The Greenfire Resistance [Edited]

Chapter 1

“WHAT DO WE have next, Indigo?” Alex asked, brushing straight black hair out of her hazel eyes.

       “Hold on a sec…” I muttered, flipping through the new schedules for this year.

       “Alex, how many times have we talked about this? You have to be patient.” Cami said, smoothing her own brown hair out of matching, mocha eyes.

       “Why?” Alex said irritably.

       “Because, you won’t think straight during the missions if you always want to fight.” Without hesitation, I repeated the words that had been drilled into our heads day after day during our training.

       Lily nodded approvingly, glancing over at me as she pulled her red-brown ponytail back even tighter.

“We have Accuracy next,” she told Alex.

       Lilith stopped pretending to shoot her at once and straightened up, her unnerving cat-like green eyes showing the first sign of excitement so far today. I, on the other hand, sagged. Accuracy was not my strength. I guess it does make sense, though. I mean, Lilith is the best sniper, so of course she likes Accuracy. I’m the best tech person. Actually, our whole team is the best. We’re made up of the best of everything in our year--I’m the best Hacker, Lilith is the best Sniper, Lily’s the best Team Leader, Cami is the best Spy, and Alex is the best Fighter. See, all of E.C.H.O. is divided up into five divisions, and when you become a full-fledged spy, you get a badge with your division on it.

       We arrived at Accuracy ten minutes late. As soon as we strode in, Ms. Mordrax gave us the evil eye. She always gives detention, except to Lilith. Teachers shouldn’t play favorites.

       “DETENTION!” she snapped, as always. I winced as I walked over to the open case and picked up a high caliber rifle--I never bothered to learn what type. What can I say? Guns just aren’t my thing. I fired off a round only to have them all go too low and miss the target. I cursed under my breath, hoping Ms. Mordrax hadn’t been near enough to hear.

       “Remind me how to do this, again,” I muttered under my breath to Alex, who was at the station next to me.

       “How should I know? I like hand to hand,” she muttered back, her lips barely moving.

       “Girls! Stop talking and start working!” Ms. Mordrax snapped. I swore, not bothering with quiet this time, as my bullet went about five feet to the right of my target.

       “Language!” Lily chided from my other side, frowning in sympathy at the tree I hit.

       I took aim again, this time hitting the target. I was very proud, but when Ms. Mordrax passed me, I heard her muttering about inadequate students. I went back to firing, feeling the familiar kick of the gun each time I pulled the trigger. By the end of the period, I had hit two bullseyes (although there were three holes, because of a shot that Alex had missed. She said it should still count, but I saw Ms. Mordrax mark her point for the miss), and only hit the wrong target or nontarget six times.

       I sighed with relief as we stepped into the computer lab. Finally, something I was good at! I started typing in some code, only to have a message appear at the bottom of my screen:

ARE YOU THERE?

I quickly glanced around, pulling my laptop closer to me before typing back:

WHO IS THIS?

I felt the brief moment of guilt over what I was doing, but soon waved it away. I was top of my class--it wouldn’t make a difference if I spent a minute here or there, because I could finish my work long before we ran out of time. The cursor blinked a few times before a reply came:

A FRIEND. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH?

I hesitated, and then typed:

ABOUT WHAT?

This time the answer came almost instantly:

THE PROGRAM.

It’s strange, looking back. Why didn’t I hesitate to press enter for that message? That one word changed my world forever:

YES.

The mysterious person paused for a moment, as if they weren’t expecting that, then typed:

MEET ME HERE AT MIDNIGHT. YOU’LL FIND OUT EVERYTHING THEN.

I typed quickly:

EVERYTHING ABOUT WHAT? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?

It was clear I was too late when another message appeared:

ANONYMOUS OFFLINE.

Curiosity burned through me the rest of that period. How did they know about me? I was certain I left no clues while digging through hidden info (on the Program, of course) but maybe I was sloppy… it would only take one letter not deleted to track me… I shut down that line of thought quickly. I couldn’t start thinking in terms of what if’s. That was the problem with working for E.C.H.O.--it’s practically impossible to shut down paranoia once it starts.

Diplomacy was more torture than usual--and I don’t use that word lightly. I accidentally offered my target (Mrs. Purdue) vodka instead of water to drink and olive oil instead of warm butter for her toast, and I kept answering simple questions like,“Do you shake hands or feet when greeting someone for the first time in China?”, wrong.

Lunch came and went quickly, with everybody laughing and talking loudly. I was still distracted by the messages--so distracted I almost forgot to eat my cupcake, which ranks at the top of my seven deadly sins. Don’t laugh. If you had a gourmet chef with a secret cupcake recipe as good as ours, it would be at the top of your list, too.

Hand-to-Hand was painful, literally. I got paired up with Alex, and we both groaned when we saw who we were paired up with. I think she was hoping to get matched with Violet, the only other girl who comes even close to being a challenge for her. When we get paired up, I usually end up on the floor within the first two minutes of the bell ringing, but today was different. This time, it only took her the first few seconds to judo-flip me onto the mat. I was so preoccupied with the mystery person that I just stood there thinking when the bell rang.

Mr. Lummox’s mouth was a straight, thin line by the end of the period.

“What‘s up with you today?” Alex said, shaking her head in disbelief as she helped me up for the fourth time.

I just shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I’m just distracted.”

Teamwork and Spying passed similarly.

“I think I flunked that one,” I said miserably to Cami as we left Spying 348.

“Really? But that was such an easy quiz!” she said, puzzled.

I felt my shoulders sag even more.

“Err--That is--See what I meant is--Oh, please don’t be mad! You know what I meant!” she pleaded, backtracking quickly.

“Don’t worry, Cam, I know what you meant,” I said, smiling.

“Good,” she said, letting out a sigh of relief and beaming at me. “And, Indigo?”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Don’t stress about that quiz. Mr. Coronado is really nice. I’m sure he’ll let you retake it,” she advised.

I smiled weakly at my best friend, but the guilt inside was just building up. I hadn’t told them about the message, and I wasn’t going to until I knew more about exactly what was going on here. Besides, how would I explain that? Hey guys, today during class instead of getting work done, I agreed to a meeting with someone I don’t know anything about so we can discuss the forbidden research I’ve been doing behind your back on the Program. Just thought you should know. Yeah, right.

I couldn’t help but wonder if being a spy meant you couldn’t have friends. Our whole lives are centered on secrets. After all, secrets bring people together, but they tear apart just as easily. I’m keeping secrets for the first time, but what about them? How many times have they done this to each other, to me? And if they have… what was it about?