration and lighten his expression. Gaia's stubbornness was a force to be reckoned with, he knew that. This fiasco wasn't Jake's fault any more than it was his own. But still, his temper was getting more and more difficult to control.

“This is unacceptable,” Oliver muttered “Unacceptable.”
He paced the length of his spacious loft “I've got an entire surveillance crew out there looking for this Chris Rodke, or
God,
or whatever the hell he calls himself. They've checked the park, they've checked the Rodke residence, they've checked the school, and
nothing.
” He turned to Jake. “Where the hell is this boy?! Why has he suddenly gone into hiding?”

“I don't
know,
” Jake said defensively.

“Well, does he know you're on to him?”

Jake paused. “What?”

“Did he see you
see
him?”

Oliver could see a sudden thought flash through Jake's head. His silence was answer enough, and it was making Oliver's blood start to simmer again. “Jake…”

“No,” Jake insisted. “I mean, I don't think he saw me…. I mean, maybe.”

Oliver stomped his foot down on the floor, sending a tremor through every piece of glass in the room. “Maybe? What do you mean, maybe?”

“Look, calm down, all right? He might have seen me, I'm not sure. This chick Zan thinks he saw me, but she's this drugged-out head case and I don't think she knows what she's talking about. Besides, even if he did see me, that's not going to make some guy who calls himself ‘God' go run and hide. He's way too much of an egomaniac for that. I mean, if he
is
hiding right now, he's got to have a bigger reason than me.”

“And when exactly did you develop this expertise in criminal profiling?”

Jake had no answer for that.

Oliver's hands began to form fists. He crammed the fists into his pockets and stepped over to Jake, towering over him on the couch. “Listen to me, Jake… This idiotic, overprivileged boy is the key. He has everything we need. He's got the drug. He's got the evidence we need to expose his whole family. He knows everything they are planning. He can point us straight to Gaia. We need to
find
this boy if we want to find her. And if you have screwed this up… if
you
are the reason we've lost him, I swear to God—”

“All right, stop!” Jake stood up from the couch and faced Oliver head-on.

“Stop what?”

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Look, I'm not your son, all right? So stop looking at me like I'm about to get ten lashes with your belt.”

“Don't be ridiculous.”

“Well, the look in your eyes is freaking me out. So knock it off.”

Oliver locked his eyes with Jake's. His entire body became brittle and tense. He would not tolerate anyone talking back to him like that. Especially not some inexperienced teenage nobody. Ten lashes
with a belt was nothing compared to what Oliver could do to him….

But one deep breath later, Oliver recovered his senses. He took a step back. What was he doing? He didn't have time to waste on this kind of petty infighting. He needed Jake.

“I'm sorry,” he conceded, barely opening his mouth to speak.

“It's okay,” Jake assured him. “I know how you feel. I feel the exact same way. We both just want her back here safe and sound. We just need to hear from her, that's all.” Jake stepped away from Oliver and checked his phone for messages, but there were none. “Come
on,
Gaia. Call us, goddammit.”

Oliver stood in place, staring out the window at the lower edge of Manhattan. Jake was right. He wasn't Oliver's son. Oliver didn't have a son. But he had Gaia. And that little Rodke bastard was not going to keep them apart.

And here's to the birth of the bravest soldiers the world has ever seen.

CHRIS HAD CHECKED HIMSELF INTO the Soho Grand under another name, and he'd paid cash. He'd taken one of the smaller rooms at the back of the hotel rather than his usual choice of the penthouse suite with the windows facing outward. He was quite sure that his father had noticed the missing military contract by now, and he'd definitely have his people out there looking for Chris. It wouldn't be the first time Robert Rodke had sent out his minions to search for his son. He'd done it for lesser reasons: a couple of drunken runaway attempts, a few shameless disappearing acts… anything to get a little attention.

But this was far more serious. Obviously his dad couldn't have a copy of this contract floating around in the open, and finally, with some quiet and some privacy, Chris could get a good look and find out why. He reached into his bag, pulled out the crumpled-up contract, and smoothed it out on the black minimalist desk. It was about twenty pages long, but the cover letter told the entire story….

RODKE PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

CONFIDENTIAL DOC. #4417 LEVEL-ONE EXECUTIVES ONLY (CODE 24C)

General John T. Colter

Base 9 Training Facility—Sub. D. 5

1485 Avenue Tombalbaye BP 9070

Kinshasa, DR Congo

RE: OPERATION LIONHEART

General Colter,

Attached is Copy 5 of the aforementioned contract between
Rodke Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Base 9 Training Facility, Republic of Congo.

As discussed, I, Robert Rodke, of Rodke Pharmaceuticals, Inc., do hereby guarantee full confidentiality and nondisclosure regarding all aspects of OPERATION LIONHEART.

SUMMARY OF AMENDED TERMS AS AGREED TO BY BOTH PARTIES:

1. Rodke Pharmaceuticals, Inc., will provide 40 units of the compound “Invince” to
   General Colter's army trainees in Base 9, Republic of Congo (60 pills per unit).
   
2. The drug will be administered orally for a test period of 60 days under the strict supervision of Dr. Karl Ulrich.
   
3. The drug will be one hundred percent free of all side effects and will provide the soldiers with one hundred percent fear suppression for the duration of the test period.
   
4. Upon conclusion of a successful test period, Rodke Pharmaceuticals will then enter into a long-term military contract with Base 9, providing 400 units of “Invince” per annum—Bases 10 and 11 to follow (see part 35B for details of future and permanent arrangement).
   
5. These terms (and all attached) shall remain TOP SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL for a minimum duration of 100 years (see part 44E).