Spy School - Salvation [3]

07: Operation Donuts

Quad

Academy of Espionage

Washington DC

May 16

17000 hours

Operation Donuts was a simple one. Lure the principal away from his guards with donuts, and when the guards went looking for him they would leave the principal's office unguarded, allowing Jawa to place the bugs while Zoe helped him with the tech aspect of it.

As for how the principal would find about the donuts, Zoe came up with that part of the plan.

"Your tailers, since they're on high alert, they have to report any illicit activity to the principal and probably other higher ups. Even something as harmless as selling donuts on campus. It's prohibited in the rulebook, so it's illicit. They would get fired if they didn't report it. So they call the Idiot, tell him you're breaking the rules. The Idiot asks what you're doing, because he wants to get you expelled and you have to file a claim for that. They tell him you're selling stuff on school property. The Idiot asks what it is, because if you're selling guns 'n stuff like that, it would be a pretty easy expelling process. They tell him it's donuts, and the Idiot's priorities switch. It's forbidden to bring any non-CIA issued food on campus, because it could be poisoned and all- well, Alexander could bring his Gatorade, but that was because he was friends with the top brass- anyway, long-story short, the Idiot wants donuts because he hasn't had them in a long while. He tells his guards that he's going to deal with the terrible, rule-breaking no-good Benjamin Ripley by confiscating his donuts, and of course the Idiot will eat them as soon as he's in his office. Since it's a possible confrontation, the guards will follow, allowing Jawa easy access to the office so he can place the bugs, " Zoe had told me during lunch.

I had been impressed by her plan- I hadn't thought she could come up with something so clever and so logical. I seemed to keep underestimating her everytime we were on a mission or working on something together. I felt guilty- I should've realized that she got into this academy for a reason, that she was a lot better than me, since I was just fake-recruited to find out who SPYDER was and was allowed to stay because I knew too much, while she was actually accepted into the academy. While we were in Mexico, she was able to hack into the hotel's website, and although she made it sound easy, it probably wasn't as simple as she made it out to be.

Typically, when people sold stuff on campus, they did it discreetly, not how I was about to do it.

"Donuts, buy two and get 50% off for the third!" Chip yelled.

We were in the quad. A lot of people went there after they finished their homework, and since it was about five the quad was at its peak capacity. Normally, people wouldn't buy from Chip and I since we were being so conspicuous about it and they might get in trouble for buying from us, but the deal lured everyone in, bypassing their fear of getting a detention.

A line of about twenty people formed, and Chip and we tried to make the purchases as slow as possible, so there would still be donuts when the principal arrived, but people were still very anxious about their donuts and wanted to get them as fast as possible and it made them angry and vicious.

In what was ten minutes but felt like thirty, even with my perfect time-keeping skills, the principal arrived to chew me out.

"Benjamin Ripley!" the principal shouted, deciding to ignore Chip even though he was also breaking the school rules. His voice was angry, although his face was full of glee. "You are breaking the most important rule on this campus! You are selling items without school permission!"

"Isn't the most important rule not being a double-agent or something?" Chip asked.

The principal faltered, not knowing whether to try to fight the comment or ignore it.

Deciding to ignore the comment, the principal plowed on. "You, Benjamin Ripley, will be expelled very soon, for I will file the paperwork and you will be coming with me to my office right now!" The principal finished the statement with a giggle.

I panicked for a moment and tried to keep it from showing. What if Jawa didn't have enough time to bug the place before we returned? I needed to stall for as long as possible.

"You can't expel me for something as petty as that!" I shouted across the quad to the principal as I subtly made the OK sign to Chip, our signal for stalling.

"Uh, yeah!" Chip said. "He would have to, uh, do something like, uh blow up a building!"

"Oh, yeah, I was expelled before," I reminisced. "I almost forgot about that. Although I guess that shows that the principal's word is nothing with the top brass."

The principal turned red. "That is enough! You will be spending the next twenty-four hours in the Box as a punishment as I file your expulsion papers, and I'm sure they'll be accepted."

The principal signaled to his guards and they surrounded me as Chip tried to protest my punishment.

Well, I distracted him alright, I thought as I was being led to the Box. I was shut in and I sighed. I was going to miss dinner tonight, and I wasn't sure if the principal would make me wait until tomorrow morning to bring me some food. I sighed again and decided the best course of action.

I was drifting off when a thought came to me: would Zoe and the others follow the Morse Code instructions I got from class that day? Me and Zoe made plans during lunch. Would they decide it was too urgent to wait and it had to be done tonight, or would they wait until I was released from the Box and then do it with me?

I wasn't even sure what outcome I wanted. I felt worried about them, and I almost hoped they would wait, even though I would be more of a liability than a protector. That thought kept me tossing and turning for another forty minutes before I finally fell asleep at 6:09 PM. I felt like a loser. 6:09? Seriously? But there wasn't much to do in the box anyhow, so that was that.

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