Unknown Location
Somewhere outside of Las Vegas
June 14
1200 hours
"Wakey. Wakey."
Was this really Erica this time, or was Chip going to be in my dorm room again, I asked myself. I felt the hard fingernail thwack against my forehead between my eyes. I opened my eyes and the room I was sitting in slowly came into focus. There, in front of me, was a face that I had been looking for, but not exactly wanting to see - Murray Hill.
"Why do people keep waking me up like that," I asked, slurring my words. The knockout gas had not quite worn off, and I felt like I had cotton stuffed between my ears.
I turned my head and the room tilted to the side, and started to spin. I closed my eyes regaining my composure, and found my ankles bound to the legs of a chair and my arms were strapped behind me. All my friends were there too, to my relief, tied up in a similar way. Although, being trapped in this small vault shaped metal box wasn't exactly the best situation to be in. Several, bright, fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling, and I had to shut my eyes to block out the shine. Unfortunately, the only way out of the room was directly behind Murray, a heavy metal sliding door.
"Hey! Bens awake. Hey everybody! Bens awake," Murray said a little too loudly. He turned and looked at all my friends, who also appeared to be slow to wake up. Except for Erica. She looked poised for action. He was feigning surprise, since he had been the one to impatiently wake me. "How's it going?"
It was always surprising to see how Murray had changed since our last meeting. It could be weeks between these meetings, and in that time he would go through dramatic changes. This time, he had grown a mustache. Sort of. When I first saw the fuzz above his upper lip, I thought it was a chocolate milk stain. To be fair, that actually was more likely. He was constantly consuming junk food. But, no, the hair was real. It was clear he had grown it as a way to appear older, or at best, a very weak disguise. It had the opposite effect, and he looked like a teenager that was trying to appear to be older than they actually were. In the few seconds I had been awake, he had stroked it twice, clearly trying to draw attention to it.
So I decided to irritate him instead, "What's wrong with your face?"
"Nothing's wrong with my face. What do you mean?"
"It's like you haven't bathed. Do you wash your face," Mike asked, picking up on the game.
"Is this your 4 million dollar condo? Seems like you got ripped off. It's just a square metal room" Chip said.
Murray decided to ignore us. It was clear he had another agenda. So he said, "I'm dying to know. How did you find me?"
He wasn't dying to know, he probably already knew, but I played along and said, "Jessica remembered you got an apartment as down payment when you worked for her father."
A big grin spread across his face. And, with that, I realized that I had been set up. I always felt it was strange how he seemed to be leading us into a trap, but now it was obvious that it had been a setup all along. I didn't think Jessica had been in on it, but it was clear Murray had used her.
"You dropped a hint on purpose. Didn't you? You wanted her to tell us," I said.
"Maybe," Murray said coyly, but then he couldn't hold the rest back. "I may have mentioned it once or twice. I knew if she got caught she would try to get back into Ben's good graces." He glanced at Erica, but kept talking to me, referring to me as if I wasn't in the room. "Oh boy, does she have it for our young Ben here. It was like nonstop Ben this, Ben that, on the boat ride in Costa Rica."
I didn't know if that was true. I also didn't care if it was. I knew exactly what he was trying to do. He was needling me and Erica, trying to get under our skins. However, there was still something strange about him. He seemed to be acting, well, playful. It felt like he was anticipating some big joke that only he knew what the punchline was.
So I called him out, "Why are you acting so weird?"
He frowned, caught off-guard and blurted out, "I'm not weird, you're weird."
Chip laughed, "You're right, he is acting weird."
"Why must you ruin everything," Murray said to me, rubbing his temples. When he spoke next, there was an edge to his voice, "Fine, no sense delaying. While you jerks were twiddling your thumbs, playing junior scientists, I've been busy expanding my evil empire."
He walked over to the big sliding door, and grabbed the large metal handle.
"I'd like you all to meet my new number twy," he said dramatically, like he had been practicing the moment. He pulled on the door, but it was heavier than he expected. It took a lot more force to open and he nearly stumbled back.
"Ugh, you need to come to acting class with me," Chip said.
"You go to acting class," Murray asked, forgetting that the door had not opened fully. That's when we heard the number two Murray had intended to reveal bang against the door, apparently planning on entering with their eyes closed for theatrical effect.
"Murray," they shouted, annoyed, from behind the door.
I didn't need to see who it was. I recognized the nasally tone in their voice.
"Oh, sorry," Murray said. He pressed his shoulder into the handle and grunted as he slid the door to the other side, revealing our new foe.
The mean middle schooler from the science fair entered the room, still wearing his school's well-tailored uniform. He held his palms out at his sides as if he were basking in our adulation.
"Holly cow! Chip was right," Mike exclaimed. "Zoe! You're like an enemy magnet."
Zoe and Erica glared at Mike.
"What do you mean about Zoe," Murray asked as casually as possible.
"Well, everyone that has a crush on her seems to be evil," Mike exclaimed.
