Sparks To A Flame

|48| DR3M Plan

Jaden

As I made my way to the gym, eating my breakfast quickly while getting there, I had to make a quick stop at the vending machine to grab a drink. I was eating so fast that I was starting to choke on my food a little bit. I had to eat fast. I wanted all the time I could get to complete everything I wanted to get done.

I put a dollar in for a bottle of orange juice and threw my empty plate away into the trash can next to the machine. As I turned back to grab the juice, I noticed Coach Jackson standing behind me, waiting to buy something.

What the hell?

My eyes widened at the reflection and the heat in my blood shot up 200 degrees. I glared at the pedophile and quickly whipped around with my fist raised, "You fucking-"

"Woah, calm down, sir!" he cried, stumbling to the ground.

"Wh-" I rubbed my eyes and noticed that it was just a janitor and he didn't look anything like Coach... I lowered my fist in realization then held my hand out to him, "Damn, my bad... I thought you were somebody else."

He brushed himself off with fear still panicking in his eyes, "I don't get paid enough for this..." he quickly hurried off with his cart in the opposite direction.

I let out a deep breath as I grabbed my drink and continued on my path to the gym which wasn't too far from where I was. I needed to remind myself to stay calm today. Coach will most likely not even show up after what he did to Nicki, it wouldn't make sense if he did.

That thought gave me a more secure feeling to loosen up and focus only on the mission for now.

As I walked across the courtyard, I could see the perfect line of agents and spies waiting in front of the gym's entrance.

Well, they're early.

I scratched my chin as I slowed to a stop in front of them, "Good morning team. I see that you all are ready to start..." I looked around, noticing that there were no coaches or trainers present. "Who told you all to come here anyway, not that I'm complaining."

Jenny spoke, "We all took the responsibility for ourselves to get here. This mission is extremely important to us."

The sound of those words made me grin, "Really... I'm glad to hear that. Alright, everyone, follow me. We're going to switch things up today... Literally." I headed through the door to the gym as everyone followed.

I continued, "By 'literally' I mean I'll be working with you guys on training for the first half of the day then for the second half, we'll switch with group 5 and use that time to find and also analyze our research."

"That's smart..." someone whispered to another member but I happened to hear it.

"Yup, because it was my idea." I led my group out to the field, where the simulation building was.

It's a large 2 story building isolated fairly far away from headquarters. I'd say it was a 10-minute walk in the sun to get there.

"Okay... This is a fun way to practice shooting and saving the right people. Fire Catcher's plan could possibly put more people in danger than we might expect. And from the research we've already done, we know that for a fact because she's expecting us to get involved. For round one, we will only be shooting the bad guys and not the innocent ones. Round two, we're shooting the enemies and saving the innocent mannequins. Then round three is tougher, we will be arresting the armed bad guys and saving the innocent people. The bad guys will shoot at you with plastic bullets so beware. Those bitches hurt. Any questions?"

They shook their heads, stretching. Some saying, "No sir." as they did.

"Awesome. I'm going to be doing this with you guys because I've never been in here before. After that, we will practice quick defense to test your reflexes. The last 20 minutes will be a cool-down activity and then we'll rotate. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" They said before spreading out to gear up.

* * * * *

Nicole

When Jaden told me that he had found some information that might help on the mission, I didn't expect the clues to be so significant.

Chills ran up my spine at the photograph of the woman dressed in a long, black dress with a scarf over her head and sunglasses covering her eyes. She was walking away from a small hardware store with Simon walking beside her.

It seemed like forever since I've seen his face. He looked sad in this picture and that made my heart ache for him.

It was thanks to our spies sent to Egypt for catching these valuable photos for us. They were even smart enough to write a description under each one. This one read:

Simon and unknown woman buying paint, wood, and construction tools at "Arnold's Hardware Everywhere".

The next picture put a smile on my face. It was an unclear photo of Simon getting into a silver car with the back facing directly at the camera. This one read:

License plate - 1 LDY DR3M

I stacked the photos on top of each other with a smile, "These are perfect..."

Kevin nodded, "Now we could have an easier time finding their location. We know for a fact that our criminal lives somewhere in Italy."

"Italy? That's not where her show is being held right now." I pointed out.

He nodded, "I know. They're not staying in one position and they're moving fast... Our spies followed Simon from Egypt to Italy. That's his current location. Wherever Simon is, Fire is with him."

"That explains a lot..." I said to myself.

"What does?" Natalie asked.

"Italy," I told her. "If she's living in Italy, that means she was planning an attack on our headquarters in France, where our closest headquarter is... It's an easy hit and run. Now that Simon made it out there in time, though, that might change. We still need to alert their HQ so they can prepare for the worst, we'll never know if she plans on changing her mind."

She nodded in comprehension, "But what does that mean for the HQ in Egypt?"

I shrugged, "Something must've caused her to disregard that attack as well. I'll have the secretary, William, get in touch with them to find out what happened... We might as well send an alert to all of our HQs. All of her performances are going to be in the same states and countries, it's safer if everyone is prepared to fire back."

"I'm on it," Casey said, already typing on her computer.

"Woah... I got it!" Matthew snapped his fingers.

I headed over to see what he was doing, "What is it?"

"This license plate.... 1 LDY DR3M. That car belongs to one of her performers." he showed me his journal, "It means 'I Lady Dream... That's Lady Dream."

"The freak magician?"

He nodded.

I winced, "If that's Lady Dream, why is Simon with her instead of Fire?"

He shrugged, "Maybe because Fire Catcher doesn't want to be seen in public."

Amy pointed out, "But why would Lady Dream put herself out there so obviously?"

Mathew closed his journal, "You have to remember that Fire wants us to interfere. It's a sign. The real question is, should we follow the obvious clues being handed to us or try to dig deeper and find a trickier way to catch her...?"

I bit my lip, debating. He may be right. These obvious clues could lead us to the wrong thing or a very dangerous situation. Seeing these pieces of information made me think to go ahead and go to Europe, ready to take on the challenge but now, we needed to dig deeper.

If we really want to properly execute our surprise attack, it has to be more than unexpected. It has to be good enough so we know for sure that Fire and her crew won't know what hit them...