Need (25 page)

“Got it.” One down. Two to go. Only now Hannah can help. “Here,” I say, handing her the flashlight. “Shine this while I work on getting your feet free.”

The light helps. The tape isn't as thick on her legs, but still it takes time. How much time? I don't look at my phone because that would take precious seconds. My phone vibrates again as I get the top part of the tape around Hannah's left foot to rip. “You do the other,” I say, shoving the keys into her free hand. Then I grab the ripped sides of the tape and pull. It gives a bit and I pull again. The rip widens until finally the tape is off one foot.

“Hurry,” I say, coughing, and I blink as the world spins out of focus. The fumes are making me dizzy. Hannah can barely function. So I grab the keys back and attack the tape around her other foot.

This restraint takes longer to cut through. Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's just knowing there are minutes—or seconds—until midnight that makes me feel as if the sawing is endless. I shove the keys back in Hannah's coat pocket and pull at the tape with my hands. Finally she's free.

“Thank you, Kaylee. Thank you.” I hear the tears. The panic. The fear as she tries to get to her feet and falls back down. Crap. We don't have time for this now.

“I know you don't feel good, but you have to get up. This place could explode any minute.” Hannah pushes to her feet. I grab my backpack, shrug the strap onto my shoulder, and grab Hannah's arm as she sways. Her legs start to buckle. She grabs on to me and almost takes us both down to the floor. It's a miracle I stay on my feet, but I refuse to bite it in this school. No way. No how.

“We're going to die if you don't move. Don't make me leave you behind,” I threaten. I don't mean it, but she doesn't have to know that. “You have to hurry. Okay?” I pull Hannah upright and don't wait for her to agree before I start to move.

I want to run, but Hannah isn't capable of running. She jerks and stumbles, but leaning on me she stays on her feet and we reach the hallway.

“Hannah, do you know if the side door you came in through is the only door open?” I hope she says no. I don't want to go back that way. Maybe she knows another way out since her father works here. When she doesn't answer, I yell, “Hannah? Is there another unlocked door?”

“I don't know,” she says, crying. “I don't know. I don't know.”

Perfect.

“Stop it,” I snap. I can't help it. I'm scared too. “We'll just go back the way I came.” Following the path of gasoline that is waiting to catch fire. The rest of the doors in the school are probably locked up tight. They might even be chained shut as they sometimes are for security reasons. It will only be worse if we waste time heading for an exit and end up trapped.

Hannah isn't big, but she's taller than me, which makes our progress awkward. So do her tears and the way she starts to ramble about stuff I don't understand. Nate. Ethan. Her father. A date. The end of the hallway is just a few feet away. Then one more length of hallway to go. We can make it.

“Kaylee!” Oh God. That sounds like Bryan's voice and it's coming from inside the building.

“Bryan?”

Hannah jolts against me, loses her footing, and lets go of her hold on me as she trips and goes down in a heap onto the gas-slicked floor.

“Kaylee!”

I stumble toward the wall and use it to keep from landing on the ground as Bryan races around the corner. Hannah shrieks and cries harder.

“You shouldn't have come in here!” I yell, but I'm glad to see him. Glad to have someone who isn't sobbing to help get us the hell out.

Bryan kneels next to Hannah. “I think I can carry her if you help me get her up.”

Between the two of us we pull the wet, hysterical Hannah to her feet. Bryan grunts as he picks her up and tells me to run. And I do. Around the corner. Down the hallway. I don't need to glance over my shoulder to know Bryan is back there or that he is falling farther and father behind. His footsteps and Hannah's crying are enough to tell me that. I pull out my phone and look at the time. Eleven fifty-nine. I want to be wrong about the timer. Please let me be wrong. I have to be wrong.

I reach the door well before Bryan and push it open. The fresh air whips in my face as I hold the door. Bryan is still at least thirty or forty feet away from the exit.

“Hurry!” I yell, even though I know he's doing his best. I look at the door, tamp down my instinct to flee, and run back down the hallway to help. Bryan shakes his head as I try to take on some of Hannah's weight.

