Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking
Chapter 10: The Night
Kade ran along the side of the road dressed in all black. Her heels clicked lightly on the pavement with the steady beat of her heart. The closer she got to the school, the slower her steps became.
"I can't believe you Kade." James muttered as he crept along next to her.
"What about it is so hard to believe?" she asked defensively.
"I know it's something you would do, but you're supposed to be Gabriella."
She sighed. "For your information, it wasn't like I was bored and needed to keep him in the house." Kade told him. "It was more than that."
"It better have been more," James said lightly. "Because you just made him a man."
Kade stopped in her tracks. "What?" she asked in disbelief. "Troy was a virgin?"
James nodded, still moving forward. "He may have partied, but once it went to the bedroom he was done."
The intercom inside her ear crackled. "Golden Boy was still pure?" Lucas said through a laugh. "Oh, that's good."
She rolled her eyes and caught up with her partner. When they reached the front of the school, the two parted ways. Kade took the most direct rout to the locker room while James climbed up a fire exit and onto the roof. And if all was going as planned, Lucas was waiting for him.
As she walked down the hallway, she stopped at what would appear to be a random locker. She turned the dial three times and watched the door swing open. Kade grabbed a black bag and continued on her way to the locker room.
"How's it going Coppertone?" She asked, keeping her eyes on the emptiness around her.
"He isn't here yet." James shot back quickly. "He isn't answering my calls either. Get him up here if you can."
Kade sighed, "Princess, come in." she said sternly. "Princess."
"It's Prince." Lucas shot back quickly.
"Sure. Why aren't you at position one?"
She heard his feet slam against the ground quickly. He was running. "I ran into one of our subs: Mr. Holloway. I couldn't answer my comms. But I'm on my way. Over and out."
"Over and out." She repeated.
Kade continued down the hall, knowing that she wasn't alone. With her mind on high alert, she walked into the boys locker room.
"Troy?" she asked carefully. "Are you in here?" Although her bracelet was glowing red, letting her know that Troy was a few feet away.
He appeared from behind a set of lockers. "Gabriella? What are you doing… what are you wearing?" he grabbed her hands and looked at her dressed in all black.
"We can talk about that later." She said strongly. "Is anybody here with you?"
Troy shook his head. "Nah, the guys didn't show. So I was just going to go shoot some hoops."
"Good." She breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Now follow me." she took hold of his hand tightly and pulled him behind her.
"Should I get my stuff…?"
She shook her head. "It's better if you don't." She felt him lagging behind. "Keep up." But he stopped suddenly, pulling her back. "Troy we need to keep going."
"What is up with you?" he asked with a worried tone. "You're acting kind of paranoid and you're dressed in all black and you're wearing heels. This isn't you."
She sighed. The moments she had been dreading had come. "Actually, this is more me than you've ever seen."
Troy blinked. "What are you talking about? I've been with you non stop for practically four months and you're telling me that I don't know you."
The faint sound of footsteps drew her attention. "Look, I'll explain it all in a little bit. Just please come with me now. You have to come with me."
"Just tell me what's going on!" his voice grew louder. "I need to know what's up with you."
Kade heard the footsteps turn the corner and she did the only thing she could think of. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms around him and overwhelming him with a kiss.
As much as the kiss was a distraction, it was probably the last time she would be able to do it. No amount of training or intelligence could tell her how he would react to what she had to tell him.
Slowly they pulled away and their eyes locked. "Gabriella…?" he muttered breathlessly.
"Ah, Mr. Bolton," The footsteps were now standing in front of them. "Just the man I wanted to see."
Troy turned his head and gently pulled away from the girl in front of him, but she took hold of his hand. "Mr. Holloway… is there something wrong with my paper or something?"
"Actually, yes. I just need you to clarify a few details for me if that's alright?"
Kade tightened her grip on Troy's hand and looked at him with wide eyes.
He looked down at her, feeling her firm grasp. "Um, okay. I just need to talk to Gabriella for a second. It's kind of important. I'll meet you in the classroom."
