Veronica Versus The Marlin
JD and Veronica entered Westerberg High for another day of school.
"So, we still on for the movie, tonight?" JD asked.
"Yeah, but you're on Jiffy Pop detail."
"Oh really? "Cause I thought my job was providing make-out sessions in the back," JD said romantically, putting his lips towards hers, which she gladly reciprocated.
Unfortunately, it was during said kiss that Veronica noticed a tech bug on top of a nearby locker.
That's when her brain flashed, showing that this device was somehow connected to explosions in multiple countries.
"Bug," Veronica said, breaking off the kiss.
"What?"
"Um, there's a bug over there," Veronica said, before walking over to the locker in question. She jumped and discreetly grabbed the computer chip. "Whew, I think I got it," she said, quickly catching her breath. "Anyway, I should go wash the uh, bug guts, off now. See ya!" Veronica said before walking away.
"Yeah, see you later, I guess?"
Lydia certainly didn't expect to be pulled into the janitor's closet on her way to AP Bio.
She also didn't expect the culprit to be Veronica of all people.
"What is it?" Lydia asked once the door was closed.
Veronica pulled out the computer chip. "I just found this on top of Courtney's locker. Not very well-hidden, I might add."
Lydia certainly got the gist. "I'll admit that your spy skills have improved since I met you, but you're wrong about this one," Lydia said. "You really think I'd hide a bug in such an obvious location?"
"You're right," Veronica said, realizing that Lydia was telling the truth. "But if you didn't plant this, then who did?"
"We have a problem," Lydia said, entering 7/11.
"What do you mean?" Evan asked, concerned by the fact that Lydia was there in the middle of a school day.
Lydia pulled the bug out of her pocket. "Veronica found this at school," she said, passing it to Evan. "I told her to stay there while you and I took care of it."
Evan examined the bug closely, noting that it was like none he had ever seen before.
That's not good for a spy like him.
"We have a problem."
"The bug Veronica found is a GLG-20, one of the most advanced counter-espionage listening devices in the CIA arsenal," General Graham told everyone via webcam at Castle.
"This is a CIA design?" Alex asked, to which General Graham nodded. "Ha, figures," he said, to which Lydia lightly slapped him on the arm.
"The GLG-20 uses a low-power transmitter, in order to avoid detection. It has a maximum range of about 20 yards," General Graham said.
"So there's probably a receiver hidden at the high school," Jeremy said.
"Exactly," General Beckham said, via his webcam. "We believe it's recently become a favorite of Fulcrum's."
Team Sawyer was definitely intrigued by that. "So you're telling us the secret government circus that abducted Phoebe, and nearly figured out that Veronica's the Intersect, is now sulking around the school?" Lydia asked.
"Yes," General Beckham said. "We need you to locate that receiver, and find the person who planted it. If you cannot identify the enemy operative within the next 48 hours, we'll have no choice but to relocate Veronica to a secure government holding facility."
"Wait," Evan said, "Does this mean-"
"Yes, Mr. Hansen," General Graham said. "Sawyer's time as a civilian may be coming to an end."
Principal Gowan entered Westerberg High the same way he did every weekday: a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
"Charlie, you should know better than to kick that football," he said as he walked down the empty halls to his office.
Once he got there, Gowan put his coffee and the paper on his desk while sitting down. He then tried to take a file out from under his desk.
But there was no file there.
Gowan finally took his eyes off the paper and noticed that everything was gone.
Please tell me it's still here. Please tell me it's still here. He frantically thought as he slowly turned behind him, only to see that his prized marlin was missing.
Gowan screamed and bolted out of the room.
Only to see that that all of the lockers were opened and emptied.
That's when he passed out.
"Do you think we should make a run for it?" Ram asked Kurt as they entered the school.
Kurt smacked the back of his head. "You don't run from the cops. It either makes you look guilty or get shot in the back."
"But we are guilty."
"Shh! Bring me down and I will kill you."
"No locks broken? No alarms set off?" Detective Conway asked Principal Gowan.
"Nope, it's clean."
"Must be an inside job."
Gowan laughed at that. "You really think that somebody here could've done all this?"
"It's almost always someone close to the operation."
Gowan thought about Conway's words, while looking at where his prized marlin used to be. "When I find out who robbed my store and stole my fish, I'm gonna break my foot off in their behind."
"Alright kids," Gowan said to all of the students in the gym, "Detective Conway here is convinced that this is an inside job. And we intend to get to the bottom of this."
