Spy School: Crash of Canada (#1)

Chapter 8 - Infiltration

SPYDER's Headquarters

Toronto, Canada

February 7th

0000 Hours

I was now standing less than 20 yards away from the building that held dangerous criminals and two members of my team. Since it was midnight, Erica and I were both wearing our sleek black spy suits to blend in with the night. SPYDER's headquarters loomed ominously in the darkness. Exactly one hour before, Erica had been shaking me awake so we could get dressed and begin our infiltration mission. Erica turned around to face me, her ice blue eyes being the only thing visible in the pitch blackness.

"Remember," she said. "The plan is to enter through the front door, and stealthily find my Mom and Zoe, haul them out to safety and then thwart SPYDER's evil plot."

"But we don't know what SPYDER's evil plot is this time." I countered.

"Maybe there will be some clues inside, or maybe the others know." Erica said.

She had a point. If the others had been held prisoner like we thought, then, they might know something by now and could be of use. Erica turned around and began slinking about through the bushes and shadows, motioning for me to follow, so I did. We slipped around to the keypad protected entry door. Erica went up to the keypad, I was right on her heels.

"What was the code?" she asked me.

"2-4-5-6-3-3-6-8-4" I replied without hesitation.

Erica entered this code, and the door didn't open. The small digital keypad screen displayed the message "Incorrect Password." Erica turned back to me again.

"Are you sure that was it?" she asked.

"100%" I said, having a moment of realization. "They probably change the code every day!"

"Shit, your right." Erica said, knowing this made sense.

She reached up above her head and snapped off a branch of the tree above us. Then she grabbed hand, threw the branch at the second-floor window that had the light on, and ran, dragging me with her. We ducked into a bush as muffled voices rang out. The door slid open a few seconds later.

"See, there is no one out here, I told you jidiots it was just a bird!" I heard Ashley Sparks say.

Ashley turned her back on the door as it began to slide closed, but just before it did, Erica kicked a small rock that wedged itself perfectly in place to stop the door. Its security feature caused it to bounce back open, and Ashley spun around to see it.

"Ugh!! Why is the door still open??" she asked, annoyed. "Murray! What is the access code so I can close it??"

"Uh, 8-9-6-3-5-2-4-1-7" Murray replied from another room, then thought to add, "I think."

Ashley sighed and entered the code, and Erica allowed the door to close this time. We stayed in the bushes for another 25 minutes before Erica thought it was safe to infiltrate. She ran back up to the keypad and entered the new code. The door slid open. 

It was dark inside the room, the light having been turned off when Ashley left. I followed Erica through the shadows to where we found a fork in the hall. One way led to a door, the other a staircase. Erica took my hand for a brief second and it took me a moment to realize it wasn't a romantic gesture, but she had given me something. I clenched my hand into a fist to feel the object. It was a radio earpiece. I put it in my ear and turned it on. I wondered why Erica had given me this considering she was literally 6.5 inches away from me, but then it all came to light.

"You take the room, I'll take the stairs," Erica whispered so softly I almost didn't hear her.

"We are splitting up?! Are you crazy?" I asked, trying to match Erica's level of voice.

"It will waste too much time going each way together," she said. "Time that we don't have."

And with that, she slipped up the stairs and out of sight. I went up to the door, terrified without Erica by my side. I quietly removed the lockpick from my utility belt and picked the door's lock in 27 seconds, something my professors would have been proud of. I tiptoed into the room. The darkness stopped me from seeing the size, or if anyone was in there. 

But then, I stopped in my tracks, having heard a noise. I heard it again, and again. I listened closer. It was a rhythmic tapping sound. Three short taps followed by three long taps, and then three short taps again. It was a SOS code. I tried my best to pinpoint the sound, coming from deeper within the room. I tapped my foot to indicate I could hear the signal. The SOS stopped and became a single tap every second, meaning who ever was there heard me. Then there was a voice.

"Smokescreen! Over here!" The voice whispered.

There was only one person I knew that called me "Smokescreen." Zoe Zibbell. I turned around, with my eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, I could make out two people tied to chairs. Catherine and Zoe. I came over to them and pulled out the Swiss-army knife from my utility belt and began cutting them loose.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Zoe replied. "They didn't torture us at all. Besides being tied to chairs for the past 27 hours, it wasn't actually that bad!"

I managed to cut them both loose, but before we could catch up any more someone started shooting at us.

Author's Note: I know I forgot to add the detail about Ashley being in casts from Ben shooting her earlier.