Mystics 3-Book Collection (15 page)

“How did you get in here? Did someone let
you in? Don’t be afraid. You can tell me. I’m your friend.”

From the corner of her eye Zoey saw the man
get up.

“Get her!” Hissed the woman suddenly. “She’s
one of those kids like you!”

Zoey broke free from her paralysis. She
stumbled backwards and fell as she reached for her DSM.

“Quickly, before she escapes,” yelled the
woman. “She’s heard too much. Don’t let her get away!”

With the adrenaline kicking in, Zoey jumped
to her feet and sprinted down the passageway from which she had
come. She heard the man panting close behind her. She didn’t want
to think of what they were going to do to her. There was nowhere to
hide at the end of the passageway.

It was now or never.

She flipped open her DSM with trembling
hands and tried to stand as still as a statue, even though her
heart threatened to burst from her chest. Her DSM trembled in her
grasp—her reflection was moving too much—she strained to keep
steady.

The only light in the passageway went out.
Zoey was left in complete blackness.

She could hear his footsteps and heavy
breathing right behind her. She felt the air move. She kicked out
low with her right leg and felt it connect. She heard the man growl
in pain. Her eyes adjusted to the blackness, and she saw him make a
grab for her. She ducked at the last moment and kicked at him
again. He went down, but swung his fist viciously and caught her on
the leg.

She crashed to the ground, and before she
could register the pain, his hands were on her, around her neck,
choking her. She tried to break his hold, but he was too strong. He
hurled her into the wall. Her head crunched horribly into the
stone, white light exploded in her vision, and she tasted blood in
her mouth.

“You’re dead, little girl,” said the man.
“Shouldn’t have been eavesdropping. And now I’m going to kill
you.”

Zoey still couldn’t make out his face. He
was going to come at her again.

Somehow she had held on to her DSM.

The shadow of the man came at her,
swinging.

She held her DSM steadily, and just as his
arm reached out to hit her, she shimmered and disappeared.

“Why don’t you believe me?” Zoey looked
hopefully at Agent Vargas and Agent Ward. Her debriefing back at
the hive wasn’t going as Zoey had expected—she had expected them to
believe
her.

“And you’re sure you heard them using the
word,
interloper
?” asked Agent Ward for the third time. His
hypercritical tone was causing Zoey to doubt the agent’s desire to
trust her at all.

He continued, “From what you’ve told us,
they were in the room next to you. Is it possible that you
misunderstood them?”

“I didn’t
misunderstand
them,” said
Zoey exasperated.

She tried to control her temper. She wiped
the blood from her lip with a cloth. “I heard them say it more than
once. I’m telling you the truth. Why won’t you believe me?”

“Calm yourself, Zoey,” said Agent Vargas.
“We’re just trying to make sense of it all. It is a lot of
information to process—and you only just started today. I know
you’re desperate to prove yourself to everyone—you just might be a
little overzealous. After your fight with the nitro-fairy, and then
mirror-porting somewhere else, it’s no wonder you’re a little
confused
. That’s a pretty large bump you have on her head.
Perhaps what you heard was not in fact what you believe you
heard.”

Zoey’s face burned. “What I
heard
was
that you have a
traitor
in the agency—a man. It was dark,
and I didn’t see his face, so I can’t identify him. But he is the
one that made it possible for that woman I told you about to steal
the interloper. Maybe if you check the Boston hive—”

“The one with the cat-like face—” said Agent
Ward shortly. She crossed her arms over her chest. “The gang leader
in your opinion, correct? A woman with a severe disfiguration who,
according to you, was able to waltz right past the heavy security
and into the Boston hive, murder the agents protecting the
interloper, and then walk right back out without anyone seeing her.
Is that about right?”

“Well, I don’t know how she did it, but
yes,” said Zoey sounding less and less confident by the minute.

“The woman said she had it. She has the
interloper, I’m telling you she does.”

The words felt heavy in her mouth, and even
she had started to second-guess her story. The way Agent Ward eyed
Zoey made her realize it was hopeless. She had felt so important
just moments ago. She felt proud that she had acquired intelligence
for the agency, but now she felt deflated.

