Hi! Here is chapter 13, and other than that I have nothing to say about it. Sad news, I might have to cut back to posting 1 chapter every 2 weeks instead of every week, just because school has been taking up a lot of my writing time and I don't have much more than this. But I will try my best to continue normally. I would say this is about the halfway point. Okay! Enjoy, and I hope you have a good week :)
Chapter Thirteen
Secrets
Montreal Ski Resort
Montreal Quebec
January 1st
0200 hours
I glanced over at Erica, suddenly realising she wasn't there. Then Clarice started coughing. Dark smoke filled my lungs and eyes, just before Brane let go of my shoulder; so I bolted.
I ran as far as I could, my eyes still closed, my hands still grasping at the air, making sure I didn't hit anything. I was well out of the smoke when Erica rejoined me.
"They're tailing us," She said quickly. Then she grabbed my hand, and we veered off the road into a small ditch. Erica held my head low, so I couldn't see what was happening on the street, but I could hear the sounds of doors opening, as if the owners of shops were coming from their homes to see what was happening. Then came the sounds of stressed out people, all of them yelling over each other, trying to do something helpful. I hated hiding and not doing anything; for all we knew the enemies could be escaping. The villagers wouldn't be able to do anything. None of them were spies. None of them could do any damage to the 1000 pound gorillas that were Clarice's sidekicks.
"Erica we ne-" I started to hiss at her, but I stopped when she jabbed her knee into my ribs.
I doubled back, staying silent, listening to the sounds of people freaking out. For several minutes, I stayed in agony, trying not to shove Erica out of the way and jumping into the street to deal with the enemies myself.
It was sudden and quiet what happened next. From the loud noise, came the sound of a horn blasting through the air. And then all the noise stopped. Erica still had me pinned to the ground, and I couldn't see over the edge of the road.
"Everybody get inside!" A young female voice yelled. "I can handle this!"
Erica groaned quietly. I had to agree with her; this person wouldn't be able to stop the agents.
"OK, that's it," Erica said, and she stood up, revealing both of us.
"Erica…" I started, but I stopped abruptly when I saw who was standing on the street.
It was a girl with long curly brown hair, dressed from head to toe in black, just like Erica and I.
"I said get inside!" She yelled at us. Erica crossed her arms and gave her a dead stare.
"You can't handle this mess," Erica told her.
"We'll see about that. You do you, but I'd suggest you get inside,"
Neither Erica or I moved. She shrugged like she didn't care, but she was trying to convince us to leave.
"Don't say I didn't warn you,"
Erica was looking at her curiously now, realising that she had great confidence that she could do it alone.
"Hey you!" The mysterious girl yelled at the faint shadows of Clarice and her goons. "Go die in a hole!" Erica cringed, but didn't say anything.
Surprise hit me, when Clarice yelled back at us.
"Whatever you say!"
"Hold up," Erica started.
"Not now," The girl said, pulling a gun from her pocket.
For a fleeting second, I thought she was going to shoot someone. Then I felt stupid when she shot the ground near Clarice. One of her sidekicks yelped, and then then ran off in the other direction.
"You moron!" Clairce yelled at him, and then she ran after him. The other man ran after her.
I stared with awe at the girl standing infront of us.
"What were you saying?" She asked Erica.
"Who on earth are you?" Erica asked her.
She laughed a little before responding.
"I don't give anyone my personal information until they have proved to me they are trustworthy,"
"Oh I'm trustworthy enough," Erica muttered.
"Then prove it to me,"
"Okay, George what do you have to prove to her,"
This also caught me by surprise. George had been my code name on our fourth mission.
"Oh, yes… um…"
"Well?" Erica grew impatient.
"Okay, ever heard of Nathan Hale?" it was the first thing that came to mind.
"Uh yeah. Who hasn't?" She replied.
"Okay, well, surprise surprise, this is his great-great-great-great-granddaughter,"
"Sure, we'll go with that," She wasn't convinced.
Erica sighed, exasperated, and then pulled her phone out of her pocket.
"Here, I'll call my dad,"
She dialed a number, and then put it on speaker. Alexander picked up on the third ring.
"Hello," He said curiously.
"Hey, tell this wacko here that I'm related to Nathan Hale,"
Alexander seemed positively confused, but he did.
"Yeah, Nathan is my great-great-great Grandfather,"
"Okay, thanks, bye," Then Erica hung up, and dialed another number.
"Now I'm calling my grandfather,"
She took it off speaker, and brought her phone to her ear.
"Hi grandpa!" She said cheerfully. "No, no, no problem. Just I need you to tell someone that I'm related to Nathan Hale - What? No! I'm not trying to impress anyone - Grandpa! Just say it,"
I was trying not to laugh, because then Erica would beat me to pulp. She held her phone put in front of her.
"Ok tell them,"
"Them? Erica, I don't give away personal information,"
"Neither do I," The girl said.
"Erica, don't call me unless it's important. Like, code red important," Then Cyrus hung up.
"So much for that," Erica muttered.
"You know, you didn't have to go through all that," The girl said. "I believe you. Frankly, I don't know why you want to know me so bad, I'm not that interesting. My name is Charlotte. Charlotte Garcia. Who are you two?"
"Well, you already know I'm a Hale, but I'm Erica,"
"I'm not George… I'm Benjamin Ripley; call me Ben," It was all super awkward.
"It's nice to meet you Erica and Ben. Now, what brings you here? You are obviously part of the CIA,"
"School vacation," I said.
Erica shot me a furious side glance. I suddenly realised that the school was a secret, and I had just revealed it.
