Operation: M.I.A

XII // Then There Were Three

When Rylan, our mission, started sprinting through the restaurant, neither Zander or I had to think about our next move. We both ran after him.

"Take the exit and cut him off from the back," Zander calls from a few yards away. The people eating breakfast aren't focused on their meal anymore. But that's okay. I do as he says and hurl my body against the door so it opens and I continue to run alongside the building. I see a door fly open ahead of me and know it's Rylan. I keep my legs moving and gain ground. "Agent Graham!" I call.

I ignore the burn in my thighs and keep pushing. I have trained three times a week for two years. I should be able to sprint for more than thirty seconds. I pass the door and see Zander coming from inside the building.

"Get him, Decklynn!" I hang my head and push harder. I think Rylan's slowing down. He turns a corner and he slows once he realizes he's trapped himself. It's a dead end. Zander keeps running and brushes past me. But he stops when Rylan pulls a gun and points it at Zander's heart.

"Who is she?" he barks, now pointing the gun in my direction.

"My partner." Zander's voice is strained and heavy. Probably from running so far.

"No she's not. BOSS doesn't give partners. They send crews or individuals. Trust me, I know." Agent Graham looks tired and exasperated.

"The rest of the crew is back at the hotel room," I lie. Zander gives me a look, but he knows why I'm lying. We don't know if Rylan is a traitor too. But it looks like Zander doesn't want to believe it. At all.

"Is that true?" The question is directed at Zander. He merely nods. Next question. "How did you find me? How did you know I left?"

I don't know how to answer that. I don't know what he's talking about. He left? Thankfully, Zander answers for me. "Karina filed you as missing and sent a crew here to find you."

Rylan laughs. I don't know if it's hysterical or sincere. "She fired me! I have no idea what is going on." Zander and I look at each other. We don't either.

"Then why do you have us a gunpoint?" I ask. He considers this.

"And why did you run when you saw me?" Zander adds. Rylan looks just as much like a little boy as his best friend does sometimes. He lowers the gun.

"I don't know, Zan. I guess I thought Karina wanted me dead. I figure that if she was going to send anybody on a mission with a kill order, it would be you." Is Zander the assassin of BOSS? There is usually a group of three spies in the corporation who are trained to kill. A shiver runs up my spine. Have I been spending the last three days with an assassin? Did I really just punch someone who could have killed me with more ease and experience than I had originally thought?

I walk up to Zander and glance up at his face. His eyes are dark and his brows are furrowed. I think he's still trying to decide if he can trust his best friend. "Why do you think she would kill you?" he asks the brown-eyed boy.

Rylan shrugs. Then he looks at us like he just thought of something. "You don't know about Karina?"

"All we know is that she is a traitor and she lured us into an apparently compromised base in hopes to find you. We hid, found out she's working with, or for, the Russians and went to Alexander X's ball last night. She was tracking us with our purchases on the BOSS card." That sounds like enough information, but it's not. We don't know the biggest part. The biggest question: Why?

Rylan looks shocked. "That's not what I heard."

~

We take Rylan up to our room with us in silence. I'm not really sure what kind of relationship Zander and Rylan normally have, but right now they certainly don't look very close. This situation seems to have made them unsure of themselves. And me unsure of myself, as usual.