Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 21 (Friday week 1)

"Weapons?"

"Check," four of them said.

"Communication devices?"

Silence.

The olive-faced guy glanced up from his clipboard at team MVATR.

"Um," Treble said, "Maro can't talk. So we don't use them."

The guy--he looked hardly older than eighteen--stared between them. "Which one of you's Maro?"

Ripple almost raised her hand, just to annoy him. But she didn't.

"That's beside the point," Treble shook her head.

"Yeah," Ripple added, "Can't we go yet? We were supposed to start at eight."

The guy frowned at his clipboard. "I'm not supposed to let you into the simulator unless you're fully equipped."

Ripple glared at him, "seeing as how he can't talk, I think we're fully equipped under the circumstances."

Mr. Clipboard looked at Maro, eyes lighting up. "Oh," Ripple said. "Whoops."

"This is for you, Maro," he handed Maro an odd, black box from the table behind him. "The rest of you take a communicator," he pointed to some smaller, black boxes on a table beside the golden, whirling entrance to the simulator.

Ripple sighed, but went and took one, shoving it into the bag at her hip. Technically it was a sheath for her twin daggers, but apparently this mission assignment required a bag full of supplies, so goodbye skinny dagger sheath. Treble took one, hand visibly shaking, and dropped hers into her pack. Vizz and Addeline took theirs wordlessly.

"Emergency kit?" the guy asked.

Ripple growled, but Addie nodded, "yes."

"Weapons?"

Ripple glared at him. "You already asked that."

He tapped a fancy silver pen to his clipboard. "I'm double checking."

"Yes," Addie said.

Ripple took a sharp breath. Ani was already pushing to the front.

"And now you're good to go," the guy said, scribbling something with his fancy silver pen. He looked up and smiled. "Good luck, students!"

Ripple resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him and turned towards the simulator entrance.

"You can beat this, you can beat this, you can beat this," Treble started muttering in front of her. Vizz, silent as always, walked through first, followed by Addeline, who actually smiled back at the rest of them. Treble audibly swallowed before ducking through. Ripple waited until the circle returned to full yellow, then followed.

She stepped into an alley of a dark city. Maro came through behind her, then the swirling golden entrance faded. Maro rummaged in his pack and pulled out a small, plastic dot. He placed it on the ground, then stood back up, pulling out a larger gray dot with a blinking blue light. "The tracker's working," he signed, "If we need to retreat, return here." He pulled out the paper of instructions they'd received. They hadn't been allowed to look at it until entering the simulation. Something about not giving them time to cheat. Ripple waited tensely, bouncing on her toes. Maro was their designated "leader," even though he hated the job. Mr. Judington said that's why he was best for it.

"We going to go yet?" Addeline asked. She'd pulled her hood over her head, and lifted a sword out from behind her cloak.

"What are you doing?" Treble hissed at her, nervous notes trailing through the air. "We're supposed to be covert, put that away!"