Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) (14 page)

I pouted, feeling sorry for the things. “This is the best spot for getting a jump on these guys?”

“We need a secure location with a limited amount of exits and a place where we aren’t likely to be interrupted. If we’re going to lure them into trying to capture you, we need to give them a temptation they can’t refuse.” He showed me a computer terminal near a counter. He pulled out a stool and smacked his hand on the seat. “Now sit and do what you promised.”

“There’s no one else in here,” I said. “How do you know no one will come in?”

“Because it’s my office,” he said. “I’ll be in the next room.”

I glanced around the room again, looking at the turtles, the fancy tanks and chemicals. I had a lot of questions by only one came out. “The sick turtles stay in your office?”

“The ones I rescued, yeah,” he said.

I sought out his eyes and locked in on his gaze. My heart, despite the anger welling there at the people chasing us, found a small spot of warmth just for Axel. During the time we’d been back from Florida and I’d been diving head first into my own misery and working for the other boys, Axel had been saving turtles and working here in his lab. Somehow, that meant something to me. It was something I hadn’t know, but now that I did, I adored him for it. It spoke about him in ways he simply couldn’t have told me. Seeing was better.

I looked at the turtles, who seemed so big in the tank. They floated, fins down, looking unhealthy. Axel rescued them. I wondered if the others knew.

He motioned again for me to sit, and I did. He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Once we’ve got Brandon, once we’re out of this mess, maybe you’ll come by and help me out once in a while. Unless you really do like construction work.”

“I can?” I asked.

“Soon,” he said. “First things first. Be bait.”

I turned, looking at his face. He was his usual stoic self, but there was a hint of a spark in his eyes, something deeper. I’d read enough faces to tell me there was a plan already in place, and Marc was already well aware. I was to sit still. He wasn’t going to tell me anything else.

Because they didn’t want me to override their plan and ruin it from the start.

Because I wouldn’t like it.

I sat on the stool, staring at the screen, trying to put together their plan while pretending to do as he told me.

I listened as Axel left the room. And then I checked over my shoulder, studying my surroundings, my exits, of which there were only two doors, and one closet. No windows. No place to go, except maybe up in the ceiling. I didn’t like my options if something went wrong.

I didn’t like not knowing the whole plan.

I waited, swinging my legs and purposefully flicking the flip-flops to make sounds against my heels to fill the space.

If they separated from me, these criminals would try to come after me. They’d send in a team to zap me again. Only this time Axel and Marc were waiting in the wings, ready to rush in.

But is that what the German would do in a public place? Maybe this office was secluded but then they’d still have to carry me out, and they’d have to go through security. Maybe they were willing to follow us and keep an eye on what we were up to, but would they be stupid enough to come in after me like this?

I wouldn’t. I’d recognize something was going on if we split up in a strange location.

The problem I had with the whole situation was still gnawing at me from the inside. It wasn’t just this set-up. It was something that had been bothering me since the beginning. One was what Brandon had said right from the start: Why had this German team bothered to drag in Corey? Why were they interested in someone who wasn’t willing to participate, when there were plenty of criminal minds and hackers out there ready and willing and able to break into Corey’s security thing, even if it did take time? I mean, a couple of extra weeks or more wasn’t worth the risk of kidnapping and murder, was it?

Before they had asked Corey for help. Now they’d kidnapped him and were following me to kidnap me again to force him to work. They were taking a lot of chances.

No, something still wasn’t working for me in this entire situation. The urgency didn’t sit with me. It had been weeks since they’d contacted Corey, even before I talked to him since they’d been looking for him.

I tried to remember that day with Corey. I’d been frustrated, and Corey had offered to go on a walk. Outside, in a public place with plenty of witnesses and traffic around Colonial Lake in downtown Charleston, this German man stopped his car in the middle of it all and ran over to talk to Corey. He’d insisted Corey come talk with him in private, despite Corey refusing. He hadn’t kidnapped him then. No urgency. He wanted Corey, and he was willing to negotiate, and then when Corey refused, he had walked away.

Now the story was different. He’d kidnapped Corey. He’d threatened his life and then mine.

The question that came to mind over and over again rushed through me: Why now? What was different? Why did they wait until weeks later to kidnap him? What would make
me
rush in and do something so risky?

As I sat looking around in Axel’s office, at the turtles, and everything else, I considered that. Why was I here now? Because someone was threatening my life.

Which…could mean
their
lives were being threatened? Could that be why they were doing this?

Maybe someone else was on the hunt. They’d discovered an enemy, and if they didn’t act quickly their plans would fall apart. They had come for Corey now to secure him and to make sure they would win.

I sat up quickly. It suddenly made sense to me. The German and his gang of thugs might have been okay with going slow before, but since their game changed, they had to move up the timeline. Their only option was to get Corey to the core to give them access. It was something they were willing to kill someone over.

Which meant they were afraid of their enemy.

I turned my head to look at the computer screen. My skin prickled, like back when I used to steal wallets at the mall, and I got the feeling security or a cop was watching me.

There were a lot of questions I didn’t have the answers to yet, but one thing I was sure of: we were all in danger, because there was more than one group eyeing the prize, and at least one group was willing to murder to get what they wanted. The question was which one was chasing us right now.

Both?

Axel said they’d spotted two cars following us. Could both be the German’s teammates or was one car a different team? Did the German know who was hunting him?

