The Lie

CHAPTER 1 June 30th

Navy woke up to the sound of a text from her phone. It was Alice telling her, ”Good morning.’’ Navy replied in kind. Then, she got her clothes around for the day and went to take a shower... Little did she know her room was being broken into.

Navy got dressed and walked out of the bathroom, still brushing her hair, and into her room only to find a woman and two men all dressed in black suits quitely searching for something.

When she saw them, she turned to run and call for help, but before she could, each man grabbed one of her arms and the taller man put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. However that didn’t stop her from trying.

"We will let you go if you sit down, shut up, and cooperate. Okay?" This coming from the taller man. 

Navy was scared for her life, so she nodded in compliance and the men slowly released her and she sat down on the bed and didn’t utter another word. 

The taller man, about 6’ 2, had blonde hair and was slightly muscular. He stood to the right behind the woman. The other man was shorter, about 5’ 8 or 5’ 9. He had black hair and was slightly more muscular than the blonde. He stood to the left behind the woman. They were both wearing black suits with black ties and a white undershirt, that looked like they were standard issue uniforms. The woman was different though. You could tell that she was the leader and that the men were like her back up. The three of them stood about 5 feet away from the bed where Navy sat in fear.

"Are you Navy Xavier?” asked the woman.

"I will tell you my name if you tell me who you are and what you are doing here. It is only fair." Navy replied.

She had gone from scared to just kind of annoyed, but you could tell in her tone that she was still a little uncertain how mouthy she could be before there were consequences. The woman looked mildly shocked at the way the Navy held her ground.

"I am special agent Laura. I am in the C.I.A."

She pointed to her right, "This is special agent Sean Williams."

Then, she pointed to her left, "This is special agent Tony Johnson."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" Navy questioned. "I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Laura held out a picture and asked, “Do you know this girl?”

Navy’s face went ghost white. She knew who it was in the picture… It was Alice. Why did the C.I.A. want Alice? Why were the C.I.A. asking her? Despite being mean, Alice was a goody-goody. She would never do anything wrong. Navy and Alice have been best friends for about four years now. They were more like sisters if anything. What hasn’t Alice told her? Why hasn’t she told her? They tell eachother everything. Or at least she thought that they did. Navy was second guessing everything now.

“Navy!” Laura said sharply breaking Navy’s train of thought. “Do you know this girl?”

“Yeah…” Navy said nervously. “I know her. She's my best friend. Why do you want to know? What do you want with her?”

“That is classified information. I am sorry, but you are going to have to come with us Navy, your life's in danger.” Laura replied.

Tony and Shawn went to grab Navy’s arms again and she thrashed away quickly. “GET OFF ME!” She yelled. Tony pulled his gun and Shawn put his hand on his gun as if he were about to pull it as well, but didn’t. 

“Stand down agents, now!” commanded Laura.

“You can’t just break into my room and accuse my friend of something and not even tell me what it is that she is accused of! You have no right to expect me to go with you. I don't know who you are and I don't know what you want from me or what you want from Alice. She has been my best friend for four years and I know for a fact that she would not do anything wrong. I mean no offense to her, but she's a total goody-goody.” Navy said defensively. “ Now please, get out of my house, leave Alice and I alone, and don’t come back.”

Just as Navy said that, her phone went off and she nearly jumped out of her skin. The agents looked sharply at the phone on top of the dresser. 

Navy was terrified. She knows that the only people that text her are her parents and Alice. She hoped to god it wasn’t Alice, which would be a first. But with them there, she was scared.

“Who is it?” Laura demanded. “Check it.”

“What?” Navy said in shock. “Check it?”

Laura responded, “Well, if Alice is your best friend, then I would assume that she texts you sometimes. Now check your phone.”

Navy stood and began to move slowly towards her phone. The phone went off again and Navy jumped. She stopped right in front of her phone, took a deep breath, and opened her phone to check her messages.

It was Alice. Navy’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment it felt as though time stood still and no one said a word. This is until special agent Laura broke the silence with her interrogating questions. 

“Who is it?” she asked again.

When Navy didn’t reply, Laura asked again, “It’s Alice, isn’t it?”

Navy replied with just about the most suspicious “Maybe” ever. 

“What did she say?” Laura demanded.

Navy replied, “She just wants to know if I wanted to hang out today and why it is taking so long for me to reply. I always reply within about 30 seconds unless something is wrong.”

Laura replied, “Well, then respond so she won’t think anything is up.”

Navy typed something quickly into her phone and hit the “send” button.

“What did you say to her?” asked Laura.

“All I said was: ”Sorry I was doing the dishes and I would love to hang out today. Why was I not supposed to?” Navy said with an innocent face, but she was trying to be clever so that she could leave. What would her parents do if they came home to her daughter being interrogated by the C.I.A.? They get home at about 10:30a.m. on Saturdays because they both work the night shift. It was 10:04. 

“Great, now we have to tail you when you hang out with her.” She rolled her eyes like a child.” Where do you guys hang out?” Laura said.

“We usually just go for a walk in the park and talk.” Navy said as though it were an obvious question.

