The Spy Inside

Chapter 3: The Letter and Strange Drive

I tore open the envelope slowly, almost afraid of what was inside. I looked up and noticed how Tyler kept shooting nervous glances at me through the rearview mirror and looking back at the deserted road over and over as if checking to see if we were being followed. Then, returning my attention to the letter opened it and read, using the moonlight and dim glow of the millions of stars above my head.

"Dear our most treasured Leila,
You are not an ordinary orphan, but a savior to the undercover world. You are able to do more than you think and throughout a few months you will learn the wonders of your true self and your destiny shall be revealed. You are the Dreaded Seeker.
With all our love,
Your mother and father,
Michelle and Reegan"

Gosh, could they be any more vague, I thought. I contemplated about the letter and reasoned that the undercover world probably meant the SSA, but how was I supposed to save it. The Dreaded Seeker sounded scary and it couldn't have been me, there had to have been a mistake. And what was I going to be doing over a few months?

I looked outside and saw the sky presenting oranges and reds blending with the past night's pinks and purples, foretelling the upcoming dawn. I must have been thinking a long time if it was already morning and the clock said 6:13. I tried to look at the scenery put it was just a green and brown blur. I guessed we were going extremely fast. I really didn't want to ask because I was afraid of the answer but my curiosity got the better of me. "What is the Dreaded Seeker," I wrote on a piece of paper that I handed to Tyler, still refusing to talk.

He read it and when he got to the end he flinched. He handed back the piece of paper to me shakily and replied slowly, "the Dreaded Seeker is, uh, a spy, and uh, is feared by many because of how good he is, uh, at spying. They are chosen at birth and no one knows who the one is now. But, uh, don't worry, you're safe from, uh, the DS with me." He concluded, not confidently enough for my liking. Before I could ask anything else we slowed to a legal speed and I saw a big colorful building with a mural on one side, but I didn't have enough time to see what it had on it before we passed it. The next buildings were just gray and dull, but then I saw a beautiful expanse of sparkling blue-green water I knew could only be the ocean. It was dotted with boats of all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. There was two things missing though, I thought, the sand and waves.

From research I knew it must be a port. There were children playing on the rocks leading down to the water and also on the docks, chasing each other with seaweed while their moms yell at them to put it down and their fathers got various boats ready and chuckled under their breath. "Welcome to the Quebec Port," Tyler announced, his previous nervousness hidden well, but not forgotten. I didn't really like spy movies because I could figure out the mystery before the movie announced it, but when I had watched them the cars would just go in the water and turn into a submarine. So I assumed that is what we would do.

We went past the guards and to the launching dock. There was only one other person who was there and he was having trouble with the trailer hitch and didn't really notice us. We drove down the launching pad and it turned out I was only partly right. We did go down into the water but kept going down. My ears started to hurt and the oxygen in the car was becoming less every second. I saw coral and the occasional minnow fish go by the window but luckily didn't get to enjoy the view for very long because a hole opened up in the ocean floor and we dropped down, the water somehow not coming with us. The hole shut quickly after we descended.

The pressure on my ears decreased considerably and on Tyler's command of roll down the window was able to breathe again. Upon looking around I noticed we were in a gray seemingly endless tunnel that, except for the floor, was completely circular. After I had looked around for awhile, which wasn't very long considering there was only a light bulb every 200 feet that barely gave off any luminosity to see from, we started moving again.

If I hadn't been glued to the back of the seat, I wouldn't have known we were going exceedingly fast since the view outside didn't change at all. I tried again to pursue the Dreaded Seeker topic on the same piece of paper that I had dug out of my art box but every time he handed it back blank and said nothing. I decided to draw instead. When I draw it's like watching my thoughts materialize from my mind to the canvas to be forgotten about or remembered forever. It helps me know how I really feel even when inside my feelings are all jumbled up and confused like they were, now more than ever. I drew a puppy that had a crown on but all around her were people who acted vile towards her or cowered away from her even though she was not evil or scary in any way. It really summed up how I felt and was pleased with the interpretation and was about to put it away when Tyler looked back and commented "Hey, that's pretty good."

I put my hand to my mouth and then put it down so it looked like I was a server that was holding a tray, which is commonly known as thank you in sign language. I didn't think so myself but wasn't about to turn down a compliment, because I didn't get many of them that often. "What is it," he asked.

"I feel," I answered, not wanting to mimic that out, but still using as little words as possible.

"It's cute but kinda dark," he commented. I nodded as if to say yep. I wanted to roll my eyes and say tell me about it, but thought better of it because even though Tyler was nice, he was still a little frightening.

We continued the trip in silence, but my mind was extremely occupied and I probably couldn't keep up a conversation if I tried. I was really hoping I wasn't the Dreaded Seeker. What was my fate, or destiny as the letter said? Was it good or bad? The letter didn't say so I didn't know what to expect. Then something occurred to me, wasn't Quebec in Canada. It should've taken about half a day, something like 13 hours if I remember correctly. Yet we had gotten there in about 6 hours. That didn't make sense, unless the car went really fast. Well duh, I thought, we are in a spy's car, so wouldn't it be fast like it said in the books?

I wanted to ask but couldn't bring myself to do so. After another 2 relatively boring hours, we arrived at a small underwater building. Tyler slowed down the car and pulled up to a booth with a girl in it. She was probably in her mid 20's and had blond hair in a pig tail that went half way down her back. She was wearing similar clothes as Tyler but they looked way less comfortable. She wore a belt that had a gun, pepper spray and other things that makes you not want to get her angry. She wore a scowl where her smile should have been and had dark brown eyes that looked like they were trying to pierce right through you. She was pretty skinny but had muscles unlike that of a woman and over all was just plain scary.

She said something in a foreign language that had a french accent, so I assumed that was what language it was, also we had just come from Quebec. The whole time she was talking she kept her piercing eyes on me. She kind of reminded me of a hawk, waiting for me to look away so she could snatch me up for breakfast, but I held her gaze with equally menacing glare. Tyler replied in French also, and after he had done so, the girl let us continue on.

After she said we could go, she stopped staring and me and I just thought smugly, I won. As we continued on in a normal speed, we entered a see-through tunnel. I could see a lot of the ocean life around me. There was even a shark nearby and I think I saw an octopus dart behind a rock. Besides those, there were also many little fish all around us. Ahead there was a huge building, no fortress is a better word. It kind of looked like one of those tube tunnels you would put in a hamster cage, only on a much larger scale. On the surface of the water was what seemed to be a island from far away, but close up you could tell it was made out of metal with a fake palm tree and everything. I was truly amazed.

As we got closer to the fortress we slowed down to almost a crawl, as if we were in traffic. Then a bright light shown in our eyes and I could've sworn I had never seen a brighter light, except during the explosion. A metal sound like a garage opening came from ahead and I tried to get a good look through the brightness. It was a door as big as a house that opened up to let us through.

When we went through I was astonished at what I saw.