Page 54 of Sunflower

“Yup,” came Callum’s short, but highly annoyed, response. “Hopefully, I can lose him on the freeway, though.”

Scratching at my scalp until my hair fell in my eyes, I hummed in thought. “I don’t get this, Callum. Why is he being so obvious in his tailing? Especially when he wants to meet me tomorrow. What we prepared only works if I don’t know about you or George, but the way this guy is acting, it’s like he believes I already know everything. Why not just tag your car with a tracker?”

Making the turn onto the freeway, Callum nibbled at his bottom lip in thought. “I don’t know,mo lus na gréine. Maybe he’s just playing with us.” He looked over and reached to take my hand in his. “Play tomorrow like we planned, but be prepared for him to change the rules on you. I’ll be close by and won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

“I wish you had a wire I could wear,” I muttered.

“There’ll be one in the cleaning package, but you won’t be wearing it tomorrow.”

“What? Why not?”

Callum shrugged, swiftly changing lanes once, then again after he passed a semi-trailer. “He’s already used a signal jammer on you once. If you go in wired, it won’t work because of his jammer, and if he finds it on you, there’ll be immediate consequences that George and I won’t be able to protect you from. Better for you not to wear it in the first place.”

Brilliant. I huffed out a sigh and decided it was probably best to talk about something else. “I’m assuming Kiddo is not his actual name…”

Callum barked out a laugh. “No. No, it’s not.” A delighted look came over his face, his eyes sparkling with joy. “From what I’m told, his name is Michael, but we all call him Kiddo, because he’s sixteen, and his last name is Kidman. I’ve never heard him be called anything else.”

My eyes widened, although I couldn’t say I was surprised. Hehadsounded awfully young over the phone. “And he works with you?”

He bobbled his head from side to side and squinched his mouth to the side, not sure how to answer. “Yes, and no. He lives at HQ, so he’s usually around. I’m pretty sure he’ll join us once he’s finished his schooling, though.”

Cocking my head to the side, I asked in curiosity, “Helivesat HQ?”

He nodded before his eyes turned sad. “Yeah. The story goes that the team went on a mission about a year ago, and it went pear-shaped. It was supposed to be a quick recon on a cult, but even though they’d been told that the compound would be empty for some celebratory religious thing, there were peoplethere they weren’t expecting to see. Children as well as adults. Things got messy and most of the adults were killed.”

“Shit, Callum…”

“Kiddo was the one who corralled the young kids away from the fighting and locked them in a classroom. Apparently, he refused to open the door after the fighting finished until they sent Orchestra in.”

I blinked. “I’m sorry. What?”

He chuckled, changing lanes again. “Orchestra is our regional director. Most of us don’t know her as anything other than her operational call sign.” He glanced at me and grinned proudly. “She was impressed by Kiddo’s quick actions and highly cautious nature. He saved over fifty children that day, from infants right up to pre-teens. A lot of them stayed overnight at HQ until they were moved on to other places, but Kiddo wouldn’t leave until they were all sorted, which took a few weeks. By the time everyone had been placed, the team had basically adopted him and fully supported him when he asked to stay on with us. Orchestra eventually agreed to his request based on how well he handled the entire situation.” He shrugged like what he was saying meant nothing, but I could tell that it was all a front. He really liked Kiddo. “He’s been there ever since. I’ve only known him for six weeks, but he’s already like a kid brother to me. I suspect everyone else on the team feels the same way that I do.”

Wow. I was really curious to meet this Kiddo now. “Take the next exit onto Parkview, then go straight. How many are you in your team?”

“Including George and myself, there’s thirteen,” Callum said plainly as he swerved off the freeway at the last second, earning himself a few angry horns and rude gestures. “If I include Kiddo, there’s fourteen. Seven of us are powered; seven are non-powered, or normies. It’s a good mix.” He chanced a peek in his rearview mirror. “That might have done it. I don’t think anyonefollowed us off the freeway, but let’s follow Marcy’s directions to the letter to make sure.”

“Thank fuck.” As the tension in my shoulders drained away and my fingers slowly released their death grip on my seat, I did some quick mental calculations. Removing Callum and George from the team was easily done, leaving twelve possible moles. Eliminating Kiddo was a pretty sure bet considering his youth, which left eleven. I wasn’t sold on discounting Marcy just yet, but Callum was, which brought the number down to ten. It wasn’t a huge suspect pool, but if the team was tight knit, like I suspected it would be, no wonder it’d been difficult to pin down the culprit. Especially if the mole was powered like George or Callum.

Which begged the question, “What sort of powers does everyone have? Take the next right onto Hilldale.”

Without answering my question, Callum cocked his head at the upcoming sign. “Marcy sent us to an old, abandoned quarry? Huh. Makes sense, I guess.”

“How so?” I let him get sidetracked, but I was adamant I’d get the answers I was looking for by the time the night was through. The better prepared I was for tomorrow, the better it’d go. I hoped.

He took the turn much slower than expected. “Sound travels easily in quarries. If we park the car in a hidden spot, we’ll be able to hear if anyone approaches.”

Curious, I peered through the windshield. The gravel road ahead of us was lined on the left by large rocks and seemed to slowly sweep in that direction. There were tightly packed trees on the right-hand side of us, while on the left-hand side, there was nothing other than those rocks and inky darkness. We had no choice but to keep moving forward.

Callum slowed the car even further when we came up to an intersection. “An added bonus is that it’s one of the darkestplaces you can go at night. Light carries further than in suburbia.” He crawled to the left, following the void rather than the trees, and keeping a steady distance from the rocks that guarded the drop, no doubt on the other side of them.

I chanced a look behind us and saw no lights. “I can’t see anyone trailing us.”

“Good,” Callum said, pleased. “Also, it’s almost impossible to travel in a quarry at night without lights.” He smirked at me before immediately refocusing on the gravel road ahead that was now sloping slightly down. “If you try it, chances are high that you’ll go over the side.” He pointed his chin to the darkness to our left. “And if you do that, there’s no way you can survive the fall.”

Swallowing hard at the thought of accidentally making a wrong turn, I asked nervously, “Can we park soon, please?”

“Yup. Just gotta find a suitable spot.”

---