The Disappearance
An Ashley Morgan Mystery
Shannon Brown
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1- School
Chapter 2- Mrs. Dieback
Chapter 3- Questions
Chapter 4- Confusion
Chapter 5- Listening In
Chapter 6- Get Together
Chapter 7- Kidnapped
Chapter 8- SPIDER
Chapter 9- Accepted
Chapter 10- Realization
Chapter 11- Exploration
Chapter 12- Boris
Chapter 13- Falsely Planted
Chapter 14- Escaping
Chapter 15- Punishment
Chapter 16- Where To Go
Chapter 17- Dead
Chapter 18- Starting Out
Chapter 19- The 2nd Expedition
Chapter 20-The Arrival
Chapter 21-
Chapter 22-
Chapter 23-
Chapter 24-
Chapter 25-
Chapter 26-
Chapter 27-
Chapter 28
Chapter 29-
Chapter 30-
Chapter 31-
Chapter 32-
Chapter 33-
Chapter 34-
Chapter 35-
Chapter 36-
Chapter 37-
Chapter 38-
Chapter 39-
Chapter 40-
Prologue
Sweat was dripping down her face, she could hear them approaching from behind, gaining in on the old woman. She stopped, allowing them to grab her by her shoulders. "We know who you are. You know who we are." Came the inhuman voice from behind. They injected her with something and her body went limp. They threw a bag over her head and dragged her away. The last thing she felt was her body being thrown into the back of a car, and then her mind grew blank and she passed out. "What do we do with her now?" a new voice asked. "I don't know, just lock her up somewhere at home, she's just a teacher." The lifeless voice answered.
Chapter One
School
School. It is a monstrous, evil and sometimes embarrassing part of our life. Though we despise most of it, the bullies, the homework, school can also be good to us. We can get an A on a test, make a new friend the first day at a new school, and sometimes even humility can be good for us even though it might not seem like it at the moment. We may fall in the mud while walking to our next class, in front of our crush! Even though we might not realize it, by standing up after that and not running away, we are enabling ourselves to face braver events when they pop up.
That was exactly what was going through Ashley's mind as she biked to school on Monday morning. How can Middle School be so terrible on bad days, yet be so awesome on good days. Ashley's bike raced through the intersection close to her school and met up with some of her friends. "So, what did you do on the weekend?" Amber, the tall athletic one of Ashley's friends asked her. "Oh, nothing really. Played some video games, read that's about it." Ashley replied, feeling bad about her weekend as most of her friends probably went skiing or tubing at Chicopee, the local ski hill. She knew Freddie would have gone to the Raptors game that was on Saturday.
As they turned the corner, two more of her friends appeared and joined them. Tammy, as always was wearing her hair in two long brown braids down her back. Carol had her beautiful blonde hair flowing in curves, stopping just below her shoulders. A lively conversation started up as they passed a group of boys. "Did you see what he was wearing?"
"I know…ewwww." The mean remarks spread around the group of girls. It was well known that George and his "possy" were not the most fashionable people in the school. Ashley wondered when or if the bullying would stop being directed toward the non-fashionable or the geeky kids and rebound to the popular kids. Thinking about that, they arrived at the school and locked up their bikes. Walking side by side they entered the school and prepared for another day in grade 8.
Chapter 2
Mrs. Dieback
Mrs. Dieback was probably the only teacher at Garfield Middle School that would let you not hand in a project in time, be 30 minutes late for a 45-minute class, and cheat off of the smartest kid in class, and still not have to do detention. As Ashley separated from her friends and walked towards her class, she couldn't help but feel that she was taking advantage of Mrs. Dieback by not doing the homework assigned last night. She walked in and took a seat in the back half of the class, it wasn't like Mrs. Dieback would have a problem with the slackers sitting in the back where she couldn't hear them talking, or see them passing notes to each other.
According to the board, they would have a test today, Ashley didn't take notice of the note, even though it had been up for 2 weeks, enough time for her to study for the test. It never even crossed her mind that there actually was a test. She lounged back in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. The next two periods would fly by.
She was awoken by a loud rap on her desk. "Miss Morgan," the voice stopped just long enough for Ashley to open her eyes and see that the teacher standing in front of her was not Mrs. Dieback. "Umm. Yeah, but where's Mrs. Dieback?" Ashley asked, still only half conscious as she rubbed her eyes. "If you had been listening instead of sleeping a few minutes ago, you would have heard that Mrs. Dieback has had a very strange disappearance, so she will not be able to teach this class until she is found, all of the facility wish the rescue team best of luck, though we all think it is for the best. Mrs. Dieback was not a teacher, she was a kid herself! Letting you lazy children hand in homework late and be tardy, ha! I'm glad she's gone" The entire class turned and looked at the new teacher as though she was mad. "I-I-I'm sorry… Mrs.?" Ashley finally managed to force the words through her mouth. "My name is Mrs. Hunter, and you will call me by that name only. No nicknames or saying 'Umm. Mrs.' Instead of Mrs. Hunter. Now class," she said walking away from Ashley. "I hope you all studied during the two weeks you were given, because I am about to hand out a test…" Ashley sank deep into her chair. She had been wrong, these two periods would be the longest she had ever been through.
