Also Known As by Robin Benway Read Free Book Online

at his mouth with his handkerchief. “It sounds like a perfect assignment for you. Think of all those lockers with locks.”
    I waved my hand. “Whatever. Master Locks are child’s play.” I fixed my eyes on him. “Angelo?”
    “Yes, love?” He was still trying not to smile.
    “It’s terrible. Terrible . You have to get me out of it. You’ve been part of the Collective for a billion years—”
    “I’m slightly younger than that, darling, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
    “—and you can tell them that it’s crazy.” I sipped my espresso and made sad puppy eyes at him over the rim of my paper cup.
    Angelo looked at me and shook his head. “Well, first, I don’t have quite the influence over the Collective that you think I do, so I’m afraid that you are going about this the wrong way. Now, sit. Drink your coffee. Look at the beautiful fall leaves. Breathe.”
    See what I mean? Yoda.
    We sat in silence for a few minutes until I was almost done with my espresso. A bunch of kids my age were starting to stream past the park gates, completely oblivious to Angelo and me sitting mere feet away. Just hearing their laughter made my stomach feel hot, then cold.
    “See those girls?” I said, motioning toward four girls giggling and walking past us. “I can’t do that.”
    Angelo looked over his shoulder at them. “They look relatively harmless.”
    “Ha! That’s because you’re not a teenage girl. They’re piranhas, Angelo. Really well-dressed piranhas with shiny hair, who wear their clothes inside out.”
    Angelo’s eyes cut to me. “Was someone cruel to you today?”
    “Well, no. But it could happen! I’ve seen it in the movies.”
    “Maggie, my love.” Angelo smiled. “Have we finallydiscovered something that scares you?” He gasped dramatically. “And they said it wasn’t possible!”
    “I’m not scared!” I scoffed. (I was lying, I was totally scared, but there was no way I was going to admit that to Angelo.) “ Please . I was in Egypt when the government collapsed, okay? That was scary. This is just annoying and stupid. I’m annoyed that it’s stupid.”
    I sat back and motioned to the girls, who were now screaming with laughter over someone’s cell phone. “See, they’re probably a group of friends, but one girl’s like the ringleader”—I thought briefly of Roux—“and another’s the weak-link follower, and then the other two basically work as crowd control and—”
    Angelo put his hand on my arm. “Maggie,” he said. “Your job has always been to be a spy. And now you’re going to be a spy in a high school. That’s all it is. No more, no less. Now explain the assignment to me.”
    I sat back and gave him the brief rundown about the Oliver family and their wayward father and son. “So basically, I have to befriend some guy.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s probably a douche.”
    Angelo cleared his throat.
    “Sorry. He’s probably a jerk.” I sighed again. “He can’t even steal a paperback book , Angelo. It’s ridiculous. And I have to do homework and write term papers and it’s going to be horrible.”
    Angelo patted my back consolingly. “Well, darling, all I have to say is that you are a wonderful spy, the daughter of wonderful spies, so I’m quite confident that you will make a perfectly adequate high school student.”
    “Thanks,” I mumbled. “Tell me that part where I’m a wonderful spy again.”
    Angelo laughed and shook his head. “Maggie, you’ve been the same since the day I met you. Very smart and very dramatic.”
    I smiled despite myself. “Hey, thanks for the boots,” I said, holding up one leg to show him my new footwear. “I knew you picked them out.”
    “My pleasure,” he said. “I did some research on what girls your age wear. Which reminds me …” He reached into his valise and pulled out a plastic bag from Hudson News. “I brought you some reading material.”
    Teen Vogue and Seventeen magazines were inside, the cover girls