Prank Wars (36 page)

Right now she was the best ally I had. “No!” I said quickly.

“
Well,”
she sounded slightly mollified.
“Good. So now I’m just following Byron’s car to see where he goes.”

“Do we know who he’s meeting?”

“
That’s a negative, Mad Dog.”

I winced at the name. “Do we have a 20 yet?”

“
English, Mad.”

“Do you know where he’s headed?’

“
Negative, but I’m on it. Um, yeah, about that. I’m driving your car right now.”

I stifled a groan. Kali was trying to shadow Byron’s car in broad daylight with the most noticeable car in existence, especially to him. I hung up and tried to get a firm grip on myself. It was time to use a little psychological warfare. I’d get Byron to talk. Believe me, I’d make him sorry he ever laid eyes on me—I just had to remind myself it was all part of the plan. I found his number. Byron answered it on the first ring.
“Hi. Is Mad there?”

“Don’t play with me. Why do you have my number on your phone?”

“
Usual protocol.”
I heard the wind behind him as he spoke. He was outside.
“What’s going on?”

“Do I always need an excuse to call? But now that you mention it, you
do
know that MormonVille is a small place, right?”

The sound of wind broke off and was replaced by murmuring and the clinking of glasses and silverware in the background. He had just walked into a building. It probably was a restaurant. Had I interrupted him on a date? I felt absolutely no remorse.
“What are you getting at?”
he asked after a moment.

“No one knows who you are. No former mission companions, no former ward members, no former roommates. No friends. No family. Your current roommates and
one
ex seem to know next to nothing about you.”

He was silent for a moment. I think I caught him by surprise.
“You’ve been checking up on me. I suppose I should be flattered.”

“Don’t be. Have you seen Thanh lately?”

“
No.”
It came out flat.

“She came back last night and we got to talking. And she had some pretty interesting things to say. Wh
y didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

“
You never asked.”
He didn’t miss a beat.
“So tell me, how is she recovering from her curfew breaking?”
I knew he didn’t believe a thing I said by the tone of his voice.

“
Do you have reservations?”
I heard a female voice ask in the background. It sounded like a hostess.

He fumbled with his iPhone.
“Just a sec,”
he told us both.

I listened carefully.
“Would you like to be seated?”
the same female voice said. “
Follow me.”

Was this a date or something else? If I listened long enough, I would know. I just had to keep him on the phone. “Thanh asked for that note we found on her door,” I continued. “You remember the one. I believe you wrote it…and then you wanted it back again? Thanh’s not sure why you wanted it so badly. You mind telling me?”

“
I never told you that
I
wrote that note.”

“Yeah, but that was in front of the children. Face it, Byron. You’re like a soggy brown banana; the only use for you now is to get cooked.”

That forced a laugh out of him.
“Really? What’s that supposed to mean?”

I grinned. No idea. It felt like old times—before he was an evil hit man with kidnapping tendencies. My heart sank at that.

“
Here you are.”
I heard the hostess say. I waited for whoever Byron was with to say something. Maybe I could get an ID on the voice.

“
Wait a second,”
he told me.
“I’ve got a call.”
He took the other line and with a click I was treated to soft elevator music. If it was meant to get rid of me, he had another thing coming. Most likely, he did it so he could talk freely to whoever was there, so why didn’t he hang up on me altogether? He came back a few minutes later.
“Hey, how about we meet up later tonight?”

I froze. Was that a date—or? “I’m busy. I have something that belongs to Thanh and I need to return it to her.”

“
What’s that?”

I got a call from Kali on the other line, and smiled viciously. Revenge was sweet. “Just a sec, Byron. I have to get this.” I clicked over, hoping my music was just as annoying as his.

“
I’m stuck,”
she said.

“Really? How bad?”

“
Pretty bad. There’s this guy and we sorta dated a couple of months ago and we, like, never officially broke up
’
cause we never officially went out, ya know? And I told him I’d call him back, but I haven’t. And he tried to call me and I didn’t pick up and he texted me tons and now he’s here, so…”

I leaned my head back in exasperation. “Where’s Byron?”

“
Brick Oven. He got out of his car and went in. There was no one with him and he didn’t take the phone off his ear the whole time. Maybe he
’
s meeting someone inside. Look, I’m parked outside. There’s seriously no way I can get out with that guy hanging around.”

I sighed. Normally, a decoy like this was Lord Byron’s handiwork, but even this was too brilliant for him. This was just pure dumb luck. “Just go into the restaurant and if this guy sees you, just act stupid. It’s not that hard.”

“
I’m not stupid, Mad, okay? Thanks a lot!”
She hung up on me. She seemed pretty sensitive about that lately.

I clicked off on her line and gradually became aware of the restaurant sounds on the other line again, but there was no talking. It was either a really boring date or Byron knew I was back. “You there?” I asked him.

“
Yeah. Hey, I think I might see Thanh later on tonight. Why don’t you just let me deliver whatever it is you want to give her?”

“Deliver what?” I asked.

“
Whatever it is that belongs to her.”

“No, don’t go to all that trouble. You’re on a date.” He didn’t deny or confirm. We were going nowhere, and yet, I got the germ of an idea. “Maybe I can drop her stuff off at her lab?”

It seemed like he was holding his breath.
“You could.”

“I could just leave what she wants under the doormat.” He was silent. It was like setting a trap for a particularly clumsy and stupid bear...a dangerous bear. “By the way, what’s your favorite food?” I asked.