Mr. Holloway nodded. "Excellent. It will give me time to get you're paper ready." As quickly as he appeared, he was gone.
Slowly, Kade started to speak. "Don't you think that it's a little weird that a substitute teacher is here so late looking for you?"
Troy nodded. "Yeah. It is kind of weird."
"Come with me, and things will begin to make more sense." She told him. "I promise you."
He nodded his head once again. "Okay."
Kade gently smiled. "We have to go fast, before he realized that you're not coming." Silently Troy followed her through the hallway and up numerous flights of stairs until they reached the roof.
James and Lucas sat at a black electrical box pulling wires and punching in codes.
"How's it going?" she asked throwing the bag at the boys.
"Power will be gone in about two minutes." Lucas said opening up the bag. "All we need to do is feed the cameras into our units."
Troy looked at everyone with wide eyes. "Cameras? What cameras?"
Kade turned to face him. "There are approximately 300 cameras in the school and a thousand more in the surrounding area."
"Why?"
"We needed to keep track of everything. Cameras make that a lot easier."
He stared at her with hard eyes. "Gabriella?"
She put her hands to his chest. "Please, don't call me that."
Lucas appeared in the middle of them. "We have to go." He handed her the bag and disappeared off the side of the roof with James.
"What is going on? Why is the new kid here with you? And why is Chad here?"
Kade pulled the dangling rope and started to hook it onto her belt. "I will explain everything soon. But I really need you to just do what I say for the next," she looked at her watch. "three minutes and thirty-seven seconds."
"What's going to happen in the next three minutes?"
The doors to the roof burst open and two large men had appeared in the doorway.
"You really need to stop asking questions." She muttered. Kade grabbed Troy's hand and back towards the roof as the men lunged at them. "Hold on." She ordered.
Troy gripped wrapped his arms around her as she jumped off the edge. The two flew through the air for mere seconds before the hand pavement hit their feet.
"Hurry up!" A black van pulled up beside them. Kade quickly unhooked herself and yanked Troy backwards into the van. The door slid shut and the van started to move.
"What…" Troy started, but she stopped him.
"Two minutes, fifty seconds." Kade said sharply.
Troy sat in silence as he watched his best friend and his girlfriend pull laptops out of the side of the van and start typing furiously as the new kid drove the around town like a mad man.
&
The van slowed to a stop and each of them picked up identical black bags and started to get out of the van. Gabriella had given him the green light to ask questions an hour ago, but he couldn't bring himself to form words.
"Come on." She held out her hand and help Troy out of the van.
He quickly dropped her hand and followed them into what looked like a log cabin. As the doors opened, he realized that this wasn't a normal cabin. The walls were decorated with numerous monitors and the floor was scattered with what looked like old chemistry equipment.
"When was this place used last?" Lucas asked as he dropped his bag onto one of the flower printed couches.
"Early seventies." James told him. "They used it as a hideout during the cold war."
"Why couldn't we just go back to the safe room?" he asked. "I was starting to get used to it."
"They got it." Kade answered. "I left a camera in there, just for precaution and the last feed I got from it was…bad." She said simply. "They were tearing everything apart, trying to get into our system… We can't go back there."
"Can they break into our system?" Lucas asked nervously. "I mean, they must be good."
"They're not as good as us." James said simply. "And even if they are, we whipped everything. It's all gone."
Troy shifted uncomfortably in his spot. "Uh, Gab…um." She turned around to face him. "What's, everything?"
"We're spy's Troy." She said simply. "Secret agents."
"Yeah," James piped in. "We're like Jason Bourne mixed with Cody Banks and a dash of Charlie's Angels."
"And our job is to protect you." She finished.
Troy stared at his girl friend and bets friend with a hard expression and soft eyes. Life as he knew it had changed.
Author's Note: Sorry I haven't uploaded in a long time. I know what I want to write, but I can't just get it down. But here it is! Hope you like it!