Undercover

Incognito

    The light of the sun shines brightly on my eyes as I wake up to check my phone. 9:07 am. Okay that's fine, let's get to work. I make my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower, brush my teeth, and change my clothes. I look at the jacket I threw on the ground, picked it up and grabbed the ninja star and memory flash out of the pocket. Hmm, I can't lose this. I open the closet door and take out my new gray jacket with a green Nike emblem. Seems to fit the occasion right? I put it on, tuck the items into my right pocket and leave the house. I get to the bus stop and wait for my bus. Looking up at the sky, I see the sun beginning to rise on a cloudy day and the birds flying left and right. The bus finally arrives and I pay my fare. I sit at the back corner and notice nobody is really on the bus this morning. I guess it's a slow Sunday. In that case I can catch up on some sleep, so I go ahead and doze off.
    "Last stop! Acacia Boulevard!" The driver yells out. I jolt up and walk out quickly. "Thanks for the ride man!" The driver nods and drives away. I see the huge Marriott hotel and walk towards it. I reach the entrance and sit at one of the outside benches. They aren't here! I should probably text them. In fact why don't I text all of them? I pull out my phone and text Aaron. "Dude there you are!" Jordan says to me from a distance. I look up and see him and Aaron walk towards me from the street. "Haha! I was just about to text y'all. Where's Ryan?" Aaron motions me to get up. "He just texted saying he was at the McDonald's right across the street. We saw you here and we thought we'd get you. Let's go!" I get up from the bench and walk across the street with Aaron and Jordan. We make it to the front entrance and wander around a bit before finding Ryan sitting alone at a table near the trash cans. Aaron sits next to Ryan while Jordan and I sit in front. "What up dude?" Jordan says to Ryan as he looks up from his phone. "Oh, hey. I already ordered us food, so we can all get a head start." Coincidentally, the waiter sets down a tray with four sandwiches and drinks and takes the order card away. "Thanks," Ryan says quietly. "Thanks for buying our food Ryan," Jordan says. "We need to complete our missions as soon as possible." Ryan nods. "Yeah." The four of us grab our sandwich and eat. We stir up some small talk during our meal. I ask Ryan, "hey Ryan, what do you actually do as an agent, like I know it's a protection agency, but are all missions the same? What makes agents useful?" Ryan swallows his food and takes a sip of water. "Agents basically keep you safe from things that aren't supposed to be seen, or heard of." Jordan pops in. "Yeah, my first mission was to stop a kid from using highly advanced technology in public, because the world needs to be able to progress slowly. People can't know that." Ryan continues, "We take these unbelievable things and confine them so we can all progress smoothly. There are agents around the world all serving the same agency, and there are problems that can be caused in any minute, and if people find out, the world will be in a huge panic." I nod. "Read told me about that, but he never explained in depth. Like, what could be so dangerous the world would be afraid of?" Aaron enters the conversation. "For starters, paranormal activity. The WPA has an extra terrestrial agency where the best of the best work and communicate with actual aliens. The founder of the WPA, Erno Ruben, is over there right now exchanging information about technological enhancements." Ryan nods in agreement. "Yeah, there is actually more than you need to know about right now, so if you wanna get to know more, we need to get to work."
    The four of us leave the McDonald's and walk back across the street towards the hotel. "Okay, what do we do now?" I ask Ryan. "We go behind the building. We need to start from the roof down. If Tucker is by any chance up to something or being held hostage, we need to scan the area for secret rooms, hidden clues or any suspicious people." Aaron and Jordan nod in agreement. What the heck? "Ryan, how are we even gonna get up there? The building is like ten stories." Ryan chuckles. "Are you claustrophobic?" "No, why?" Ryan moves aside a trash can and points to the bottom of a wall. "We're going in through this huge air vent." "What? That's ridiculous. Is this what actual agents do?" I turn around to see Jordan and Aaron nod. Sigh, "fine. If that's how it works."
    Ryan takes out the cover and goes in first. The vent seems to fit the size of an average body, so all of us shouldn't take that long to get in. The problem is going up. Aaron hands me a pair of gloves. "Here. By turning these on you can stick to any smooth surface. I hope you have some upper body strength." I put on the black gloves and push the button in each wrist. The palm and fingers begin to glow red. Jordan begins to enter the vent. I look back at Aaron and motions me to the vent. "After you." I enter the vent and look straight up. No light whatsoever, except coming from the phones of Ryan and Jordan to see ahead. A ten story climb doesn't seem that bad. I take out my phone, turn on the flashlight, and stick it in my front pocket so I can see ahead of me. I put my hand slowly on the vent wall, and it sticks. I begin to put one hand over the other, in the dark vent. Eventually, Arron trails behind as I see Jordan and Ryan continuing their climb. A couple of minutes pass, and I see myself struggling to climb any more. But in the short distance above me I see Ryan and Jordan disappear at the top of the vents. They finally reached the ceiling. Jesus! Is being an agent really this challenging? I eventually reach the top of the vents and Aaron does also, and I see Ryan sitting comfortably on the side. "What do we do now?" I ask. Ryan points down. This is where the actual spy stuff happens.
