Vortex (7 page)

I started my climb and felt the satisfaction of knowing I never would have been able
to do this three months ago. It was a forty-eight-foot rope climb, with one small
ledge in the middle if you absolutely had to stop for a break.

This was the emergency exit, should the elevator fail. Then again, we had at least
four agents who knew every aspect of elevator repair. The air turned warmer the closer
we came to ground level. Sweat trickled down my face as I neared the top of the rope.
I threw myself over the edge and onto solid ground.

My whole body relaxed when I took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of the nearby
waterfall. The sun warmed my face instantly. Finally, Dad’s dark hair emerged from
the small hole in the ground.

“Come on, old man,” I said, reaching out a hand to help him over the edge.

He flopped onto the ground, panting a little. “Damn, that gets harder every time.”

We always stood next to the waterfall, which ran down the side of the mountain. Maybe
in case someone
had
managed to slip a listening device on one of us. The rushing water would interfere.
Dad stumbled behind me as I made my way through the trees to a soft patch of grass
where the water sprayed just enough to keep us cool.

After we sat down, Dad pulled out his phone, holding it out to me. “I have some pictures …
if you want to see? I know you were worried about her a few weeks ago.”

I lay back in the grass and shook my head. “I don’t want to see. Just tell me if there’s
anything to worry about.”

“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “If that’s what you want.”

“You really think she’ll stay off the EOT radar? And Adam, too?” I asked.

He stretched out next to me. “Yes, and if not, I’ll know immediately because of the
precautions we’ve taken. This is what I do best, Jackson. The same thing I did with
you and Courtney almost your entire life. Trust me.”

“I do.”

Dad glanced sideways at me and I could tell he was debating asking me something or
bringing up a sticky topic, but it only lasted a second before he spoke up. “Dr. Melvin’s
worried about you. He said you did a little too well today … regulating your heart
rate … That was pretty impressive for anyone, let alone someone with only three months’
training. Especially after—”

“After I almost killed Agent Freeman,” I said right away.

“I wasn’t going to bring that up, actually. Just the fact that you performed beyond
expectations today, and Dr. Melvin also showed me the results of your emotional readiness
test from last week. Second-highest mark in the entire training group…?”

“Who was first?” I asked, then both of us said the answer together: “Stewart.”

“So what?” I said with a shrug. “Shouldn’t be anything to worry about if I scored
well.”

“It is if you figured out how to lie your way through it.” Dad lifted an eyebrow,
X-raying my face the way Chief Marshall always did. “Denial is only the first stage
of grieving. If that’s where you are right now, then it’s gonna be a problem when
you get assigned to real missions.”

What came after denial?

“Stages of grieving apply to death. It’s not like she’s dead,” I said, a little more
defensive than I should have sounded. I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Besides,
Dad … me and Holly … it was like the honeymoon phase for us. A week or two more and
we would have been at each other’s throats. I had a bad habit of screwing up and she
had very high expectations, rightfully so.”

He looked at me for a long moment and his face spread into a grin. “Damn … you really
did lie your way through that test. As your superior officer, I’m very impressed.
But as your father, I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be,” I said firmly. “We all have to learn how to deal with bad stuff and keep
going, right?”

It was hard for me to complain to Dad about Holly when I knew she was okay, while
he had lost the woman he loved forever. If it weren’t for that, I might have opened
up to him a little more than I had. Especially considering the fact that we’d spent
more time together in the last three months than we had in the last three years combined.

Dad laughed under his breath. “I would have loved to have seen you confessing love
to a girl. I honestly didn’t think that day would ever come. It’s never been a priority
for you, to be with someone. Not that there’s anything wrong with being independent.
I wanted that for you … and for Courtney.”

“Well, you probably won’t ever see me confessing love to anyone again.” I had a feeling
this statement was true, but I didn’t know if it was because I’d never get over Holly
or because I
would,
and still choose to be alone, like Dad had.

“I wish Eileen could see you, like this. She just had so many ideas and…” He stopped
and turned his eyes up toward the sky again. “Anyway … she’d be proud of you. That
much I know.”

