Lost and Found Read online

  “Why every couple of days? Why not every hour?”

  “I don’t know much,” Donnelly said. “But once it’s used it’s out of action for at least 48 hours. Hence why Caldwell attacked at night. She wanted to be sure you weren’t going to move out of the given radius.”

  Adam was thinking of Saskia. Her hand closed around his heart within minutes of their first meeting. Eve noticed and tried to drag him from the bar, tried to warn him. In the bathroom, he tried to warn himself. Getting attached was stupid. Walking away should have been easy.

  They talked all night and went on a date the next day. They fell in love.

  So powerful was his feeling; he assumed their pursuers would arrive within days to steal his happiness. In fact, it was over six months before they came, by which point he had come to believe the stars had aligned. They would never be found.

  When they were, he wasn’t ready. It ended in disaster.

  Since Saskia, there had been other girls, a few friends. He was a lifelong optimist. He almost always believed they could last a few months before the villains caught up, and held to the mantra that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

  If his mother knew that, she would have slapped him until his face was numb, waited for the feeling to return, then slapped him again.

  Thoughts like that, it’s no wonder you got me killed, she would say.

  If she was here and a ghost, who could slap.

  “Where is this tracker?” Eve was asking.

  Leaving those he cared for hurt every time. These entanglements made life worth living.

  “Don’t know,” said Donnelly. “That’s above my pay grade.”

  “Okay,” said Eve. “Time to die.”

  Adam flinched. He hated how ruthless his sister could be. Often, he considered trying to soften her. For selfish reasons, he never did. Her killer instinct kept them free. If they were both like Adam, the organization would have captured them years ago.

  “Don’t,” said Donnelly. “I don’t know where it is, but I know who does.”

  “Who?” Eve asked.

  “My bosses,” said Donnelly. “One of them lives and works in the facility where they want to take you, so I’d avoid her. The other, Francis, lives in a mansion on acres and acres of land. Got a load of security but nothing like the facility. I’d go for him.”

  Eve considered. Still trying to pull himself from despondency, Adam let her.

  “Address?” she said.

  “No chance.”

  “What?”

  “You got a reputation,” he said. “How many tied up agents you killed? I’m not stupid. I’ll take you there. That’s the only deal.”

  “The only deal?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine.”

  Eve shot Donnelly in the arm. As he screamed, she rushed forward, throwing a hand over his mouth and pressing her forehead to his.

  “Get yourself together and tell me the address,” she said. “Next bullet’s between the eyes. I’ll just wait two days, capture another of you bastards, and make them talk. How about that?”

  She pulled her hand from Donnelly and stepped back as he almost hyperventilated trying to keep the pain under control.

  “Address,” she said.

  “You’ll kill me either way,” Donnelly said, still puffing. “Why should I tell you anything?”

  “Fine,” repeated Eve and raised the gun to Donnelly’s head.

  Adam snatched it from her grasp.

  “What the hell?”

  Ignoring the question, he nudged her aside and faced Donnelly. The agent was bleeding from arm and cheek and grew paler by the second.

  “Why did you save Eve?” Adam asked.

  Both Donnelly and Eve stared. The question seemed random, but he knew their conversation was coming to an end and was interested.

  “Caldwell might have got us if not for you. Why get involved? Tell me straight, or I’ll hand the gun back to Eve.”

  Donnelly stared a second, then shook his head. Even through the pain, he managed a dry chuckle.

  “Can tell you two have never had jobs. And I thought you weren’t supposed to talk?”

  “I said, tell me straight.”

  “It’s office politics, big man. You know, Francis has enemies within the company. People who don’t like what a cushty role he has. While he’s got this no hope job of catching you, they’re happy to leave him be. Then what happens? He gets this tracker, and he can find you at a moment’s notice. Then he sends Caldwell, his best agent, after you, three days after his previous attempt. Suddenly those enemies get afraid he’s going to succeed. Francis will be a hero, and they’ll fall down the pecking order. Here’s a good life lesson, guys. Important people care more about themselves then the organization they supposedly represent. These people want to catch you, but each wants to do it on their terms. Therefore—”

  “You get sent to ensure Francis fails, before catching us yourself for this other person?” said Eve.

  “Bingo.”

  Strangely enough, Adam found his disgust for the organization rising. They were the bad guys. They wanted to catch Adam and Eve. Then again, from their point of view, the twins might be the enemy, which might make it a wash.

  But Adam and Eve were a team, a unit. They would never betray one another. That the enemy could be so duplicitous within their organization made Adam sick.

  “Give us the address,” Adam said, “and you have my word neither of us will kill you.”

  Donnelly looked from Adam to Eve, who looked unhappy but not ready to rebel. After a few seconds, he returned to Adam and nodded.

  “Alright, then. Got paper and a pen?”

  While deciding what to do next, Sandra spoke with a couple of colleagues she trusted to be discreet.

  These colleagues would find out who Francis had persuaded to prep Grendel for his latest mission and tell Sandra, who would decide how to handle the traitor. Probably the fool would not be tortured. Certainly, they would be killed.

