I Spy

Chapter 12

In what seemed like a blink, another week passed and it was time for Ant to leave.  We spent the whole of the afternoon together before he left on a helicopter to go to Heathrow.  I felt pretty hollow after he left, but soon I returned back to my normal routine.  I made a lot of new friends from the Experts and we did little missions into town and back.  I caught up all my work, went for runs again and slowly but surely everything became pretty normal. 

No further news about my dad or Labelle came up, but my mind kept of going back to that day in the train.  No matter how hard I tried to forget, I would still get flashes of the Russian lady when I saw a black pony tail or I would wake up in the middle of the night with a racing heart and feel the healed wound on my back throbbing.  I kept thinking about Ant and how petrified he was when he jumped onto the train in Oban.  The fight that had happened kept on playing over in my mind and I had to stop myself from analysing it every time.  But the most common thought that refused to subside was that there was something I wasn’t being told. 

I hated feeling out of the loop; it was my dad that this was all about, anyway.  I knew there was something Mr Grey wasn’t telling me because whenever I spoke to him he didn’t look directly at me, like he normally did, and he kept our conversations one sided.  I didn’t know what more there could be that they weren’t telling me, but there certainly was something. 

I also missed Ryan a lot.  No matter how hard I tried and no matter how much I reminded myself that I hated him, he kept on coming back to my mind.  Several times I had found myself daydreaming about the first time we kissed, or remembering that day when we lay together in the hospital bed or in London when we had spent the day shopping.  It really annoyed me the way his face kept popping up in my mind, but I couldn’t stop it.   

Eight days after Ant left, I confined in Jess.  I told her all my woes about Mr Grey keeping secrets from me and she had simply told me that if there was something there wasn’t telling me, it was probably best that I didn’t know.  Maybe I should have talked to someone who would have taken my side instead of Mr Grey’s. 

That day, I was on my way to lunch when Kyle, a senior and an Expert, handed me a note.  It was an official hand written letter signed by Stan.  It read:

Dear Marley. 

I hope your stay at the Blackwood Institute has been very rewarding and enjoyable. 

The matters with Labelle seemed to have gotten a lot quieter since Anthony and you were in Scotland.  This is not necessarily a good thing because they still have your father, as I’m sure you are aware of.  So this is just a warning in advance that if no drama comes up in the next couple of days, you will be returning to New York and put into a proper school. 

I’m sure you must be feeling awfully confused, so here are a few reasons why I think this is a better choice all around. 

1) You will actually, believe it or not, be a lot safer here than at the Institute.  This may be a shock, but with all the missions the Experts have coming up, I feel you are going to be putting yourself in too much open ground. 

2) It has come to my intention that a friend of yours was revealed to be working with Labelle.  This is a total outrage, so the CIA and MI6 are currently undergoing a series of background checks and questionings with all the students at Blackwood. 

3) There are plenty of things that you can do for us here at the CIA and I think you would benefit from this greatly. 

4) Anthony’s work is slipping slightly under par which I’m assuming has something to do with not being able to see you.  I assumed that because every day he comes in my office demanding to know if you are safe and asking when you will be coming back.