Agent Benjamin Ripley

Chapter 1

Original published: August 17, 2018

February 9

To: The Principal of the Academy of Espionage

Since my last deployment, it has come to my attention that my {redacted}, {code name Ice}, is in danger. It is under my discretion that I advise that Agent Ice be retrieved by Agent Smoke. He has proved himself to be a worthy agent, and is fond of her. I believe it would be the best course of action, as {redacted} would be extremely careful in recouping Agent Ice. Please consider this as an option.

Sincerely, 

{redacted}

Hale Building

CIA academy of espionage

Location: Classified

February 14

2100

I had once regretted joining the CIA's Academy of Espionage. To be fair, I still do sometimes. My life has improved since I had started out as a patsy. I was in my last year of Spy school at the time, and I had just turned 18. It was Valentine's day, and I was ignoring the stares for younger kids. Having defeated an evil organization, I was something of a legend now. It did boost my street cred- not that I was complaining. I had finally become something I had only dreamt about when I joined: one of the top spies, handsome, dating the pretty girls, thwarting evil on the weekends...

"Hey Ben!" A girl's enthusiastic voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned around and greeted my best friend, Zoe Zibbell, with a smile. "Hey, Zo. What's up?"

"You won't believe this..." She started out, her large green eyes widening. "The younger girls were gossiping about this 'hottie' who 'took out an entire evil organization five times'." She said, putting air quotes around every other word. I shook my head, smirking. "SOOOOO... Of course I had to know who the heck they were talking about, 'cause I have to know this kid, right?  So I went up to them and asked them who they're talking about, and they started talking about Ben 'Smokescreen' Ripley, the dreamiest guy in spy school." Her eyebrows quirked up and she smirked at me. I rolled my eyes at her expression.

"Then they asked me if I knew you. I said 'yeah, we've been best friends since we were 12. I'm the one who gave him the nickname 'Smokescreen'. So they all oohed and asked me whether or not you were single. I said 'No. he's been dating the top spy in the CIA for 2 years now.' They looked very disappointed. You're going to have to change your nickname to heartbreaker."

She finished, her face smug. I decided to change the subject. "So...uh...what are you going to do for Valentine's Day with M-" I was interrupted by a boy coming up and putting his hands over Zoe's eyes and saying "Guess who?" She looked contemplative for a second and then replied "Hmmmmmm...." She reached back and flipped the boy over her shoulder and put her elbow to his throat, her right knee on his chest.

"My idiotic boyfriend who thinks he can sneak up on me." My best friend Mike Brezinski grinned openly up at us. He hadn't changed a bit. Mike was still the cool, suave and handsome one in our friend group. Now, I was in no means ugly, I had glowed up a lot, but Mike had an aura. "Hey babe." He planted a kiss on Zoe. She let him up, smirking at her victory.

"So, Ben... What are you and the ice queen doing for Valentine's day?" I frowned, the ice queen he was referring to was my girlfriend, Erica Hale. I had looked forward to Valentine's Day for a while, hoping to spend it with her but she was called away on a case. "She's on a mission, remember?"

"Ohhhhh, yeah! Busting that... uh.. What was it? Illegal weapons group, right?" Mike had draped his arm around Zoey by now.

"Yeah, I'm not supposed to talk about it much." I rolled my eyes as Zoey punched him when he tried to kiss her again. They had been dating for 2 years now. Mike had a crush on her for a while, but he had needed to let her heal. Warren Reeves, a former classmate, had turned out to be a SPYDER agent. Worst of all, he was one of Zoey's good friends. In a shootout with SPYDER and the CIA when we were fifteen, Warren was fatally injured, and died from bullet wound. We had beaten SPYDER the year after, taking all of the higher-ups to prison, and rooting out multiple moles in the CIA.