Super Secret | Half Hero Book 2 [ON HOLD]

Chapter 7: Hypothetical Advice

My mom was supposed to call when she got home. It was twelve forty-eight, way past her usual bedtime, and she still hadn't checked in with me.

I was perched on the back of the tacky puce loveseat in my room at headquarters, cradling the landline like a crazy person. 

My mom was absolutely allowed to go out and have fun, but it was infringing on my sleep schedule and I was getting cranky. Also, if I called the house, Aaron would chew me out for waking him up, which I figured could be kind of funny.

My fingers punched the numbers and I listened. Several rings later, I slammed the receiver down and picked it back up to dial out again. I repeated this pattern five more times before the line finally connected.

"Mom?" Aaron's voice sounded groggy and slightly panicked.

"No, it's Ella, where's-"

"She's on her date you spaz!" Aaron exploded angrily. "What the hell? You're a bag of-"

The line cut off into nothing and I howled a bunch of nonsensical naughty words at the phone. 

Just for hanging up on me, I was going to call the house until I got that little douche-canoe back on the phone, but the line was dead.

I tossed the useless thing onto the cushions and hopped up to investigate, padding across the floor. Two muffled thuds rattled the wall before I could reach the door, and I crouched defensively to look for movement. Something wide was blocking a good portion of crack under the doorframe, which became very obvious when sickly gray coils of vaporous mist started filtering through.

Beneath my kitchenette sink was a kit for emergencies Galen had shown me. I moved as lightly as I dared to retrieve the red plastic box and unhook the top. 

I snatched the single respirator mask out of the case and fit the protective shield to my face, pulling on the cumbersome straps at the back until I was sure it wouldn't slip off.

My arms prickled with nervous electricity that was surging just below my skin. Inadvertently, the mask was helping to keep my powers from surfacing. The air filter forced me to draw air in slowly, so I had to keep my breathing measured and strong. I waited for the sound of footsteps, or possibly a struggle, but it was eerily quiet outside my door.

Though this building may seem innocuous, it was heavily guarded to protect its secret goings on. An attack would have to be pretty methodical, and even then, one would need detailed schematics to know where anything was in this labyrinth of redacted information.

Galen would almost certainly have told me to stay put and not investigate, so I chose to ignore his hypothetical advice.

Creeping in my stocking feet, I reached for the door handle to slowly twist. Shoving against the dead weight of the grown man on the other side, I pushed it out a crack to peek down the hall. The noxious gas spilled through, enveloping me in a rush of sinister coils that temporarily blocked my sight.

Nothing but my clumsy movement was stirring the smoke, and I ventured outward pulling heavily through my mask. Stooping beneath the fog, I searched both secret service agents for a cell phone, which neither of them had. Carefully, I tugged the earpiece out of one man's collar, accidentally snapping the line altogether.

"Oops, sorry!" I whispered to his limp body.

I checked the guy's pulse and realized he was knocked out cold, but still alive. How long they could last being exposed to these fumes was a nagging concern, and I didn't have extra gas masks to dole out. 

I backtracked into my room and scanned the area. They'd been smart enough to weld most of my furniture to the floor, and I needed something that could break the protective glass windows to clear the air.