“You’re angry with me.”
Elliot’s laugh was sarcastic. “Oh, you noticed?”
“I’d like to know why.”
“Well, for starters, you still don’t think I should be here.”
Anthony frowned. “When did I say that?”
Elliot stopped walking. “You haven’t said anything differently since the minute we met!”
Anthony turned to Elliot. “You shouldn’t be here. You’re an analyst, you aren’t trained for field work, and the chances of you dying before the mission is complete is disturbingly high.”
“Well, there you go. Problem solved. Question answered. Are we going to catch up to Zayna or just let her go?
“But you aren’t useless, Elliot.”
Elliot threw his hands in the air. “Oh, that’s just great!” he shouted to the sky. “I’m not useless, that is the highest compliment coming from you! Not useless!”
Elliot stepped right up to him, his eyebrows knit together, his eyes filled with determination. “I led you to Cicero’s base, I destroyed the serums that would have created a clone army, and I’m the one who figured out how to get out of the holding cells. So I don’t give a flying fuck what you think about me, Anthony Dare, because I’m an asset to this mission and nothing you say is going to convince me otherwise.”
“Okay,” said Anthony, almost breathless. Angry Elliot – angry, assertive, confident Elliot – was amazing, and all Anthony wanted to do was push him down and kiss him senseless, sand be damned. “Elliot, I think I need to—”
“What? What do I need?” Elliot spun on the sand and nearly fell over. “Jeez, Anthony, I’m sorry. I don’t know why Bea insisted I be here, I’m sorry that I held you back from arresting Cicero when you had the chance. You were right, we should have just gone to Bulgaria when we had the chance, and now we’re stuck here and there’s a rocket that’s going to launch and start a process that will end with Russia being the size of Lichtenstein.”
“How is that a bad thing?” called Zayna.
“That’s not the point! The point is, you can stop telling me how useless I am anytime now! And you can definitely stop kissing me like you mean it!”
“But I don’t want to,” said Anthony, frowning.
“Of course you don’t.” Elliot sped up the dune. “Come on, before she really runs to Bali.”
Anthony followed Elliot up, uncertainty rolling in his chest.
“You’re wrong,” said Anthony, but it tasted like sand in his mouth. Elliot kept walking as if he hadn’t heard him.
“If I was really useful,” said Elliot, and his voice sounded as if he was about to break, “I would have shoved you off me back at the lab, instead of letting you kiss me while Cicero got away.”
At the crest of the dune, Zayna paused for a moment to stretch, and then started walking down the other side out of sight. Quickly, as if she’d just noticed the ATVs waiting.
“I... what?” said Anthony, his head spinning.
“Don’t worry,” said Elliot glumly. “You can ditch me as soon as we’re back to civilization, and then you can go on to Bulgaria without me. There’s still time to stop the rocket.” He laughed, but it was bitter. “Anyway, I’ve got all those files we downloaded to go through. I’ll find that connection to O’Leary there, definitely.”
“Daria,” said Anthony suddenly.
Elliot glanced back at him. “What about her?”
“She’s the—”
Zayna screamed.
“Shit,” said Anthony, and ran.
Most of the time, when Anthony ran to the sound of screams, it was down echoing hallways, or across vast mountain ranges. Once, he’d been scuba diving through a beautiful tropical sea, and another time, he’d faced ninjas while balancing across sloping rooftops.
He hadn’t had to run up a sandy dune before. That was new.
“This...” gasped Anthony, “is... a lot... harder... than it... looks.”
“First... time... for... everything!” gasped Elliot in response.
Anthony would have laughed, but he was already eating his daily recommended allowance of sand.
The screaming stopped before he or Elliot reached to the top of the ridge. Anthony wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. What had Zayna found there—and more importantly, how would he protect Elliot from it?
Cicero, holding Zayna at knifepoint? The sheep with opposable thumbs, come to rescue their creator? Sentient ATVs, already whisking Zayna away to parts unknown?
Anthony stopped at the top of the dune, gasping for breath, not quite understanding what he saw below.
Zayna, hugging and laughing with... Daria.
“You’re alive!” gasped Daria, hands on Zayna’s face, brushing back her hair. “I saw the explosion and I thought—”
“You asshole, I can’t believe you sent Anthony Dare of all people after me,” said Zayna, sniffling even as she kept her hands away from Daria.
“Ah,” said Anthony, momentarily befuddled, as Elliot staggered to a stop next to him.
“Daria?” asked Elliot, amazed. “What are you doing?”
Daria laughed and broke away from her hug. “I’m hugging my sister.”
Anthony saw it now, the shape of the nose, the roundness of their ears. And now, Daria’s motivations became clearer. “You double-crossed O’Leary to save her.”
“Wait, what?” Elliot rounded on Anthony. “What do you mean, double-crossed O’Leary?”
Anthony shrugged. “That’s what I was explaining. Daria works for O’Leary. Initially I had suspected she worked for Cicero—”
“Um, excuse me, no,” said Daria, annoyed. “Like I’d agree to take a cent from that asshole.”
Elliot grinned at Anthony. “You’re wrong. Had to happen once.”
Anthony ignored him. “Goodness knows you’re not a flight attendant.”
Daria snorted. “Of course I’m not a flight attendant. I’m Archibald O’Leary’s personal pilot.”
Elliot’s mouth dropped open. “You’re the missing link.”
“What are you talking about?” snapped Daria, barely taking her eyes off Anthony.
“You knew your sister was working at that facility,” Elliot pressed, and Daria nodded. “You had something to do with the plane going down, didn’t you?”
Daria nodded. “Don’t worry, the pilots are fine. I disarmed them and they parachuted out about twenty minutes before the hit.”
“While I was in the bathroom,” said Anthony, thinking back. “And Elliot was asleep.”
“But the pilot talked before the explosion,” said Elliot. “And there was blood...”
“Ketchup,” said Daria. “And a pre-recorded message.”
“Child’s play,” agreed Anthony, impressed. “What I don’t understand is why bring us to your sister at all? You had to know we would find her work and destroy it.”
“That’s why I brought you here,” explained Daria. “I love my sister—but I don’t love what she’s been doing, or who she’s become under Cicero’s influence. I needed you to stop her before she got herself into even more trouble.”