Spy School: Crash of Canada (#1)

Chapter 12 - Rescue

Toronto General Hospital

Toronto, Canada

February 7th

0500 Hours

We used the GPS tracker in the emergency signal from the Catherine's phone to find them. Turns out SPYDER had ambushed them at the Hospital. There were no agents that we knew personally, but some big hulking men were taking care of the job.

Erica pulled up into the hospital's parking lot and leapt out of the stolen car, so I followed her. I began heading for the main doors, but Erica stepped into my path.

"We can't go that way," She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me behind the building.

"You know of another way?" I asked.

"Of course I do," Erica replied. "I memorized a map of the city, and the layout of every building in it."

I didn't bother to ask when Erica had done this as I had been near her for most of the mission. I knew she wouldn't answer me, considering the situation at hand. We rounded a corner and came out behind the hospital building. At the top of the wall, about 12 feet in the air, lay a vent that looked big enough for us to crawl through. 

"Boost me up," Erica said.

I did as she ordered, clasping my hands together. She stepped into my hands and reached up to the vent, coming 2 feet short of it. Then, without any warning at all, she climbed onto my shoulders, allowing her to reach the vent. My knees buckled under her sudden weight, and I nearly pitched forward, but managed to hold through until Erica dismantled and climbed into the vent. She laid on her stomach and extended both hands down to me. I jumped to reach and she grabbed my wrists as I did hers. She nearly slid out of the vent with my weight pulling on her, although she managed to pull me up anyhow. 

We crawled through the vent on our hands and knees, stopping every few feet to peer down through a grate to the room below. As we made it to the 11th grate, Erica stopped so suddenly that I almost slammed into her. 

"That's our room,"  Erica said, still looking down into the grate. "There is mild security, just two men. Catherine, Mike, and Zoe are all bound and gagged."

Erica removed a screwdriver from her utility belt and went to work on the grate's 8 screws. During this time, I heard a voice in the distance.

"It has been 2 hours since we captured them," the voice said, "It looks like their friends are not going to show, the bomb will go off in 60 minutes, and we will escape the city."

I gasped. Erica hissed at me to be quiet, or I'd blow our cover. 

"Erica," I began.

"Shhhh!" Erica hissed, removing the grate and placing it aside.

"Erica," I tried again.

"What part of shhhh do you not understand??" She asked, growing annoyed, then motioned for me to follow her down the new hole in the ceiling.

So I did. We dropped into the room below, the guards posted barely getting a chance to acknowledge our arrival before Erica was attacking them. I ran over to Catherine, Mike, and Zoe, taking the Swiss-army knife from my utility belt and beginning to cut them loose. The second Zoe was free she threw her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. I gave her a quick pat on the back, signaling that I needed the hug to be over to continue helping the others. She took offense of this.

"Ben! I've been kidnapped and haven't seen you in 2 hours, and you won't even let me hug you?" She asked, heatedly.

"Zoe," I began, but she cut me off.

"I though you were my friend!" Zoe said, trying to make me feel guilty.

"I am your friend Z-" I tried, but Zoe cut me off again.

"All I wanted was to show you a bit of-" This time I cut her off.

"You're getting this worked up over a hug?! I have half a fucking mind to leave you and everyone else right here to be tortured by SPYDER!" I hissed at Zoe. "You would have never gotten another chance to see me again if it weren't for Erica and I!"

Zoe's look went from shocked to livid at the way I had spoken to her. But I didn't care in the moment. I cut the others loose, neither of them attempted to hug me. Erica slipped around us, leading the way to the exit, breaking into a run as she did so. I began to run after her, but noticed Zoe standing to the side, her leg still having been hurt.

"Ben..?" She said, nervously, as though scared to ask for my help.

I thought about just leaving her there, but noticed the 4 SPYDER agents running up behind her. Yes, I was still heated, but not about to leave my friend behind. So I doubled back and came to Zoe's aid. I carried her, running after Erica and the others. 

It was at this moment that I realized I hadn't been able to tell Erica what I had heard about the bomb while in the vents. I came up next to Mike.

"Here, take Zoe, I need to talk to Erica." I said, shoving Zoe into Mike's arms.

He began to protest, but I ran ahead to Erica's side.

"Hey," I said to Erica. "When we were in the vents I heard something very important."

"What was it?" Erica asked, shoving through the back door of the hospital.

"One of the guards said that the bomb would be going off in 60 minutes," I said. "But that was almost 20 minutes ago."

Now Erica looked at me, concerned.

"We need to go back to SPYDER's headquarters, now." She said.