Read Two Lies and a Spy for Free Online Page A

relief, he is.

Chapter Five
    At noon I stride into the Starbucks like I own it, and my attitude says: What are the rest of these losers doing here? I pay cash for a latte and slouch toward Rita, into the darkest corner of the place. I’m in my Goth getup, and I’m starting to feel at home in it, sneering at everyone. It’s a good way to relieve my anxiety.
    Rita is wearing the pink Chanel glasses, which set off her dark skin to perfection, with a motorcycle jacket and skinny jeans. In her ears she’s put a diamond stud (left lobe) and a pair of dangly silver handcuffs (right lobe). She’s got on killer black stiletto boots that make my feet hurt just looking at them, and I think they’re Jimmy Choo, meaning that it would take me two years to save up for them. Rita and her mom have a totally different idea of what’s normal to spend on clothes than I do.
    I’m pleased that Rita doesn’t recognize me until I sitdown opposite her and smirk. She does a double take, a slow rescan of my appearance, and then nods with approval.
    “Girl,” she says in low tones, “ everyone is looking for you and Charlie. You’ve been declared missing children.”
    I’m glad we dressed Charlie as a girl. “Have you heard anything about my parents?”
    Rita stares at me blankly, and I realize that she doesn’t know they’re MIA—or what started all this. “Rita, they got in touch with us yesterday, a Code Black message. That’s why I left art class and disappeared. We’ve tried to meet them in three different places, but they haven’t shown up. I don’t know where they are or what’s going on.”
    She scans the tables around us before answering. “Look, all I know is that Senator Dad got a phone call last night. I don’t know who it was, but I heard him repeat the words ‘suspicious activity?’ and then ‘the Andrewses’?’ I couldn’t hear much, but he said, ‘No, certainly not. Why do you ask?’ Then he stayed on the phone for a few minutes, just saying ‘Uh-huh. Okay . . . I see’ and stuff like that. When he got off the phone, he seemed very weirded out. Distracted.”
    “Did you ask him who called?”
    Rita nods. “I tried. He said, ‘Nobody.’ Then he asked me if I’d seen you or Charlie. I hadn’t, and that’s what I told him. When I asked if something was going on with your family, he told me no, no and not to worry about it. But he looked stressed, and I think he was lying to me.”
    I take a sip of the latte, even though I don’t want it. It’smore a prop than anything else. “Do you think he knows where my parents are? Or if something has happened to them?”
    She shakes her head. Her high, spiky ponytail waves back and forth. “He seemed shocked at the call. Clueless. Then stressed, like I said.”
    I think for a moment. “Rita, does your dad tape his calls?”
    She shrugs. “At the office, probably. At home, no.”
    “I have to find out what’s going on.”
    Rita raises her right eyebrow. “So, what, you’re going to waterboard my dad?”
    I give a weak chuckle.
    “Bug my house?”
    I purse my lips.
    “Don’t even think about it,” Rita says, shaking her finger at me.
    “But—”
    “No. I’m not saying I couldn’t figure out how to do it, but I am not bugging my own parents’ phones or house. Sorry.”
    I’m not sure I mentioned that she’s scary-good when it comes to most technology—and in her zeal to become a spy, like my parents, she’s . . . explored . . . a lot of it. That’s probably a polite verb to use.
    “Rita, somehow I need access to Agency data.” I toss this at her like a liver snap to a starving Pomeranian.
    “You’re asking me to hack into the Pentagon?” There’s a sparkle in her eyes, despite her dubious tone.
    “Well . . . not exactly. I’m not sure it’s possible.”
    “Is there a Pentagon or Agency mainframe? One that holds every single piece of important U.S. data? It’s highly unlikely. And even if something like that existed,