AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 2

The moment my rear-end hits the seat, I shake my head and flutter my lips. I can't believe what I said, and how I said it, and how I acted so calm. Where did that come from? I've never talked to a girl with such confidence. Never. When I look up from my coffee cup that's wobbling on the tabletop after I set it down haphazardly, Kayla is biting her lip and widening her eyes.

She leans forward. "Are you okay? You did a one-eighty when you got that text message."

"Who me?" I sputter my lips and shrug. "Yeah, I'm fine. No problem. Cool as a cave dude during the ice age."

Kayla squints. "If you need to go, we can study tomorrow evening. I'm fine with that."

"No, no, I'm good." I wave her off and look at her tablet, glimpsing a picture of a mammoth plodding across an open plain. "So, you were serious. You really need help with wooly haired creatures and tusks."

Kayla chortles mid-sip and covers her mouth with her hand. "Sorry about that, but yes, all I see when I think about extinct mammals are their claws and teeth, and their bones."

I bask in the opportunity to expound on the subject I love the most: natural history. The topic provides me with the focus I need to assume control of my social anxiety. I scratch my chin in thought. "It's easier to think about the species in logical order: Kingdom... Animalia, Phylum... Chordata, Class... Mammalia, to the Genus... Mammuthus." I grin.

"You lost me at Chordata."

"You're not the first to get tripped up over scientific classifications." I try another tactic. "It might help to see where the mammoth lived and breathed. For instance, they lived from the early Pliocene epoch—around five million years ago—until the Holocene period, about four thousand years ago. They were real living beings. They were alive."

"But they're not now."

"No, not for some time." I take a sip and point at the picture on her tablet. "I think you'd benefit from seeing one up close."

"What? How do you mean? They're extinct, remember?"

"But we have the next best thing. We have a full body fossil on display at the museum. If you'd like, we could go see it. It might help to see the ancient remains of a mammoth in person."

"That sounds like fun, actually."

I'm about to go into detail about what time we could meet when my phone chirps with another text message:

Agent 23, please confirm that you received the activation order...

I put my phone on silent mode and tuck it in my jeans pocket. I feel like I'm sinking into a deep well. The walls close in on me as the water reaches my chin.

"Are you alright?" Kayla asks. "Another text? If it's something personal, if you need to leave, don't worry about me. Like I said, we can do this tomorrow."

"I'm good," I say. "It's nothing."

My phone vibrates, and I can't help but check the screen.

Confirm activation now, or else...

Or else what? Who's texting me? Who's behind this? Is this a joke or something worse? I shove the device as far down in my pocket as I can.

"There's something wrong, isn't there?" Kayla says.

I wag my head, unable to deny it anymore. "Someone's sending me creepy messages, and I don't get it. I don't know who they are or what they want."

"What do the messages say?"

My phone buzzes against my leg.

Confirm activation order immediately or face termination, and trust me, you don't want that.

"What does it say now?"

I hear Kayla's voice in the background, but the text message has seized my attention. Then there's another one:

Agent 23, you will receive a termination notice in three, two...

I type in a quick response. Confirmed. I'm standing by. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Guess I was afraid of getting terminated. I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does.

Kayla dips her head to get me to look at her. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, yes, perfect. Nothing to be concerned about."

My phone again: Go to your base of operation and await your assignment.

Will do, I type out, but I delete the words in favor of something that sounds more official: Affirmative.

All of this is weird. I need to excuse myself and be on my way to work. I offer Kayla my apology for leaving so soon; can only wonder how strange my reaction to the text messages must be. As I'm about to rise, a man struts into the coffee shop with intense brows and a determined glare. He's big in a muscular sort of way, a way that stands out in a crowd. In a black suit, minus the tie, he looks like he's on a mission, but based on the text messages, I doubt he's part of my mission.

His eyes roam over the bistro tables and finally fall on me. He narrows his gaze and stomps over toward me. A shock wave of adrenaline rushes through me and locks me in my seat.

Kayla takes notice of the man and his gritty five o'clock shadow that reads more like seven or eight o'clock.

My heart thuds in my throat as the man reaches inside his suit jacket and produces a pistol with a suppressor on the end. Discreetly as possible, he jams the barrel into my ribs. "Agent 23, you and the girl are coming with me... now."