Disclaimer: I will never own High School Musical.
Covert Operations
It was an hour after their discussion over the accident and Sharpay and Troy were walking down the street as though it were a new day. They both had ten percent recycled paper cups in their hands containing a combination of milk, sugar and coffee and they were both smiling elatedly as they strolled toward the tactical meeting, shoulder to shoulder. Any passerby would have thought that they were two carefree teenagers enjoying a warm evening in each others presence, when the truth was that they were both terrified solid on the inside.
"…so he marked me down to an A- because my margins were uneven!" Sharpay finished her story indignantly. She took a calming sip of her rapidly cooling coffee and waited for Troy's indignation on her behalf. It never came.
"Speaking of, yesterday, at basketball practice–"
"Hold on, how does basketball practice have anything to do with what I was just talking about?" Sharpay asked with a stern expression on her face but a smile in her voice.
"I'm not good at transitions," Troy shrugged. "So, sue me! Anyway, as I was saying before being so rudely inter-"
"Wait a minute. This is Gabriella's house!" Sharpay exclaimed discontentedly, the smile gone from her voice. They had just stepped upon the property on which the tactical meeting was to be housed, but it had taken Sharpay a few moments to recognize the area. "Why are we at Gabriella's house, of all places?"
Troy grinned sheepishly. "Did I forget to mention that part? This is where the tactical meeting is being held. Apparently she's inserted herself into your, uh, situation here. But, give her some credit! She was the first person to bring the possibility of terrorist involvement to our attention. Remember? Back at the Lysistrata audition," he reasoned with her cautiously.
"Yeah, whatever." Sharpay rolled her eyes but seemed to have accepted the explanation. Temporarily, at least.
Stepping onto the front porch, Troy put his arm possessively around Sharpay's back and rang the doorbell. Of course, instead of Gabriella opening the door, Troy and Sharpay were greeted with the somber, scrutinizing glare of Jack Bauer. "You're late. What are you doing here? Never mind I don't care," he whispered, the last two sentences directed to Sharpay, before he retreated away from the door and back into the house, leaving Troy and Sharpay to follow.
"Now that everybody is here," Jack said with a pointed look in Sharpay and Troy's direction. "We can finally get started."
The two uneasily crept into the room, discreetly gawking at its contents as they moved. The furniture was dressed in flowery fabric, every piece lined with skirts to hide any dust bunnies lurking beneath. The wallpaper matched the furniture flawlessly, with the busy floral design overpowering the Zen of the room. Sharpay was sure if she spent too much time in this room she would develop a sever allergy head-ache.
Gabriella clearly didn't mind the décor. She was curled up very comfortably on the couch, directly in front of Jack, with a contented, though slightly vacant, expression on her face. Morris, on the other hand, was squatting nervously on the other end of the couch, frantically stuffing the last few bites of a turkey sandwich into his mouth, his eyes shifting in every which direction. At the sound of Jacks impatient clucking, Troy and Sharpay quickly fell into the overstuffed arm chair that was positioned next to the couch and ostensibly turned their full attention onto him, despite actually being overwhelmingly distracted by the other's proximity.
"Ok, let's review," Jack began, pulling out a bright yellow poster board with pictures of Ashley and Sharpay glued to it. "We know that the terrorists are after Ashley and that they think that Sharpay here is Ashley. Except for the Informant, that is, who is the one tricking them into believing it. We also know that the informant is this Zeke fellow." He pulled out another poster with a few candid shots of Zeke at school pasted to it.
The group gave a collective nod of ascent to Jacks summary of their current situation.
"It seems to me, we have a few more discoveries to make. We need to find out who The Boss is and why she wants Ashley dead in the first place. And we need to find these terrorists."
The group gave another collective nod of ascent to Jacks assessment of their needs.
Jack watched as they all quickly shifted their eyes in opposite directions, avoiding each others gaze and pretending to be lost in thought. Sharpay was looking out the window, imagining that she was not currently sitting in Gabriella Montez's living room. Troy was staring at Sharpay's knee, amazed that it was so close to his own. Gabriella hummed softly to herself as she distractedly picked at a loose thread in the hem of her shirt and Morris was fantasizing about another Turkey sandwich with just a hint of Italian dressing and a lot of black olives. Jack sighed in aggravation, "I need suggestions here." he growled, annoyed.
Sharpay raised her eyes to the ceiling. Troy shifted his gaze up Sharpay's thigh. Gabriella continued humming and picking and Morris pulled himself to attention.
"Right, Jack. Ideas! Of course. Well, I suppose we could send one of the kids here to talk with Zeke. I bet we'd be able to get some answers out of him." Morris suggested hopefully.
Jack looked at him thoughtfully. "Yeah, I had thought of that myself. The only problem is, I'm not sure just how easily one of these three will be able to crack him. This is a practiced terrorist we're talking about. I was hoping we'd save that as a last resort."
