Lizzie rose from her chair and looked around. With no windows, the lamps provided the only light. A book shelf filled the wall to her left, lined with leather-bound books that had to be at least three centuries old. Paper books polluted the black market as a rarity these days but older paper books became priceless. The collection didn't surprise Liz too much though; her dad had a similar collection at home. Behind her a mahogany desk with a holoscreen hookup and a mindset interface ruined the illusion of past. But straight in front was her ticket out of there. A big wooden door with a brass handle and, thankfully, the locking mechanism on the inside. Lizzie practically bolted for the door, but when she put her hand on it she found that not only could she not remove her hand from it, but a paralysis was setting quickly into her left arm. Taking a deep breath, Lizzie attempted to stay calm. There had to be something... there, on the end table. A pair of silver gloves. She didn't think they were rubber, but she thought they would provide enough insulation to be able to remove her left hand from the door. As her right arm lunged out as far as it could to grasp the gloves, she could already feel the paralysis creeping up her shoulder. If she wanted to still have her mobility and the chance to get out alive, Lizzie had to get her hand off the door. After three tries she managed to grab a finger of one of the gloves, even though she felt as though her movement would split the left side of her body from her right. Wiggling her hand into the silver glove, she gripped her forearm and pulled it away from the door with enough force to knock her down on the ground. But hey at least she was getting somewhere.
It was pretty clear that she wouldn't be getting through that door unless she had help. The glove had done the trick but she didn't think she wanted to bother with the door again until she'd checked for other possible ways out. Lizzie pulled her legs into an Indian-style position and looked around her while her right arm cradled her left. What would James Bond do in her situation? Oh, she wished she'd paid more attention to the old spy movies Stelle liked to watch. The bookcase seemed like a logical place to start. Rising from her spot on the floor, Lizzie began to make her way to the bookcase. The spies in the old movies always proceeded to pull out all the books from the shelf. With her good right hand, Lizzie began to drop the books from their places on the shelf to the floor, pages fluttering. As she continued to do this, the door to Keene's office opened, unbeknownst to her.
"Have you any idea what those books are worth young lady?" Lizzie stopped and turned to stare at him. Would this be the megalomaniac behind her sister's disappearance? If her mother hadn't trained her in manners so well, she would have spit at his feet. Instead, she sufficed to give him a stony glare. Here he kept her captive, immobilizing her pitching arm and he's lecturing her about what to do with his books? What a gentleman. Lizzie almost decided to take her chances with him and try to make her way out of the door when he stepped aside to allow another person through. She barely needed to see the raven-colored curls to know who entered. Lizzie rushed forward and gave her sister a huge hug.
"Where have you been, why haven't you called? Why didn't you come home for Christmas? Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Lizzie stepped away from her sister, still holding her shoulders with her manicured nails. Her sister looked different in a way, but not very different. Her sister gained much more muscle than the last time she saw her, and somehow she looked older. Stress clearly took its toll on Stella DiOrazio, and her sister could tell. Again, her mind kept coming back to one question- what kind of school was this? Lizzie saw her sister take in the disheveled state of the room.
"I've been here, and I'm sorry I haven't called, we had finals for this term that I've been focused on. I know you've been worried, and I'm sorry. But I couldn't come home for Christmas because I was on call, in case of a presidential assassination." Corporal Keene briefed her on the way to his office. Someone shut the security protocols down, and Lizzie made it all the way to Mrs. Crabtree before the secretary stopped her. Her sister, though brilliant, couldn't do this entirely alone.
If her sister got in here, someone at home ran back up. Stelle suspected they would all need mindwiping. The Four Hooligans didn't do anything without each other. Stelle called Lizzie and her 'gang' of friends the Four Hooligans, especially before she came to Spy High. Lizzie's friends came from normal, middle class backgrounds and Stelle hadn't understood why her sister would hang out with them, until now. She would have to give Madison, Cooper, and Kyle more credit when she returned home. Stelle really didn't like the idea of all of them being mindwiped. Oh, Deveraux would have to kill her before she'd let her little sister get mindwiped. All of this seemed far too overwhelming. She needed a few minutes to work on a strategy.
Lizzie, on the other hand, appeared relatively unsurprised. She always expected Stelle to end up doing something like this, only a matter of time. What she felt angry about was her sister lying to her. If anything she expected the truth over anyone else from her best friend. She wouldn't tell the world or anything. If Stelle had told her the truth, she wouldn't have created such an elaborate infiltration plan. Speaking of her little super-spy expedition, Kyle probably spent the afternoon freaking out about her. Lizzie supposed he'd called the rest of her friends over now, maybe to stage a rescue mission. He probably watched this on the monitors right now. She found it surprising that he hadn't hacked entirely into the system yet.
"Let's get down to business, ladies, shall we?" Deveraux had appeared on the vidscreen. "Obviously we have to do something about this. I've looked over some of Elizabeth DiOrazio's medical records and I have found that she will be put at risk by a mind wipe. My recommendation is that she remains here for a few days for medical testing and then we will determine her fate." Deveraux had then disappeared from the screen. His recommendation definitely seemed more than just that- clearly an order, not a recommendation. Stelle looked to Keene to Lizzie to Keene. She glared at the Corporal angrily.
"I will not have my younger and only sister subject to something that might kill her, you understand me, Corporal Keene?" She put a nasty emphasis on his name. Stelle didn't think she felt this angry about anything in her whole life. Her sister would not be compromised because some middle-aged, reclusive millionaire had a small case of paranoia. Deveraux would just have to deal with it. Corporal Keene tactfully said nothing to counter her statement.
"May I suggest that you brief your teammates while I take your sister on a tour of the school?" Stelle contemplated this. She really didn't want to let her sister out of her sight for the duration of her stay at Spy High, but something about Keene she trusted. Something about his base character that she liked; the fact he had honor. She looked to Lizzie again, then returned her eyes to Keene.
"Whatever, just as long as it's you doing the tour guide thing." Stelle raised a finger to the center of her sternum, then to her eye, and then pointed at him. "I'm watching you," she mouthed, and then disappeared around the corner down the corridors of Spy High, clenched fists and furrowed eyebrows. Someone would pay dearly if her sister was hurt.