Dark Days (16 page)

“You want
my
sister to get a job at Empire State Tungsten?”

“I don't want her to get the job,” he said. “I just want her to apply for it. That way she can go in there and get a look around. The smallest piece of information might be all we need.”

It seemed utterly impossible, but I also knew that he might be right about one thing. It might be the only way for us to find what we were looking for. So even though the idea was totally bananas, that night I knocked on the door of Beth's room.

“Come in,” she said.

She was at her desk, doing homework, when she looked up at me.

“I have a question I want to ask you,” I said.

“It must be important if you knocked,” she said. “You never knock.”

“It is important,” I said. “But it's also . . . confusing.”

Beth laughed. “Sometimes you really are strange, you know that?”

“You have no idea how strange. Anyway, I want to ask you for a favor, but I can't explain
why
I need the favor. You just have to trust me that it really is important.”

I expected her to kick me out right then, but she didn't. Instead she turned in her seat and looked right at me, a curious look on her face.

“Does this have something to do with Omega?”

I
stared at Beth, totally astounded. “You know about Omega?”

She smiled. “I guess I do. At least sort of. About a month before Mom died, I was hanging out with her at the hospital. I forget where you and Dad were, but it was just the two of us. And ice cream. Even though she wasn't supposed to have any, she'd smuggled a quart of Rocky Road into her room and said we had to ‘destroy all the evidence before the nurses came back.' So we just sat there with two spoons and ate it right out of the carton while we talked.”

“What did you talk about?” I asked.

“Boys . . . college . . . you name it. She wanted to cover as many topics as possible, all the things we wouldn't get the chance to talk about later. She told me some great stories, some embarrassing ones, and gave me advice, a lot of which I'll pass on to you when the time is right. It was the most perfect hour of my life. In a year filled with so many terrible memories, it's the only great one.”

“So what does that have to do with Omega?”

“We were laughing about something, and then from out of the blue she said that one day you might come to me asking for a favor that didn't make much sense. Apparently she knew what she was talking about because that's just what you did. And she said that even if it sounded really strange, before I said no I should ask you if it had to do with Omega.”

“And if it did?” I asked.

“Then she told me I should do it, no questions asked.”

I couldn't believe it. That is so like my mother to foresee this situation, and even more like Beth to go along with it.

“Well she was right,” I said. “This favor is for Omega.”

“Then I'm in,” she replied. “Just tell me what you need.”

“That's it? You really aren't going to ask me why?”

“I gave my word, little sister,” she said. “If we lose faith and trust, then we've lost everything.”

It sounded just like something Mom would say. It's funny. People always think that I'm like her because I love science and because I inherited her mismatched eyes. As far as I'm concerned, it's the biggest compliment in the world. But the truth is, I think that Beth is the one who's more like her. They both have a blend of confidence and compassion that I could never hope to pull off. I walked over and gave her a hug.

“Thank you.”

“I told her I'd do it,” she said.

“Not about that,” I replied. “Thank you for being such a great sister.”

She hugged me back, and it took me a moment before I could move on. Finally I let go and we both wiped some tears from our eyes.

“All right,” she said. “Tell me what I have to do for this favor.”

“You have to do what you do best,” I said. “You have to act.”

I gave her the basics about the job opening, and the next day after school Grayson came over and filled her in on some specifics. He wanted her to look for anything she could find out about what was happening to the tungsten the company was buying. He also said it would be great if she could get the names of any of the employees.

Beth scheduled an interview for the following day. Unfortunately, the only time they had open was at three thirty. Since we didn't get out of school until three, that didn't leave us much time to get there and be close by if she needed any help.

Alex, Grayson, Natalie, and I practically sprinted the moment the bell rang. We didn't have time to come up with an elaborate plan for our trackers, so we just split into pairs and kept away from each other.

Alex and I took the subway and went to Leonardo's, the pizza place a block from the Chrysler Building. Meanwhile, Grayson and Natalie rode the Roosevelt Island tram across the river and then took a cab to Grand Central. All of us were close by, but hopefully we weren't close enough to each other to set off any alarms with the Dead Squad.

Five minutes before her interview was scheduled Beth and I exchanged texts.

BETH: Getting on the elevator. Feeling very employable.

MOLLY: Good luck! Text the moment you're done.

And that was it.

As nerve-wracking as it is to go undercover or do any kind of secret surveillance, it's far worse when you have to sit and wait while someone else does it. Everything is out of your control, and all you can do is worry. What made this especially bad was that it was all new to Beth and she didn't really know what she was getting into.

“Relax,” Alex said when he noticed that I was nervously twisting the straw from my soda. “She's going to do fine.”

“What are they saying?” I asked, motioning to the walkie-talkie in his backpack.

“Nothing unusual,” he said, trying to reassure me. “Everything is okay.”