Chapter 3
Questions
"Don't you think that it is just a little weird that Mrs. Dieback just… disappeared?" Ashley asked Tammy during lunch. "No. A lot of people around here, especially people who aren't sure about themselves, like Mrs. Dieback, just disappear into thin air." Was the reply from the bike just slightly ahead of Ashley's. "Yeah, I know but, you'd never think that Mrs. Dieback would be one to go into hiding or commit suicide, would you?" another one of the girls from behind asked. "Yeah," Amber and Freddie shouted from the front of the group. Carol and Tammy turned and separated from the group. After a few quick goodbyes the group sped on, only stopping to wait for a few minutes at the intersection. They continued to separate until only Amber and Ashley were left. "You know what I think Ashley?" Amber asked as soon as they were far away from the others. "I think that you're taking this too far, and if you don't stop worrying and questioning soon, you'll regret it." The end of this simple warning she said in a hushed tone. "What do you mean Amber? Everyone wants to know how Mrs. Dieback disappeared, so do I."
"I know Ashley, but it just seems like you're going to start thinking of yourself as a detective like you used to. Except this time it isn't a game Ashley, this time it's for real…" Amber stopped and looked horrorstricken, as if she had just spilled a HUGE secret. "I've told you so much, I guess I can tell you more. Mrs. Dieback was reported missing at 12:00 yesterday, but she hasn't used her lights for more than 72 hours now. She went missing almost 3 days before it was reported." Amber fell back, and Ashley stopped a minute to let her catch up. "But, how do you know this?" she asked. "You know how my dad is a cop; well he was assigned to the case. His job is to find Mrs. Dieback, wherever she is. But anyway, he was out one day and he forgot to shut his computer down, so out of curiosity I opened it and did a search on Mrs. Dieback. They reached the spot where they separated, and Ashley thanked her for the information, Amber told her not to 'play detective' and turned down one side of the street while Ashley turned down the other.
The rest of the way home Ashley couldn't help but think of a bunch of questions she wanted Amber to look up when she got home. As she opened the front door, she stopped and looked closely at it. It was torn off of its hinges and neatly put back. She tore her key out of the lock and ran to her neighbor's house. Knocking franticly on the door and ringing the doorbell, she suddenly realized that they weren't not going to be home for another 3 hours. She ran across the street to the elderly couple's home. She only needed to knock once before the wife, Gretel came to the door and asked, "Ashley, you look terrified, what happened?" Sitting down on the porch steps with Mrs. Trench, Ashley explained how she had come home and had seen that the door had been torn off of its hinges. As soon as she was finished Mrs. Trench ran inside to call the police, leaving Ashley on the porch to think.
Just after Mrs. Trench went in side, there was an explosion and her house burst into flames. Ashley froze and stumbled inside. "Gretel," she cried out meekly. "Gretel! GRETEL!" Mrs. Torch came rushing to the door. "What is it Ashley?" she asked. "Explosion…house…fire…gone." Ashley managed to get out of her mouth at last. They both rushed to the door and stared in awe. There was almost nothing left of the house now. Most of it had burned to ash, the only parts that were left were 2 walls and part of the floor. Suddenly a figure came out of the house, dressed in black.
Chapter 4
Confusion
"So what happened exactly?" the officer asked Ashley for the 7th time. "I came home, saw that the door was off of its hinges and went to tell Mrs. Trench. When she went inside to call the police, I heard an explosion and the house burst into flames. Then I saw a man dressed in black come out of the ashes." Ashley sank back into the seat in the dark room at the local police station. "Do you know that it was a man?" the officer was full of questions. "No," she answered. "I have no clue who they were."
"Fine," the officer sighed, he hadn't gotten the answer he wanted. This would mean spending days trying to find out who blew up the house. "You're free to go." He continued. "And contact us directly if anything like this happens again." Ashley stood up, stretched and walked out of the door into the lobby where her mother was waiting. "You're going to have to stay with your dad until we're safe and the house is fixed." She said as soon as she saw Ashley. "But where will you stay?" Ashley asked, concerned that her mother was going to stay at some trashy hotel. "I'm staying with Tim, it's already planned." Ashley winced, Tim was her mother's boyfriend, they had been going out for almost 7 months now, even though Ashley encouraged her not to. Tim was everything Ashley did not want her mother to date. First of all he was a teacher, he wasn't that attractive, and since her father was a detective, and he had looked Tim up, his record was spotless, community service 3 times a week, he volunteers at the adoption center and tutored kids after school. She sat down beside her mother and asked, "When is he picking me up?" it was pretty clear that she was trying to make small talk. "In a few minutes, he says that you have everything you need at his house." It was true, even though she hardly ever stayed at her dad's house, he made sure that she had 2 weeks' worth of clothes, and everything else she would need. "Ok."
Ashley sank down into the soft leather seats of her dad's car. They had already been driving for more than 10 minutes and all he had said to her was "Hi. How are you?" Now he finally spoke up again. "You weren't in the house when it exploded, were you?"
