Omen Operation (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

The day crawled by at a snail’s pace.

They returned from the river after everyone was done bathing. The food collected from the market in Seattle was cleaned and put away in the shed while Plum offered to help them wash their clothes. Cambria gave each of them some of what she had extra to wear while their jackets, pants, shirts, and socks hung to dry on the clothes line.

Brooklyn was given an ankle length sun dress decorated in swirling colors and patterns. She tugged at it uncomfortably and constantly pushed her legs together, trying to remember how to sit appropriately in a dress. It’d been far too long since she’d worn one.

Brooklyn changed Porter’s bandages in the afternoon, right before the fire was started. Julian helped Cambria cook up a pan full of sizzling vegetables and drank cup after cup of hot tea.

As peaceful as it was, Brooklyn couldn’t help but notice how secretive Nicoli and the other men were. They kept to themselves, disappearing to the cabin often throughout the day. It was unusual to say the least and left the camp under a cloud of palpable unrest.

“Hey, Cambria.” Brooklyn touched the woman’s arm.

Cambria turned from her place at the table in the shed. “Yeah?”

“I know that something is going on, and I understand that you guys don’t want to share everything with us, but I have a feeling we might be able to help.”

A defeated sigh drifted out of Cambria’s mouth. She set the large green pepper down beside the knife she’d been using to cut it. “I don’t even know all the details, but what they’re working on is going to affect a lot of people, save a lot of lives. Nic hasn’t even told me everything about it yet.”

“Okay, but are we safe here? One of those guys said some nasty shit…”

“Let me guess, the old guy, right? Chester?”

“I don’t know his name, but yeah, the older guy with the red mark on his face.”

“Chester,” Cambria rolled her eyes. “He’s been with us for a short time, maybe four or five months. He means well, but he can come off harsh at times. Don’t worry about him.”

Brooklyn didn’t need to know the ins and outs of their relationships, but she did need to know that her friends would remain safe.

“Will Nicoli talk to me if I ask him about all this?” Brooklyn asked in a hushed whisper.

Cambria pursed her lips and went back to cutting the veggies on the table. “You can try, but don’t expect much.”

Brooklyn walked out of the shed and took off toward the cabin. Gabriel was shouting after her, but she didn’t turn around. If taking them off guard with curiosity was what it took to get a straight answer, then that’s exactly what she would give them. She knew that they didn’t owe her anything, especially answers, but if she didn’t go out on a limb now, something bad could happen later, and then it would be too late.

Too late for what? She wasn’t sure. Too late to warn them, too late to be aware of everything going on, too late to get away before their own hell infiltrated these people’s lives.

She didn’t bother knocking on the door, just opened it and walked in. Her boots were loud against the floor, and she could see down into the open cellar.

The audible slide, click, hitch of a shotgun being prepped alerted her to speak. “It’s me—it’s Brooklyn!”

Nicoli popped his head out of the darkness of the cellar and stared at her. “What’re you doing in here?”

His dreads were all bundled into a bun on the top of his head, and he wore thin reading glasses. Brooklyn couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “I’m curious. I wanna know what it is you guys are obsessing over.”

“Don’t laugh at me,” Nicoli warned, amused.

“You look adorable,” Brooklyn said and laughed harder.

Nicoli’s eyes slanted, and he bypassed her comment. “Now, we’re still developing some things down here, and I don’t exactly think you and your crew will be sticking around to help us out with it. Why are you so concerned?”

He wasn’t being aggressive, but he did watch her carefully and moved his arms to sit over the top of the cellar door.

“We’re probably leaving in the morning, but maybe we can help until we take off. If you don’t want to tell me, I understand but…what we’re running from, it’s big. It’s bigger than us. You guys might be dealing with the same thing.”

“Brooklyn, I can guarantee you that what we’re on to right now has nothing to do with you.”

“Please,” Brooklyn sighed. “You don’t have to tell me everything, but give me something.”

Nicoli shook his head, looking down into the cellar where the other men waited. He gave a few glances back and forth until finally stepping down, waving his hand for her to follow.