“Hold the door open for us.” He coughs and struggles to speak. “I've got her.”

Okay. I race back toward the door, making sure not to get too far ahead just in case Bryan needs me. The clock on my phone hits midnight. I hold my breath as I reach the door and fling it open again. Bryan's head lifts and I know he feels the fresh air. Less than ten feet away. Almost there. Come on. Come on. Bryan stumbles across the threshold and I follow, letting the door slam shut behind me. Hannah must be heavy as hell, but it isn't until we reach the parking lot that he puts her down in the snow.

Bryan doubles over to catch his breath. Hannah is crying and I'm coughing like I've got pneumonia. We're a mess, but we're alive. And I was wrong about the timer.

Or not. As soon as that thought crosses my mind I hear a rumble, then the echo of shattering glass. A moment later the school goes up in flames.

N
OT AT HOME
. Not at Nate Weakley's house. Ethan frowns as he thinks about where to look next. Someone has clearly been at Kaylee's house recently. The tire tracks in the driveway were dusted with fresh snow. Whoever was there couldn't have left very long ago. Ethan could have assumed Kaylee drove off with whoever paid her a visit, but a professional can't rely on assumptions. Which is why he knows Kaylee left on foot. Her footprints were partially covered, but not enough. He was able to track them to the fence and when he drove to the next street he was easily able to spot where she'd come out on the other side.

The boy has skills.

The streets are icy. Not many cars are out. Too bad a plow already came by. Otherwise Kaylee's footprints would lead him all the way to her. Of course, that wouldn't be nearly as challenging. The bigger the challenge, the better the reward.

Come out, come out, wherever you are,
he thinks.

Although, as much as Ethan likes the idea of stalking his quarry, he's not sure he'll be able to find her. The town isn't that big, but it's dark and snowy and Kaylee could be anywhere and he hasn't a clue where to start looking. More information is required.

In Mercenary of War, players earn power-ups, which provide clues to the best method of locating and eliminating their targets. It's too bad there isn't a way to earn clues in this game. Then again, NEED wants Kaylee. If it wants her bad enough, NEED will help him track her down.

Ethan steers the car to the side of the road and pulls up the email he received after the website came back online. Since he can't access the site from his phone, this is the next best thing.

Quickly, he types his message and hits Send. Now what? It's not like he's going to go home. Not with his mother starting to question him. He has time to kill until NEED gets back to him. So why not drive by his last project and see how it turned out? What better way to wait for instructions on his next assignment than to see that school and everything in it go up in flames?

Putting the car in gear, he realizes it's too bad he didn't think to bring hotdogs or marshmallows. He could roast some snacks while cheering
Burn, baby, burn.

A
LARMS SOUND
. Smoke billows into the night sky. Fire crackles and the smell of gasoline hangs thick in the air. The sight of the school in flames is mesmerizing against a backdrop of snowy white. I jump at the sound of more glass shattering from somewhere inside. I was in there. I could have died. We all could have died.

Hannah is curled up in the snow, sobbing. Bryan is crouched beside her, consoling her while watching smoke spiral up from the building. I don't say anything. I can't.

Alarms continue to scream.

Alarms. I try to shake off the horror and think. Help will be coming soon. Firefighters. Police. They'll come to put out the fire and if I don't get out of here they'll find me. Question me.

Nate. The shock of finding Hannah and the explosion made me forget for a moment that I was looking for him. Nate doesn't have time for me to stand around talking about how I got here and why. He needs me to find him. I have to get away.

I shift the backpack on my shoulder and look down at Bryan and Hannah. Her sobs have changed to whimpers and that should make me feel sorry for her, but instead it irritates me. Probably because I wish I had time to cry. I wish I could wait around for help to arrive. Later. I can cry and freak out later. When Nate is safe and NEED is taken down. Because seeing the school engulfed in flames makes me realize again the lengths to which NEED will go.

“I can't stay here,” I say loud enough to carry over the crackle of the fire and Hannah's moaning. “Can I borrow your car, Bryan? I have to find Nate.”

