The Recruit (22 page)

Jaz laughed and nodded. It had been a while since she’d seen Niles around, but he did have a new girlfriend. She hoped nothing had gone wrong seeing as he was back in The Ring.

Jaz threw her bag on the floor in her change room. She took off her tie, and school shirt, stuffing it into her bag. That’s when she noticed a magazine on the little bench. It was called
Reps.
Short for
Real Endurance. Power. Strength
. A yellow sticky note was on the front.

You will need this to communicate with me. Ryan.

Ryan? He must have been here. Jaz ran her finger over his penned words. Well at least now she knew he was still alive. She flicked through the magazine. It was a magazine full of techniques, some kickboxing, nutrition and other exercises for great abs. What in the Hell would she need this for? How was a magazine going to help her communicate with Ryan?

Jaz flipped open the magazine and shook it upside down, half expecting another note to fall out. But none did. Well this was puzzling. Maybe he thought she’d enjoy it. It was her sort of magazine and at least she could learn something from it, not like idle gossip of Hollywood stars, which accomplished nothing.

Oh well, Yoda Ryan must have some reason for it. Jaz rolled it up after re-reading his note, and put it in her bag. She finished changing and headed to her yoga mat, waiting and hoping for Ryan to appear and explain further. But long after she’d finished her yoga and a coffee with Pax, he was still a no show. Damn it. She’d forget what he looked like at this rate. A picture flashed up in her mind of Ryan with his shirt off, pounding the speedball. Then again, maybe not!

After dinner, Jaz plonked herself down on the couch next to Simon as her mum and Paul shared a glass of wine in the chairs beside them.

Jaz let her head fall back and ran her arm along behind Simon. Her brother had his legs folded under him and the TV remote was guarded in his hands, as his favourite show was on. Jaz opened her eyes and found him looking at her. ‘What?’

‘Just wondering what’s up with you lately,’ he asked.

Jaz frowned, ‘Nothing’s up with me.’

‘Um…I beg to differ. Normally you would be stealing the remote off me and changing the channel to one of your shows. You haven’t picked on me in weeks and you sit in the back of the car now! Like what’s up with that? If I didn’t know better I’d almost think aliens had invaded and taken over my sister’s body.’

She shrugged and gave him a smile. ‘Maybe they have,’ she joked. ‘So what are you trying to say Si? Want me to change back?’

‘Hell no! As weird as you are, I don’t mind this.’

Jaz put her arm around Simon and gave him a squeeze. He shook her off and pretended to be sick.

Jaz got up and ruffled Simon’s hair. ‘I’m going to my room, nite bro.’

Simon looked confused again at her behaviour. ‘Whatever.’

She walked over to her parents, gave them a hug, and ignored their shocked expression. ‘I’m off to bed, night Dad, night Mum.’

‘Night Sweetheart,’ they both replied. Tasha held Jaz’s hand before she could walk away. ‘You feeling alright, Jasmine?’

‘Yeah, just got a lot on my mind with the ball and I have some essays due.’

‘Do you need a hand with any of them?’ asked Paul. Jaz smiled as her heart melted. Paul wasn’t her real dad, but he was the best dad she could have asked for. He helped her with her schoolwork and used to take her to things when her mum wouldn’t, like the zoo, or into the city. She loved her mum, but at times she was such a recluse.

Jaz put her hand on Paul’s shoulder as he adjusted his glasses. Paul was medium height and fair but he had a huge heart and the cutest smile to go with it. No wonder her mum fell for him. He wouldn’t hurt a puppy, or a spider or any other creepy living thing.

‘Thanks, I’ll give you a holler if I get stuck.’ She saw his eyes light up and felt bad. It had been a while since she’d asked him for help or spent any quality time with them. Somehow, thinking about becoming an agent and learning about Chris’ death had opened her eyes up and made her realise how petty she’d been. She had a family who loved her, that was more than a lot of people had and she took it for granted. It was time she acted her age, especially as soon she’d no longer be a school kid.

Jaz headed up the staircase to her room and turned on the light as she walked in. Her room really was a mess, no wonder Simon had nicknamed her room Hiroshima. She saw Ryan’s jumper on the end of her bed and thought of his spotless bedroom.

