Disruption (19 page)

Chase looked at his four teammates, then back to Juno, and smirked.

Juno didn’t even look at me. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at Chase, and Chase responded by squeezing his trigger.

The paintball hit Juno square in the chest and bounced off. Juno didn’t even flinch. Chase’s mouth became a thin line.

“Hmm,” Juno said, without taking his eyes off Chase. “It didn’t break. I guess this is my lucky day.” The barrel of Juno’s gun snapped up, and a steady stream of paintballs flew out. I could only imagine he’d made the same adjustments to his gun as he had to mine. In a blink, five members of Team Squirrel were splattered with paint.

Then Juno dropped to his knee beside Chase’s backpack and, in a single movement, snatched out a frosted tube of paintballs and somehow swapped it on to his gun as he spun back into a standing position. His gun sent the frozen paintballs out like water from a hose. The paintballs pelted Chase and his team and sent them scampering back into the trees, hurling curses and warnings of revenge at Juno.

When they were gone, Juno strolled up to me, his gun resting on his shoulder. He eyed me carefully and then pulled the tape off my mouth.

I gasped. “Thanks, Juno.” I nodded at the tape securing me to the tree. “A little help?”

He pulled out his pocketknife and cut me loose.

I dropped to my knees and pulled the tape off my chest and legs. “What a bunch of psychos!” I grabbed my gun from the ground, pointed it into the trees where Chase had run, and squeezed the trigger. I swept it back and forth until every last paintball was gone.

Juno grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “Feel better?”

“No.”

“Well, you’re going to feel worse if you don’t start moving around.” He took a breath. “Get hit as much as you just did, and the adrenaline ripping through your body is the only reason you’re not in a world of pain right now.” He nudged me forward. “C’mon, let’s go.”

My body did hurt, but Juno was right. I wasn’t in nearly enough pain for what had just happened. Plus, my hand was bleeding again.

Juno nudged me forward. “Well, as crappy as it is you got lit up like that, you did distract Chase long enough that Rylee snagged his flag.”

“Rylee snagged his flag?”

Juno nodded. “She got Octopus’s too.”

I smiled. “So we didn’t lose yet?

“Lose?” Juno said with a genuine laugh. “We might have won.”

It would have felt better to win if pain weren’t slowly taking over my senses. I nodded toward the edge of the clearing, and Juno led me through the trees as easily as if he were following a path. A few minutes later, we stepped into the Team Grizzly clearing. My teammates were all there, celebrating. Only seven of the twenty extras we used were still there, but our flag, as well as two others, hung on the pole.

“Found him,” Juno said. He gave me a look and added, “He was taking care of Chase and four of his punk buddies.”

Angie ran over and slapped me on the back. “Guess you knew what you were doing after all, Captain.” She drew herself back. “You don’t look so good.”

I forced a smile. “If Juno hadn’t come along when he did, I’d be a lot worse.”

Rylee strolled up, looking like she’d just gotten the blue ribbon at a science fair. She gestured to the flags on the pole. “Whaddaya think?”

“Way to go, Rylee,” I managed. “I don’t know how you did it. Especially Chase’s base. I thought his was going to be impossible to get through.”

“It was a team effort,” she said.

“And these three,” Amara said, pointing at Alexis, Duncan, and Rob, “defended this flag like animals. I bet they took out forty campers from opposing teams on their own.”

The three young campers kept their mouths shut, but their chins were raised just a bit. They were pleased with themselves.

“So is it over, then?” I asked. “Are we done? Because I think I need to see the doctor again.” I held up my hand. Blood oozed out the edges of the bandage. I glanced around the clearing. “Where’s Yaakov?”

Juno shook his head. “He may be good on the computer, but that kid does not know how to keep his head down. He was shot and out of the game almost before we started.”

“He was probably relieved,” Angie said.

“So, then, it is over?” I asked again. “We can go?”

Rylee checked her watch. “Any minute now. I think the score is going to be three flags for us and two flags for Arctic Fox.” She smiled. “It feels so good to beat Becca. I hate that chick.”