“
Pizza.”
Not Chinese, huh? Sandra knew nothing about him.
“Why?”

“No reason.” I saw a shadow streak past the glass window on the dryer. With every ounce of control I had, I kept myself from recoiling. Whatever the reflection was, the actual thing was behind me. I felt my back arch at the danger. Maybe it was Tory, but what if it wasn’t? Whoever had been in Thanh’s apartment knew who I was. He had been in my apartment and took that backpack and now he was mad. What if he couldn’t wait until tonight to take me out? I watched the figure through the glass. It streaked towards me. I screamed and jerked around. Eric jumped back, almost dropping his laundry.

“Eric!” I stood up. “I thought you were Tory. Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

He smiled, wearily setting his laundry down by his Nikes. He looked like one of my soldiers in his green cargo pants. “You really don’t like her, do you?”

“Of course I like her.”

“
Mad! What’s going on?”
Byron asked. I remembered belatedly that he was on the line.

“I’m sorry. It’s just Eric. Gotta go.”

“
Madeleine, wait.”

“Hey, tell Thanh where I’m putting that stuff she’s missing, okay?” I hung up on him. Byron would be officially out of the way when he searched for the keys under the doormat. As if I would ever leave them out in the open. He wasn’t dealing with nursery kids anymore.

“Hey.” Eric began throwing his clothes into the washer. “You’re not talking about the same Thanh I work with, are you?”

And that’s when he had my full attention. Now I knew the reason behind Eric and my surreptitious meeting. It was destiny. He was the only way I could help Thanh. I stepped in front of him, blocking him from going anywhere. “Your lab? You work in the same lab. You do experiments in your lab. All of you.”

“Uh, yeah.”

Maybe that’s where the keys belonged, to
something
in there. “You lock up your experiments?”

He watched me like I was crazy, but his lip curled up. At least he was enjoying this. “Yeah, we don’t want anyone getting into our stuff. Some of us are working on some pretty intense stuff.”

Thanh’s keys fit somewhere in there. She was a grad student, wasn’t she? She was working on experiments. Could that be what these people wanted? Whatever these keys opened could be what these bad guys were looking for. If I could get to it first, I’d have something to negotiate with to get Thanh back. “Take me to your lab,” I said.

“Why?”

“Top secret.”

“Oh no.” Eric backed away, but his dancing eyes betrayed him. I could tell I still amused him—at least that. “Don’t get me involved in this.”

“Please!” I tried to think of a good way to get him to do it. Feminine wiles were beyond me. Before I started begging, my phone vibrated and I got a text from Kali. I could use a few flirting tips from her. Unfortunately I couldn’t text fast enough to ask. I scanned through her message:
“I’ve got Byron in sight. He’s on a date with Sandra.”

I almost dropped the phone. Sandra had been defensive about him. Still none of this made sense. It didn’t fit his cover at all....unless he was regular old Byron on a regular old date. My heart fell. No. If that was true,
player Byron
was better than the alternative. It just didn’t feel better. Sandra didn’t like him for real. He didn’t really like her. Why was I feeling this jealousy? I mean, I couldn’t have planned it better if I had ordered Sandra on the assignment myself…if he even needed to be distracted.

I slanted a look at Eric, knowing I had to figure this out. “This isn’t part of a prank war. I’ve been missing my purse since I went up to your lab. I think it’s still there.”

Eric smirked at me. For some reason, he didn’t seem to believe me, but after a moment, he nodded. “Just as soon as I put my laundry in.” He gave a cheerful laugh. “Don’t try anything funny, Madeleine.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Day 113

1932 hours

“
What I see is not what you see.”

—Madeleine’s War Journal Entry (Tuesday, June 5th).

Tory, of all people who should believe this wasn’t some stupid prank war anymore, was still in the testing center. I texted her and told her to get over here. She probably wouldn’t get it until it was too late.
Curse chemistry.
I texted Lizzie to hurry with the twins, Kali to bring my car back, Sandra to keep Byron busy.
Oh yeah, I’m onto you, Sandra.
Pretty much I was going solo on this mission—well, besides Eric’s company, and he had no idea what danger we were in. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, wondering how to keep it that way. The squeaks of our shoes against the marble staircase broke the silence on our way through the Eyring building, past the dinosaurs, the vortex cannon, the wave-a-tron.

The setting sun of this frustrating day filled the windows with orange and pink light, but was extinguished the farther down we went to Eric’s underground lab. I avoided his eyes as I worked out my strategy. Searching the lab like I was looking for my purse could only take me so far, especially when I started testing out the keys on everything I could find. Far too soon, we reached the lab. Instead of opening it, Eric rounded on me. “Are you really missing your purse?” His voice echoed through the empty hall.

I could lie or— “Why else would I force you to come all this way?”

“I was hoping it was an excuse to get me alone.”

I tried not to shake my head so violently. In a different world where I liked to exercise and I was a lot better at flirting that might be possible. Eric was very attractive. His smile was infectious, and his strong hand was over mine. Wait. It was. He turned my hand over in his. His hazel eyes probed mine and I couldn’t look away. He leaned closer and I could smell his familiar scent; it drew me in. He rubbed his thumb over my fingers. “Do you have a problem with this?” I wasn’t sure. “You’re fascinating,” he said. “Do you know that? What are you doing tonight?”

I was getting killed. I tried to pull away without hurting his feelings. “I’m not doing anything if I can’t find my purse.”

“Don’t worry.” He smiled with perfect teeth. “I’ll pay.”