Mission Undercover

Chapter 25: No Hospitals

For may 14-20) WARNING: CHAPTER 17 WAS MYSTERIOUSLY DELETED. PLEASE READ IT AGAIN ONCE I REWRITE IT CLOSE TO AS BEST AS I CAN REMEMBER IT, TO GET ANY NEW IMPORTANT INFO. SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED MUCH!

       Mr. Oulette counted to the beat, as we waltzed across the class. Mark stepped on my foot. "Sorry." He grinned sheepishly. "Dance isn't my forte."

       I laughed. "Finally we find something the great Mark Woods cannot accomplish! Ryder, come hear this!"

       He shook his head, smiling. "He's oblivious."

My smile faded slightly in surprise. "Excuse me?"

He raised his eyebrow. "Ryder. It's so obvious you love him. Doesn't he see that?"

I tensed. "What?"

"Don't play dumb. Boys can be quite ignorant about this stuff. We all can see how much you care for him. Well except for him and Sara of course." He shrugged.

My mouth went dry. "Sara?"

He nodded sympathetically at their direction. I turned to see Ryder twirl her in his arms, both of their faces beaming with joy. I gritted my teeth, and turned away.

"Hey."

I looked up to see Mark with a sad smile. "Let's dance, Mr. Oulette is coming by."

I nodded, grateful for the distraction and returned my hand to his shoulder. Then I remembered my mission. I cleared my throat. "So I heard your father has a pretty cool project with NASA, Aren't you excited?"

He frowned. "Yeah, I guess. I'm not really sure what it is, but my mom told me, it would change the world. But it's making my dad more busier than he already is. I only see him once a week."

"At least you get to see your parents." I mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."
                                      ••••••
      "Agent Arrow, come in." I pressed on my earpiece.

       "Agent Phoenix, what is it?" The reply came.

      "Did you finish the background check on Walter Woods?" I questioned. "And that organization, that is helping him with the NASA project?"

"R.A.S. is pretty cool. It stands for Romero Astronomical Science Lab. Though not all their tech is astronomical. Invented awesome and useful tech. Environment friendly. Really nice people." He answered. "Walter Woods....his record is clean. And he worked a lot with some big organizations before."

I sighed. "Ok, ok, thanks. Keep searching."

"On it."

I switched off my earpiece. "Damn it."

I needed more proof on Walter Woods.
                                     ••••••
I chuckled at a memory. Ryder stared at me quizzically. "What?"

"I remember my first mission in a school." I mused. "I had been a spy for half my life. And the other half I was a home-schooled orphan. I had no idea how to act at a real school. I always left the class when I felt like it, punched students, spoke without raising my hand."

"The teacher would always get angry and yell, 'Raise your hand if you have an opinion or answer!' And I yelled back, 'Why?! That is the most pointless thing you could ever do! It's not like we talk with our hands! Besides, why raise your hands, when you pick someone who isn't raising their hands.' We argued back and forth."

Ryder was listening now. I smiled softly at the memory. "I was confused with her reasoning. She said raised hands are to tell who is listening. But I said someone could raise their hand and pretend they know. We argued back and forth some more, until I stumped her."