Stephenie Meyer - The Chemist

“Okay,” she said, wishing her voice sounded stronger. “I’ll do it by myself, then.”

“Alex, you can’t,” Daniel insisted.

She smiled weakly at him. “I can. I don’t know how well I’ll do, but I have to try, right?”

Daniel looked at her, torn. She could see that he wanted to argue. He wanted to say no, she didn’t have to try, but that would mean walking away, leaving Kevin to die in agony. His was an untenable position. Now that there was any hope at all, how could he turn his back on it?

“Together, we’ll be able to get the first part done,” she told him. “It won’t take more than the two of us.”

“But the second you’re separated from Carston, he’ll double-cross you.”

Alex shrugged. “I’ll just have to sell my threat. If he thinks betraying me means the hostage dies, maybe he’ll play it clean.”

“You won’t know how he’s playing it. You won’t be prepared.”

“Val doesn’t want to risk her life. Can you argue with her?”

Val watched Daniel with half-lidded eyes as he hesitated.

“No,” he said. “But I can do her part. We’ll trade. Val, you could do mine, right?”

Alex squeezed her eyes shut and then slowly opened them again. “Daniel, you know that won’t work. Even if you weren’t Kevin’s twin brother, these are the people who put your face on the news.”

“Val can fix me up, can’t you, Val? Make me look different enough?”

Val’s expression shifted abruptly, became more engaged. She examined his face closely.

“Actually… I think I could.” She turned to Alex. “It’s not like anyone is going to be looking for him there. Trust me, a lot more people would look at me – even as a nameless assistant. I think I can make him different enough for them not to give him a second glance.”

“I’m not doubting your abilities, Val… but they’re twins.”

“Let me try?” she asked, an unfamiliar pleading tone coming into her voice. “I do want to help Kevin.” When she said his name, Einstein looked up. “I just won’t die to do it. Let me do something.”

Einstein put his head on Alex’s leg again.

“I guess I could let you try. But it’s a waste of time and we don’t have enough of that as is.”

“It won’t take me that long.”

“And you’d be willing to do Daniel’s part of the plan?”

“Sure, that’s easy. No one will be shooting at me.”

Alex winced.

What was she contemplating here? People would be shooting at Alex for certain, she’d already come to terms with that. But if Val could disguise Daniel enough, which Alex couldn’t even imagine, then they might be shooting at Daniel, too. She reminded herself of all the reasons they had to go after Kevin. He had too much vital information. If he told the bad guys everything he knew about Alex and Daniel, the cars they were in, the places they had to go to ground, the way Alex operated, it wouldn’t be that hard for the Agency to track them down. Val, too. Most likely, they’d all die anyway.

Die like cowards, running.

But the reasons were moot. If there was a way to save Kevin from what was happening to him, she had to do it. There was a bond there now that she hadn’t even realized was forming. He was her friend. Her second liability. They were hurting him, even as she sat here considering. She had to stop it.

“Get to work, Val. This first part will take me two hours, if I’m lucky. When I get done, we’ll reevaluate.”

Though she’d lived in DC for almost a decade, Alex had never visited the National Zoo. She’d always thought of it as something for children, but there seemed to be plenty of adults attending today unencumbered by offspring.

There were still many, many children – it seemed like thousands of them yapping in high-pitched voices and flailing around their parents’ feet. All appeared to be under the age of five, so she guessed school wasn’t done for the year yet, though it must be close.

She tried to think how long it had been since she’d first met with Carston, but she couldn’t tally up the days in a way that made sense. Daniel had had around three weeks left of school then. More time had passed than that… hadn’t it? Maybe Daniel’s school finished earlier than average.

Alex’s first stop was the rental line at Guest Services. It wasn’t long. Most of the visitors would have arrived earlier, in the cool of the morning. Lunchtime was approaching, with the sun beating down almost directly overhead. Some people would leave then, avoid the high prices of the food inside the park. Head home for naptime.

She had quite a bit of information about Erin and Olivia, all gleaned from Erin’s Facebook page. It was the same place that, months ago, she’d found the picture of Olivia that hung around her neck now.

Alex knew Olivia was three and a half. Still small enough that she would fit in a stroller. Alex knew what Erin looked like from nearly every angle and had a good idea of the kinds of clothes she wore. She knew Erin was a late riser and probably wouldn’t have gotten to the zoo right as it opened. She knew Olivia was most excited about seeing the pandas.

Alex paid nine dollars cash for a single stroller, then put her backpack in it and headed into the park. She craned her neck around, searching. It made sense that she would be looking for someone – maybe her sister and nephews, or her husband and their child. There were lots of other patrons looking for their parties. She didn’t stand out.

Erin and Livvy would be past the pandas by now, probably thinking about lunch. She analyzed the map she’d gotten with the stroller. She’d try across from the apes first, then near the reptiles.

She walked fast, ignoring the turnoffs and viewing areas.

Erin had the fair skin of a redhead, like her father. She’d posted pictures of herself sunburned and moaned about freckles. Erin would be in a hat and probably light long sleeves. Her hair was bright and hung halfway down her back. It would catch the eye.

Alex scanned the crowds as she moved quickly through them, looking for a woman with a child, ruling out those with friends and spouses and multiple children. For a while, she followed a woman with her hair rolled up under a wide-brimmed straw hat pushing a single stroller, but then the child climbed out to walk with her – it was a boy.

A quick loop around the big cats, and then down toward the petting zoo. All the while, she was conscious of how she looked – map in hand, vigilantly searching for her companions. She wore a straw hat of her own over the dark blond wig and wide-framed sunglasses. She had on a plain T-shirt, boyfriend jeans, and the sport-shoe/ballet-flat hybrids that would let her run if she had to. Nothing about her would be particularly memorable.

Several shades of red hair had grabbed her attention throughout the course of her search, but many of them had been clearly unnatural. Others had been on women too old to be Erin, or too young, or holding extra children. Now she spotted one headed along the trail toward the Amazon exhibit – a long braid of golden-red hair swinging from beneath a white bucket hat. The woman was pushing a single stroller; it looked exactly like Alex’s, tan molded plastic with a dark green shade. She wore a sleeveless tank, and her arms were thick with freckles. Alex walked quickly after her.

The woman wasn’t moving fast; it didn’t take long for Alex to pass her. Alex kept her head down and glanced into the stroller as she walked alongside it.

The little girl looked right. Her face was turned away, but the fluffy blond hair seemed the same. Her size fit the profile.

Alex kept walking and beat the mother and daughter to the exhibit. She parked her stroller in the designated space beside the bathrooms, inconspicuously wiping the handle with the hem of her shirt before she removed her backpack and shrugged into it. Now that she was fairly certain the woman was Erin and that Erin had her own stroller, she didn’t need this one.