A yellow blast exploded on Rylee’s chest. I blinked, not really putting together what had just happened, and in that moment of confusion, dozens of other shots streaked through the edge of the clearing and burst on the rest of the team. I spun around and caught a paintball to the forehead. Juno dove and rolled along the dirt, firing his weapon into the trees, but then three yellow blasts exploded across his back and leg. Whoever it was, they’d just taken out our entire team.

“You hate me?” Becca’s voice carried through the trees a moment before she crutched her way into the clearing, her weapon slung over her shoulder and her face mask lifted so we could see her evil smile. “I’m just crushed. Here I thought we were besties.” She gasped dramatically and then narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers. Six other Hyena campers popped out of the trees, weapons ready.

“What’s the matter, Rylee?” Becca asked with a sneer. “You look like someone just forced you to eat dirt.” She laughed and crutched to the wooden pole, tore all three flags off, and handed them back to one of her teammates. Then she turned and headed back into the woods. She paused at the tree line and looked over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Grizzlies. Third place isn’t so bad. At least you’re going to get the privilege of being beat by me again in the next event.”

No one moved for several long seconds after Becca left.

“So . . .” I began, “we didn’t come in last? We’re still in the games?”

Juno nodded. “Yep. Dexter and his team, Octopus, were wiped out early. They’ll be eliminated. But unless Chase’s team was decimated, which I highly doubt, we’re second to last.”

I turned to Rylee. Her hands were tight fists at her side. Her lips were pulled back a bit, her teeth clenched so tight you could see her jaw muscles.

“You, um, okay, Rylee?” I asked.

She drew in a huge breath and opened her mouth. I think a string of curses poured out, but I didn’t hear them because, at that precise moment, the horn signaling the end of the game echoed through the trees and drowned her out.

Chapter 28

Becca and Team Hyena had bragging rights after the Capture the Flag win, and they weren’t afraid to let the rest of the camp know it. Two days after the event, they were still whooping and hollering about it every chance they got. It didn’t help that Smith and Dalson played the footage from the event on a projector during dinner for two nights straight. Nothing like a little shame to motivate us.

Team Octopus and Dexter Miller were eliminated as we expected. There wasn’t any fanfare about the dismissal; they just were no longer a team. Their flag was removed from the grounds, and the campers were dispersed among the other teams. We received about twelve of them; other teams got more. Dexter ended up on Becca’s team, and at dinner, he sat at the opposite end of the dining room. He couldn’t have gotten any farther away from the Delta table if he’d tried. He kept his chin permanently against his chest. His reaction to losing was a bit babyish. I mean, it was just a game, after all. I shook my head, because that might not be quite true. Was any of this
really
a game?

A few nights later, after dinner, I collapsed on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Angie and Amara argued about the proper techniques for throwing a knife, and both, with expert precision, threw one after the other at the back wall of the cabin, each time using a very different technique and each time getting the same results as the other. Rylee and Yaakov sat together on a bed, looking at something on the computer. Juno was across the room from me, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Yes, Juno?” I asked.

“We’re a few days away from the end of Week Two. You don’t look the least bit worried.”

I sat up. “Why would I be worried?”

“Well, they’re bound to start your Crucible Training any day.”

“Crucible . . . right.” I vaguely remembered Ms. Clakk mentioning something about Deltas being required to participate in Crucible Training this year, but I hadn’t given it any thought. My days were so full with other activities that I couldn’t imagine adding another one. “Wait, why should I be worried about it?”

“Why should you be worried about it?” Yaakov asked. “Because of who Clakk said would be teaching you.”

“Right,” I said. “I forget his name.”

“Robert Ingleton.” Yaakov said it in a whisper, as if the name itself were a password to some super-secret place. “He’s worked for the CIA for twenty years. He
still
works for the CIA as their top counter-terrorism interrogator. Can you imagine working in Langley
and
here?”

“Yeah,” I said, not really knowing what all the fuss was about. Was it hard to squeeze a few lessons to campers between terrorist interrogations? Ingleton was clearly someone to be respected at this camp, so I added, “That’s . . . um . . . pretty impressive. He must be pretty good at time management.”

Yaakov balked. He glanced around the room before settling back on me. “You, my friend, are either very brave or very stupid.”

