“He didn’t rent it. He made reservations on a passenger ship. Gosh, you Albanians know nothing,” Aengus answered, rolling his eyes then shaking his head.
Zamyr gave an expression of realization when what he really wanted to do was light the kid on fire. It was really annoying to keep up this stupid streak, but he couldn’t risk them finding out who he was. Zamyr had been angry with Foalan for calling him Kael, not only because he was tired of people comparing him to his brother, but because Foalan wasn’t supposed to know their father. Zamyr knew Foalan was an agent of a secret corporation in Ireland, but when the double agent in the Brotherhood had told him where to find Foalan, he had told him that Foalan knew nothing about him, so Foalan shouldn’t know that Zamyr’s father had been part of the gang. That means Foalan must have found that out on his own, and Zamyr didn’t know by what means he had achieved this. First, Foalan could be working with the gang. That would have given Zamyr the excuse to shoot him right then and there. But Foalan could have also looked into him by means of his own double agents, or information he already had on the gang. Zamyr didn’t like that either, because that meant Foalan had been looking him up, and Zamyr didn’t enjoy it when people researched him. He needed people he could trust, people who didn’t know him, people who didn’t know who he was. People who didn’t know who or what his father was. Either way, Zamyr couldn’t trust Foalan, and that’s why he had ditched him. He had already retrieved the disk for him, but it didn’t go to waste. What Foalan didn’t know is that Zamyr didn’t trust him in the first place. Zamyr had made a replica of the disk and given it to Foalan. What could he say? He wanted to know why that disk was so important. He was being a good agent; his trainer would be proud.
The double agent in the Brotherhood had told him to find Foalan O’Byrne, an agent of a secret Irish corporation, in Foynes, Ireland. From there, Foalan would get him to St. Mary’s Quay in the Isles of Sicily. Then he would lodge at the Harbourside Hotel saying that Calder sent him. Then in three days a man would show up at the hotel by the name of Alexander Green and would request a room. The next day, Zamyr would approach him at 1:15, when the man was having lunch. He would say, “The Calder calls,” and the man would give him information for his next mission.
That’s all Zamyr knew. But that’s why he had taken the chance to acquaint himself with Aengus and become his friend. He needed to get to the quay, and only Aengus could take him there. Zamyr wasn’t excited about letting the homeless whelp come along, but Aengus wouldn’t have agreed to leave without Fítheal. They really were like brothers, arguing and calling each other names, but still having a kind of connection that kept them together. Zamyr almost wished he had friends like that.
Almost.
“Yay, we’ve been here one hour,” Aengus said sarcastically. “Only five more hours to go.”
Zamyr sighed and pulled his blanket over his head. He hated sharing a room with two strangers, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it. Now he would pretend to be asleep and plan for his next mission.
******************
“Russian. How could she know Russian?” Imrann murmured.
“Imraan?” Kalyia asked, concerned. “Are you okay?”
“What? Yah. Yah, I’m fine,” Imraan answered. “Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been mumbling things ever since you got back. Are you sure your head is okay?”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Imraan shifted his pack on his back and kept walking.
“You know,” Kalyia said, catching up, “you did pass out from exhaustion.”
“Yah. But I feel fine now,” Imraan replied. There was silence for a few seconds. “Really, I’m fine,” Imraan said more tensely, looking at Kalyia.
“I just thought…” Kalyia began.
“Well stop thinking!” Imraan exclaimed, angrily. He was annoyed that she kept persisting. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself!” He walked even faster, leaving Kalyia in the dust with his long strides.
Kalyia stopped, then she threw the bottle of water she was holding in the direction of Imraan. “I was just wondering if you wanted water!” she shouted angrily. Then she folded her arms huffily and kept walking. As she passed the bottle, she kicked it out of the way indignantly.
After a while, Laura called for them to stop and Kalyia plopped onto the ground.
“Do you want to tell me what this is about?” came a voice. Kalyia looked up to see Laura standing over her, a dirty water bottle in hand.
“No,” Kalyia answered, looking away.
Laura sighed and sat down next to Kalyia. “What’s up?”
“Imraan is being a jerk,” Kalyia said, looking in the direction of him. “We save his sorry bum, and he repays us by being a butt. I mean, it’s nothing new, but…I just don’t see why we still have to have him with us!”
“Don’t say that. You know you don’t mean it.”
“What if I do?” Kalyia asked, looking at Laura. “I try to be nice to him and he ignores me. I try to help him, and he goes off on me!”
“If I didn’t know better, I would think you had a crush,” Laura hinted.
“What? No!” Kalyia responded, standing quickly. “You’re a jerk, too.” Then she walked a few meters and plopped back down onto the ground, glaring at Imraan. Laura couldn’t help letting out a small laugh. Things were starting to get interesting. She looked down at the bottle in her hand and wiped some dirt off of it. She stared at the dirt clinging to her hands, and her smile faded. It was nice to have a little laugh every once in a while, but she needed to stay on the task at hand. She wiped the dirt off on her jeans and stood.
“Move out!” she commanded. The group stood, gathered up their things, and continued onward. As Laura passed Kalyia, she handed her the bottle. “You’ll need this,” she said, and kept walking.
"I can see a forest!" Imraan called to the group. "We're almost there!"
"Come on! We can make this!" Laura called out. Even she was getting exhausted, but with their goal so close. She forced a quicker step and soon passed Imraan, who had been in the front of the group for the past 2 hours.
"Laura, can't we rest?" Kalyia barely managed to call out. Laura heard her, but she ignored it. The rest of the group tried to match Laura's pace, but couldn't.
After 15 minutes, Laura turned around and saw the rest of the group still trying to match her pace. She stopped and waited for them to catch up.
"Break as soon as you get to where I am!" Laura called. That invigorated them to speed up even more, even pushing some of the agents to a jog. They reached Laura within 2 minutes, where they immediately collapsed. Laura also sat down to rest her legs and feet.
"Jeg tror, at vi kan nå kanten af skoven inden for 15 minutter. Måske," a DANE agent named Svend whispered to Laura. She nodded, looking to the forest.
"Yes..." Laura muttered. She rose to her feet, the called out, "If any of you have any energy left at all, or an energy bar... or caffeine...please come and see me!"
A few people rose to their feet and gathered around Laura.
"Alright, I am going to run to the forest and start setting camp. If any of you are willing to come with me, I would really appreciate the help and the extra eyes, ears, hands, and minds. Are any of you with me?"
About half of the group said that they were. The other half said that they only had enough caffeine or energy bars to keep the group going and said that they would distribute what they had to the rest of the group. Laura nodded in understanding, gave the 11 other agents that were traveling ahead with her an extra energy bar each that she had saved from her rations. All of them took a bite or two, then stuffed the energy bar in their pockets or backpacks. Laura transitioned control to Agent Svend, then explained to the group what she and the eleven other agents were going to do.
The twelve then set off at a reasonable walk to get warmed up, then started a brisk jog, then they ended up running as fast as they could. They made it to the edge of the forest within 20 minutes and slowed back down to a walk.
"OK, let's take a little breather, then we'll look for a good place to camp." Laura gasped.
"You ok?" a younger agent asked. " Maybe you should sit down."
"I'm fine." Laura walked to a tree and wrapped a piece of ribbon around it. "Thank you for your concern." To the others she said, "To be completely safe and hidden, we'll have to camp deeper within the forest. We'll need to leave obvious traces so the rest of the group can find us and the camp."
The group nodded in agreement, then took off, deep into the forest in search of a suitable place to set up camp, leaving behind obvious signs of their being there.
**********************