Undercover

Chapter 22 - Obsessed.

The bell chimed.

"I'll get it!" Tessa bellowed from her room. The Morisons' live in a relatively large apartment that provides a gorgeous view of the urban landscape. "Maddie! You're here!"

Maddie greeted Tessa with a one-hand hug as she was holding a duffel bag in the other. The girls were going to have a sleepover and they were planning to binge-watch all their favourite TV shows together.

"I've bought some popcorn and two face masks I saw on sale," Maddison chimed.

"You two don't stay up too late ok?" said Mrs Morrison in a sing-song voice.

"We won't," Tessa replied. Then both the girls entered Tessa's room. Tessa had planned for this night for weeks. She had remodelled her room for maximum comfort. She helped Maddison set up her sleeping bag and microwaved the popcorn. Tessa took out her laptop, clicked a website. This marked the very beginning of hours of watch time.

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"I think, we're here," Trevor whispered crouched on a rooftop of one of the lower buildings. "This is the closest lead we've ever gotten."

Trevor had managed to pick up a signal through his supercomputer indicating abnormally large waves of energy coming from a certain part of town. Gabe and Trevor decided to go and check it out. They tapped their watches, switching to their suits and informed Fred, their guardian, that they were going.

"It's so dark here I can't see a thing," Gabe whined. "What are we supposed to look for apparently?"

Trevor decided to ignore the first part of his statement. "See that building over there? A large amount of energy was detected."

"But we've been here for hours. Nothing has happened?"

"Can you just be quiet?" hushed Trevor. Not long after, a large boxy building of a man came stumbling out of the building they were eyeing. He had a long-braided beard and had tattoos all over his body.

"Finally! Something," Gabe exclaimed but was later hushed by Trevor. The boy's heart began pounding with anticipation. What's going to happen next? The man's cell phone began to ring.

Trevor quietly brought up a recorder and pressed record. "Any moment now."

The bearded man brought his phone to his ear, cleared his husky voice and said, "Yes mom, the mayonnaise is in the top-right hand corner of the fridge." Then, he got out his keys and drove away.

The boys' hearts sank. "That's it, I can't take it anymore." Gabe was frustrated. They had waited for hours only to witness a man telling his mother where the mayonnaise is. "I'm going in." Gabe took out his cylinder to quietly lower himself to the ground.

"No, no, no. It's not safe," Trevor hissed but Gabe was already out of earshot. Trevor sighed and trailed after him. This is a bad idea and he knew it.

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"Oh my gosh! How could she do that? Rowan is an absolute jerk."

"He's not that bad."

"It's bad, Maddie. 'Rowan' sold the journal!" Tessa was using her fingers to air-quote each and every one of her statements.

Maddie just rolled her eyes. "I think that is enough watching for today." She closed the laptop, placing it on Tessa's study table when she noticed a notebook. "Hey, what's this?"

Tessa got up and snatched the book from her table and holding it firmly to her chest. "Don't touch it!"

Maddison put two hands up in surrender and said meekly, "Ookay then, sorry, didn't mean to pry."

"Unless," Tessa's eyes grew wild. "You really want to know but I don't think you can handle it."

"I think I can handle it," Maddison stated. "I mean, what's in there that is so scary that you consider that I couldn't handle?"

"Ooh nothing, just some juicy information on the so-called, 'Aussie boys '," Tessa said inserting more air quotes but with her eyebrows. "Something tells me that they aren't from where they say they're from."

Maddison gulped. She knew Tessa was smart and if she set her mind to it, nothing is impossible for her. From her previous meet with Gabe and Trevor, she found out pretty quickly that they work for the government on the hunt for Miles Buker. Fred as their guardian, Commander Matthew and Sir. March as their overseers. She was also informed personally by Sir. March that she should stick with calling both boys by their earth name to keep their identity a secret which she agreed to do.

"Look, I know that you probably like them. Especially the white-haired one," Tessa smirked when she saw Maddison blushing.

"It's not like that!" Maddison said defensively.

"I was just kidding," Tessa laughed. "On a serious note, in here," she said gesturing to her notebook "holds all the information I managed to gather about them. I'm going to find out who they really are. I've done background research and found nothing about their past. Nothing.  Gabe is especially suspicious. He had no previous sports records yet he wins every event in the swim meet?"

"I think that you're wasting your time. Just let them be."

"Don't you think it's strange that they randomly decided to attend our school in the middle of the year?" Tessa continued ignoring Maddison's remarks. "I, Tessa Morrison, is going to get to the bottom of this!"

"Oh dear," Maddison said shaking her head. Being friends with Tessa for so long, she knew fully how this would turn out.