Disruption (26 page)

“I’m formulating one,” I said.

The plan Jason and I had hatched for the train station was at least a hundred times larger than anything we’d done before. It was one of those things you never really intended to do; it was just something you talked about. Like kidnapping the principal or stealing a car.

But the plan was good. And what’s more, it was something I’d really had a hand in creating. I wasn’t going to win by accident. I was going to prove to these superspies that I belonged in this camp.

Chapter 39

“Okay,” I said, plopping back into my seat, “I’m not going to pretend I’m the best leader here, guys.”

“Oh, goody,” Juno said, smacking his hands together. “This must be your inspirational speech.”

The others laughed.

I ignored the comments. “We’re using fireworks to cause a disruption at the central train station.”

No one spoke for a moment. Then Rylee said, “Well, the station is certainly a pressure point. It’s a good location.”

“Thank you.”

“What kind of disruption did you have in mind?” Angie asked. “I’m sure it’s more than just showing up and setting off a few Roman candles.”

“Um . . . yeah,” I said. “Of course there’s a lot more to it than that.” A bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face. Firing Roman candles
was
actually part of the plan. However, it sounded juvenile the way Angie said it, and I started second-guessing the entire thing.

Angie made tiny circles with her hands. “And do we get to know what the rest of the plan is?”

I drew a breath and held it. Either I embraced the plan fully, or I told them I had nothing, giving them yet another reason to think I’m a horrible Delta. I blew out a breath and made my decision. “I thought we’d modify some different kinds of fireworks and set them off in strategic locations at strategic times.”

Juno scratched the back of his head. “Fireworks?”

“Um, yeah,” I said.

Amara folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t think it’ll work. An explosion might work, but not fireworks. Who’s afraid of fireworks?”

“Not everyone was raised in a bomb factory,” Rylee said. “Fireworks
might
work to cause a disruption.” She looked at me. “But he’s right, an explosion would probably be better.”

If she hadn’t looked so serious, I would have laughed. “An explosion?” I looked around the group, hoping to see at least someone else wearing an expression of disbelief. They weren’t. “No. No, absolutely not. We’re not blowing up the train station. We could kill someone.”

“Or
lots
of someones,” Angie said. Sometimes she seemed entirely normal, and then she’d say something like that and her psychotic side really came through.

“Dis-rup-tion.” I said the word carefully. “Not de-struc-tion.”

“He’s got a point,” Juno said, cocking his head to the side. “If they wanted casualties, they’d have worded it differently. We might even get docked points for killing people.”

He was joking. Juno was always joking.

Wasn’t he?

“I still don’t think that will be very effective,” Amara said again.

“Very effective?” Yaakov said. “How long do fireworks last? A couple seconds? A minute? That’s not a sufficient disruption. It might inconvenience a few passengers, but it’s not going to disrupt the trains.”

“And you could disrupt the trains?” I asked.

“Of course I could.” He tapped his computer. “Do you want me to crash a couple into each other?”

“Now that would be a disruption,” Angie said, pumping her fist in the air. “Let’s add that to the fireworks plan, and then we’ll have something. Plus, we could do it slow enough so that it would be unlikely for anyone to die.”

“No. We’re not having Yaakov crash any trains.” I blew out a breath. “What’s wrong with you people?”

“He’s right,” Rylee said. “It’s a team exercise. If we’re going to crash trains, we’d need to do it in a way that we could all be involved.”

“That’s not really what I meant,” I said, trying to reel in the conversation. If I got to come to another one of these camps, I’d look for a camp activity that would help me manage crazy teammates.
Working with Psychopaths
, or something like that. “Ooookay,” I continued, “if we’re done talking about mass destruction and killing trainloads of people, how about we get back to the actual plan? Disruption via fireworks.”

“I’ll need a place to work,” Amara said. “Modifying fireworks isn’t something you do on the front steps to the station.”

I rubbed my hands together. “Great, now we’re on the right track. Who has suggestions for where we can do the work?”

Yaakov flipped open his computer and punched a few keys. “There’s a public library a couple blocks away from the station. It’s closed for renovations. We could work there.”