Bryan coughs, shakes his head, and stands. “I'm going with you. Let's just get Hannah further from the school first so she's not breathing in the smoke.”

Easier said than done.

The minute Bryan tries to help her stand, Hannah starts to scream her head off and kicks and claws to get free. I can't blame her for flipping out, but this isn't helping. I try to pull her to her feet, but she's dead weight and the adrenaline that kept me moving up until now is wearing off. We're about to try one more time when I hear sirens.

“If she doesn't want to move, I vote to leave her,” I say. “Five more minutes of sitting here won't hurt.”

Bryan shakes his head. “Here.” He reaches into his pocket. “Take my keys. Get the car started.”

He tries to reason with Hannah. I run to the car, unlock it, and put the key in the ignition. The radio and the heater come on full blast. Crap. How do I turn the radio off? I hit the button to silence it and realize the sirens are louder still.

“Bryan!” I yell. “We have to go!”

Bryan gives up on Hannah and hurries toward the car as I climb over the middle console to the other side. Bryan gets in, puts the car in gear, and asks, “Where are we going?”

“ Just drive.” We can figure out the rest when the cops aren't closing in.

The tires spin before they catch hold. Hannah screams and I see Bryan flinch as he turns off the car's headlights. His hands tighten on the steering wheel while he drives the car out of the parking lot and onto the road.

“Can you go faster?” I ask.

“No.” The car fishtails as if to confirm. Knowing I can run faster than we are moving makes me want to jump out and sprint. In the distance I can see red and white lights flash as they approach. I hope if they spot our car they'll be too worried about the blazing building to give chase.

I hold my breath until I see the first emergency vehicle turn into the school lot. The rest follow. Bryan and I remain silent until he turns the car onto the next street beyond the reach of the flashing lights.

After driving another block he turns the car into a parking lot, flips the headlights back on, and asks, “Now what?”

I don't know. I look behind us to make sure no one is following. No one is there. For now. The digital clock on the dashboard reads 12:10 a.m. So much has happened in so little time. That more than anything terrifies me. How fast things can change. One minute the school is fine. The next minute it's burning to the ground. Had Bryan not shown up when he did and helped me get Hannah out, we could have died.

“How did you know?” I ask.

“What?”

I turn toward him. “How did you know about the bomb at the school? When you called me, you told me to get away from the school because of a bomb. How did you know? Did someone tell you?”

“I saw a picture.” He shifts in his seat to face me. “Someone posted a photo of the timer sitting on Dr. Jain's desk.”

Wait a minute. “The bomb went off in Dr. Jain's office?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I don't know. That has to be significant.” I have to think it through, but waiting for us to be discovered is making that impossible. “Can you just drive?”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere that isn't here.”

As Bryan pulls the car back onto the road, I close my eyes and focus. Dr. Jain's office is in a far corner of the building. Near the administration offices and the rest of the counselors, but away from most things students deal with every day. The students who are all on NEED. If someone wanted to damage the school in order to shut it down for a long time, hitting another area—like the cafeteria in the center of the building or the science rooms where chemicals are stored—would make the most sense. At least, that's what I would do.

“Did NEED tell you how to kidnap Nate and what to do with him once you got him?” When Bryan squirms I say, “Look, I'm not trying to upset you. I'm trying to figure out if NEED let the person who set fire to the school decide where to set the bomb or if they gave explicit instructions.”

“I don't know about the bomb, but for Nate's kidnapping they gave me pretty detailed instructions.” Bryan looks up and stares out the window as he speaks. “The whole plan was spelled out. Working with Jack. The drug to knock Nate unconscious. Even what I should use to tie him up in the back room of the old post office. I found the drug, a pair of handcuffs, and a bunch of tension ties in a box in our neighbor's mailbox. Just like they said I would.”

Specific instructions for a specific purpose. If the same applies to the school, NEED wanted the fire set in Dr. Jain's office. No matter how quickly the fire department responded to the alarms, if the timer went off and the fire was set the way it was supposed to be, the damage in that room would be the worst. Someone wanted everything of Dr. Jain's destroyed. Who?