Agent Moonlark

Chapter Seventeen

Sophie

Sophie did not waste anymore time. She bolted out of the room at lightning speed, not even checking to see if Keefe was following. Once in her room, she started furiously opening the drawers of her desk. She took out a backpack. She tore it open, caring more about speed than carefulness at the moment.

"What are you doing?!"

"Preparing," she answered absent-mindedly. She dumped gadgets that she'd hoarded over the years into her backpack.

"Aren't we going to tell someone where we're going?"

"Gee, didn't think you'd be the one to ask me that. We don't have enough time. They could die any moment, now. Time is of the essence."

"Time is of the essence?" He snickered.

Sophie dragged a hand down her face. "Gods, I've been hanging out with Agent Forkle too much."

"...There's no denying that." Keefe watched as she grabbed Calla's diary and the post-it notes he had written on just hours ago. It seemed like days had passed since then.

Sophie ran into her closet and selected some clothes just in case. "Aren't you going to bring some things yourself?"

"Aren't we going to my room after this?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "No, I am going to raid the kitchen. You can join."

"Heck yeah!" Keefe pumped his fist in the air. "I am not missing out on this." He darted out of her room, leaving her to finish preparing.

Sophie took a jar. After all, she needed to keep the Panakes flowers somewhere. She scribbled a note for Agent Forkle. Making a mental checklist, she thought about everything she should bring. Her fake ID. Her credit card. Her phone, of course. Once she was sure she had everything, she gave her room a last glance before going to the kitchen.

She started running to the kitchen, then realized that Keefe probably didn't know where it was. She doubled back to his room. Sure enough, she found him in the hallway right outside his door with a duffel bag, looking lost.

"Let's go," she said impatiently when he did not see her at first.

Inside the kitchen, she put containers on the counter and started filling them. Meanwhile, Keefe was taking everything that didn't seem remotely healthy.

"Seriously? Cookies?"

"Hey, I'm a growing teen!" He grinned cheekily at her, and stuffed a container of mallowmelt into his bag.

Sophie sighed and tried to take as many vegetables and fruits as possible.

"You know," Keefe said as he munched on chips, "this is my definition of a midnight snack."

Sophie ignored him and marched to the garage, which was a couple floors up.

"Woah," Keefe said in awe. "Those. Look. Awesome!" He gestured wildly to the shiny cars in front of them. They looked like sports cars, but Sophie knew that they were even faster.

"Tinker invented these. She calls them lightleapers. She named them after their speed. They can go faster than even a racecar. Really fast. They also have...additional features."

"Which one are we taking?," Keefe whispered. His eyes were as round as saucers. He gaped at the cars.

"That one." Sophie pointed to the one in the middle. It was slightly more elevated than the others. And by slightly, she meant a few feet. It even seemed to shine more.

"Wow, Foster. You've really outdone yourself this time!" Keefe was already at the side of the car.

Sophie took a bobby pin out of her hair and crossed over to the safe where the keys for the car were. She stopped when she saw no lock, then groaned. Of course. She was so used to having to break into places with low-quality (in her standards) security systems that when she came face-to-face with ones like the Black Swan's, she forgot to bring more advanced material.