Spy school goes to Zoo

Chapter 5

Truth

"This is the headquarters for the secret service?" Teddy asked. Both Summer and Teddy looked at us with confused facial expressions. "Thought it would be a bit less like, well... Motel 6." I could tell that the sedative hadn't completely worn off yet, as both of their eyelids sagged.

"Well, yeah. The government is cutting costs." I replied. Teddy looked over my shoulder.

"What are all the computers for?"

"They contain databases." I said quickly, remembering that they were still on and displaying confidential information. Luckily, in his hazed state, Teddy didn't seem to question my response. I hastily turned it off.

"So then..." Summer started. She then thought for a moment, putting her words together. "You were the Ben Riphurst guy?" The sky was getting darker and night was falling.

"Ben Ripley, but close enough." I answered. "What were you doing following us?"

"We asked first!" Summer said defensively. "So you have to answer our questions first."

"You were first, I'll give you that. But then again, you're the ones tied up," Erica calmly threatened, giving Teddy and Summer an ice cold glare.

"Fair enough," Teddy said, seemingly pleased with Erica's logic. "We were just kind of curious I guess. I mean, you were acting very weird and both of you seemed very comfortable with one another despite the fact that you first met just a few hours ago and...well... we were right."

"Will you tell us why exactly you're here?" Summer interjected before pulling out her cellphone phone. However, before she could make any calls or send for help I snatched the device out of her hand.

"Yes, and please put away your phone." I responded before placing Summer's phone on the nightstand next to me. "We have reason to believe that some of the FunJungle staff members are planning on infringing upon animal rights laws. The president has a real soft spot for animals, so he asked us to look into it. To be completely honest, we could use your help."

Teddy thought this over. "I mean, I'm willing to help but I still don't understand why the US government would send in the secret service. And why would they send kids?"

"Do you think the governments tell their employees everything? Summer, I bet your dad doesn't inform all his employees about company secrets, right?"

Summer nodded. "But still, why would they send you two? I'm sure they could find adults that were more qualified," Teddy repeated.

"You of all people should understand, Teddy. We saw your file and we know of the investigations you conducted at FunJungle. Therefore, you know that children often get overlooked, causing people to drop their guard. Frankly, it would be idiotic for the government to have no children working for them."

We continued to explain our "mission" to Teddy and Summer while Erica untied them. After all, you weren't supposed to tie up your partners.

But what we didn't know was that Summer still managed to record our conversation. Well, actually I didn't. Apparently Erica knew Summer always had two phones in case one broke, and she was just giving Summer a spark of hope.

Once they left I leaped into bed, after all, I hadn't gotten any sleep at all since we woke up at 3 in the morning.

...............

We quickly called for a taxi. In less then a minute, one arrived after seeing that Summer was the client. In fact, about 20 of them arrived. We picked the first one 'cause why not? We asked to go to FunJungle and arrived in 17 minutes. Let's just say we were lucky we didn't get mugged, as we were out so late at night. When we were dropped off, the car drove off as fast as they could. Being out in the middle of the night here wasn't that safe and everyone knew it. We ran as fast as we could to the back entrance. Summer typed in the secret key while I stood guard. She opened the door and we sprinted to the HQ. We picked a random office and tried to decide what to do next.

"Wait!" Summer exclaimed after about 15 minutes of thinking. "Remember when Sasha took my phone?" I nodded, I liked where she was going with this. "Well, I recorded the whole ordeal on my other phone."

I stood there, my jaw on the ground and broken to pieces for what seemed like an eternity. "You're kidding." I forgot Summer usually carried two phones when in public. One phone was just an iphone, which she used in front of paparazzi. However, her father was concerned that someone would hack it, so he designed Summer a new phone that was practically untraceable: the "Z phone".

"Nope! Do you want to see it?" Summer raised her brand new "Z phone" and clicked the recording from earlier. However, instead of a recording of our conversation, the recording simply played white noise. I deduced that Sasha had probably deleted the audio clip without Summer realizing.

My lips twitched into a grin, "Well played."

My mind was in turmoil as I considered whether to tell J.J about Ben and Sasha. J.J. often blew things out of proportion, bringing up a whole new set of problems. Or, I could keep the secret and we could help with the investigation.

"Summer, I think we shouldn't tell your dad or anyone else about this," I said.

"Why?" she responded with a puzzled look.

"Two reasons," I said, a new idea blossoming in my my mind. "The first is whenever your dad gets involved, it usually results in chaos, which impacts the investigation"

"That's not..." she trailed off. "Fine, it is" she continued, begrudgingly thinking of how many times her dad's involvement had been a threat to the investigation.

"What's the other?" Summer asked curiously.

"Ben and Sasha could kill us and simply make it look like an accident. Personally, I would still like to live, so I think we should help them."

Summer realized what I said was true. "I guess you're right," she said accepting that helping Ben and Sasha would be our only option.

"So, are we going to help them?" I inquired.

Summer, with a look of determination etched on her face proclaimed, "If what they're saying is true, then helping them would be in our best interest. So, I say we should."

I agreed, thinking that if someone was doing something that could harm the animals we had to help. "Summer, tomorrow I'm gonna tell them to meet us after school"

"Why not me? " Summer asked sounding slightly surprised.

"Because everyone will curious about why if you do" I said.

"That's true" she accepted. We both decided it was time to go home as it was getting late and her dad would wonder where she was too.

"Besides, it would be cool to help in a government investigation."

"Okay," I said with a deep breath. "Let's do this."