Spy School - Back to Basics [2]

18: Rush Exercise

The Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

May 12

1500 hours

I was still surprised by how simple it was. Almost as if it weren't even a mission. As if our mission wasn't really over.

Ivy told Cyrus exactly what he needed to know: the members, their rank, their locations, and more importantly, the location of multiple SKITTLE bases and the best entry points. Cyrus immediately called a raid. Rather than making an official one, he called in some old friends and did a raid together. Erica told me that as soon as SKITTLES realized all their money was missing, Cyrus and his CIA buddies tore down the door.

I could only imagine Elizabeth's shocked expression, changing from confusion to realization to fear.

Elizabeth and Adan were put on trial and determined guilty and sentenced to stay in the on-campus prison. Of course, as Elizabeth was being dragged to the high-security prison at spy school, she was yelling and screaming ("You won't get away with this! I am a MINOR and I have lawyers, you'll see what they'll do to you, mark my words!") but Adan was remarkably more quiet.

Elizabeth's parents were baffled. The CIA gave them a half-truth of the story, saying that Elizabeth had set up a bomb in the school that would have killed many people, if not for a fire that made everyone evacuate the school minutes before it exploded. Her parents were just as upset and angry as Elizabeth, and they too, made threats. ("You DARE harm a hair on her head when you put her in that awful prison cell, and this will be on every headline on every news station! In fact, if you dare to NOT let our girl visit us, I'll have every single one of you FIRED!")

Admittedly, I didn't really blame them too much. My parents would sure be making a huge fuss if I was arrested and was given very little explanation.

Ivy was arrested, Cyrus going back on his promise of giving her a three day head start. Her trial hadn't started yet; she was still in a secure military-grade vehicle being transported to the place where her trial would take place.

"It isn't fair," I said quietly to Mike, who was sitting next me. We were both in the library, supposed to be studying, but rather, we had started talking about the whole Ivy thing. "All she did was have information."

"She accepted payment," Mike protested.

"I know, but she was smart enough to know that if she didn't accept the offer she would be killed. No loose ends, after all," I argued.

"That's true, but Erica told me how stuck-up she was when you came to her for negotiations. Plus, she lied to you and Erica at first," Mike counter-struck.

"You still shouldn't detain someone just because they have information on you. Arresting her makes us just as horrible as the bad guys," I replied.

"And how can we make it so that she doesn't spill information?" Mike questioned.

"A non-disclosure agreement, plus some bribing. That's what they did with you," I said.

"And we saw how well that worked out," Mike said.

He had a point there.

"I concede your point," I said, "but I still stand by what I said. We came here to study, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Mike said, "but the test isn't until Monday. We should have the weekend off."

"Weekend? But today's a Thursday right?"

"No," Mike said, "it's a Friday."

I might have had a perfect sense of time, but I didn't have the hand of days of the week.

"I have to go," I said, frantically gathering my things.

"See you later," Mike said, with an amused smile on his face.

I raced to my room as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast, especially with my bookbag dangling from my shoulders, digging into my stomach everytime I took a step.

I made it to my dorm room, a bunch of angry fourth years on my tail who were annoyed that I accidentally destroyed their game of Battleship (with actual missiles), but I was still alive.

I frantically dropped my bookbag by the door, proceeded to do ten jumping jacks and dropped to the floor and started to do push ups, albeit shakily.

It was Friday. Erica promised that my first attacking-the-enemy lesson would start tomorrow, and continue on every Saturday. For my first lesson, I didn't want Erica to think I was completely out of shape and weak (though I was, by spy standards). I hoped to be able to at least put up a fight for two seconds, or be able to make a small muscle wall so it would hurt as much when Erica inevitably pummeled me.

I heard the noise of the lock being picked and sprang up. Apparently I hadn't lost the fourth years as well as I thought. I just had time to take a single step away from the door when it sprung open.

Instead of angry fourth years, Erica entered the room.

"You shouldn't anger fourth years next time," she said cooly. "Or anybody, really. It tends to get you killed."

"Ah. Yes," I swallowed. "Why are you here? You said you would teach me-"

"I'm not here about that," Erica brushed off. "I'm here because Grandpa told me something."

"What?" I asked.

"Ivy's vehicle arrived at the trail location last night, but when they opened up the back, Ivy was gone. She escaped."

915 words.

this is almost the end of the book; stay tuned for the epilogue!

I will be starting the sequel soon enough, and hopefully i will be getting in the habit of planing stuff out now