Spy School Viva Vegas

Chapter 3 - Jessica

Juvenile Detention Center
CIA Academy of Espionage
June 10
1600 hours

The principal kept giving me the stink eye every time he glanced my way.

I knew he was upset at me for stealing his ID and breaking into the prison a few weeks ago. But, I felt I had been justified, given that Murray Hill was in the process of breaking out at the time. Now, he was reluctantly guiding Cyrus and I through the maze of tunnels below the school back to that very same juvenile detention center. Cyrus was doing most of the guiding.

When we got back to campus, Cyrus made an excuse that he needed to see the principal on a work related matter. Alexander said he would happily drive his mother back to their house. I got out too, because, well, I didn't need an excuse. This was where I was living now. Erica followed me out, intent on joining Cyrus and I in interrogating Jessica Shang. Before she got too far, her grandmother called out.

"Just where do you think you're going, Erica? You've got a knitting party to attend," she said, smiling, while lifting up her bag of spoils from that afternoon's shopping.

We looked at each other and Erica said, "Yes, grandma."

We managed to quickly interlock our pinkies behind the door before she climbed back in and closed it. I would have preferred a hug, but that brief moment made up for an entire day of disappointments. Alexander quickly sped off, nearly driving over my foot. I watched them leave, thinking no one had seen Erica and I's moment of affection, until I turned to see Cyrus glaring at me.

"If you're done making goo goo eyes at my granddaughter maybe we can actually get to this mission."

With that we were off to Principal Sidebottom's office. I was hoping we could skip that part. So far, I had managed to avoid him entirely after our last interaction. He seemed to want to avoid me too, which was surprising. Every time I succeeded in a mission, he took it as a personal offense. But, my last mission was mostly a failure. It wasn't even a technically a mission, because  I was mostly just trying to stay alive. It seemed like a good opportunity for him to gloat over my screwup.

I needn't have been worried. The principal was terrified of Cyrus. And as soon as he saw him he tried to appear stiffer and more in control, but looked more like an impala about to be attacked by a lion. His office was still in a state of disrepair. It had been almost a year since I had sent a mortar right at it while trying to protect my fellow students from being blown to bits. This was another item on a long list of reasons he resented me. As we entered, we startled some pigeons that flew out of the exposed framing of the building. Because of the recent attack on the juvenile detention center, repairing it became the major priority. They redirected all construction funding to getting the prison operational again as soon as possible. That meant the principal's office repairs had been delayed, again, for another year. I was actually starting to suspect Cyrus had been pulling strings to delay the repairs as a way to annoy Principal Sidebottom.

"I still don't understand why he is coming," the principal said looking me up and down.

"There's a lot you don't understand, Barnabus," Cyrus said.

The principal frowned at the insult, tried to adjust his toupee, and said, "Well, this is still my school the last time I checked, and I'm also the warden of the detention center."

"This is the CIA's school."

"Well, they put me in charge."

"And they can take it away," Cyrus said.

Principal Sidebottom's courage left him. He decided it was best to not push further or he might end up in charge of the school's custodial services department. Luckily, it didn't take long for us to reach the detention center, since Cyrus and I both knew the way. I had been in there only a few weeks earlier, and at that time it was in total disrepair. The door had fallen off its hinges and papers were strewn about. All of the damage caused by Murray's henchmen, and, for once, not me. Now, almost by some miracle, it was completely back to the way it was before the attack.