She was nervous, and her heart fluttered when she dropped down into the darkness. It wasn’t what she expected in the least. A table top lined with computer screens shone bright against the barely-there light of a lantern on another far table. A few chairs were folded out, which Freddie and Chester occupied. The other man, who Brooklyn hadn’t been introduced to, sat in one of the chairs in front of a computer screen.

Nicoli took a seat next to him. “This is Brooklyn.”

He was the youngest of them all—she guessed maybe sixteen or seventeen—with a crooked front tooth and a handsome face. His head was shaved, and he was tall enough to have to slump in his chair so he could see the computer screen.

“Oh, hey. I’m Lance.” He also seemed the friendliest, with a welcoming smile.

She didn’t pay mind to Chester’s boiling glare and did her best not to look at him while he snarled at her from his place next to Freddie.

“Did you get his name?” Nicoli asked when Lance clicked on a series of pictures. Most of them focused on a man, his face obscured by a pair of sunglasses, skin freckled and pale, wearing a black suit.

“No,” Lance said. “He was constantly in a group. Obviously government. They didn’t ask many questions, and the ones they did ask were strange. The whole recon was bizarre.”

“Almost like they were hunting aliens,” Freddie snorted.

Nicoli shook his head and drummed the tips of his fingers against his lips. “Did they have badges?”

Lance shook his head. “Naw, not anything like that. I did get…” He paused, clicking through some more of the pictures. “These though.”

He zoomed in on a label sticking out of a thin blue binder that a woman was holding. Across the orange tag in bolded black letters spelled out: ECHO

Brooklyn kept her composure. She kept breathing. Kept blinking. Kept standing. But the word, bold and familiar, sent shivers into her bones that shook her from the inside out.

“Any idea what it means?” Nicoli asked.

Freddie spoke up from his seat behind them, “It has to be an operation of some kind. Gene therapy. Animal and human trials. It would make sense with everything else we’ve collected on the Omen project.”

Brooklyn stumbled and caught herself on the stairs leading back up to the cabin. Her eyes were wide, and even though she wanted to breathe, she couldn’t. She struggled to swallow, to stop her lips from shaking.

Nicoli tilted back to look at her. “You okay?”

She tried to nod, but it came out short and barely there.

“Can’t handle a little investigating there, girly?” Chester said snidely as he picked at his teeth.

“What are they looking for?” Brooklyn asked, keeping as calm as she could.

“We never acquired that information,” Freddie said. “But they did question a few store owners and some tenants in the area—said they were looking for some voluntary test subjects that hadn’t come forward, made it seem like they were looking for people who were doing trial runs for new prescriptions.”

Brooklyn wanted to be sick.

“That’s weird,” she said and rubbed her sweating palms together. “Is that all you found out?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Lance said. “We’re trying to tie it to another case we’ve been working on. Genome splicing. Cybernetic upgrades. The kind of shit the human race shouldn’t be messing with.”

“Yeah, that sounds crazy,” Brooklyn said. “I’m gonna head back to camp and get some tea.”

“You sure you’re okay, now? You seem a little shaken?” Nicoli asked.

Brooklyn made her way up the stairs and called back down to him. “Yeah! Just tired, thanks Nicoli!”

He didn’t follow her, and she was thankful for that, because her feet moved fast against the ground as she ran out the door and into the woods.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Brooklyn found Porter pacing around the fire. She grabbed him by the arms, causing him to yelp. He tugged away and clutched his bad shoulder. “Relax! What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Sorry! I’m sorry. Are you okay? I didn’t mean to—I just…” She shook out her hands, shifting from foot to foot. “There’s a lot going on, and I think we should go. I think we should go right now.”

“What’d you find out in there?”

She looked around before she leaned in closer, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “There are people in Seattle looking for us, and they’re carrying around a bunch of shit labeled ECHO, just like the empty document that we found on Terry’s laptop.”

“That’s not possible,” Porter snapped. “ECHO was never a go. They demolished the idea within months after my dad pitched it to the board. There has to be a mistake.”

“I saw it!”

Porter’s nostrils flared. She could see the gears turning in his head. His blood was pumping fast, increasing his heartbeat.

