Secrets & Spies (Complete)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

During the week, we had still been studying poems in English and every time we would get given a poem, they would all be handwritten and would all be anonymous. Ever since I had found out about the secret codes in handwritten poems I was always on the lookout for the secret message; they would be the first thing I would look for. Although, I was never good at finding them so Aaron would always manage to find them.

Aaron had told me that there were different patters when looking for messages, for instance like the latest poem we had got given, the message was decoded by looking at every third letter; I don’t know how he managed to figure that out. Or like the one we received yesterday where the pattern was every third word, then second word then first word and the process would repeat again until the message was decoded. That was a rather difficult one as I always kept on losing count.

The weird thing was that they always included the most bizarre messages like ‘your secrets are never safe’ and ‘I know the secret, so beware’ and frankly they were starting to scare me a little. I had doubted that someone had found out about my secret, so I never bothered to look into it much. But the message that freaked me out the most and confirmed my suspicions that something was going on was ‘secrets and spies are what I despise’. 

As soon as class was over I quickly made my way to Agent Daniels office. I was not sure if these messages were just a coincidence anymore so I thought that maybe he could figure out what was going on. I walked in to find that no one was in. Then I remembered him saying something about a meeting; that must have been this afternoon. So I went to the only other person I knew that could help me.

I knocked on Andy’s office door once I arrived there and walked in to see him aiming a crumpled piece of paper wrapped into a ball for the waste basket. He manages to get it in with one swift movement and with that he leaps out of his swivel chair from behind his desk and screamed “score” waving his hands about in the air.

I raised my eyebrows at his unusually unprofessional behaviour. “You seriously act like a five year old”.  He jumped slightly at the sound of my voice, as if just noticing my presence.

“You scared me Patricia” he says with a hand over his chest. “I didn’t notice you come in, you should have knocked”

“I did. You just didn’t hear as you were busy playing your little game” nodding my head to the direction of the waste basket. “Nice to see you working very hard” I say sarcastically.

“I do” he assured me. “It’s just that I was ...erm...on a break”

“Yeah, sure you were” I say rolling my eyes.

“Anyway, was there anything you needed? You know that you’re not supposed to be here during school hours unless you are called here”

“Yeah, I know that! I reply “it’s just that I need your help with something” he moves to the front of the desk and leans on the desk, both arms laid out to the sides of the desk. His full attention is now on me and nods for me to continue.

“I’ve been getting these weird poems in Miss Ricci’s class and they all have some sort of hidden message in them. Here, have a look at these” I fumble through my bag until I produce a handful of the poems from English class and hand them over to him. “The messages were really weird and they kept on getting weirder”. I gave him a moment to take a look at the poems. “I think someone is on to us”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have a look at this and find out what happening. “He replies

I sigh a breath of relief. “Okay. Thanks Andy”