The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 10: We take a trip to the US

It was 6:00 am and the HQ alarm had rung. I woke up knowing that our quest would start today. I saw that Anna was already dressed and ready. She was pretty much waiting for all of us. 
After doing my morning routine, went outside. I had skipped breakfast to get in an early morning training session. I saw Nathaniel there; he was practicing some new sword moves. "Hey Nathaniel" "Oh Ezra! What's up?" "Eh, nothing much" "I heard about the quest you and your group is going on" "Yeah, we have to find the ring and classified documents." "Good luck with that" "Thanks" "Wanna do a quick sparring match?" Just before I could accept Nathaniel's request my friends had already come out. 
"Come on Ezra! We're going to the airport!" Finn shouted.
"Sorry man, I can't do it." I told Nathaniel. "That's alright. Well good luck and be safe." "Will do" 
I joined my friends and we drove to the airport. We had gotten five first class tickets to Chicago. That would be the first city where we would start our search in. We arrived at the airport just in time. After going through the scanners and everything, we went aboard the plane. 
"Man, I've never been to the US before." Jay said. I was pretty sure all of us haven't. I heard from Austin that it had a lot of beautiful cities and beautiful scenery. The United States alongside Regalia and Georgia were the three great nations. These three nations pretty much controlled the world, and no country could stand against them. 
I had never been on a plane before though, so it was a first-time experience. As we got on the plane Finn sat next to Ariana. I felt a little bit betrayed since he chose a girl over a bro but it was alright since I was gonna sit next to Anna anyway. I felt bad for Jay though since we had to leave him sitting somewhere else with some random guy. 
We all dressed lowkey and went undercover as regular people. We would have to especially keep ourselves very lowkey when we entered the US. I'm sure the police and the government officials wouldn't be too happy that soldiers from the suspected country that took their top-secret documents were roaming around their country. It was gonna be a long flight, it would take approximately 12 hours. 
I wanted to start a conversation with Anna, but I didn't have the courage to. I looked over towards Finn and Ariana and Finn was already sleeping, while Ariana was just on her phone. 
I started to think about our mission and worry began to befall me. I was thinking about the things that could go wrong, like us getting arrested or us not finding the items in time and war starting. "Try not to worry too much" Anna said to me with a light smile. She also put her hand on my leg. 
My heart literally dropped. My crush had smiled at me, encouraged, me and touched me all at the same time. My mind started racing even more. I didn't know what to say. "Y-Yeah" I said struggling to get out my words. Suddenly my body just acted on its own and I put my hand on top of hers. My heart was beating pretty fast, but she just smiled and didn't even move away her hand. She leaned her head towards me and closed her eyes. I felt like my heart was gonna explode. I saw an old couple opposite of us look towards us and smiled at us, like they were reminded of themselves when they were younger. 
I legitimately felt that she liked me, or she wanted me or something. I mean how could you say her just touching my hand and leaning on my shoulder is just her being friendly? 
But anyway, all my worries had disappeared, and I eventually fell asleep. 
We arrived in Chicago, Illinois. We got out of the airport and took a taxi to the hotel booked for us. Our hotel was all the way in downtown. Downtown Chicago was a very big and beautiful place, it was also quite crowded. We decided to stop at a gift shop to buy some clothes so that we could sort of blend in as regular Chicagoans. 
The stuff in there was pretty expensive. We only had 500 dollars to spend. We all came out of the store though with new clothes and headed back to the hotel. 
We had arrived at the hotel and booked in. Once we entered the room Finn jumped on the bed. He was tired. It had been a long 12 hours for all of us. 
"So where are we gonna start searching?" Jay said. "Captain Hannah said that we would be meeting with this other NGO agent at this cafe" Anna said. "This is the address" 
"None of this makes sense though. If Regalia took the documents and the US took the ring, why are we searching for it? Shouldn't we just talk to the officials?" Finn said. He sounded stupid and all of us made sure he knew he sounded stupid by giving him the look. 
"Someone else stole the ring and the documents and made it look like the two countries stole from each other" Ariana said. "But why isn't Georgia a suspect? Aren't they all like enemies" Finn said. "Georgia is in war with another country, trying to cause war between the US and Regalia wouldn't help them at all. In fact, it would make matters even worse for them." Anna said. That was true, why would a country that's already in a war start war with two other powerful countries. Somebody had managed to steal the ring and steal the top-secret documents. That person could of been from America or Regalia or a different country all together. We were all wondering. I actually considered the thief to be Moy, but I know she wouldn't be at all capable of stealing top secret documents and a ring. But then again both countries must have some major security problems. How do you let top secret items get stolen from you with ease?
Noon came by and we decided to head to the cafe where we would meet with the agent. The cafe wasn't too far from the hotel, so we walked. We just seemed like normal teenagers, and I'm sure the agent would also be undercover so they would look like a regular person. I'm not sure how we would notice them though. 
We entered the cafe. We all ordered a coffee except for Finn. I saw Jay and Anna looking around to see if the agent was already here. But I noticed a man wearing a black trenchcoated and a nice looking hat sitting all the way at the back. He was reading a novel called "The Forever War." I recognized that book since we read it during our second year at the academy. Though he put the book down and looked towards me. Something told me that he was the guy were supposed to meet, so without saying anything, I went towards him. My friends followed me. 