"When that pig talks to you, look him directly in the eye and say nothing," Kurt whispered to Ram, regarding Detective Conway.
"Nothing?" Ram asked.
"Zip it. Dead men tell no tales."
"Stop it," Veronica whispered to them from her seat in front of them.
"Aw, what're you gonna do about it?" Ram taunted. "Call on your Hot Topic nerd for help?" He asked, referring to Lydia.
"Yeah, don't you carpool together?" Kurt added.
"Hey, you three, knock it off!" Principal Gowan said, alerting the whole gymnasium. "Sawyer, where's Deetz?"
Veronica definitely felt hundreds of eyes on her. "Um, I-uh-d-don't know."
"Well, why don't you go find out? It's awfully suspicious that she's not here."
"Y-yeah, I-I'll just b-be g-going now," Veronica stuttered before leaving.
"Where are you? Gowan's looking for you." Veronica asked Lydia on the phone.
"He's gonna be looking for both of us. Now get down to the warehouse on Belmont Avenue."
"No, listen to me. I need you, ok? Someone cleaned out the school. They took everything, my books,-"
"Save it for your next date at Starbucks, Sawyer. Now, get down here. We got bigger fish to fry."
"You robbed the school?!" Veronica asked her team once she saw them at the warehouse, surrounded by other agents and every single item in Westerberg High.
"We had no choice," Alex said.
"No choice? Are you out of your mind? Do you know what's happening at the school right now?"
"We did what had to be done. The bug you found isn't one of ours," Alex replied.
"You see, Evan and I installed EM-50's around the school," Jeremy said. "The one you found was a GLG-20. It requires a secondary recording device nearby to collect the data."
"What are you talking about?" Veronica asked, confused.
"Someone is spying on us," Lydia said.
"What?"
"Ok, the bug you found belongs to an enemy agent, most likely Fulcrum. They planted it at the school," Jeremy said.
"Why?"
"Because they're looking for the Intersect," Evan said. "They're looking for you."
No pressure there.
"We found a total of 29 bugs just like it, but we still haven't found the receiver," Evan said.
"Ok, well, um, wow. Uh, extreme-extreme measures, but, uh, decisive action had to be taken," Veronica said, slowly walking away. "Um, I'm gonna head back there now and pretend like I don't know anything. Besides, Gowan will want to know why I left early."
Lydia scoffed at that. "You should be concerned about not making-"
Evan stopped her. "Hey, Lydia? Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"She can't hear it like that. She won't be able to process it," Evan told Lydia once they were alone, referring to Veronica's potential relocation.
Evan looked over at where Veronica was standing. "How do you give somebody a life sentence just for being good?"
Lydia honestly didn't know the answer to that. "Ok, how 'bout I try it gently this time?"
"No, I don't wanna hear your version of it and neither does she."
"It's a job. How come you gotta get your manly feelings-"
"It has nothing to do-"
"Evan, Lydia," Jeremy said, walking up to them with a tablet in his hands, along with Alex and Veronica right behind him. "You might wanna take a look at this."
The two of them immediately walked over to where Jeremy was standing. "This is a recording taken during the robbery," he said, showing them the footage from different security cameras at the school.
"There's nothing there. Bad guy disabled the security," Lydia observed.
"But wait," Jeremy said, as the surveillance camera turned back on.
By Kurt and Ram, nonetheless.
"It appears that they've mistakenly turned the cameras back on," Evan said.
"Hang on a sec," Veronica said. "Who's that?" She asked, referring to a person completely dressed in black, getting ready to steal the marlin.
"That's the spy," Alex said.
"This doesn't make sense. Why would a Fulcrum agent want Gowan's marlin?" Lydia asked.
Then, Kurt and Ram tried to barge into the principal's office. Alarmed, the agent left the room via air vent, just barely making it out in time before the boys got in.
Lydia slightly chuckled. "Those two idiots interrupted an actual robbery in progress."
Then, Evan realized something. "The receiver's in the fish."
A fish that was apparently stolen by Kurt and Ram.
"See? There you go. My job here is done," Veronica said, walking towards the exit again. "So now I'm sure you super-agents can figure out where Tweedle-Dee and Tweddle-Dum stored the fish. I'm gonna go back before Gowan can interrogate me any further."
"Hey, Veronica," Evan said, grabbing her attention. "You might wanna put a pin in that plan."
"What could possibly be more im-"
"The receiver may contain information indicating that you're the Intersect."
Veronica knew what he meant, but she still needed him to say it anyway. "Tell me. What is it that you're not saying?"