"No dad," she said. "I was across the street at the Trench's house when it happened." She sighed; he didn't look like he believed her. "It's true dad!" she almost shouted at him. "Ok, ok, I believe you." He still didn't look sure. "I just don't understand why someone would want to destroy your mom's house." He said. "I honestly don't know. All I can think about is when Amber told me not to become too interested in the fact that Mrs. Dieback is missing, because the people who kidnapped her might not want me snooping around." She said, believing that someone knew about their conversation more and more every minute that she thought about it. She didn't even understand why she wasn't crying or anything, though her mom had been hysterical ever since she had gotten the phone call telling her what had happened. They pulled into the driveway and Ashley got out and stared at the house. Every time she saw the house she was amazed, it was a 4-story house, with 7 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, 6 bathrooms, 2 huge dining rooms, a den, and any other possible room you can name. Her dad had lived there for more than 6 years she still could not make her way down to breakfast in the morning without getting lost at least once. After all, her dad was the most respected detective within a 5-city radius. This particular day however, there was a car in the driveway, a car that Ashley didn't recognize. A man greeted them at the front door. "Hello Ashley." He said. It was Amber's dad, but why would he be here, at her dad's house? "Hi Mr. Alvin, would you take it offensively if I asked you what you were doing outside of my father's house?"
"Ah, Carter. I'm glad to see that you found the house without much trouble." Ashley's dad had seen Mr. Alvin and was walking towards him. "To answer your question Ashley, no I would not be offended, and I am here because I need to talk with your father." She looked back at her father. He smiled as if to tell her that it was true. Cater was asking me to help him with a new job he's been assigned to. So Carter, what was this job about?"
"Ashley could probably tell you that. I heard that Amber told you about it. Anyway, Mrs. Dieback or Wilma Dieback has gone missing, I'm going to need a partner that can investigate it, what do you say, will you help me?"
"Sure. It sounds like fun, why don't you come inside and we can discuss it more. Ashley, honey, you can go and do whatever you like, we'll be inside." He said. "Actually, I think that I would rather go inside and get used to the size of this place.' Ashley walked inside and set up her recorder behind the sofa in the living room. She was sure that they would be talking in this room, and she wanted to get as much information as she could.
Chapter 5
Listening In
Later that night, Ashley crept back down stairs and went into the living room to pick up the recorder. When she had it and was half the house away from her father's room, she gathered up enough courage to press play. At first there was no sound, she figured that was before they came in. Then there was the sound of a door opening and closing, that must be when they walked in. Her father was the first one to speak.
"So Carter, what can you tell me about this Mrs. Dieback that has gone missing?" he asked, only to get a short, simple answer. "We don't really know that much at this time, only that she has been kicked out of many countries for, excuse my use of the childish word 'spying' and reporting back to the U.S. government." Here he stopped, allowing Sam to guess what her unusual job was. "You don't really mean that she's a spy, do you?" he asked, even though he knew what the answer was. "Of course I do, at the time she went missing, the government admits that she was on a mission to get inside the brain of an average eighth grader, find out how to get them to improve their marks, if it had succeeded, the government would have made millions of dollars from parents, who want their kids to do better in school, and saw no other way but to hand them over to the government, who claims to have 'invented' a way to help kids do better in school and understand the curriculum better."
"Wow I always thought the government didn't know or care about schools and kids, but here they are sending agents into schools like little school children." Here there was a pause and then both adults burst out laughing. "If this school teacher is a spy, then I must be Marilyn Monroe!" Mr. Alvin shouted out. Eventually the laughing stopped, and Mr. Alvin said, "Well I guess I better get going, but I'll see you at work on Monday Sam. Bye." The door opened and closed again, and Ashley heard her dad sigh and say, "What have I gotten myself into this time?
Chapter 6
Get Together
"Hi Amber, me and the girls were wondering if you want to get together with us today, we're going to the mall." Ashley had been talking to her friends on msn for more than an hour now, and Amber was the only one that wasn't online, so she had to call her. "Sure," came the reply from the other side of the conversation. "The mall sounds great, what time should I be there?"
"I'm going to be there in about 30, the others are going to be there before that though." Ashley said, making sure that Amber would be there before her, Amber hated being the last to arrive at any gathering the girls planned, so they took turns being later then her. "Just to make sure, Aaron isn't going to be there is she?" Ashley couldn't believe Amber was still mad at her, Aaron was Amber's 'ex-friend', a recent fight had ended the friendship and Aaron was now hanging with the gamers which disgusted Amber because the gamers were probably the geekiest people in the school, next to the chess club. "No Amber, she will not be there, we were careful not to invite her for your convenience, though some of the girls wanted to." Amber was so busy worrying that they had invited her, that she didn't hear the sarcasm in Ashley's voice. "Ok, see you in 30." And she hung up.
30 minutes later, Ashley arrived at the mall to be greeted by Freddie, Tammy, Amber, Carol, Mica, Catalan, and Mirel. As soon as they were alone, Amber took Ashley aside and said, "If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone else?" wondering what could be so important, Ashley agreed and Amber said, "Well, you know my brother Carlos, he's sort of, in a way, doing drugs. But you can't tell anyone, because my dad already knows and he's helping Carlos quit. I just needed to tell someone, but please don't even talk about to my dad, then he'll know that I told you, and that I broke my promise." Ashley was silent. Carlos had done some pretty bad things in his life, shoplifting, smoking, etc., but he had never done something as bad as drugs. "I-I-I promise, I swear I won't tell anyone. This is just too bad, it's too bad to spread around."
