Camp Wacko: The Drones of Summer (4 page)

He didn’t even flinch. This man was good at hiding his emotions. When he had shown up at our meeting place here and learned I had decided to clue my mom in on this whole thing, he hadn’t even batted an eye. He had simply introduced himself to her and made sure to discreetly flash his badge. One thing was clear: Agent Cooper knew how to roll with the punches.

“Ma’am, your daughter will be perfectly safe, I assure you—”

My mother wasn’t having it. She shook her head. “There’s no way you can be certain of that. We just attended the funeral of a girl who was used as a human guinea pig in that awful place. She lost her life because of the horrible things those people did to her. That will not happen to my daughter. I won’t let it.”

The FBI agent nodded his head slowly. “I understand that, but your daughter can prevent that kind of thing from ever happening to anyone else. There are more lives at stake than just hers.” He turned his attention to me now. “With your help, we can shut this whole operation down. We just need someone on the inside. Usually we don’t use kids, but this is what we call…special circumstances.”

I matched his grim gaze, trying to penetrate the eyes behind the shades. “I understand.”

Mom squeezed my hand. “No, Lily is a minor. While she is still a minor, her parents have to make the big decisions for her. This counts as one of them and I am saying no. You are not letting her go back to that place.”

Agent Cooper sighed. “I understand your husband has recently been promoted to CIO of his company.”

I frowned. What did that have to do with anything?

By the look on my mother’s face, I guessed she was thinking the same thing. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Let’s say this particular company started to see a loss in revenue. Information became corrupted. Employees working under the new CIO began to quit. I suspect he would eventually be fired. Wouldn’t he?”

“Are you threatening us?” my mom demanded, incredulous.

The agent shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be a threat. The job of a CIO can be very…stressful. A slight decline in management would be all it took to bring a whole company down. We need Lily to assist in this operation. Not allowing her to do so would not be a wise decision, Mrs. Mason.” He glanced at his watch, standing up. “Lily, you were given forty-eight hours. Correct?”

I glared back at him. “Yes.” “You have five to come up with a final decision on whether you are going to help us or not. Cooperating with us is the only way we will be able to help you. Otherwise, I’m afraid you will be on your own.” He turned to leave. “You know how to contact us. I suggest you use your time wisely.”

Six hours later, I found myself sitting in the back of a tricked-out van with an odd contraption hovering over my arm. The man holding it looked grim as he rubbed a patch of my skin with alcohol-soaked gauze, as if preparing the area for a needle. That thing in his hand sure didn’t look like the hypodermic you see when you’re about to get your everyday shot from the doctor.

“Is this really necessary? Just what is that thing?” my mother demanded to know, arms folded as she watched the man warily.

“It’s a tracking device. Very tiny. Nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. But it must be inserted right below the skin.” Agent Cooper leaned forward out of the shadows. “And yes, for your daughter’s safety, it is very necessary.”

I glanced over at the two sophisticated computer systems to the right of us. As we spoke, people sat in front of them on benches built into the floor. With headsets and determined expressions, they seemed engrossed in whatever was on the screen.

“Is that how you’re going to track me?” I asked, nodding in the direction of the computers.

Without warning, I felt a sharp pain on my arm. Letting out a yelp, I glanced down to find an angry red patch on my upper arm, just below my shoulder.

“A warning would have been nice,” I muttered, wincing at the pain.

The man shrugged. “Sorry. There may be some irritation of the area for the first few days.”

I rolled my sleeve back down. “Great, thanks.”

“What if this Dr. Wackerson finds out Lily is helping you?” Mom kept a steady accusing gaze on the agent.

He didn’t seem fazed in the least. “Then we pull her out. When she meets the boy, she will be wearing a hidden camera as well as a wire. We will be with her every step of the way.”

Agent Cooper turned and opened the side door to the van, revealing an empty parking lot. Dusk had begun to fall, turning the sky into a life-sized canvas painting of orange and purple splashes of color. My time had almost run out.

“I will be seeing you soon,” he said, stepping out of the van. He held out his hand to help my mom step down.

She coolly refused his hand, hopping down from the van all on her own. “I should be suing you for blackmail.”

Agent Cooper’s smile was a tight and humorless one. “That is a case you would lose, Mrs. Mason.”

The air suddenly felt slightly cooler as my mother fixed him with one of her signature mom stares. You know, the one your mother gives you when you are in a heap of trouble. As the saying goes, if looks could kill…

“Um, thank you for the help,” I blurted. “We’ll see you in a few hours.”

I hopped down from the van to land right next to my mom.

The FBI agent nodded, turning to go back in the vehicle.

“No matter what you may think, you made the right decision.”

The van doors closed and it silently slipped away; it was surprisingly smooth for such a chunky-looking vehicle. After watching it disappear into the night, Mom and I made our way back to our own car, arm in arm.

Change of Plans

AT AROUND FIVE in the morning of the next day, I stood in front of Cameron’s grave. Her gravestone was made of a beautiful mixture of marble and granite, engraved with cursive writing. Silently, I placed fresh flowers on the ground to accompany the bouquet of roses already wilting against the stone.

