Chapter 4
"So what you are basically trying to tell me is that you want me to work for a spy company that I have never heard of before? And you expect me to believe this?" Scott burst out laughing. He was standing in the middle of a high-tech room full of state-of-the-art equipment. He stopped laughing abruptly when Mrs. Smith glared at him, and then started to speak.
"First of all, it is not a SPY COMPANY. It is a secret service, and, hence the name SECRET, only the people who need to know about us know about us. Even in the government, nobody knows of us, excepting the prime minister and a few choice others. Secondly, we need a child who has smarts,
is fit, is good at defending themselves, good with gadgets; we have been… observing you for quite a while now, setting up some tests for you, which you passed in flying colours with, by the way, and we think that you have got what it takes. Plus-" Mrs. Smith was cut off by Scott.
"YOU'VE BEEN SPYING ON ME?" Scott shouted, his face contorted with rage. He turned around to leave, but the automatic doors slid shut.
"I'm sorry Scott, but you know too much about us. You are either in or we can arrange a mind-wipe, but we haven't quite got the hang of it yet, so you would be expecting to lose about, oh, I don't know, 5 years of memories?" Mr. Johnson spoke calmly, but with a certain amount of steeliness in his voice. Scott thought of his mother, all the memories he would lose of her.
"You can't do this to me! And besides, how did you know that I was going to run away, go outside of the town? Because I am guessing that it was you who left the building materials lying around for me, wasn't it? What else did you do?" Scott questioned.
"Well, firstly, we knew that you would leave because we had been observing your reactions to your dad's abuse getting more and more courageous and resilient. We figured that it was only a matter of time. Second of all, we organized all of the… challenges that you participated in, recording your reactions. We organized the shelter and the assault, to see how you would react. We also took your rabbits to lead up to the assault. The snake we didn't organize but you performed EXCEPTIONALLY under the circumstances." Mrs. Smith said.
"How could you do that to me?" Scott asked, and realized he was exhausted. He yawned.
"It was all part of testing you to your limits. Now, I will get someone to show you to your room. You look tired." Scott merely nodded and followed a kind lady to his room. He walked over to the bed, laid down and almost instantly fell asleep.
When Scott woke up the first thing that he noticed was four things on the bedside table. There was a ballpoint pen, a plastic water pistol, an umbrella and an envelope, reading "instructions". Scott was intrigued, and picked up the envelope, opened it and started reading.
***
Your gadgets:
Ballpoint pen lazer:
Click the bottom button 3 times to activate lazer. Can cut through almost anything, and works underwater.
Umbrella grappling hook:
Point umbrella where you want to shoot grappling hook. Extend umbrella, and then flip up bottom of handle and press concealed button, the umbrella's end will transform into grappling hook shape and will shoot out with specially enhanced copper wire, very strong. Extends out to full length of 30 metres and then winds back in. Handy for getting out of a close scrape.
Plastic water pistol tranquilizer gun:
Holds 3 tranquilizer darts, use only in emergencies. Flick small switch on the side to engage the darts. Pull trigger to fire dart. Darts are powerful enough to knock an adult out in 5 seconds. Can also be used as a normal water pistol in case of suspicion.
Please use gadgets responsibly.
***
Scott jumped up and shouted out "COOL!" He was aware that the gadgets were a bid to get him onside, but it had worked. He had thought about it carefully, and he had decided to help. Scott went and told Mrs. Smith that he was in, and she got him to sign a sort of contract, stating that he would not tell anyone of what he had done in the A.S.S. He signed it where he needed them to and then Mrs. Smith told him to explore headquarters and await news about his mission briefing, which could be from a few days to two weeks. Scott walked around, looked at the facilities and got to know his way around the place, and then went and crashed in his room and watched some television on the LCD widescreen TV in his room.
Scott's call for a mission briefing came close to a week later, and Scott, filled with anticipation of what he was about to find out, walked briskly through the flourescent lightbulb-lit, metallic, chilly corridors until he arrived at the briefing room. He took a deep breath, made sure that his new stylish suit was looking nice, and then slowly walked in.