"Thanks Ashley," Amber said quietly. "I'm really going to need to talk to you if something like this happens again."
"No problem, I'll always be there for you, when you need me."
With that they walked away around the corner to find the others.
Chapter 7
Kidnapped
Mrs. Dieback was sitting on the thin mattress provided for her by her kidnappers. They knew who she was, and she knew that they were part of a terrorist organization called SPIDER or Sabotage Pin-Point Intelligence Dangerous Ecological Rage. That's what they were. They loved to Sabotage. Every operation was Pinpoint accurate. There were and had to be very Intelligent. They were very Dangerous. They acted out of Ecological Rage. They thought that humans should be destroying the earth. What they did was not understandable, and unacceptable all over the world. Everyone thought that it would make more sense to target the big shot celebrities that drove cars just so they could show them off. But no, they never did anything that you would expect them to. They had already hacked into the Pentagon database and deleted a file. It was easy, you made them mad, and you got killed. They had found her, she had no idea why they wanted her, and as far as she could remember she had never done anything that was a threat to the environment. Maybe they thought she was reporting to the government about them. She thought.
When it was time for dinner, a man came in the door and dropped a plate in front of her. "Eat." He said and walked out of the door. Mrs. Dieback heard a dead bolt being drawn and then she was alone again.
Chapter 8
SPIDER
Fredrick Waldport looked out of the window if his mansion in Antarctica. "Albert! Come and bring the list of applicants that want to join SPIDER!" he yelled towards the door of the study. An old man with bulging muscles in his arms and legs came in. He walked up to the desk and placed a huge file down. "Thank you Albert, you may go back to interviewing them now." Albert gently bowed and walked out of the room. Fredrick pulled out one of the resumes, this is so stupid, he thought. Making people fill out forms just to become part of a terrorist organization, ha! When he joined the organization, all he had to do was train on how to kill for 5 weeks. But now that he ran it, Albert had insisted that they change it to be training for 6 months, and having an interview before that. After all, there were a lot of people that wanted to join, it was harder now-a-days because you couldn't tell who the good assassin was and who wasn't.
Albert's voice rang over the intercom, "Mr. Waldport, you have a call, I'll page it through for you." Fredrick tidied up his papers and cleared his throat. "Hello, Mr. Waldport. This is assassinator number 111, I am proud to report that the mission was successful, we have the agent tied up in my attic, and are working on getting the information out of her."
"Good work 111," (they never used real names, unless you were Fredrick Waldport.) "I am pleased to hear that. Try to get as much out of her before we have to kill her. If you can't, we'll have to get rid of her. Goodbye 111."
"Goodbye sir."
Fredrick hung up and started looking over the files.
Chapter 9
Accepted
She looked out of her bedroom window. She had just been put under an oath of silence, for what she still had no idea, for some reason they were keeping her in the dark. She was already part of this group or gang or whatever it was. Whenever the members were around her house, they called her number 545, she had no idea why, but she allowed it. Sometimes, by one of them that was called 111, she was banished to her room so the group could talk about things that apparently weren't for her ears. Today was one of those days, 111 had told her to go to her room, and stay there until he came up to let her down. He had even attached a dead bolt lock to her door to insure that she didn't get out.
The only problem was, by locking her door, 111 just made her more curious about what was going on down there. For some time now, she had been planning a way to get down and eavesdrop without 111 or anyone else finding out. Even though she read Alex Rider and all of the other teenage spy books, but she was sure that she wasn't going to find anything that could help her get out of this room. The only option was the window and her room was on the 3 floor of their 5-story house. Jumping was not going to happen. If she did jump, she would surely fall and at the very least break a few bones. Maybe she could make a string of bed sheets and climb down to the first floor. But the only sheets she had in her room were the 2 sheets and 1 blanket that were on her bed, those probably wouldn't reach all of the way down. She had to think of something else.
Just then there was a knock on the door. She heard the dead bolt being drawn back and the door creaking. "You can come out now." An inhuman yet familiar voice said. She got up and stood in front of the door. 111 stepped out of the doorway to allow her to pass. They walked down the hall, 111 walking closely behind her. Every time she stopped, even if it was just to tie her shoe, 111 jabbed her in the back with some sort of weapon he was carrying. Finally they reached the main floor and she was surprised to see that they were still there. "We have decided that you can be trusted into our group." Said 111. "You can come downstairs." He followed her out of the room, and together they walked down the flights of stairs.
Chapter 10
Realization
When they got downstairs, the entire group of men and women stopped their conversation and looked at her. "Since you have proved to be useful to us, we have a job for you." 111 said, he was obviously the leader of them. "We have a, umm, tenant staying here in the attic. It will be your job to take care of her. She is a government agent, don't let her escape." With that he turned and nodded to the others. They all stood up and one by one walked out of the door. 111 led her up the stairs to the attic. There was one dead bolt on the door. 111 drew it back and opened the door. A gasp of surprise was exchanged between the girl and the prisoner. "Mrs. Dieback!?!" the girl exclaimed. "You!?!" Mrs. Dieback said. "I see you two already know each other," 111 said, a smile of satisfactory on his face. "Then it will be no problem for you 545, to look after our guest." He turned and left the room, this time not locking it, so she could get back out. "So," Mrs. Dieback said. "Your one of them."
