Curtain Call (The Jewel Project #7)

51. The Hunt

One month later

It felt odd to be back out into the world. The most Sam had gone out lately had been to Magnet Town for groceries, and even then, heavily disguised.

But after an entire month of plotting and planning, they had finally arrived in Washington DC. It was very lucky that Kyle had inherited numerous jets as well as a flight instructor in Phillip. Even if he'd flown them over, they were all taking flying lessons. Sam wasn't a great fan seeing as his fear of heights made getting off the ground very hard, but he'd pulled it off.

All in due time, though. First, find jewels, then decide what to do with the rest of their lives. For now, it was just great to be able to sit on a bench near Arlington Bridge, studying the blueprints of the Agency compound.

Here, it was disguised as a youth training center, which was ironically accurate. After all, the Agency's entire MO was to train unsuspecting kids into becoming cannon fodder for some crazy old men they never got to meet.

"Lovely weather." Billy stopped by Sam's bench, his gaze lost in the distance.

Sam didn't turn to him, but contemplated the sunset. After it had rained in the morning, the sun had come out and it had turned into a lovely summer day. It sort of reminded him of the day the entire madness had started, when Herrison had come to offer him a spot on his study camp. It had started with rain that day too, and then, he'd officially met Christine for the first time.

The same Christine he now texted to ask how their kids were doing. It was almost impossible to compute. They'd both changed so much over the years, it was hard to compute that those two kids were now adults who shared a life.

"All good?" he asked.

Billy sat next to him. "The place is starting to empty out. They've grown a bit lax over the past two weeks."

"Are we sure they haven't moved the jewels out?"

"No. But there is no indication that they did either. They're a secret here as well."

Of course they were. Weapons of mass destruction should always be kept a secret. Sam's eyes drifted towards the sky even if he could only guess what the satellite looked like and where it was. No one should have the power to just smite a city from the skies.

"We should go," Billy said.

"Yeah, good point."

Sam stood and put the blueprints in his backpack, then the two of them headed across the bridge and towards the youth center, easily getting lost in the mass of people heading home for the day.

"Everyone in position," Corey announced through the headset.

"Let's do this," Jimmy confirmed.

Sam's stomach twisted, but he didn't change pace. He knew what would happen. Corey would enter the empty entrance hall and distract the security guard while Jimmy got behind his desk and broke into the security system in order to freeze the cameras. Even if the task was easy, knowing Jimmy was going in still gave Sam a small panic attack. Anything could go wrong in a building full of hostile secret agents.

"All clear," Jimmy announced in what felt like minutes.

The knot inside Sam loosened for a moment after which it returned with a vengeance since he was about to go in himself. For the first time in his life, he had the choice not to. They had enough agents and goons of their own to go out into the field and do the dirty work. But he still felt that this was his duty. His mission. So they'd planned the break in with minimal aid. He really didn't want anyone else dying for them.