Spy School - Salvation [3]

05: Agents MIA

Academy of Espionage

Washington DC

May 15

1000 hours

After being sent away from the tribunal, I went back to my dorm and tried to sleep, only to toss and turn all night. I eventually managed to pass out at six at the morning, leading me to be late to breakfast by twenty minutes.

I also couldn't find Erica, nor Mike.

"Jawa!" I called his name in the cafeteria, where the suspiciously lumpy breakfast was being served. "Where's Mike? And Erica?"

"Mike was called to the principal's office this morning, before you woke up. And I dunno about Erica," Jawa said. "I thought you would know where she was."

I shook my head.

Jawa must have seen my expression, because he put his hand on my forearm and gripped it tightly. "Ben. Don't run off, not right now. I already heard about what happened yesterday because-"

"You're a spy and it's your job to know things," Zoe finished, sidling up to us.

Jawa and I gave her a wary look.

"Oh come on! Just because I go all crazy and jealous like Warren one time doesn't mean I'll rat you guys out!" she exclaimed loudly. Some of the surrounding students started to eavesdrop, pretending to eat but really only focused on our conversation.

"You're ratting us out right now, you're practically announcing it to the entire cafeteria," Jawa hissed. He lowered his voice even further and whispered to me. "Ben, don't go running off. I'm sure Mike is fine. As for Erica, wherever she is, I'm sure she's handling it fine. If we want to find out where she is and how to convince the tribunal of her innocence, we need to be strategic about this and take our time. For now, we just need to go on with our classes."

I nodded.

I was in my first period class- Long Term Undercover with Professor Murphy- when I felt like I was being watched.

I was sitting in the middle of the lecture hall, with students in front of me and behind me. I didn't have any friends in the class: Mike was gone, Zoe had Cryptography, Jawa had Analysis and Deduction, and Erica had already finished the course (and was, of course, missing). I resisted the urge to turn around and see who it was, but the eyes of my watcher kept boring into me.

I gave into temptation and turned around. Standing next to the exit door was a security guard in dark sunglasses, staring directly at me, expressionless. Of course; I was deemed mentally compromised by the tribunal, and they had sent someone to watch me.

For the rest of the day, I was watched, whether at the cafeteria or in class. Sometimes there were two, other times, there was only one who pretended not to be looking at me. After that Mike had still not returned at dinner-time, I joined Chip and Jawa.

"Have any of you seen Mike?" I asked.

Both Jawa and Chip shook their heads.

Since now both Erica and Mike were missing, we assumed the worst that Mike had also been accused of something, and we quietly discussed code names so we could speak about Erica, Mike, Murray, and Ivy Brown without being overheard by the security guards who were tailing me.

We had decided to call Erica "Elsa," Mike "Ferrari," Murray "Chip's Uncle," Ivy "Chip's Aunt." We were devising a code word for prison when I spotted Zoe waving at us.

Zoe ran up to us, out of breath. "They're packing up Erica's dormitory room!"

"So?" Chip asked.

"We can see if anything's out of the ordinary, or look around for a way to contact her," I said.