  Sandra suspected if she rang the agent in charge of the asset and asked for the location of say, her butcher, she would uncover a second traitor.

  Afraid of what opening that can of worms might mean, Sandra decided to pretend she had not considered such a possibility.

  She wanted to have Francis brought to her. For his transgression, she could get the CEO to sign off on his termination, preceded by a severe punishment which would have him begging for the end.

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t. Not only did she still need Francis; revealing his treachery might lead to her being punished if someone investigated. She had incited his actions by visiting him when she didn’t need to, and had also used Donnelly to scupper Caldwell’s operation. Given how close Caldwell had come to capturing the twins, Sandra could line up behind Francis for the executioner’s chair.

  No. Quietly, she would find a way to recall Grendel before he murdered the twins.

  Much as she wanted to watch Francis die, she had to forget him. It might be he had already got himself killed, even if he didn’t know it yet.

  Behind her desk, she had spent a long time trying to decide whether to brief her people on the ground about Grendel. After much consideration she had decided, much as she might not want to, she had to let them know.

  She dialled McQueen.

  “Ma’am.”

  “Hello, McQueen, how are things proceeding?”

  “Good, ma’am. The twins captured Donnelly, but we followed them to a basement about an hour ago. A few minutes back, the twins left without Donnelly and went into a café five minutes away. We’ll track them until they go somewhere quiet, then strike.”

  “Excellent, McQueen.”

  “What should we do about Donnelly?”

  There was a particular relish in McQueen’s voice. The top agents were all rivals; McQueen, Donnelly and Caldwell had all hated each other. Connelly being dead, McQueen had his eye on another competitor.

 
“Leave him,” said Sandra. Donnelly could incriminate her. He was a problem, but ordering his execution was risky for the same reason as with Francis.

  “Excuse my impertinence, ma’am,” said McQueen. “I’m assuming you didn’t call just for an update? You have something to tell me?”

  “Very perceptive,” she said. She was not sure how to tell him. All the agents knew about Grendel, and all feared him. With good reason. There was a chance McQueen would flee when he learned of the monster’s involvement.

  “Ma’am?”

  It was a risk she would have to take.

  “There has been a mistake,” she said. “Someone has released Grendel and sent him after the twins.”

  For a few seconds, there was silence.

  “I thought you wanted the twins captured, not killed?”

  “I said it was a mistake, didn’t I?”

  “Has he been called off?”

  “I’m sure you don’t mean to sound as though you’re giving me orders, McQueen,” Sandra said.

  “Sorry, Ma’am.”

  “His mother is trying to call him off, but you know what he’s like. Once he has a target, he’s difficult to deter. We must capture the twins now. Am I still able to count on you for that?”

  Another long pause. McQueen was frightened.

  “I’m yours to command,” he said at last. “I will endeavour to capture the twins before Grendel arrives. You have my word.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I must warn you though,” he went on. “I won’t tell my team about Grendel. If he arrives, I expect they’ll flee, and it’ll be me alone trying to get your twins. In such a scenario, I’ll keep trying, but, I fear, I won’t succeed.”

  There a was lull. Sandra sighed.

  “What are you saying, McQueen?”

  “I’m saying If Grendel arrives, I think the twins die.”

  In an independent café, they had their second coffees of the day. Third, if you counted the ones made for them, but not delivered, when they had captured Donnelly.

  Sensing the closing walls, even before learning the situation’s specifics, Adam and Eve had spent the previous evening overindulging in alcohol. Eve more so than her brother, and being smaller than him, the hangovers always hit harder.

  Coffee wouldn’t help, but she was drained.

  “This address isn’t too far,” she said when they had settled away from prying ears. “I say we go today. Get it done.”

  Adam watched her a while as if he hadn’t understood what she’d said.

  Finally, he said, “What’s your earliest memory?”

  Eve closed her eyes on the non-sequitur, then opened them when the memories attacked. She forced them away. There was no way this conversation wouldn’t lead down a road she had no interest in travelling.

  “I don’t remember.”

  “You don’t remember your earliest memory?” Adam asked in that dry, deadpan way of his. He wasn’t one for conversation and would often let things go, so he didn’t have to keep talking. Sometimes, he was a dog with a bone. Eve sensed this situation would be an example of the latter.

  “Remember when we were on the South Coast in that ice cream parlour? That fifty-year-old biker hit on me, and you were ready to knock him out. Try, at least. In the end, I put him through a window.”

  Adam gave a put-out sigh and shook his head. Eve got the impression her brother didn’t believe she remembered nothing before she was seventeen. It must also have struck him as suspicious that her first memory happened to be the first thing of note that happened to them after the agents killed their mother.

  “Why can’t you be serious?”

  “Maybe I am,” she said. “Maybe I’ve expunged from my mind every memory involving that woman.”

  “That woman birthed us, raised us—”

  “If you call it raising.”

  “She’s the reason we’re alive.”

  “She was abusive.”

  “She did what she needed to do.”

  “She—” Eve raised a hand, as though to block her argument. This was old ground. They would never agree. Adam saw their mother like the Old Testament God. Yes, she had been cruel, but only out of love. Eve had learned from the woman but believed mother was cruel because she was cruel.

