Spy School Revolution

Vehicular Transport

Streets in Proximity to Brown Bear Café

Washington, DC

1200 Hours

We crammed into Catherine's mini-van and left the coffee shop, Alexander at the wheel.

Catherine removed a thin folder from her purse. From it, she produced a single sheet of paper. "Satellite imagery of Erica's last known location," she explained. She passed it around the vehicle so we could all get a good look.

The building was utterly unremarkable, a gray rectangular roof with two white trucks parked behind it. 

Jawa examined the photo. "Was Erica here before or after the bombing?"

"The GPS disconnected at precisely 8:06 a.m." Catherine pursed her lips, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'll confess I don't actually know when exactly the explosion was."

Jawa passed the image to the back row so Zoe and I could get another look at it. I closely inspected the warehouse, although there was nothing suspicious about it. Absently, I murmured "8:54 in the morning," then looked up and saw everyone staring at me. 

Sheepishly, I added "...And seventeen seconds." 

This was met with more staring. "Well, that's when it happened!" I said defensively.

"Your sense of time is that accurate?" Alexander called from the driver's seat, skeptical.

"I mean...yeah?"

Chip snorted. "I guess it's just a big difference, seeing you get clobbered in the face one minute and then remembering the exact time something that happened a day ago the next."

Mike and Jawa snickered. I ignored the insult until I heard a slight puff of air next to me and saw Zoe desperately trying not to laugh.

"Hey!" I objected, but the corners of my mouth wouldn't stop curling upward. We met eyes and I tried my best to look indignant.

She pressed her lips together, shaking her head emphatically, although the laughter was still dancing in her eyes. 

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned toward her in mock-disapproval, but a grin had made it across my own face too. She didn't jokingly pull away from me like I'd thought she would. I blinked, noticing the space between us had seemed to get a lot smaller. 

There was just a second when our eyes locked and I forgot what I was doing. 

Then she snatched the paper from my hands, like that had been her whole intention in the first place. The moment passed.

I cleared my throat and said, "So that means Erica came to this warehouse before the bombing."

"That explains why she wasn't at school during breakfast," Mike said thoughtfully. "She was here."

Zoe tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, looking at the photo. "Maybe this was where she got the bomb?" she suggested.

Catherine seemed to agree. "It must be. Erica isn't foolish enough to keep an explosive on her person or in her room longer than she has to. It's dangerous, and she'd be more likely to be caught with it."

I chewed my lip, leaning back in my seat, again wondering what could have possible induced Erica to do this.

"We should do as much recon on this place before we try to go inside," Catherine continued.

Alexander blew through a red light, he was so distracted by this statement. "You mean we aren't going right in? Erica might be in there!" 

Catherine reached her hand out and pushed Alexander's head to the side so he was looking at the road again. "Focus," she said sternly. "There are children in the car."

Alexander did as ordered, but he still seemed shocked. "We can't just leave our daughter in there! We're the CIA! I can make a single phone call and have a squadron of agents ready to storm the the building."

"In case you've forgotten," Catherine said, shooting a testy look at her ex-husband. "All of us have gone rogue from our organizations to help Erica. They would likely only arrive to arrest us."

"But--"

"Even if that weren't the case, we don't know for a fact Erica is there. We'd probably just blow our cover and make things worse for her."

I saw Alexander getting ready for another rebuttal, so I spoke up. "Also, this might be a trap to lure us out into the open."

Chip swiveled his head to look at me. "How do you figure that?"

I shrugged. "They could have forced Erica to turn off the GPS in her phone, knowing that people would come looking for her here. If we go inside--"

"We might just be playing into their hands," Chip finished, nodding understanding.

"Exactly," Catherine agreed. 

Then she patted Alexander's arm, which was propped up on the armrest between them. "We'll go inside when we have enough intel, but we just don't know anything about this organization yet." Her tone was gentle. "We'll find her, Alex."

Alexander didn't say anything. They both seemed tired and desperate. I suddenly felt a bit grateful my parents didn't know I was a spy. I thought about something Erica had told me once and felt a pang of sadness. Being in this business really did screw up families.

The car fell silent for the remainder of the drive.

I wondered for the millionth time that day if Erica was alright. What was she doing? She obviously had known her parents would be looking for her, she even made sure I met up with them by leading my friends and I to the café. So again I had to ask myself, what were they using as blackmail? 

Last summer, SPYDER had offered me a contract--join them, or die. Of course, I had gone to Erica for advice. She told me if there was really no way out, she would choose the latter option. She would never cooperate with the enemy...unless she was planning to derail their plans later. The thought gave me some hope. 

I thought about all the times she had saved me when both the enemy and our own organization was against me. I promised myself I would return the favor, no matter what.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than the others. I promise there will be some more action in the next one.

On a lighter note, yesterday we hit 100 reads! Wow. I'm just blown away. I am so beyond grateful! I'm also hyped for the future where even more people read this! I started this fanfic because I wanted to become a better writer, and WattPad was a good place to practice. I was hopeful (but doubted) that readers would actually see my stories, so getting so many in only a week has been a dream come true. Thank you all so much! 

As always, if you enjoyed, please leave a vote and a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts. Have a good one! :)