Disruption (16 page)

“Don’t even try!” I said. “It would be cool to have you in here, man, but if your dad starts asking questions about getting you into the camp, they’re going to realize our connection, and then the spotlight’s going to be even more on me.”

“You’re right.” Jason took a deep breath and let it out in a single burst. “So what do you need, Matt?”

“I’m totally lost here,” I said. “Everyone knows what’s going on, and I don’t have a clue. I need you to find out as much about this place as you can. There has to be some information out there. Just be smart about it. Okay?”

Trees rustled behind me, and I heard a
snap
. “Someone’s coming,” I whispered, then quickly ended the call and shoved the phone back in my pocket so that the illuminated screen wouldn’t give me away. I flattened myself against the dirt and held my breath.

More rustling, this time on my right. It was probably just a raccoon or something. It would be crazy if the camp had people trolling the woods, searching for stray campers, but then another thought suddenly rolled through my head. The doctor had said there were people out in the woods. People who wanted to get their hands on the kids in this camp. I shook my head.

C’mon, Matt, keep it together. Juno said it was just an urban legend.

Several long seconds passed while my pulse pounded in my neck. Then I heard another
snap,
this time from my left, and it sounded very close. The doctor’s urban legend took hold of my mind with an iron grip. He was older and smarter than Juno. He’d been trying to warn me, not scare me. In my head, I swore a dozen times.

I told myself it was dark, and if I could move fast enough, they’d never see my face. I forced my brain to stop freaking out and counted.

One
. I carefully moved back into a crouched position, keeping low, and shifting my weight onto the balls of my feet.

Two
. I took a breath, held it, and peered through the darkness, mapping, as best I could, my way out.

Three!
Trees rustled behind me, and I imagined the sound to be a blast from a starter’s pistol.

I charged forward, ducking under branches and leaping over logs. When I burst out of the woods, I ran in the opposite direction from my cabin. If they spotted me, whoever
they
were, I didn’t want them to see me run toward Team Grizzly’s Delta cabin. Instead, I sprinted back to the parking lot, crisscrossed very carefully through at least three other sections—but not Team Squirrel’s section; I wasn’t interested in another fight—and then ducked behind a cabin close to the perimeter walkway. I waited there for a solid minute before I drew a breath and forced my pulse to slow to a regular beat. Then I stepped casually out of the shadows, strolled to the main path, and headed back to my cabin. When I passed the archery range, something stepped out of the woods. I froze and stared into the shadows. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing, but when I did, I laughed.

A deer. It was just wandering between the targets, munching on some of the longer grassy areas, without a care in the world. “It was a deer, you idiot,” I said to myself. “Stop being so freaking jumpy.”

By the time I got back to the cabin, exhaustion had a pretty good hold of me. I ignored the comments and questions from my teammates about what had taken me so long. I just collapsed face first onto my bed and fell instantly to sleep.

Chapter 24

“Wake up.”

I groaned and rolled onto my back.

“C’mon,” Juno said, shaking me again, “let’s go.”

“W-what?” I propped myself up on an elbow. The cabin was still mostly dark, except for some dull light seeping in through the partially opened windows. I spotted Amara, Rylee, and Angie still sleeping. Yaakov sat on the edge of his bed, tying the laces of his shoes. I fell back and groaned again. “Go where?”

Juno held up his fists and jabbed out a couple punches, then gestured to the door again.

I’d totally forgotten he’d offered to teach me how to fight. I sucked in a lungful of air and swung my legs over the bed. That’s when I realized just how sore I was. My legs felt like they’d been trampled by sumo wrestlers riding elephants. I sat there for a minute while he rolled his eyes at me and tapped his wrist. I shifted my weight, pushed myself to my feet, and sighed, relieved I’d had the good sense to fall asleep wearing jeans. There was no way I would’ve been able to get a pair of pants on otherwise. I slipped into my shoes and headed, mostly stumbling, outside.

“How are you guys walking?” I asked when I’d caught up a dozen yards from the cabin. “My legs feel like they’re going to fall off.”

