Spy School: Outbreak

Chapter 25

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Atlanta, GA

May 9

2000

My eyes were stuck together, my whole body ached, and I felt like shit. Don't you just love sedatives? I managed to pry my eyes open and immediately wished I hadn't. It seemed the drug wasn't out of my system, because every tiny source of light was blinding.

I groaned, blinking my eyes rapidly, trying to get used to the light level. I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position. Even the simple act drained all of my energy, and I slumped against the cold metal.

Wait... metal? My eyes snapped open, ignoring the blinding light, and darted around. I was in a small holding room; the walls seemed to be made of dark metal, tungsten, by my guess. The only ventilation was small holes drilled through the walls, allowing me to see that the walls were at least two feet thick. To top it all off, the only way in or out was through a thick, airtight door, not unlike a bulkhead that might be found on the outside of a submarine, only this door had no way of opening from the inside, meaning no way out. I was well and truly fucked.

My eyes fell on the only other person in the room. My mind immediately jumped to Erica, but no, this girl was not Erica in any way. To start, she was a good three inches shorter, her hair was blonde, her skin was paper white, and when she looked up at me, I saw that her eyes were sky blue, navy, violet, and back again. It was quite mesmerizing. not something I could put my finger on. They seemed to change every few seconds, transitioning through countless shades of blue and violet.

"Who are you?" I asked. Or tried to. With the girl's eyes and the sedative coursing through my veins, all I got out was, "Horwou?"

I realized I had spoken gibberish and tried again, taking care to enunciate clearly.

"Who are you?" I asked, emphasizing each consonant.

Despite the situation, the girl smiled halfheartedly. "Still affected? Don't worry, you'll feel yourself again in a few minutes." She stuck out her hand. "Charlotte Moore. MI6. And you?"

"Pleased to meet you," I said, shaking her hand. "Benjamin Ripley. CIA."

She grew even paler somehow. I didn't understand; my name wasn't that scary.

"Benjamin Ripley?" She breathed. "The Benjamin Ripley?"

"Uhhhh..." I said, baffled. "Yes, I suppose?"

Charlotte launched into a tirade of curse words so long and colorful, I could only watch in awe. If I had said even a tenth of that, my mother would have made me eat a bar of soap.

Once she'd finished swearing like a drunken sailor, she looked at me, incredibly irritated.

"The Benjamin Ripley? The CIA's best?"

I turned red. "I wouldn't say 'best', but..."

She snorted. "Really? Who else has managed to discover and thwart hundreds of SPYDER plots, and eventually shut them down for good? 'Cause I'm pretty damn sure that was you."

"I think that may have been blown out of proportion. It was only a handful of times..."

"Only a handful!" She laughed maniacally. "'Only a handful,' he says! You know how many top CIA agents would give their left nut for the chance to thwart SPYDER even once?"

She let out a howl of frustration.

"If you were captured, then what hope do the rest of us have?"

"Hold on, slow down, cool it. How do you know who I am? We don't know each other!"

She stopped. "You think that you are a secret? There's hardly a soul at MI6 who hasn't heard your name. Not to mention that you went to Spy Camp with many of them, including me."

Now that she mentioned it, I did remember seeing her there at Spy Camp, but then, she'd just been a face among many. Now she was here and considering this, I was still reeling from this discovery when I heard loud metal grinding on the other side of the door. I glanced up to see two burly men enter, followed by a female doctor holding a syringe.

Before I had time to process what was happening, the two men had restrained her, and the doctor jammed the syringe into her carotid artery while depressing the plunger in one swift motion.

Her eyes bulged and she clutched at her chest before falling on her side; she was absolutely still.

The doctor removed the syringe, upon which I could see two words printed: Potassium chloride.

Any hope I'd had of her simply being sedated was doused in gasoline and lit ablaze. Potassium chloride is well known to cause cardiac arrest, even in smaller doses. I suspected that Charlotte had been given a concentrate of the already lethal substance, guaranteeing her death. From this, I knew that NEO wasn't like SPYDER. They were cutthroat killers who didn't mess around.

Without thinking, I lunged at the doctor, too late to stop anything, but just wanting to make her pay. The cold calculation with which she conducted herself filled me with unbridled hatred, and at that moment, I found myself certain I would rip her to pieces.

A massive fist caught me in the jaw and my head hit the floor, causing me to see stars. Through a haze of agony, I saw the other man sling Charlotte over his shoulder and follow the doctor out of the room.

I don't remember much after that. Time seemed to speed up and slow down simultaneously, and honestly, I think I started to go a little insane. NEO wanted me for something, and in the meantime, I was fed once a day, with barely enough to stay alive. Finally, I was considering tying my shirt around my neck to end it all when the door opened, and a man entered. A man who I thought I'd never see again.

Murray Hill.