"One of what?" she asked, confused. What could this teacher, or agent know about the people that were just downstairs? "Those people," she said. "You're one of them. You're a terrorist."
"What!" she almost yelled. "You're lying, they're not terrorists. They told me they were just a group of people…" she stopped, it was beginning to sound like Mrs. Dieback was right, I mean, what did she know about these people, except that they met almost every night. "How much do you really know about them?" Mrs. Dieback was reading her mind. "Everything, and I know that they're not terrorists!" she yelled. Who is she to tell me that the people I've trusted are terrorists, she thought. I know that these men and women aren't terrorists, they can't be, if they are, that means I am too. She walked out of the door, without saying bye, or promising to bring food, and locked it. Walking around the corner, she saw 111 smiling. "How did it go?" he asked as soon as she was around the corner. "Fine." Was the single worded answer from her. "I guess it will just take some time to get used to. After all, having a teacher locked in your attic must not be the most exciting thing, especially if you have to take care of her." 111 said, noticing how angry she looked, and guessing it she wasn't angry with him. "Yeah. I'm going to have to get used to it. She replied and walked down the stairs to her room.
Chapter 11
Exploration
Ashley looked out of her bedroom window. She was thinking about Mrs. Dieback. About how strange it was that she had just disappeared. About how awkward it was that Amber knew so much about it, her dad was very secretive of his work. He never let anyone see it, he wouldn't leave it logged on for a couple of minutes, just to go to the bathroom. He defiantly wouldn't leave it logged on for the amount of time it would take Amber to read everything about Mrs. Dieback.
She decided that she would ask Amber if she wanted to go to a movie, then look around while Amber was getting ready. Yes, she thought, yes, that's what I'll do. She picked up her phone and dialed Amber's numbered. When she picked up, they talked for a few minutes before Ashley finally asked her if she wanted to go to a movie. "Ok then, I'll pick you up in a few minutes." Ashley said once she had her answer. She hung up and started walking.
It only took her a couple of minutes to walk to Amber's house. When she got there, she knocked on the door and Amber opened it. "Can you come upstairs for a few minutes?" Amber asked. Ashley smiled. She had known that this would happen. She said yes and they walked to the 3rd floor of Amber's 5-story house. After looking through her closet and not finding what she wanted, Amber asked Ashley to go to the next floor and find one of her shirts. Ashley happily agreed. She must be very lucky to have this happen so easily. She stopped on the 4th story, to see if there was anything useful there. All there was, was storage. "There must be something in the attic." She said to herself as she walked up the stairs. As she expected, there was a dead bolt on the door. She drew it back and slowly opened the door of the room.
Ashley took a step back. As you have probably guessed, it was not the room that scared her, it was who was in it.
Chapter 12
Boris
Boris Melhovic admired the gun. It was an automatic AK 47 sent over from Fredrick Waldport in Antarctica. 'A welcome gift to SPIDER.' A card said. Boris was a top-class Serbian assassin who had just graduated from SAA, Serbian Assassin Academy. 2 weeks after his graduation, he had received a letter from Fredrick asking him to join SPIDER. Boris had heard from his teachers that had been part of SPIDER, or worked with SPIDER, that it was a great organization to be part of. He took Fredrick's private jet to Antarctica. When he got there, he had met Fredrick Waldport and Alfred in person. After a brief interview, Boris had signed a contract and now he was being given his first assignment. He was supposed to kill a girl named Ashley Morgan. As he walked toward the target's house, he found himself wondering what this girl had done to make SPIDER mad enough to want to eliminate him, from what he'd heard, SPIDER usually killed older people, adults.
Outside of the house, Boris armed his gun, and unlocked the door with a spare key given to him by Fredrick Waldport. He stepped in and surveyed the surrounding rooms. There was no one in them. He walked up the stairs and saw that there was no one in the house, that was ok, Fredrick had also given him a small hand grenade, that wouldn't go off for another 8 hours after you activated it. Boris knew that if he was going to plant it he would have to do it now, in another 8 hours it would be 2 o'clock in the morning. Whatever parent or guardian lived in this house with the girl would surely be back by then. He climbed over the fence in the backyard and walked into the woods.
Chapter 13
Falsely Planted
At 2 o'clock when the bomb went off, there was nobody in the house.
"Well hello." A voice behind Ashley said. She whipped around and saw Amber's dad, Carter Alvin standing in the doorway. "Why is Mrs. Dieback locked in your attic!?!" Ashley screamed at him. "Well, maybe you'll understand if you have a chance to talk with her, so I'll leave you alone." He slammed the door and threw the dead bolt into place. Mrs. Dieback looked at her then walked to the window.
While Ashley was locked in an attic with a teacher… her father was out with the police. "Where could she have gone?" Sam was yelling at the nearest officer. Ashley's mom, Yvonne had gone missing. Tim had noticed her missing just 3 hours ago at 12 o'clock, when she didn't come back from dinner with her friends. Now Sam Morgan, himself, and 10 cops were out looking for her. "Over here!" a voice in the distance yelled. Sam and Tim ran alongside each other to the where the yell had come from. There was a ditch and looking into it Sam saw the body of his wife, with many bullets all over herself. "Yvonne!" Sam and Tim cried in unison and they ran down.
Chapter 14
Escaping
"We have to get out of here!" Ashley said late into the night. "I've already tried everything, the windows are barred, and the door has a dead bolt, there's no way either of us could break them." She looked down at her feet. "But we have to warn the world, they're planning to…" Here she broke off and the door was opened and Amber's dad came in. "Just wanted to give you these." He said, handing a small deadly knife and a hand pistol to Ashley. "If you kill her by the end of the night, you can leave. Oh, and don't try to escape using those, it won't work." He flashed them an award-winning smile and closed the door. "Ok, so what was that about?" Ashley said, grinning a bit "I don't know, but he knows that we're trying to get out, there must a bug in here." She took the weapons from Ashley and started scanning the walls. "Ah ha!" she exclaimed after searching 3 of the walls. She pulled part of the wall out, revealing a small computer chip. She placed it down on a small table along with the knife and the gun. Ashley looked at Mrs. Dieback with a surprised look. "Aren't we going to try to get out of here?" she said. "We are, but not using the weapons, you heard what he said, it won't work that way." She pulled a piece of paper and a pen put of her pocket and wrote 'we will, but we can't talk about because the bug will pick up even the slightest sound.'
"Ohh…" Ashley said, going along with Mrs. Dieback's act. "Ok, I guess we can't do it that way." Mrs. Dieback was already working on cutting the bars on the window. 'Ok,' she wrote on the paper, 'now I'm going to throw the pistol out the window, hopefully if it lands the right way, it'll pull the trigger. That will direct attention there, while I open the door.' Here Ashley took the pen and wrote 'But I thought that neither of us could break it down?'
'Exactly, we're not going to break it down, we're going to open it and walk out.'
'But it has a dead bolt on it, doesn't it?'
'Yes, but it's not locked.'
'How do you know?'
'Did you hear it lock the last time he came to visit us?'
'No but…'
'Shush! I'm going to drop it now.' Mrs. Dieback placed the pen and paper aside and picked up the gun. Quietly, she walked over to the window and held the gun out. Slowly she began to let go. When it had finally dropped, Ashley began to count, 1…2…3…4. When she was right in the middle of saying 4, there was a shot from below and Mrs. Dieback was beside her in an instant. "Quick go!" she yelled. Ashley thrust the door open and they burst into the hall. They ran down 4 flights of stairs, Mrs. Dieback pulled Ashley into a room and opened the window. Below there was a collection of shrubs. Mrs. Dieback stepped onto the ledge and jumped. Ashley stepped up, as Mrs. Dieback had and walked off of the ledge. She landed beside Mrs. Dieback.
Chapter 15
Punishment
"Where did they go!?!" Amber looked down at her feet. "I-I-I don't know." She mumbled. "You don't know! I thought I told you to watch them!"
"I know, and I was, but then I heard a gun downstairs, so I went to help."
"Why? I'm a grown man Amber, I can take care of myself." He said, disgusted that a 14-year-old girl thought that she could take care of him. "I need to decide on a punishment, and some of the others will come over for a trial, you've disappointed us greatly." He left the room and Amber was left alone to think about what terrible punishment this dangerous group could bestow on her.
About 1 hour later, 111 came back and summoned Amber to the living room. "Amber this is 147, or Boris, 098, or Tyrone, 123, or Gwen and 274, or Christie." He said. Amber sat down and surveyed the people around her. Boris was tall and muscular, probably Russian or Serbian and an assassin. Tyrone was short and stout, he looked like he had spent most of his life in an office. Gwen had a misshapen face, which happened to look a bit like a dog. She had probably hurt it in the field. On the other hand, Christie was beautiful, stunning silver eyes and beach blond hair. "We have been discussing what your punishment should be for allowing very valuable people to escape." Boris said as he stood up. "Yes." 111 added. "We have decided that you will be the one to accompany these 4 on the trip to finish our current job and find the teacher and the girl." He finished. Amber let a sigh of relief slip out. This was much better then she had expected. She had expected being locked up in the attic, or at the very worst, possibly death.
Chapter 16
Where to go?
Ashley looked around her. She was in an office. To be more specific, she was in Mrs. Dieback's government office. "Ashley, come in here for a sec." Mrs. Dieback said peering out of her office door. Ashley stood up and walked into the small room. "Ashley I would like you to meet Eli. He will be helping us on our, umm…job?" Ashley looked to her left and observed the strange person sitting next to her. Eli was a middle-sized maybe 25-year-old man. He had black hair and a face that looked somewhat like a monkey. But he had a sort of charming air about him. Like he thought he could pick up any girl he wanted. "Hi Ashley." He said. "I'm glad that we will have the chance to work together." He smiled and then winked at Mrs. Dieback. "It's very fortunate that you happened to stumble across Mary here, or she still would have been locked in that attic."
