Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Mission failed, we'll get 'em next time

I'm making cookies 👨‍🍳🍪🧁 (they're probably going to burn)

"So we're just going to sneak up and surprise them," I said, strolling onto the giant airplane parking lot. "But how are we supposed to get on the plane?"

"We finesse it," Rachel said. "Back at the academy, I learned that at the back compartment of the plane, there's a hidden entrance built for emergency escapes. If we can somehow pick the lock, then we'll manage to breakthrough."

"Pick the lock?" Chloe questioned. "Not my type of thing. I don't have a wire to pick it with anyway."

"We don't need a wire," Rachel said, scraping her shoes on the hardened cement. "We can easily just break the lock using force."

I shook my head. This plan wasn't going very well, and we all knew it. The only chance we had to throw at was the fact that we had Rachel on our team. As we closed our distance towards the field, I quickly realized that it wasn't a place we could roam freely. Sure, there was a fence with barbed wire, sure, there were security cameras, sure, there were guards, but those could be disabled.

Rachel led our path into the field. First, she showed us a trick where we could use our shirts (or in this case, my shirt, since they wouldn't take off theirs unless their life depended on it) to cover up a specific amount of wire so we could climb through unscathed. Then, she descended the poles and jacked the cameras, snuck past the guards (I'm pretty sure they were playing Angry Birds), and tiptoed over to the runaways.

It was at that point when we realized just walking into an open field and thinking we wouldn't be caught was a really dumb idea. Especially since there were passengers everywhere- boarding planes, looking through the windows at the airport, and others. There were also live planes that were driving at deadly speeds past us.

Quickly, I grabbed Chloe's and Rachel's hands and left them over to a safe area within a rare pack of foliage in the field. I identified the plane we needed to hijack, then started taking a scan of its surroundings.

"I think we can sneak around the back," I whispered over to Rachel.

"You don't have to lower your voice," she said in a perfectly normal tone. "How can we be heard when we're so far away from the others?"

"You're ruining the clandestine mood," I hissed. "Just go with it, idiot."

"Who's the idiot here?" Chloe shouted, clearly on purpose. "I'm telling you, Rachel's right. We can't be heard."

I gripped the grass beneath me in frustration, pointing over to a guard who was about twenty feet away. "Who's the idiot here? It's obvious you two! He's going to find us."

With this, the two shut up, crouching lower beneath the foilage and giving me a look of sorry. I released the plants I had been holding, thrusting my hands into my jacket pockets and whispering again.

"Next time, listen to me," I said just low enough for them to hear. "What I think we're going to have to do is to sneak onto the golf carts they're driving around here."

"Golf carts?" Rachel said in the question, furrowing her eyebrows.

I pointed over to the luggage-carrying carts that were strolling around the place, trying not to too obvious so that the guard would find us. "Those things. There's just enough space and luggage for us to hide in them."

"Oh, I see," Chloe said, catching up on my plan. "We just wait until they pass by, then we can jump on. And the angle of the luggage can just cover us...oh, that's smart, little brother!"

"Shut up," I pushed Chloe on the shoulder. "I'm older than you."

"But I'm taller," Chloe said, straightening her back. I quickly realized that this meant her head would be visible above the foliage, so I pulled her back down. "Idiot!" I hissed. "He's going to see you!"

Chloe's mouth formed an O and she sat back down, staring at me again. She held out her hand and brushed a hair behind my ear, then withdrew it again. "You may be shorter, but you're a quicker thinker. I have to admit that."

"Stop talking and look!" I pointed over to the cart that was driving our way, pulling my hands out of my pockets to get a good grip on the ground. "Let's crawl over there and jump in!"

"Roger," Rachel said, smiling. "Ivar, you're actually a pretty good leader."

"It's nothing," I whispered back. "Just follow me and get ready."

All three of us crouched in a launching position, waiting until the cart rolled directly near our bush. Then, we all pounced out, landing one-by-one on the cart's back, then quickly shrunk behind the suitcases.

"Let's go!" I mouthed, high-fiving the rest in the quietest way possible. It took us a while, but we finally managed to find a way to the plane. I don't know how, but we were actually making some kind of progress.

Chloe's mouth stopped smiling, and then she opened her mouth to speak. "Problem," she said. "If this car doesn't go to the plane we want it to go to, what do we do? Because the golf carts are all moving to different locations."

"Chloe, Chloe, Chloe," I said, shaking my head. "You think I actually didn't think of that already? If you haven't noticed, all of the carts are actually headed to an area where luggage is dropped off, not to specific planes. And these suitcases on our truck have exactly the space we need to hide to get past security."

"...so we jump into a suitcase labeled with the plane that we're supposed to be heading to, then we get transported there without the further fuss! That's genius!"

"It's not," I said. "It's common sense. If you two weren't talking and actually observing the area around us, you would've noticed this already."

"Ouch," Rachel said. "And I'm the one who actually had training already here. Ivar, I'm surprised you actually managed to do all of this. From now on, I'll give you permission to lead this mission."

"Permission!?" I whispered, raising an eyebrow. "I was already leading this team in the first place, girl. The only person who should be giving permission is me!"

"Ah, stop flexing," Rachel smiled. "Just keep this up and I'll wave your insults off."

"Insults are Jayden's territory," I muttered. "And everybody doesn't even treat me like a human being anyway. I just want to get to know them! For god's sake, I'm just as social as everybody else on the team. They just have to get to know me."