Twenty minutes later she’d tidied her room and was amazed at how much flooring she could see. Her room really was big. She’d also had a shower and was curled up in Ryan’s jumper, sitting at her desk with a blank page ready to start her essay. She picked up her mobile and messaged Anna.

Yes, she was procrastinating, besides it wasn’t due for another three days. Plenty of time.

You still up?

Yep, finishing history essay.

Don’t wanna do mine 2?

Nup! :)

Bugger

Jaz was tapping her phone against her chin when it vibrated again. She hoped Anna had changed her mind about the essay. But it wasn’t from Anna.

16-9-4 / 34-19-1 / 4-4-6 / 18-10-2 / 26-15-8 / 31-5-3 Ryan

What the Hell? How did Ryan get her number? He was a cunning man, she knew he’d have found a way. But, what was up with all the numbers? No doubt, this was another test for her. They looked like some sort of code.

She glanced at her phone and thought of Anna. She could figure this out in a flash, but Jaz couldn’t get help. This was something she had to figure out on her own, especially if she was to make it in the secret agent world. Jaz got up and paced her room, which she could now do without tripping over clothes. She flopped onto her bed and studied her phone message. Could they correspond to the alphabet? That seemed like the logical place to start.

She went to her desk, got a pen and paper, and wrote out the alphabet. Then she put the numbers under the letters. She didn’t have enough letters for the numbers so she started at A and wrote the remaining numbers. No, it still wasn’t making any sense. And were they all three-letter words in between the breaks?
16-9-4 / 34-19-1 /

Jaz tried re-jigging the numbers under the letters to see if one format would start to make sense but by ten o’clock her brain was fried and her clean floor now littered with paper. God damn it!

She turned off her light, crawled into bed and glanced at the text once more. The only thing that made sense was the last bit and that was Ryan’s name at the end.

‘Couldn’t you at least have given me a clue!’ Jaz sighed, threw her phone on her bedside table, rolled over and snuggled her black pillow. Maybe she’d have more luck in the morning but right now her brain hurt.

‘So did you finish your essay?’ Jaz asked Anna at school the next day.

‘Sure did, did you even start yours?’ Jaz groaned in reply and Anna laughed. ‘I didn’t think so.’

‘Hey, I tried. So what are you doing for your free period?’

Anna waved the load of books in her arms under Jaz’s nose. ‘Off to the library to swap books and start my next assignment. I suppose you’re off to shoot some hoops?’

‘Actually I was thinking of going to the library too.’

‘Are you for real?’

Jaz nodded. She was hoping to find some books on codes or something to point her in the right direction. Who knows if Ryan’s message had a time limit on it.

‘Yep, so which way is it?’ she joked as she took some of Anna’s books.

They walked down the school corridor and through a covered walkway that joined the separate library building. And into the silence.

‘Com’on, I use a desk down here, it’s out of the way and quiet,’ said Anna.

‘How could it be any quieter than this?’ asked Jaz. She followed her past the shelves of books towards the back. Jaz found the smell quite unique and couldn’t help but run her finger along the spines of all the books. She liked to read and had a collection of her own, but Anna loved all the non-fiction, factual stuff she could learn from whereas Jaz enjoyed escaping into a book, where the main characters overcame challenges and it all ends happy ever after. She was an optimist, so what.

‘Here, I’ll just go and return these ones, we can sit here.’ Anna took the books from Jaz and nodded to the small grey table against the wall under a window.

Jaz threw her bag on the table, got out her phone and sat down.

16-9-4 / 34-19-1 / 4-4-6 / 18-10-2 / 26-15-8 / 31-5-3 Ryan

Last night’s headache returned as she looked at the message. All of a sudden it was the last thing she felt like thinking about. Numbers…she hated numbers, hence maths was her worst subject. She’d rather poke her eye out with a stick than do maths. With a sigh, she shifted her bag closer and started looking for a pen and paper. She would make herself persist! As she looked inside her bag, she saw the magazine from Ryan and pulled it out. The moment she touched it she realised it was the key! She’d read his message enough times to remember it.

You will need this to communicate with me.

The magazine was what she’d needed all along.

With a forehead slap and renewed enthusiasm, she got out a notepad and pen and wrote out the coded text from Ryan. She noticed, looking at the numbers, that the first set in the group of three could get as high as 34, the second number in the set not as high and the third numbers were the lowest.

