Making the Grade (The Model Spy #2)

Chapter 14 - Breaking and Entering

Max and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through Covent Park, losing ourselves among the crowd that was wandering back and forth underneath the red Apple Market arch. I paused by a table to admire a handmade necklace, picking it up and rolling its silver beads between my thumb and forefinger. The necklace was beautiful as it sparkled in the light, but my mind was more focused on Jayden, and Emily’s raw fear of him. How could one person instill so much fear into another?

“So the plan again…” Max began, taking advantage of the loud crowd and its ability to drown out his voice and make his words just another layer to the low rumble. “Get Jayden’s phone. But do you really think he has anything on his phone that could be of use?”

“There is a group, a secret group. Maybe on his phone there is something, anything that we can find to help us infiltrate it.” I set the necklace back on the table.

“Very pretty, is it not?” a man said from the other side of the table. He nodded towards the necklace I had just set down.

I smiled. “Yeah, very.” I turned to leave, my mind already on how I could get Jayden’s phone.

“You were admiring it for a while,” the man said. “It would look very pretty on you.”

“No, that’s alright-”

Max pulled some money from his pocket and handed it to the man. “You can keep the change.” He picked up the necklace. “Thank you, sir,” he said before taking me by the arm and leading me through the crowd.

Once we were out from under the red arch, I said: “Why did you do that?” I stared at the necklace in his hand. That was the first time any boy had ever bought me anything, if I didn’t count Will and his one month anniversary present, which was nothing but a fake rose from the corner Gas-n-Stop and a stale chocolate bar. Months two through six went uncelebrated. Will probably couldn’t top the “generous” gift he had given me in the beginning of our relationship.

Max unclasped the necklace and motioned for me to turn so he could put it around my neck and the bush of curly brown hair London’s wet weather had bestowed upon me.

“Because he was right.” I pulled my hair out from under the chain. “It does look pretty on you,” he said, “and I was watching you admire it. Profiler, remember?” he laughed.

“How can I forget your freaky mind-reading skills,” I responded.

We left the Garden and crossed a street, in front of one of those red buses.

“One thing I can’t figure out though, even with my ‘freaky mind-reading skills’ as you like to call them, is who hacked into my network last night. To help us.”

I honestly hadn’t thought about the strange phantom computer all morning, but taking the time to consider how the buttons clicked by themselves, how the keys typed without any action on mine or Max’s part, how it was almost as if the computer could hear us, all freaked me out and left me with a trail of goose bumps up my arms.

“Do you think it was a trap?” I asked him, as we descended the stairs to the underground station.

“I think that if it was a trap, something much worse would have happened to us when we found Emily. So no, I don’t believe it was a trap. But I still think it is something we should be wary of. Who would want to help us? I can’t think of a single person back at Langley that cares about what we do.” We both touched our Oyster cards to the card readers and pushed through the gates.

It was as though I collided with a brick wall. I was frozen, my arms falling to my sides as I remembered Zach’s last words to me, about help and caring. Slowly, I brought my hand to my mouth. Was Zach that one hacking into the computer? Was he watching us? I looked around, almost expecting to see him exit a train or reveal himself from the shadows of the station.