"I'm never going to live this down," Zoe said.
"It's okay, I'll break his big toe if he tells anyone," Erica said in her unique form of girl-talk. Although, for Erica, this was a step in the right direction. She didn't threaten to kill him.
Murray turned towards his number two and gave him a hard stare. Number two looked confused about all that was happening, and a little upset the moment for his glorious reveal had been ruined.
"Wait, so tall nerd is an evil member of SMUSH," Chip asked, confused.
"Tall nerd is a member of SMASH you dimwit," Murray groused.
"I have a name you know," number two said.
Murray changed the subject, and looked at me, "We don't need you to do our math for us anymore. We have our own genius here. I present to you SMASH's number two - Hayden."
When I went undercover at SPYDER's evil spy school, they tricked me into solving complex math questions as homework. They used my abilities to accurately calculate the trajectory of their missiles aimed at New York City. I had been fooled, but managed to stop them in the end. I didn't really appreciate this reminder, but I did like that Hayden seemed confused again. Or, maybe, he was upset no one was too shocked by his presence.
"Actually, math isn't my strongest area," Hayden corrected, tilting his head at Murray.
"What? What do you mean math is 'not your strongest area'?"
"I'm a mechanical engineer, and I've only taken enough math to figure out my designs. I only use it sometimes. I'm not a rocket scientist."
"I thought you said you were smart," Murray chided.
Hayden sighed, "You can know things other than math, and still be smart."
"Does that mean Ben is a rocket scientist? I knew you were smart, but dang," Chip said.
"I'm not a rocket scientist," I said quickly. "I just like math."
"Ben's totally a rocket scientist. He can calculate the trajectory of a projectile in his head in a matter of seconds. Can Hayden do that," Erica asked flatly. I knew she was trying to create conflict between Murray and Hayden, but it still felt really good to hear her be so supportive.
Murray continued his conversation with Hayden, ignoring us, but clearly annoyed with finding this out, "Fine, just make sure we are ready to go with your plan to...."
"You really shouldn't say anymore," Hayden cautioned, preventing Murray from spilling the beans.
"Why not," Murray asked.
"Yeah, why not," Mike echoed.
"My Aunt Electra told me to make sure you don't screw this up. And, saying the plan in front of our enemies feels like screwing this up," Hayden said with a sneer.
We all said in unison, "Ohhh, so that's what the E stands for." Except for Erica, who probably knew this information from her grandfather.
Murray glared at Hayden and gestured open palmed between him and us.
"Ooops," he said. Then to deflect away from his mistake, he pointed at me. "Well, it's obvious he doesn't know what's going on. I mean how could he. He doesn't look like a very good agent, he got caught after all, and almost pushed into a train. Plus, he never suspected me. I completely outwitted him."
I wasn't sure who looked more offended by this insult, Murray or me. Murray was even the first to come to my defense, "Ben is a very good agent. That's how he's gotten the best of us. He took down your Aunt for crying out loud."
Hayden frowned, "Well, that may be, but he still doesn't know what we're doing this time."
I was so annoyed with his ego, that I couldn't help myself. I burst out, "You're using the convention center as a hiding spot while you use a drill to dig underneath Las Vegas and get into the Wynn Casino's secret money vault and rob it."
I tried saying this as casually as possible, because I knew that would irritate Hayden. It seemed to work. Murray smiled. Hayden's jaw dropped. And all my friends turned to me stunned.
In all honesty, I didn't know if that was their plan or not. Maybe being around all these people playing poker made me think about bluffing. It was an educated guess, though. I had been so focused on Jessica's first piece of information that I forgot the second - SMASH was broke. Las Vegas was known to have lots of money floating around, and Murray could be trying to gamble his way out of trouble. But, then I remembered the movie Zoe and I had watched on the plane involving the roguish thieves digging a tunnel with a drill that looked remarkably like Hayden's robot. At some point after Hayden walked into the room, I started putting these pieces together, and I realized that his robot wasn't their for the battle, but actually a prototype of drill for digging underground. Plus, Murray had based his plans off of movie plots before. Finally, I knew that the closest big casino to the convention center was the Wynn. Thanks to Erica's advice and training, I had studied the maps of Las Vegas thoroughly any chance I got. The two nearest casinos to the convention center were the Circus Circus and Wynn. I took a bigger chance on the Wynn because it was separated from the convention center by a golf course, and I figured they didn't want to be drilling under a bunch of buildings.
"What? How? Where," was all Hayden could think to ask.
"Told you so," Murray taunted.
"It doesn't matter, you'll be too late and you're tied up in here. Let's go Murray," Hayden said, recovering first.
"I give the orders around here," Murray said. Then, since he didn't really have anything else to say, "Let's go."
"Bye bye," Murray said as his final words to me.
They strolled out of the room. It would have been threatening, but they both had to work really hard to pull the sliding door closed. It took a about forty-five seconds before the the bolt clicked. Still, we were trapped. They had left us to rot in the middle of nowhere.