Identity Zero novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Letter

"My crew won't believe a fall," Jesse said.

"Crews believe anything that comes with a flag." Gorham waved his pastry at the door. "Dismissed, Zero."

Jesse walked out.

He made it down one flight before a hand closed on his arm and pulled him sideways into the supply closet under the stairs.

The door shut.

Mops. Bleach. Gideon, breathing like he'd run.

"You sold yourself," Gideon said. "In front of the board. To that man in the gloves."

"I bought you."

"I didn't ask to be bought."

"You didn't ask to be shipped overseas either."

Gideon pressed his fist against the shelf beside Jesse's head so hard the bottles rattled.

"He'll mail that notice the day he takes you," he said. "Not before. That's how he does it."

"Then my crew needs to hear from me first."

Gideon stared at him in the dark.

"Nothing leaves this place without Curt reading it."

"Something always leaves," Jesse said. "Ask Ollie about the cake."

That night he wrote it on the back of a range target with a golf pencil.

He wrote to his superintendent, care of the crew station in Tacoma.

If a box comes with my name on it, it's empty. Don't bury it. Don't call anybody. Wait for me. Burn this.

He folded it into a square.

Ollie held his hand out from the top bunk.

"No," Jesse said.

"Yes."

"They're watching me, Ollie."

"Exactly. They're watching you." Ollie wiggled his fingers. "Nobody watches me. I'm the guy who can't tie a bowline."

"How?"

"The produce driver. Tuesdays. Ten bucks and he drops anything in a mailbox in Forks."

"I've sent my mom four letters. She thinks I'm at a very strict summer camp."

Jesse put it in his hand.

Ollie tucked it into his sock.

"See?" he said. "Vault."

In the morning Ollie wasn't in his bunk.

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