Spy School Revolution

Chapter Five: CROATOAN

Academy of Espionage; Gym

Washington, DC

June 28th

1200 hours

Ben's POV

After Self Preservation, Weaponry 101, and Avoiding the Enemy classes, I walked down to the Gym. Some kids had lunch in their classrooms, while I got lucky enough to eat in the gym. Wonderful. I get to enjoy the stench of sweat as I eat my lunch.

Luckily, Mike also got to eat in the gym. Zoe had to eat in her Avoiding the Enemy classroom, and I was fine with that. Maybe I was being rude, but she didn't want to speak with me, and I didn't want to speak with her.

I walked over the obstacles that had been used from last class and stepped onto the bleachers. It was a surprisingly normal gym, despite all the weapons laying around. Oh, and the spikes on the far side of the gym. But those were only for 5th years.

"Hey, Mike!" He waved me over and I sat down. His lunch looked disgusting. It looked like brown slop with a few moldy cheese-sticks, but it happened to be meatloaf with carrots. Thank goodness I packed my lunch today. It was only a slice of frozen pizza, (I had heated it up before breakfast, hoping it'd still be warm), which was better than whatever Mike had.

"So," I questioned. "I have suspicions on the explosion in the cafeteria. I think that Erica is being blackmailed." I told him all about the note I received in my bookmark. He didn't look convinced.

"Well... I mean... I guess? What does any of this mean?" He asked. I shrugged. "We could ask Catherine and Cyrus." He smiled. "Yes, Catherine!" I smirked at him. "You only like her because of her blueberry muffins." "I do not!" He retorted. But I knew I was right.

(Time Skip)

After school was over, me and Mike walked over to Catherine's apartment. She was in Washington for a while, since we had just returned from London, and she'd wanted to spend some time with Erica. I walked up the stairs and then knocked at her door, number 128. 

Catherine opened the door and smiled at me and Mike. "Well, hello Benjamin and Michael!" she exclaimed. "How can I be of help today? I've just finished baking some muffins. Since Erica's on the run, nobody wants my blueberry muffins," she finished sadly, as she ushered us into the apartment. Mike's eyes lit up and grabbed a muffin from the cooling rack on the counter. "Thank you, Ms. Hale," he said, though it sounded more like "Fank yous miffs halal", due to his mouth being stuffed with muffin.

"Please, call me Catherine." she laughed. She asked us to sit down, so I sat  on her nice sofa, covered with ice blue throw pillows. "Catherine, we're actually here to talk to you about, y'know Erica. I think she's being blackmailed." I explained to her about the note. After I finished, her eyes softened, but she replied sadly, "Benjamin, I'm sorry, but this is hardly enough evidence for us to believe she's acting. Though I would love to help you find her, but we have absolutely nothing to go off of. All I can ask is that you report to me anything you find." I hung my head. She was right. We had no evidence, but I refused to believe Erica had really turned to the dark side.

"Do we have any records of a new 'organization'? Or is SPYDER back?" I asked. Mike nodded and said, "Yeah. If Erica is being blackmailed, I doubt it's by some mugger. Isn't it likely it's a whole new organization?" Catherine smiled. "Yes, Michael. You two are improving on your spy skills. We do actually have a record on a new organization-" 

I cut her off. "Really?" Catherine looked at me sadly and said, "Yes, but the only evidence it exists is from 250 years ago." "What's it called?" Mike questioned. I was slightly confused. How could an evil organization last 125 years without being stopped? We stopped SPYDER in less than two. "It's- well, it's called CROATOAN," Catherine stuttered.

"What do we know about it?" I asked. It all seemed so strange to me. Catherine sighed. "We don't know hardly anything, really! All we know is that.. it was probably them who Erica is working for." "And how do you know that?" I inquired. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I wanted to find Erica. 

"Well, they left a note. I didn't want to tell you before, as Cyrus said it was to remain confidential, but you gentlemen could help! Look, Benjamin. Michael, you too! I know my muffins are delicious, but we need to investigate," she said with a smile. She took the note out of her pocket. It was enclosed in a plastic bag. She produced a pair of tweezers out of desk in her apartment and removed it from the bag.

I looked the note over with Mike. "If you get muffin crumbs on it, we'll be in a pickle, Michael," Catherine warned. I laughed. I read the note carefully. It looked to be typed out, not scrawled across quickly like my note from Erica. It said, "Careful. it may all be a Ruse. you have to Outhink them. get your point Across. To save everybody, think Outside the box. And Nobody else should know about this."  

"OH, I get it!" Mike gasped. "They only capitalized certain letters, C-R-O-A-T-O-A-N!" Catherine nodded. A lightbulb went off in my mind. "Do you think this is from Erica? Maybe she's trying to help us! Because she is being blackmailed!" Catherine smiled brightly. "It definitely is a possibility, Benjamin. As unlikely as it is, she's my daughter, and I want to get her back."

Catherine put the note back into the bag. Something else was bugging me though. "Did you check for fingerprints? Maybe there are some." Catherine shook her head. "I just retrieved the note, but I doubt anyone would leave fingerprints on a note! They probably wore gloves.." 

Mike grinned excitedly. "Wait, unless they wanted us to find the fingerprints.." I mentally face palmed. Of course! Erica was giving us another clue! "Catherine, can you run that fingerprint check as soon as possible? It might be Erica's." Catherine smiled again and nodded. "I certainly will. Thank you for the help, children. I wouldn't have figured all this out on my own." We both thanked her for the muffins and the help and then left. 

As we were walking back, I couldn't help but feel a little bit better. Maybe we would find Erica after all. I sure hope we did. Yes, that's it. It'll be easy. Nothing could go wrong, we basically finished the investigation.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Word count was 1126, excluding this note! I think I'm getting better, let me know what you think! Thanks for all the views, by the way! Be sure to comment and let me know how I can improve. Until next time!