Spy School Project X: A fan teaser

Chapter 11 - CONFRONTATION

June 23

Murray's Compound

0710 hours

Erica and I crept along the hallway towards the control center. My heart was pounding inside of my chest as I tried to be as quiet as possible. Apparently I wasn't quiet enough.

Erica turned around with an annoyed look on her face. "You do realize that the goal here is to not make any noise, right?" she hissed.

"Oh, really?!" I whispered sarcastically. "I thought we were trying to let Murray know that we were coming. I was just about to pull out my cymbals and start banging them together." Erica ignored my response and kept moving. Then she suddenly stopped, causing me to bump into her. She turned around yet again and rolled her eyes. 

We stood outside of a closed door marked Room 124 - Control Center. Erica motioned for me to move to the other side of the doorway. I obediently shuffled past her, then pressed my ear to the door. The muffled sounds of a conversation filtered through.

"Sounds perfect. Let me know when everything is ready to go." There was a pause. "Don't worry, you'll get your money as soon as everything goes boom." Another pause. I realized that I was listening to a phone call. "Oh, those trouble makers? Don't worry about them. I've got them locked up nice and tight." I looked to Erica, who also had her ear pressed against the door. We shared a look, confirming that we were thinking the same thing - we were the trouble makers. "Alright. See you soon. Bye-bye." There was a click as the phone was replaced on its dock. "Hey guys! You can stop hiding behind the door now!" Murray shouted. "Come on in, it's unlocked!"

Erica rolled her eyes again, then swiftly entered the room with her pistol drawn. I mimicked her movements, drawing my pistol as well. Murray sat in a large office chair in front of a maze of computer screens, a smug grin plastered on his face. Some of the screens were black, most likely because Erica and I had destroyed those cameras. "Did you actually think that you could sneak up on me in here?" he snorted. I have more cameras in this place than CIA headquarters."

"Shut up," Erica spat, pointing her pistol directly at his face. "What are you planning this time?"

"Oh, it's not gonna be that easy," Murray shot back. He cleared his throat, and I felt fingers the size of kielbasas clamp around my throat. My blood immediately ran cold: Dane Brammage.

If the Hulk was real, Dane would be him. He was built like a sequoia tree and despite our best efforts, he refused to die. He had survived a helicopter crash, an avalanche, sinking into a frozen lake, a shark attack, a waterslide falling on his head, and a fall off of the Eiffel Tower, just to name a few. Over the past six months, he had made our missions a nightmare. At the end of our last mission we had apprehended him along with Murray, but apparently he had escaped as well.

Murray's smile widened as he noticed my fear. "That's better. Now drop your weapons or Dane squeezes your brains out." My pistol clattered to the floor. Erica, who also had a hand clenched around her throat, dropped hers as well. Murray leaned back in the chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "So, how have you been? I didn't get to talk to you very much at the airport, seeing as you passed out and all. And by the way, I'm very impressed that you managed to defeat two of my assassins and actually escape." Murray was exceptionally cocky when he knew he was in control of a situation.

"I asked you a question first," Erica struggled to say.

"Touché, but I'm not the one about to get throttled."

He had a point. "We've been terrific," I responded. If Murray really was planning on killing us, our best hope of survival was to stall him until we had a chance to get the jump on Dane. "I thought you and Dane weren't working together anymore," I said as innocently as I could, "seeing that you kind of deserted him back in Panama." I saw Murray's smile fade a little at this.