“God, this is depressing,” I muttered after a long and eerie silence fell between
us. Both of us started laughing, slicing through the tension. “Sorry, I had to say
it.”

“Point taken,” Dad said. “Did you and Kendrick have a hard time with the test today?
The first part, I mean … the rest I know was difficult for most of you.”

“Nothing we couldn’t handle.” I sat up and stretched my arms before lying back again.
“How come I’ve never heard anything about Kendrick? There’s not much in her file.”

“She’s got a different background than the others. She’s a med student, you know.
That’s why she hasn’t been with you guys until recently. She had classes.”

“How can she be a med student if she’s only twenty-one?”

“Agent Kendrick is very smart and extremely creative … especially in the areas of
medical research and genetics. Chief Marshall and Kendrick both agreed that traditional
agent training was the best place for her to start.” He averted his eyes from me and
scratched his head. “She’ll do fine in the field. Not as well as Stewart, but good
enough. Dr. Melvin’s already got her working on research for some of his upcoming
experiments.”

“Not clones, I hope.”

Dad threw me a sharp look. “You know he’s not interested in those types of projects.”

“Yeah, yeah, so I’ve heard … like, a thousand times.” I rested my arms behind my head
and studied the clouds slowly moving over us. “Marshall gave me and Kendrick an assignment.
He thinks we need to trust each other more.”

“I heard about that.” Dad stod up, nodding toward the hole in the ground we had emerged
from.

I reluctantly got to my feet too, knowing we would have to head back soon. “Do you
have any idea what would challenge Kendrick?”

Dad laughed under his breath. “Surgery, stitching someone up, setting a broken bone,
performing an autopsy.”

“Is she, like, flunking out of med school or something?” I asked. “Can’t Dr. Melvin
tutor her?”

“Tutoring wouldn’t help. She knows what to do.” Dad shrugged and tightened the knot
that kept the rope secure to a giant rock. “There have been a few situations where
trainees were in need of medical attention and she froze up. Basically panicked. She’s
textbook-perfect, just has trouble with the application part of her skills.”

Okay, so, this was a good challenge for her. At least it wasn’t a life-or-death task.
More of a phobia.

I started climbing down first and Dad followed. We had nearly made it back through
the secret entrance when I heard a voice coming from the other side of the door. Dad
froze, listening carefully. The wall slid open and Chief Marshall stood in front of
us, arms crossed, the bright lights shining behind him.

“I’d like a word with you, Agent Meyer,” Marshall said to Dad.

Dad stepped through the opening and I followed. That was when I noticed Stewart standing
right behind Marshall.

That snitch.
But how did she know?

“This is my fault,” I said immediately. “I snuck off and my dad came to find me.”

“Interesting,” Marshall said, looking down his nose at me. “That isn’t the version
I heard.”

I glanced at Stewart, who looked at Dad, and the tiniest flicker of worry crossed
her expression. Her eyes got wider for a split second, the whites of her eyes a contrast
to her caramel-colored skin.

“Obviously there was reason for concern,” Marshall said. “Breaking rules costs lives.
Your father should know that better than anyone. You can add an extra twenty miles
to your PT requirements for this week and next.”

“Fine,” I said before stepping around Marshall and heading down the hall.

Unfortunately, Stewart had to be a complete bitch and follow me. “I knew you couldn’t
keep yourself confined. Your dad’s probably giving you the details of every test.
Cheating asshole.”

My hands balled up into tight fists, but I took in a deep breath and shook them out.
“Okay, believe whatever you want. I broke the rules, you caught me. The end.”

“This is not the end.” She jumped in front of me, blocking the way to my room. A huge
grin spread across her face. “What the hell are you doing that’s so important, anyway?
You’re trying to get out, aren’t you? The CIA’s not as glamorous as it seems?”

I shoved her to the side and dove into my room before she could say another word.
Then I grabbed a handful of pencils from my desk and launched them across the room.

“What the hell?”