“Just my feet hurt,” Yaakov said. “My legs don’t.”

A bandage poked up from the back of his shoe, which must’ve helped since he wasn’t limping half as badly as he had been the previous night.

Juno led us into the woods behind the cabin. We clambered over fallen trees and pushed through patches of thick undergrowth; fortunately, the little walk helped loosen the muscles in my legs somewhat. We finally stepped out into a small clearing about the size of my bedroom back home.

Juno looked around and nodded. “This’ll work.”

“Here?” Yaakov asked. “This is where you’re teaching us?” He kicked at roots that jutted up through the earth and then wandered around the perimeter, seemingly disappointed.

“Where did you think I was going to teach you?” Juno asked. “Out in the open?” He pointed back the way we’d come. “We can go back if you want. Maybe practice in Team Squirrel’s section of the camp. At least you’d get lots of experience in getting your face punched.”

I winced and turned to Yaakov, who was now just a couple feet to my right.

“Yeah,” Juno said, “that’s what I thought.” He drew in a breath, let it out slowly, and then strolled up until he was right in front of me and Yaakov. Then he lunged out and slapped us both in the faces. Hard.

“Hey!” My face stung, and it had happened so fast I wasn’t even sure which of us had been hit first. I rubbed my cheek. “What was that for?”

“If you’re fighting someone,” Juno began, “you’re not going to block anything if you don’t have your hands up. So that’s lesson one.”

He stepped up again and swung at my face. This time I raised my hand, and he hit my arm. Yaakov gave a frightened yelp
and stepped back when Juno went for him next. He avoided the smack but tripped over a root and landed with a thud.

“Keep your hands up,” Juno said, “but keep your eyes open too. Look around. Falling down during a fight isn’t going to do you any favors.” He tapped his chin. “We can call that lesson two.”

Yaakov groaned as he pushed himself to his feet and cursed. “I didn’t come all the way out here just to be—”

Slap!

Yaakov staggered to the side, his hand pressed against his reddening cheek. I laughed.

Slap!

I stumbled back, clutching my face.

Juno’s strikes happened so quickly I could hardly track them, and they were starting to feel a lot like punches. He tilted his head and raised his arms again. My hands shot up to protect my head, and Yaakov did the same.

“Better,” Juno said.

Yaakov rubbed the side of his face and whimpered.

“When are you gonna teach us how to hit back?” I asked.

Juno raised an eyebrow and looked both of us up and down. “I’ve seen you both fight. Let’s focus on blocking for now.”

For over an hour we did nothing but block Juno’s punches. He showed us inside blocks and outside blocks. He showed us high blocks and low blocks. But most of the time, our blocks were as simple as putting our hands up to cover our faces. I tried to count how many times he slapped us and gave up when I got to forty-seven.

When our lesson ended, I had a bloody lip, and Yaakov had the start of a black eye. My face was so numb a dentist could have probably done a root canal and I wouldn’t have felt anything. The only plus was I felt a bit more confident about my ability to block a punch, and all the ducking and dodging had really loosened me up, so my legs weren’t sore at all anymore.

We got breakfast, and I checked my schedule. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Arts and Crafts.

Chapter 25

Arts and Crafts was in the main building near the parking lot. I entered and made my way toward the room hesitantly. If I’d learned anything from “Archery” and “Basic
Self-Defense,” it was that “Arts and Crafts” was going to be anything but artsy and craftsy.

I turned the handle and stepped inside. Campers sat across from each other along rectangular tables, chattering away while they made leather key chains and bookmarks. They had stampers that pressed shapes into the leather and little tools to cut designs. I smiled, instantly reminded of how Jason had called me a belt-making camp loser. Here I was looking at a room full of them.

Alexander Bratersky shoved past, glaring at me over his shoulder as he walked across the room. A second later Becca Plain did the same. She was on crutches now, which I guess was better than a wheelchair, though she still looked like she’d been attacked by a pack of hyenas—which would have been pretty ironic. Delta for Team Hyena attacked by a pack of hyenas. I nearly smiled at that thought. Nearly.

