"Are they gone?" I asked him, as the last body dropped dead, my pistol still smoking from the bullet that had spattered brain matter and blood across the wall of my very last victim, the silencer still in tact, and everything eerily quiet, except the heavy breathing of several agents behind be. They were trained by ninjas, yet they were dead tired after the fight. Oh, yes they do exist, but not like the ones crazy teenagers make up. They're secret agents trained in all forms of self defense, who go into missions with their knowledge as their only weapons, but also train other agents in different forms of self defense.
"Yes. They're down." He sounded nervous, tense. "Why didn't you tell me I'd wind up killing my own mother." That was the only time I couldn't look Zachary Goode in the eye. It was too painful, too uneasy.
"Because I didn't know it would come to this, Zach." I replied, not lying to him. I finally turned to him. "It's not like I was planning on making this happen, son." He shook his head, clearing it of thought and everything else plaguing his mind.
"I figured. I wish we could have known." He looked at me. "What do you propose we do, Joe?" I looked at my back up behind me, and looked at their faces, full of anger and suspicion.
"I think, we need to head back to Langley. Get this mess sorted out." I turned to Zach. "We need to come clean to my superiors, and get you somewhere safe."
"The guys too. They...well, they've been helping me as I worked through this." Zach looked guilty. "All of them. Grant, Jonas, Mike." Mike? "He's knew." Zach replied, grinning. "My boys have been doing a bit of recruiting over at Blackthorne. They call themselves the anti-assassins." I smirked. One guy covered up a laugh.
"Let's get these bodies bagged, and this mission briefed, and get the hell back to school, agreed?" I asked. They nodded.
"Welcome back, Joe." Eric, one of the rare few people who believed in me, said, grinning.
"Thanks Eric. It's good to be back."
I went into Langley, the sleek, sophisticated office seemingly intimidating. The last time I walked through these walls, I wasn't a fugitive. Several agents ran at me, and I grabbed Zach, and put him in front of me.
"I have a kid. Touch him or I, and every single one of you will be sent to the hospital for the next month." I warned. They stopped. "I need to see Chief Spy Mason Grey. I have to explain everything to him." They rolled their eyes.
"Guys, this is serious." Zach pleaded. His knees were trembling, his voice shook. "He needs to clear his name."
"He's a fucking fugitive, you little prick." They say soldiers have bad mouths...spies pretty much have that beat by a landslide. In a male-dominate career such as spying, there weren't any reservations on their words or jokes. I will admit that I swear, but I can only take their jokes so far.
"Yeah, but-"
"You understand that he's breaking the law, right punk?"
"Of course, but-"
"And you get that-"
"HE'S FUCKING HERE BECAUSE HE JUST TOOK DOWN THE ENTIRE CIRCLE OF CAVAN, YOU MORONS!" Zach, having finally gathered his courage (or anger, whichever had become stronger in the moment), shouted at the agents interrogating him. I was surprised to hear the f-bomb drop from his mouth. The worst I'd ever heard him say was "oh, shit" when he got his ass handed to him by Jonas in a verbal smack-down.
"How do you know about that?" Agent Marcus Krebs hissed.
"Because my mother was the psychotic, blood-thirsty woman who ran the organization." Zach whispered back, anger riddled in his voice. "And if you had any respect for humans, you wouldn't call a kid a 'prick.'" I smirked.
"How old are you, like twenty?"
"No, try seventeen." Zach shot back. "I'm a lot younger than I look." Zach flipped his hair from his face. In the months we'd been taking down the circle members, his hair had grown long and unruly, long enough to nearly cover his eyes. "Now, I demand you take me to see Chief Spy Grey now."
"Who do you think you are, you little son-of-a-bitch?" Agent Krebs shot back.
"My name is Zachary Goode, and you will do well to remember that." I replied. They paled significantly, and lead us through.
"Wow, I didn't know your name held so much power around here." I muttered. A lot of things were kept hush-hush, but this was something I thought I'd have known by now.
"My dad did a lot of things for the CIA. He's a freelance agent, but he's often hired by the CIA." Interesting. "He does a lot of the dirty work that most wouldn't be morally able to do." Zach ran his hands through his hair. "I need a shower."
"As soon as we can get ourselves cleared, we'll get a hotel room." We were lead into a huge office, with a massive desk, comfortable couches, and a small bar for drinks, anything from soft drinks like Coca-Cola and water, to hard drinks, like wine, or even scotch. He often held his meeting in his office, and drinks were available throughout the meeting. The office also had it's own bathroom.
"Agent...Joe Solomon." He looked thoroughly shocked. "They haven't locked you up."
"No, but they certainly tried."
"I can't say I blame them. You did a lot of bad things Joe."
"A lot of bad people were after me and the ones that I care about, Mason." He looked uncertain. Zach stepped into view.
"Who's the kid?"
"My name is Zach Goode." He said. "My dad works with you free lance."
"Mitchel Goode's boy? Isn't your mother the leader of the Circle of Cavan?" Normally, Mason wouldn't have just spewed this information out. But Catherine Goode hadn't exactly kept it secret from people, and Mason knew that.
