“You’vealready been cleared.”
Inarrow my eyes.Isaw the look onOllie’sface whenJacewalked in.Hewasn’t expecting him, so he likely didn’t talk toJaceat all after our “mission” yesterday. “Howdid you clear me?Youdidn’t even know whoIwas.Youdidn’t even know what my voicesounded like yesterday, so you couldn’t have recognized it through the bug.”
“I’mgood at piecing clues together.”
Thisis starting to sound a little on the sketchy side.Ihave always been the fun-loving sister.Laurelis always the responsible one.SinceLaurelmoved, though,I’vebeen working on being fun-lovingandresponsible.Andas my new and improved responsible self,Ifeel the need to check things out more. “Whatclues?”
Jaceleans back, not fazed at all by my question. “Icould tell by your conversation in the records room that you weren’t an employee.WhenIwas in here yesterday morning,Isaw a vibe between you andOllie.Likeyou were two teammates who didn’t know they were on the same team yet.
“Iknow that you take coffee and pastries to the managers atPacioliandBlackwelleveryWednesdayjust before their three p.m. meeting.Olliehad a woman unexpectedly start helping him at three-oh-five.Itwasn’t hard to piece it together.Orto guess thatOlliewould want you to join him again afterIasked for his help today.”
Whoa. “Youknew all that?”
“He’sa secret agent,”Olliesays. “Theyknow stuff.”
Ican see thatJaceis trying to keep a straight face.Then, he shrugs. “Plus,Olliesaid your name in surprise when he first saw you outside the records room.”
Theguy is giving off a trustworthy vibe, butI’mchanneling my sister here.Iturn toOllie. “Okay, but do you know if this guy is legit?Whodoes he work for?”
“That’sclassified.”
“Yeah,”Isay, “or he could be someone looking to do corporate espionage and he’s having us do the dirty work for him.”
Ollieshakes his head. “He’snot.”
“Howdo you know?”
“BecauseIknow him.Andhis family.”
Iraise an eyebrow.
“WhenIwas a sophomore andJacewas a senior, we were in the sameAPCalculusclass.Andit was a tough class.Theteacher told us to expect that a good ninety percent of all our homework that year would come from her class alone, and she hadn’t been wrong.Idon’t know why, but calculus came easy for me, even when it didn’t for anyone else.
“Weweren’t far into the school year whenIstarted tutoringJacea couple of times a week.Aftera few weeks,Iknew very well exactly how hard the class was for him.Wewere coming up on finals for that term.Itwas the last term’s grades that colleges would look at when determining acceptance and scholarships, andJacetold me how vastly important it was to him to get a good grade on the final.
“Thenhe got the flu and had to miss class on the day of the final.Acouple of days later when he could come back to school, he stayed after to take the test.Theteacher had to leave for a few minutes during his test.Iwas aT.A. for that teacher, andIwas in a small office that was connected to her room, doing some work for her.Icouldn’t seeJace, and he didn’t knowIwas in there.
“Notlong after the teacher left, someoneJaceknew came into the classroom and must’ve slippedJacea piece of paper.IheardJacesay, ‘What’sthis?’Theother student, a kid whose voiceIrecognized as anotherT.A. for our teacher, said, ‘Dorseyhad me grading the final.Iknew you hadn’t taken it yet and needed anA, soIwrote down the answers for you.You’rewelcome.’Thenthe kid left as quickly as he’d come.
“Iwent to the doorway to peek atJace.Hehadn’t even looked at the paper.Hejust crumpled it into a ball, got up and threw it in the trash, then went back to his seat and did the work.Hecould’ve cheated.Heknew the test was going to be hard and that it might impact college for him.Buthe didn’t.Hedidn’t take the easy way out, even when no one was looking.Evenwhen it really mattered and no one would’ve found out.”
Myeyes have stayed onOlliethroughout the entire story, even though he’s telling it aboutJace.Somany kids in high school look up to the school’s sports stars, or the popular students, or the ones who showed the greatest confidence even if they thought they were better than anyone.Ilove thatOllielooked up to theclassmate who showed integrity.Ittells me so much about him.
“Yousaw that?”Jaceasks, sounding bewildered.
Ollienods. “Yep.That’showIknow you can be trusted with anything.”
Withouttaking my eyes offOllie,Isay, “I’lldo it.”
Hissmile is oneIwant to put in my pocket and take with me everywhere.
“Whattime do you get off?”
“Three,”Isay.
Aquiet alarm goes off onOllie’sphone telling him it’s time for him to go to work.Iknow it is, because my watch buzzes, too.Itdidn’t take me long to realize thatOllieleavesCoffeeLoftevery day at the exact same time, soIset my watch alarm soIwouldn’t miss saying goodbye to him.I’mglad thatOlliedidn’t notice that my alarm went off, too.Iglance atJacelong enough to see that he noticed.Ofcourse, he did.He’san intelligence operative.He’ssupposed to notice things.
“Idon’t want to do the mission until closer to the end of the day,”Olliesays, “becauseIdon’t want to keep stolen documents at my desk a dozen feet fromTad.Canyou meet me in the lobby by the elevators at five minutes to five?”