“What are you looking at?” she snapped.

“Nothing,” I said, drawing back a step. “Just glad to see you’re healing.”

“Sure you are,” she said with a sneer. “Make one more comment like that, and I’ll beat you with this.” She held up her crutch.

I felt my eyes widen. “You’ll beat me for saying I’m glad you’re healing?”

Her eyes became slits. “Yeah. I will.” She turned back and crutched her way across the room and through a door at the far side. While I stood there wondering who was crazier, Becca or Angie, a dozen other campers trickled past me and disappeared through the same door.
Becca
, I thought as I crossed the room;
Becca’s clearly the craziest
.

The door led to a small staircase that descended into a cool basement with exposed pipes and a concrete floor. On one of the conduits I spotted a careful etching of the letters
PCIA
, and it made me smile. It felt like a reminder about what we were doing here, and I wondered if that had been the reason campers did it in the first place.

I followed the other campers down a corridor that probably stretched the length of the main building, then up a set of stairs, and then through another door. When I stepped through, I was looking at basically the same room as before, only the campers sitting across from each other in this room appeared deadly serious, and the woman at the front of the room stuck me with an evil stare that felt like a warning to sit down.

I plunked myself into the first free seat I spotted, and only realized after the fact that I was sitting across from Becca. I cursed, and she glared at me like she was trying to develop heat-vision to cook the skin off my face. Before I could change tables, the counselor marched over to the door and set the lock.

“Getting out of a tough situation can be as simple as having the right identity,” the woman said. “Today the focus is on creating authentic birth certificates.”

“What?” I said under my breath.

The counselor glared at me and then continued, indicating the list on the blackboard behind her. “Gather your supplies, and let’s get started.”

*****

Three hours later, I was officially a fourteen-year-old Swedish boy named Gunnar Konstantan. At least, that’s what my birth certificate said. I smiled at the document. I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d ever have a need to pretend to be Swedish, but the possibility of missions that might require it was intoxicating. I imagined being on some super-secret spy assignment in Europe and the only way I could get out of a country was to convince officials I was from Sweden. It was right out of a movie, and here I was getting trained.

“That’s it,” the counselor said. “Shred the documents before you leave.”

I clutched the certificate to my chest. Shred it?

As the campers got up and headed for the industrial shredder at the end of the room, Becca leaned across the table and grabbed my wrist.

“If you sit at this table or anywhere near me ever again—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll beat me with your crutches,” I said, twisting my hand out of her grip. “Cool.” I pushed myself up and added, “Can’t wait.”

I gathered up the scraps from my work and headed across the room, leaving Becca muttering curses and hurling imaginary ice picks at me through her eyes. It felt good to stand toe-to-toe with another Delta, even if that other Delta was a crippled little girl who couldn’t really
stand right now. It made me feel like I belonged at the camp.

While I waited in line for the shredder, I carefully folded the birth certificate and stuffed it in my pocket. I wasn’t going to shred my first attempt at a fake ID. Next lesson, if I did better, I’d shred the old one, but until then, I was keeping it. Jason would totally be jealous when he saw it, and maybe by the end of the summer I’d have a full set of fake IDs for Gunnar Konstantan. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it yet. But having an alter ego sounded fun.

*****

Archery was after lunch, but after nearly having sliced my thumb off in the previous lesson, I didn’t hold much hope that Range Master Fargas would welcome me back.

I was right.

“Cambridge!” Fargas barked as the other campers collected their weapons. The man stalked forward and stopped just a few paces away and glared down at me.

“Sir?”

“Got a surprise for you, Cambridge,” Fargas continued. The other campers hesitated on their way to the range and faced me. “Do you like surprises?”

“Um, I suppose, sir.” I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this one.

He reached behind his back and pulled out a water gun. It was pink and had yellow daisies painted on the grip. The campers burst out laughing. Even Juno didn’t hold back. I guess I would’ve laughed too if it hadn’t been me getting the gun.