Spy School: A New Beginning

Not Again

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the POVs in this chapter. They switch more often than normal so it's crucial that you know who said what. I hope you enjoy!

Ben's POV

The helicopter, unsurprisingly, was very fast. It only took a few minutes to get to the pentagon, which sucked for a few reasons. First, the last time I was in the pentagon, I was chased by soldiers, attacked with a sword, and at the same time was attempting to stop a nuclear war. It was horrible, and gave me nightmares for a week, so I had no intention of ever doing that again.

Second, I hate heights, which by default means I hate parachuting. Unfortunately, I have had to work with parachutes a few times before. The first time was in Paris, where Erica and I tandem parachuted onto the top of an incredibly famous museum, while Erica was blind. The other time was when I jumped out of a helicopter on top of the National Gallery of Art to try and stop Erica. It appears in hindsight that I have a thing for parachuting over art museums. So, when I heard we were Parachuting onto the pentagon, I wasn't happy.

Not more than a minute after we entered the helicopter, we started strapping on parachutes. This time, I was going by myself. We were aiming for a specific area, and we would jump after Erica, Mary, and Mike, who would show us where we needed to land.

I sighed, hoping that this would be better than the last, but also trying to quell the feeling of my stomach rising into my throat. Then it happened as soon as it began. Erica jumped, followed by Mike and Mary. They were all very dignified with their jumps, not screaming or flailing their arms. Erica even checked her watch. We saw their parachutes deploy, which signaled that it was time.

Every fear I had tried to hide came back instantly. As I jumped with Catherine and Trixie, I screamed. So did Trixie, and we plummeted to the ground. Just like Erica, Catherine checked her watch. Like Mother like Daughter, I thought. Unfortunately, the ground was coming up fast. I heard Catherine blow an air horn. Where did she get an airhorn? Trixie and I yanked on our cords, but we watched Catherine plummet past us. Trixie screamed in alarm, "Mom, pull your parachute!"

She wasn't stopping. She hadn't even deployed her parachute. However, Trixie and I couldn't worry about Catherine right now. We were slowly drifting down towards the pentagon, probably 1000 feet above it, when we noticed two F-16's screaming towards us. Nuts.

Erica's POV

We had landed on the ground, when we heard the sounds of guns cocking. We turned around, back to back, forming a triangle against the oncoming horde of around 30 soldiers. That's when I noticed something. Mom. She was plummeting towards the ground as fast as she could. I heard my sister scream, and then Ben point out the fighter jets to Trixie. "Crap," I thought, "How the hell are Ben and Trixie going to fight two fighter jets?"

Around 400 feet before landing, mom yanked her parachute open, then a second one on her chest. She had two parachutes. The parachutes flung her up towards the sky like a rag doll as they slowed her descent, but she was still approaching rapidly. Most of the soldiers had noticed her, but one hadn't. Using the nylon strips, she maneuvered the parachute towards him. She grimaced, and I truly understood what she was going to do.

A few feet off the ground, my mother cut her parachute cords, and dropped towards the ground. Her aim was perfect. Catching the soldier by surprise, she landed on him, driving her heel into his neck. He crumpled beneath her momentum, and she landed on the ground like spider man.

I smiled broadly. Of course mom had to one up me. But that was all the joy I allowed myself to feel, and I turned my attention towards the rest of the soldiers, ready to get to work.