"Yes," Mrs. Dieback added. "and without your creativity, not even my sharpest knifes would have cut through those bars on the window." Ashley's face flushed and she looked down at her feet. "It was nothing, really."
"Well good," Eli said. "Cause you're going to need a lot more from where that came from to help us."
"Eli's right. It's not going to be the easiest thing in the world. We have to have a strategy, we have to figure out where we're going." She pulled out a map of the world, then a smaller one of Antarctica. "This is where the head of SPIDER lives." She said pointing to a place close to a glacier. Everyone reports there, but we have reason to believe that they aren't planning to go there until they have finished what they are supposed to do." She stopped and put the world map on top of the other. "This where we think that they are going to carry out their business." She explained, pointing to Baghdad. "Ok. So are we going there?" Ashley asked. "Not before we pay Debora a visit. She's been dying to meet you. She makes all of our 'gadgets'."
Chapter 17
Dead
"Yvonne…" Sam mumbled into his wife's hair. "How could this happen. Why would someone want to kill you, what have you ever done?" He looked up and saw that Tim was standing over him. "Sam, the police want you for questioning." He said softly. They think that they know who killed her. And they have just received a phone call, someone left a grenade in your house, it's completely destroyed. They say it was probably the same person that well… shot Yvonne."
"Thanks Tim. I'll go in." Sam stood up and walked into the dark room. "Hi Mr. Morgan, do you mind if we ask you a few questions about your ex-wife, Ms. Yvonne Morgan?"
"Not at all, I'll try my best to provide you with the most detailed answers that I can supply." He sat down across from an officer and listened to the questions. "When was the last time you saw Yvonne alive?"
"Probably when she dropped Ashley of at my house that was when her house was suffering from fire and a minor explosion."
"I see. And do you have any idea why someone would want to kill her?"
"Absolutely not. As far as I know, she's perfectly clean of doing anything that would make someone that mad."
"Ok. And your daughter, Ashley isn't it, is staying with you?"
"Yes. That is true."
"And Yvonne was staying with her boyfriend, Tim?"
"As far as I know. Anything else?
"No. That will be enough, if you would as kind as to call us if you receive any information regarding her murderer. We're still working on it, but we think it has something to do with a terrorist organization called SPIDER." Sam stood up and left the room. A minute later he turned abruptly and walked back in. "One more thing," he said. "Tim said that someone left a grenade in my house. Is that true?"
"Yes. Your house is destroyed."
"Ashley wasn't harmed, was she?"
"No Mr. Morgan. It appears that Ashley did not come home tonight."
"Ok, but why wasn't she home?"
"We think that it may she may have been kidnapped by the same people that blew up your house and killed Yvonne." Sam felt tears swelling in his eyes. This was not what was supposed to happen, they were supposed to go to dinner tonight, with some of Sam's friends from work. Well, that was not happening now, Sam would have to cancel, he would be spending all of his time now, trying to find Ashley and the people or person would had killed Yvonne. Shaking his head he pulled out his cell phone and called the local Holiday Inn, he would not be spending any time in his house for a while.
Chapter 18
Starting Out
Amber looked out of the window of the airplane. Because Eli and Mrs. Dieback were afraid of heights, she was the only one fit for the window seat. "Feeling okay?" Eli was looking at her with a great amount of interest. "Can I help you?" she asked. He smiled and said, "Just thinking that you're a little young to be coming with us, aren't you?"
"I guess I am," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I am." She decided. Eli pulled out a bag that Debora had given them. He began to take the things in them out. First there was a pair of glasses "They're normal glasses except for these two buttons," he motioned to one of the arms. "This button turns a video camera here," he pointed to the bridge. "Anything that is seen by the person wearing these is seen by whoever is watching the computer, probably one of Debora's assistants. The other button releases knockout gas. You would want to be wearing something like a mask before pressing that button." He reached into the bag and pulled out something that looked like a Nintendo DS. "Looks quite real, doesn't it?" Eli asked.
"Yeah, I wouldn't mistake it for something else."
"That's 'cause it is real, well it was, before Debora altered its mechanics." He smiled, "She sure can do some amazing things with that brain of hers." Mrs. Dieback leaned over Eli's lap and said, "Everyone at the office knows that Eli has a little schoolboy crush on Debora."
"Shut up!" Eli said, giving Mrs. Dieback a little shove. "Anyway you probably could play games on it," he continued. "but that's not its main use. We use this as a well, it's a hand grenade. So you wouldn't want to play games on it, the first time you press the Power button, count to three and all you'd be is little pieces of bone and skin." Ashley grimaced, picturing the image that Eli had just described. This time, Mrs. Dieback was the one to take something out. "This is a gun," she said pulling a rather thick pen out. "You press this button, and it shoots a miniature bullet." Now she pulled out a small laptop. "This is just a normal laptop, except that it uses a new program that hasn't been released anywhere in the world, only the government has access to it, which is good for us, it's the main ingredient in most of our successful missions, seeing as none of the people we go up against know about it, it's probably one of Debora's better inventions." She piled them back into the bag and pushed it into their overhead compartment. Eli put his headphones back on, and even though he tried to conceal the music that was playing, you Ashley could hear Punk music screaming out of them.
