Shades of Gray

9. Two Redheaded Agents

"Zack to Chief- we've captured the eel dude. On the hunt for Tigress now. Over."

Before Graham could think to run away or something, two redheaded agents, one male, one female, turned the corner. Their jaws dropped as they took in Graham standing a few feet away from where Tigress lay on the ground, wheezing.

"Uh..." the girl said, casting a bewildered glance at the boy, who must have been named Zack. The two of them definitely looked related, and they both had strong Bostonian accents. The girl pressed her earpiece. "Ivy to Chief. It looks like someone has already got her."

She pulled a pen out of her pocket, clicked it, and dropped it on the ground. It wobbled and then stood straight up, and a familiar hologram shone from the pen.

"Chief?" Graham asked, surprised.

"Calloway?" Chief frowned, looking troubled. "What are you doing here?"

"Me? I work here!" Graham replied indignantly. "The better question is, what are they doing here?" He indicated the two redheads, who were apparently named Zack and Ivy.

Chief glanced around at the dark hallway. "Let's get this whole situation under control, then we can talk. What's your job here, exactly?"

"I'm an electrician. I'm working lighting for the show this evening," Graham answered. "But I can't get the lights to turn back on. I tried a switch that should have overridden any other settings, but it didn't work."

"That's because a V.I.L.E. operative called 'The Troll' hacked into the opera house's software." Ivy explained. "He's the one that turned the lights off."

"Yeah, but how do we turn them back on?" Zack inquired, addressing Chief.

"A.C.M.E.'s computer techs are working on that as we speak," Chief answered. "For now, we need to handcuff Tigress and get her back to prison."

Zack and Ivy quickly pulled Tigress' arms behind her, securing them with a pair of handcuffs. They carefully pulled off her claw-gloves for good measure.

"Take the tiger mask too," Graham advised. "It has a communicator and tracker in it, and you probably don't want her to be able to contact V.I.L.E."

Ivy nodded and pulled Tigress' mask off.

In between gasps for air, Tigress glared up at Graham, hissing, "You'll ... pay ... for this!"

"Can it, kitty," Ivy smirked at her. "You're in no position to be making any threats."

Chief cleared her throat. "If you'll excuse me, I have an urgent message coming in from another A.C.M.E. team in Saudia Arabia. Report back to me once the operatives are on their way to prison and the lights are back on."

Zack saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

The hologram disappeared, and Ivy replaced the pen in her pocket. "Let's get this furball to the pound." She picked up Tigress and slung the operative over her shoulder like a ragdoll.

"What did you do to Tigress?" Zack questioned curiously as they made their way to an exit to meet the A.C.M.E. van waiting outside.

"Kick to the solar plexus." Graham explained. "It's a bundle of nerves at the pit of your stomach. It also happens to be near your diaphragm, the organ that controls your breathing. Basically, after you get hit there, you'll be gasping for air for about ten minutes, and it also feels like your gut is on fire for a while after that."

"Ouch," Zack winced. "Remind me to stay well out of kicking distance from you."

"Who are you, anyway?" Ivy wanted to know. "Chief's mentioned a 'Graham Calloway' a few times, but I could swear I've seen you before."

Graham studied at the two redheads carefully. Now that Ivy had said something, he realized they did look familiar. "Wait, did you use to be a part of Carmen's team before you joined A.C.M.E.?"

Recognition dawned on Ivy's face. "You're Gray, aren't you? Carmen's former classmate that got his memories wiped?"

"Why does everyone insist on calling me Gray?" Graham threw up his hands in exasperation. "For the last time, my name is Gray-ham."

Zack and Ivy ignored his statement.

"But if he's Gray-" Ivy started. Graham facepalmed.

"Then he's the one that brought Carmen's memories back with that A.C.M.E. brain device thingie!" Zack interrupted.

Ivy frowned. "But that means he's also the one that she..." The redhead hesitated, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Yes, Carmen shot me with a crackle rod," Graham confirmed. "But I'm fine now, and besides, I probably deserved it. I've tried to kill her before too."

They finally reached some emergency exit doors. With her free hand, Ivy pulled out a small circular device and stuck it to the handle. It beeped and she pushed the door open.

"Designed this gizmo myself," she said proudly. "It briefly disables the emergency alarm so we can slip through."

"Nice," Graham replied. "Seems like a handy thing to have with you."

"Except for when it malfunctions," Zack snorted. "Ivy's not a big tech person; she's more of an engineer actually. So sometimes the alarm does go off."

"Hey!" Ivy huffed in indignation. "It's worked more than half of the time, so you'd better-"

She was cut off when an A.C.M.E. agent Graham unfortunately recognized yelled across the parking lot. "Agent Dean, Agent Paige, there you are! What took you so long?" Chase Devineaux stood with his back against an A.C.M.E. van, his arms crossed in annoyance.

"I thought your names were Zack and Ivy," Graham muttered to Zack.

"A.C.M.E. calls agents by their last names, but since me and Ivy are siblings, they decided to call us by our middle names. Having two Agent Russels would be pretty confusing." Zack explained. "But what would be so much cooler is if we had code names, like V.I.L.E. operatives! I could be called something awesome like Zack Attack!"

Graham opened his mouth to comment about how ridiculous that name was, but he quickly shut it. After all, he had wanted his codename to be Graham Crackle before his classmates quickly shot him down.

Before Ivy could answer, Agent Devineaux gasped. "Mr. Calloway? What are you doing here?"

Zack barged past Devineaux, pulling open the doors of the van so Ivy could throw Tigress in next to Neal the Eel, who was out cold. "It's a long story," he replied.

"Actually, it's not a long story at all. I work at the opera house," Graham piped up. "And I'd like to know what you three are doing here."

The pen in Ivy's pocket buzzed and she dropped it on the ground. Chief's hologram appeared.

"You'll get your answers, Calloway," she said. "The lights are back on in the opera house and the police are sending everybody home while they search the building. Perhaps you might take a ride in the van with my agents and I'll explain everything during the drive."

"Why not?" Graham shrugged.