Attaching the last piece of the pulley system into place, I laid back, wiping my brim of sweat off my face, and examined the lovely trap that I had created within that past few hours.
It was beautiful- at least in my opinion. With a perfectly weighted pulley system, a large metal cage set directly under the gleaming pressure plate that would set the trap off within milliseconds, I didn't think that the SPYDER Agent knew what was coming.
Strolling out of the door that I had easily lock-picked, I locked it again, made sure I didn't leave a trace of my trap, and stood at the door, waiting for the shop to open. When it did, I would make sure the owner didn't set the trap off, buy an Ice Cream, and silently wait inside the shop for the first customer, or the SPYDER Agent to arrive.
After a few minutes of playing Clash Royale on my phone, I heard the closing of a car door echo through the parking lot. Quickly shoving my phone into my pocket, I stood up and pretended that I was a jittery customer waiting for my daily Ice Cream sundae.
The owner, who was in his fifties, didn't seem very surprised at my early arrival. Apparently, his shop was relatively successful, and judging from the Rolex that he was wearing, I expected that he probably took in a high amount of income per day.
He strolled past me, barely acknowledging of my existence (which is what most girls did to me), and quickly inserted the key into the hole of the shop's entrance.
Now, I had planned this whole 'prevent-owner-from-setting-trap-off' thing out, so I was ready for this.
The second the owner was about to step in, I shouted in fear, jumping straight in front of him. This caused him to trip over my body, virtually flying over the pressure plate that I had skillfully set.
The owner picked himself up, casting a dirty look my way and shaking his head. I grinned innocently, stepping over the trap myself and grabbing a bill out of my pocket that I had prepared beforehand. The owner's face immediately lit up, walking behind the counter and turning on the lights.
"What would you like to order, sir?" he said as I quickly scanned through the menu. There were a wide variety of items that Erica would've never even have tried in her life, but I settled for a low-calorie one. When you were a spy, you didn't want to consume too much fat per day (hear that, Murray?)
The owner rang up my purchase, walking over to the machine, and flicking it on. He went through his whole morning process, cleaning the tables, setting the plates, making sure all the machines were up and running, and making virtually no small talk with me.
"Sorry, you're going to have to wait a while for the Ice Cream machine to warm up," the owner said after watching me stand for an unbearably long time in front of the counter. I held back my 'You're tell me this now!?' and silently strolled over to a table.
I didn't exactly mind, though, since I would be staying here as long as I could to wait for the SPYDER Agent to arrive. And that was probably going to be a long time, since the SPYDER Agents weren't exactly going to get an Ice Cream at 7:34 AM in the morning.
About an hour later, I had comfortably settled down in a large table with my ice cream and my phone. Considering my life as a spy, life couldn't get better than this.
Until, of course, the first customer arrived.
The first telltale sound was the soft tinkling of the bells when the door opened. My eyes quickly averted from my phone, ripping my gaze away from Instagram, and watching as my eyesight settled on...
Trixie Hale, smiling and waving at me.
"Wait!" I shouted, springing up from my seat. "The trap hasn't been set ye-"
Suddenly, Trixie stepped on the pressure plate, causing the multiple actions to happen under a second. A metal cage sprung up from the ground, snapping together and trapping Trixie in the cage. The shop owner screamed.
Trixie's expression went from shock to betrayal, then it averted to the coldest glare I've seen in my entire life.
"It was you for the whole time," she seethed, collapsing onto the floor of the cage. "You were the double agent!?"
"No, I-"
"I trusted you!" Trixie cried, wiping tears from her eyes. "I thought you were the partner-in-spying that I would perfectly pair with! I-i liked you!"
I retracted in surprise, in which I couldn't hide. There were a million questions spinning around in my mind, but I couldn't necessarily get them out in one breath.
Trixie took out a sedation gun, hands trembling, and pointed it through the bars of the cage. Her raven-black hair fell down onto her shoulder as her fingers tensed on the trigger, ice-blue ice glistening with tears.
"I don't want to do this to a friend," she said silently. "But you've teached me a valuable lesson. People that I think I can trust aren't always my friends."
And with this, her finger pressed down onto the trigger, but the one who was sedated in the end wasn't me- it was the shop owner.
"Wha-" I said, desperately trying to get a good point out of my mind. "Why didn't you-"
"We have things to talk about," she said, trying to hold in her sobs.
"I'm so confused!" I said. "You were the one who told me to set this trap in the first place! You met up with me last night and gave me instructions on what to do!"
Trixie's expression turned to confusion. "I know nothing about that. Last night I was sleeping in my room! And you were the one who told me to meet up here! You left a note in my room telling me to meet up with you here at exactly 8:30 AM in the morning to talk about the mission briefing!"
"What?" I said. "You left me a note, not me leaving you a note! I never wrote anything last night."
"Yes, you did!" Trixie said, pulling a slip of paper from her pocket. Unfolding it, she held it out to the bars of the cage with trembling hands. Squinting my eyes, I could barely read out the following:
Meet up with me at the Ice Cream parlor two miles to the left of the hideout tomorrow at 8:30 AM, stat. We'll talk about the mission briefing then.
The weirdest thing? It was all in my perfect handwriting.
"I never wrote that!" I said, desperately reaching for nonexistent proof. "Look at the cameras in my room! I didn't write anything!"
"I disabled them," Trixie said miserably. "I didn't want to invade your privacy."
Suddenly, SPYDER's plan fell straight into my mind.
It was the most well-thought-out plan I had ever thought of.
First of all, they faked two notes. One to me, saying to meet up at 2:00 AM in the living room. Another, to Trixie saying to meet up here at 8:30 AM the next morning. They simply just mimicked our handwriting in this step.
Second, they faked the meet-up with me at 2:00 AM. That was the reason why the 'Trixie' said the lights couldn't turn on! They didn't want me to see who the person I was talking to was!
I couldn't help but slap my face in disappointment. How hadn't I thought of this earlier!?
The Trixie that I was talking to that night wasn't even Trixie herself! It was probably an undercover SPYDER Agent that had a voice moderator!
Then, they duped me into setting the trap here and making Trixie fall for it.
Genius, like a typical SPYDER plan.
Mind struck in thought, I didn't even realize when the door opened once again and two familiar SPYDER agents stepped in.
Jonas and Joshua strolled in, walking behind the counter and helping themselves to a complimentary strawberry smoothie. Cackling, Joshua took a look at my shocked expression.
"You don't have to act for Trixie anymore, Agent Jayden. You did well as a double agent for us," he said, taking a sip of his smoothie.
"I'm not a SPYDER Agent!" I shouted defiantly. "You're setting me up!"
Jonas laughed. "Stop soaking in your acting skills, trainee. You did well, as we already said. Manipulated this damsel perfectly into our trap."
"Now we can blackmail Erica all we want !" Joshua said, laughing along with Jonas. "Imagine the things we could get from her- important documents, key information, all of it!"
Trixie's glare just deepened into mine, breaking our eye contact and sniffling. She curled up into a ball, and for once, I wanted to hug her. After all of this happened, she was the toy that got trapped. She was the innocent person that got thrown into the cage. She was the blackmail item.
Trixie took another look at me, shaking her head in betrayal.
"I trusted you, Jayden. I trusted you."