Spy School: Framed for Murder (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter Seven: Betrayal?

Erica heard the sirens at the same time that I did.

It was in the middle of the night, and we had been in the middle of sleeping. Both of us had been on alert, however, mainly because we were worried about how to continue our mission rather than the fear of being reported to the cops.

Shooting to her feet, Erica pushed open the window, urging, "Quick, jump out."

I pointed at the evidence package on the floor. "What about that?"

"It doesn't matter," Erica said. "Let the police find it. Come on, let's go!"

Thankfully, the window wasn't too high off the floor, so I managed to lift myself up with my hands and crawl through the hole just big enough to allow me through, tumbling onto the grass below. Erica came out after me, but unlike me, she landed onto the grass with the grace of a feline.

Lydia's backyard was of a typical one, with a lawn,
a few trees and bushes and a wooden fence surrounding the place. Erica ran toward it and scrambled up the fence, using a nearby tree to assist herself. I had a bit more trouble - but with Erica pulling me over from the other side, I managed to hop over the fence and join her.

We landed in someone else's backyard, which consisted of a large pool and a few lounge chairs on the other side. Erica and I headed to the right side of the fence, where it led deeper into the neighborhood, so we could hide from the cops.

"I thought you... said Lydia... was safe," I panted, once again joining her in another backyard. "She called... the cops... on us."

"She is safe," Erica insisted, barely panting. "She told me she was going to call the cops on us while you were sleeping. Which is understandable. She doesn't want to lose her job and go to jail."

"What?" I exclaimed, a little too loudly. A few houses' lights nearby flickered on, and I lowered my voice as we quickly climbed over another fence. "That doesn't... make her... trustworthy."

"There's an unsaid understanding between all CIA agents," Erica replied. "That our job is more important than trying to help our fellow agents. She's just doing her job. Just because she ratted us out doesn't make us enemies, and she knows that I understand why she would rat us out. But she'll still send the sample to Zane. We can just use our phones to access the CIA's central computer tomorrow."

All evidence analysis was required to be entered into the CIA's central computer, which was only accessible through devices linked to the system - like the phones the CIA provided us.

Somewhere behind us, I could hear the sounds of multiple choppers approaching. Time had passed by a lot faster than I thought - it would take the police several minutes to deploy choppers, yet because of the adrenaline rush, it felt like we'd only been running for a few seconds.

"Faster," Erica urged, speeding up. I had to work harder to catch up with her, who could probably run as fast as a cheetah if she wanted to. I knew she was holding back from how fast she could actually run, which motivated me to pump my legs more swiftly - I didn't want to be the cause of us being caught by the cops.

A few houses away, I could see a dark evergreen forest approaching, which would definitely provide shelter from the cops chasing after us. Erica saw it too, and angled the direction she was running in to head straight for the forest.

The large flashlights the helicopters were shining down provided light in the darkness of the night, allowing us to see where we were going. I sped up even more as the flashlights got closer and closer, but soon, it was clear that running was no use. We'd have to hide until the helicopters passed by.