Kill Or Be Killed

Chapter 3

~Alyssa~

"Jason, I'm not joking."

"I know, I know," his tense voice crackled through the cell phone. He sighed and I could imagine him running a hand through his hair.

I tried to take a few deep breaths and steady myself. The dim hotel parking lot lights flickered around me which did nothing to help my rising terror. The air conditioning blasting from the car's vents was like a bucket of cold ice, the only thing keeping me sane and in the moment when all I wanted to do was fall apart.

Alyssa, pull yourself together. Vera, Jordan, Tyler and maybe even Julia had to face Secret Keeper. Why can't you?

"We need to figure out who Secret Keeper is," he said.

"Seriously? A 140 IQ level and that's what you come up with?" I scoffed. I knew I was just snapping at Jason because I was jumpy, but I couldn't help it.

"Alyssa, I'm trying here."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You weren't at the bridge that day, so any chance of Secret Keeper simply getting involved because they watched what happened is gone. There was no way she could've known that you were involved when you were stationed a mile away," Jason paused before adding, "Secret Keeper knew the entire plan."

And that's why I had been more scared than any of the others. If Secret Keeper sent me a message about Jason, then she knew everything about our plan and what we had been doing. And maybe she'd been there from day one, watching every single move the entire time.

"And another thing," I said. "In the letter, Secret Keeper referred to the Circumvent as other people entirely, so I don't think Secret Keeper is working for them. But the way the rest of the letter was phrased... she could be working with them."

"Like as a partner?"

I nodded before remembering he couldn't see me. "Yeah."

"It's possible," he mumbled and hesitated before saying what neither of us wanted to admit. "If Secret Keeper knows our plan, then it's possible she's one of us. So who would benefit from working with the Circumvent?"

"Lasiya." The answer tumbled out of my mouth before he had even finished the sentence.

There was a small pause before he started. "Alyssa..."

"You know she's the only one with the best advantage. She'd worked with the Circumvent her entire life. What's to say she's not doing it right now?"

"She left that behind."

"Says who?" I argued.

"Says me. She found out what they really did and left."

"But she didn't even fact check it. Lasiya grew up around trained killers and professional liars. She knows exactly how manipulative people can be, how than can take advantage of you. Doesn't it strike you as odd that she just took your word for it? That she didn't even fact check?"

"Maybe she did fact check. We don't know."

"Exactly. We know nothing about her. She could just as easily be feeding information to the Circumvent on the side."