Spy School: Operation Roaring Rhino

Air

September 5th

Afternoon

Plane

Ben's POV:

I woke up on my seat at the plane. They were two-seat rows, so Mike and Zoe were sitting next to each other. Catherine was sitting up ahead by herself next to a random balding man. That left Erica sitting next to me. It was a little awkward, because she didn't say anything for the first ten minutes. So I decided I should make some conversation.

"Sooo, uh, how has the last week been for you?"

"It's been good." She answered with nothing in her voice.

""What do you think about the mission?"

"It doesn't sound very hard, probably like the one in vail."

"Er, wasn't the one in Vail like... almost impossible?"

"Yes, but we still did it, and no one got hurt. This mission is in a zoo, not in the snowy mountains, so hopefully it will be a little more... simple."

"What ever the mission is, hopefully it'll be quick and easy, unlike all our missions so far."

"I suppose so." She nodded, as if understanding what I meant. I decided to ask her a question I had been dying to ask her for days.

"I wanted to ask you about the date... Why'd you say no?" Erica sighed, and for once, she actually looked super uncomfortable about something I had said.

"Well... First of all, while my father, mother, and sister would all be fine with it, my grandfather... well, he would probably assassinate both of us. But, the real reason is that, well, I would be worried about you all the time, Ben."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Ok, so, basically, if our enemies knew we had gone on a date, then they would use one of us as leverage, most likely you, to get to the other, most likely me. I can't put you in any more danger than you already are in."

"Look, I know it would be dangerous, but this sort of thing has already happened to us, even when we weren't dating, for example, the game maker. Would it really change anything to be dating?"

" I think so, Ben. If we went on a date, it would be like announcing to the world: "these two are close, one may be used as leverage."

"Wait, did you just say we were close?" I ask, slightly stunned. Erica rolled her eyes and continued,

"So I just don't think that, at the moment, it would be a good idea to be dating. Maybe in the future, though." I gave a small sigh, but honestly, I was mostly relieved, at least Erica had said she wanted to go on a date with me. I would just have to find out how to get her to. After a little more thinking, I fell asleep, and right as I nodded off, I felt Erica's hand holding mine, and I though, you know, maybe this mission won't be so bad after all.

Sorry guys, there was a glitch that deleted the last section of the chapter, I hadn't noticed until now, so I just fixed it.