"School? Oh never mind. Come on, I'll walk with you home. Ask me all the questions you want,"
I looked at Erica, but she avoided my gaze, following after Charlotte.
"So, where'd you learn those moves?" Erica asked her.
"Don't hate me for it, but I worked for CROATOAN…"
Erica paused mid-stride.
"I'm sorry, what?!" She exclaimed.
"Cool your shoes. I ditched them several months ago because they treated me poorly. I know all their plans, secrets, ideas, inside members and everything else. Clarice was my mentor. She is permanently scared of me, and Brane is no better,"
Erica looked as though a sudden thought had popped into her head. I had one too.
"Wait, you know all their plans?" I asked her, speeding up so I could walk beside them.
"Pretty much," She replied.
"Tell me then, what's their most recent plan?" Erica asked.
"I thought everybody knew… Well anyways, I only overheard snippets, but I can show you my notes when we get to your destination,"
"No, you're showing us now," Erica was super intimidating under dire circumstances.
"Okay, jeez, no need to get worked up," Charlotte turned towards the skiing hill, and then stopped near a clearing next to the Polar Dip Mania.
"Come down," she said to us, gesturing to us to sit down.
We all kneeled, and she removed a small paper bag from a pocket. Inside were four small pieces of paper with messy handwriting covering it. At the top of each was a destination.
The first one said "Venting".
"I took these notes one night when I was supposed to be asleep. But I had heard there was a conference that night where all the leaders of CROATOAN were getting together to plan out something new. It was awfully dull, but I got some juice,"
Venting
Clarice introduces everyone to members
They discuss the chatter they picked up from the cia
Cia is planning to come to montreal for winter break
Headquarters is being moved to a sacred montreal park of some sort
Shang says something about a new plan, and clarice shushes him
"Okay, so there's a little bit. When was this?" Erica asked her.
"Julyish," she replied. "Okay, here's the next page,"
She flipped the first page over, and the next side was covered in writing too.
Under Clarice's bed
Clarice tells shang the plan is just between them
Shang wonders when he will get the needles (further investigation required)
Clarice says that starting something deadly is not easy (deadly?)
Shang says he expects to be paid tons for this, and clarice tells him he better not pry or he's going to regret it
"Deadly?!" I exclaimed after finishing it.
"That's what Clarice said,"
"When was this one?" Erica asks her.
"Same night, I followed them from the conference room,"
"Let's see the next one," I said.
Student meeting
Clarice tells us that she trusts us, and we need to infiltrate the cia
James says that he wants only a select few to do it (i'm one of them)
Josee wants me to stop taking notes (i said never)
Clarice tells us the reason there's a meeting is because we can't trust shang anymore (i'll say)
James tells us to go to bed and have an essay ready for the morning on infiltration
"That one isn't interesting," I said, flipping the page over.
"Ben," Erica says quietly.
"Yeah?"
"I need to go home,"
"Why?"
I glanced over at her to find that she looked extremely sick.
"What happened?!" I asked her.
"I don't know. I felt suddenly sick. I'm not the type to get sick, I don't know what it is, but I need to get home,"
"Okay," I said, helping her stand up.
"Mind if I come?" Charlotte asks me, scooping up her papers.
"No," I replied, taking Erica's weight onto my shoulders.
The three of us set off to the cabins. They weren't too far, and their bright lights made them seem closer. We got there in decent time, and We went straight for the front door. No one would be awake at this hour since it was almost 3 in the morning. We still stayed as quiet as possible, for fear of waking someone up.
"Where do you want to go?" I whispered to Erica once we had made it upstairs.
"My room," She replied. I brought her to her door, and then Charlotte opened it for us. Once Erica was lying on her bed and we had the door closed, we started talking in normal voices again.
"I'll leave the papers on your desk for when you feel better," Charlotte said.
"I can make you tea," I suggested.
"Orange pekoe," Erica put in.
"I know,"
"I'll go with you," Charlotte said. Then added - "Here," placing a trash can beside Erica's bed.
"Thanks you two," Erica said dreamily.
Charlotte and I crept out of her room, turning off the lights as we went.
The house was eerily quiet, and I could hear Chip snoring all the way from the other end of the hall.
The spiral staircase seemed smaller than usual, and the living room looked bigger.
"This is nice in here," Charlotte whispered to me.
"It is nice," I agreed.
We headed to the kitchen, and I started boiling water on the stove.
"Do you think there's anything I can do that would be of convenience?" She asked, sitting down at the island.
"Maybe get her a hot compress. I honestly don't know what to do. Erica hasn't been sick oce in the years I've known her,"
"I'm sure you're doing the right thing, don't sweat it," She squeezed my arm kindly as she passed.
I felt strangely reassured, so I continued to make the tea.
"So what about you? I barely know you,"
"You've known me for almost two hours. Of course you don't know me,"
"You know what I mean,"
"Okay… My name is Ben, I'm fourteen, I'm a spy and I'm not good with a gun. Your turn,"
"Sure! My name is Charlie, I'm sixteen, I'm a spy and I can't keep secrets if it depended on my life,"
We started talking about random stuff like books and movies, and spying and when we most humiliated ourselves, and I didn't realise that four hours had gone by until Sophia appeared in the kitchen at 7am.
"Uh, Ben," She said. "Who's this?"
I gulped, realising that this was going to be hard to explain. Charlotte glanced helplessly at me. I didn't care about Sophia. All I could think of was that Erica had been abandoned by me, and I had betrayed her at a time of need. But something else that bothered me more, was that I had just realised what a mess I was in. Sophia liked me, I didn't like her. I had a crush on Erica, and just when I thought she might like me, I realised that… I liked Charlotte more than her.
