Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 21.1 - The night before

Chapter twenty one

The night before

Sam chewed the end of his pencil. The woody taste reminded him of exams. He could think of this as an exam. The only difference was that if he didn't ace it, they would die. Still, he couldn't find anything wrong with the translation or interpretation of the document. Jessie had cleaned it all up.

"Sam?" JT stood in the doorway of the tent, looking apprehensive. "Could you come out a bit?"

"What's up?" Sam stepped out and froze. JT had his rucksack on his back and it appeared fully packed.

JT looked away from Sam. "We're leaving."

"We meaning?" Actually, what he wanted to ask was what? Why? And what the hell?

"Well, everyone except the five of you should be leaving. That's what we've been ordered. But the girls don't want to leave. I've just had a harsh conversation with Kay, so they're not going anywhere. Billy insisted on staying, too. Anyway, headquarters confirmed you as leader and I'm apparently the leader of the backup team. So I'm supposed to take the backup and move out."

Sam shook his head, the bureaucracy already driving him crazy. "Wait, so if you're the leader of the backup team and I'm apparently the leader of the team-team, shouldn't you be doing what I say while you're part of the team-team?"

"Correct."

"Then who the heck is giving you orders except me?"

"Headquarters. They apparently changed their minds about a lot of things," JT mumbled.

Sam pondered for a minute, wondering what to ask first. "You're not going anywhere. I'm ordering you to stay here thus canceling the other orders."

"You can't cancel your own superiors. But I would stay Sam, trust me, I would, and I would take full responsibility for it too—"

This was going nowhere fast. Sam raised his hand to stop JT. "How did the agency give you orders? We have no means of communication out here."

"Steve hacked into the satellite to communicate with HQ and give them our status. It unfortunately resulted in them calling us back."

"So that's what you and Steve were arguing about," Sam said, finally illuminated as he remembered them sitting on the temple steps, fighting over Steve's laptop.

"Yeah, Steve isn't too happy about leaving. And, as I was saying, I would ignore the order, but we're not going on vacation. Apparently, they're trying to assemble a strike force against Snitch Gravel. Get him out of your hair."

"I don't know how to tell you this, but by the time you guys reach civilization, we'll be halfway out as well. We're entering the temple tomorrow and that's that." Sam crossed his arms over his chest. He hadn't met anyone from the agency except for Herrison, but he wasn't sure he liked the rest of them much. He didn't know if he liked Herrison much either.

"Yeah, I thought of that, too. But, in case you're being followed, we'd be of great help."

"Yeah, good point." Sam watched JT as he stared back expectantly. Having him and Steve gone wasn't so bad. It could have been much worse. But what did he say to a man he still wasn't sure he liked when he was about to leave? Finally, he reached out his hand. "Good luck."

JT, pushed Sam's hand away and hugged him. "You're going to need a lot more luck than us. But you'll manage it. You're one of the most competent people I've ever worked with." He let go and left before Sam could say another word. And Sam was glad. That had been very awkward.