A Spy's Home---Book 3: A Friend I've Never Met

Chapter 7

An hour later...

I could see the old Academy building in the distance and coming closer as we drove, and I realized just how nervous I was for this mission. "Have the plan engraved in your mind?" Rory questioned, as he glanced at the sky; the clouds were getting darker, and it was probably going to storm soon.

"Yep, we went over it like a dozen times." I sassed him, with a smirk on my face. Rory pulled into the driveway of what looked like a farm, and parked the car. Soon Luke's truck parked next to us, and all four of us got out of vehicles.

Thunder sounded in the clouds as we stared at the structure. "So, Luke you'll be in contact with Luke and me the whole way through?" I asked, turned towards him. Luke nodded, and handed me an earpiece. I was reluctant to take it, but eventually did so. He then handed one to Rory, who snatched it and put it in his ear.

"Alright, let's do this." Luke exclaimed, climbing back into the driver's seat of the truck, and pulling out a laptop. A few moments later he gave Rory and I a thumbs up, and we turned back to the building. After taking a deep breath, I walked toward the entrance, knowing Rory was right behind me.

I turned to look at him, but saw Lilian holding him back and whispering something into his ear. "Rory!" I shouted. He looked at me, but then back at Lilian, who nodded and let go of his sleeve. Rory finally joined me at the entrance door, and said, "Let's go." He entered, and I looked back at Lilian raising my eyebrow curiously, before entering the crumbling structure.

We found the first vent entrance into the air vents almost immediately, and after undoing the screws, Rory and I were crawling our way through the cramped space.

I pressed my earpiece and said, "We're in the air vents, and making our way to the file room. The entrance gave us no trouble, so I'm assuming that the traps in this place have been deactivated by my security patch."

"Great, but I don't want to risk it. Stay in the air vents until you get to the file room." Luke told us. "What makes you think there'll be anything left in the file room? The Academy most likely took their things when they left." Rory pointed out.

"They usually would, but when they left this one the police were right on their tail, so the Academy just took the essentials, but thankfully they forgot a few important documents." Luke explained.

I looked below me and saw file cabinets. "Alright, we're here." I said. I then took my leg and slammed my foot down on the vent entrance.

Clank!

Crunch!

After repeating that three times, the entrance came loose, and fell to the marble floor. I lowered myself to the floor, and took in my surroundings as Rory climbed down from the vent.

Seeing that the room had rows and rows of file cabinets, I pressed on the ear piece, and asked Luke, "Do you have any idea which cabinet it could be in?"

"No, sorry, but I have the description of the file. Should look like the rest, but it has classified stamped on the front. Oh, also, Zylina, whatever you do, do not look in that file. Neither you or Rory." he answered. I raised my eyebrow at the last comment, and asked, "Why?"

"I'll explain later, just don't open the file." Luke warned us. I glanced at Rory, who's eyes said, "We should probably listen to him." Sighing, I responded, "Okay, we won't open it."

After I said that, Rory and I started opening up cabinets, and looking through the stacks of files one by one. Soon, I lost count of how many files I went through, and just to make sure I didn't repeat cabinets, Rory and I found old post-notes and stuck them to the ones we had already looked through

About 20 minutes later, I slammed the 50th cabinet I had looked through shut, and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Any luck on your end?" I called over to Rory. I jumped at the sound of a cabinet slamming, before hearing, "Nope."

"Luke, we haven't had any luck yet, and most of the file cabinets have been checked." I exclaimed, looking at all the post-it notes stuck to the doors of the cabinets. "Um, Are there any cabinets you haven't checked?" Luke asked, sounding like he just woke up.

Ignoring his sleepy manner, I looked around the darkened room, and saw a box on top of one of the shelves in the corner. "Hold on." I muttered. I walked over to the counter, climbed on top of it, and grabbed the cardboard box. "Hey Rory! I need you to catch this!" I shouted, over my shoulder.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rory appear, but unintentionally I stepped back, and my foot slipped on the edge of the counter. The box dropped to the floor, as I lost my balance. I squeezed my eyes shut, as I waited for the thud and flood of pain, but before I could fully fall, I felt two hands push on the middle of my back to keep me barley on the counter-top.

I slowly turned my head to look over my shoulder once again, and was greeted by Rory smirking at me. I gave him a nervous, embarrassed laugh, before I grabbed the shelf in front of me, pulled myself to a blanched position, and then carefully lowered myself down to the floor.

Rory elbowed me, and asked, "Are you alright?" "Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. Just don't hold this against me." I answered, pushing him. "I'll try my best," he responded. I rolled my eyes, and we both knelt to the marble floor to pick up the files and the cardboard box.

Seeing a file laying down cover up, I picked it up, and re-folded. I then saw it; "Classified."

"Rory! I found it!" I called, relief flooding through my body that the search was over. Rory turned to me, and came closer to look at the file. Examining the edges, he exclaimed, "This has it's papers still intact. Let's go!"

"What about the rest of the contents in that cardboard box? It could be useful." I asked. Rory looked back and forth between me and the box, before finally nodding, putting the rest of the contents away, and picking the box off the floor.

"Alright, let's head out." I said. I then realized just how tired I was, and was relieved to be heading back to the hotel building.

TBC....