The two spies deemed it a mistake by Central to appoint them as escorts.
Lancelot, with an amused smile, watched the interaction unravel before him. In the stations of Waverley, the Japanese were all bowed down at Jocelyn's feet. The poor girl herself had no course of action and was urging the Japanese lord and all his servants to stand. She pleaded them, even, out of embarrassment.
"Please accept our gratitude, Missus. We are in debt," said the Lord's right-hand man. Jocelyn shook her head frantically, wincing and begging them to stand up. The Duke stepped out of the train, seeking the cause of the delay.
"Lord Kōkaku, pardon our escorts. They are quite not accustomed to oriental ways. If you will please," the Duke said, walking forth to lift the Lord of Japan up. Kōkaku bowed, commanding his servants and escorts to stand up as well.
Jocelyn blinked, befuddled, and stepped back, glancing at Lancelot.
The wanton boy snorted as their eyes met.
---
"An assassination?"
The incredulous voice of a particular charming girl rang out on the roof of the dorms of Karavine Institute. Tristan anxiously whined, hushing Alexa.
"Shut it, Lex! Sound travels amazing distances, remember that!" scolded the boy, "General came just this morning. He said that our spies in France figured out that there was an assassination plan. The French are planning to sabotage the escorting of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Japanese lord by using their spies in our country. They're trying to put the blame on England."
"So we need to stop their plan?"
"No. General wants us to figure it out. He gave me a whole stack of information. Central doesn't seem to be able to pinpoint a definite course, Lex. This is bad. Really bad. Even more, we need to find a way to contact the train, and somehow get to Lance and Jo. They want those two to sabotage the plan and protect the Duke and lord."
"They're on the train?" Alexa's voice rose higher than normal.
"Shut up!" chided Tristan, "That's exactly why I'm so agitated!"
---
The two spies guarded the two doors to the compartment. Lancelot answered when the Duke asked for him.
"Yes, sire?" he questioned.
"How long will it take 'til we arrive in London?" asked the Duke.
"It'd be near 1600," responded the boy. With a courteous bow, he retreated back to his place by the door. Jocelyn discreetly tapped the door with her pointer finger.
Lancelot nodded. "Sire, would you mind if Miss Anchoretta and I went to check on the other compartments for a moment?" To this, the Duke waved in affirmation. Lancelot stepped over to Jocelyn, disappearing with her through the compartment door.
"Lance, how are we supposed to protect them if we know nothing about the sabotage?" Was the first thing that came out of the agitated girl's mouth. Her partner shook his head, deeply concerned.
"We just have to trust Central, I guess. They'll contact us if they find out something, or their best spies would do something about it. We just have to do our job."
"That's not a good answer, nor a good plan."
Lancelot pursed his lips and said no more, turning back towards the compartment.
---
Frustratedly, the intelligent boy scribbled arrows over a folded section of the map of railways. The only way that the French could sabotage the train, he surmised, was to crash a train from another railway that merged together in the same track and derail both trains, around two hours into the trip. Then, if somehow either survives the train crash, the Frenchmen would attack. However, that would be extremely rash for France to sacrifice their own spies.
"Bray? Is today's lesson that challenging, even intriguing?" His friend whispered behind him. The spy rapidly dropped his ball-point, palmed the folded map, slipping it into his sleeve.
He chuckled, tipping his chair back to beam at Harrison. The impish grin made his eyes twinkle. "Nah. Won't try to pay attention. I just drew something, see!"
The intelligent boy tipped back, grabbing his pre-drawn worksheet and flipping it around for his classmate. On the back of the worksheet was a musket, perfectly shaded and shaped. Some parts of the ink were smudged, adding to the realistic shading. A string of codes was littered on the bottom of the paper. Tristan grinned, resembling the disposition of a proud child.
"Mister Bray? I do understand that you excel in this class, but that doesn't give you any reason to play around with others. Please sit back properly," the cryptography instructor admonished. Tristan turned back, his worksheet flapping in the air. A loud crack of noise sounded as his paper rip in half from the wind. The students laughed at his flustered expression, except for one particular girl sitting diagonally across him.
Alexa had memorized the sequence of codes in the short amount of time that Tristan gave her to see it, jotting it down on her worksheet as well.
maybe i'll try to set an update schedule again.
YOU ARE READING
Operation Reconnaissance
ActionPrior to war was a serene time of peace, and peace was hallow. In the course of the war was a tumultuous time of chaos, and chaos was a tornado that whirled in innocents into the eye of the storm. War was a curse put upon the two quarrellin...
