Spy School: We Meet Again

Chapter 33: Three days

Erica's POV

We debriefed everyone on what has happened these past few weeks, but we left out the sleepless nights, the late-night cuddling, and the kiss.

"So let me get this straight," Zoe said. "You both met at a bar, only to later get in a fight that resulted in Erica walking away and later getting captured by SPYDER. When Catherine called Ben, he agreed to help and rescue Erica only for our dear Ice Queen to get captured again by Joshua and later almost get blown up. Though surprise, surprise she is still alive, as we can see now. To take advantage of the situation she went to hide in Ben's apartment and lived there for more than a week, only for Joshua to come to Ben's apartment and set fire to the whole building. Then you both went to Erica's house where you both decided that enough was enough, so you found a lead and went on a road trip to Hollywood."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, just don't forget that SPYDER doesn't exist anymore and now Joshua is the leader of Blaze," Ben said before I could confirm Zoe's debriefing. A lot really has happened over these past few weeks, but it's not like it has been any different on any other mission we were on when we were still in school. 

"Oh yeah! What's up with the name?" Jawa asked.

"We don't have a clue, but knowing that SPYDER actually meant 'an international consortium of independent agents who cause chaos and mayhem for a price' it could be anything," Ben laughed as he explains his opinion on the subject.

It feels so long ago now that Murray first told us about the secret organization. It's crazy to think how much chaos they were actually able to cause, if not for the world then certainly for us.

"Okay, that's a lot." Chip exclaimed. "But I have to say this though, what has happened to you, Erica? How did you manage to already get captured two times on this mission."

"Yeah right! I would have expected that from Smokescreen, not you." Jawa joined in.

Zoe looked at me and with a pointed look asked: "Are you sure nothing else happen?" It felt like she was looking through my soul. Like she already knows everything even though there is no way that she actually does... right?

"Nothing happened," I said. "Can we just try to figure out what we should do next? Because from what I know Joshua has something planned in a week and we aren't any closer to actually understanding what that plan is."

"Alright, calm down." Chip said with a playful smirk but decided against it once he earned a glare from me and Zoe.

"Excuse me?" I asked, not too happy about his choice of words.

Chip went stiff and leaned closer to Jawa who addressed him quietly. "Never tell a woman to calm down, don't you know that?"

There was an awkward silence between all of us, but we don't have time to just sit here and do nothing so going against my instinct to tell Chip off, even more, I moved on with the subject at hand. "Anyway, Cyrus still hasn't come back from that coffee shop, so one of us should probably try to get in touch with him. One of us should also try to get in touch with Catherine, see if she has found something, and everyone that is left needs to find new leads if possible, in any way you can think of."

"Well, I think me and Chip should try to find out any new information we can around the neighborhood'" Jawa was the first one who spoke. "Mike and Zoe should try to meet up with Cyrus and Catherine, while Erica and Ben should stay here and try to find anything new through the equipment Cyrus left here. As much as I would love for both of you to join us I think it will be safer for you to stay here, at least for the time being. Just until we find something actually useful."