“Dawson’s in Seattle…they’re in Seattle. I know they are. We have to get to them first, Porter. We have to find them,” Brooklyn whimpered.

“You don’t understand.” Porter reached out and grabbed her hand. “The ECHO campaign is extreme. It’s more than I can explain right now, and I don’t want you thinking I had anything to do with it.”

“I don’t care about your involvement anymore, okay? I care about our friends who are going to get taken by these people if we don’t hurry up and get moving. You can explain everything about that after we find them.”

Brooklyn turned swiftly to find Gabriel, who was in the shed with Julian, Cambria, and Plum. She walked inside and found them picking at a salad of vibrant peppers.

“Why’d you just take off like that? I was worried,” Gabriel said.

“I just wanted to talk to Nicoli,” Brooklyn said. “Are our clothes dry?”

“They should be. Hey, look at what Plum did for me.” She wiggled her fingers out in front of Brooklyn and showed off the pretty nail polish adorning her nails.

Brooklyn couldn’t help but smile. “They look really nice. I like the light blue.”

“It’s periwinkle,” Gabriel corrected.

Brooklyn rolled her eyes.

“I thought we’d be staying another night,” Julian said.

“Yeah, well, I was thinking we should get going sooner than later.” Brooklyn was trying to get her point across without having to say much in front of Plum and Cambria, but that seemed to be near impossible.

Gabriel frowned. “We probably shouldn’t be traveling in the dark though.”

“I…I know that, but really, just…I think we should go. Let’s get dressed, okay?”

“Y’all can stay,” Plum whined. “I like you guys. You’re funny an’ nice. Please, stay?”

The last thing Brooklyn wanted to do was run out on the people who had given them shelter, and even though they hadn’t spent much time with them, it seemed like Plum, Cambria and Nicoli were important. The group of forest dwellers pulled at Brooklyn’s heart strings. If she lived a normal life, things could be different. She could leave a phone number, an e-mail. She could promise to visit, make plans. But she didn’t live a normal life, and the hardest part about leaving was the fact that she may never see her new friends again.

Julian cleared his throat. “I’m sure we’ll see you guys again, Plum.”

“Of course we will,” Brooklyn said. Her heart sank.

Porter took the clothes down off the wire. Gabriel walked out first with Plum at her side, and Julian followed. Brooklyn hurried after them, but Cambria grabbed her arm and waited for the door to shut before she spoke.

“You’ve got something to do with the Omen operation, don’t you?” Cambria asked.

Brooklyn didn’t want to lie. She didn’t think she could have if she tried, especially not to Cambria.

“It’s okay. You can tell me,” Cambria added.

Brooklyn searched Cambria’s face. She printed it in her mind, the woman’s pretty high cheek bones and the gap between her front teeth as her lips fell loose, waiting. Brooklyn wanted to remember the kindness in her earthy brown eyes.

“Yeah,” Brooklyn confessed, shaking her head, disappointed with herself for even accepting their help and putting them in danger. “We do. We need to go before this gets out of hand.”

“I’m going to get you a backpack with some water and food. Keep the clothes, pack them if you need to, and stay off the main roads.”

“Cambria, you don’t have to do all that.”

“We’re not the kind of people who will send you off with nothing but a memory and some good luck, all right? Take what I’m giving you.” Cambria nodded slowly and reached out to rub the top of Brooklyn’s arm.

Brooklyn didn’t know whether to say thank you, to hug her, to cry, or to deny everything and just run. Run as fast as they could away. So she stood there, wearing an expression that lingered somewhere between disbelief and the utmost gratitude.

“I don’t know how to thank you for all this. For everything,” Brooklyn said.

Cambria huffed. “You don’t need to.”

Brooklyn was lost for words, and her stomach started to turn upside down. She tried to walk out the door, but once again, Cambria’s hand stopped her.

“I just have a question,” Cambria whispered. There was a tremor in her voice that clued Brooklyn in on what she was about to ask. “Are you one of them?”

Brooklyn’s fingers curled into fists, and she turned to look over her shoulder at Cambria. The woman looking back at her shrank, eyes clear and curious, like a seal looking at a shark. Brooklyn said nothing as she pushed the door to the shed open and walked outside toward the fire.