A Spy's Home--Book 1: Beyond the Borders.

Chapter 18

Rory's Point of View

It was like an instinct for me, and I have no idea why. I jolted awake and looked at the other bed; Phew, Zylina's still there. I have no idea what's gotten into me.; I didn't do this before, so why am I doing it now? After a few moments of thinking I think I knew the answer. The Spy Academy is hunting us and I'm scared they'll take Zylina away from me.

I got up quietly making sure not to wake up Zyl, grabbed a pair of clean jeans, and a black T-shirt, went inside the bathroom and changed. Once I was done, and got out, I entered just in time to see Zylina rise from the bed and stretch her arms. "Good morning." I greeted, walking over to my duffel bag and putting in the clothes I had worn to bed. "Hey, you've been up long?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

I looked at the alarm clock on the side table next to the bed; it read 9:00am; and shook my head. "Not too long. You sleep alright?" I answered. I saw Zylina swing her legs off the bed, stand up, yawn, and stretch again. "Hey, Little Z, I've been thinking that maybe we should stay here for a couple days." I said. It's true that I had been thinking about that since the last motel we stayed in. Zylina looked at me with concern and asked, "That's fine, but why?" "We've been traveling for a week with only one night at a motel, and we kind of need the rest from the road. Also I want to see if there's any recent kid disappearing cases nearby." I explained, and it was all true. Zylina looked away for a moment, probably thinking about my explanations, and a few moments later she turned back to me and said, "Okay sounds like a plan."

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Zylina's point of view

Rory was off today, and he seemed more protective than usual; maybe it's because we're literally on the run from an insane organization, and that we were almost killed by one of our past rivals. I can't blame him, but my only worry is that he'll be too protective cand cautious. "What are we going to do for breakfast?" I asked. I didn't think we needed to go out to a diner because we had food and our motel room had a small oven we could cook something on.

I think Rory knew what I was thinking because he answered with, "I think we should just stay here. We have food that needs to be eaten already and I don't want to waste too much money on diners ." I smiled and nodded before getting some fresh clean clothes out of my bag and going to the bathroom to get changed.

When I got out I found Rory cooking some bacon and hashbrowns we had picked up a day ago. "That smells delicious, Rory." I commented, putting my pj's back into the bag. "Thanks, I had a lot of practice cooking when I was away." Rory responded, flipping over one of the hashbrowns. I sat on the bed, and sighed; I didn't mean for Rory to hear it, but I guess he did because the next thing I heard was, "What's bugging you?" I didn't respond right away, which was a mistake, because that worried him even more.

"I guess the disappearances of the kids are weighing on my mind, but I'm fine." I finally answered. Rory took out some paper plates we had bought during the week and put a freshly cooked, golden hash brown and two crispy delicious smelling bacon pieces on it. "Breakfast is ready, Little Z." he said, with a smile. I could tell he was trying to ease the tension in the room, and honestly it was working. I sat down on the bench in front of the small kitchen counter we had by the stove, and took another smell of the food. "Thank you, Rory. I still can't believe you remembered how much I love hash browns." I said, perching my elbows on the counter.

"How could I forget? You ranted about how much you love them every time we had them for breakfast at the Spy Academy." Rory chuckled. I gave out a light laugh, but I could feel the tension growing again at the mention of the Academy. "So, where do we even start with these disappearances? We have no leads whatsoever." I said, before taking a bite out of the hash brown; it was just as delicious. "That's not exactly true. I picked up a newspaper at a gas station on the way here." Rory explained, fishing a newspaper I hadn't noticed before out of his duffel bag and setting it on the counter in front of me.

I watched as he pointed to the top headline: Cases of children under the age of 5 going missing, rising in Findlay, Ohio. What you need to know. "Findlay, where we are right now." I responded, my curiosity growing. "Yeah, it looks like that kids have been going missing frequently here, and we need to check it out." Rory said, putting the newspaper back in the duffel bag. "If there are children here that the Academy wants then there should be agents stationed here. This is going to be fun." I said the last part while rolling my eyes, signaling I was being sarcastic. 

TBC....