Demon Accords 05.5: Executable (8 page)

By lunchtime, the school was buzzing with the story that Kevin Otts had dropped a barbell on his head doing overhead squats in the weight room and Trey wrenched his fingers getting him up.  Otts had gone to the doctor’s to see if he had a concussion, which would leave the Castlebury Fighting Knights down one of its biggest players for our Homecoming game.

Candace and Jonah were talking about it when I sat down across from them.  I didn’t comment
, but just started eating my lunch while listening.  A minute later, Sarah sat down, a heavy tray of food held one-handed while she carried her book bag in the other.  The book bag looked completely full.  Neither load appeared to bother her.

“Did you hear about your boyfriend and his butt buddy?” Jonah greeted her.

She looked confused and turned to me with eyebrows raised.  I laughed and translated. “He’s talking about Trey and Kevin.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.  He’s an ass,” she said, bewildered.

“Tree is being sarcastic because we know you don’t like Trey,” Candace explained with a wave in Jonah’s direction.

“Tree?” she asked.

“That’s what we call Stretch Patel here.  As in Tall as a Tree,” I said around a mouthful of sandwich.

“Oh, a nickname,” she said, light dawning in her eyes.

“Yes, like your mother’s for you,” I agreed which earned me a set of narrowed eyes.  I laughed and held up both hands in mock surrender.  Although after seeing her handle both football players, maybe it wasn’t mock.

Pitching my voice low, I told Candace and Jonah the real story of what happened to Johnson and Otts.

“So then, what’s your mom’s nickname for you?  Killer?  Charlene Norris?” Jonah asked.  Candace laughed and after observing our reactions, Sarah smiled a little.

“You said you used to be friends with Trey?” she suddenly asked, turning to me.

“When we were in elementary and middle school, we were pretty close,” I said.

“Try inseparable,” Jonah piped in.

“Anyway, we were goofing around in Burlington one day, waiting for his dad to get done with a meeting and take us home. I think it was fifth grade. We got bored in the office and went down to the edge of Lake Champlain, to the park area.  It was late on a weekday afternoon, and no one was around except some guy with an arm cast walking a small dog.  We ignored him till the dog got loose and ran over to us.  We held the little pup till the guy got to us.  He was all grateful and asked if we could help him get his dog to his van ‘cause his arm was making it hard.  So we did, but when we got to the van, he tricked us and shoved us both inside.  He had rope and duct tape and chains in the van.  It was pretty bad.”

“What happe
ned?”

“
I hurt the guy, badly, and we got away.  Found a cop on Church Street, and they got the guy.  Mr. Johnson was scared but glad we were okay.  But the guy died, and there was a whole lot of trouble.  Trey’s father got the story mostly covered up, keeping our names out of the paper, but after that, he forbade Trey from hanging out with me, which Trey didn’t really want to do, anyway.”

“Wait
. You saved his son’s life and both of them didn’t want you around him?” Sarah asked.  Jonah and Candace knew this story, but both of them were listening intently.

“
The cops didn’t like the way the guy died, and the District Attorney questioned both Trey and me for hours.  Mr. Johnson convinced him it was self-defense, but they never trusted me.”

“How did the guy die? What did you do?”

“I electrocuted him.  His heart gave out on the way to the hospital.”

“You were in his van and you electrocuted him?  With what?”

“He had two spare car batteries in back and jumper cables like he might use to shock us once he had us tied up.”

“So what’s the big deal?” she asked.

“The cops didn’t like that I was able to electrocute him with my hands duct taped behind me.”

“But you did?”

“Yeah, I did,” I said.  “I don’t remember everything that happened, but from that day on, things were different between Trey and I.  They got worse as the years went by.”

“So that’s why you said you were used to being questioned by his dad on a witness stand,” she said.

“Yeah, although I never really was on a stand.”

I could see about a million more questions brewing in her eyes, but before she could answer them
, a small person careened into the back of Jonah’s chair.

“
Sarah!  A federal agent is here asking about you!” Rory said in a super-excited voice.

“What?  What are you talking about?” I asked, glancing at Sarah, who had frozen in place at his words.

“I was in the office waiting to talk to Principal Jesten about this week’s student council meeting.  I’m class Treasurer you know.” He said the last directly to Sarah with a note of pride. “Anyway, I saw this guy in a suit come in, flashing his badge like they do on NCIS and saying he was Homeland Security.  Then he asked Miss Rosen about you,” he finished, looking at Sarah.

“What did she say, Rory?” I said, bringing him back on task.

“Well, he was really snotty to her, so she’s having trouble finding anything,” Rory said with a gleam in his eye.

“Oh
, bad move on his part,” Jonah said.

Sarah, who had the same calm expression she’d had just after beating the piss out of the two football players, glanced at me with raised eyebrows.

“Miss Rosen is like a hundred and forty years old, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone or any authority except the Principal.  If you piss her off, she loses everything you wanted her to find,” I said.

Rory nodded.  “That’s right
, and I think it’ll buy you some time.”

“Time for what
?” Sarah asked, her voice calm for someone being investigated by the Feds.

“To get away.  I can take you in my car.  Run you to Burlington where your mom is
, if you like,” I said, feeling a bit weird about offering but knowing it was the kind of thing my mom or aunt would do.

“
You would leave school and drive me away, knowing I might be a fugitive?” she asked, apparently more intrigued by that than the Fed.

“
Yeah, we can head out one of the side doors near the lot.  I’ll just jack the alarm and we’ll be gone.”

She stared at me for a good fifteen seconds
, then looked at each of the others.

