Wired (14 page)

Operatives will keep watch, prevent anyone from getting too close.

But who is JM? Why so heavily involved? Could be risky to bring an inexperienced operative into the mix.

Memo

From:
L

To:
K

Re:
Re: Genesis

Subject's DNA is to be protected at all costs. DNA research must be prevented.

Don't concern yourself with JM. He is useful, but an afterthought.

And he will be fully compliant.

JAKE COULD HEAR THE STRAINS OF some reality-based dreck echo from what must have been the Rodkes' television into the hallway.
American Idol
. He winced, wondering if the neighbors minded being serenaded by this shameless display of unchecked human impulse. He himself found Clay's voice to be endlessly grating. He dug into the front pocket of his jeans and flipped the tiny switch on the mini—disc recorder to on, repositioning it so that the minuscule mike was facing outward. He was as ready as he'd ever be. Besides, he reminded himself, he had faced down serious criminals in Siberia—not to mention Washington Square Park. There was no reason to feel like he couldn't handle a little recon, at his classmates' apartment, no less. No sweat. He rang the doorbell confidently.

“Are you expecting anyone?” he heard Liz call out from inside. The voice grew closer, and he knew she'd gotten up to answer the door. Before anyone in the apartment could answer, the door swung open.

Jake had to admit, Liz was hot. She had changed out of her school clothes and was lounging in striped cotton capri pants and a thin-strapped tank top. Her features didn't have the same exotic quality that Gaia's
did, but her all-American good looks were undeniably impressive, and even now, relaxing at the end of the day, she managed to seem pulled together, fresh, and flawless.

“Hey.” She smiled, seeming confused but perfectly friendly. “If you're looking for your girlfriend, she supposedly came and went already. At least that's what I'm told. She didn't bother to stick around to see me.”

“Gaia was—Gaia left?”
Swift, Montone
. He hadn't known that Gaia was headed over to the Rodkes', not that she usually kept him apprised every time she left the house. But he'd almost blown a perfect cover.
Liz
didn't know that he didn't know that Gaia had come by. He readjusted quickly. “Oh, man. I was hoping to catch her. We've been missing each other all day.” Before Liz could respond, he maneuvered his way past her and into the front foyer of the apartment. If she thought it was odd that he was forcing his way into her apartment, she didn't comment. She stepped aside and followed him into the living room, where Chris sat, zoned out in a pair of Columbia sweats that had seen better days. His eyes were glued to the television, and he was robotically dipping his hand into a bag of Cheetos. His fingers had turned a dusty orange.

“Forgive my brother,” Liz explained, gesturing at the lump formerly known as Chris. “He's a touch too involved with the beloved flat-screen TV.”
She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, adding, “Frankly, we're all a bit concerned about it.”

“Please forgive my sister,” Chris retorted, not missing a beat as his program faded to commercial. “She thinks I can't hear her when she stage-whispers. Of course, that's how I get all the good gossip, you know. When she's whispering on the phone with her friends.”

Jake forced a smile, though he was feeling impatient and tense. “Only child. I wouldn't know.”

Chris thrust the bag of Cheetos over the couch toward Jake. “Hungry?”

“Uh, no, thanks, man.”

“We've got lots of other stuff in the kitchen,” Liz offered. “Stuff that isn't, you know, traffic-cone colored. Or soda. Whatever.”

“I'm fine,” Jake said insistently. He heard an edge creep into his voice.

“Man, Liz, he doesn't want to hear about the perils of snack food. He wants to find his girlfriend. Don't you get it?”

Jake laughed. “Yeah, I guess that's true. So Gaia's already gone?” He tapped his foot against the floor, then stopped just as abruptly, realizing he was giving away his impatience.
Very, very smooth
.

“Yeah, she came by a few hours after school, looking kind of banged up. Said she had tripped and cut herself. It looked pretty bad. Anyway, we watched a little TV,”
Chris said. He turned back to the screen abruptly.