I jumped and banged my head against the shelf next to me. Kendrick was stretched out
across my bed, her cell phone pressed to her ear and one arm over her face, probably
blocking the flying pencils from jabbing her in the eye.

“Sorry, the maid’s in my room,” she said.

“The maid” was code for the two lowest-ranked agents following daily competitions,
who had to clean everyone’s room as a punishment.

I sat down at my desk, resting my head in my hands, trying to take deep breaths. “No,
everything’s fine,” Kendrick said into the phone. “Just a little flying-pencil incident.”

I listened in to find out who she was talking to. From what I’d seen, most of the
other agents didn’t really call anyone, not to chat.

“Hey … let me call you back, all right?”

After she hung up the phone, I spun around in my chair to face her. I preferred that
she hear about what had happened with Dad from me instead of Stewart.

“How come you never call anyone?” she asked, still stretched out on my bed.

“Just don’t need to, I guess.”

“Stewart seems to think you had quite the social life. You must have friends to keep
up with, back in New York.”

“What’s the point? Not like I have time to hang out or I can tell them anything about
what I’ve been doing all these months.”

“Still … you’ve got to maintain some grasp on reality. We’ll be spending a lot of
time blending in with the real world soon.” She sighed and shook her head. “Okay,
what’s the deal with the pencils? Are you practicing for a darts competition or really
pissed at someone? Hopefully not me?”

I told her everything that had just happened with Stewart, Dad, and Marshall. I was
pretty sure Kendrick would take it better than Stewart had, but her reaction surprised
me.

“What an immature bitch. Seriously, is this junior high?”

I threw my hands up. “Exactly what I said.”

Kendrick had this look of deep concentration, then she sat up really quick and grinned.
“Oh, my God … I know what your task is.”

I perked up a little, guessing this had nothing to do with more mountain-climbing,
which was what I thought she might go for, given our mountainside conversation about
acrophobes this morning. “Beat Stewart at a silent defense match? Blindfolded, maybe?”

She shook her head but kept grinning. “You have to kiss her … like, in front of everyone.
Total hard-core make-out session.”

I rolled my eyes. “First of all, she’d kick me in the balls before I could even get
close to kissing her, and second, I don’t see how this is a challenge. I’m not afraid
to kiss people, and it’s not going to make me a more trustworthy partner … or a better
agent.”

Kendrick got up and walked behind me, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Someone
has got to put this chick in her place. She’ll spend the rest of her life dangling
every embarrassing moment over your head, like collateral. ‘Oh, Junior, when did you
get your braces off? Let me tell everyone what your bare ass looks like,’” Kendrick
said, mocking Stewart’s current French character perfectly.

This sales pitch was getting better and better. “Okay, you’ve got my attention.”

She spun me around to face her. “You’ve got to walk up to her and just … kiss her
and show her who’s in control. The girl thinks she owns you. Personally, I’m sick
and tired of listening to her.”

“That’s kinda …
anti
-girl-power, isn’t it?”

She considered this for a minute before answering. “In this case, it’s necessary.
And you’re not a little kid anymore … that’s how she treats you. It’s got nothing
to do with gender. She’s, what, a year and a half older than you?”

“What’s Marshall going to think when you tell him my assigned task is to kiss someone?”

“I don’t care what he thinks. It’s his fault for leaving it so open-ended.” She yanked
me up off the chair. “Let’s go now before you chicken out.”

“Maybe now isn’t the best time. I think I’ll just end up punching her.”

“That’s not nearly as interesting as kissing. Come on. She’s probably in the workout
room.” She was already dragging me out the door. We had to go down three hallways
to get to the large exercise facility. Stewart
was
in there, practicing self-defense moves on the mats with Agent Parker. I started
to walk into the room, but Kendrick held me back. “Wait, you’ve got to get into character.
Be sexy.”

Apparently I wasn’t that already.

We both looked into the room after hearing a loud thud. Stewart had just thrown Parker,
who was way bigger than me, flat onto his back and was laughing at him as he struggled
to breathe.