Spy School: Another Mole

Chapter 22

Two minutes on the clock and the only thing I could think of was Joshua and Erica.

"That son of a-," Erica said.

"Now, now, let's focus on the priorities first then we can talk about anything else," Catherine responded. Then she whispered in Erica's ear something.

Erica briefly responded as if everyone in the room was supposed to hear, "Everything that happened between us is in the past." She locked eyes with me as I stared at her in shock. Soon enough, I remembered I had a missile to stop, and I still had no idea how to stop the launch. There was one minute and seven seconds left. I watched the timer run out of time second by second. And each one was more painful than the last. Until the idea hit me.

"What if?" I asked, then thought for a moment.

"What if what, Ben? BEN! Hello?" Zoe said.

I sat in the chair watching the timer tick down slowly as each second became less and less painful. It was almost ready to launch.

"What if instead of stopping the missile, we avoid the target?" I said. We could launch the missile, SPYDER thinks they are successful and we actually direct the missile towards another direction."

XXX

As soon as the missile launched, I got to work. Erica suggested that I redirect it towards the water. So I did. I typed faster and faster, memorizing numbers and codes. I felt like my fingers were going to fall off. But soon enough footsteps were headed in our direction.

"RIPLEY!" It was Murray. Of course, it was Murray. "What did you do!?"

I couldn't stop now. The future of the world was on the line. Literally. In seconds, I came up to a page. It was loading. Finally, all of this would be over. It got to ninety-nine percent. Until Elizabeth launched herself at me. Usually, this would be a good thing since she was the most popular girl at my school.

"Ben. Stop it now." She hissed in my ear.

"Why? Why trust or listen to you? I've lost many friendships since I started training at the CIA. Many people turned out to be very different on the inside. This won't work. Trust me, I'm not going to feel any pity for you."

She tried to touch the cancelation button, but someone came up behind her and fought her off of me. It was Erica.

"Lay one finger on him again and it's over for you." She said staring directly into her eyes.

She launched for me again. This time both of us reacted. I kicked her in the stomach and she tumbled backward. Then to top it all off Erica punched her. "I warned you," Erica said and then faced all of us. "Run."

We all ran for the exit. Erica was on the phone with Oren. "Could you find a way to get here ASAP?"

"Landing right now." Oren explained, "Your mom gave me a call."

Sprinting past security wasn't so simple. The security was about twice as big as us. With a bit of Erica's help, we all got past and I soon realized that Jessica was faster than I thought.

As I ran beside her I asked, "Ever thought of sprinting as a sport?"

"Eh. I'm kinda thinking about gymnastics now."

"What why?" I asked.

"I figured, if my sister is going to be the complete opposite of me, you know working with SPYDER and all, we might as well have something in common."

"Hey, are you good? With your sister and everything. I mean, it's pretty hard learning that your sister works for one of the worst enemy corporations."

"Yeah, I guess. I don't really know. I never met her, but I was thinking of maybe calling her. Just to clear things up. You don't by any chance have her number?"

I grinned, "You know me, I never forget a phone number."

"Good," she responded. "What are we going to do about my dad?"

Shoot. We'd forgotten that her dad was somewhere in the building. Murray, reading my mind, yelled to Jessica, "Forgetting something?" He pointed towards her dad. "Or someone might I say."

Jessica stopped and I stopped with her. "Actually I'm forgetting two people."

I knew who she was talking about. "What are you doing?!" I whispered.

"Where's Ash?" She said staring at her father. Leo Shang's eyes went wide.

"Ashley! One of your little friends needs to talk to you." Murray yelled.

"Ew." She stated flatly, looking at us. "I don't want to talk to any of them."

"I'M YOUR SISTER!" Jessica yelled, hurt.

"Sadly," Ashley muttered.

"You don't want to come with me and dad back home? Maybe you could join Ben for the good? I don't know Ash! Just come back."

"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you," Murray looked at us. "You either leave her," he pointed towards Ashley, "or you leave him," he pointed towards Leo.

"They can take Leo. I don't want to go with them." Ashley said, calling him by his first name.

"You know what? Fine. I don't know what happened between you and our family, but you can make your own decisions. I hope you know you're making the worst mistake of your life." Jessica said with tears in her eyes.

Leo just stared at both of them in disbelief. His mouth was taped.

We started running. Everyone was gone. We untied Leo and removed the tape.

"We need Ashley more than Leo anyway," Murray said.

My phone buzzed. To my surprise, it was the fifth time. Erica.

"Where are you? Do I need to head back? Are you good? BEN?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I'm all good, don't worry. There were some family problems that needed sorting out."

She immediately knew what I meant. "Oh my gosh, I forgot about Leo."

"Don't worry we've got him."

"And Ashley?"

"She's made the decision to stay here," I told her.

We hung up and kept running to find a pile of security staff injured. Classic Hale family.

XXX

The helicopter motors were blasting in my ears. We picked up the stuff we had left at the motel and soon, we were headed back. Jessica was quiet, but I didn't want to talk to her yet. Her dad seemed the same. It looked like both of them had things to talk about on the plane ride back. We were with Oren on his private plane. But after everything was over everything everyone wanted to do was sleep. Even Erica.

IT'S NOT THE END YET! There is still a chapter or so left!