“Mostly stupid,” I said.

“That’s what I figured,” he said.

It was doubtful that Crucible Training was anything I could really prepare for. It would be yet another class in which I would embarrass myself by not knowing as much as anyone else, and because of that, it wasn’t worth stressing about.

I pointed at the computer in front of Yaakov and Rylee and tried to change the topic. “What are you guys doing, anyway?”

“Rylee wanted to watch the Capture the Flag event one more time.” Yaakov sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well, one more time—five times ago.”

“You have access to that?” Angie asked.

Yaakov nodded. “Sure, I have access to that. I have access to the entire network. Everything on the main database is accessible through this console.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Amara asked. “For all of us, I mean?” He looked at me with a single cocked brow. “We get caught with a teammate who hacked into the system, and we’ll get kicked out of the program.”

“Give me a break,” Yaakov said. “There is absolutely zero chance that I’ll get caught. Zero. I’m way better than the best techie they have on their staff. I’m not saying it wasn’t a challenge. It was. They have a better setup than I thought. But I don’t make mistakes. And I don’t get caught. Ever.”

“It’s still us you’re putting at risk,” Angie said. She glanced up at me. “Is there a reason you’re not putting an end to it?”

I’d decided several days before that the reason people didn’t want to be kicked from the program was because it might mean you couldn’t be eligible for full spy status. Despite everything I’d been through, I didn’t want to be kicked either. Still, Yaakov’s confidence was refreshing. He reminded me of my friends back home. Especially Jason, only a really nerdy version. Also, I believed him. I bet he was as good as he said he was.

I shrugged. “I trust him. Yaakov’s the best in this place.”

Yaakov beamed.

“But I still want to know why you’re studying that video.”

Rylee hadn’t taken her eyes off the screen until I’d spoken to her. She touched the keyboard and looked up. “The way Chase played the game didn’t make sense.”

“Maybe he just didn’t have a good strategy,” Amara said.

Rylee shook her head. “As soon as the horn sounds, he takes almost his entire team to Dexter’s camp, blows every last one of them away, and steals their flag. He brings it back, takes four of his teammates, and leaves the entire rest of his team behind to guard that one flag. He knows he’s not going to be in last place unless one of Dexter’s teammates managed not to get shot and somehow gets through to Chase’s teammates. And that’s just not possible since he leaves fifteen to guard it.” She looked up at me. “Then he comes and hassles you.”

“Hassles me?” I scoffed. “You make it sound like he stole my lunch money.”

Rylee shook her head. “I’m sure it would have been very bad for you if Juno hadn’t come along.”

“
Would have
been bad?” I choked on the words. “Are you kidding?” I turned to Juno and then back to Rylee. “
Would have?
”

“That’s not the point,” Rylee said. “Chase wasn’t trying to win. He was trying not to lose.”

My teammates nodded thoughtfully.

“And?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

“I’ve been to three camps with Chase,” Rylee said. “He never tries to do anything but win.”

Juno nodded. “I’ve been to a couple with him too. I agree.”

“So he had a plan,” Amara said. “That’s not exactly a big deal.”

“Actually it is,” Rylee said. “He’s come in second place at the last several camps. I think his goal is all about eliminating the people who might stop him from winning. Capture the Flag was his eliminate-the-competition
round. And he picked Matt and Dexter as his first targets. He succeeded with Dexter, and now Matt will be next. He’ll be gunning for you, for us, during the next competition.”

I glared at Yaakov. “This is your fault,” I spat out at him.

“What? Me?”

“Yes, you,” I snapped back. “You told him that Dexter and I had better scores than him. He wouldn’t have taped me to that tree if it weren’t for you.”

Yaakov opened and closed his mouth like a fish. I don’t think he would’ve gotten much out anyway, but Rylee stepped in pretty quick.

“No,” she said, “he wouldn’t rely on Yaakov’s comments. He must’ve seen your file.”

“So his hacker got through,” Amara said. He looked disappointedly at Yaakov. “I thought you said no one else could get into the system.”

“I did say that,” Yaakov said, suddenly finding his voice. “I’m telling you. No one at this camp could get past my blocks. No one. At least not without me knowing.”