Spy School Viva Vegas

Chapter 14 - Elvis

Oasis Motel
Las Vegas
June 14
0600 hours

It's not everyday that Woodchuck Wallace shows up at your motel door carrying a crate full of Elvis costumes.

We had all decided to stay in the same room that night, for safety. I'm not sure even her grandmother could have prevented Erica from keeping watch over me. So, we were all there when the knock on the door came at six in the morning. Erica quietly made her way to the door while Chip provided backup behind her, and Jawa stayed guard at the window.

The knock on the door repeated at slow intervals like it was some kind of coded message. Erica visibly relaxed after the fourth knock, and opened the door. Her grandfather stood there next to a grinning Woodchuck. His foot was resting on top of the wooden crate. There were red letters spray painted across the side of the box that said Top Secret, and Las Vegas. Woodchuck's smile faltered at the sight of everyone's confusion.

"You didn't tell them I was coming," he asked Cyrus.

"That was on a need to know basis," Cyrus said.

"What's in the box," Chip asked, unable to contain himself

"These will be your cover for surveillance," Cyrus said, brushing past him as he entered the bedroom area.

Woodchuck yawned, and followed him with the wooden crate, "I came on an overnight military flight. Special delivery, for your eye's only."

He popped a latch on the side revealing the contents within. It was hard to tell what was there. At first, they appeared to just be a bunch of lab coats, and I thought there might be some kind of mistake. But then the others pulled one out piece by piece. The confusion on their faces grew even more, and I tried my best to not break into a smile.

"Wait a second," Mike said uncertainly. "Are these Elvis costumes? Why do you have so many Elvis costumes?"

"Where did you get so many Elvis costumes," Zoe asked, echoing Mike's confusion.

"Who is Elvis," Chip asked unhelpfully.

Woodchuck chose to ignore this last question, and said, "They're from the school."

"The school had them in," Cyrus added, but couldn't think of any reason why the school would have kept them. Or, where the school would have kept them.

"Storage," Woodchuck filled in.

"Camp storage," Cyrus said, and glanced warily around at everyone, uncomfortable with their curiosity. He quickly added, "It was Ripley's idea."

Before my fellow spies-in-training could turn on me, someone started giggling behind them. They looked back at the source of the laughter, and their jaws dropped slightly. Erica was standing there, holding one of the white suits up, suppressing a smile while she laughed. Then she looked straight at me. I wasn't sure what she was planning to do next, so I leaned back slightly.

"How did you know," she asked me.

I let out a breath of air, not realizing I had been holding it for so long. Then, for perhaps the first time ever, I finally got to say what Erica always said to me, "I'm training to be a spy, it's my job to know."

Cyrus clearly didn't appreciate where this was going, and called us back to his attention.

"Find a suit that fits, and reconvene downstairs. Oh, and please be careful with these," he added with a look in his eyes that showed more worry over the costumes than he ever expressed for sending me on a dangerous mission.

Zoe shuffled out of the room behind Erica, Cyrus, and Woodchuck. The rest of us dove into the crate trying to find the smallest of all the costumes. When I saw Elvis wearing his jumpsuit in pictures, or being worn by the impersonators at the conference, I had assumed they would be a thick plastic material. Instead, these were very light and made with a stretchy material. All of them were a pristine white, with hundreds of small rhinestones fastened across the the chest and around the zipper that covered half the suit. The stones were different sizes and different colors, almost creating a peacock's tail like pattern across the front. At the bottom of the crate there were even black wigs with a wavy top, and thick gold-rim sunglasses to complete the ensemble. Because I was the smallest of everyone, the suit I found was a bit baggy, whereas Chip's was too tight.