Spy School: Time Off

Epilogue

Washington DC, USA

The Academy of Espionage

Saturday

0700 Hours

I was a bit groggy from my sleep as I opened my eyes. I rolled over to see Erica sleeping peacefully on the bed next to me, arms wrapped around me and all. I kissed her on the forehead and got up for the morning. "I know you're probably wondering what happened after the timer ticked down to zero, I know I would. So, here it goes.

Erica and I confessed our love to each other and kissed right before the bomb ticked down to zero. Luckily, I clipped the right wire so the bomb didn't go off, so we just kissed each other passionately until Cyrus tried to radio us in. He was crying thinking that we died and that's why we didn't communicate with him for a bit. We calmed him down as he called in a helicopter to come and get us. While waiting, I proposed a relationship with Erica, and guess what. She said yes! She said something about how after Joshua she couldn't do anything and how I thawed her out but I was so excited I could hardly remember what she said. We rode to The Academy of Espionage and had to explain the whole situation to the principle. Turns out, like we predicted, the vacation thing never existed and someone hacked it into the system. Go figure."

"Good morning Ben! Doing another one of your audio-logs." "You bet, want me to make you some coffee." "That would be great, thank you." So I brought Erica to the table and started brewing up some coffee. "So as you can see, Erica and I are roomies now. After that embarrassing convo (for the principle that is), Erica and I were summoned to meet Cyrus at his (part-time) office. Cyrus said that since I had saved the world and him that the deal was off. The deal that we made behind the tent about quitting Spy School after the mission was over because of what I did to Erica. "Thank you Sir." "Ahh, don't flatter yourself. Now Erica, sense you can't walk from the...incident...the school will be providing you with a top of the line wheel chair until we can afford other options." Erica declined the wheel chair though and requested Ben to carry her to classes. Cyrus went ballistic, at her and me, but eventually calmed down after some tough convincing and bargaining. The deal was that we got a new room 3X bigger but with 2 beds, that I couldn't be late to pick her up for her classes at any point or this entire thing is over, and that she had to at least try the wheel chair. So that's how we ended up in this bigger room, even though we don't sleep in separate beds. It allowed us to get a couch, a TV, and a coffee maker. All one could ever need. And of course Joshua went away to custody for questioning. This is Ben signing off."

"You know someone is going to eventually catch you doing these one day and get you arrested" she said playfully. "How could they ever find out with the great Erica Hale helping me hide them" I said while handing her her favorite coffee, cinnamon with two pumps of creamer. "You always were such a gentleman" Erica said sipping from her coffee. "I hope so, how else could I have gotten you" I said while staring into her eyes. So perfect and blue like waves on a beach, no longer as iced as mountains. We talked for a while and turned on Goldfinger. I sat on the ouch with her and drifted off to sleep, her head on my shoulder. We woke back up around noon. Shoot! We missed lunch. "Ben, don't worry. I missed lunch all the time and never got in trouble" she said like she was reading my mind. "I'm fine,-" I said trying to be cool, "wanna call up the gang." "Sure, that sounds fun." I called up the whole gang and we met outside to play Ultimate Frisbee. Erica finally used her wheel chair so that I wouldn't have to carry her all game. "So what have you two been up to, missing lunch and all" Mike said winking at me. "We just fell asleep watching Goldfinger, what you think was happening." "Nothing, nothing. Just asking." We played for a while and packed up before dinner. Before we left though Zoe asked "Hey Ben, can I borrow your notes for poison and toxins, I forgot my paper that day and Ms. Billur didn't let me grab more." Notes for notes for poison and toxins. Notes. Poison and toxins. Those words hit me almost as hard as when Cyrus said I would have to guess. "Ben, Ben! Hello!" "Oh sorry. Yeah, I'll meet you here in a minute. Let me just grab my book." Erica was in her wheel chair so she decided to stay and talk to Zoe for a bit. I ran into our dorm and into the bathroom, and pulled out the note in my pocket.

You know, we never did catch Murray or Ashley. They just disappeared into the forest, like it was there plan from the start. Because it was.

Dear Ben,

Hello friend, sorry I escaped but I really had to. Just like you and Erica escaped me. But not quite, you didn't quite escape me yet Ben. Meet me at the local arcade this Sunday at 2400 Hours or I 'lose' the only cure for Erica that there is.

P.S. Don't tell Erica or anyone else unless you want me to 'lose' the cure

P.P.S. 'Lose' means destroy all traces of

                                                                                       Hate,

                                                                                              your friend Murray and all of SPYDER

The End..... for now. Thank you everyone who has read my book to this chapter, it really means a lot to me that you like my book and I never could have done this without yall. You all have truly inspired me to keep writing and I could never thank yall enough for that. I hoped you liked my book and the direction it took, but I am again, sorry about the Covid correlations. If you want more of my stuff, I will be releasing the first couple chapters of the sequel soon and some authors notes about what happened with some of my older plots and especially the volcano. If yall want to stay updated it would be very appreciative to vote and follow so you can get notified when I update. Until then, have a GREAT day! 🥳