Chapter 10
He threw his bag down on the floor and slipped off his shoes then clambered onto his bed and got out a book from his bed side table. “Don’t you dare ignore me” I said, slightly annoyed at his behaviour. Why was he ignoring me?! He started flicking through the book and laughing silently. I slowly walked around the side of the bed, my eyes glued to him all the time wondering what in God’s name he was doing. “You do know I could kill you right now. So if I were you, I’d start explaining.” I said, anger rising in my throat. He lifted his head slightly, looked at me then put down his book. “And I could quite easily kill you” he replied sweetly. I gulped. “See that’s the problem. A stalemate. I could kill you, but you could also kill me.” “You’re not that good.” I replied, smirking at how vain he was. “God, how big is your ego?” I asked, trying to embarrass him as I took a seat on his bed opposite him. “I'm better than you” he said through a cough and I narrowed my eyes at him. How stupid was he. Time to prove him wrong. “See, I’m good at my job. Like I know …. You…” I dug deep into my memory for the research I’d done. “You have a birthmark behind your ear and you broke your leg in a car accident when you were 7 and that’s why you have a slight limp and I know you play video games from 730-830 every night except Wednesday when you have chess club and your inside leg measurement is 30 and you’re ambidextrous and judging by the tidiness of this room” I ran my finger over the bed frame “You..” I smelt my finger. Lavender polish. “Or your mum cleans your room every Saturday.” He sat back impressed. “Wow,” he said, sincerely awestruck. “So if you’re so very good at your job too then it’s your turn” I said, smiling as I challenged him because he wouldn’t know anything about me. “Well. I know you prefer trousers to skirts” I pulled my skirt down, self-consciously. “I know you play piano but you hate the sound of your fingernails on the keys so you clip them every Monday night before your lesson” I looked down at my nails. Cut right down to the stub. “Err. You broke your arm falling off a swing when you were…5, your left arm and that’s why it’s weaker than your right. I know you should wear glasses and I know you have a tiny freckle just above your top lip.” He finished triumphantly. How did he…. “Not bad, for a rookie,” I replied. “See both of us are just as good as the other, bringing me back round to my point. Stalemate.” He slowed down towards the end to emphasise his point. After a long while, I spoke up. “Well,” I said, an absurd idea forming in my head, “You know the old saying, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So…” I trailed off, realising how stupid that sounded. “What, you mean, work together?” He asked, seemingly coming round to the idea. “Yes, it could work. I mean, if we are as good as each other, we’d be like the ultimate power duo. We are the best in the business, face it. So imagine we’d be twice as good. TAG could give us anything. We’d be perfect together!” I stopped, realised what I said then reiterated. “Shit, no, I mean, we’d be perfect working together, not as in …” I trailed off, embarrassed. I turned round to see him, but he was staring at the wall behind me, with that day-dreamy look in his eyes. I looked at him properly for a moment and I could see who people went for him. He certainly was good looking. He slowly said, “Yeah…we would” then locked his eyes on mine and turned the same shade of crimson I was. “I mean, we’d work well together. And I could certainly learn some things from you like on camouflage” He said, correcting himself. “Yeah, seeing as I blatantly saw you escaping the party the other night” I said, and he seemed slightly shocked but also strangely impressed. “But you’re trained to pick up on these things. I know you were following me, by the way. You hid behind the bookshelf.” He said, very matter-of-factly. He saw me? “Well, you’re trained too…” I said, making up an excuse to cover my shame.
“Nope, in fact it was those ridiculously loud shoes you were wearing” he said, laughing, a grin spread across his face. I laughed too. How did I not realise? “Well, I do love my shoes” I said and he laughed more. “Yeah I suppose I would teach you some things” I stopped as another plan emerged in my head. “Actually your skills could be very useful too” I said and he looked back slightly confused.
“I have a plan”
“Continue” He replied.
“Well….what really is the goal of TAG?”
“To kill all the people in the hacking scheme”
“Yeah but why?” I asked, trying to make him understand.
“…umm….”
“Because if they kill everyone, the organization will have to shut down!”
“And I did secure the organization with a very complicated method, but surely they’d have someone who could hack it at TAG?” he asked. “You underestimate you talents, Pritchard” I complimented him, kind of. “TAG’s logic is flawed. They hired you to kill everyone because no one would expect a person in such a high and important position as yours to be a double agent. And they probably hired me to clean up after you, or get there before you or something.” I said, my plan slowly unfolding. “Your plan then?” He asked, anticipating. “The way to destroy your organization is not to kill the people on the outside. It’s to shut it down from the inside.” “Yeah actually, that could work. They wouldn’t expect me and I could easily set a bug into the programme that could shut it down in a few minutes.” His eyes lit up and he walked over to his desk and turned on his computer. “You know, Darcey, You’re a genius” I stood up, walked over to his desk, sat on it and slipped my shoes off. “Yeah. I know” I said and winked at him.
