Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(33)

“Maisie’s cousin and her friend,” said Dana. “We talked yesterday. They’re really hurting.”

They walked in silence for two blocks, and then Dave said, “We talked to Ethan Hale last night. He was asking about you.”

Dana said, “Oh…?” She tried to make it sound casual, but Melissa and Eileen both cut sharp looks at her.

Melissa scowled at him. “What was he asking about?”

“Nothing much,” said Dave. “He knew I knew you, and wanted to know stuff about Dana.”

“What kind of stuff did he want to know?” persisted Melissa.

“General stuff. Where you guys live. What Dana’s into. Y’know, books and movies and music. Like that.”

“Ah,” said Eileen, giving a knowing nod.

“Ah,” agreed Melissa.

Dana was way too embarrassed to say a word. One of the real downsides of being a redhead was that her face flushed brightly with every change of mood, and something like this was like being a lobster in a pot. Hot and bright red.

“Ethan’s cute, for a nerd. What’d you tell him?” asked Melissa, clearly amused.

Dave shrugged. “All I know is that she likes school.”

Dana quickened her pace, as if she could outwalk her blush.

“Hey,” said Dave as they crossed toward the school. “Look at all the deputies.”

There were two sheriff’s department cars and several uniformed officers standing in a knot, speaking with the principal, Mr. Sternholtz, and the school’s elderly security guard, whose name Dana didn’t know but who all the students called Tex.

“I heard they were going to assign a bunch of narcs to FSK,” said Eileen.

“Right,” said Dave, “because clearly we’ve become a wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

“This is about Maisie,” countered Eileen, “and those other teens. Maybe there really is a problem.”

“Maybe,” said Dana quietly. “But I don’t think it’s drugs.”





CHAPTER 31

Francis Scott Key Regional High School Parking Lot 7:21 A.M.

Gerlach’s driver drummed his fingers on the curved top of the steering wheel.

“She saw you, you know,” he said.

Agent Gerlach popped the glove box and rooted around for a fresh pack of gum. There were a dozen packs in there, most of them empty. He never threw his trash out the window. Fingerprints. He found the last unopened pack behind the spare magazines for the automatic pistol he wore.

“I know,” he said.

“Is that going to be a problem?”

Gerlach unwrapped a stick and bent it to test its freshness. It snapped. Brittle and stale. He sighed and put it in his mouth anyway.

“I don’t have a particularly memorable face,” he said.

“You sure?” asked the driver. “I read her profile. She’s a sharp kid. Young, but sharp.”

Gerlach chewed the gum and did not reply.

The last of the students vanished through the big doors, and the neighborhood fell into a false quiet, as if there were no one around.

As if everything were calm and peaceful.

As if.





CHAPTER 32

Francis Scott Key Regional High School

7:28 A.M.

Dana was at her locker sorting through her textbooks when Ethan seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

“Hey,” he said, and she jumped about a foot in the air.

“Don’t do that,” she said, shoving him back.

“Sorry,” he said in exactly the way someone says it when they’re not. “Are you still coming to science club today?”

“Sure,” said Dana. “But then we’ll go look at your uncle’s files. Right?”

He searched her eyes. “If you’re sure you want to.”

Before she could answer, the special notice bell rang very loudly, and they automatically glanced at the speakers mounted high on the wall. There was a tap-tap sound of someone testing the mic, and then Mr. Sternholtz’s voice spoke in a slow, heavy tone.

“All students are required to go to the auditorium for a special assembly that will be held in place of homeroom. Please make your way there now. The assembly will begin in fifteen minutes.”

Then silence.

“What’s that all about?” wondered Ethan. “No, wait, I get it.… The narcs. Did you see them all outside? We’re going to have them up our butts from now on.”

Dana nodded, though there was a tone to Sternholtz’s announcement that bothered her.

Even so, she cut a sidelong look at Ethan. “You want to sit together?”

He grinned. “Sure.”

They headed off, and almost immediately Ethan collided with a young man who came out of a doorway. Ethan bounced off the other guy and nearly fell, but the second boy whipped out a hand and caught him. It was an incredibly fast move, and it carried with it enough strength to stop Ethan’s fall.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” growled Ethan as he pulled his arm away.

The other boy was Angelo, from Corinda’s shop. “You walked into me, ese.”

Angelo’s blue work shirt was half-unbuttoned to reveal a white Henley beneath. His arms and face were a medium brown except for some old pink scars. Signs of an interesting life, Dana thought.