“Nothing closer?” Angie asked. “I’m not a fan of walking great distances.”

Yaakov rolled his eyes, turned back to his computer, and muttered, “I said a couple blocks, not a couple miles.” He tapped a few more keys. “There’s a bakery kitty-corner to the station’s east entrance. Its security system is simple. We could work there.”

“Great,” Rylee said.

“Wait,” I said. “You mean . . .” I cleared my throat. “We break into it?”

Yaakov looked around the bus. “Well, it’s Saturday, so they’re probably going to be open—we’ll have to give them a reason to close early.”

“That’ll be easy,” Angie said.

“Easy?” I asked. “Really? Even if they closed early, we’d still have to break in.”

Yaakov nodded slowly. “Um, yeah. Obviously. Unless you have a key, or a different safe house we could use?”

“What about the police?” I asked.

Yaakov sighed. “I told you; the security system is simple. It’ll be off before we break in.”

I leaned in and nodded to the front of the bus, indicating the driver, who I was quite sure would report us if we did something wrong. “And the camp won’t care if we do that?”

“I don’t see why they would,” Juno said. “They don’t want us getting picked up by the police, which is what would happen if we started modifying explosives out in the open.”

“Relax, Captain,” Angie said. “I’ll personally secure the site for us.”

I felt a burst of excitement I hadn’t felt in a very long time. Already this was turning into the biggest prank of my life. It seemed there weren’t any limits with this camp. Even though they didn’t want us to get caught, I bet there was a simple way for them to get us out of trouble if they needed to. We were talking about the CIA, after all.

“What else do we need?” I asked.

“I’ll need some time to hack into the station’s security,” Yaakov said.

“And someone needs to prepare exit routes,” Juno added.

“I’ll do that,” Rylee said.

I nodded.

“Weapons,” Angie said. “We’re going to need weapons.”

“For what?” I asked.

“In case someone tries to stop us.”

“They’re not going to stop all of us,” I said. “We’ll get the disruption without hurting anyone.”

“Is that your thing?” Angie asked, giving me a disgusted look. “No harm to anyone? That’s not—”

“Can we just get past this?” Rylee asked. “He said we’re not using weapons on anyone, so let’s just move on.” She nodded at Yaakov. “Tell Angie where the bakery is, and she can secure the site. Maybe they’ll have a guard dog she can wrestle or something.”

Angie smiled. “I’ll cross my fingers.”

“Can we go over the plan in detail?” Juno asked. “I mean, I’d just like to know exactly what we’re going to be doing.”

Angie put her elbows on her knees. “Yeah, Captain, impress us by giving us just a bit more of your plan.”

I rubbed my hands together and leaned back. “Okay, here’s what I propose . . .”

Chapter 40

When I was done, no one spoke. At least not for several minutes. At first I thought it was stunned silence. Like maybe they were so impressed they couldn’t find the words to tell me how brilliant I was.

Then Angie spoke and shattered that illusion.

“It’s like a plan a kid in middle school would come up with,” she said.

Well . . . yeah.

“It is really amateurish,” Rylee agreed, deflating me even further. Then she added, “But it might work.”

Yaakov eyed me suspiciously, then nodded. “He’s not telling us everything.”

“What?” Angie asked. “How do you know?”

“Because it just doesn’t fit. He’s not revealing everything.”

“Cambridge,” Juno pressed, “don’t leave us out of the loop. We’re a team.”

Amara nodded. “It’ll be more effective if you let us in on at least a bit more.”

“Guys,” I said, “this is our last challenge. We will not lose. I will not lose. We are winning this thing.”

Juno licked his lips and nodded. “Yaakov’s right. He’s planning something else.”

I groaned. “Can we just do this?”

For the rest of the ride, everyone kept to themselves, lost, it seemed, in their thoughts. They had the same expressionless faces you’d see on professional athletes before an event. Like they were envisioning what they’d be doing when we arrived.

An hour and a half later, the bus rolled to a stop on the curb outside of the Fourth Street subway station. We unloaded, and the driver leaned out of his seat.