Just as Evan was opening his mouth, Lydia jumped in. "If we don't locate the receiver within the next 24 hours, you'll be stored in a bunker for so long you'll forget what fresh air smells like," Lydia said quickly, before turning to a shocked Evan. "See? That was very gentle."
"One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war!" Kurt and Ram said at the same time in the cafeteria.
Veronica and Lydia walked up to them. "Hey guys, we need to talk. It's important," Veronica said.
"Not now, short stack," Ram said.
"Yeah, can't you see that our time is far more valuable than yours?" Kurt added.
They stopped their thumb war when Lydia slammed her hand down on it, making both boys yelp a little.
"Where's the fish?" Lydia asked.
"Fish? What fish?" Ram asked, nervously.
"Yeah, they can't serve us anything today," Kurt said, referencing the stolen food.
"Okay, we do this the easy way or the hard way," Lydia said. "Easy way is I break both of your thumbs."
"What's the hard way?" Ram asked.
"I chop both of your hands off," Lydia said seriously.
"It's at Veronica's house," Ram blurted out.
"Ram!" Kurt whisper-yelled.
"My house? Why?" Veronica asked.
"You see, we went to the bar at Finnigan's, but we were turned away again. We then came over here to steal Gowan's stash, but it was empty, so we decided to do something big and steal the fish," Ram quickly explained, fear evident in his eyes.
"Ok, that still doesn't tell me why it's at my house."
"Because everybody knows how 'perfect' of a student you are," Kurt said. "Gowan would never check your place."
"We're pursuing the receiver," Evan said to General Beckham on the phone, while riding with Jeremy and Alex to Veronica's house. "We have the location and it shouldn't be long before recovery."
"Stay with the receiver," General Beckham said. "In the meantime, we've decided to extract Veronica."
Everybody was shocked to hear that.
"What?!" Evan asked. "But we don't know if she's in danger."
"Evan's right," Alex added.
"Look, there's a chance that the Intersect's identity has been compromised. We have to err on the side of caution," General Beckham said.
"But you promised we had 48 hours," Evan said.
"You know the game, Agent Hansen. The order has gone out. Veronica is coming in."
Meanwhile, Lydia and Veronica thoroughly investigated the Sawyer's house. Veronica looked through every bed and closet, while Lydia investigated the kitchen and garage.
Finally, both girls started to investigate the couch in the living room. Then, they heard the garage door opening, and quickly reassembled everything in the area.
Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer walked in, a bit surprised to see Lydia on the couch watching an episode of This Is Us with Veronica.
"Hi, Ronnie," Mrs. Sawyer greeted. "Lydia."
"Hey," Lydia responded.
"Hey, Squirt," Mr. Sawyer said, using the nickname he had for Veronica since she was little. "What're you girls up to?"
"Oh, um, I found out that I have a big history test next week, and I needed Ronnie for a study sess," Lydia replied.
"But I told her that we should watch an episode of This Is Us first to de-stress a little," Veronica added.
"Oh, how thoughtful of you," Mrs. Sawyer said. "Lydia, you can stay for dinner if you like."
"Thanks Mrs. Sawyer, but I'm busy tonight," Lydia said. "My dad is cooking fish for dinner."
Veronica certainly caught Lydia's gist. "Speaking of fish," she said to her parents. "Um, Mr. Hamilton said that he saw a stuffed fish get delivered here. Where is it, exactly?"
"Oh, I guess you haven't talked to Martha?" Mr. Sawyer asked.
"No. Why?"
"Because she left here last night with a four-foot long marlin."
"What? Did she say why?"
"No, she just took the fish off the front step and left. We assumed that she accidentally had it shipped here."
"Why would she ship an out-of-box marlin here, Dad?"
"I don't know," Mr. Sawyer answered. "You ok, Ronnie? You seem to care an awful lot about this fish."
"The fish is for me," Lydia interjected. "My parents hate the idea of me having a stuffed fish in my room, so I had it shipped here. UPS told me that they were running low on marlin boxes, so that's probably why it was shipped so weirdly."
Veronica received a text from Martha:
WHERE ARE YOU?! GOWAN & THE DETECTIVE HAVE BEEN GRILLING ME ABOUT YOU!
The fact that they were still doing interviews after school was astonishing, to say the least.
Veronica gave her phone to Lydia, before talking to her parents. "Hey Mom, Dad, Martha just texted me saying that she can give Lydia the marlin at school. I need to give her a ride."
"Oh, already?" Mrs. Sawyer asked. "Wow, you kids really do text fast these days."