It didn’t make sense—why didn’t they believe
her? Was it because she was a Drifter? As soon as it came into her
mind, she started to believe it herself. It had to be the reason.
She doubted they would have treated Tristan or Simon like this.

Agent Ward eyed her suspiciously.
“Overzealous indeed. Fabricating stories to elevate oneself is a
serious offense at the agency. I don’t know much about how
orphanages operate, but here, we don’t take too kindly to
liars.”

Zoey’s mouth fell open. “You don’t believe
me? You think I made it all up, don’t you? You think I would
actually lie about this? I’m bleeding. How did I fake that?”

She felt her eyes sting and forced them to
stay dry. She would not let them see any of her angry tears. Not
now. She lifted her pant leg and showed them the nasty purple and
red bruise the man had left on her leg.

“What about this? How do you suppose I got
that?”

“Children get bruises all the time,” said
Agent Ward, and she raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t prove anything,
my dear.”

Zoey felt the color drain from her face. Her
lips trembled. Her voice stuck in her throat. She should have known
they wouldn’t believe her—after all she was the
Drifter
.

Agent Vargas shared a look with Agent Ward,
and then he looked at Zoey. “You’re safe with us now and that’s
what matters most. We are very happy to have you back here in one
piece.”

He gave Zoey a kind smile. “You can go now,
Zoey. We’ve heard what you had to say, and now Agent Ward and I
need to have a moment to discuss the matter further. We’ll let you
know if we need further assistance from you.”

Zoey swallowed hard and turned without
another word. She felt that the world around her had closed in and
was suffocating her. She couldn’t breathe. Her hands were clammy,
and she wiped them on her jeans. She felt so humiliated—the agents
thought she was a liar. How could they believe that she had made
this up to bring more attention to herself—like that was something
she lacked.

Tristan and Simon were waiting for her
outside the door.

“And?” asked Simon eagerly as he and Tristan
walked with Zoey down the hall. “Is the agency going on a
mission-impossible to sniff out the DA?”

Zoey wrinkled her face. “The district
attorney?”

“He means
double agent
,” answered
Tristan. “The traitor. The man that attacked you.”

Simon emptied a bag of chips in his mouth.
“You’re totally going to be upgraded to full agent status,” he said
with his mouth full. “Man, you’re so lucky. I wish it could’ve been
me. I mean, all I got going for me is my flawless skin and perfect
hair—you’re going to be involved with top-secret stuff, you know.
You’re the only one that can identify him and the plastic
lady.”

Zoey stopped walking. “It’s not going to
happen. Sorry to disappoint you—but they didn’t believe me.”

Simon spit out his chips and nearly tripped.
“What? Are you serious?”

Tristan lowered his eyes. “I don’t believe
it.”

“Believe it. I’m very serious,” said Zoey.
“According to Agent Ward, I made the entire thing up to get
attention.”

Tristan shook his head looking angry. “The
old woman’s senile, forget about her. What about Agent Vargas? What
did he say?”

“I don’t think he believed me either,” said
Zoey.

The whole experience was feeling more and
more like a bad dream. Part of her wished it never happened. “Let’s
just forget about it, okay.”

“But he
has
to believe you,” pressed
Tristan, his voice rising. “What’s wrong with them? They have to
report every piece of information that threatens the agency—it’s
their job! They can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. What you told
us is too important to ignore—they have to warn management before
it’s too late.”

“I don’t think they’re going to say anything
to management,” said Zoey. “I could just tell by the way they were
looking at me, like I was a total spaz.”

Tristan was silent for a moment. “Then we
have to tell Agent Barnes. He’ll believe us, I know he will.”

“Yeah, let’s tell him,” said Simon. “He’ll
believe us for sure.”

Zoey doubted that Agent Barnes would believe
her, but seeing how much her friends believed that he would, she
decided to tell him. “Okay, if you say so.”

“Cheer up, Zoey,” said Simon. “We still have
to get back at Stuart for messing with the mirror-port.”

