For two days, Gracyn questioned Ryan on any information he might have. Finally, she determined that he was as wise, balanced, and compassionate as he claimed. So, it came the time to introduce him to her agency of secret operatives.
_____
Darkness. Complete darkness. Ryan opened his eyes. Suddenly, the darkness was replaced by light. Lightbulb. Elevator music. Elevator. Using his superior detective skills, Ryan deduced that his current location was that of an elevator. Gracyn stood next to him, impatiently waiting to arrive at the unknown destination.
"Gracyn, where the frick-frack are we going?" Ryan asked, but he chided himself for his explicit language. He must have picked up the habit through Gracyn.
"You'll flipping see soon enough" She responded, mysteriously.
"Oh. Ok. That seems entirely fitting for a mystery novel" Ryan agreed, for once in his life devoid of any sarcastic retort.
The elevator continued for another minute before coming to a stop. As the doors parted, a figure stood in front of him in a menacing pose.
Wait, nevermind. It was only Karina.
Ryan walked past her before turning around with a puzzled look upon his face. "Karina? What are you doing here?"
"Well, you imbecile, I am the agency's cyptographer. I help encrypt messages and secure-" Karina answered in a tone full of pride.
"Wow. Awesome" Ryan commended her neither wowing nor awesome achievement. He laughed in his head, knowing full well were she would end up when the butterfly effect came to pass.
Gracyn exited the elevator and motioned for Ryan to follow through a door on the opposite side of the room. He promptly discontinued his conversation with Karina, and without so much as a simple goodbye, he strode away.
"It's time for you to meet the person in charge around here. Be respectful- I know that is one of your strengths, Ryan" Gracyn commanded. Ryan agreed and nodded in acknowledgement.
The door opened automatically, but Gracyn made no movement to go inside. Ryan supposed that this meeting would be a one-on-one with the big guy. As he strolled in with his usual carefree manner, he noticed a large, leather chair with its back to the entrance. He could only guess what would happen next.
The leather chair slowly swiveled around, revealing its user to Ryan. In the man's hands, a cat purred quietly. The entire scene was very reminiscent of a typical mafia boss/evil genius movie.
"Hello, Ryan. I see that you have become quite interested in our operation here"
"Jack...I can't believe it...You're the boss" Ryan was completely bewildered.
"That's right. I am both a boss and the boss. And my cat here is my second-in-command" Jack explained.
"Naturally" Ryan concurred.
"Breanna's threats against you have become of great importance to our investigation, Ryan. Go see our intelligence agent for your mission briefing" Jack made hand-gestures to display the immense importance.
"Alright. I'll make you proud, boss!" He exclaimed.
"I'm sure you will. Now go, Ryan. And good luck, young grasshopper"
Ryan beamed with pride. He knew he was up to this mission. The headquarters of the agency seemed to be relatively small, dismissing any secret rooms (and being a secret agency, secret rooms were a given), so he was able to find the intelligence room rather quickly. Inside, he couldn't believe his eyes.
It was Lobot, from Star Wars!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ryan was overjoyed. But upon closer inspection, he realized he was deceived. It was not Lobot. Instead, it was his friend Drew wearing his hearing aids. The resemblance was uncanny.
The amount of dramatic reveals of people Ryan was acquainted with was quite coincidental. Or could it be that all of his friends had begged him for inclusion in his extremely successful novel?
"Hello, Ryan. It is good to see you. If you may have a seat, I need to know everything about what has happened thus far"
"Alright" Ryan took a seat in an uncomfortable chair facing Drew. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gracyn enter the room.
"Has Breanna ever seemed particularly threatening to you?" Drew asked.
"No, not that I can think of. Why?" Ryan answered, then asking a question of his own. Gracyn spoke.
"We've had our suspicions of Breanna for a long time. They seemed to be confirmed when I discovered a nefarious weapon in her possession"
"Which was?"
"An atrocious comb hidden beneath her pillow! Capable of killing anyone she deemed necessary in mere seconds!" Gracyn said in a horrifying tone.
Ryan gasped. It was horrible.
"Now that I think of it...she has threatened to kill me before" Ryan remembered.
"When, Ryan...try to think of when..." Drew persisted.
"Everytime she would lose el juego" Ryan answered.
"And when was the first time she lost el juego to you?"
Ryan's expression went blank as the realization hit him.
"It was the day before the first occurrence of the 'Jacob Hockey' incidencities"
Drew and Gracyn nodded in satisfaction. They had discovered the motive. Drew turned to the computer next to him and brought up Breanna's profile. Jacob Hockey was now listed as one of her aliases.
"Breanna is possibly one of the most dangerous people on the entire planet. Her skills include, but are not limited to, threatening, killing, slicing, cutting, assassinating, executing, mutilating, bloody-eagling, severing, shearing, manipulating, blackmailing, exploiting, eye-rolling, biscotti-baking, comb-killing, vertical essay-writing, and of course...cartwheeling" Drew finished with an exhale.
"So, what do we do?" Ryan asked, feeling defeated. There was no way they could go up against that very elite set of skills.
"We take out her ally" Gracyn stated. "Lauren"
Lauren. The first reader. Ryan had been so focused on who Jacob Hockey was, he had never thought about why Lauren read his story. But it all made sense now.
She was the third ninja. And she was about to have a firsthand experience of the true circle of life.
