Spy School: Another Mole

Chapter 23:

A small knock at my door woke me up. It was 5:30 am. Who could be up so early? I groggily got out of bed and started shuffling towards the door.

"Ben, can you walk any slower?" A voice whispered. Erica. I got to the door and opened it.

"What is this about?" I asked.

"Just follow me," Erica said. "The principal wants us in the office at 6 am sharp."

"I'm surprised he can even wake up that early," I said, "but it's not even six am yet."

"Well, one thing's for sure; you aren't going to the principal dressed like that."

"How come no one told me," I asked.

"Because you weren't invited," Erica stated swiftly. "You just got the honor of being my plus one."

"You couldn't have brought anyone else?" I said; knowing the principal hated me.

"I have a feeling that whatever is going on at six am has something to do with you," she said stopping in front of her dormitory. She took a deep breath. "I guess I have some explaining to do about what happened during the launch."

I knew Erica too well for this. "Who forced you to say that? Was it Catherine?"

"Well yes. At first, I didn't want to do it, but I do owe you an explanation."

"I owe you one too," I said. "About me leaving and things."

"Are you actually leaving?" Erica questioned.

"I'm thinking about it. I swear I meant to tell you, but I didn't have the nerves to do it. I didn't have the nerves to tell anyone really. But my parents want me to leave too. They think it's too dangerous."

"Oh."

"But I'm thinking about it. Because I've made amazing friends here and the more missions I do, the less I want to leave."

"Ok. Look, I normally hate doing this. You know, talking about feeling and things, but I do owe it to you. Just promise me one thing," she said looking down. "Don't leave me as Joshua did. Please don't leave me for the other side. At least, you told me you were thinking about leaving, so that's a step up from him."

"I swear on my life, I would never leave for the other side. Never," I repeated.

"Well, if you leave you'd be known as a scaredy-cat who wasn't cut for the CIA." She said, as a joke.

"If that's the case, then I really gotta think about it," I smiled.

"Think about it," Erica said. She took a deep breath. "Ugh, that was hard. Okay, next step. Now it's my turn to explain. And not just because my mom told me." She led me towards a wooden box with beautiful carvings and patterns on it. "This was a birthday present. From Joshua," she stopped for a moment letting it all sink in. 

Joshua was not the person to give birthday presents. But that was after he turned to SPYDER. I never knew him before. When he was close to Erica.

She opened up the box and inside was a bracelet, notes, and a phone.

"Go for it," she said. "You can look through them if you want. They're in order."

It felt wrong to look through Erica's things, so I just looked through some of the first notes. They were from Joshua to Erica. He was being friendly. It was an odd way of picturing him. I flipped to the last notes. There were two. But this time it was one from Erica to Joshua. And one from Joshua to her.

"Right before he left, I decided to give him the last digits of my personal phone number. In exchange, he gave me his. It was in case he ever got into trouble."

I looked at Erica's number. She had given him her telephone prefix and her line number. The numbers were: 901-9923. It was Joshua's password to the missile controller. Under the note that Erica had sent him, it said: THANKS!, in Joshua's handwriting.

"Before he turned to SPYDER, he slid my note under the door and he replied. But he didn't keep the note. So I did." She stated. "This is my personal phone." She pulled the phone out of the box. "He used to leave voice messages on it if he was ever in trouble on a mission."

She turned the phone on and unlocked it.

She wasn't lying when she said he left voice messages on it. But most of them weren't when he was in trouble. Most were of him saying "good morning", others were of him saying "goodnight." The last one on it said, "I didn't forget. Don't worry. 901-9923. Still fresh in my mind."

Erica grabbed the phone from my hand. "We have to get going," she stated.

"Oh yeah, right," I said. "I'm sorry." There was a pause. "About everything that has happened with, well you know."

"Yeah, I do know. It's fine. Now get dressed. We have a meeting to get to." 

XXX

Jessica was standing in the middle of the new office waiting for the others. The principal side-eyed Jessica. Then turned to me and looked at me with the most dissaproving look I've ever seen. Alexander was standing next to the principal.

He cleared his throat. "The security team is working on bringing your parents back. They are on their way right now. Erm," he stared at a paper that was written out for him, "they are going to be under rehab and the team will work on bringing them all back to the norm? Normal. Working to bringing them back to normal." A small knock interrupted the principal. "What? Who is it now?"

"It's us," Zoe responded. Chip, Jawa, Catherine and Cyrus, all filed in.

"Oh, well then. Let's start this." He looked down onto the paper that was on his desk. He squinted a little bit, "Oh yes. Um. Okay. Based on our meeting and what we know there is two options we can take for this girl here. What's her name?"

"Jessica," she replied.

"Yes, Jessila." He said mispronouncing her name. "Either we can add her to the team. But it says here that could be a risk, because of her potential connection to SPYDER, because of a girl named Ashley. Are you sure this is right? Her name is Jessila not Ashley." He looked confused to Alexander.

"Yes, because her sister is Ashley who works for-" Alexander was cut off.

"Erm. Okay. Or we could brainwash her and erase her memory or whatever happened here and she could go back to living her life." He paused. "So what do we think! Me personally, I would like to just bring this girl back to a normal life, but on the paper it's up to you, Mr. Ripley and you little team you have here." He gave me a look. "So?"

It hit me hard. Now I didn't even have time to think about leaving. But what about Erica and her travel mission? "Erica don't you have a mission, though?"

"Aren't you leaving?" She responded.

"Are you, Ben?" Zoe questioned.

"I don't know okay. I don't know." I said.

Erica spoke up. "Principal. I'm not going on any travel mission. Not unless I have Ben going with me. IF he goes with me, he'll be out of your hair, and we can add Jessica to the team. And I know you don't want more people here, but if we have Jessica, we can use her and her connection as an asset not a liability." She smiled at us. 

"Erm. Um. That would have to be confirmed with some other first." He responded pretending to know exactly what Erica just said.

"Well? Can you get them to confirm it?"

"Wait what?" I said. "Me? On a travel mission?"

"I can't go without my partner, can I?" Erica whispered to me. "Yes," she said louder this time. "But I get it if you want to leave."

"No. No. No, I wouldn't leave if I go on a travel mission. I'd love to go on a travel mission."

"They have to approve it." The principal said. 

"There's no harm in trying," Zoe said.

Mike turned to Jessica. "Welcome to the team, I guess!"