“She told him she was looking for me” Liz clarified. “Not that my darling brother isn't company enough on his own, of course. I think she was just stopping by to say hello. But I was out with my mom, and I guess she didn't want to wait.” Now Liz, too, looked away, almost guiltily, though Jake couldn't for his life imagine what she had to feel guilty about.

Unless…
Jake's brain whirled as if battery powered as he pieced together a puzzle of his own conception. A feeling of dread began to creep into his system. Was it possible that Gaia had come by not to see Liz, but to see
Skyler?

Jake wasn't an especially jealous person by nature—if anything, he was used to being the focus of female jealousy—and he trusted that Gaia was committed to him, but it was impossible to deny that they had been having problems lately. Still, he couldn't believe that Gaia would be looking elsewhere—if anything, she was suddenly amazingly needy. She wouldn't be the clingy girl she'd been lately if she had already set her sights on someone else. She wouldn't be so insecure if she was ready to replace Jake.

Would
she?

Gaia's erratic behavior had been getting under Jake's skin lately, yeah, but the idea that she might possibly be interested in another guy was sending stabs of green fury to his stomach. Whatever might be going
wrong with their relationship lately, he still cared enough to watch her back—
literally—
to keep an eye out for her. To come all the way over to the Rodkes' place to check them out, to make sure they were on the level. There was no way his girlfriend, the one for whom he was doing all this, was interested in someone else. No way.

He hated himself for it, but he had to ask. He cleared his throat in a vain attempt at casual. “So,” he began in what he hoped was a measured tone, “do you know where she went?”

Liz blinked and dove for a Cheeto. “Uh, Chris, do you?”

“No idea” Chris said, shrugging and crunching loudly on his snack. “Sorry.”

Jake could barely restrain his temper, which was starting to simmer. There was no doubt in his mind that the two were being deliberately evasive. Something about their tone, their steadfast refusal to look him square in the eye, was off. “No idea at all. Huh. Well, is it possible that she went off with Skyler?” He hated to have to ask point-blank, but it didn't seem like there was any way around it.

Liz coughed. “Urn, maybe,” she said, sounding uncertain. Now Jake's suspicions were in full red-flag mode. Even if she
had
gone off with Skyler, that wouldn't necessarily have meant anything. But now,
with the way Liz and Chris were acting, he had to assume the worst.

“Maybe? What's ‘maybe'? You didn't see her leave or what?” He knew that he was being borderline aggressive and that he'd better watch it. Given that he was a guest in their home, he really couldn't afford to push it too far. “Uh, Chris? Did you see her leave?”

Chris finally turned from the TV to regard Jake steadily. “I have no idea, Jake, who she's with. I mean, I saw her leave, but she's a big girl. I didn't ask her where she was going.”

“Well, have you seen Skyler today?” Jake pressed, hoping that he wasn't about to summarily wear out his welcome.

“Yes, Skyler was here earlier. Then he left. He doesn't live here, you know. I mean, he's in school.” There was a definite edge creeping into Chris's tone.

“I know.”

“Anyway, I have no idea if he's with Gaia or if they were together at any point of the evening. I'm not, like, my brother's keeper, you know.” He flashed another irritated look Jake's way and rose, snapping off the television set. He strode off in the direction of the kitchen purposefully without another word.

Jake wasn't sure what to make of Chris's random bout of bipolar disorder. He supposed there
could
be some bad blood between the brothers, hence the “not my brother's keeper” crap. Conversely, Chris could
have just been sick of the third degree. There was no way to tell. That whole exchange had definitely been bizarre. Well, that was what Oliver had asked for-a report on the bizarre. At least Jake had something bona fide to report now.

“Just ignore him,” Liz said, her voice cutting into Jake's internal monologue. “He forgot to take his medication today. Besides, he gets twitchy on the subject of Skyler. The competitive brother thing.” She beamed. “Somehow I miss that fun because I'm not only a girl, but the baby. Good stuff.”

Jake smiled.
Bingo
. So Chris had brother issues. Interesting. “No, it's cool. It's my fault for prying. I figured he was annoyed with all my questions. But I haven't seen Gaia all day, and she and I really need to talk. We had an argument yesterday, and things are a little strained.” Not that he was looking to get into it with Liz, but maybe that would help to explain his sense of urgency.

