Spy School: Family Ties

Chapter 19

March 21, 2027
Hotel (Undisclosed Location)
0730 hours

Ben's POV

I stood in the shower while the water streamed down my face. I felt the steam clinging to the insides of the shower. My muscles felt relaxed, but I wasn't.

My mind was racing. SNOW would unveil their plans today, whatever they may be. And we had nothing to go with.

Last night, we had all convened and shared what we had learned. Erica had told everyone about her encounter and Zoe and Jawa had managed to get some information on where it (their plans) were happening.

It was happening near the Brooklyn Bridge, no specific location given.

And no clue towards what their plans were.

We were going to head out at 8 and just look for anything we could find. There was something nagging in the back of my head but I couldn't figure out what it was.

I got out of the shower and dried off in the bathroom, then left to see Erica taking care of Emma.

"What are we going to do with her?" I asked.

"We can't exactly leave her here," She replied.

"Yeah, you're right. Hopefully there isn't too much danger then."

"Ben, you know that probably won't happen."

I shrugged and got my bag ready. I packed knives, a grenade, and pepper spray, as well as a disguise in case anyone recognized me. I also brought a protein bar and 2 water bottles.

"Well," I said to Erica. "Let's go."

**timeskip**

Erica's POV

We had all split up at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge. We went in various directions, trying to cover as much ground as possible. It was 9:15, so we didn't have a lot of time.

It was sweltering outside. I was getting heated in my suit, but I had to keep going. I had strapped Emma to my chest and threw on a disguise.

I had traveled around the bottom where the ferry was, then circled back up and now was exploring the individual streets.

It was a busy day on the streets and many people were out an about, walking around. I tried not to get in people's ways too much, to lessen the chances of a commotion.

I saw a man in a black and white tuxedo in the distance. I had a feeling about them. I tailed them for a few streets, following them at a distance, although they seemed to know exactly where they were going. I turned onto the bustling mess of Wall Street.

People were jumbled up everywhere on the sidewalks, and I lost the man quickly in the sea of the crowd. I searched for a bit but couldn't find him.

I was sweating beads now. I went off to to the side between the buildings and the sidewalk, where there were snowbanks. I grabbed some and put it on my forehead, cooling me down.

I thought back to last night, when I was tailing the two agents. They had mentioned "getting rich" and talking about their organization. I looked around.

I was on Wall Street. One of the streets in New York with lots of banks. It didn't seem like a strong lead, but it was the only one I had. I started making my way towards the closest bank. I eventually made it to the building and examined it. Nothing seemed wrong. There were no suspicious guards. Nothing.

I moved onto the next. Same thing. I kept checking all the banks, but there was nothing that stood out about them.

I ended up sitting on a bench. I checked the time and realized there was only 20 minutes until they unveiled their plans. I took Emma out of her harness and held her in my arms.

"Do you have any ideas?" I asked her.

Emma looked at me with a weird look, like I was dumb, then pointed back to the street.

"I know, I already checked there," I said. I sighed in frustration. This mission had not gone at all to plan. These people were some smart. They had thwarted us so many times it was almost impossible for us to even be here. We should've been dead.

I took a bite out of my protein bar.

There was no point in sitting here. I strapped Emma up and went back into the crowd.

Ben's POV

Unlike Erica, I had done the opposite loop of her, so we had created a circle. The rest of the team would go into the circle, while me and Erica established the loop. I didn't find anything suspicious as I walked around. I reached the end of my half circle loop deep in thought.

There was still one thing nagging in my brain, but I couldn't place it. It felt so close, yet so far.

I ended up walking onto Wall Street. I had already drank one of my water bottles from the intense heat. I cased the area. There wasn't much of anything, except people.

I hoped Emma was okay. I didn't know where Erica and her were, but I was sure that Erica could take good care of herself and Emma.

I thought back to when I was watching the camera feeds with Emma. I was standing in the near identical spot as Jawa was, when she had pointed.

I felt like I was getting somewhere. All I had to do was think. It was 9:40, 20 minutes to.

I thought about what I had found in the warehouse. The stock reports. I realized where I was. On Wall Street. A definition might include: the place that drives the American stock market. Everything started coming together.

SNOW was going to do something with the stock market. It would get them rich, like the two men had said when Erica was following them. I just didn't know how.

I was frustrated. I had almost figured out their plans. I was just missing one piece.

I tripped over a piece of snow and almost fell.

I didn't think anything of it, but then ...

It had been swelteringly hot for the past week. And yet this snow had not melted. It had stayed here. Maybe Emma had been pointing at the snow, not Jawa.

Then I realized.

Erica had said the two agents last night had said "in the SNOW", but maybe it was "in the snow". Not the organization, but the actual material. It made more grammatical sense.

Oh no.

I looked up and down Wall Street, on both sides. There were snowbanks for as far as I could see.

If they placed their stocks correctly, they could make a big cash in on the market.

Or, they may have already sold all the ones they owned at a high price, only to then crash the market and basically lose nothing.

This wasn't going to be easy.