Hello! As per usual, I hope you all had a good week! I personally had an insane week; it seemed as if the whole school year had been combined into 5 days. Heck, we started 3 new units and then had tests on them all at the end of the week. Now, enough venting on my part, chapter nine is not too exciting, which is sad considering the last chapter was left off at a cliffhanger. Well anyways, I hope you enjoy! Have a great week :)

Chapter Nine

Trees

C.I.A. Winter resort

Montreal Quebec

December 31

0930 hours

"Erica! My name is Emma now!" Sophia pleaded.

"It wasn't the last time I saw you,"

"But now it is!"

"Okay, continue leaving me out of this," I muttered.

"You know Trixie?" Erica asked.

"I wouldn't forget her," I replied.

"Well, this is my other sister. Sophia Hale,"

"Emma Hale," She murmured, rolling her eyes.

I looked between them somewhat confused.

"For sisters, you look like polar opposites," I said.

"Well that's because we live on opposite sides of the world," Erica said sarcastically. "She is my adopted sister,"

"I don't know why you still put it that way," Sophia said, clearly annoyed.

"Since when do you have two sisters?" I asked, incredulous.

"For the first two years of you knowing me, you didn't know I had one sister," Erica started. "For the first year, you didn't know I had a mother, which in retrospect is stupid. Anyways, for several months you didn't know I had a grandfather. Next thing you know, I'm going to have to explain to you how I have two brothers as well,"

"You do!?" I stared at her like she had just told me she was working for CROATOAN.

"She doesn't," Sophia said.

"How do you know? Maybe Mom was keeping more than one secret from you?"

"If she was, I would be surprised. When you guys brought me into spy training last year, she told me it was the only secret she hadn't told me,"

Erica and I both started laughing at this. I was surprised I knew more about their mother then Sophia did.

Catharine Hale works for MI6, and until last fall, no one except for Erica in her family knew. She was one of the few spies I had seen that was able to do their job perfectly. And she was one of the few people who was as pretty as Erica.

"Mom doesn't tell you anything, that's for sure," Erica laughed.

Sophia narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the two of us.

"You are acting weird," She said.

"You're so clueless," Erica muttered.

And with that, she walked past me, through a pile of clothes, and out the room. She didn't hesitate to push Sophia out of the way while doing so.

I looked helplessly at Sophia, and then followed Erica out of the room. She was a good ten metres ahead of me, and she was moving at a pretty high speed. She flew down the stairs, and then towards the front door again. Before I had even stepped off the last stair, she had put on her winter jacket, and her boots and was going outside. I quickly got into my snow gear, and then hurried out after her. But she was nowhere to be seen. Following footprints was out of the question. From the door there were the footprints of several kids, all going in different directions. There were Erica's footprints from when she ran around to the back of the house earlier, and I could still faintly see the spot where Sophia and I had stood near the railing. I had one trick I could use though. I looked around, trying to see which footprints looked freshest. I found them, and then followed them off the porch, and down through the small forest path, which led to all the outside activities. Around the middle of the path, the footprints stopped abruptly. There was only one way they could have gone. I glanced warily up into the trees above me, and sure enough, I could see the tips of boots hanging over the edge of the branch.

"Found me have you?" Came the bearer of the feet

"I did," I said, as calmly as I could.

"Well then?" Erica asked. "What are you waiting for? Get into the tree!"

I gulped. This had not been my plan. In fact, I hadn't had a plan, but if I did, this would not have been a part of it. I could hear Sophia coming up behind us, and I knew if I wanted to avoid her I had to act fast. Erica noticed too.

"Hurry!" She hissed.

I did what first came to my mind. I ran to the end of the path, as far away from Sophia as I could be. It gave me a bit more time. Then, I found a low hanging branch, sturdy enough to support me, and then I hoisted myself onto it. Sophia wasn't far behind me. There were no more branches in the close vicinity, unless I was going to jump, and potentially impale myself on another branch that wouldn't support my weight.

But I did it anyway. Anything for Erica.

My fingers grasped onto the branch I was aiming for, but my bulky snow gear got in the way, and within seconds I had slipped off the branch. And I wasn't prepared for it, whatsoever. I chanced a look at the branch I had originally been standing on, and realised with horror that it was advancing rapidly. Before I had time to move, I had landed back where I had been standing. Except, I wasn't on my feet. As Ashley would put it, I had split the beam.

Sophia came around the corner as I screamed in pain. She had to stifle her laughter.

"Why, Ben! What are you doing there?" She asked.

I was trying to regain my breath and answer, but my lungs had seemingly stopped working.

"Oh don't mind that. Come here," She said. She reached out her hands, which I reluctantly took, and then she helped me down to the ground. There, I collapsed like the sky had crushed me. Kinda like in cartoons.

"Where did Erica go?" She asked next. She looked around as if trying to find her.

"I don't know," I gasped.

