Chapter 3

Rachel's POV

It was the next day and I sat in the meeting room straightening up stacks of paper, waiting for the highest rank operatives to arrive.

The door opened and in came Fanny followed by Bartie and the leaders of all the sectors around the world. I greeted them with a nod of the head as they took their seats.

"Is everyone here?" I asked.

Everyone turned to the empty seat next to Fanny on which Patton was supposed to sit. She scoffed and rolled her eyes before getting up and leaving the room. A few seconds later she returned dragging Patton by the arm and pushing him into the seat. I tried to look at him but he was avoiding my eye. I guess he was feeling pretty guilty. Yeah well he should be.

"Well you all know why I called you in here today?" I addressed my fellow operatives. They all exchanged glances of confusion.

I looked up at the ceiling in annoyance before continuing. "I'm here to talk to you about our defense systems."

"Wot iz wrong wiv zem?" The French sector leader asked.

"Incase you haven't noticed, they seem to be crashing a lot lately."

"Just the other day Toiletnator invaded our sector and our defense system should've gotten rid of him in only but a few seconds." Nigel stated.

"Exactly." I said getting up from my seat. "I have already sent our best 2x4 technicians to repair this problem but even they can't find anything wrong."

"So if ya sent our techies to do the job, then why are we talking about this?" Fanny asked annoyed as usual.

I sighed. "If you heard what I said, the technicians can't find the problem and therefore our defense systems will continue to crash every now and again so you all need to keep your guard up until we can fix the problem."

The operatives started murmuring to each other. I took this opportunity to take a quick peak at Patton. He had his head in between his hands with his elbows resting upon the table looking hard at a specific spot. Fanny was whispering something to him and I couldn't help but frown. Was it just me or was Patton spending a lot of time with her lately? I held up my hand to signal for everyone to be quiet.

"Another thing I want to talk about is the enemy activity that's been going on." I continued.

"What enemy activity?" Asked Numbuh 10.

"Exactly." I answered. "It's been exactly 2 months since our last major enemy attack if you remember the carnival incident."

"Maybe tha adults have finally learnt that we rule an' gave up?" Numbuh 1-Love said in his strong Jamaican accent.

"I highly doubt it Numbuh 1-Love."

"Maybe something big is going down." Numbuh 10 merely stated. "Perhaps they're planning something real big."

I raised an eyebrow. "Although that's seems more likely I highly doubt it too."

"The adults aren't supposed to know we exist. Unfortunately due to Numbuh 594 they know of us." Nigel reminded us. "But they have no idea where our HQ is."

"If they ever found out…" The Sector T leader said biting his nails.

"They won't if we're all careful." I tried to reassure them.

"Maybe they did find out and they're all planning to ambush us?!"

The whole room started chattering noisily and it was ticking me off.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed.

Everyone went silent quickly.

"Now!" I shouted. "The adults do not know of our HQ whereabouts. This has happened before. I'm just saying to keep a look out."

The room broke into murmurs again.

"Meeting dismissed." I sighed and everyone got up from their seats and started filing out the door. Everyone except Patton that is.

He continued to sit there with his head in his hands, staring hard at a specific spot on the table. I sat opposite seat of him and he looked at me for the first time since the meeting.

"I screwed up didn't I?" He asked in a whisper.

"Oh gee you think?" I said sardonically.

Patton sighed angrily and lowered his head so I can only see the top of it. I reached out a hand but all of a sudden he shot up.

"But I'm really sorry I mean the Arctic was being attacked and I didn't know if Numbuh 86 could handle it on her own so I stayed to help and now I realize that I didn't have to stay and I could've let Fanny handle everything but I was concerned of my cadets and I know I screwed up and I'm really sorry if there's anything I can do to make I up to you…. who am I kidding? It was our two-year anniversary and I blew it off. I'm a horrible boyfriend I-"

"Patton." I cut him off. "You're rambling again."

"Ugh."

He crossed his arms angrily and hid his face in them.

I looked to my side, thinking of what to say. It's kind of hard to forgive him but he is my boyfriend.