"Yeah, we certainly do," Veronica said. "Um, here's something that I haven't done in a while," she said while approaching both of her parents. She then hugged Mr. Sawyer.
"I love you, Dad."
"Aw, I love you too, Sprout," he said, using another childhood nickname.
Veronica then hugged Mrs. Sawyer. "I love you, Mom."
"I love you, Sweetie."
Once the hug was over, Veronica turned to Lydia. "Ready to motor?"
"Ok, Dunnstock, start talking!" Lydia demanded.
"Kurt and Ram promised to stop torturing me if I took the marlin away!" Martha blurted. "Whew, that feels so good! But at the same time I feel so guilty! I'm so sorry, Ronnie!"
"Ok," Lydia replied, taken aback by Martha's sudden confession. "Where'd you store it?"
"In the freezer at 7/11!"
Suddenly, a delivery girl approached them. "Hi, I have an order here for Martha Dunnstock."
"Oh, that's me," Martha said, taking the bag of food. "Thank you so much."
"No problem," the delivery girl said. "You guys must really love shawarma. This is my 29th delivery this month."
"Well, people do love their meat here in Sherwood," Martha said. "Thanks again."
The delivery girl walked off. "Well, it's been fun chatting with you guys," Martha said. "Sorry again for all of trouble, Ronnie."
"It's ok. I'm just glad you told me," Veronica said, before Martha walked off.
"29 deliveries," Veronica said to Lydia. "That means-
"29 bugs," Lydia finished. "We've got to warn the others."
Evan sat at the 7/11, concerned about Veronica, but not able to do anything about it.
Suddenly, he received a text in the group chat from Lydia:
IT'S THE SHARWAMA GIRL! SHE'S CURRENTLY WEARING A "STARK'S SHARWAMA" UNIFORM! PONYTAIL, LONG, BLACK HAIR, DARK EYES. THE FISH IS ALSO IN THE 7/11 FREEZER!
And as luck would have it, a girl of that exact same description walked in.
"Can I help you?" Evan asked, after the girl started to walk towards him. He couldn't risk blowing his cover.
"Yeah, I was wondering if I could get something out of your freezer?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you in. Company policy."
"Ok, then I'll have to use my special pass," the delivery girl said before pulling a gun out of her brown paper bag, aiming it at Evan.
Evan quickly grabbed the gun, but the girl (or "Lizzie" as her name tag said), pulled him over the counter. Lizzie then kicked his knee from behind, causing Evan to fall. Evan then kicked her in the stomach, before kicking the gun out of her hands. He got up and retrieved the gun. Before he could use it, Lizzie grabbed it, but Evan still had a grip on it. She then kicked him in the groin, causing him to let go, but he tackled her to the ground, which pushed the gun several feet away from them.
"You're not a 7/11 employee," Lizzie remarked.
"And you're not a shawarma girl," Evan said.
Just then, two teenagers entered the store.
"We're closed," Evan said.
They left quickly after that. Lizzie used this distraction to kick Evan in the groin, causing him to loosen his grip. Lizzie pushed him off of her and ran to the gun.
Once Evan got back up, he held his hands in the air.
"Now," Lizzie said. "Care to tell me where the fish is?"
The sound of "Help! Help me!" could be heard when Lydia and Veronica entered 7/11.
They rushed over to the freezer, where Evan was locked in via padlock.
"Evan?" The girls said in unison.
"The shawarma girl has the receiver!"
"Evan, it's over," Veronica said, once she saw the padlock. "They're gonna stick in some cell. They're gonna have to send my SAT scores to San Quentin!"
"Veronica, focus!" Lydia said.
"We can get that girl if you can get me out!" Evan said.
"How?" Veronica asked.
"I keep a backup gun in the jar of horseradish sauce."
Lydia found it and threw it on the floor, glass shattering as a gun was revealed.
"What was that for?" Veronica asked.
"We don't have much time!" Lydia replied, before aiming the gun at the lock. Evan stepped away for safety.
Except nothing came out when Lydia "shot."
"The safety's still on," Veronica said, before grabbing the gun.
Just in time for a certain detective to walk in.
"Sawyer," Detective Conway said, coming in from behind. "A little birdie told me I'd find ya here."
Then, he finally saw the gun that she was holding. "Drop the gun now!" He said, aiming his gun at her.
"No, no! There's no need to shoot!" Veronica exclaimed, dropping the weapon, before being handcuffed. "That's not my gun! My friend is in the freezer! Tell him, Lydia!"
