AUTHOR NOTE

So, I was better about updating on this chapter, wasn't I?

Please leave a review! I really need some feedback. I want to be able to know if I need to change anything :)

I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT FOR THE BROOKS FAMILY, MOIRA WANG, AND THE AUGUSTOS!

Operation: Guns

Rated: T

Chapter 8: Comebacks

Lacey landed with a thud in a crouching position on the white linoleum of a laboratory in Utah. She rolled out of the way of her fellow agents and pressed against the wall, eyes darting around to spot a possible enemy. Lee jumped through the hole after her and joined her on the wall, facing the other direction so they could watch each other's back.

The brunette girl pressed a finger to her earpiece, and whispered to her listening companions, "It's clear. Come on in." A moment later Marc, Megan, and Tony Clark slipped in through the hole in the roof. The alarms were still blaring loudly around them and they could see that all of the lights were on in the halls even though it was daytime.

"Do we split up?" Megan inquired, looking to Lee—her older brother—for orders.

Marc, the smart one, thought about this, "No, but we spread out," He decided, "The last time we split up, you were faced with a decoy. They couldn't fight too well and we put must of our numbers over there. The real threat was faced with only two, and that's why she got away. We stick together, but one scouts ahead, one lags behind and watches our backs, one travels on the ceiling, and the two others walk next to each other in the middle."

Tony smiled wildly, "Good plan, bro! You're a genius!"

"That's what they tell me!" Marc replied.

They decided to spread out in the way Marc had suggested. Lee scouted ahead, Megan scaled the ceiling, Lacey stayed behind the group and Marc and Tony were the two in the middle. They could scan the room for clues easier this way and look for Moira Wang.

Lee pressed up against a white wall and looked around the corner. It was a long hall that led to a big gray door at the end. It was deserted. Lee inclined his head, motioning to the others that it was okay to follow, and he quickly slipped into the hall. Megan kept pace with him on the ceiling, and after a few seconds Marc and Tony followed. Lacey took one last long look around her and back-stepped into the hall so she could make sure that they weren't being followed. Moira Wang with slippery—she knew this because of their last incident. She didn't want to make a stupid mistake and get all of them hurt.

When the brunette girl rounded the corner, she saw Lee quickly making his way to the door. When he reached it he went to press his ear up into it, but it gave way under his weight and he fell to the floor as the door collapsed. Marc and Tony rushed forward to make sure Lee was okay.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Lee assured them, "I had a feeling that the door wasn't secure. It was kind of open, I could tell."

Further inspection proved he was right. The hinges of the door had been weakened so someone could flip the door up and enter from the bottom—if that made sense. As the spies inspected the door, Lacey strolled in. She first looked down at the mess below her, but then she looked up. A gasp escaped her mouth. On the north wall was a vault. A huge vault. The heavy titanium door was swung open. Forgetting her assigned position, she rushed over to see what had been taken, although she already had a feeling. She peeked in and saw the tiny room with the heavy titanium walls. There was a wooden table in the center of it and it was empty—all except for a sticky note that had been stuck to one of the edges. The girl walked over to it cautiously, checking the ceiling before she strolled in. She wouldn't make that mistake again. By this time the other spies had assembled behind her. Tony was keeping a watch outside the vault so no one could lock them in.

"You're more stupid than I thought," She read, "Especially the girl who likes guns and combat boots." The color drained from her face and she looked up at the others.

"How could Wang know that about you?" Megan questioned, "It's not like you parade around with the thing. Sure, you pulled it on her at the prison, but she's never seen your combat boots. Right?"

"Do you think she's been spying on us?" Lee gasped.

Marc shook his head, "Impossible. I think we would have sensed it. We're trained to know when someone's watching us."

Lacey was still staring at them, but her cheeks were regaining their color and her eyes were beginning to fill with rage as she realized something. She whipped out her green MPCom.

"Jerry?"

"Hello, Lacey! How's the mission going?" Jerry answered as he appeared on the little screen.

"Try this on for size," Lacey muttered as she scanned the note into her MPCom. In moments the note popped up on Jerry's screen.

"Oh my," He murmured to himself. "Well, it certainly seems she has been spying on you. But I don't think she would be capable of it."

"What makes you say that?" Lee asked, appearing behind Lacey to look over her shoulder and into the screen of her MPCom.

"Although she is skilled in martial arts and such, she doesn't use her talents very well. She puts little brain power behind it all. When she robbed the bank, she didn't even disable the video cameras, and she knocked out a few guards. She basically ran into the safe, and ran out," Jerry informed them.

Lacey nodded, taking in the information. She decided to ask her question. "Was she working for someone, or was someone working for her?"

The question clearly surprised Jerry because there was a brief moment of silence as he typed some keys into his computer. "No, she was completely alone."
Lacey's eyes went wide, because her suspicions were correct. "Then if she was completely alone then, and her ideas and way about stealing from the bank was completely brainless… she can't be doing this alone. That prison break was way too thought out for it to be her plan from the sound of it. The Augustos were—"

"Never apart of the prison break," Marc interrupted as he quickly caught on, "They were freed because there were two of them and they were fast runners. Whoever did that knew that there wasn't very tight security because they could be easily found. They were a huge distraction. Lacey and I were tricked into freeing Wang because her cell was in one of the tightest security cells. Only someone that had the right keys and couldn't make the security go wild could free her—and that was us. She's working for someone, and whomever she's working with, knows Lacey. Somehow."

The girl's face had paled because she had realized who it must be, but she couldn't believe it. She had to hope that it wasn't, because if it was she didn't want to get her friends in danger. That battle would only be for her.

