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So as I’m sure you’ve realized, with everything that’s happened, Alex and Rachel haven’t been going into detail about what they’re actually at Smile for. Hopefully this chapter will clear up why.

            25. Jeffrey Lin

            Date: September 13th

Before the mission went south Adrian told Kyle that Jeffrey Lin was associated with our original target. He was said to be related to Maxwell Thomas through his older sister, who was said to be married to Maxwell,  The information was first recovered by Alex. But for some reason, Alex didn’t report it.

       And I’m betting it’s a good reason.

       I look over at my partner now. He and I stand approximately five feet apart, both our arms crossed, both our eyes focused on the one individual who sits in front of us, his hands tied behind his back.

       This particular individual has reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. He stares back at the both of us. Relaxed, not threatened at all. On his face he wears a lopsided smirk, and there is an arrogant gleam in his eyes.

       “So,” he says. “Is one of you going to ask me some questions, or am I just here for decoration?”

       Every time the boy speaks I remember how much I don’t like him.

       Alex steps forward. “A little of both, actually,” he responds, “though I think you ought to get some serious work done on your face before we can start calling you a decoration of any kind.”

       Jeffrey loses the smirk. When it’s completely gone, Alex smiles at his frown.

             “Now,” Alex continues, “about those questions.”

       I watch the way Jeffrey reacts to Alex’s words, and then I start thinking. Something isn’t adding up here. Why is he so calm?

       Two random classmates of his basically just kidnapped him and brought him to a random room inside the school, and he isn’t fazed in the slightest. He even wants us to question him.

       Suddenly I stop thinking.

       “Wait,” I tell Alex.

       He listens, turning to give me a raised eyebrow.

       I turn to Jeffrey. “That’s all you have to say?” I ask him, narrowing my eyes. “You don’t want to know why we took you, or where?”

       Jeffrey smiles at me. “You’d be surprised by how much I know.”

       I blink at him, then turn to Alex.

       We made a mistake. Jeffrey knows much more than we gave him credit for.

       A few minutes ago we took him blindfolded into our off-the-grid room in the west wing. He was resistant at first, so I tied him up; an action I didn’t think through. After removing the blindfold Alex and I planned only to ask him what he knew about the kidnappings, and then get him to tell us how to sneak away from Smile after curfew without being detected. That’s all.

       But the look in his eyes is a look I don’t like.

       He seems to think he’s one step ahead of us, if not several. And thinking back to the intel Alex recovered about him, that’s not unlikely.

       “It’s Rachel, right?” Jeffrey says, still looking at me. I want to wipe the smug smile off his face. “That’s your name? I met you before, didn’t I?”

       I stare at him, as he pushes his torso forward in the wooden chair, stretching his arms which are still bound behind his back.

       “I’m starting to remember you now. Green eyes, long hair, nice legs. Yeah, Rachel.” Jeffrey takes pleasure in seeing the annoyance on my face. “You know, I remember hearing about another Rachel at our school. Something about a kidnapping.”

       Alex glances at me, but my gaze is still on Jeffrey. As I inspect the look in Jeffrey’s eyes I start to think Jeffrey is working with Maxwell somehow. Or that Jeffrey might be behind the kidnappings.

       Jeffrey’s smile widens. “Of course, she didn’t do it,” he says, his eyes pressing into mine. “But I suppose no one knows that.”

       Then Jeffrey looks over at Alex, who glares back at him and uncrosses his arms.

       “Oh,” he says flatly. “And you. Alex. I find it funny that you think, after all the time you spent around me, that I didn’t suspect you were some kind of operative.”

       I freeze, simply staring at the boy. My brain is racing for an explanation to his words as my heartbeat speeds up. He knows.

       Maybe he is the kidnapper.

       I think about it, and then decide maybe not. Because if he knew about us and he was the kidnapper, why wouldn’t he kidnap us?

       He continues talking as I wrack my brain for answers. “I mean you two show up at my dorm out of nowhere, trying to play nice, and then you start asking me some questions about this guy named Maxwell Thomas?”

      Jeffrey raises his eyebrows, and I remember the encounter he’s speaking of, and I think back to how pointless I’d thought it was. Alex and I didn’t even include it in our reports because it had gotten us literally nowhere and we suspected Jeffrey wasn’t really related to Maxwell at all.

      “Yeah,” Jeffrey says. “That was very subtle of you. And, I also didn’t report you guys afterwards. Why’d you think that was? Thought you got lucky?”

      Before I can warn him, Alex takes two long strides and ends up in front of Jeffrey’s chair, standing dangerously close to the boy.

       “Who the hell are you?” Alex demands.

       I stand my ground, but inside I’m surprised at Alex. The way he operates . . . it’s different than I was trained to operate. Alex always manages to have a lighthearted sense of humor one second, but the next he goes back to acting like a Level 3 Special Operations agent.