"Then why were you in the tree?"

"Better view,"

"I'm going skating. See ya!" And then she skipped off towards the ice rink. I rolled over and stared up at the trees above me. It seemed all blurry. But then I realised that my eyes were watering in pain. And then the water quickly solidified to ice. In the sudden silence, I heard all the kids again, all of them trying to talk over each other, all of them doing something interesting. I heard someone yell "Timothy! Over here" and I knew Sophia was reuniting with her skatting friend. I heard someone say "Ben? Is that you?" And then someone was leaning over me.

Her face was obscured by a balaclava and her skiing helmet, from which her short dark hair peeked out under the edges. Through her helmet's visor, I saw a look of worry descend upon her face. And then another person appeared behind her. He looked overjoyed, but his face fell when he saw me. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and I could clearly see his bright red hair, messy from sweat and ice. His freckled face, and green eyes made me happier. It was Mike and Zoe.

"It is you!" Zoe cried.

"It is me," I groaned.

"What on earth happened?"

"I was attacked by piranhas," I said sarcastically.

"You aren't Mario," Mike replied. "What happened?"

"I fell from a tree,"

"YOU FELL FROM A TREE?!" Zoe screamed.

"Ben fell from a tree?"

Zoe jumped slightly, and then looked up into the tree I had been in.

"Hi Erica!" She said lightly. "Yes, Ben fell from a tree,"

"Well, get up will you? You aren't impaled or incapacitated,"

I couldn't see her, but if I could I would have given her the death stare. Instead, Zoe gave it to her. Meanwhile, Mike was staring at me like I was crazy, and I had no idea why.

"Get up," Mike said. It wasn't harsh, but it had a sort of edge to it.

I nervously looked him in the eye and sat up. I winced, but the pain wasn't as bad. Zoe held out her hand, and I took it thankfully. Mike's face gave everything away. When I grasped Zoe's hand, he glared at me, and then walked away angrily. Zoe glanced between the two of us, unsure what to do. When I was standing again, she brushed me off like a mother would, and then held me by my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"You're creeping me out," I replied.

"I just want to be sure you're okay,"

"I'm fine. Just a little unstable. Now go talk to Mike. He wants you,"

"I know," Zoe hesitated. "But you need me more than him right now,"

Erica groaned behind us.

"I'm getting old over here," She said.

"Shut up," Zoe shot back.

"I should go," I said quickly.

"Yeah you probably should. Use that tree there," She pointed to a tree on the opposite side of the path. There were several low limbs, and then a few I could reach as well.

"Thanks," I said gratefully. Zoe nodded, smiled, and then jogged after Mike, calling his name.

"All the girls are falling for you," Erica said, holding her hand out to help me into the tree.

I didn't respond. I just smiled up at her. She rolled her eyes playfully.

After several minutes of trying to get into the tree, I was sitting on the branch where Erica was, panting like I had run a marathon. I have to admit, although I didn't fall, my climb was super unattractive.

Erica didn't let me have a minute to breath. She wanted to move still.

"Come!" She said. "We are still in sight, we need to go in deeper,"

Gracefully, she leaped from the branch and into the next tree. She looked back at me, but I was still sitting there, exhausted.

"Take your jacket off. And your hat," She told me.

I looked at her confused, but she didn't explain. Slowly, I removed my jacket and hat and surprisingly I felt refreshed instantly. Erica didn't show any sort of emotion, so I quickly stood up and followed her into the trees.

When I was little, I climbed the small tree in the park near our house, and I had found it difficult. As I got older, I continued to call it "My climbing tree", but whenever I tried to climb it, the limbs threatened to snap under me. The tree became only a bit taller then me, and I thought climbing was super easy. So I moved on to bigger trees, and then bigger, until I was climbing the 30 foot tall tree in my neighbor's yard by jumping from their tightrope into a branch. I never thought climbing was difficult. But I had been proven wrong. Not only was walking out to the end of a branch nerve wracking, you also had to jump onto the next branch and hope you didn't fall. With each step, my stomach dropped closer to the ground. Erica was moving smoothly, rarely pausing to gather her strength, so she was a good ten metres ahead of me the whole time.

To my great relief, she then stopped, and sat down. I caught up, and then sat down across from her.

"Where did Sophia go?" She asked.

"To go skating with Timothy,"

"Okay. I need to trust me on this. Sophia isn't to be trusted. I know her personally, and she isn't the type to keep secrets or to help people in need,"

"But-"

"No. I said trust me. I doubt you have forgotten what happened with Ashley, and I know you don't want that to happen again,"

"Ashley was different. I thought I was being put on the evil side, and I could like whoever I wanted on that side, but with Sophia, we are actually on the same side,"

"How do you know that? Maybe she's a mole,"

"I doubt it,"

"Did you think Murray was a mole?"

"No but-"

"It's the same thing. Now we need to actually talk about that notification,"