Chapter 19
The 2nd Expedition
"Amber where are you!?!" 111 yelled from downstairs. "The others are ready and you know what happens if they leave without you!" Amber sighed, they were already heading out to take care of whatever they were supposed to. She hastily threw some clothes in her bag, on top of the bag with the many guns including Boris's AK Automatic 47. How they were going to get past customs without being arrested was still a mystery to her. She ran down the stairs and almost collided with Tyrone who was obviously about to yell for her. "Are you ready to go now 545?" he said, leading her into the room where everyone was gathering. She sat down in a chair by the window. "Is everybody ready to go then?" 111 said as he came in. "Yes, sir." Was the automatic reply from the group of five. They all stood up and walked out of the front door together. Down the driveway there was a gleaming Corvette parked, that was supposed to be one of their ways to outrun an enemy if they were being chased. Tyrone took the wheel, with Gwen in the passenger seat. Boris was on one side of the back and Christie at the other, both had machine guns under the seat in case of emergencies. Amber tried to make herself comfortable in the seat that was left for her, in between Boris and Christie. They turned down the street and pulled into a mini mart. "What are we doing here?" Amber asked. Nobody answered. Boris went in first. He walked up to the counter and said, "George." The clerk turned around, "Boris, well of course I know what you're here for. It's in the back.
Chapter 20
The Arrival
Ashley, Mrs. Dieback and Eli were at the airport, the International Airport of Lisbon. "So why are we in Portugal again?" Ashley asked Eli. "Tyler Bonettello, that's our boss, thinks that we may find something here. So we have to be here, even though we don't think we'll find any more here than we will back home." He took his passport back from the customs official and waited on the other side for Ashley and Mrs. Dieback. Ashley's passport came next. "Obrigada." She said, reciting one of the few words in Portuguese she had learned on the plane. Mrs. Dieback wasn't long behind. Ashley looked around, Eli was sitting at a table inside a small café. He motioned for them to go there with his hand. Mrs. Dieback saw it and started off across the foyer. "What are you doing in here?" Mrs. Dieback asked, obviously upset. "Can't we just have a drink?" Eli whined. "Fine, quickly." Mrs. Dieback sat down and Ashley followed suit. A waiter appeared and they gave their orders. "A peach iced tea please, make that 2 peach iced teas, and, Mary what do you want?"
"Just a water please." She said coldly. The waiter bowed and left. "What do you think you're doing Eli?"
"What?" he said annoyed. "I'm just making sure that everything's here?"
"Not in public Eli, did we teach you nothing in training?"
"Not about traveling, why can't I look through my stuff to make sure that there's no bug?"
"You can, once we get to the hotel. Now put it all back Eli." He reluctantly stuffed the things back in his bag. Once again the waiter appeared and placed the drinks on the table. "Eli put some money on the table, we have to go." Mrs. Dieback instructed. Eli took out 7 Euros and threw them on the table. Mrs. Dieback picked up the bottles and the three of them walked out of the door.
Chapter 21
The Second Arrival
"Amber, Amber! Wake up!" Christie shook Amber awake. "Amber, you're in Antarctica, you have to get up, Fredrick will want to meet you." Amber rubbed her eyes. She stood up and left the Fredrick Waldport's private jet. "Hello, you must be Am- I mean 545. I'm very pleased to meet you, the name's Fredrick Waldport. The 'Big Boss' if you will of SPIDER." He smiled at Amber and continued. "You know I won't bite, you can say something." He gave a half-hearted chuckle then his face went back to being emotionless. He must have learned how to eliminate any unwanted emotions, after all how could he run a terrorist organization with them always getting in his way, Amber thought to herself. "Now I don't want to come off as the mean boss 545 but there are some rules for you, especially since you're younger than everyone else. Of course you'll have to drop out of school, but that won't be a problem will it?" he gave her an accusing stare, trying to find out if she was willing to make the sacrifice. "Of course," she calmly answered, "and will I be attending an, umm… academy here?"
"Yes, you will have to go through training for a week, it's been cut down because of your urgent matter, after that you'll be off with the others. Oh and if you'll step this way, Gwen will have to search you, it's standard procedure, just to make sure you're not hooked up with any bugs from the government." Gwen grabbed her arm and led her to the bathroom. "Take your clothes off." She said as soon as the door was closed. Amber slipped into a stall and did as she was told.
"Ok, you're clean, get back out there." Gwen said as soon as she was done searching Amber from head to toe a few minutes later. Amber fixed her hair in the mirror and walked out of the room, dignity completely stripped off of her. "Good, you're back," Fredrick Waldport said. "did you find anything on her?" he mouthed to Gwen. "No, nothing, we don't have anything to worry about with her." Gwen gave a weak smile and gently patted Amber on the shoulder.
"What are you doing, trying to get a raise by being nice to the kid?" Amber asked sarcastically as soon as they were alone. "Hey, shut up okay, it's hard to make a living from this job. Especially with Fredrick hiring new kids all the time." She said. It was obvious that Amber was starting to annoy her.