There were so many things going on in my head, it was nearly impossible to form a single coherent thought. I kept thinking about my family. Last night, my parents had succeeded in convincing my siblings that I was going on a camping trip with some friends from out of town. They hadn’t completely succeeded. Although my little brothers seemed fine with this answer, my sister, Rose, was a little more skeptical. I couldn’t blame her. I usually told her everything and now I couldn’t tell her a thing. It was more than agonizing. And this morning the goodbye between me and my parents had been the worst. With my mother trying to hold back tears and my dad scooping me up in his arms like he used to when I was little, it all had felt so painfully final.

“Wish me luck, Cam,” I whispered, placing a hand on my friend’s tombstone. It felt smooth and cold against my skin.

“I thought you said you wanted me to come get you.”

Taking a shaky breath, I stood up to face Dustin. I was suddenly highly aware of the wire snaking around my midsection and ending on my lower back, where a small recording device had been taped to my skin. Earlier that morning I had been given a crash course on how to remove and reattach the wire without it being noticeable. I just had to be careful to wear the right clothing. They had told me not to worry. As soon as I had acquired enough information to prove Dr. Wacko’s guilt, they would pull me out. Easy as pie. Ha. Yeah, right. I definitely had my doubts.

“What, a girl can’t change her mind? The anxiety of going back was getting to me, so I decided to just leave. As soon as possible,” I answered simply, working to keep my voice steady.

Dustin cocked his head, studying me for a second. “There’s something different about you.” He came a little closer, continuing to walk in a complete circle around me.

I swallowed nervously. “Really? Maybe it’s the fact that I’m scared out of my mind right now. You know, about going back.”

Still studying me, he shook his head. “No, that’s not it.”

He paused, looking directly into my eyes now.

I stared back, anxious to know what he was seeing. Was I really that bad of a liar?

He raised an eyebrow. “New glasses?”

Stifling a sigh of relief, I nodded. “Yep. Turns out I needed a stronger prescription.”

Well, this wasn’t completely a lie. These glasses definitely had a very strong prescription. The thing was, they weren’t just any new pair of glasses. All around the rim of the frames were rhinestones. In reality, they were a bunch of tiny little cameras. There was also a listening device on the side of the frames, activated by a small button camouflaged within the pattern. I was supposed to use this device to talk to Agent Cooper only when no one else was around.

“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Feigning enthusiasm, I shrugged the small bag I had brought with me up higher on my shoulder.

Dustin’s eyes lingered on Cameron’s grave for a few moments, before he slowly turned his focus back on me. “Yeah, let’s go.” Jaw clenched and shoulders hunched, he turned to leave the cemetery.

“Interesting choice for a meeting spot,” he said softly as we made our way to the dark, sleek car waiting just outside the gates.

“I wanted to say goodbye.”

He didn’t really respond, already lost in his own thoughts. He did, however, offer to carry my bag for me. An offer I declined.

As we moved closer to the car, I was surprised to find that it was a limousine. What was the occasion? Oh right, my kidnapping.

The driver’s door opened and out came a tall stick of a man with graying hair and a very impressive mustache. He looked very sophisticated in a slimming black suit and bow tie, that signature chauffeur hat topping it off.

“Are we all set to go, Mr. Wackerson?” he asked, holding the passenger door open for us. His voice was thick and rich, like chocolate pudding. It wasn’t what I had imagined his voice to sound like at all.

“Yes, thank you,” Dustin replied with a polite smile. Then he turned to me and said, “Ladies first.”

I climbed inside with my arms crossed. He slid in next to me. My bag served as a silent barrier between us. I made sure to look around so the eyeglass cameras could take everything in. I couldn’t see how it would help the FBI crack this case, but it was a start.

The passenger windows had a black tint that was so heavy that no one could see in, or out. Buttons of every shape lined the inside of the inner walls of the car. If this was a normal situation, I would be delighted to push every button and find out what they did. Instead, I kept my arms tightly crossed and stared straight ahead after I was finished taking a quick look around.

Of course Dustin pressed a button, barely glancing at it. Who knows how many times he’d been in this limo—he probably knew it like the back of his hand. A spout and cup emerged from the wall with a mechanical whir. He pressed another button and the spout filled the cup with a yellowish liquid. He took it out, and then offered it to me. I stared at it with suspicious eyes.

“It’s orange juice,” he explained.

Still suspicious, I took the cup. I put it up to my nose. Hmm…it
smelled
like orange juice. With another quick sideways glance at Dustin, I took a tentative sip. Yep.

Definitely orange juice. Nevertheless I was cautious. What if something had been put in the drink to sedate me or something? Setting the cup down, I decided not to take another sip. Better to be safe than sorry.

“Oh for God’s sake, Lily.” Dustin sighed, filling another cup with orange juice. Keeping his eyes locked on mine, he gulped the whole thing down without stopping. “See? No poison. Just normal orange juice.”

I simply shook my head, ignoring the drink altogether.

He threw up his hands in exasperation. “Fine! Suit yourself.”

Up front I could hear the driver chuckle a little. He tried to hide it by turning it into a cough.

The ride went on in silence. I was tired, but I forced myself not to nod off. Since I needed to build up my strength, I eventually gave in and poured myself a fresh cup of orange juice, threw my head back and gulped the whole thing down. Dustin shot me a look but didn’t make a comment. Probably because the cold stare I shot back warned him of the danger of doing so.