Spy School Out West

Chapter 24

I would recommend looking up "hypersonics" before you start this chapter. I realized, too late, that I should have defined it here, but by then I was already done with that part. 

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Ben's POV 
--
Joshua Hallal's house 
Paris, France 
August 3 
1200 hours 
--

"Erica! Benjamin!" Catherine screeched as we busted through the front door, immediately enveloping us into a warm hug. 

Everyone was making sure that the goons hadn't woken up yet. Cyrus was conducting an interrogation in the corner with two of the thugs, the only ones who appeared to still be awake. Cyrus was doing a lot of yelling and the thugs seemed very unsure what was going on. 

"Mom!" Erica said urgently, wiggling out of her mother's grasp. "Ben figured out what Joshua Hallal is plotting!" 

"Wonderful news!" Catherine said cheerfully. "Should I get everyone now?"

Everyone was already listening. It's a known fact that watching a bunch of people be unconscious on the floor and trussed like calves is rather boring, so they'd already been eavesdropping on us. Now, we all sat in the breakfast nook and I explained the plot while Catherine made us French toast. I was famished, having only eaten some chips that day, and the kitchen was fully-loaded. But first, I needed to make sure of something. 

"Balto, do you remember back at the dude ranch and I asked you where your dad was?" 

She nodded, wondering where this was going. "I think so, why?"

"Do you know the name of the company your dad was staying behind to watch?" 

"Um, was it Crafton? Drafting? Grafted? I'm not exactly sure. Something like that." 

"Grafton? Hypersonics?" I guessed. This was really, really bad. 

"Yeah, that's it! Why, is that Joshua's plot?" 

I took a deep breath. "Possibly." 

"What are you waiting for?" Cyrus demanded. "The fate of the world is at fate here. We don't have time for dramatic pauses. Why, when-" 

"The fate of the world also doesn't have time for your yapping," Balto snapped. "Go on, Ben." 

"Joshua is planning to launch a missile at the school." 

"That's it?" Erica asked, confused. "Then why is he here? He should be back in DC." 

"Well, there's two parts to it," I explained. "I realized when I saw a camouflage-patterened book. That made me think of Major Hernandez, who I met on the plane coming here. He was going on and on about this new hypersonics company called Grafton. That sounded familiar, though I couldn't place where it sounded familiar from until now." 

"Does it have anything to do with Daddy?" Balto asked emotionlessly, like she was asking if I was getting fries with my burger at a restaurant. 

"No," I replied. "At least not yet. It wouldn't really matter anyhow, because he's dead. The first part of his plan is targeting the Eurosatory." Noticing their blank expressions, I asked, "do you know what the Eurosatory is?"

"Yes," Erica, Cyrus, and Catherine said in unison. 

"Kind of," Jawa said. 

"Maybe," Zoe said. 

"No," Chip said. 

"It's the largest military outsourcing conference in the world," I explained. "Militaries from all over the world go and meet up with subcontractors with expertise in air or ground warfare. If a deal is made, then that subcontractor does work for the government in that area of warfare. The US attends Eurosatory, as do most of their subcontractors."