He pointed to an alley across the street. “This bus will be parked there until three fifteen.” He tapped his wrist. “Three fifteen. Not three sixteen. If you’re late, you find your own way back to camp. If you decide to put your disturbance into effect before that time, you will have five minutes after you execute to get to the bus, or I leave, and again, you find your own way back.” He turned around, pulled the doors closed, and the bus lurched forward.

“He’s a real peach,” Angie said as the bus pulled away from the curb. “We’re really lucky to have such a sweetie for a driver.”

“All right,” I said. “So I guess we better not be late for our ride. The sooner we get this done, the better.”

Yaakov turned his back on the station and pointed across the street. “There’s the bakery.”

The building was a bit run-down, but it was open, and I saw at least a couple people through the glass window.

“And you and Angie can get in there even though there are people in there?” I asked. “Are you sure we’re not going to come back and find you arrested?”

“It’s a bakery,” Angie said, “not a bank.”

“Yeah,” Yaakov added. “We’ll cut the power for a few minutes, wait for people to leave, and then secure it. Besides, even if the cops did show up, they’d probably just think we were two kids breaking in to make out.”

All eyes turned to Yaakov, and no one spoke for several seconds. Then everyone started laughing at the same time.

“Making out?” Juno asked. “You and Angie?”

Angie cracked up again. “Keep your hands to yourself, techie.”

“You know what I meant,” Yaakov said.

“Fine, fine,” I said. “Go.” I turned to Rylee. “You and Juno figure out the escape routes and the best places for a disturbance.”

“And me?” Amara asked.

“You and I will go get some fireworks.” Part of me wanted to go alone, but I wouldn’t know what to get. I’d probably end up with the wrong stuff, and we’d be in real trouble.

I felt like a quarterback who’d just laid out a play to his team. It was exhilarating. I smiled to myself and then realized everyone was looking at me and quickly dropped my grin.

“Right,” I said. “Let’s do it.” I checked my watch. “It’s just about ten o’clock. Let’s meet at the bakery at noon.” I felt like we should all put our hands into the center and give a team cheer. It was a fleeting thought, one that vanished instantly when everyone headed off in different directions.

“You want to call your asset, right?” Amara asked. “There’s bound to be a phone over there.”

“My asset, yeah. Right. A phone. Sure . . . yeah . . .” I rubbed my hands together. Okay. Here we go.

“I’m sure there’s a phone inside the bakery,” Amara said.

We didn’t have time to leave the station and double back to the bakery. I checked my watch, and then my hand went to the pieces of my cell phone, except I wasn’t sure how Amara would take my having a cell. I didn’t want him to see it.

“I’ll find one,” I said. “You wait here.”

“Wait here?” Amara’s eyebrows inched together. “Why would I wait here?”

I shook my head. “I just have something to check on. I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

Amara glanced at his watch. “Okay, but I need time to make modifications, Matt.”

“I’ll be right back.”

I ducked into the station, sprinted down one of the side halls, and squeezed between two blocks of lockers. I dug out the pieces of the phone, quickly put them together, and dialed Jason’s number. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Jason, it’s me.”

“Cambridge?” His voice was a whisper.

“Of course it’s me, you dolt.”

“Shhh,” he said. “Dude, where have you been? I’ve sent you a dozen messages.”

I’d known it was a smart move to break down the phone. Jason clearly didn’t understand the concept of “do not text.”

“Look, man,” Jason continued, his words coming in a rushed whisper, “I uploaded those photos you sent me so I could track down some info for you, and, dude, the freaking FBI showed up at my door.”

“What?” I pressed myself flatter between the lockers. “What are you talking about?”

“They wanted to know where I got the pictures.”

“What did you tell them?” I asked.

“Dude,” Jason said, “it was the FBI. What do you think I told them?”

I swore. “You told them I sent them to you?”

“Not at first,” he said. “First I told them I snapped them last summer at that family reunion I had to go to. They hauled my parents in for questioning, Matt. Eventually they figured out that I’d lied, so I told them the pictures were from some random camp websites I thought looked good.”

“Good thinking,” I said. My heart was pounding.

“No!” Jason said. “Not good thinking. They searched my computer and knew in a second I was lying. More people came to the house, bro. And not just more FBI either.”