Spy School: Old Becomes New

Chapter 17

May 16th, 2029

1530 hours

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Ben's POV

I walked out of Union Station angry, frustrated, dismayed, and probably a thousand other words.

I turned left and kept walking. I didn't even know where I wanted to go. I was just upset with Erica. She was mad at me for leaving while she had left me in the hotel alone. And she wouldn't even listen to me about Mike. 

It was as if she had made up her mind and wouldn't see it anyway. I don't know what was up with her, but something needed to change. Hopefully her having Emma would change her mind.

I wasn't worried about her and Emma safety wise, as I thought she would think about me before. She was more than capable of keeping herself alive.

It was hard to focus on the mission sometimes, but now was the best time. Erica and Emma were away and there was no distractions to worry about. I pulled up my phone and accessed Mike's server to see the location he had posted about the construction site. I headed that way. 

It was a solid half hour walk, and I hoped that going there would clear my head and I could find out what was going on over there. The day was sunny, but breezy. So I found myself chills all over, and then warm. I looked up at the sky, a light sky blue that fit the spring weather.

I headed onwards to the site.

Erica's POV

I was at a loss for words after Ben left. Emma was upset as well. I just sat at the table, a 1/4 of the cookie left on the table. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I didn't think that he would just get up and leave. I could tell that I had hurt him.

I really thought I had been doing the right thing this whole time. I hadn't told him about the letter, the USB stick, sneaking out, even leaving the hotel. It didn't seem to me that he would care, but evidently he did.

"Come on Emma," I said. "Let's get outta here."

She just simply nodded to me and I Picked her up and walked out of the station.

I took a right turn, walking towards downtown again. I didn't feel in the mood to spy, to do anything. I felt useless. I wanted to just sit down and ... do nothing. I didn't even know. 

I kept walking until I saw the first hotel on the road. I entered it and booked a room.

"How long would you like to stay?" the front desk attendant asked.

"Uhm ... 3 days," I said, knowing full well that I wasn't going to stay the whole 3 nights.

"Room 27, 2709."

"Thank you."

I walked to the open elevator and hit 27, waiting for the long ride to end. I sighed. I thought back to when me and Ben were in spy school. How I had told him multiple times that relationships didn't work out in the spy business.

I thought that we had beat the odds when we started it up. It had gone well. Up until the past few days.

I stepped out of the elevator and headed to room 2709. I waved my card against the door handle and opened it up. It was similar to the other room we had, a king size bed with a nice balcony and fancy ensuite. The curtains were shut to the balcony so I opened them up, knowing it was a sunny day. I was stunned by the view.

I could see most everything in Toronto, the CN tower and Ripley's Aquarium close by to me. I saw the nice skyline that the city had and out to Lake Ontario. I saw the construction site where I had looked at the B&B trucks. It was an obscure dot compared to everything else.

I simply sighed and turned around. I had placed Emma on the bed and she was just staring at the wall. I went and sat beside her but she didn't acknowledge me.

"What's up Em?" I asked.

"I left Bella at Uncle Mike's" she said.

"Aww, I'm sorry," I said brushing the hair on her head. "We will get her back for you."

She simply nodded. I got up and opened up my phone. I opened my contacts and just stared.

I decided to call Cyrus again. I walked around the room as I heard the phone ringing. It rang 5 times until I heard the automated voice say "Call Failed."

I didn't know why he wasn't answering. I don't know what I had done, or what he was doing, that was making him not answer me.

But it was bugging me. This whole mission was bugging me. Forget the problems with me and Ben, I just felt like there was something up with this mission. I went digging into my purse and found the USB stick. I plugged it into the adapter in my phone and opened up the secure server.

I went back into the file of our mission, seeing Mike and Zoe still listed as moles. I saw a mission brief that Ben had uploaded. It was about the missile in the air.

I read through the original notes of MH. About Chip's notes. Grandpa's. MH. I still didn't know how that factored into the B&B trucks. 

This mission was just going all sorts of wrong. I thought about texting or calling Ben.

I decided against it. I think we both needed to cool down a little bit. I needed out to figure out the words to say. I knew the next time I saw him I had to tell him everything.

I looked down at my wedding ring, the one Ben had slid on my finger at the wedding. I remember the happiness I felt that day. The thought of living the rest of my life with Ben.

I opened my phone back up and started searching about B&B construction.

There was no point in dwelling on Ben now. I had to get going on this mission before it was too late to start.