Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) (3 page)

I could totally see that working. Why wouldn't you charge your phone while you rode in the Town Cars? It was a brilliant idea.

“You two will be doing the same kind of thing. You'll be working your way through a social network of teens, most of whom have parents with a connection to the UN. You'll borrow phone chargers and replace them with the GASI chargers. You'll ask for the wifi passwords so you can play games. Once we have the wifi passwords, we can monitor everything going on, including keystrokes on each device. We can hack into home security systems, check calendars for suspicious appointments, and track the movements of key individuals over the last week. We can find out who met with whom, where they met, and hopefully why they met.”

I thought about the arguments I'd read in various articles about the government's access to information. They didn't know the half of it.

“That's a huge amount of data,” Will said. “How will anybody have time to look through any of it?”

“We have teams working on analyzing the data. We have search programs to spot certain patterns or key words.”  Nic shoved his hand through his gray hair. “It's not going to be easy, but I think we have a good chance of finding the culprits. You two will get access to places that would never trust adults. You are our secret weapons.”

“What about burner phones?” I did watch television after all. “If they use those disposable phones, we aren't going to be able to get any information about who they've called or where they've been.”

“In another part of the country, we'd have a shot at accessing the information,” Christie said. “However, with the population this dense, the information we get from the cell towers doesn't help us. There are over 66,000 people per square mile in Manhattan.”

That was seriously a lot of people. I wondered how many people out of a thousand were criminals. If one person out of every thousand was a criminal, there would be 66 criminals within a mile of me right now. Yikes. How many guns were there? Or knives? Or police officers?

I glanced over at Will. Or girls who wanted to hit on Will?

“What happens with all the information on the innocent people?”  Will had a good point. It wasn't their fault that the Secretary-General was in danger.

“The Agency plans to send out a code to all infected devices and networks. The code will disable the virus and nobody will be the wiser. We are trying to avoid a public relations nightmare by staying outside of the UN complex with all of this activity. The UN campus is technically not part of the US. It's an international zone belonging to the member states.”

“How are we going to meet any teens? That's what you want from us, right?”  I didn't quite get it.

“Exactly,” Will said. “You dropped Amanda into my school without any trouble, but this is Christmas break. How are we going to get to know anybody?”

“That's why we picked the loft. The neighbor works at the UN facility. He has three teenagers, and he's never home. They hang out there all the time with their friends. We don't think you'll have any trouble meeting them. You are planning to transfer to their school when they start back next week. Once you are introduced, you should be able to tag along wherever they go.”

“You really think they'll like us that much?”  I wasn't so sure.

“Think about it,” Christie said. “The girls will want to check out the new guy, and the boys will be interested in Amanda. It’s the middle of the school year, and people are getting bored with their classmates. The school only has 200 students, nothing like your schools back home. You two are a hot commodity.”

I thought about it for a minute. I would certainly want to know more about a new guy transferring to my school. If Will walked into my school, he’d have girls all over him. Yeah, he’ll be in high demand.

“That’s why you have to be brother and sister. Plus, this way there’s only one new family in town. It would be suspicious to bring in multiple families. And you can take turns watching each other's back.”

“What you cannot do,” Nic said, “is let anyone believe you two have a romantic relationship. As of now, you are brother and sister. If you make googly, lovey eyes at each other, you will blow your covers. You will put all four of us in danger. You will be dealing with kids your age. You will be closely monitored. But this is serious stuff. Someone who will kill the UN Secretary-General will not hesitate to kill you.”

Christie walked over to a rolling file case on the floor. She punched in a code and raised the lid. Then she reached in with both hands and hoisted a three-inch thick volume of bound papers. “I printed a copy for each of you. You’ll need to memorize this as quickly as possible.”

“Read all that by tomorrow?” I asked.

“No, silly,” she said. “
Memorize
it all by tomorrow.”

She bent down and dropped the bound pages into the file with a thump. I swear the floor shook a little.

