Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

The Midnight Meeting

Alright, alright, I had to admit that I was a bit excited about the meeting with Erica, despite the fact that we were going to do it at 4:00 AM in the morning...

After all, I hadn't been able to have a good one-on-one talk with her in a while that was private, since the last few times I thought we were talking by ourselves, it turned out there were people spying on us (*cough*, Jayden *cough*).

So this was the first time that I could make sure we were actually alone. And I hoped that meant Erica was going to be, actually, y'know, herself in front of me. Amen, brother.

So I got out of bed, brushed my teeth twice with my best breath-changing toothpaste, had a long and steamy shower, and then took as many tic tacs as I could before the big meetup happened.

Despite this, Erica still cringed when she caught a whiff of my morning breath. "Eck," she said, waving the air away from her nose. "You really should've brushed your teeth before you came here." 

"I did," I said. "But apparently, your nose is too weak to catch it." I said. At this point, there was nothing in acting all afraid in front of Erica. I knew she wasn't going to hurt me, and she did too.

"Ah, I see the little boy is growing up, eh?" she said in curiosity, fluffing up my hair- which I had spent fifteen minutes combing to perfection- and smiling. "He's getting feisty!"

"I am not a little boy!" I complained. "I'm practically the same age as you!" I said, slapping her hand away.

"Yes, though you still act like as though you were nine," Erica said bluntly. "And don't try to deny it- it's true, and you know it yourself."

"If I act like a nine-year old, how do I know how to calculate the trajectory of a mortar, while you can't even solve derivatives in your mind?"

"If I could solve derivatives in my mind, then I would be a nerd who just happens to have a pretty useful gift for math," Erica said. "But I'm not. And you, former nine-year old, are."

"Whatever," I pouted. "Anyways, what are these leads that you say you have about the Croatoan?"

Erica pursed her lips. "If you want to know the information, it's best I reveal it to all of you at the same time, so I can soak in all the reactions in a heap. I don't want to have to deal with an extra one, especially considering the fact that I'll have to calm you down."

I sighed. "Then what was the point of calling over here in that serious voice? With the way you told me the news, it was more like you were announcing surrender terms than giving me mission orders."

"That was for mission purposes," Erica said. "If anybody was tapping into our call signal, they would've thought otherwise that we were doing something suspicious."

I sighed. I was expecting this, though it was one of those times where you were hoping for the best. And from the looks of it, this wasn't really the best.

"So I'm guessing you bring me over here to what, drag me into another mission statement or something? But more clandestine this time?" I said, exasperated.

"No," Erica said. "I brought you here because I need someone to help me set up Christmas decorations in the lobby of the hotel. I rented out the lobby for us at Christmas, since we really need some sort of festivity to get you guys going. I feel like if I don't do something fun, you'll die of depression in the next few days."

"That's actually rather true," I remarked. "It is as boring as hell out here."

"So are you going to help me set up the things? And, oh yeah, also help me wrap some presents. I'm going to need a handyman to help me tonight, since we're going to be on the mission in the next hour."

I groaned. "So I basically just pulled an all-nighter to help you get your work done."

"Yep!" Erica said. "Let's get started!"

And with this, she pulled me out of her room, slammed the door behind her, and handed me a giant bag of red-and-blue lights. 

"Get hanging!" she said brightly, pointing to the walls of the mini-lobby she had rented out after we arrived. "That's a lot of space to cover, and we don't have much time. Unless you want me to motivate you in a harmful way, I would recommend going as fast as you can."

So naturally, I went at supersonic speed. Throwing up the lights as fast as I could, I chucked them up and away onto the walls, adding Christmas festivity to the walls and making the season merrier.

Erica, meanwhile, threw up the Christmas tree in exactly three minutes. And by Christmas Tree, I mean the ornaments, lights, wiring, star, decorations, undergarmet, and carpet. I didn't know how, but she also managed to light the fireplace and pull up the stockings in the meantime.

And I hadn't even finished one wall of lights yet.

It was a typical situation, and by the crack of dawn, I had finally finished the lights while Erica had managed to put up the following:

A six-foot four state of Santa, built-in with an automatic talking mechanic and waving arms. Creepy, if you're right next to it.

A bunch of hanging mistletoe, though I made sure to warn her about this. After all, she probably already devised a tactical pattern of traversing the room specially made so that she wouldn't go under any mistletoe while also making her way to every spot in the room.

ANOTHER mini-christmas tree with the required decorations. Sheesh, how much things do you need?

A table set up with chairs, just the amount for all of us to sit. Though there was one grand chair at the end of the table- Erica probably already called dibs on it. And if someone tried to sit in it without her permission, they were probably going to get trapped by a weighted pressure plate on the palm of the seat that Erica rigged in.

Anyways, that was pretty much my morning for you. The little lobby was probably the most Christmasy place in the whole world at this point, and I was hoping that we'd have breakfast there this morning. 

But still. We had five minutes left.

And as you all probably know, that meant it was time to sleep.