"No, she's dead." Zach said.
"How do you know that?" Mason asked, looked confused.
"She died because of my own bullet." Zach said. He glanced in my direction. I was concerned; He was taking this far too well for someone who had literally just emptied his magazine into the body of his own mother. The room had gone silent. "Not intentionally, of course. I was hoping someone else would do it. But, then again, she never really was a good mother." He tried to joke, but it didn't work. "Dad always did say she was a mental case. I guess he was way more right than he ever realized."
"Does your father know?" Zach shook his head. Mason turned his grey eyes to me. "How do you come into this?"
"You were only partially right about something. I was accused of being a double agent. I was, but not the way you think." I looked at him from under my own insanely-long hair. "I was a double agent for the CIA, trying to take the Circle down." They looked surprised. "I was recruited at sixteen, joined, and decided to take them down."
"I...what?" Mason looked floored. "I...are you serious?" I nodded. "Oh my..."
"Holy fucking crap." Eric said. "I knew you were bad ass, Joe, but this just takes the cake." I bit back the urge to laugh. Zach smirked.
"Agent Bad Ass. She would like it, you know." I fought an urge to blush.
"Can I call you that around your girlfriend?" Zach blushed. Haha. Mason rolled his eyes.
"It's like you and Matt all over again." I nodded sadly. "Is this all true?"
"Sir...I've got the first-rate account of my mother's plans. I can tell you everything." They all looked to him.
"Get him in an interrogation room. Now."
Several hours later, we were being put in a holding cell. They wanted to hold us until our stories could check out, then we would officially be free. Despite our technical prisoner status, we were still given showers, fresh clothes (although, they were the orange jumpsuits prisoners wear, it was still clean) and food. We each also had one free phone call. Normally, there would be one voice I wanted to hear. But telling her I was officially in a holding cell inside the CIA might freak her out, so I called Rachel Morgan instead. She laughed.
"Oh my God, Joe. Really?"
"Look, just...they're going to release us as soon as our stories clear. Would you mind bringing Zach and I some actual clothing, and maybe not telling the girls?"
"Oh, no such luck, Joe." She was laughing. "This is priceless." Fantastic.
"You hate me, don't you?"
"Oh, no. Besides, Joe, I'm sure they'll clear your names. They know you better than that. I know you better than that." I looked at the receiver in a "are you sure?" sort of manner.
"What's my favorite book?"
"Catcher in the Rye."
"Written in the last twenty years." Silence. "See, you don't know me as well as you think. Please, help."
"Sure. Just...take care of him, okay?" By him she meant Zach.
"Of course." I replied. We hung up. Zach was dead silent, sitting on his bed, looking zoned out when I got back.
"You okay?" I asked. He looked up at me, and sort of nodded. "You sure? We can talk."
"I don't know if you'd understand." Zach said. "Your mother's still alive."
"So you think." I retorted. He blinked. "I didn't kill her, but someone did. Some bastard did..." My dad would be that bastard, I was almost certain of it. My brother was never found, unfortunately.
"I...I didn't..." Zach looked stunned. "Who?"
"The man I call 'dad'." Zach's jaw dropped.
"Are you..." I nodded.
"He's currently in jail for life in West Philadelphia." I said, scratching the side of my head. "He's been charged with the death of my brother too, but he just seemed to disappear. Like me."
"How old was he?"
"Not sure. He'll be fifteen soon, though." I smiled. "He was a good kid, when I knew him."
"I thought you ran away."
"My parents divorced when I was twenty. I went back to Mom." I replied. "You always said you wanted to go back to your Dad? I wanted to go back to my mother for all the same reasons." Zach nodded. "I meat him then."
"What was his name?"
"Sherlock Mitchel." I replied. Mom had a bit of a literature obsession.
"Sherlock...Sherlock Solomon... oh my God." Zach said. "I know him." I looked at him in shock. "He's at Blackthorne." What?
"Are you serious?" Zach nodded. "Zach, you want to right every questionable thing you've done on this mission?" He nodded. "Go call Jonas or Grant or someone to recruit Sherlock. Now." Zach ran to the bars, and rattled them.
"Can I make my call now?" They nodded, and let him out, and over to the phone. After a moment, I heard, "Grant, it's Zach. This is a long story, but you know that bizarre, nerdy sophomore Sherlock? Recruit him, he has familial ties to...a friend." A moment of silence, then, "Oh, really? Awesome! Yeah. Oh, and don't let the bullies get to him anymore, okay? He's a good guy." Zach ran back.
"He's bullied?"
"He's not like you, Joe." Zach said, sitting back on the bed. "He's really scrawny, and gangly. And he's a complete geek. He's great at hacking. They've already got him recruited."
"We'll have to get your recruits to safety." I replied. "Would Gallagher Academy be sufficient enough?" Zach nodded.
"There's five of us with Sherlock. So yeah, it'll be perfect."
"Great. There's an empty quarters in the Academy." He didn't question it.
"Light's out, gentlemen." An officer called. It must be late. I crawled under the blankets, and laid down.
"Night, Zach."
"Night, Joe." He mumbled, before conking out completely.