Mysterious Driver's Car
May 15
1100 Hours (11 AM)
Ben POV
I woke up to the sound of a bing. I opened one of my eyes, letting my pupils get adjusted to light before opening my other eye. I remembered the events of the previous few hours, and I tilted my head to the right, and I saw Erica was up already, and she was checking her phone.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"Checking our location," she replied, showing me her phone. My eyes went to the longitude and latitude in the upper left and corner, and I instantly knew where we were. But I had one more thing on my mind.
"What was the bing I heard?" I further accused.
"That was me texting Cyrus to tell him that I'm alright," Erica replied once again.
"Anyways, there's no internet here, so can you look at the longitude and latitude and tell me where we are?" Erica said in business mode.
"We're in Washington D.C," I said, momentarily pausing to look out the window, "we're in a Walmart parking lot. My mom used to bring me here a lot."
Just then, the car door opened. I jumped and I thought that we were going to be capture by Spyder agents, but then I realized it was the driver. She closed the door and handed the First-Aid kit to Erica. She then turned around and realizing who she was, my jaw dropped.
"MOM???" I screamed.
"Yes Ben, it's me. Let me explain. First, what do you think my job is?"
"You work for an insurance company. Medical Insurance 6 to be exact." I said.
"The insurance part is just a cover. Combine the first digit of each word and it forms..." Mom said, and I realized she wanted me to finish it.
"MI6," I realized. My mind was blown.
I glanced at Erica to see how she was taking this, and even her eyes were a bit wider than usual.
"But, how did you find us?" Erica asked, still a little suspicious.
"Catherine told me that you had escaped from Spyder's base but you would need transport," Mom explained.
I then remembered that we had technically ditched Catherine at Spyder's base. (As I was writing this I realized I ditched my favorite character Catherine, so I had to fix this. Sorry Catherine) Erica must have been thinking the same thing because we slapped our heads in sync.
Mom, realizing what was wrong, said: "Don't worry, she escaped." We both let out a deep breath that we didn't even know we had been holding.
"Now, I'm going to go buy some groceries, so Erica dear, can you please stitch Ben's wound," Mom asked.
"Yes, Mrs. Ripley," Erica said, being respectful.
"Please don't call me Mrs. Ripley, it makes me feel old. Call me Sarah."
"Okay, Sarah," Erica said.
Mom clicked a button on the stereo system, and the glass of the windows for the car turned slightly darker.
"These windows are now bulletproof and one way. You can see out, nobody can see in." Mom said. I whistled in amazement. Mom nodded to show that she felt the same way, then shut the door.
"Are you surprised?" Erica asked me while looking at the supplies in the First-Aid kit.
"I still can't get over the fact that my mom's an MI6 agent," I said honestly.
"We're both in the same situation then. Both of us are CIA Spies in Training who have moms who are MI6 agents." Erica said, smiling.
I laughed, realizing this was true.
Erica grinned a bit longer, then took out a bandage and started wrapping it around my leg.
"To remove the swelling," she said.
When she touched my leg, I immediately recoiled, my leg stinging more than 100 bee stings.
She gave me a sympathetic smile but continued wrapping it around. I tried holding in, but the pain was too great. My eyes started to tear from the pain, and when Erica saw this she immediately stopped.
"Something's wrong," Erica said.
"Besides me getting shot in the leg?" I asked.
"You shouldn't be feeling this much pain. It may have a crucial nerve, like your ACL.
"As if a normal gunshot wound wasn't bad enough," I said, groaning and rolling my eyes.
"That's too bad," Erica said, then she quickly wrapped the rest of the bandage around my leg before I could do anything.
I shouted in pain, then fell to the ground in tears.
"Sorry," Erica said, and it looked like she meant it.
"One... more thing..." I said, gasping for breath.
"What's that," she asked.
"You still owe me that hug," I said, trying not to sound like a weirdo.
Erica looked confused for a second, but then she realized what I was talking about and she laughed.
"I'll give it to you when the time's right," she responded.
"Okay then," I said, trying not to look too disappointed.
At this moment, Sarah came back. She handed a salad off to Erica, who opened it and immediately started to eat it.
"I've never been away from salad this long!" She said between bites. I laughed at the way she was eating.
Sarah then handed me a cup of ramen.
"Oh yay, cup noodles!" I said. Cup noodles are my favorite food. Once Erica and I had finished eating our food, we got down to business.
"We should get to Saint Smittens and let everyone know you're alive," Erica said.
"That's a good plan. I'll drop you at the edge of St. Smittens," Sarah said.
"Thanks, Mom!" I said.
Sarah turned on the engines, backed out of the parking space, and set directions to St. Smittens.
TIMESKIP TO ARRIVAL
After 20 minutes, we arrived at the edge of Spy School. Sarah had to return to MI6 Headquarters, so I walked the last 1/2 mile. Erica was going to sneak onto campus and enter her room. When I arrived at the gate, I produced my identification. The guard's eyes widened when he saw my name. He excused himself for a second and went into the booth. He came out a minute later with a report. He handed it to me.
Identification: Valid
Name: Benjamin Ripley
Status: 2nd Year
Personal Status: Dead
"It says here you're dead," the guard said to me.
"Can you please bring Cyrus here? He'll know that I am me," I said to the guard.
The guard nodded and stepped into the booth again. I saw him talking on the phone, and a minute later he returned.
"He will be here momentarily," the guard told me. I said thank you and waited.
1 minute and 23 seconds later, I saw Cyrus come into view and approach me. Instead of greeting me, he walked around me in a circle, as if studying me.
He then nodded at the guard and said, "This is him."
The guard let us both in through the gates. As we were walking, Cyrus said, "We don't have much time, so follow me."
I nodded. We walked through a series of staircases I had never seen before until we reached a familiar area. The Principal's office. Or as Zoe would say, the Idiot's Closet. We walked in, and I was surprised by what I saw. Inside were Zoe and Mike, both grinning from ear to ear.
"Hi Smokescreen," Zoe said in her usual cheery voice.
"Hey Ben," Mike said.
"You both don't seem surprised," I said.
"You have a knack for surviving things you're not supposed to," Zoe said.
"Touché," I said back.
At that moment, Erica walked in. Cyrus cleared his throat, signaling he was about to speak. I started paying attention to it.
"You all are being activated," Cyrus said, handing me a FOR YOUR EYES ONLY file.
I opened it.
"Operation Stealthy Tiger," I read, "Why are their pictures of Antarctica and penguins in here," I said, confused.
"Because this is Spyder's next plot. To blow up Antarctica to increase the sea level. (All rights to Stuart Gibbs for this idea, this is the plot of Spy School: Goes South, but the storyline for this story will not be the same)" Cyrus said in a grave voice.
"It says here 5 people will be going on the mission," I said.
"Yes, you 4 and you will meet 1 other MI6 operative there," Cyrus said.
I nodded.
"If there are no questions, then this mission will start tomorrow at 0530 Hours sharp! (5:30 AM)" Cyrus said in a tough voice.
I sighed. Tomorrow was going to be interesting. We all nodded and started towards the door.
Now, all we had to was wait...
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
- Cookie