"Yeah, let him out and he can explain! Please, sir, just look in the freezer!"
"Nice try," he said before walking away with Veronica.
"We've identified the enemy agent," Evan said to Generals Beckham and Graham once the rest of the team was at Castle. "She was posing as a 'Stark's Shawarma' delivery girl. Code name: Lizzie," he said while playing the security footage of her carrying the marlin in the 7/11.
"So, she escaped with the receiver?" General Graham via webcam, with a bit of disappointment in his voice.
"Yes, but she made a call," Jeremy said, referring to the surveillance footage. "We're tracing the cell signature so we can triangulate her location."
"We just need more time," Lydia added.
"As soon as you locate her, take her out," General Beckham said via webcam.
"Uh, one of us still needs to get Veronica out of police custody," Evan said. "She was arrested just-"
"The Intersect is no longer your concern," General Graham said.
"I-I don't understand?"
"Detective Conway is CIA. Veronica's on her way to the extraction point right now. We've decided to transfer her to lockdown immediately."
"Is there a problem?" General Beckham asked, once he saw how confused Evan was.
"Uh, no. I just thought that we were handling the transfer," Evan replied, referring to his team.
"Forget about Sawyer, Agent Hansen. Focus on catching that Fulcrum agent," General Beckham said.
"We're on it," Alex said, before ending the call. "And by 'we,' I mean Jeremy and I handle Lizzie, while you two find Veronica."
"Really?!" They asked in unison.
"Don't make me change my mind."
"So, this is it, huh?" Veronica asked Detective Conway as they neared their destination. She figured out that he was the agent for her extraction by how long the drive had been. "Gonna get my own padded cell? Do I get a bed at least?"
"It's not as bad as it sounds," Conway said. "The underground complex where you'll live has state-of-the-art security and amenities. You''ll even be allowed outside in controlled locations."
"What about my boyfriend? My parents? What do I tell them?"
"Nothing," Conway said. "It's safer for them if you just disappeared." He then pulled into a parking lot, before speaking into a walkie-talkie. "The package is ready for extortion. Send in the chopper."
"Wait!" Lydia yelled as her and Evan arrived on the rooftop.
"Is there a problem?" Conway asked.
"Agents Heere and Hamilton are tracking the Fulcrum mole. They should have her in custody soon, so we can hold off on the transfer."
"If there was a change, I would've been contacted. I have my orders."
"You don't have to do this. This is a judgment call," Evan said.
"We can hold Veronica until we know for sure," Lydia added.
"It's too late. Her cover was blown, she's gone," Conway said.
"No," Evan and Lydia said in unison.
"We will take full responsibility. Veronica is our asset. She's our girl," Evan said.
"Just give us more time, please," Lydia said.
"I'd appreciate it. I really would," Veronica nervously said to Conway.
"Please don't do this," Lydia said to Conway.
He thought it over for a moment. "Ok, you got one minute. One minute!" He said, shoving Veronica over to her friends, before walking a few feet away.
"Guys, I'm not ready to disappear," Veronica said.
"We know," Lydia said.
"Look, I need you two to talk to JD…and my parents…and my friends…and tell them…I don't know. Just say something that will be easy for them to bear. Make sure they know how much I love them. You can do that, right?"
"Yeah, definitely," Evan said, hesitation evident in his voice.
"And I just wanted to let you guys know, that Team Sawyer has been the best team I've ever been on."
Before they could respond, Conway walked up to the trio. "Time's up," he said, pulling Veronica away.
"Hey, Veronica," Evan called out, wanting to tell her about his true feelings for her.
But when she turned around, Evan saw Lizzie several feet away, with a gun. "Get down!"
They all got down and ran inside, hiding.
"I listened to the receiver," Lizzie said.
"She knows," Veronica said to Evan and Lydia.
"Do you know how many agents are looking for Phoebe Larkin? And all this time, the Intersect was right here. Wait until my superiors find out."
"Freeze!" Alex shouted from behind, before shooting her.
The next morning, Principal Gowan walked into school, with his coffee and newspaper, per usual. Once he got to his office, he looked up and noticed that his prized marlin was back on the wall, albeit with a huge amount of duct tape in the middle.
He then looked around the school, noticing that everything was back in place.
"YES!"
A/N: I know it's kind of sudden, but that's the end of Book One, folks.
HOWEVER!
BOOK TWO SHOULD BE DROPPING NEXT WEEK! FOLLOW ME FOR WHEN IT GOES LIVE!
P.S. Thoughts? Any constructive criticism is welcome!