In the course of the next five minutes, I must have checked my watch about forty times. I already regretted putting her in this position.

“Would you like to listen in?” Alex asked, hoping it might calm my nerves if I had something to do.

“Yeah. That would be good,” I said.

I moved to the other side of the table and sat next to him in the booth. He only had one pair of earbuds, so we had to sit close together and share, each of us using one from the same set. Their conversations were filled with police lingo, so I didn't understand a whole lot of what was being said, but there was no sense of urgency or alarm. I took that as a good sign.

When I checked my phone again, it was 3:55. I figured she would be done at any moment. Then I heard a call on the radio.

“Advise. Eagle is on the move with full detail.”

“Eagle's Marek, right?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. It was just nervous chatter.

“That's right, and full detail refers to all the cops that protect him. He normally only travels with all of them if something big is happening.”

The message continued.
“There is a change of schedule. Rather than WSS, he is headed to Test C.”

“What are WSS and Test C?” I asked.

“WSS is Worth Street station, it's one of the RUNY construction sites,” he said. “But I don't know what Test C is. I've never heard that one before.”

I took another bite of my slice of pizza and checked my phone again. It was now 3:57. I had to calm my nerves. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was an exercise we'd learned in jeet kune do. Real masters could do it and significantly lower their heart rate. It also helps clear your mind, and it must have worked because once I tried it I only needed about twenty seconds to figure out what Test C was code for.

“Beth!” I said as I bolted from the table toward the door. I'd forgotten that I had the earbud in, and when I started running it popped out of my ear and flew back at Alex, flicking him in the face. I was halfway to the Chrysler Building before he caught up to me on the sidewalk.

“What's going on?” Alex asked as he ran with me stride for stride.

“Test C,” I said, picking up speed. “It stands for The Empire State Tungsten Company. Marek just changed his plans to go there. They must have figured out who Beth really is.”

I
sprinted full speed until we reached the entrance of the Chrysler Building. That's when I decided I should at least try to blend in. After all, it's a workplace and we didn't want to attract any extra attention. I took a deep breath and calmly walked through the revolving door. When I got inside, I was surprised to see Grayson and Natalie in the lobby. They could tell I was upset.

“Marek is heading to the office,” I explained.

“We know,” Natalie said. “We saw him walk through Grand Central with his police escort. We followed him outside to see where he was going, and when he went into the building we put two and two together.”

“We called to tell you,” Grayson said. “But you didn't answer.”

I must not have heard my phone ring as I ran down the street. I beelined straight for the elevators, and the others were right behind me.

“We'll bust in if we have to. I can't let them hurt my sister,” I said. “I should never have asked her to do this. This is all my fault.”

We got on an elevator and I jabbed the button for five a few times, rapid fire.

“You've got to calm down, Molly,” Alex said. “No matter what is happening, keeping calm is our best approach.”

I closed my eyes and waited for the ding to signal that we'd reached the fifth floor. Until then I practiced my jeet kune do breathing exercise so I could focus all my energy and anger. By the time the elevator stopped, I was ready to take on an undead army all by myself if I had to.

The bell rang and I opened my eyes just as the doors opened onto the fifth floor. I was prepared to storm into battle, but then I saw something that made me stop cold. My sister was standing there waiting to take the elevator back down to the lobby.

“What are you doing here?” she asked confused. “I thought I was supposed to meet you at the pizza place.”

My mind spun rapidly, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Beth?”

“Actually, today I am playing the role of Sabrina, aspiring data entry specialist. I think the interview went really well.”

I still couldn't make sense of it all.

“But what about Marek? Didn't he come into the office?”

“You mean Mr. Big Shot with the bodyguards,” she said. “Oh, he came in all right. Everyone got very excited and rushed into a back room. Some big deal is about to go down. It was perfect, because they just kind of left me there unattended and I was able to get this.”

She held up a flash drive.

“What's that?” asked Grayson.

“Only everything you ever wanted to know about the Empire State Tungsten Company, and more.”

It's amazing how quickly the mood changed from panic to joy. Beth stepped on the elevator and we were all ready to high-five. She had executed the plan better than we could have hoped, and our anxiety had all been a mistake.

“Seriously,” I said catching my breath, “that's amazing. You're amazing.”

“Let's get out of here,” Natalie said as she reached down to press the button for the lobby.

“Stop!” Alex reached out and grabbed her arm. He was listening in on the walkie-talkie, and something made him grimace. “They know we're here.”

“What do you mean?” asked Grayson.

“The four of us are together in one place,” he explained. “We set off the alarm.”

In our panic, we had all completely forgotten about the trackers.

“Then we better hurry up,” said Natalie.

“It's too late. Since Marek's in the building, there are already some Dead Squad members in the lobby,” he replied. “We have to go up.”