Spy School Oneshot Collection

Camp Was Very Exciting. This Was Not.

Claire is asked about what happened during Spy Camp and learns that the interrogators at MI6 are just as bad as the ones at the CIA.

Claire's POV

After the debacle at spy camp, I went back over to the UK for a brief visit in which I filled in MI6 on what had happened. I didn't quite see why I had to fly over for this before going right back to spend the rest of the summer at spy camp because phones would probably have been just as effective, but MI6 had me do it anyway.

I was brought into a relatively boring conference room at MI6 headquarters and sat down at the table facing a small group of who I could only assume were high-ranking MI6 interrogators. There were three men and one woman, which seemed like overkill for just questioning me, someone who was both on their side and only a student.

An older man started off, saying, "We are dealing with matters of both utmost secrecy and importance. As you surely know, it's not exactly commonplace for a student to be kidnapped."

"Yes," I said, and the man kept going.

"Let's start with the basics. Who were you kidnapped with and who kidnapped you?" the man asked.

"I was kidnapped with Chip and Hank Schachter, Jawaharlal O'Shea, Zoe Zibbel, and Warren Reeves," I said. "We were kidnapped by an organization called SPYDER."

I wasn't able to read the interrogators' expressions very well, but I was able to notice that none of them gave even a slight look of recognition at SPYDER's name. Most of them just looked bored.

"Did the CIA agents in training you were with know anything about SPYDER?" another one of the MI6 agents asked.

"Not really. Most of them had heard of it though. SPYDER appears to be highly classified within the CIA. They did have a headquarters in West Virginia, but that was blown up."

"How did you manage to escape? Who rescued you?"

"Erica and Cyrus Hale," I said.

The man at the center of the group looked over to the woman, who was sitting over at the end of the table.

She looked back over to him and said, "I haven't heard anything about that. Yet, at least."

"Cyrus Hale is supposed to be retired," the man in the center said.

I hadn't known this, but I wasn't surprised. After all, retirement happens to everyone eventually. "I guess he unretired then," I said, then added, "His son was there too. He didn't help, though."

The woman on the end rolled her eyes.

"That's not surprising," one of the men said.

"The CIA people seemed to really idolize him," I said.

"It's been like that for quite some time," the woman said. "Don't expect that to change anytime soon. He's got them all snowed. It's really the only thing he's good at."

"I've noticed," I said. "But I'm kind of surprised you all have."

This statement was greeted with a number of glares from across the table.

"Miss Hutchins, we know far more about both the CIA and the Hales than most CIA agents," one of the men said. "What you figured out this week regarding them we have known for decades."

I nodded. "So you've been spying on them."

"No, we haven't," the woman said. "There's been no need. They have told us everything we have needed to know. It's nothing you ought to be concerned about. The important thing here is us asking you about this mission. Do you know the names of any of the SPYDER agents?"