“Don’t worry. It’s all on your Agency-issued tablets. You can study that way if you like. Personally, I’m Old School when it comes to studying.”  She bent down and lifted out a plastic freezer bag with highlighters, sticky notes, and tabs in a hundred colors. “Cool, huh?”

Will grimaced. “How many pages was that?”

“Don’t worry,” Nic assured him. “There’s a fifty page summary in the front. Memorize that and then read the rest to flesh out the details.”

“Okay.”  I sighed. “That’s a lot of homework.”

Christie laughed. “You two will be fine. You’ve got all night.”

“We should get going,” Nic said with a glance at his watch. He didn’t seem like the watch type to me. “The other member of our team is setting up at the loft.”

“Other member?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Will said with a smile. “Our grandmother.”

Chapter Three

Grandma was part of this mission! I grinned back at him. This was going to be fun.

Nic drove us, not in the Nissan but in the Town Car he'd be driving all week. The center console held a variety of chargers. They looked like your typical chargers. “Nobody will look at these twice,” I said, holding one out to Will.

“What if somebody doesn't use them?” Will asked. “You won't get their data.”

“We'll still get their data,” he said. “We'll just have to work harder at it.”  

“Are these teens going to be from other countries mostly? What languages are we going to need?”

“Most of them have grown up here. I'm not sure how much you'll use your language skills.”

I tried not to be disappointed. Hadn't GASI wanted me for those skills? And I hadn't gotten a chance to use them.

While Nic drove, Christie made phone calls, texted, and sent emails communicating with the other teams, updating our information, and making additional arrangements. I'd never seen this side of her, the super-organized efficient office assistant kind of side. She did everything well.

I wanted to be as good as she was. I wanted to impress her. The last mission, where I'd met Will, had worked out okay. My stomach fluttered with butterflies about this one. There were a lot more variables than there had been when I'd befriended Will. We didn't even have a real suspect for crying out loud. And working with Will could be tricky. I glanced over to see him reading through the voluminous materials. How was I going to convince people that I thought of him like a brother? Seriously. The boy made my heart nearly thump right out of my chest. And what if we didn't get along? What if we argued when we tried to work on the case? What if he thought I was a terrible spy? Or even worse, what if he was bad at it? We'd been boyfriend and girlfriend for two months, but this mission could be the beginning of the end of our relationship. The end of Willanda or Amandwill, or whatever we'd be if we were a celebrity couple.

Sitting in this car wasn't helping me relax. I needed a soccer fix, but I wasn't likely to get one in the Big Apple right after Christmas.

Will pulled out his phone to text someone.
I guess he's bored with me.
It wasn't like we could really talk with Nic and Christie listening. We could text though. I wished I'd thought to text him before he started texting other people.

My phone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans. A text. The dawning realization that I was a total idiot brought heat to my cheeks. A quick glance at Will confirmed that the text was from him. I freed my phone from my pocket and read his text.
Are you okay?
 

It was no wonder I had it bad for this boy. He was so sweet.

Me:
Nervous.
 

Will:
We'll be fine. We're seasoned professionals.
 

I laughed. We were anything but seasoned. And it was a stretch to call us professionals.

Will:  
Plus you're irresistible.
 

I rolled my eyes, but my insides turned to mush. He was such a great guy.

Me:
I want to kiss you.
 

He looked up from his phone with a big smile. Then he glanced at the front seat.

Will:  Soon.

Wasn't there a tunnel into the city? Were we taking a tunnel or a bridge? I didn't want to ask because I was pretty sure my aunt and her partner could see right through me.

Will:  
Does that mean I'm irresistible too?
 

Me:
Yes.
 

Will:
Maybe if we work on our cover stories now, we'll have time for kissing later.
 

I crammed my phone back into my pocket and picked up my binder. He didn't have to tell me twice.

We finally pulled up in front of a giant warehouse building in Turtle Bay. The outside didn't impress me at all. It wasn't pretty, but it was big. It looked like it took up the whole block.

