Spy School - The Hidden Device

Findings

We continued the search after lunch, but with no luck. We switched positions and tried again, but still with no luck.

"Joshua hasn't been letting me on on everything," Erica said. "There could be secret passages that we didn't know about. I mainly did the "field work", but Joshua didn't have enough trust in me to show me everything."

Erica suddenly tensed. "Everyone quiet," she said.

We all tensed, and listened carefully. With her almost inhuman hearing and her honed spy senses, the slightest movement would set off alarm bells in her head. It was 10 more seconds before my ears picked up the slightest bit of sound somewhere. Apparently, my friends had too.

The ground rumbled, and a panel of wall slid opened. A figure in a black suit stepped out. He saw Erica and immediately went into a defensive position.

"You" he hissed.

"You" Erica hissed back with the same menace.

They went into a blur of jabs and punches, so advanced that I couldn't keep up. I decided I should give a hand, but I couldn't really help much even if was willing to.

Erica feinted a left swipe, and then she brought her fists right into the guy's face. I expected the person to crumple, but he blocked it with the same agility and managed a glancing blow off Erica's arm. Erica aimed a kick at that person's leg, but he deftly stepped aside. This was a fake, as Erica quickly pivoted and swept that person's legs out from under him.

He crashed onto the ground with a thud, and as he tried to get up, Erica held him down and said to us:

"Help me tie this person up. He knows something about SPYDER."

We managed to tie both of his arms and a leg up before a tranquilizer dart shot out of his left sleeve and hit Erica right in the shoulder. She collapsed onto the ground in a heap.

The person used his right foot and kicked at the ropes, but to no avail.

You probably have a question right now. Where did we get the ropes?

Answer: Erica apparently always carried ropes around. 

The attacker glared at us, conveying the message that we were going to die, and he spoke for the first time.

"Step away." he said. "I won't say a word about anything."

His voice was clear and audible, yet with a hint of menace.

Apparently, the sedation dart shot was only had a 2-minute incapacitation period, and Erica woke up. 

She winced. "Did you put sodium pentothal in this dart?" she asked.

The attacker didn't answer, so I asked, "What's that."

"Truth serum." she answered. "That dart was meant to disable enemies for a short amount of time and make them ready for interrogation. He shot it as a last ditch attempt."

"I'll be doing the interrogation here." Erica said.

"So, what do you know about SPYDER?" she asked.

The person shook his head, defiant as ever.

Erica actually backed off, and ran across the hall. At first, I thought something was wrong, but when Erica came back with a small flask, I knew what she was doing. Apparently, SPYDER had their own truth serum.

She injected the stuff into the person's bloodstream, and he almost managed to whack Erica with a kick. The attacker started to panic. He desperately looked around for something to keep him from talking. 

It was too late, and I decided to ask the first question, "What's your name?"

"Zqartx" he answered, then realized he opened his mouth, he glared at me and tried to bite his lips shut.

"Zuh- what?" I said. "I'll just call you Zarky."

The person's eyes turned a few degrees colder.

I glanced at Erica, waiting for her to ask the next question. Instead, she remained silent. I was guessing she didn't want to blab too much of her personal info while also under influence of the stuff.

Mike and Zoe had been so silent, I'd almost forgot they were there, until Mike asked, "What do you know about SPYDER."

The person started to get really upset, and he managed to say, "SPYDER is going to-" before he forcefully banged his head hard on the wall behind him, causing him to go into unconsciousness.

"Wow." Zoe said. "He'd rather do that than tell us what SPYDER is up to?"

I sighed. Then I happened to realize that the door the person came from was still open.

"Looks like SPYDER has quite a few secret passages."