"So you're the kids from the North?" "Yeah" I said. "Good" 
"So, what do you know about the stolen ring and documents?" Anna said starting the conversation. We had to keep our voices down so that no one would pick up on our conversation. You never know if the FBI would be there that day looking for some new information and evidence. 
"Well I just got back from Washington DC. I got a list of the most famous thieves in America. I did a lot of research into every person on this list. Most of them didn't seem like they would steal a ring, so I decided to do some research into Regalia's most famous thieves. Again, none of them seemed like they would steal a ring or classified documents. I did a bit of investigating in the ring room where the ring was kept but there was no evidence or clues of anyone being in that room. It was like the ring just disappeared from that room. Whoever stole the ring and the documents must have carefully planned everything out." 
"But why would they steal it?" I asked. That was a question that everyone had on their mind. Why would anyone want to steal a ring and classified documents just so that the countries that owned it could blame each other.
"Well the reason why they did it is anyone's best guess. The reason why Regalia suspects America so much is because they had a meeting. The meeting that took place is suspected to be the most likely place that the ring was stolen. America has also wanted to buy the ring off Regalia for a very long time. America must suspect Regalia because of their recent accusations. They think that Regalia is trying to put America under the bus"
"So right now, anyone can be a suspect of stealing the ring and the documents." Ariana said.   
"Correct," the agent said. "Oh my God, so we really aren't getting anywhere with this. Its not like we can search the streets for the ring and the documents" Finn complained. "You're right, we can't, which makes this difficult. But there may be someone that can be a lot of help for you kids." he said. "Who would that be?" Jay said.
"His name is Scott. He's a veteran NGO soldier. One of the greatest of all time" "Scott? Scott Lance?" Anna said. "Yes." "He fought with my father during the great wars." Well this was good for us. The guy we had to meet was already connected to us or at least one of us. 
"That's good. I'm sure he will help you guys out more." "Do you know where he is right now?" Ariana asked. "I'm pretty sure he lives in Boston, Massachusetts" "Well great now that we're already in Chicago we have to go to Boston." Finn complained again. "Don't worry, I can buy flight tickets for the five of you. Be ready by tomorrow." We all agreed. 
Now we would be flying out to Boston to find this veteran NGO soldier to help us with the search. At this point, anyone could be a suspect, the suspect could even be among us. 
We went back to our hotel after lunch and doing some exploring. Chicago was a pretty big and grand city. When we went back to our room Jay and Finn where playing board games, while Ariana was doing her hair and Anna was on her phone. I was watching Family Feud on TV" We were all in the living room just doing different activities. Suddenly the lights flickered. And they went off for a brief moment.
"The hell? Who didn't pay the light bill?" Jay said. "We don't even pay bills here?" Ariana said. 
"The internet is off too" Anna said. I was feeling a little scared since it was nighttime and usually scary things happened during the night, especially in Chicago. We were in the dark and suddenly the TV turned back on. The TV had a short blur before a man had appeared on the screen. He was wearing that mask that hackers wore and was wearing a black hoodie. He was in a dark background. We were all too scared to say anything, finally he spoke. "You want to find the ring and the documents don't you?" he said in one of those scary hacker voices. 
"Who are you?" Anna asked the man. "My identity is not important. What is important is whether you kids want to find the ring and the documents or not?" "Let's hear what he has to say" Jay said. "Okay, go on, speak" Anna said. 
"I know where it is. I know where the ring and the documents are, I have their exact location and can retrieve them at any moment I want to." So this guy was basically saying he was the thief who stole the ring and the documents.
"If you want them back you must go on a simple quest for me. You must retrieve six keys hidden all over the country. Once you have retrieved all six, I will contact you guys and you will bring it to me. You will exchange the keys for the ring and the documents and everyone will be happy." 
"Hold on, what are these keys for?" Ariana asked. "That is confidential" 
"Wait this guy basically wants us to be his dogs and fetch a couple keys for him, and how do we know he's telling the truth?" Finn said. Finn was right, this guy could be lying. 
I went closer towards the TV and asked the man, "So, you're the thief?" 
"No, I am not," he responded. "However I know who the thief is, I know his exact location and I can get the stolen items from him if you guys decided to cooperate." 
This guy wasn't gonna tell us jack. He wasn't gonna tell us who we was or why he wanted the keys or how he knew who the thief was. Something just felt off, I couldn't bring myself to trust this guy and neither could any of us. 
"I don't believe this guy" Jay said. "He's probably lying to just use us get what he wants" The man had stayed silent, he was just looking at the camera not saying a word. 
"Whether you trust me or not is on you, however if you decide to miss out on this it will cost you guys everything. Your country will go to war." 
I didn't want to hear another word come from this guy. I knew that he was just bluffing.
"You will come back" he said. Just after he said that the TV went off and the lights came back on. "That was really strange" Finn said. 
"But what if he said was actually true and he wasn't lying" Anna said. "Come on guys, are you gonna take him seriously? He's probably just some prankster who knows about the theft incident and is trying to make us worried" I said. I didn't believe my words though. Why would some prankster waste their time on hacking someone's television just to give them an ultimatum. 
Though this had really been on my mind throughout the night. But I couldn't let it bother me, tomorrow we had to wake up early and fly over to Boston.