       Jeffrey rolls his eyes. “Wow. You guys are dense.” He looks between the both of us. “I’m an agent.”

       A disbelieving look crosses over Alex’s face, but I think about it, and his words don’t seem as far-fetched now as they would’ve before.

       “Special Operations?” Alex says, doubtful.

       I shake my head, more to myself than Alex. He isn’t an Operations agent. We’d know, if he was.

       That leaves only one other type of agent he could be.

       “Alliance,” Jeffrey states.

       “You’re Alliance?” Alex asks incredulously.

       “What are you doing getting involved in a Special Operations mission?” I say, confused.

       I’ve heard about Alliance. People say it’s like the more violent brother of Special Operations. Alliance is a secret government operations unit that handles the more volatile missions that Special Operations declines, as requested by some of the highest commanding officers in our government.

       Alliance and Operations don’t usually get involved with each other. They are both cut from the same cloth, but Alliance is willing to go to lengths that Operations agents would never even think about going to, in order to complete a mission.

       “Wait, your mission?” Jeffrey asks me. “Not a chance. This was our mission way before you were even told that Special Operations existed. There is no way that you are getting Maxwell Thomas.”

       I glance over at Alex. His gaze is on me too, and I believe we are thinking the same thing. One thing left to be desired about Special Operations is their trust in their agents. If Jeffrey works for Alliance, chances are he knows a lot more about why Alliance wants Maxwell than we do about why Special Operations does.

       Alex circles him. “What does Alliance want with him?”

       Jeffrey scoffs. “Well, let’s see,” he says sarcastically. “It might have something to do with the fact that Maxwell Thomas is an ex-con, but that's just a possibility."

       Sarcasm aside, Jeffrey says, "There are people, in our government, who want him back behind bars. They think he’s a threat, and we were sent to eliminate him. They gave us all covers and sent us here. I was supposed to be Thomas’ wife’s brother. A little far-fetched, if you ask me; guess they thought I might gain more intel with that cover.”

       I step closer to him, listening to his every word. It’s true then, what they say about Alliance. They work for themselves, in the long run. And they don’t hesitate to pull the trigger. I was hoping they were better than that.

       “But somehow,” Jeffrey continues in a darker tone, “he managed to capture twelve of our agents. Agents who were undercover and agents who weren’t.”

       Captured agents. Like Adrian and Kyle.

        I feel my brain working, thinking fast. “If you’re the agent you say you are, you must have experienced a signal interference of some sort recently.”

       Jeffrey blinks at me. “How’d you know that?”

       I ignore his question. “Did you find a way past it?”

       “Yeah. I opened a new channel. It gave me access to a new line of communication, but I wasn’t online for very long before it was shut down.”

      Processing the information, I turn to Alex and shrug. Jeffrey Lin may not have been as much of a dead end as I thought. Alex grins, glances at me, and then unties Jeffrey. Jeffrey begins rubbing his wrists, a befuddled expression covering his face.

       “Thanks for that,” Alex says to Jeffrey, but before the confused boy can respond, Alex’s fist slams into his head, knocking him out. “But this is still a Special Operations mission.”

          .           .          .

At exactly five o’clock, the last person besides Alex and me leaves the computer lab. That’s the moment we are finally alone.

       “Alex,” I whisper from the computer chair next to his. “If what Jeffrey said is correct, we have a chance to contact Special Operations and trace the source of the jamming field that’s keeping us from communicating with them.”

       His blond head turns to look at me. A pair of green eyes stare back at mine, and I take in a deep breath. “If he’s right, we’ll have exactly twenty minutes of a secure, untraceable network to use,” Alex tells me.

       I nod.

       “But Rachel,” he says, “we can either contact Operations or we can trace the jamming field to its origin. We can’t do both.”

       He leans closer to me as I blink rapidly, my heart speeding up once again. “Which means you can either rely on Operations for help,” he goes on, his eyes looking into mine, “or we can find the problem on our own and fix it ourselves.”

       I try to think. If I don’t contact Special Operations, they will be left in the dark about the entire mission.

       But then I remember.

       We didn’t even know what the mission really was, when we first came here. We were given information, sure. But it was given piece by piece. A cover. A name to gather intel on; Maxwell Thomas. Some instructions. But that was it. And I had no idea what it was all for.

       But judging from Alliance's similar situation, I’m betting Maxwell has taken more of our agents than just Kyle and Adrian, and that that’s the reason Operations sent us. We went in blind. And we got split up along the way.

       If I have a quicker chance to get to Maxwell and retrieve our agents, I have to take it.

       So I turn to Alex. “You have exactly twenty minutes to find whoever’s responsible for that jamming field. Go.”

                                *               *               *

Yay! Long-ish chapter! So, care to give me any feedback? What’d you think of Jeffrey Lin?

I don’t know what I think of him yet. Hmm.

Well. Anyway.

Random commenter gets dedication.

See ya later, peoples! :3

'AwesomelyBlaze