Espionage? Teenage spy? Sounds bonkers. That kind of thing only happens in movies.
Normal teenagers wake up every morning and go to school, come home, do homework, do their chores, go to sleep - then wake up and do it all over again.
Ariella Alder...
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𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢 | 𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗
I woke up to the sound of my watch beeping. After saying goodbye to Archer, I set out to check all the warehouses listed by Donovan Halstead. Each one was a worse bust than the last. However, giving up wasn't an option. Either Donovan Halstead is a better liar than I originally pegged him as or there's still some part of this puzzle that I'm missing.
My aggravation level reached its all time high when I got a text from Grayson on my watch saying:
Happy Birthday, you idiot. Stop trying to get yourself killed and let me help you.
Shit!
It's my fucking birthday and I didn't even remember.
How does a person forget their birthday?
Oh, right. The same person that has been focusing on both her mission and the boy that crash landed into her life.
May 13th. My favorite day of the year. It's a shame my birthday isn't falling on a Friday, but there's no point in dwelling on the depressing fact that my life is a cruel sick joke.
I called Grayson the second I read his text.
"You know, Nine, it's rude to call the birthday girl an idiot," I said, repeatedly clicking a frequency jammer on my watch. Grayson doesn't need to know my location yet. "Also, I'm not deliberately trying to get myself killed."
"Stop deflecting," Grayson said sternly. He can be such a parent sometimes. It's sickening. "Come home and we'll do this together."
"It's not about doing this together," I sighed. "It's about accomplishing my mission. I want this finished. You should know better than anyone that nothing stops me."
I paced around the latest disappointing warehouse in Manhattan. Grayson could figure out what I was doing, but he can't be in two places at once. He'd never be able to find me before I escaped to the next location.
Spending my birthday alone on a mission isn't all that surprising. I don't think I've celebrated my birthday since my parents were alive. The four of us would stay in the apartment stuffing our faces with pizza and cupcakes. That was how I wanted to spend my birthday. Since becoming a spy, I think I've spent two maybe three birthdays at home with Grayson, Thea, and Celia. It's purely coincidental that I'm always on a mission around my birthday.
During my last birthday, I was in Prague. Sitting along in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. I loved the solitude of safe houses in Europe. They were always in the middle of nowhere.
"What can I do to help?" Grayson asked, sighing in defeat.
I didn't hesitate, "Make sure Archer is safe," I whispered.
🂧
After a few hours of finding nothing, I started using my brain. I didn't have any computers to figure out my next move.