“Okay fine, wear this.” Laura held out a wire.

“No way. You can tail me just this once so you will leave us alone because neither of us has done anything wrong, but I will not wear a wire. Not going to happen.” Navy said standing her ground.

“Fine then, have it your way, but we will be monitoring you and Alice for suspicious activity.” Laura said.

“Okay. Fine, whatever. If you find out that we’re innocent, then will you leave us alone and never bother us again?” she asked.

“Yes because if you are innocent, then there would be no point in bothering you two any longer.” said Laura.

“Great. I am going to the park.” Navy grabbed her jacket, walked downstairs, and opened the door to leave. 

When she opened the door, her parents were on the other side. With the agents coming down the stairs behind her, she panicked and shut the door in her parents faces and told the agents “Go out the back, my parents will kill me if they find you here. Please?” The agents nodded, then went towards the back of the house, found a door and left.

Navy open the door again to find her parents looking at her strangely. 

“We were just about to come in, why did you shut the door in our faces?” Her mother asked.

“Oh, sorry Mom. I thought you were someone else.” Navy said innocently.

“Who else would we be?” Her father asked.

“I don’t know, no one I guess.” Navy said. “Hey, I was just about to go to the park to hang out with Alice. Okay?”

“Okay, just be careful.” her mom said as Navy’s parents came in and Navy left.

“Hey, Navy.” Alice said. “What took you so long?”

“Alice, listen to me. We are being followed.” said Navy, she was jumpy and Alice could tell.

“Very funny Navy.” Alice said. She didn’t believe her.

“Alice, listen to me! I am not kidding. We are being followed.” Navy sounded serious. She was panicking now. Why wouldn’t she listen to her?

“Fine, I’ll bite. Who's following us?” Alice said still unconvinced.

“The C.I.A.” Navy replied with a serious expression on her face.

“You’re not joking are you? You serious, aren't you?” Alice said. 

She was convinced that Navy wasn’t kidding and that scared her.

“No, I am not kidding, Alice. They broke into my room and then started interrogating me about you.” Navy sounded a little annoyed now. “When you texted me I said that I would love to hang out so that I could leave, but then she wanted me to wear a wire. She wasn’t going to leave, so to get out and talk to you I said that I wouldn’t wear a wire but I would let them tail us. So no, I am not kidding.”

“Damn it Navy! They found me. Not again.” Alice said angrily freaking out.

“What? Not again? You knew?” Navy said in shock. 

Navy couldn’t believe it. Alice did something wrong, and not just wrong, caught the C.I.A’s attention wrong. She wasn’t little miss goody-goody after all. So much for a normal summer.

“I just wanted to live a normal life. I can’t believe they found me.” Alice said. “Do you trust me?”

“What do you mean ‘Do I trust you?’?” You lied to me. The last four years for me life have been a lie. I can’t believe you would do this to me”. Navy felt betrayed. 

“Do you trust me? Alice asked, but wasn’t sure she knew the answer anymore.

Navy was almost in tears. Alice was her best friend. Actually, Alice was her only friend other than Landon. She was lied to but, on the other hand Navy knew that she would do anything for Alice ever since she saved Navy’s life two years ago when she almost got run over.

Navy was on the phone and went to cross the street. A car ran a red light and Alice ran out in the middle of the street and as hard as she could, pushed Navy out of the way of the speeding car. Instead of Navy, Alice was hit. Alice broke her leg in three places, broke two ribs, fractured her back, dislocated her shoulder, broke her elbow, and got an awful concussion. All Navy did was spraine her wrist when she was pushed and fell. Navy owed her life to Alice and she trusted her.

“Navy, do you trust me?” Alice repeated after Navy didn’t respond.

Navy gently shook her head and said “Yeah… Of course I trust you. You saved my life, remember?”

“How could I forget?” Alice replied. “We have to go.”

“Go? Go where?” Navy was confused. She didn’t know what to do.

“Text your mom and tell her that you are going to stay at my house til Tuesday.” Alice said.

Navy’s parents loved Alice. They let Navy do anything with her. They trusted her. They thought that she was a goody-goody too.

Alice didn’t have parents. She lived with her older brother, Landon. Landon trusted Alice and knew that she knew how to handle herself. He also trusted Navy. Alice and Navy spent so much time together, Navy was like another sister to him.

“Where?” Navy said softly.               

“Just back to my house. Landon will know what to do. We gotta get rid of the C.I.A. agents first though. Where are they? Alice asked.

“I don’t know but if I see them I can tell you.” Navy said.

“Okay, but we have to move fast.” Alice and Navy began to start walking again. They walked to a small building that had restrooms. Laura was about twenty feet behind them and followed them into the restroom. When they didn’t come out of the stalls, she check under the stall doors and then kicked the doors in. They weren’t there, but there was a window above the toilet by about four feet. It was open and big enough for someone to fit through it. There was a forest behind the building at the edge of the park.

Tony and Shawn stood guard at the restroom entrance in case they came running out, but that wouldn’t do any good if they went out the back.