  “My earliest memory,” Adam said. “We were maybe four. An agent broke into the house where we were staying. He was on his own, so I guess this was before they realised we were going to be difficult to catch. He got into our bedroom and had his hands around my throat before mum arrived. She cut his throat with a kitchen knife.”

  Eve said nothing, as though she had to be silent because he had taken the talking role that was usually hers. In truth, she remembered that night as well, but couldn’t confess as much if she was going to stick to the lie that she could recall nothing before their mother’s death.

  “Afterwards, she told us to pack our things because we were leaving that night. She left to get ready, and you put all your stuff into a bag. I just lay in bed, crying. When you finished, you tried to get me to pack. When I wouldn’t, you did it for me.”

  By drinking her coffee, Eve managed to keep from nodding. Even at four, she had been terrified of their mother. She was frightened of what would happen to Adam and wanted to protect him from mum’s wrath.

  “When she got upstairs, I said I didn’t want to leave. The bad man was gone, so I didn’t understand why we had to. She wasn’t happy.”

  She had grabbed Adam’s ankle and dragged him from bed. Eve remembered the clang of skull on metal and the way Adam’s tears had stopped in an instant. He hadn’t been unconscious. On the bedroom floor, he had curled into a ball. Furious, their mother had dragged him to his feet.

  “You remember what she said?” he asked. “Course not, you don’t remember anything before the ice cream parlour, right?”

  “Right.” Eve could hear her mother. At the same time, the long-dead woman from the past and her brother in the present spoke.

  “There will always be more bad men and women. We have to keep running to stay alive.”

  Adam lapsed into silence. When she was sure he’d finished, Eve decided to ignore the divergence.

  “This address isn’t too far,” she repeated. “I say we go this afternoon. Get it done.”

  “Why?”

  “Are you still drunk? What do you mean why?”

  “Why bother?”

  Eve’s heart did a strange leap. They had been in so many near-death situations, yet she could not remember feeling more frightened than this.

  “We bother because if we can get to this Francis, we can get to their tracker. If we can destroy that then, well, you know…” She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t think of that sentence’s ending.

  “I know,” he said. “It goes back to how it was. How it’s always been. ‘We have to keep running to stay alive’. That’s what mum said, and that’s it, isn’t it? That’s the end goal, keep running so we can stay alive and whether they come after us every day, every month or every year they’ll always be coming.”

  Unexpectedly, Eve didn’t know what to say.

  “What are you saying?” she managed.

  “We can destroy this machine, but the end goal will always be to stay alive. I don’t want the point to be to stay alive. I want the point to be to have a life.”

  He grabbed his coffee. Finished it. “But it never will, will it?”

  Dropping the cup onto the saucer caused a clatter that drew nearby eyes. Adam yanked the bag from the floor and hoisted it over his shoulder.

  “Come on then,” he said. “Let’s get it done.”

  Without waiting for her, he shoved back his chair and left the café.

  Adam left the café and stormed down the street. Until Eve left a few seconds later, McQueen didn’t notice anything had happened.

  “Sir?”

  “What?” He was lost, having allowed the Grendel threat to distract him. He had heard plenty of stories.

 
“I said, are we ready?”

  McQueen looked after the departing twins. Tried not to imagine what would happen if Grendel arrived while they were trying to apprehend the targets.

  They had to be quick.

  “Yeah, move out,” he said. “Let’s get this done.”

  Adam walked as though he wanted to outpace the black cloud above his head but was not allowed to run.

  At a junction, he took a sharp left and almost knocked a woman into the road. Two more turns and he was on a deserted side street. Adam loved people but belonged alone.

  “Adam, wait.”

  Almost alone.

  Halfway along the street, nestled between two tall bland, buildings, Eve caught and pulled him back. He could not remember ever seeing such emotional pain on her face.

  It softened him.

  “You’re not like mum,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I know you worry. Mum never cared as you do.”

  “I’m worried about you.”

  “Don’t be.”

  He made it another few paces before she caught him again. Though he could have easily shaken her, he stopped.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “To destroy this machine, like you said.”

  “Why?”

  “What do you mean why? It was your idea.”

  “But if we do it will you become Adam again?” she said, “Will it be worth running for the weeks or months we get to spend living semi-normal lives?”

  “We’ve never lived,” he said. “Only existed. Took me too long to see that.”

  Distraught, she released his arm.

  “Fine.”

  Nodding, he rushed to the street’s exit, the black cloud keeping pace. It was only when he prepared to turn that he noticed the cloud was his only companion.

  Instead of following, either to stop him or to stand at his side as they progressed, Eve lay on her back, staring at the grey sky. When he paused, she paid him no attention. If not for her open eyes, Adam might have believed she had been sedated. If not for the bounce of her restless feet, he might have believed her dead.

  Snipers had worried their mother. The agents’ perfect weapon, she would say, because they could take out the twins before Eve could kill them with her powers, or Adam could use his to get the pair to safety. She had taught them ways of mitigating the risk of being sniped. Adam couldn’t remember the last time, before leaving the café, he had failed to follow her advice.