Page 15

FIFTEEN

THEO

SPY PLAN

Day 465

Kenji presses his right palm against the frosty windowpane, peering inside. His breath fogs the glass, and he scrubs at it with his sleeve before glancing back at me. “You think he’ll wake up if I tap?” he signs, his expression skeptical.

“Worth a shot,” I reply, rocking back on my heels to give him space. My fingers twitch against the rough weave of my coat pocket, the biting cold making them ache. The pale light of the early dawn stretches over Rolling Hills, illuminating the cottage with its creeping glow. The air is still, except for the crunch of frost, which I can feel beneath my boots.

Kenji knocks softly at first, his knuckles barely grazing the glass. Nothing. He knocks again, and it looks louder this time. Still no response. “He sleeps like a log,” Kenji mutters under his breath, quickly signing along for me.

I gesture for him to move aside. “Let me try.” I press my fingers against the window, rapping sharply three times. I don’t know how loud the knock was, but the figure inside doesn’t stir. Farron’s curls are a dark halo on her pillow, her face slack with peaceful sleep. Adrian is out of sight, probably drooling on the mattress.

Kenji fidgets beside me. “Why are we being so careful? Just knock louder ? —”

“We’re not waking Farron,” I snap, my hands moving quickly. “Last thing we need is her finding out we’re scheming this early in the morning.”

Kenji snorts but relents, crossing his arms against the cold. “Your funeral if she finds us.”

I glare at him before giving the window one last determined knock. Finally, Adrian stirs, his curls poking up like a bird’s nest. The window creaks open an inch, and Adrian’s bleary face appears, one eye squinting against the dawn light.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Adrian asks, his hands fumble clumsily for a moment to form the words—his exhaustion obvious.

I step in front of Kenji, signing clearly. “Get dressed and meet us outside. Don’t wake Farron.”

Adrian’s gaze flickers past me to where Farron sleeps, her form silhouetted in the faint light. He nods once before retreating, leaving the window ajar. Kenji huffs beside me, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.

Before we know it, the front door opens, and Adrian steps out, bundled in his coat. His eyes are slightly clearer now, though his irritation lingers. “Alright, what’s the emergency?” he asks, rubbing his hands together for warmth.

Kenji scoffs. “The emergency is that Theo barged into my room at some ungodly hour, panicked, and now we’re standing in the freezing cold because he can’t wait until a reasonable time to share his theories.”

Adrian’s smirk grows. “Oh? Did Theo interrupt your happy time, Kenji?”

I burst out laughing. “How’d you guess?”

“Because Kenji’s more angry than usual, which means he must have been having the sweetest dreams of my Sunshine that you dragged him away from,” Adrian replies with a wink.

I stifle a laugh as Kenji’s face turns crimson. “What is your problem?” Kenji snaps, throwing his hands up. “Can we focus?”

Adrian chuckles before looking at me. “Alright, what’s so urgent?”

“I think we need to look into Trevor,” I tell them .“I know no one wants to believe it could be one of their own, but something doesn’t sit right with me.”

Kenji’s eyes narrow, his disdain for Trevor evident. “You think that weasel is behind this?” I nod and notice Adrian’s doing the same thing. He must agree with me. Kenji looks between us, his expression troubled, before dropping his head back onto his shoulders and letting out what’s either a deep breath or a big sigh. “I get it. Trust me, I do. But we can’t jump to conclusions. We need solid evidence before we accuse him of anything. We don’t want to create unnecessary panic or create problems with other people.”

“Todd mentioned to me that even he’s worried about Trevor’s behavior,” Adrian says, adding more fuel to the fire. His eyes lock onto mine. “He said Trevor’s been acting strange lately, more secretive and distant ever since we got here.”

I grind my jaw as I listen to Adrian, feeling more angry at Trevor than I have at anything or anyone in a long time. The tension in my body coils tighter, my fingers twitching with pent-up frustration. “Even his own brother is concerned? That’s gotta mean something, K.”

Adrian hesitates before signing, his movements more deliberate. “There’s something else…” He looks between the two of us, as if trying to gauge if he should continue with whatever he’s about to say. Finally, his hands start to move again, slower this time, as though the weight of the words he’s about to say is weighing them down. “I didn’t want to say something, because it felt fucked up to make an accusation like this… But, K, do you remember that time a few weeks ago when those zombies got in and you and Jay had to take them out?’

