Spy School: Family Ties

Chapter 7

Outskirts of Virginia
0900 hours
March 16, 2027

Ben's POV

I pulled up to a nice country home's driveway. I could see the house in the distance. It was a nice ranch that looked like it belonged to a family of ranchers.

I continued down the driveway. Even though it looked like an old styled property, the driveway was nicely paved. It was nice, since it was a longer than normal driveway.

I looked to my right and saw Erica holding Emma. That was also why it was good that the driveway was paved. I didn't want to hurt Emma. The files that Cyrus had given us were also in the car, in the backseat. The USB drive was in my pocket.

We parked beside an old fashioned Dodge minivan, red. I led Erica and Emma up to the stairs. They looked rustic, but revealed nothing, not creaking at all. I went up to the front door and knocked.

It took a second, but I heard someone coming to get it.

Jawa.

"Ben?!" Jawa asked. "Come in, come in!"

"Thanks, Jawa," I said. Me and Erica walked in with our baby.

It was a nice old fashioned house. There was a wooden spiral staircase on the right, as well as a living room to the left. I could see a room with a TV down the hall, and a mudroom beside the staircase.

"What brings you guys here?" Jawa asked. He had turned towards the room with the TV, so me and Erica followed him.

"We need your help," Erica said.

We followed him through the hall and past the room with the TV, which opened up into a kitchen. There was an island with a stove and a wraparound counter, circling half the island but enough space to walk between.

"What can I do for you guys?" He asked. Just as he said this, Emma coughed. Just a little, cute, baby cough. He turned around. He must not have noticed Emma before, but his eyes widened.

"Is this the one and only, Emma Hale?" He asked, clearly excited.

"Future spymaster Emma Hale, that is," I corrected him, laughing.

"May I?" He asked Erica. She nodded, and passed Emma over.

Jawa held onto her and rocked her back and forth. I saw Emma's eyes light up with excitement and I heard her laughing, or what I guessed what was a laugh.

"That's Uncle Jawa right there, Emma," I said. Obviously she couldn't speak, but she seemed to be happy with Jawa.

"As I was saying," Erica continued, "We need your help. It's about a case that you were linked to."

"A case? Well I don't think it could be that recent, but I'll have a look. Just jack it up to the TV."

I plugged in my USB drive to a USB connecting cord, and plugged it into the TV. I grabbed a remote that looked like a piece of glass, but it turned out to navigate things exceptionally well.

I looked back at Jawa. He handed Emma to me and went closer to get a better look.

"I remember doing this. But it's been a long time." He turned toward me. "These guys were the same as the Croatoan, basically a myth. I didn't think that it was real, but the director wanted it done."

"Well, we have reason to believe SNOW is real. Do you have any other info?" I asked.

"Well, yes," he started. "I didn't know if the CIA was still compromised, so I held back some of my evidence, the most important ones. Follow me."

We walked through the starting living room and Jawa stomped twice on a certain wood piece. I heard a retracting sound, and looked up at the wall to see a hallway form. It quickly descended downwards, so I followed. I held onto Emma tightly.

It was a dark trip, but it was over fairly quick. We entered a room that looked like that of a bunker, but it had bright lighting. There was a single filing cabinet in the corner, a whiteboard on the wall, and a desk in the middle.

I looked on the whiteboard. It seemed as though Jawa had done some digging on the SNOW group as well. I saw complicated web diagrams that spanned the whole board, but they all led to the middle. In the middle was a suggested destination: Washington, D.C.

Jawa began to ruffle through a drawer in the filing cabinet. I laid Emma down on the middle of the desk. I smiled as I looked at her. I turned around but I heard Emma crying.

I whirled around. Then I sighed. There was just a little spider on her arm. I promptly flicked it and crushed it, and picked her back up. She wouldn't calm down, though, so I handed her to Erica.

I looked back at the whiteboard. Most of the things on the outskirts of the web were photos, or newspaper clippings. 2 things caught my eye, however.

There was an official CIA Mission Debriefing clipped. I flipped through it. It was a surveillance mission on two suspicious individuals, names unknown. Jawa had connected them to SNOW. I flipped through and gasped.

My parents.

So they worked with SNOW and SPYDER? Maybe I should be evil...

Don't say that.

I moved onto the next one. It was a paper with bold words on it.

"SNOW NEXT MOVE: DECEMBER 14 2026. WASHINGTON D.C.

It was also crossed out with red words that said: THWARTED.

Jawa seemed to have found what he wanted as he had a folder in his hands. I walked over to the desk and sat beside him. He was about to start explaining when Emma started crying again.

"Not now, baby," Erica soothed. But it was consistent, and she didn't stop. Erica tried calming her down more, but it seemed to make it worse.

"Maybe she's hungry?" I asked.

"I just fed her while you guys were looking away," Erica said, disgruntled. Then I saw her eyes narrow.

She seemed to be listening. I listened. And I heard it. A lot of cars. Jawa heard it too.

"Oh, shoot," he said. We snapped photos of the whiteboard, Jawa grabbed some more files, and we ran. We continued down the hallway for a while. Emma seemed to have calmed down, but I could see her tear streaked face.

We eventually reached a brown wooden door. Jawa yanked it open. There was a staircase out to a pair of doors in the ground. We raced up and pulled them open. We were in a forest behind Jawa's house, near the property fence. We hopped the fence and got into a nearby car, hidden in some bush.

"I always keep an escape, just in case," he explained.

Thank God.

We all hopped in. Jawa drove, I took shotgun, and Erica was in the back with Emma.

Jawa had just started the car when I heard a BOOM!

I turned around and saw Jawa's house in flames. There was a huge smoke cloud forming.

Jawa looked upset, but relieved at the same time.

"We're so lucky you had an escape route," I said to him.

"No," Jawa responded. "We're lucky your little one here started crying. She's going to be a good spy, maybe even better than you, Erica."

I turned around. I was thinking Erica would be upset, but she looked happy instead.

"Emma, Emma, Emma," she said. "You are one special girl."

Sorry for the long wait between updates. I just want to make sure the chapter quality is good for you guys. I know it sounds long, but the next one should be out within the next 5 days.

Sorry if this sounds long. I've been really busy and I'm trying to balance as best as possible.