Spy School - Back to Basics [2]

13: Contacting Allies

Before you dive into this chapter, I edited the previous one because I wasn't really satisfied with it. 

Outside the missile room

Vienna, Virginia

May 10

1230 hours

We stood as Ivy was fiddling with a control panel near the door. I felt sweat beading up on my neck and I gripped the phone Erica gave me. It had already been several minutes, and according to my calculations, it would only be seven minutes until the missile hit the school.

"Are you done yet?" I asked.

"Done," Ivy answered. "The doors are unlocked, all you have to do is turn the door handle."

"Alright, on three, Ben and I will enter," Erica directed. "Ivy, you should stay back, so you can rescue or provide additional distraction if needed. You'll have an element of surprise, since they may not know that you turned against them."

Ivy nodded.

"One." Erica started counting. I scooted towards the door, preparing for the running to come. "Two." Erica gripped the door handle, preparing to twist it. "Three."

Everything happened at once. Erica flung open the door and ran inside the missile room, and my legs somehow mustered the strength to follow.

As I ran into the missile room, I vaguely noted the fact of how the room was even bigger in person than on a computer screen. From my peripheral vision I saw flashes of Erica fighting Elizabeth (who was better at martial arts than I could have ever guessed) and Lacy (who just launched a couple of weak punches at Erica until Elizabeth told her to call for backup).

My eyes locked on the green neon exit sign. As I opened the door under the sign, I heard ten-something guards arrive into the room, mostly towards Erica, but some of the footsteps raced towards me. I gulped and let the door close behind me and saw that I was faced with a never-ending set of stairs faced with a door at the end. I started getting up the stairs, my strategy changing every once in a while- first sprinting one step at a time, then jumping then three at a time, and then finally settling on sprinting them two at a time.

I finally reached the top of the stairs and opened the doors. I nearly stumbled back because the sun was now shining in my eyes, and for a moment I just stood there before I remembered what I was supposed to do, but before I could pull out Erica's phone and dial Mike's number, I felt someone tackle me to the ground.

"You just signed your death warrant," Elizabeth's voice came from on top of me. "You could have just stayed in the security room, safe from what would have befallen your former middle school, but no, you just couldn't."

I was starting to panic: there was only six minutes left until the missile would arrive, and in that time I would have to call Mike with the instructions, and then he would have to set the grass on fire, and then someone would have to start the evacuation procedure.

I struggled to get from underneath her.

"Thank goodness, Erica, you came for me!" I yelled. It was the oldest trick in the book, but Elizabeth got off me, preparing to fight the non existent Erica. I took my chance and sprinted off.

The whole outside was deserted, with no buildings in sight. It was all just a huge meadow with a forest in the distance, but I didn't have the time to admire the scenery. I dashed towards the forest, hoping it could offer me some protection.

I heard Elizabeth closing in, but I managed to keep some distance between us, because I got practice from all those times I was running away from someone trying to kill me.

I finally made it into the forest and immediately diverted the direction of my run to a sharp right, hoping that I would lose Elizabeth, but I didn't turn around to see if my strategy actually worked. I ran for a bit.

I finally pulled out the phone and made the call.

"No time to explain, Mike," I rushed, "but I need you to set the grass on fire, immediately, as in, right now. You can, since it's your lunch period."

"Ben-" Mike tried to say something.

"Please, Mike. You only have a couple minutes," I replied. "And get off campus and as far away as possible as soon as you are done."

"Okay," he said shakily. The call ended.

There. I did everything I could. Now everything was in Mike's hands. I exhaled deeply and sat down, leaned on a tree and listened to the gurgle of a nearby river.

I was exhausted. Not much physically, but mentally, today was a wild ride. Sure, I had dealt with things like this before, but it didn't make experiencing these things any more pleasurable.

And there was another thing. Before, I didn't really know the would-be victims of SPYDER and CROATOAN's plots. Sure, I knew they were people, but it was much easier to think of them as nameless strangers without friends or a family. But now, all of the people about to be blown up by a missile were people in my town, people I saw almost every day before I started going to Spy School. They weren't nameless strangers.

I wondered how Erica was faring. She would have to fend off ten guards. What if she failed and they caught her? Would they kill her? Could she escape?

And what about Ivy? Had she jumped in to help? And why was she so hesitant to say what her other job was for SKITTLES? And what job was so special that it required a teenager, and a teenager that had to be blackmailed at that?

What about the rest of the class? Had they noticed that Erica, Elizabeth, and I were gone, or were they continuing on with our tour, forgetting that we existed? Not knowing that their school was about to be blown up?

"Mike, please. Please survive. Please make sure everyone's evacuated in time," I said to no one in particular. After all, there was nothing but a couple of rabbits to hear my plea.

"Please," I whispered. "Please. Everything is on the line."

1036 words.

I was on a vacation recently, and that's why I didn't update. Also, when I sat down to write this chapter, I started to really hate this book and realized I preferred Spy School Nemesis and my other books much more. But do not worry, I'm not going on a haitus. 

See ya :))

PS. Speakamumbo I updated before you >:)