Adrian looks to Kenji for confirmation before continuing. “Well, when I followed Farron to check out the fence, it didn’t look like they got in on their own. It looked like someone had fucked with the fence and that’s how it happened. Don’t you think it’s weird that Trevor was right there when it all went down?”

Kenji’s brow furrows as he processes all of this information, his face a mask of disbelief and concern. “Jesus…” he signs, wiping his hand down his face. The tension in his entire body is palpable as he considers everything. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you guys. I don’t trust Trevor either. In fact, I’m almost convinced he has something to do with this, too. But we still need to be careful. We don’t want to make things worse by jumping to conclusions, and we will make it worse if we wrongly accuse the brother of one of our friends and someone who’s lived here their whole life of doing something like this.”

I feel myself deflate, the wind knocked out of my sails by Kenji’s words. He's right, but I can’t shake the greasy feeling coating my insides at the thought of Trevor and what he could be up to. I don’t want to worry Farron and cause tension within Rolling Hills if Trevor really is innocent, and I definitely don’t want to take our attention away from what could potentially be a bigger issue when it comes to the shed.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to move forward when Adrian starts clapping his hands, causing me to jolt and look up at him. He’s got a manic little gleam in his eyes, and his usual smirk on his face, as if he's already thought of the solution and is excited to share it.

“I can’t believe I’m about to be the voice of reason,” he starts with, which tells me whatever comes next is most definitely not going to be reasonable. “We should spy on him.”

My mouth drops open and I stare at him, dumbfounded, unsure of what to say. When I’m finally able to spare a glance at Kenji to see his reaction, I find him sitting with his arms crossed, staring at Adrian with a neutral expression as if daring him to continue.

“Now hear me out,” Adrian says in a lame attempt to placate us. “We don’t trust him, but we can’t say anything because we don’t have proof. So… Let’s get proof. We’ll discreetly follow him to see if he does anything suspicious, and we’ll get evidence if he does. If he doesn’t, it should give us enough peace of mind that he’s probably not actually some evil mastermind.”

“How are we supposed to follow him and spy on him without it being obvious, and without Farron noticing that we’re disappearing constantly?” I ask him, wanting to see what he comes up with.

“We won’t be following him all the time, obviously. Maybe just at night or super early in the morning, when he’s more likely to do something since no one’s around. And we won’t all be spying on him. At least one of us will stay with Farron.” His eyes ping pong between Kenji and I before he gives us a wide grin and says, “Duh. C’mon, it’s foolproof! We’ll take turns, stay discreet, and keep Farron in the dark. What could go wrong?”

“It pains me to say that I don’t think that’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Kenji responds, surprising me.

Adrian punches the air in victory. “Yes! Operation Silent But Deadly begins now.”

“Absolutely not,” I say, my hands moving sharply.

Adrian winks. “Fine, we’ll workshop the name. But the plan stays. Let’s catch ourselves a traitor.”

“When do we start?”

“Oh me! I can start today. I have a few things to do with Miss Nora this morning, but then I can start after. I’m so excited. You know, I always wanted to be a spy.”

“I thought you wanted to be a circus performer?” I ask.

“I also wanted to be a turtle owner, but we all don’t get what we want.” Adrian snaps back.

“Like one turtle or several?” I reply.

“Will you two shut up?” Kenji interrupts us. “Adrian, you are on spy duty today, I can take over tomorrow.”

“I can fill in where needed. Let’s not discuss this with anyone. If my hunch is right, then I don’t know what this means for everyone.” My thoughts go to Farron, Todd, Henry, Nora, and everyone who’s been here since before the world ended. Todd and Trevor were born here, like Farron, and grew up together. If he’s the cause of all of this, I don’t know what is going to happen or what they will do. We have to keep this quiet until we are certain, and if it’s not him, then we have to start increasing our patrols until the culprit shows themselves. A sinking feeling settles low in my gut, and I just hope I’m wrong about this.

“Oh wait!” Adrian says, his hands moving quickly. “We still need a name for ourselves.” I turn to look at Kenji, pleading with him to stop Adrian before he gets carried away, but Adrian’s already got the ball rolling. “What about the Shadow Squad? Sneak Squad?”

Kenji and I just stare at him. “Oh, what about the Stealth Bros! The Lurkers?”

“Enough,” Kenji tells him, shaking his head. “It’s time for bed. We’ll figure out the spy stuff when it’s not the ass crack of dawn.”