It's a Spy vs. Spy World

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

                Mine and Rick’s dinner was cut short when Caesar sent Reeky to fetch us so we could meet with him. As we joined him in his office I wondered this meeting would be about. Did he have any new information to share with us or was he just going to ask how Rick was doing? For the latter I already knew what I would say. Rick had been making really good progress, he impressed many of our teachers that day having completed all his work the previous night proving his dedication in the process, and even though in physical training he had to take his first stab at working out he managed not to injure himself which was a very good sign. Although, if he wanted to stand a chance against Carter on Friday he had a lot of work to do.

                On the downside Rick was becoming increasingly annoying and had escalated to teasing me at every chance he got for the prank id been so stupid to fall for. On that note, the Phoenix hunt had gone badly. The twins were nowhere to be found; I couldn’t believe they were smart enough to stay away from me. No matter, I would find a way to get back at them for getting one over on me.

                 Back to the meeting. I found it weird that Caesar took such an interest in Rick, usually he rarely requests to meet with newbies more than once, the only person he'd taken as much of an interest in is me. But I wasn't jealous or anything, well maybe a little, however, at least I knew Rick and I were mostly just meeting with him to discuss the attack; it wasn't because Caesar cared about Rick like he cared about me. Or at least that’s what I told myself for the time being.

                In his office Caesar was, as always, annoyingly lost in his work and barely noticed us until I announced that we had arrived. Once I did he looked up and smiled kindly at us both like he was genuinely happy to see us.

                "So Richard how has your time here been so far? I take it that Jess has been treating you well since you are not yet dead." Ha-Ha Caesar but I ignored his jab because I was more tempted to tell him to cut the small talk than to fuel it.

                "I like it here a lot. I think this is where I'm supposed to be." Rick answered thoughtfully.

                "That's good. So you're not having any troubles then?"

                "Nothing that Jess can't fix." Rick smiled at me. I returned his smile but turned back to Caesar quickly. At times I can be severely impatient.

                "So, Bridget told us that they weren't dead and that they escaped. Care to elaborate?" I asked him.

                "There's not really much to say. I visited the site where they crashed the van, our two agents were in the back, they were rookies and we should have known better than to put them out for transportation duty. When we had them in captivity they answered none of our questions and were not in the system. Basically we have no idea where they could be or any means of getting that information." Caesar explained and I was not happy at how little information even he had. Maybe he was keeping something from us? But there was no way I could tell and even if I could there was no way I could get it out of him, he's too good a spy.

                "What are we supposed to do then?" I asked.

                "You two aren't doing anything. We are letting the professionals at the CIA and NSA handle this matter."

                "But Caesar-" I tried but he cut me off.

                "No Jessica that is final. You should just let it go." yeah like I could do that, did he know me at all? "I have a mind to pull you both out of the challenges on Friday and not let you have the free day in case of another attack." I stood up abruptly and slammed my hands down on his desk.

                "You can't do that Caesar! Our team needs us." I argued. "And if anything happens on free day I'll be watching him and so will twenty other AITs and our trained professional teachers." Caesar stared me down for a few moments to make sure I knew he was the one in charge and that what he said goes, but I did not back down. I held his gaze. There was no way I was missing a free day or any challenges over this stupid mess.

                "Very well then, you can do both but on one condition: you cannot go more than ten miles from HQ." it was better than nothing but I would find a way to get around that condition.

                "Is that all sir?" Rick asked standing up as well. I'd almost forgotten he was there. I guess I didn't leave much room for him to join the conversation.

                "Yes. You two may go. Jessica just remember I want a progress report at the end of the week." he dismissed us and I almost groaned as I thought about more writing. As we walked to the common room together Rick wouldn't let either topic go.

                "What does he mean by progress report?" he asked. I kept looking ahead too lost in thought to answer his questions with detail.

                "A report on how well you are adjusting and doing in classes."

                "Well obviously mine will be really good right?" he smirked at me. I raised my eyebrows at him and he pretended to pout. I rolled my eyes, "So do you think he is right that we shouldn't go out?"

                "No I can protect us both."

                "Are you really going to lay off?"

                "For now I'll do what he says but I'm not going to give it up an he's an idiot if he thinks I will." I answered.

                "What are you thinking about?" Rick asked and I knew he was staring at me and had noticed I was distracted.

                "I'm thinking about what my next move is."

                "Our next move." he corrected and I rolled my eyes. "So, what is our next move?"

                "To listen to what he says, although do research under the radar. I want to find out who our traitor is. No one else seems to bring it up but it's obvious we have a traitor here or else they wouldn't have known we were coming to get you that day, and that we left HQ two nights ago. Whoever it is must have seen us, we have to be careful." I explained and Rick nodded.

                "Do we need to involve anyone else yet?" I had already asked myself the same question.

                "No, not yet anyway." we dropped the subject then as we reached the common room. "For now just act normal and if anyone asks, Caesar just wanted to see how you were doing." I instructed.

                "Gotcha."