Spy School Blast Off

Chapter 8 | Exploration

Hotel Akrenine

Room 778

Kansas City, Kansas

September 11

0930 hours

"Hey!" Mike said, bursting into my room. "I found something!"

"What?" I mumbled, rolling over in my bed. 

"I found some info on Leslie's dad, Jake Sadiske," Mike said. "He's a businessman who's in the space business, a computer information manager who has billions, somehow."

"Why does he have billions? A computer information manager only makes like 120 grand a year, not billions."

"That's what makes him suspicious," Mike said.

"But why is he evil?"

"Well, the people who know him describe him as 'very nice and generous, never hesitating to help others'."

"So basically he tricked everyone he knows?"

"Except us," Mike said. "The company he owns is, surprisingly, is unknown. I guess even his employees don't know his real identity."

"Ah," I said. "Why don't we just search for COOs of space business companies? There couldn't be that many."

"Because he could be using a fake name," Mike pointed out. "And, there is a total of 72 space companies. That is quite a bit of companies, once you add in the fact that there might be plenty of computer information managers as well as the fake name thing."

"Ah," I said. "So why'd you even tell me this?"

"Maybe you could squeeze some more information out of her tomorrow," Mike said. "Now you already know the information that we know, you can get some new info."   

"Do I have to meet up with her today?"

"Nah," Mike laughed. "Wishing you could be with Erica, huh? Well, you're in luck. Today Catherine wanted us to tour the city. Although I think it's to spot any potential hiding places if we ever get chased by the bad guy."  

"Okay," I said. "When are we leaving?"

"Now," Mike said. "We're getting breakfast in the town. See you in the lobby!" With that, he walked outside back to his room. 

To be honest, I was kind of excited to be able to spend the day in the town with Erica. Even if we were only scouting out potential hiding places and escape routes, it'd be cool to have a day off. 

I met Mike, Erica, Catherine, Zoe, and Warren in the lobby.

"Good morning, Benjamin!" Catherine said brightly.

"Hi," I said. "So we're going into town?"

"Yes," Zoe said. "Also, I'm really hungry. Can we go now?"

"Yeah, I'm hungry too," Mike said. "I'm going to get like a six feet tall stack of pancakes."

"Okay," Catherine said, counting heads. "Everybody's here! Let's go!" We walked out of the lobby and headed towards town, talking. 

"Do you think they're going to have a pancake place?" Mike asked.

"I hope so," I said.

"Me too," Zoe said.

"I don't like pancakes," Erica said. "I'm just going to get a salad."

"WHAT? YOU DON'T LIKE PANCAKES??" Zoe practically shouted. "What's there not to like?"

"Pancakes are made with refined flour, which causes obesity. Also, the syrup has too much sugar," Erica explained.

"You're missing out," Mike said as we neared the town. I stopped to look around. The buildings seemed to be made recently, with a modern look. There were some skyscrapers along with a Walmart, a Barnes and Noble, and a frozen lake with a park in the middle of the town.

Luckily for Mike, they did have a pancake restaurant and we all filed in there, red-faced from the cold.

"I'll have a stack of chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup," Mike said to the waitress.

"Okay," she said. "Anything else?"

"And a chocolate shake," he said. She wrote it down on her pad and turned to me.

"What do you want?"

"Same as him," I said.

"I'll have two plain waffles," Catherine said. "And a cup of English breakfast tea."

"Can I have a stack of blueberry waffles with butter and no syrup?" Zoe asked. 

"What? No syrup? Are you crazy?" Chip said.    

"Now, now, Chip, she can order what she wants," Catherine intervened. "What do you want?"

"Two stacks of pancakes with extra syrup," Chip said.

"You're paying for that," Zoe said.

"I thought Ben was paying!" Chip said, trying to deflect the bill to me.

"Fine," I said. "Just this once. But you're paying for lunch." Soon, our food came and we dug in without a word. The only sounds were chomping, chewing, and the occasional burp (usually from Chip). In record time we had finished eating and were out.

Erica was already scouting out places, casually looking at the park or some promising looking alleyways. We did some sightseeing, taking the stairs to the top of some skyscrapers and looking down at the small town. By the time we had finished going up and down all the skyscrapers, my legs felt like they would give out. Thankfully we sat down on the park bench for a while.  

"This is a cool town," I said. "Except for the stairs. I mean, why can't they just put an elevator there?"

"Because as you walk up the stairs, you can look out the windows," Catherine said.

"Why don't they make like a glass elevator or something?"

"Like that Roald Dahl book?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," I said. 

"I guess that would work," Catherine said, "But it would cost a bloody lot of money."

After some more sightseeing, it was lunchtime. I made sure to buy the most expensive thing on the menu, which was a t-bone steak. Chip obviously didn't seem too happy about that. We also got some burgers and some tea (Catherine's choice).

Time flew by quickly and soon, we found ourselves back at the hotel. We had a quick dinner at the hotel, then we all bid each other goodnight and retreated to our rooms. I wasn't really looking forward to interrogating Mia, but it was for the sake of the mission. I quickly undressed and when my head hit the pillow, I was fast asleep.