Spy School - The Hidden Device

Mission Briefing

Academy of Espionage

1100 hours

"Ripley, get your butt moving!" my coach shouted.

I stumbled through the mud like a drowning elephant, and finally managed to get to the last part of the obstacle course. The last part of the course was my good friend(my worst enemy, actually), the pendulums.

I should back up a little here. My name is Ben Ripley, second year student at the Academy of Espionage, otherwise known as St. Smithen's Academy for Boys and Girls. I'm not going to waste precious time explaining my life in detail, but I'll give you a brief summary. 

I just defeated an evil organization called SPYDER, captured some of their leaders, and the CIA is currently hunting down the rest of the SPYDER leaders. Now I was back at school, getting yelled at by the teachers.

Back to the present. After I got knocked down by the pendulum, I fell into the freezing cold water. The cold didn't shock me as much, because I was getting used to it. I stumbled out of the water, just to be assaulted by the teachers' paintball guns. They howled with laughter as I trudged into the locker room. The teachers had installed a fence around the course, preventing people from Mike-ing the course, and to make the students have to walk extra long to get to the locker-rooms.

I breezed through Calculus(I had level-16 math skills), and was in the middle of Self-Preservation 202, when my name came over the loudspeaker. 

"Benjamin Ripley, please report to the principal's office"

This was no surprise, as this was a common occurrence. The principal hated me, probably because I insulted him in his face and blew up his office (whoops).

The teacher waved a hand, like he always did when I had to leave for the office.

I stepped into the office, and saw the principal, Cyrus Hale, and his granddaughter, Erica.

Cyrus was the best spy in the CIA. He was descended from the legendary spy, Nathan Hale, all the way back to the revolutionary war. His daughter, Erica Hale, was a fourth-year student at the Academy of Espionage. She had helped me on many of my missions. She was the most competent spy in school, and usually had a very closed personality, just like her grandfather.

"Why am I here. Is there another mission?" I asked.

"Yes" said Cyrus gruffly. "This is a very important mission, so shut up and let me explain."

"During our attempts to capture SPYDER's operative's, we have discovered disturbing news. Our reconnaissance missions have confirmed that SPYDER is still out there, and Joshua is their leader now."

Joshua had been a high-ranking official in the SPYDER hierarchy. He had prosthetic limbs due to several tragic(for him) accidents. I thought he had died when he fell off the lowest level of the Eiffel Tower.

"Wait, he's still alive?" I asked. "I thought he fell off the Eiffel Tower."

"Hey!" the principal said. "He said not to interrupt!"

"Shut up!" said Cyrus. "I'm telling Ben here all the info we have. We're not sure how Joshua Hallal survived!"

"Back to the point, you remember the fires that hit California this year, and the hurricanes in Louisiana?"

"No." I said.

"Doesn't matter. The point is, these incidents are not accidents."

"What! How can natural disasters not be accidents!" I asked.

"That's what we've been discussing." said Erica. It was the first time she spoke in this entire conversation. I was surprised by the calmness of her voice.

"Our detectors have found something out of the ordinary with these disasters. The energy that triggered the disasters is unknown. I could be nuclear power, but I'm not sure about that. As far as we are concerned, we need to stop this surge of power, either natural or artificial."

"That's right." said Cyrus.

"We scanned the world the same weird source of power. We used our modern technology to date these sources of power, and the earliest use, and the highest, was near the Great Pyramid of Giza. There are other small spots of this power floating around in the world"

"So all of this, huh?" I said. "So are we going to have a mission, or not?"

"And," I added, "Can any of my friends going on this mission?"

Cyrus said, "Sure, take some of your friends. Remember, be prepared for anything. This mission is still greatly unknown, and we need to find the cause it before it causes any more damage. Finish your classes today. We leave at 0600 hours tomorrow."