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Chapter 9

Alex wandered about the base, learning his way around. There were labs and libraries and rooms with walls covered with papers and whiteboards, evidence and theories strewn everywhere.

He found the training room. Zora was there, throwing darts at a row of dartboards.

"Can I play?" he asked.

"Darts are in the bucket," she said without looking at him.

"Why are they so heavy?"

"They're made of lead. Don't drop one, it'll go right through your foot."

Alex threw one. It stuck in the blue band at the top. He threw another, and it fell before even reaching the wall.

"Also, the weight of each one is different. You never know what you're going to get. Makes it harder," she said.

"I thought darts were supposed to be fun, not hard," he replied.

"Same thing if you're any good."

Alex shrugged. He supposed she was right. Everyone needs a challenge, or else you're just doing the same thing over and over again, turning something you love into something so boring you start to hate it.

"What's going on with Marc and, um... Evil?"

"Her name is Death," she said. "I don't know. Sometimes its like we're two teams instead of one: Death and Marc doing their own thing, and the rest of us two steps behind."

"What's with them, anyhow?"

She sighed. "They have a lot of history, I guess. They never talk about it. When Cindy first got here, she asked Death directly and got a nice, well-rehearsed lie. But in the whole three years I have known her, she has not once lied or withheld information, no matter how embarrassing it was or how much we wished she would. Unless it has to do with Marc or their lives before this place."

"She must have a pretty good reason, then," Alex said.

"Maybe it's classified. They are a level ahead of me and Rodrigo. But why would anyone classify two teenagers meeting? They went to the same high school. It's not exactly suspicious. So why act like it is?"

"Ha! Bullseye!" Alex crowed. "I don't know, maybe they got mixed up in something serious. I think you're asking the wrong questions. Why recruit two ordinary teenagers in the first place?"

"They aren't as ordinary as they seem," Zora answered.

"Speaking of which, how did you end up doing this? I mean, assuming you weren't always a seriously creepy super spy."

"Thanks. I was sort of a vigilante as a teen. I had no training, no clue what I was doing. I was just making it up as I went. ICE caught up with me, asked if I would like to do the same thing but with pay, and now here I am."

She felt the weight of her sword strapped to her back under her ever-present jacket and smiled. She remembered play sword fights as a kid and pestering her parents until they agreed to take her to every 'boy' movie, the ones with superheroes and action. Other girls had posters of boy bands while she had posters of comic book characters. She remembered breaking into the museum to steal her favorite sword, and donning a black mask and a tight French braid to keep her hair out of the way. Prowling the night, striking fear into pretty much everybody, and then going home to see her parents watching a news piece that called her a 'terrorist' and ' a menace to public safety'. Those were good times.

"What about Rodrigo?" Alex asked.

"He's the black sheep of the group. The only normal one. Immigrated here from Mexico, got a degree in computers, got the highest paying job he could find. Paid off his student loans real quick, so now he sends all his paychecks back to his family. Since we live at the base and food is provided, he can afford to give them every last cent. They've got to be pretty well off by now, no matter where they started at."

Alex digested this. He was slowly improving at Zora's version of darts. He still missed a lot of the time, though.

"Do you like it here?" he asked.

"What, are you looking for a review? I'm not some sort of college scout," she said.

"No, just trying to make conversation. You don't have to answer."

"Yeah, well I'm gonna," she said. "It's nice, I guess. I like how no one here would dare call me a 'violent, sword-swinging psychopath'. And the food is good. But being part of a team isn't all it's cracked up to be.I thought there would be a sense of unity, but all I feel is like I'm being lied to more than ever."

"Maybe you can find out what's going on," Alex said. "You aren't part of the think tank. So whenever they're trying to figure out the number thing, you can be trying to figure out them."

"Yeah," Zora said. "You're pretty smart. Thanks for the idea, Alex."