Spy School Project X

Linking Up

Traveler's Inn Motel

Columbus, Ohio

June 1

2000 Hours

I was famous. After the world had already been on it's feet, anticipating my next sighting, while people were still madly theorizing, seeing multiple videos online of me and Erica fighting security guards was just what they needed to pin the evidence together. I'd seen multiple accounts online of people who'd perfectly nailed everything about my identity. Scouring databases and records of flights and police occurrences, plotting perfectly my track to Central America, then to Britain, then France. Then they managed to get security footage from the Emperor of the Seas, along with police reports of a "Murray Hill." The worst part about all this wasn't that my identity was compromised, that I could be killed, that my career was ruined, but that my friends were compromised. Erica, Mike, Zoe, Chip, Jawa, Catherine, and Cyrus (they'd somehow been unable to find Alexander through these missions), had all been compromised as well.

We had met up with Mike, Cyrus, and Alexander at the motel about two hour prior, after they had gone out to get dinner and we had to wait outside to get into their room for another hour once we arrived. Currently, we were sitting inside the cramped room, hunched over on computers and devices with burritos sitting beside us, half eaten in our searching for what we needed.

I sat on the bed farthest from the door, leaning my head against the wooden back, while it dug into my neck. Erica was sitting startlingly close to me, maybe half a foot between us. Usually when something like this would come up, she would try to get as far away from everyone as she could.

I was lucky enough to have a laptop, one of the three people in the room to have one, with everyone except me, Erica, and Cyrus being on phones or tablets (one tablet Mike stole from the front desk, but promised to give it back). He also had the "courtesy" to move to the floor when he saw me and Erica sitting near each other, which only made me half want to chuck my computer at his head.

In classic Erica fashion, she was typing away at her keyboard, never looking up, her burrito sitting by her side the entire time, uneaten. Then she loudly tapped the enter key with a flash of showmanship, stretching her arms out. "Found him," she said simply. I looked over to her computer screen, which, as stated, held the name "Murray Thompson Hill" in large bold lettering. In the top left corner was a grainy photo of him, looking like a little goblin, food staining his cheek. Underneath was past travel records, information, locations, etc.

"His middle name is Thompson?" Mike snickered, coming up behind me. Everyone else in the room came over as well to see the information.

Erica gave him a quick glare and went on. She clicked a small link, taking her to a longer and larger copy of his past travel destinations. "May 28, left Texas after leaving an amusement park called Funjungle, no idea what that is. Then took a flight to NC, then the one here directly after."

"But why would he go to NC, then to Ohio. Wouldn't it make more sense to fly straight there?" I interjected. "Even if it was cheaper it's not like Murray isn't rich. I'm sure he has plenty of money from when SPYDER collapsed, and I can't imagine he would take the extra effort to save a few bucks."

"Unless he needed something from there," Mike interjected. I'd already thought of this, but I couldn't see what Murray might need there, so far, I had zero clues about what his master plan was, besides ruining my career.

Everyone sat for a while in contemplation, before I sighed and got up. I needed to go outside and think about things. "I need some fresh air," I told the others, then got up from the bed and walked out, shutting the door silently behind me. As I exited the stuffy room, I was hit with the refreshing breeze of the Ohio night. It was fairly warm, but at least not humid, which was good. We were by a small road, far off from the main roads. Next to us was a dollar store and a gas station, so not exactly a luxury location.

I spotted a small curb in the parking lot by the side of the building, dumpsters near it. I went to go sit down, contemplating my thoughts. As I sat on the grainy concrete I thought about all my previous missions, all my successes and my screw-ups, all my friends and our adventures, and even though I might not have enjoyed things like falling out of a helicopter with Erica at the time, I wouldn't change anything about it. Except for the fact that I couldn't control it, that could never happen again. Even if I manage to live past everything and figure out Murray's plan and put a stop to it, I'll still be out of the CIA. Everything I'd been told to reassure me came flooding back to me, making me feel even worse. The CIA could keep me if they wanted to, I understood that, but the part I didn't understand is why they would ever do that. I haven't done much of anything at my time in the agency. Sure, I've taken down a few evil plots, but it's not like I was ever qualified to do so. I was recruited as a patsy, and I'm still not any more valuable to the CIA than just a patsy.

Before I could stop myself, I felt a tear run down my cheek. I hadn't cried in months before that, but here, in such a compromised position, I didn't even try to stop it. I let myself cry, sitting alone in an alley with no one around, the sounds of the wind my only comfort. I let my hands cover my eyes, my head between my knees.

"Ben," someone said faintly, coming from my left. I jumped a little, alarmed, and sure enough, Erica was sitting right next to me, sitting down completely silently. "I-" She paused, unsure what to say. Her voice cracked slightly, and that's when I noticed her face. Her eyes were deep in sorrow, worried and afraid. Her mouth slightly open, her entire facial structure fallen. Normally, I would've hated being seen crying in front of someone like Erica Hale, but it didn't matter to me at this point. "I'm sorry," she said softly, her voice disappearing in the wind. Her eyes shined, threatening tears.

"Why," I said through breaths, "Why are you sorry?" I felt my left cheek, brushing off the fresh tears as they came on. "I'm the one who ruined your career, your life."

"Ben-"

"I at least have a family, a chance to make it not as a spy, but you, your entire legacy is a spy, your life is being a spy, and now I got you compromised."

"Ben, I'm-"

"Why aren't you mad, Erica?" My voice trembled, shaking. "You should hate me, along with everyone else here. It's my fault you're all in this mess, my fault-"

I was enveloped in a hug, Erica's arms wrapped tightly around me, comfortingly. She let go after a few seconds, but it didn't seem long enough. Her warmth left my body tingling. "Ben, don't think about the future, think about now. It doesn't matter what happens after this, all that matters is how we deal with what we're dealt right now. Now wipe off your tears and get up, we have a gremlin to catch. She gave me a faint smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She flipped the switch and her emotions were completely off again, that glimmer in her eyes locked away until another time.

She reached out an arm for me to take, and I did so, grabbing each other's wrists, like we'd always been taught in school. Grabbing each other's wrists gives you twice the grip of grabbing each other's hands.

We walked slowly back to the motel room, giving me time to readjust my stature, although I doubted it would matter, since I was going to a room full of spies. Erica walked a pace in front, her frame still tall, cool, confident and collected. How did she do it?

We reached the door, and Erica glanced back at me slightly, as if confirming I was ready to go back in. I gave her a swift nod and she turned the knob-

-at which point the entire motel exploded.

Author's note:

This is gonna be a long author's note, FYI. First of all, sorry for taking so long to get this out. I was completely unmotivated for the longest time, but I started reading the Funjungle series again (which is where the Murray going to Funjungle reference came in) and I got inspired again. Thank you all for waiting. Idk if this chapter is good, I kinda lost the writing style I was going for previously with this, so I hope it wasn't too bad. I know it was sappy, but every spy school book has that scene where Ben is all sad, and Erica makes him feel better (I think). I promise the next chapter will be back to what it was before, this was just a strange one. Anyways, thanks for reading.

I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS