Spy School Revolution

Familial Relations

Sketchy Alley

Brown Bear Café

Washington, DC

1130 Hours

In case anyone was wondering, taking a fist to the face is kind of unpleasant.

I didn't even have a second to react, nor time to identify my attacker. One minute I was standing near the wall, thinking about checking in with Mike and Zoe, the next I was sprawled on my back clutching my face in pain.

I could barely string a thought together in my head, so I acted on pure instinct. After all, I had been a recipient of two years worth of state-of-the-art self-defense instruction. I rolled to my side, covered my head with my arms, and curled up into a ball.

I felt a cold chill seeping into my clothing, indicating I had fallen into a puddle. Fantastic. My hearing almost seemed fuzzy, like my brain was still rattling around in my skull from the sheer force of the blow, but I distinctly heard a man's voice. "Catherine!" he chastised.

Catherine?

I felt a hand grabbing the fabric of my collar and hoisting me to my knees. "What have you done with Erica?" the woman's tone was furious, and yet nothing could disguise her delightful British accent.

Still dazed, I removed my hand from my face so she could recognize me, then immediately broke into a rapid-fire apology. "I-am-so-sorry-Mrs.-Hale-I-swear-I-am-not-trying-to-hurt-your-daughter-I-am-only-trying-to-find-her-please-do-not-hit-me-again." I mumbled, my eyes watering from the pain.

Catherine clapped her free hand to her mouth in astonishment, then gently set me down again. "Oh my, it's only you, Benjamin!" she said as she knelt to examine my face.

"Me," I said, trying to remember exactly who that was. 

"Oh dear," she said, gently patting my face clean of the dirty rainwater. "Forgive me, I thought you were one of the people after Erica."

After a moment, I came out of my haze. I pushed myself up to my feet and extracted the various items of trash that had stuck to me while I was laying on the ground. Then I looked up to see Alexander Hale, Erica's father, observing my wound and making a face. 

"Hello, Ben!" he said cheerfully. "How has school been?"

Catherine cut him off from further attempts at small talk with a murderous look, then stared at me. "How did you know to come here? Do you know anything about Erica's disappearance?"

I finished wringing my sleeves out, then said "It's complicated. We should get the others first."

Alexander gave me a quizzical look. "The others?"

I sighed, realizing Erica wasn't here after all. 

"Yeah," I replied. "Also, I have a feeling we're going to need some time to discuss everything."

----------

Alexander had grabbed us a table while I went to gather my friends. Mike's immediate reaction upon seeing me was "What happened to your face?" I peered at my reflection in the coffee shop's windows and saw a colorful bruise adorning my eye. 

"Turns out Catherine Hale has got a wicked right hook," I said, providing no further explanation. Needless to say, my friends still hadn't stopped laughing by the time we had sat down and ordered drinks.

She also had procured some ice, wrapped in a dish cloth. "For your face," she said. 

She looked so genuinely apologetic and concerned that I had to laugh myself, ignoring the ache in my cheek as I did so. "It's really okay, Catherine! Don't worry about me, I'm fine."