    "We don't have suits that can cancel out recording devices, so you're gonna have to be careful on this one." Ryan says sternly. "If my calculations are correct, there is a 96.8% chance that Tucker is in this building. So we could be expecting company. I advise you get your flashlight and star ready." I can't believe I'm being mentored by a 12 year old. Ryan opens the vent cover onto the tenth floor, and looks down. Two surveillance cameras are spotted on each side of the hallway, and Ryan looks back at us. He pulls out two platinum stars, and tells me, "Watch and learn." He jumps out of the vent below him, and throws the stars in different split directions. Both break the cameras, while Ryan lands in a stunning pose. He gets back up, brushes himself off, and motions for the three of us to come down. Jordan jumps down, and Aaron and I follow. Ryan tells Aaron and Jordan, "it's best if we two split up, you two and I'll stick with Daniel obviously, we can get more things done and find more information. If you find anything, call me immediately, and I will do the same." Aaron agrees, and answers, "Jordan and I will search on the top five floors while you and Daniel work on the bottom half." Ryan nods and looks at me. "Looks like we better get going."
    Ryan and I reach the long stairwell and begin to walk down, but instead of actually walking, Ryan jumps down multiple stairs at a time. "You should try it," Ryan says to me a staircase down, "You can move a lot quicker." I nod, and lift myself off of the ground and make a SLAM. Ryan facepalms. "I meant quietly." We finally jump to the 5th floor door, and open it. Ryan turns to me. "Here's where you get your practice in." He points to a distant surveillance camera. "Get your star and throw it at that camera." Ryan backs away, and I step forward star in hand. I close one eye, focus on the camera for a second, and flick my wrist. Crack. "A perfect shot! On your first try!" I put a fist up in accomplishment. "Now grab your star and let's keep going." I nod, and run over to the broken camera. I jump and snag my star out of the broken glass pieces, and continue on with our search.
    We see ourselves on the first floor, specifically the lobby. People walk in and out of the hotel doors checking in and out of the place. "Busy day today huh?" Ryan nods as we continue to walk around. "I don't get it." Ryan says frustrated. "We checked all over the hotel, and we found nothing. I was sure there was gonna be something here." I pause for a second. "Hey, Ryan I don't think we checked everywhere." Ryan looks at me confused. "We haven't checked the assembly ballroom yet. Isn't there one at every Marriott hotel?" Ryan snaps his fingers. "You're right! We should get going right away." The two of us enter the elevator and Ryan sticks a star blade in the keyhole. The elevator begins to go down. As we reach the floor, Ryan and I walk out into the hallway with one big doorway at the end. Similar to the one nearest my house. Ryan and I quietly walk towards the doors, and put an ear up against it. We overhear talking, muffled speaking to be exact but we can make out a couple of words. Ryan whispers to me, "sounds like a conversation between two people. Can you hear what they're saying?" I press my ear up against the wooden door, and try to figure out some of the conversation. "I can here a couple of things, here's what he's saying, mhm, why am I stuck in here again? Yeah, you're here for government reasons, yeah no bull crap, umm, Ryan, I think Tucker is in there, and he's got his memories removed.
Ryan and I stand back from the doorway and Ryan and I begin to wonder. "Daniel, it does sound like Tucker is in there. I mean I do recognize his voice, but we need to figure out how he is in here, why, and all that crap." "Yeah, and if tucker is here, we're gonna have to reintroduce him to all of this agent stuff, or why he's being held captive here, do you think he'll be looking for his parents or something?" "I don't know, but it's best if we find out soon. We can finish a rogue agent mission in state record time." "Wait," I say. "We need to inform Aaron first. We did find a lead after all." I pull out my phone and dial Aaron's number. "Hey, dude? We found something. Come down to the assembly ballroom." Ryan sneaks in on my conversation. "Tell him Tucker's here. Or we think." "Yeah, Tucker's here I think. We think he's captured and taken hostage by somebody here. We just need to find out. Yeah? Okay." I put my phone in my pocket. "He says we can go on ahead and see what's going on." Ryan nods. "Ready for your first break in?" "Yeah. Let's do it."