While I was trying to figure out if I should chase down Axel, or continue to wait like he said, a door opened. I twisted, expecting Axel to come back. Maybe he had realized the same thing.

In the doorway stood a woman. She had a white lab coat on over a pair of slimming black slacks and a light cream sweater. Her deep red hair was pulled back into a bun near her neck. She was slender, with pale skin. Her vivid blue eyes and the small curve of her lips as she entered told me she was proud of something. She spotted me. In an instant, her face changed to mild surprise.

“Oh,” she said in a quiet but very precise tone. “Are you the new intern?”

I thought Axel said he wasn’t disturbed in his office.

Something was off about her eyes. But instead of trying to figure out what, I was trying to think of a logical reason for me to be in Axel’s office and to get her to go away because she was putting herself in the middle of mortal danger. Her question gave me the perfect out. “Yes,” I said, quickly. “Do you work for Axel? Are you who he’s been expecting? He’s in the...turtle hospital. You should go see him.”

“He’s not in the hospital room,” she said simply. She walked in a circle around me, her heels clacking sharply against the tiles. “And he didn’t ask for me to join him. The question is, who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“I’m waiting for Axel,” I said.

“It’ll be a long wait,” she said.

I hopped off my chair, sliding slightly against the tile in my flip-flops. “Who are you?” I asked.

She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth a few times. “No, no. That would ruin the game, and we’ve just gotten started.”

My heart dropped in my chest, and the smug look of satisfaction once again locked into her blue eyes as she stared back.

I knew I was in trouble.

ALICE

W
hat do you want with me?” I asked the woman.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Although you seem to have a very interesting set of friends. Way more useful than the Germans I’ve been watching. And way more attractive, I might add.”

I clenched my fists. How long exactly had she been following us around? How much did she really know? “Leave them alone.”

“Thanks for the opportunity to talk to them in person,” she said. She reached into the tank with the turtles, flicking the water with her fingers. She brought her hand back out and sliding her wet fingertips together. “Warm water for sick turtles. I hope someone will check on them while your Axel is busy.”

Anger swept through me in a wave and I lurched forward, raising a fist at her face. Something about her, maybe her cool exterior and her superior way of looking and talking at me, made me furious. Curses exploded out of my mouth, threats and name calling alike. I was tired and on the edge. I would rip her eyes out to make sure Axel and everyone else got out of this untouched.

“Don’t,” she said sharply, stepping aside to keep the turtle tank between us. When I moved one way, she dodged the opposite, staying out of reach. “Stop your flailing and listen for a moment.”

“So was it you who killed this Randall guy?” I asked. “Or was it the Germans?”

“The Germans wouldn’t have the guts to commit murder. They’re a bunch of computer nerds who stumbled across a toy they don’t understand.” The corner of her mouth lifted. “And do I look like I’m capable of killing anyone?”

Yes. Instead of answering though, I glared at her, waiting her out. On the surface, perhaps she appeared innocent, but her eyes were cold, proud and devilish. Perhaps men would look at her pretty face and not suspect her, but there was something completely wrong inside her, sociopathic maybe. It was hard to put my finger on it. I simply knew evil when I saw it.

Her smirk deepened and then she leaned forward, using the edge of the turtle tank for support. “I’ve got a secret for you.”

“Don’t want to know, and I don’t care,” I said. “If you want your core, I don’t care about that either.”

She took on a sorrowful look and made a pout with her small mouth. “Shouldn’t we be friends? After all, there’s a killer out there. You want your precious boyfriend back. All I want is something you’ve already said you don’t want. We could work together. Can’t we compromise?”

I pulled back, standing up straight, and tried not to grit my teeth. “What do you want from me?”

“Get your fake boyfriend back,” she said. “The one the Germans have. Convince him to break this code on the core, and I’ll return Axel to you. And the other one. The cute one. Although I do kind of like him. He’s really pretty.”

I didn’t believe for a moment that she’d simply let Axel and Marc go if I got her access to the core. “So you can just kill us all in the end?”

“I would never,” she said, putting her palm to her chest and feigning a look of disappointment. “But these Germans are very sloppy, and the FBI will be here as quickly as they can to try to save them...that is if you cooperate with me. How well you work will be how quickly I make that call.”

“You’ll call them on yourself?”

“Not quite,” she said. “But someone has to take the blame.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re going to throw the Germans under the bus?”

“They’ll go down for two murders, and you and your friends can go back to saving turtles and...well...whatever it is you do,” she said. “Although I’d tell Corey to stop trying to build security codes. Every code you try to build stronger, someone else will do anything to break through. It’s a dangerous and futile effort.”

“What are you going to do with the core?” I asked.

She shook her head and held up a slender finger to her lips. “Shh…A good girl never tells,” she said.

“What’s going to stop me from taking you out right now and then just calling the police on whoever you’ve got working for you?”

She backed up a step away from the turtle tank and reached into her pocket. She lifted out a small vial and held it up. “Because your precious boys have already been injected with a poison, and unless you get me what I want, this sweet little liquid will eat away at their insides, until their organs melt and all you have left is soup.”

My mouth popped open, my eyes widened. In a flash, I was lunging around the turtle tank to get at her. I’d stuff it down her throat and make whoever worked with her bring back Axel and Marc.

She held out her hand in a stop motion, warding me off and holding out the vial. “I don’t have a cure on me. The cure is rare, and no hospital within a hundred miles of here will carry it. Not to mention, it would require an autopsy to discover exactly what the poison was.”