The Young Spy (Book One)

Chapter 18: The Thumb Drive

"Let me tell you, I saw Emily at the mall yesterday and she was with this guy who was definitely not her boyfriend, and I heard from Sarah who heard from Mike that they saw her flirting with him at the party last weekend, so I'm pretty sure something's going on there, but don't tell anyone I told you because I don't want to start any drama,"

While Gracie continues her rant, Matt keeps his act by pretending to care about her gossip. He just kept nodding and wording, "Uh-huh, uh-huh." in doing so. He doesn't really care about it at the moment, and he never will, and Gracie keeps on talking like he has all the time in the world for it. Then, just as he thought he was going to have to listen to it for the entire lunch, Matt feels his phone sound in his pocket. He takes out his phone, hoping there would be an emergency or two that he can attend to stop having to listen to his noisy classmate. Lucky for him, there is. One not only capable to make him busy and stray away from the conversation but also something that'll get him out of school.

"Can you give me a moment?" Matt shuts Gracie up by lifting a finger.

"Uh, sure." She says. Matt keeps his distance while he's investigating what's what. A new notification bar is the first thing he sees on his screen. Tapping it, he suddenly becomes troubled by what the notification says. Motion detected in house yard. Matt freezes. There shouldn't be anyone in the house besides him and the house's caretaker. To be honest, Matt thinks it could be the caretaker, but he remembers that he's taking the day off. Surely, the caretaker would've said something that he would come back sooner. Could someone break into my house? Matt starts to get more than concerned. He zones out long enough to forget Gracie was even talking to him.

"Uh, look, it's been fun talking to you," It wasn't. "But I have to go do something, can we talk again later this afternoon perhaps? Maybe tomorrow?" Matt stutters.

Gracie raises her eyebrow, noticing that he's in a rush. "Um, sure."

"Great." Matt gives her a short smile before sprinting down the hallway, parting from Gracie who's left in confusion as to why he started to act like he did.

The house is not that far from Northview. Just a couple blocks away and with the astonishing speed of his motorcycle, Matt could travel back and forth in no time. Even though he was in a rush, he didn't want to break any traffic. Someone potentially breaking into his house is already a big enough problem than being pulled over by the police. Matt eventually arrives at the front of his house. He comes through the front gate and rushes in through the front door after unlocking the electronic lock. Once inside, Matt finds himself in the middle of a silent atmosphere. No signs of a break-in, and none about the caretaker either. He checks his phone again for the motion detector. Motion detected on top floor. The notification came in two minutes ago. He figured he couldn't have felt it when he was still riding on his motorcycle.

Matt, knowing someone is upstairs, climbs the staircase with haste, almost slipping on the carpet even. Arriving in the narrow hallway, he finds no one present. They must be hiding somewhere. But before he could check any of the rooms, Matt notices his office room, previously belonging to his father, had the door wide open. He would've remembered just now if he forgot to close it. Last he checked, he even locked it so no one would enter. Preparing himself for the worse, he enters the office. Surprisingly, there were no signs of some unwanted intruder in the room anywhere, not that he was aware of, looking from the middle of the room. Matt walks behind the desk, and what he discovers is such a pressing matter. Without him knowing, someone turned on the computer. The screen was still active, and that screen shows a mysterious progress bar that was already completed before he got here. To his shock, someone apparently transferred one of his personal files into a thumb drive of some kind.