“This is us,” Christie said. “Home sweet home.”

“There are forty-eight lofts inside. Twenty-four on the first floor and another twenty-four on the second. The rent on this thing is so high that we'd never be able to live here on our salaries.”  Nic glanced at me. “Don't make a face, Amanda. It's much nicer on the inside.”

I wasn't so sure. In Atlanta, we would have torn this thing down instead of making it into apartments. “If you say so...”

Our loft was on the higher floor, so we took the elevator. Then we walked to the door.

“This is us,” my aunt said.

A familiar face opened the giant wood door.

“Grandma!” I squealed when she opened it to usher us into the loft.

“There’s my sweet girl,” she cooed, hugging me before letting me pass.

“Grandma,” Will said, giving her a hug. “I totally pulled that off,” he whispered in my direction.

Shaking my head, I said, “She
is your
grandmother, dufus.”

“Oh good.” Christie walked in behind us. “Sibling bickering. You should keep that up.”

“Just don’t do bickering the way Nic and Christie do,” Grandma cautioned. “It might come off as flirting.”

“No kidding.”  I shook my head at my aunt. “It’s ridiculous.”

“We don’t flirt,” Christie said with a straight face.

But then, she lied for a living.

Once we’d unloaded the car, Will and I went upstairs to check out our rooms. We found his first.

“Oh, thank God,” he said. “I was afraid they’d go all out with the twin thing and give us bunk-beds.”

“Yeah, or go for industrial and make us sleep on steel bars and insulation.”

“This is definitely better.”

His room was very Pottery Barn. I liked it.

Dark wood dresser, bed, and desk. The bed was covered with a striped duvet in a beige, white, and navy stripe that screamed overpriced. Over the headboard, large letters in assorted plaids read, “Will.”

“Okay, now mine.”  I grabbed his hand and tugged him out of his room.

My furniture was white and plantation style. Very nice. My name was spelled in pastel letters. The duvet cover was a very light gray damask. The room reminded me of an upscale hotel, and there were at least ten pillows on my bed.

“You’ve got your name too.”

I laughed. “
Mom
is such a dork.”

“You’ve got that right,
twin
,” he said. “Nice bed.”

“It’s awesome!”  I ran over and flopped onto the bed.

When I glanced up at Will, I realized that I’d made things very awkward. I scrambled to the edge of the bed and put my feet on the floor. Sitting was much better.

I patted the bed next to me, and Will came and sat down.

“Do you think we can do this?” I asked.

“In five days? Yeah, that’s a good question. I guess we just take one step at a time. How much reading do you have left?”

“At least two hundred pages. You?”

“About the same.”

“Let’s explore the rest of the house and then finish reading. Then we can quiz each other.”

“Why does this feel like school?”

“Hey, I already lost my Fall break, remember?”

“Was it worth it?” he asked, meeting my gaze.

“Oh yeah,” I said as my heart thumped faster.

My gaze dropped to his lips.

One or both of us moved, and our lips were millimeters apart. If I were breathing, we’d be sharing air.

“Amanda,” he whispered and his lips crashed into mine.

Finally! After keeping our distance all day, I was finally getting to kiss him.

My hand moved up to his touch his hair.

“Seriously?” My aunt’s exasperation brought me back to reality.

Oh no. I slid away from Will.

She stepped into the room and stood, hands on her hips, looking down at us.

As I took in her stern expression, I wished I had told my parents where I was going. Just in case I didn't make it back.

“You guys can’t do that.”  She huffed. Actually huffed. “We are counting on you to pull this off. If you blow your covers, you compromise the rest of us.”

“We’re sorry,” Will said. “It won’t happen again.”

Noooo! He did not just say that. “He doesn’t mean that. He just means we’ll be careful. We are so going to do that again. But we won’t blow our cover.”

Please, please, let it happen again.

“You should be downstairs with us anyway.”