He smiled mischievously. “If he wants to be
treated like royalty, then I’ll just have to
throne
him a
few punches.”

Zoey laughed, she could always count on
Simon to make her laugh. At least her friends believed her, and
that was something. She had never had real friends before.

Following her friends’ advice, Zoey
approached Agent Barnes the next morning. Tristan and Simon stood
beside her for support as she recounted the events. After she was
done, she stood and waited for him to laugh at her. But he
didn’t.

“You did a good thing telling me,” he said.
“I’ve been saying all along that it was an inside job. Now they’re
going to have to listen.” And then he stormed away.

None of the agents brought up the subject of
the interloper again, but Zoey couldn’t shake the feeling of dread
that lingered in her mind. She knew it was there, like a hand in
front of her face in the dark, she couldn’t see it, but she felt it
was there.

She hadn’t expected the rumors. Somehow, the
other operatives had gotten wind of her experience with the
mirror-port, and it had become a running joke.

“Hey watch out! The cat lady is right behind
you!”

“Meow! Meow!”

“Yo, catnip.”

Tristan and Simon had to pull her away
kicking and screaming a few times. Although she was still furious,
and her pride was hurt, she had willed herself to ignore their
taunts. She had really wanted to start a fight, but she couldn’t
afford to get into trouble.

The agents watched Zoey constantly. It
wasn’t just Agent Ward or Agent Vargas—all the agents at the hive
appeared to be on watch duty for Zoey. She got looks from everyone.
Even Mrs. Andrews at reception gave her questionable looks. The way
they kept eyeing her suspiciously—it was almost as though they
thought
she
had something to do with the stolen interloper.
But how could she?

Being watched constantly put a damper on her
plans to avenge herself on Stuart. Instead of telling the agents
that Stuart had pushed her, she had told them that it was her
fault—she had tripped and caused the DSM to malfunction.

Zoey wasn’t a rat, and she preferred to
settle her battles her own way. Stuart had not realized that Zoey
was waiting for an opportunity to get back at him, and he strolled
the agency’s hallways confident that he was untouchable, like he
owned the place. That was his first mistake. She would get her
revenge one day. Stuart was going to pay.

As they entered September, the nights became
cooler and Zoey slept with her windows open. With lots of work,
dedication, and ongoing help from Tristan and Simon, she had
finally caught up with the rest of the class. She could recite all
the mystics in the first rank by heart and was now half way through
the second rank. She had also grasped the art of mirror-porting,
and could make ten jumps in one day—all without throwing up. She
beamed when Agent Vargas had told her she was a natural.

She could hardly believe she’d been at the
agency for over three months. The hive felt more like home than any
foster home ever had. Her lessons in theory and practical had also
become more exciting now that she had mastered the basics. She
liked belonging to something more important and bigger than she
was.

Even Agent Ward hadn’t failed her. In fact,
Agent Ward had smiled at Zoey one morning and congratulated her on
her essay,
Ogres, Big and Small
. Agent Ward had never smiled
at her before.

Zoey, Tristan, and Simon were just returning
to the Academy after lunch when they were mustered with the others
outside.

“Everyone outside—wait by the main
entrance!” barked Agent Vargas as he escorted everyone outside with
him.

He wore a big stopwatch and a whistle on a
string around his neck.

“Off you go, all of you. You need to be
physically fit to be good agents. Around the hive four times.”

“Come on, Stacey, you need to be faster than
that,” he called to a pudgy girl with a red face. “Nela, James,
hurry up—off you go now!”

Zoey ran alongside Tristan and Simon. She
was grateful that she hadn’t had the cheeseburger and fries, and
had stuck with the house chicken salad for lunch. Simon tripped a
few times, and lied that had asthma so he could avoid the last lap.
Zoey thought her lungs were going to burst, but she made it to the
end and collapsed on the ground with the others.

“He means to kill us by exhaustion.” Simon
collapsed on the ground beside Zoey. “I think I’ve lost a
lung.”

A whistle blew. “Everyone back to class!”
With a smile, Agent Vargas strolled back through the front
entrance.