Hey everyone! I'm back! I'm sorry for the unexpectedly long wait for this chapter.
Just wanted to say thank you SO much to everyone who has supported me recently. Every single message and review means so much to me, it's impossible to explain. My medical and mental problems are far from gone, I often feel like I'm standing in the middle of a storm with no way out, and there is no end in sight, but I'll really do my best to update a bit more regularly now.
Once again, a massive thanks to everyone who has given me even the tiniest bit of support. I'm not seeing either of my friends at the moment - I'm pretty much shut in my room with only family allowed in - so every friendly message makes a world of difference.
I don't own MI High.
"This should be a relatively simple mission, however as always when KORPS is involved utmost caution is needed. MI High team, you must listen to everything Agents Cole, Stewart and Gupta tell you - remember that they are far more experienced. Tom, you'll stay here on comms. Your mission is to scope out this warehouse." Frank brought up a satellite picture of a run-down, abandoned-looking warehouse on the screen. "We've been tipped off that KORPS has something to do with it. Surveillance has seen only one man enter it in recent weeks, so we are thinking that the building might not be in regular use. However, as normal, KORPS could well have something up their sleeve. Be on guard."
"One floor, right?" Oscar asked, and Frank nodded.
"And scanning shows nothing underground either."
"Well that makes it easier," Carrie sighed. "One floor. Place like that, we'll probably always be in shouting distance of at least one person."
"True. Off you go." Tom swung the wheeled chair out and sat at the desk, bringing up all of the screens he needed to monitor the mission from the base, while the six other spies headed out in the lift.
"Got anything?" Zoe asked down her pencil. There were negative replies from all of the rest of the team. The warehouse had turned out to be abandoned on the inside as well as on the outside. Once they had got past the still relatively impressive security system, the spies had walked out into what seemed to just be rows upon rows upon rows of desks. No sinister machinery, or hidden rooms, or anything but what could easily be a normal office building if it wasn't for the sinister way that the desks stretched away as far as the eye could see in the relative darkness and the orange symbols heading the few papers that had been left behind. No computers or technology remained, only the occasional sheet of paper blank but for a KORPS heading, the desks, and the chairs occupying the cavernous space.
"It looks like some sort of admin base that's been abandoned at least two years," Rose said into her communicator. "Keep looking, though, we don't want to miss anything." The spies all started moving again, although they were less on guard and more relaxed now that they had been in the warehouse five minutes and nothing had happened. Zoe and Dan moved closer until they were walking down the aisles next to each other.
"It's kind of intimidating, working with them," Zoe said for only Dan's ears. "They seem to know exactly what they're doing, I feel really inexperienced."
"Of course they know what they're doing," Dan said. "Those guys are MI9 legends! Once I leave school I want to do exactly what Carrie's doing now. Do you know that she saved London from a nuclear explosion in the centre with 10 seconds to spare by fighting her way through 10 KORPS agents in 2 minutes by herself? And she stopped the Crime Minister from launching an attack on the House of Lords and really nearly caught her too. And..."
"Alright, I get it!" Zoe laughed. "She's your hero!"
"No!" Dan immediately denied. "I mean...she's really amazing and incredible but...I guess she is my hero, actually. Have you heard some of the things that the three of them did when they were in MI High? It was at a different school then, St Hopes, but they still had Mr Flately and Frank."
"No," Zoe said, interested, pushing her ponytail over her shoulder.
"Well, once, they saved the country from a complete power failure, I don't know if you remember it..."
"I do!" Zoe said. "Everyone at SKUL was really angry, none of the machines were working properly, it was a nightmare for them!"
"Well, they saved that by..." Dan was about to embark on the story, but then his attention was caught. "Hey, Zoe, look." He pulled off the main aisle into the space in front of one of the desks. It looked the same as all the others on the surface, but there was one difference - a crisp white envelope, made of heavy, expensive paper sellotaped to the cheap wood. The envelope was addressed in a firm, steady hand to 'Rose'.
"Why is that there?" Zoe wondered. "Everyone! We've got something!" All the other spies started to make their way towards where Zoe and Dan were. Within two minutes they were all standing around the desk. Rose looked just as confused as all of the others. Aneisha went to pick the envelope up, but was stopped by Oscar's hand on her shoulder.