“Hey, I get it. You want to find her. No big. It's just that every now and then Chris pulls a diva trip. It's got nothing to do with you.”

Jake appreciated Liz's efforts to smooth over the awkward moment, but there was something slightly off about the conversation. Liz's bright red cheeks were like a barometer of guilt. She seemed like she wasn't giving him the whole story any more than her
brother had been. Jake was grateful that the conversation was being recorded for later scrutiny. He had the distinct feeling he was missing important bits of information.

“Seriously, Liz, don't worry about it,” Jake said. I was just going to stop by Starbucks and get a cup of coffee, maybe read. I'll try her on her cell. But hey—do you mind if I use your bathroom quickly before I hit the road?”

“Of course not” she replied. “It's the least we can do.” She pointed in the vague direction of a long hallway. “It's down there. Have a field day.”

Jake grinned, the first true smile to spread across his face since he'd arrived. “Oh, I will,” he said.

Pay dirt
, Jake thought, making his way down the hall as slowly as he could without being conspicuous. He figured this to be his one opportunity to get the lay of the land, and he wasn't going to blow it. The corridor was very narrow but long, with elegant moldings and a polished but much-trafficked hardwood floor. The Rodkes had money, that was obvious, but if their home decor was any indication, they were fairly unpretentious. To his left Jake passed a door that was slightly ajar. Through it he could see a small sitting room decorated in soft washes of blue and beyond that a doorway and a sturdy, expensive-looking mahogany bed. Clearly the master bedroom suite. He paused, wanting more than
anything to storm in and survey the scene. He remembered, though, that Liz said she'd been out with her mother and assumed that if Liz was home, then Mrs. Rodke was as well. He couldn't risk her catching him snooping. The master bedroom was a washout, then.

The next door down the hall was shut completely. Through it Jake could hear the impassioned strains of eighties melancholy alt rock. Chris's room, obviously, and it sounded like he was in it, sulking. Probably thanks to his touchy conversation with Jake.
Nice one, Montone. Great undercover technique. Way to win people over
. Another pass.

He rounded a quick corner, quickly scanning the bookshelf nestled into the turn:
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Complete Boxed Set, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Peter Pan, Just So Stories…
Someone in the apartment collected classics, and from the looks of them, old ones. Jake was impressed: the books inside the dusty, crumbling covers had to be worth a fortune. He pegged Liz as the reader. Although Chris definitely had a sensitive side, if the acoustic whine was any indication.

Two more doors lay before him unexplored: one stood directly in front of him and was most probably the bathroom, if he had to guess. That left the one to his right, which was closed completely. He placed his ear to the wood: silence. Probably not a bedroom, then—and if it was a bedroom, it was empty. Maybe
Liz's, since he knew she was in the living room? He ached to open the door and decided to risk it.

Leaning forward, he grasped the doorknob firmly. He sucked in his breath and turned the knob as slowly as he could, not daring to exhale.

With a soft click, the knob yielded.
Home free
, Jake thought gleefully, pulling the door open, again painfully slowly.

Crreeeak
.

Jake stiffened and leapt back from the door as quickly and silently as he could. He paused, alert. Had anyone heard that?

“Jake? Did you miss the bathroom?” he could hear Liz call to him from the living room. “If you're staring into a linen closet, the bathroom is the door straight ahead. Keep going.”

He cleared his throat. “Uh, thanks! Yeah, I took a wrong turn here.”

He rushed into the bathroom and closed the door forcefully behind him.
Damn
. Busted! And for what? A linen closet! Some spy. The trip hadn't been very illuminating, that was for sure.

He reached for a box of tissues and wiped one across his forehead. He hadn't realized how anxious he'd been tiptoeing down the hall. He paused to regroup quickly. He was fast losing his cool, and he couldn't let that happen.

Okay
, he thought, taking stock of the situation.
I've
pissed off two of my top suspects and almost been caught snooping through their apartment They're probably pretty suspicious of me—Chris definitely is
.