The room fell silent again, all that could be heard was the subtle ticking of the grandfather clock sitting in the entryway. After what seemed to be an eternity, the bell sounding the hour went off and with it brought some of Gabriella's sense back. With a loud gasp she jumped from her seat and threw her arm in the air as she jumped up and down excitedly. Everybody turned to look at her, surprised by her sudden outburst.
The clock continued to ring off the hour.
Gabriella continued to jump excitedly, one hand in the air, her excitement barely contained.
Everybody else continued to stare at her expectantly.
The clock finished ringing and the room delved back into silence, this time with anticipation thick in the air.
Gabriella continued to jump.
"What's wrong with her?" Jack finally asked, turning to Troy and Sharpay. The couple looked at each other quizzically, both slightly unsure as to how to answer. Suddenly, it came to Troy.
"Yes, Gabriella?" he asked in the most sincere, teacher-like voice he could muster.
Gabriella calmly brought her hand down and stopped jumping. Then, adopting an all-knowing tone, she stated simply, "I know where the terrorist's are. When I was lost in the jungle I'd stumbled across their cabin."
"How come you never told me that?" Troy asked, irritated that she would keep such valuable information to herself.
"I tried!" she shrieked resentfully. "You just weren't listening!"
"Wait, you know where the terrorists are staying?" Jack asked in jubilant disbelief. Gabriella nodded. "That is wonderful! You can take me there and we can look for clues! In fact, we'll plant a bug and maybe we'll find out who The Boss is!" Jack was getting more and more excited as every word he spoke came out faster and faster.
Sharpay's eyes narrowed as she watched the conversation developing between Gabriella and Jack.
"–we'll need a hanger and some bubble gum to do this next part–"
She couldn't help but to feel like her delicate fate was being fecklessly placed in the incapable hands of her newfound enemy Gabriella Montez and the equally incapable hands of this so-called federal agent Jack Bauer.
"–and then we'll melt some crayons and pour them in the–"
"Wait just a minute!" Sharpay finally bellowed, standing up and taking a step closer to Jack. "Shouldn't I go with? These people are after me so I'll probably know more about whatever they've got on me."
Jack looked at Sharpay as though he hadn't known she was there the whole time. He waited a beat, processing what she'd suggested. Then, grabbing her arm, he pulled her down onto the ledge of the fireplace with him so that they were both sitting not quite separated from the other three who were watching, fascinated.
"Sharpay," Jack said in his increasingly patronizing whisper. "I would love it if you could come along, but don't you think it would be a better idea to stay behind? Just in case Gabriella, you know–"
"Dies," Sharpay supplied easily, nodding her head in understanding.
Gabriella gasped. Jack stared at Sharpay in surprise, shaking his head. "Can't cope," He corrected her.
"Right," Sharpay nodded again with a soft smile, showing her complete understanding. "Can't Cope," she agreed. "And dies."
"No! No 'and dies' at all." Jack said exasperatedly.
"Sorry," Sharpay giggled. "Can't cope." She repeated with finality while at the same time holding up two fingers and air-quoting the words.
Jack shook his head and dropped it slowing into his hands. "Lose the quotations," he sighed.
Sharpay bit her lip and nodded. "Fine," she spat out. "Can't cope."
An hour later, Troy and Sharpay were sitting gloomily in the half empty café, both on their third cup of coffee – decaf, this time.
"I hate that they're out their deciding my fate," Sharpay grumbled as she pounded her fist on the table hard enough to nock over two of the empty ten percent recycled paper cups.
"Me too," Troy agreed, just as upset as she was. "I feel like we should be doing something to help."
"Mmm," Sharpay grunted in agreement. "But what?"
Troy sighed, "I don't know. Like searching Zekes house or questioning him or something."
Sharpay turned to Troy with a conspiratorial grin. "I think that's exactly what we should do."
"What?" Troy asked in slight disbelief.
"Let's just drop by my house first so I can pick up a few provisions," she amended.
"You're serious?"
"As Harry's Godfather, now let's get a move on! The clock is ticking, boy!" With that, the two teens grabbed their empty coffee cups and raced out the door, leaving the few patrons left inside startled by their abrupt and loud departure.
Meanwhile…
"Now, tell me," Jack said to Gabriella after he'd called for reinforcements from CTU. "Which jungle was this in?"
"The Country Clubs five acre park." Gabriella said brightly.
"Park?" Jack repeated, slightly confused.
"Yep," Gabriella replied, empty grin still in place.
Jack picked up his cell-phone and dialed out. "Cancel that fleet." He whispered. "Send me two."
Two hours later, Jack and Gabriella stumbled into the small clearing that contained a dark, abandoned looking log cabin. Approaching slowly, Jack repeatedly touched his ear and whispered too quietly for even Gabriella to hear. Following close behind, Gabriella couldn't seem to slow her racing heart and pumping blood due to her exhilarated anticipation. With every small noise that her senses intensified, her nerves started and she gave a little jump. And she was loving every minute of it.
Jack tiptoed to the front door and pressed his ear against it. He listened intently for a couple seconds before standing up straight and turning to Gabriella. "We're clear," He said without a hint of his normal whisper. Gabriella flinched at his increased volume level, but let out a sigh of relief at his words.