"Wait," he cautioned. "Anything could be in it. Tom, could you scan this?" He held his spypod in front of the envelope as Aneisha looked embarrassedly at the floor for her error.
"Sure," Tom said, and they all could hear the clacking of the keyboard as he ran a computer program. Several seconds later - "It looks safe, no hostiles or unusual chemicals," he said, and then Oscar picked the envelope up, smiling in a friendly way at Aneisha as if to say that he didn't mind her mistake. He turned the envelope over in his hands several times before handing it to Rose, who stared at the front of it for a long while.
"Oh no," she moaned. "No, no, no."
"What is it, Rose?" Zoe asked, wondering if it was something that she should have caught. But looking at Oscar and Carrie, they both seemed just as confused.
"I know the writing," she moaned, hiding her face quickly in Oscar's shoulder before pulling herself together. All the younger spies were thrown to see such a moment of weakness from one of MI9's top spies. "Tom, get into the surveillance of the MI9 prisons, Cell 92, tell me what you see."
"Oh god, Rosie, it isn't..." Oscar began.
"I'd know his writing anywhere," Rose said. "Have you got it yet, Tom?"
"Nearly..." Tom's hands were flying over the keyboard, entering lines and lines of code. Finally... "Access Granted!" he punched the air before searching for Cell 92. "Alright, there's a man in there, looks about 40, dark skin, sitting on the bed, reading a book."
"Which book? Can you get the title?" Tom enlarged the picture and zoomed in.
"A Brief History of Time," he read off. "Stephen Hawkins, I think?"
"No!" Rose was angry now, slamming her hand on the desk and striding quickly towards the exit. Everyone else hurried after her, Dan, Zoe and Aneisha totally confused. "He was reading that a week ago, he never re-reads books, he finished Mendeleev in a week and that's about twice the length, no, no, NO!"
"Rosie, calm down," Oscar caught her hand in his. "You've got to calm down. Deep breaths."
"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN?" Rose shouted, and everyone but Oscar cowered backwards. "THEY PROMISED ME!"
"I know, but right now we've got to focus..." Rose took several deep breaths, clenching and unclenching her fists, before she nodded slowly.
"Okay. I've got this under control. We need to get back to base." The three older spies were on their way when Aneisha called out.
"Aren't you going to tell us..." They all halted. Oscar and Carrie looked apologetic, Rose looked as though she was barely holding a lid on her anger.
"Sorry, that was so not thoughtful," Carrie apologised. "Can I, Rose?" Rose nodded tightly. The younger spies moved closer. "Basically, the short version, the man in 92 is Rose's dad, he was imprisoned a few years ago for what he did to Rose, and it looks as though he's escaped and MI9 didn't notice."
"Oh." Dan's response was far from adequate, but it was all he could think of.
"Oh is about right," Rose said. "Now can we please go back to base?" The MI High team nodded. All of them were giving Rose's behaviour leeway because it was clearly a very touchy subject with her, but at the same time they were starting to re-evaluate their first opinions of her as a very friendly, nice, relatively quiet member of the team.
As soon as they all exited the lift, Rose ran over to Frank and launched into a hug that Frank freely gave. "How?" she mumbled against his chest. "Just - how?"
"He looped the feed," Tom said. "Looped the feed on the cell door."
"I know that, I guessed that. I was asking how I'm going to get through this mission," Rose said and her voice was weak with the faintest trace of a tremor.
"You don't have to," Oscar said, moving forwards and rubbing soothing circles on Rose's back. Dan, Zoe, Aneisha and Tom all grouped awkwardly together, not knowing what to do or say.
"Course I do," Rose said, pulling back and roughly wiping her eyes. "I have never yet opted out of a mission, Oscar Cole, and I do not intend to now." As she spoke, she seemed to be pulling a façade over herself, hiding the terror and hurt that had been visible for a few minutes.
"We'll be right beside you," Carrie offered, holding her hand out. Rose took it and squeezed, smiling at her best friend.
"I know you will. And guys?" She turned to the teenagers. "I'm really sorry. I don't often flip out. Really. I just...hate my dad for doing this." All of them rushed to say that they didn't mind at all, completely understood, that Rose shouldn't worry at all. "Thanks. Let's get this show on the road, then!"
She walked over to the circular table, pulled up a chair, and slit open the envelope.
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And thanks once again to everyone.