Spy School: Another Mole

Chapter 18

Things had taken a turn when I found myself screaming Erica's name in the middle of nowhere.

"ERICA. ERICA COME ON. I'M SORRY!" I yelled.

There was no answer. Every time someone tried to call her, it went to voicemail. It was at the moment Zoe tried to call her for the fourth time that we heard buzzing nearby.

"ERICA?" I yelled.

"ERICA," Mike screamed. The rest joined him.

I broke into a sprint running and turning right. I found a body slumped against the wall.

"Erica?" I shook her. There was nothing. "ERICA! Wake up, Erica. Please wake up. ERICA!"

The rest arrived near me. Some knelt to the ground, while looking at Erica. I checked her pulse. Come on, Erica. Please. I thought.

"Guys," I said. "She's alive!" I spoke. I had never felt so relieved in my life.

"What happened to her?" Jawa said.

"I don't know. I found her lying there with her eyes closed." I answered.

"Mike and Ben, you think you guys could pick her up and walk her back to the motel?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, I think we can," Mike said. We picked her up and started walking.

"Don't forget to grab her utility belt. It's on the ground over there," Chip said.

Zoe grabbed the utility belt cautiously, not wanting any explosives to go off. Some cases were open. Her taser holder and gun holster were open. I looked around before moving on to make sure there was no one near us.

"Whoever or whatever knocked out Erica doesn't appear to be here anymore," I said.

"Let's move fast just in case," Zoe said quickly.

XXX

The walk to find Erica was hard enough; the walk back was even harder. Mike and I were already tired from before, then we had to walk a whole other mile with Erica's deadweight on us. We got to the motel sweating. Then we realized we couldn't just bring an unconscious person inside the hotel without raising suspicion.

"Hello, welcome to Miss Molly's motel!" The clerk said as Zoe, Chip, and Jawa walked in.

"Hello, Welcome to Miss Mol... is there a need for an ambulance or something?" the register said as Mike and I walked in.

"Oh no, it's okay. She just came from the airport and she's pretty tired." I said quickly.

"Okay then. I'll just check her in then. Um, what's her name?" The clerk said.

"Oh um, it's okay, we already have the room," Mike said, showing him the key.

"Oh okay, perfect. You're all set then!"

"Thanks," I responded.

Since the motel didn't have an elevator, we had to go up the stairs. That was a whole other struggle. We arrived in the room even more tired than before and flopped on the bed as we put Erica on the chair.

"Hey! You're all sweaty and you're laying on the clean bed!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Are you sure it was clean in the first place?" Chip said with a grin.

"Gross! All of you are disgusting!"

Erica woke up right when Zoe was telling us to get off the bed. She was still disoriented, but she could see clearly that she was in the motel room.

"What happened?" She said, "Why am I here?" We all looked back at her astonished that she woke up so quickly.

"ERICA!" Zoe ran for her and gave her a hug(which Erica did not seem pleased about). "We thought you died!"

"What is happening? What happened?"

"Erica, tell us the last thing you remember," Jawa said.

"What?" Erica questioned.

"She's suffering memory loss and can't concentrate," Jawa reported.

"Erica, look at me," I said, turning her head towards me. "She has enlarged pupils. A symptom of Mulchagan poison." I continued, "Erica. Tell. Us. The. Last. Things. You. Remember."

"Oh. Hand Sanitizer and Ashley Sparks." She stated.

"What? My sister?" Jessica said.

"I walked down an alley and put sanitizer and then I forgot. She tried to fight." Erica responded.

"You used hand sanitizer and forgot?" I asked confused.

"Yeah. I was cleaning my hands like usual and then my mind went blank." She said.

"Wait a minute," I said realizing something, that just solved part of the mystery. "Could you run some tests on the hand sanitizer for us Jawa?"

"I don't have anything to test it with," Jawa answered.

"I'll call Cyrus," Erica said confused.

"No, you can't call him, Erica. Catherine and Cyrus are still trapped at SPYDER with your dad and my parents."

"They are?" Erica said.

"Yes, but we are going to get them back," I said.

"Okay!" Erica said happily like a small child.

"Lay her in bed, she's going to need to rest for a bit before we get her back to normal."

XXX

We ended up sending the hand sanitizer for testing at a poison control center. They ended up being very confused when they found out we were happy that there was Mulchagan poison in the hand sanitizer. We told them that we were part of an internship at a chemistry lab and we needed to prove that Mulchagan poison could be mixed with hand sanitizer without diluting it. We also decided to test all the other hand sanitizers and Zoe, Jawa, and Chip's all tested positive for Mulchagan poison. I checked that off my mental list of things we had to figure out.

"You know it makes a lot more sense now." Erica said. "Whoever came up with the idea of poison in the hand sanitizers is really clever. At the airport I remember putting on hand sanitizer before eating something. The hand sanitizer must have transferred from my hands to my food and into my mouth."

"And look at the scratch on you hand," I said. "The hand sanitizer must have gotten into your scratch and into your system."

"So someone put Mulchagan poison in our hand sanitizers. And someone had been following us. And we don't know who it is." Zoe said.

"Yeah. So in other words, we're hopeless." Chip said.

"We aren't hopeless guys!" Jessica said.

"Does anyone have a plan?" Jawa said.

Erica was thinking like nothing had happened, but I still felt bad for what I had said. I had to apologize to her, I just didn't know how.

"First off we need to break into SPYDER and get Cyrus and my mom back. Then we focus on the other, but without them we're stuck. Jawa and Chip, when we go into SPYDER I need both of you to stay guard. Anyone could come up and attack. Zoe and Jessica will go towards Cyrus and Catherine, while Ben and I go for Ashley. Ben and I could also try and break into Joshua's office. We might find something useful there. Zoe, we will also be watching security cameras so we can warn you if someone's headed your way."

"What about my dad?" Jessica asked.

"We need you dad to stay there. We need to know what they need him and Ben's parents for. None of them will be any use if they don't know anything." Erica said. She looked at the clock and then continued, "It's 8:00 p.m. right now, so to not direct any attention to us we are going to leave at 2200 hours."

"Maybe to not direct attention to us we should just say ten o'clock." Chip said.

"Just get ready. We leave at 2200 hours sharp."

"Ten o'clock," Chip responded.

Erica glared at him. I whispered to Chip, "Just let her have this one."

At ten o'clock we were going to break into SPYDER. We were going to face everyone there. And we were going to solve this. What we didn't know was that it just got more confusing from there.