“My mother asked me if I had made any friends here last night.  I told her I thought so.  Apparently
, I was right if you’re willing to rush here and alert me,” she said looking at Rory, “—and
you’re
willing to leave school, disable a safety alarm, and drive a potential fugitive thirty minutes away.  And to think my mother was worried I’d be bored here.”

She started the sentence grim
-faced but was smiling at the end.  It was the first real smile I had ever seen on her face, and it was really kind of amazing.

“How many federal agents did you say there were?” she asked Rory.

“One… how many do you need?”

A look flashed across her face that might
have been annoyance but to me looked like she was offended.

At least four or five!
I thought to myself. The girl could jump like a cat and didn’t break a sweat beating up big guys.  She’d obviously had a lot of fight training.  I’ve had a bit myself and I could tell hers was much, much more extensive than mine.

She was thinking it through, looking at a spot on the table while chewing a bite of pizza
.  It was the same look she’d had on her face when she was taking the Calc quiz… without a calculator.

“Thank you
, Rory, for telling me about the agent and Declan for being crazy enough to get in trouble for me.  But if it’s just one, I think I’ll just go see what this guy wants,” she said with another smile, this one smaller but just as cute as the first.

She got up, leaning down to get her tray
, but Jonah grabbed an apple and Rory snagged her cupcake.  Jonah looked apologetic, but Rory was already unwrapping the dessert.  “Well, you know, if you weren’t gonna eat it,” he said with a shrug.

She smiled and took the leftovers to the recycle and waste bins.  I pushed the other half of my pannini turkey, Vermont cheddar, lettuce, tomato
, and cucumber mayo sandwich toward the two boys, who looked at me, surprised.

“I’m gonna see for myself what’s up.  Got a study hall next anyway,” I said.  The three oatmeal and raisin cookies in a ziplock baggie went into my pocket
, though.

I followed Sarah to the office
, hanging back and trying to look inconspicuous. 

The Fed was easy to pick out, being the only dark
-suited guy in the area.  About an inch shorter than me—maybe six feet—but built heavier.  Ginger hair cut short like military and sharp, light-colored eyes that locked onto Sarah with intense energy.  My first impression was military, not law enforcement.

“Miss Rosen, did you need to see me?” Sarah said to the old lady behind the office counter
, who looked up, startled.

Her
expression changed through dismay to resignation. “This man, Agent Kent, wants to talk to you,” she said.

I slipped into a chair like I was waiting for the Principal or something.  The agent man looked at Sarah then down at his smart phone, then back up, like he was comparing a photo.

“I’m going to need to take her into custody, actually,” he said.

“You can’t just take a child from this school,” Miss Rosen said
, raising her voice.

Mrs. Jesten, the Principal, showed up
at the door of her office.  “What’s going on here?  What are you doing to that student?”

Agent Kent was spinning Sarah around an
d handcuffing her wrists together.  Sarah didn’t resist, her face blank until she saw me sitting there, then she frowned at me and shook her head a little.

“This girl is not Sarah Williams.  Her name is Caeco and she’s a potential threat to every child in this school.  And I can
do anything I need to with this badge,” he said, holding Sarah’s bound wrists with one hand and using the other to flash his creds again.  The gun on his belt, a 1911 type .45, certainly looked legitimate, although it was an odd choice for a federal cop.   Darci had taught me a lot about guns, as had Levi. It was actually part of the Krav Maga curriculum at higher levels.  Anyway, I knew that the Feds issued Glocks and Sig Sauers, not single action .45s.

Principal Jesten continued to argue with him while Miss Rosen was dialing someone on the phone, probably the sheriff’s department.

I already knew he was going to take her, so I slipped out of my seat and out the front door while everyone was busy.

A Honda Accord with rental stickers on the bumper was parked in the bus loop, smack dab in front of the school entrance.  I slipped down beside it and applied a sharpie to the bumper sticker, then hightailed it to my own car.

From his newer, closer vantage point in the bank parking lot across from the school, Mike West sat up as a tall, thin kid came out of the school and hunkered down by Machete’s car.

Nothing had happened for the first fifteen minutes after Agent Machete entered the school, but now a student appeared to be doing something to the rental car’s rear bumper.  The kid finished doing whatever he had been doing, threw something back into his bookbag, and took off at a lope for the parking lot.  He unlocked an older model Toyota Land Cruiser and climbed in, appearing to settle down and wait.  Every instinct West had was screaming at him that this kid was important, but he forced himself to wait like the kid.

Four minutes later, Machete appeared, pushing a teenage girl in front of him.  She appeared calm despite having her arms bound behind her. An older woman in a business suit followed them out of the school entrance and made herself obvious as she took pictures of the car, the agent, and the student. Machete snarled something at her even as he unlocked the car and put the girl into the backseat, then climbed into the driver’s side and took off.

Mike checked his tracker and found the blip representing the Honda blinking steadily.  He waited as the other agent’s car pulled onto the main road and away from the school.  The boy in the Toyota had started his own car, but he, too, waited till the rental was out of sight before pulling out of the parking lot and following.  West let the boy get a block ahead before starting out after him.  Staying back about four car lengths, he kept one eye on the Toyota Cruiser and one on the iPad tracking screen.  Even though Machete was out of sight, the boy appeared to be following him without difficulty, making turns that exactly matched those of the false agent he couldn’t see.

His first sight of the girl had confirmed his gut instinct.  She was the reason AIR was here, but the boy also tripped Mike’s switch and now, watching him track Machete without apparent need for sight, Mike was doubly intrigued.