Mission: Insanity

Chapter 5: Waiting for Catastrophes

Chapter 5

Why was I nervous about this? I made so many more plans that were much more complex than this and had much more riding on it.

So why was I nervous for the Elitist trial?

Mallory was the only one who knew my plan. Everyone else who helped didn't even realize what they were doing. For an organization of spies, people only see what they want to see. And what did they see? Me. But not really me. Leg brace me. Screaming in the middle of the night me.

If I failed this test, that would put a huge detour in my plan. Not this plan, my other plan. My oh-so-perfect plan that I thought everything through. I had a backup option, but I didn't want to have to go to that. I wanted things to go smoothly for once. Just for once.

I was the first one to the door. Five minutes early. Technically, I was more than five minutes early, but that was part of the plan.

The first way to earn points for the Elitist trial is arrival. The first person to unlock the door after the designated testing time gets awarded the points. It was a test of timing and strategy. Would you show up extra early to beat everyone else, or would you take the time to rest and eat something?

Or you could think totally outside the box like I did.

The original start time for the test was 8am. It is currently 5:56. Why was I here so early? Really, I wasn't. All I had to do is change the time of the test in the system and I was golden. No one would show up at 6, and if they did they wouldn't risk pressing their fingerprint to the sensor because of the penalty if you tried to open the door too early.

5:57. Which is why I would be getting the easy points. And I would need them. Sure, I could outsmart any of the other people, but my physical level would be no match. Seventeen people were participating, and only a maximum of ten would be accepted.

5:58. I took a deep breath. I could do this. They changed the test every year, but I could handle it. I've passed for the past two years, and I've been invited for three. Last year there were around 25 people who participated, but they only took the top six. That was normal. I was hoping that wouldn't happen this year, but I couldn't be sure.

5:59. I didn't know who all was invited. All I could see when I hacked into the system was the time and the number of people. Including myself, there were the five Elitist from last year. Ned wouldn't be coming back, for obvious reasons. Which is probably why Mallory agreed to help me. I figured some of the people who had done it last year were going to be here too, but I couldn't be sure.

I heard someone coming down the hallway, and I looked at my watch right as the numbers flipped to 6:00. I reached for the fingerprint scanner right as I heard the person break into a run. I pressed it and opened the door. I walked inside and the other person slowed to a walk and joined me inside.

Kyle Alderson. The only person last year who had a higher physical subscore than I did.  The only person who could maybe talk me out of this.  The only person who could help me now, but I'm not sure if he would.

I couldn't take that chance unless I had to.  It was an unnecessary risk.

He looked at me in surprise. "You're still doing this?"

I shrugged. "Did you expect otherwise?"

He laughed. "Brooke, why?"

"Because I have to."

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

"I don't want to do this, not necessarily, but I want to do something much bigger than you can imagine and that requires me to pass this trial. At least I'm winning right now."

"Yeah, how'd you know the door would be open at 6:00?"

"Because I changed the time of the trial."

Kyle's jaw dropped. "What?"

"You see, yesterday Agent Katherine called me into her office, and someone helped me out. That's all I'm telling you."

"Do you seriously think you can pull this off? I know you're smart, but how much can you really do?" He didn't say it in a rude way. Kyle was one of the people who always had my back, and he was my training partner. Or, at least, he used to be.

"I don't have a choice. I really don't," I shouted.  Then I spoke quieter.  "I can't tell you why.  I'm sorry."

He held his hands up in surrender. "Ok. I trust you. But don't make anything worse for yourself."

I took a deep breath. "I heard about what you did."

Kyle's gaze dropped to the ground. "I figured you would."

"Why didn't you tell me yourself?"

Kyle didn't respond for a minute. I broke the silence. "I'm not mad. I just want to know."

"Chelsea volunteered. And I respected that. I didn't think it would be anything out of the ordinary. Plus, you know about the fail safe."

I nodded. Most of the time a mission is never composed of all the Elitists, in case something happens. Ned, Kyle and I were assigned a mission, and when another came up, the other three Elitists had to respond. Chelsea volunteered to take someone's place that way all six Elitists wouldn't be in the field at the same time. Kyle was removed from the mission assignment.

"Do you think I overreacted?" he asked.

After Ned was shot and I was captured, Chelsea returned by herself and with a failed mission. Kyle confronted Agent Katherine once the other Elitist team returned from their mission, which ended up being a false alarm. I didn't hear the details of the conversation, but I heard there was a lot of shouting, it went on for a while, and Kyle was removed from all missions for the next week.

"Why didn't you talk to me?" I asked.

He sighed.  "I knew you didn't want me to see you like that.  But Brooke, what happened doesn't change a single thing I think about you."

"You still don't want me to do this though."

"I trust you.  I always trust you."

We talked for a while, until everyone else came in. Then the first test began. This one was one from a previous year, a memory test. A string of numbers was shown on a screen for two seconds, and after 30 seconds, we were prompted to type in the string of numbers. All of the strings were 15 digits long.

After five tests of that, I began to relax. I could easily do this, and with the boost I got from the morning, I might be able to actually make it as an Elitist. My only problem would be the physical section, but luckily I had a plan for that.

I had to pass. There was no other option. Because if I didn't, then they would come here. And if they came here, someone would die.

My mission wasn't finished. In fact, it was nowhere close to being finished.

I waited for the second part of the trial to begin as my mission continued.  The mission that started over 38 days ago.