The Five Unnecessaries

Chapter 15

I blinked to make sure I had read the message correctly, but I had; the first mission was only two weeks away.

Collin sat on my feet as I did crunches. He continued to poke fun at the story I had told the previous night about a princess who spoke to trees. He interrupted the morning silence by pointing out the most obvious plot holes, like the squirrels living in the trees becoming homeless if the trees were following the princess.

"Dead, homeless squirrels," he said, as I pulled up to my knees and glared at him. "I'm just saying. Itinerary is on your MCU. Five more!" he added when he heard me sigh in pain.

I continued to crunch up, hating the sight of my knees.

He continued, "After Intel—two more, Aislyn, push through—we'll have Faith come up and try Dance 7. Now, in a Sixteenth Street café, would you order coffee or tea?

"Tea, if dressed as a Terra. Coffee with honey if any higher rank," I answered as I finished the last crunch.

He smiled, then stared back at his MCU. I took a moment to catch my breath, my chin leaning on my knees.

"Two more weeks," he said. He hadn't moved his hands, now nearly touching mine. We stayed there, inches apart. I breathed in as he exhaled, feeling nothing I never had before while terrified I was feeling it.

He leaned in slightly, but jolted up from where he sat. "Room Three-Forty-Three. Don't be late."

"I won't." I got up from the mat and moved for the door.

"And Aislyn, do me a favor."

"What?"

"Don't hold back. Speak up," he said, winking.

I ran under my archway and through the garden, wondering what he had meant. I stepped across the garden, taking a moment to touch the leaves of the vines that had stretched themselves across the arbor. I left all the beauty behind and went down the cool, echoing cylinder of Central's stairs, resenting that it kept me away from the growing leaves and sun.

I found the room, but stopped short when I walked in. The hologram platform up front displayed a street and people walking, fifty feet deep by thirty feet wide. All our seats, which had full-size CU platforms, appeared to have holographic pads on the side. Now I knew what everyone meant when they said it was "the cool room," and I had to agree.

"Told you so," Cassidy turned around to say, as Eva giggled, and Lynn stared at the room in awe.

"We saw this on the tour we took when we were thirteen. I thought maybe I had just blown the awesomeness out of proportion. You know, like when you're a kid and it's amazing, and you go back five years later, and you think it's lame." She sighed in contentment. "This is so not one of those times."

It wasn't until the instructor walked in that I noticed Tessa and Brie weren't there.

"Plug in your CUs so we can get started," the instructor said. "My name, as many of you know, is Eric Mallard. If I do my job, all of you can fake their way of life... and come back alive." He moved across the platform intently as holograms appeared on either side of him.

"Many people think of what you do, Protectors, as a rescue operation, and so you think regarding ops, protocols, and techniques. Next week, we will focus on lie detection and your combat lessons, with as much 'real life' as we can simulate. But this week, we are focusing on the basics of blending in, finding a target, and creating a story. Because as spies, that's what you are: storytellers."

I looked up for a second, intrigued by the words he had used, but also by the holograms all showing thousands of interactions with people. Eva moved her hand, hovering over the notes in the room's front. She swiped toward the hologram beside her, and the notes appeared on her display.