Jaz opened the magazine and started to turn the next page, her finger about to cover the page number when it dawned on her. She flicked to the end of the book, forty pages in this magazine. She was onto something, she could feel it.

The first number was 16, so she turned to that page. Next was 9, so she counted down nine lines in the text. Then a 4. She counted in four words.

Meet

She tried the next lot of numbers in the bracket.

Me

‘Well, look at you working hard…oh you’re reading a magazine. And here I was thinking you were actually doing real work,’ laughed Anna.

Jaz smiled and shrugged. ‘What can I say…I got distracted?’

Anna rolled her eyes before sitting down with a new pile of books and getting out her notepad and pen.

Jaz quickly got back to the next set of numbers.

Outside

Meet me outside
. Yes, she was sure this was right. But it seemed so simple.

She found the other three words and read it all together.

Meet me outside school twelve tomorrow.

Holy cow, she’d done it. Twelve tomorrow, that’s today. Jaz checked her watch, fifteen minutes to twelve. Well, she was cutting that a bit fine.

What could she say to Anna? If she went now she wouldn’t be here for lunch and there’d be too many questions to answer. Jaz looked at her phone. ‘Oh, I got a text from Ryan; he wants to take me out for lunch and talk.’ The lie slipped like warm butter from her tongue.

Anna’s eyes grew large. ‘Well what are you waiting for? You’ve been dying to talk to him for ages. Go see what he wants.’

Jaz gave Anna a funny look. ‘So you’re actually agreeing to me sneaking out of school and wagging?’

‘What can I say, it’s romantic.’

‘OMG, Anna, I worry about you,’ Jaz laughed as she threw all her stuff back in her bag, relieved the lie was easy. Well there was some truth in there, plus she knew what Anna would read into it.

‘Okay, I’ll catch ya later.’

‘Yes, I want to hear all about it,’ whispered Anna as she waved her goodbye.

Jaz had to contain herself, she felt like skipping out of the library. So not a good look and it would draw attention to herself.

She carefully walked the corridors, ducking under the widows into classrooms as she headed along her normal escape route. The doors at the front of school were always monitored, so she’d figured this way out her first year here. She crawled past the teachers’ lounge and through their exit door to the balcony. After a quick scan for witnesses, she made her move onto the roof and across to the wall. She jumped down between the two pines, pulled her hoodie out from her bag, and put it on before stepping out.

As she looked up, she saw Ryan watching her from further up the road, expecting her to come from the front of school. He was leaning against his car wearing jeans and a black singlet, smoking a cigarette. She walked up to him casually.

‘I didn’t know you smoked.’

Ryan shrugged as a smile tugged at his lips. ‘Not really, it’s more for camouflage uses. You can get away with standing in some places if you’re smoking. People tend to think that’s the norm.’

‘Hah, I’ve never thought about it before but I guess you’re right, you just assume they have stopped for a smoke.’ Jaz stood opposite Ryan as he put out his cigarette. She realised just how much she’d missed him, from his mysterious eyes to his short cropped hair.

‘Wanna jump in before you get busted?’

Jaz smiled and headed for the passenger door.

‘So you figured out the code?’ he asked as he drove away from St Christian’s.

‘Yep, eventually and I didn’t even ask Anna for help. I just needed to put the two bits together and when I finally figured that bit out, it was easy.’

‘It’s a simple code but effective as only you and I have the magazine and if we thought it was compromised we would just need to destroy the magazine and change it to something else.’

‘Cool. But…’

Ryan glanced across the car at Jaz, his eyebrow raised again. ‘But?’

‘How did you get my number? Do you have secret satellite stuff or programs that hack into phone data bases?’ Jaz asked while Ryan laughed. ‘What?’

Ryan smiled. ‘Jaz, I asked Taylor for it.’

‘Oh.’ Then Jaz felt like a twit and laughed at herself.

They had pulled up outside a park with rolling green lawns and kids play swings, which were empty. Silence filled the car after Ryan turned it off.

Where to start and what to ask? ‘Well…what’s this about?’ Jaz asked fiddling with the hem on her skirt. ‘I’ve had this feeling that you’ve been avoiding me.’ She made herself look him in the eye, no matter how scared she was of his reply.

Ryan cleared his throat. ‘In a way I have. I’m sorry, Jaz but I just had to sort a few things out before I could talk to you about them.’