"Lacey, you okay?" Marc asked, noticing that her facial expression had changed from one of shock to one of rage.

She wiped the emotion from her face and gave her fake confident smile—the one she thought he believed was real. "Yeah. Lets go catch that bitch." And then she stormed out of the cell and back into the hall.

The others had to run to catch up to her. "So, what should we do now? She probably got away 'cause the stuff's gone and there's a note…" Tony said.

"We search anyway," Lacey answered, "We've got to capture her and figure out who she works for."

"Someone seems determined," Megan noticed.

"Yeah. We all should be. We don't know who we're dealing with anymore," She answered. As she was walking down the hall, she found a map of the place taped to the wall. "We split up," She decided, "Tony and Marc, you search the west end of the building. It's smaller, so we make our number smaller. Look above you, in every nook and cranny, even look in the floorboards if they come up. She's good at hiding like that from what we've seen." Lee and Tony nodded although Lee looked kind of uncomfortable. These kinds of decisions were usually his or Marc's to make. "Marc, Megan and I will search the east end since it's bigger. Be on your toes guys, she's slippery," She finished, and then the five split into their groups.

Lacey, Marc, and Megan walked down the hall. Megan and Marc lagged behind a little bit, and Lacey scouted ahead, looking determinedly in every place she thought that Moira Wang could be.

"Why do you think she's so determined to find this lady?" Megan whispered to her brother.

Marc shrugged. "Maybe she's like Lee. She could be all protective and stuff," He suggested. He had no idea for once, but he knew that Lacey was lying about something.

The spies looked around every corner, behind every door, and in every little space but they found no other traces of Wang. Lacey decided to see how the two other boys were holding up. She pressed her finger to her earpiece and spoke, "Lee?"

"Yeah, what is it?" The voice sounded back.

"What have you guys found?"

"Zippo," he replied, "You?"

"Same," She sighed, "The biggest lead we have is the weird sticky note." She squirmed at the thought of it. "Let's head back to WOOHP and report to Jerry. Then you guys can go home, and I'll head off in my own way."

"Alright, lets meet back at the jet," He signed off.

Lacey sighed again. "Come on, guys. Let's go."

Megan caught up to her as she walked. "Are you seriously gonna go through with this?"

"Go through with what?" Lacey responded, looking the girl with the black hair in the eyes.

"Go through with the orphanage thing?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever," She replied. She had no intentions of staying through the night though. She was known for breaking out of orphanages.

The three arrived at the jet first. They all sat down at their controls and waited for Tony and Lee to get there. Once the two were in sight, Lacey thought of something. She moved from her controls to Lee's, and sat there with a bored look on her face.

"Uh… Lace?" Megan whispered from where she sat. "You might not wanna do that. You might make Lee mad."

The brunette didn't respond. She just sat there quietly.

When Tony and Lee boarded the jet, they of course went straight to their controls. Lee was strangely reminded of, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" when he got to his controls and found the pretty brunette girl sitting there with her arms crossed.

"Uh… hey, we gotta leave now." He said, trying to get her to go back to her own seat.

"I know," She replied simply.

"So… can you move?"

"Nah. I wanna drive."

"But I'm usually the driver. Y'know, 'cause I'm the oldest?" He bugged, starting to get a bit annoyed.

"But I can fly this thing. C'mon, just one time. I'm sick of just sitting there and watching," Lacey growled.

"Well… okay then. But if you get uncertain about anything or if you think you're gonna—"

"I know what to do!"

"Okay! Okay! Jeez!" He went to Lacey's seat, admittedly losing the battle.

Lacey revved up the jet, and Marc gave the usual thumbs-up to take off, but he wasn't so sure this time if he should. Without anxiety or doubt the brunette made the jet move forward. It gained speed until it was fast enough for her to lift up into the sky. She did so without any thought, and they were soon flying along smoothly—just as they did when Lee drove.

"I didn't know you could fly a jet," Tony babbled enthusiastically. "You're like the superheroes in the comics!"

"Except she's more realistic," Marc added, glancing at Tony out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah! I mean, you can't shoot lasers out of your eyes or pick up houses but you can shoot guns, fly jets, and like… run up walls! And you're a girl!"

"Hey, girls can do things like boys too," Lacey growled, her eyes starting to show little hints of anger.

"I didn't say they couldn't, I was just wondering where she learned. I mean, she hasn't been a spy for a long time like us," Tony muttered.

"You learn a lot of stuff when you're on the run," Lacey sighed and she didn't say anything else.

Lee stayed silent. He didn't want to admit that he'd been wrong about her flying skills.

They got to WOOHP relatively early, and stepped off of the jet. They hurried into Jerry's office and told them about their discovery and their failure to stop Moira Wang.

"This is most unfortunate spies," Jerry mused as he rubbed his chin, "I don't know what to make of it. There's so little evidence to this note, it could really mean anything. For all we know, it could be meant for someone else."

"Let's hope so," Lee replied. With that, the Clarks were WOOHPed home just in time for dinner.

Lacey went and plopped down on the couch, feeling defeated since she had to go to another orphanage.

"Alright, Lacey. I will personally walk you down to the orphanage level," Jerry announced.

"Orphanage level? You mean it's here? I thought you said it would be in another building!" Lacey exclaimed.

"No, no. We want only the best for our agents!" Jerry assured her.

Lacey repressed a sigh, all hopes of breaking out of the orphanage dead. They would probably have a high security lock on it or something. She was surprised that there would be any WOOHP orphans, seeing that WOOHP did a background check.

Jerry walked to his door and motioned for her to step into the hall first. With drooping shoulders she followed him, ready to be condemned for however long they kept her here.