I Defy (Sequel to 'I Spy')

Chapter 1

It was just a dream. 

I was still in the plane, lying over the three seats Ant and I had been assigned.  The roar of the engine along with the mumbles of other passengers soon made me come to my senses.  I wasn’t chasing Labelle through the airport, I wasn’t about to be killed. 

It was just a dream.  Labelle is dead. 

“I’m fine,” I said, nodding quickly.  Ant smiled gently and took my hand in his. 

“Did you have another bad dream?” he whispered, kissing my shaking hand softly. 

“Yes,” I murmured, curling up into a ball beside him. 

“Hey, everything is fine, okay?” Ant said, looking down at me with his beautiful blue eyes.  I smiled, my heart swelling, and leaned up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. 

“How far are we?” I asked as he rubbed a hand gently up and down my arm. 

“We don’t have much longer,” he reported, looking at the screen in front of him.  He didn’t need to, though, I knew he had been awake the whole flight, the hours ticking away in his mind.  “About an hour.” 

“Okay,” I said, releasing a yawn that had been crawling up my throat.  Ant chuckled and squeezed me closer to him. 

“You can go back to sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.” 

I nodded and shut my eyes once more, trying to stop my mind drifting towards the destination ahead of us. 

Our destination was Australia.  To the rest of the passengers, we were simply two kids, either in high school or college, going on a holiday to the big island.  We were carefree and young and were just looking for a good time.  In reality, we were two graduates from the Blackwood Institute, a school founded for training spies, looking for the former head of the CIA who was working with the French assassin who had been trying to put a bullet through my head for the past year or so. 

James Wilson and Emily Turner were the names written on our passports.  We were from London, England, and were going on a two month holiday to Australia.  Really, we were Anthony Carter and Marley Parker, an American couple, going on a mission. 

“Marley,” Ant mumbled while he lightly shook my arm.  “Wake up, we’re here!” 

I sat up, suddenly wide awake.  We were really there, in Australia.  I looked out of the window and saw the first sign of Sydney; the sparkling city lights contrasting against a dark, empty ocean.  I looked at Ant and smiled. 

“So, where do we start?” I asked excitedly. 

Labelle’s death (the French assassin) and my graduation just a week before had changed me in many ways, I realised then.  Firstly, I lost the fear that had hung over me like a black cloud since I first knew about the Frenchman.  I lost the nagging feeling at the pit of my stomach and the back of my head reminding me that there was someone trying to kill me. 

I also felt more in control of what I was doing.  I felt like there was no longer someone constantly in my ear telling me what to do.  I felt more relaxed.  No longer did I have to be on my guard; monitoring every move I made and everyone’s actions around me.  I generally felt freer. 

“We start by going to our hotel,” Ant yawned.  “Not everyone can sleep for a whole flight like you.” 

“So we’re not doing anything tonight?” I asked, trying to mask the disappointment in my voice. 

Another thing that had changed about me was my optimism.  Suddenly, all I wanted to do was run around the city looking for danger.  Previously I would have wanted to go straight to the hotel and hide under my covers; afraid of anything and everything.  I guess once you’ve lived through a two-against-seven attack on a train, your idea of fear changes.