Ignoring her reaction, Jack reached down and grasped the door handle, carefully pushing it open and allowing for them to enter. Once inside, Gabriella looked around at the familiar surroundings. The walls were covered just as they had been on her first visit; the pictures of Ashley and Sharpay plastered everywhere, giving the room an eerie resemblance to that of a tween girl's bedroom.
Conversely, Jack seemed to be ignoring the walls entirely. His attention was focused on a small, wobbly, three legged table sitting boldly in the middle of the one-room building. On top of this table was an array of ancient-looking plugs and wires all connecting to some technical contraption. Gabriella looked but she couldn't make sense of the machine. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long before Jack touched his ear and whispered with near admiration "A ProExtreme-Acoustic Leakage Probe Contact Mic!"
Rushing over to the table, Jack started to fiddle with the dials and apparently figured out impressively quickly how to turn the listening device on because the next thing that Gabriella heard was Ryan's voice coming out of the speaker above the static.
"You can't break into Zeke's house! Do you have any idea how illegal that is?"
"And necessary!" Sharpay's irritated voice responded. "Troy and I need to do something to help figure out what is going on. I can not sit in the dark while that whore is out, God knows where, messing with my fate!"
Gabriella gasped, "I am not a whore!"
Ryan gasped, "Gabriella is not a whore!"
Gabriella smiled to herself.
"Oh, stop smiling to yourself, Ryan. It's nauseating how giddy you look every time she's brought up."
Jack looked over at Gabriella, about to say something on this discovery, but instead snorted at the expression currently plastered on her face. "Sharpay's right," he laughed. "That look is nauseating."
Before Gabriella could respond in defense, the door to the log cabin burst open and three dark men dressed all in black walked through the entryway. The leader of the group appeared to be a gangly man with sunken eyes and hairy arms. He locked eyes with Jack and opened his mouth to bark out a command to his two minions but first glanced over to Gabriella and immediately changed his tactics. Falling to his knees, he instead fixed her with a convincingly deferential look. The other two immediately followed their leader to the ground as they stared at Gabriella with fear in their eyes.
"Why, The Boss!" The leader said with superficial regard. "Whatever are you doing here?"
"Huh?" Jack and Gabriella both responded stupidly.
"We thought you didn't want to come around here because you didn't want this mission to be linked back to you," the minion to the left squeaked nervously, his voice jumping like a pre-pubescent boys'.
Suddenly, Gabriella felt a confidence take over her that she hadn't felt since Twinkle Towne. She wasn't sure what was going on or what these men were talking about, but she suddenly stood straighter and talked deeper, more authoritatively. Opening her mouth, she let whatever it was that had just possessed her body speak for her:
"I had said that, hadn't I?" She snarled at the men. "But you boys are so incompetent; I figured I had to intervene just to get this damn operation back on track! Do you know how long it's been since I assigned you this task?"
The three terrorists dropped their heads in defeat, grumbling their apologies and explanations.
"No, seriously," Gabriella said curiously, falling out of character as her posture loosened. "How long has it been?"
Jack quickly cleared his throat and stomped on Gabriella's foot, reminding her of the part she was currently playing.
"Oh, right. Uh, ENOUGH!" Gabriella yelled feigning anger. This was enough to pull the three men's heads up and halt the escalating explanations that were still escaping their mouths. "Now, this is Jack," Gabriella continued, motioning towards Jack who was standing slightly behind her. "I have hired him to complete your job with you. It is clear that you three are completely incapable of following simple orders, so I have brought yet another under-cover to aid you in your task. He'll be by tomorrow to give you my instructions."
Gabriella smiled slightly to herself at the visible flinching her words inflicted upon these grown men. 'So this is what real power feels like,' she thought keenly.
"Come, Jack. We must leave now," She instructed, savoring her last few moments of supremacy before she had to step out of this role. Motioning for Jack to follow her, Gabriella took one step around the table when the front door burst open yet again and one more man in all black stepped inside. His eyes fell onto Gabriella and his blank expression immediately turned to confusion. Gabriella gasped slightly to herself and tried to hide her face but it was too late.
"Gabriella?" Zeke asked maliciously with a grin. "What are you doing here?"
The three terrorists quickly looked from Zeke to Gabriella as comprehension slowly dawned. "Gabriella?!" they half exclaimed.
"Gabriella." Zeke confirmed with a slight nod.
"So, not The Boss?" The three terrorists asked, their confidence growing.
"Not The Boss." Zeke confirmed with a smirk.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Honestly, I did not realize Gabriella would be taking such a central role in my story. I don't know what that's about. Sometimes it's scary how these things happen. BTW, did anybody catch the Harry Potter reference? I thought it was quite clever - until I find out that somebody came up with it before me, of course.
Oh yeah - Sorry to those of you who read my other story, The Price of Sovreignty. A new chapter is coming soon, I promise!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this latest installment. Please tell me what you thought, good or bad. It means a lot to me when you do!
