Spy school goes to Zoo

Chapter 7

Infiltration

I awoke on a rock hard couch inside our rundown motel room. My neck popped and cracked as I groggily lifted my head from the moldy smelling pillow. After arguing with Erica for 20 minutes the night before, telling her to take the only bed, she finally gave in. Her last words before we went to sleep still rang in my head: "You're gonna regret it." When I woke up with an aching back, I realized that she was probably right.

"C'mon, get ready sleepyhead," Erica yelled sarcastically from across the room. I glanced outside and was caught slightly off guard when I saw that the landscape was still masked by darkness. I shifted my attention to Erica, who was dressed in tight leggings and a lavender colored tank top.

"Do you want to explain to me why we are up at 4:26 in the morning?" I yawned. Erica casually glanced at her watch, checking the time for herself. However, I knew that I was correct about the time, as my natural gift for math always allowed me to know exactly what time it was.

"It's because we need all the extra time to plan everything out and take what we need," she said, already packing equipment.

"It would be great if you could do it too you know," she said again. But be sure not to wake anyone else up.

It took me another 20 minutes to get dressed and to take a shower, in which time Erica kept on hassling me along and getting the stuff ready. I kept on telling her that I'm not exactly a morning person, but she just replied with a, "A spy should be ready to go into the field at any time." By the time I was done getting dressed, Erica already had the backpacks ready, and all the stuff we needed for the day.

"Wow, that's a new record! 20 minutes to take a shower and get dressed, all in which I packed the backpacks and hailed a taxi," Erica said sarcastically.

"Hahaha, very funny," I said. "I already told you. I'm not a morning person. My preferred wake-up time is 9:30 am, not 4:26."

"Oh well. Let's go. The taxi's waiting," Erica replied. That's when I realized that I had no idea where we were going to.

"Uh, Erica? Where on Earth are we going to?" I asked nervously. Erica had a reputation of dragging me along wherever she pleased, and that sometimes got me almost killed.

"You'll see," she replied mysteriously. Then, to the taxi cab driver, she said, "1201 West Palms Road, please." That address clicked in my mind. That was the address of the McCrackens!

"Wait, why are we going to the McCrackens?" I whispered nervously. Erica cast me a disapproving look, and then I realized why. "Oh, no! We've now been reduced to spying on them!"

Erica nodded. "We are spies, besides, we have to find out more information about J.J.'s supposed SPYDER scam." When we finally arrived at the home, Erica tried to find some shrubbery to hide behind, but since it was Texas, it was all grass, cut very short.

Erica frowned. "Ok, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to scale the roof, and you climb that tree to give me a red alert if anything goes wrong."

I realized that finally Erica had made a mistake. "Erica, how are we going to now what's going on inside the house? These walls are soundproof, and J.J. isn't exactly going to come outside to make any important discussions."

Erica smiled. "I already figured that out. While you were having your sweet little dreams last night, I was up and active. I came here, picked the lock, and bugged the entire house."

I frowned. "But how are we going to listen to what's going on inside? It's not like we can listen to thirty different things at once."

"Once again, you're wrong," Erica replied. "While you and I are the lead agents on this, the head of the CIA sent in some of your friends. They're listening to the conversations going on inside. Anyway, enough chit chat. I'm going in."

Flying like a monkey, Erica was up on top of the roof of the mansion is about a minute. She called from above. "Be on the lookout for guards!"

I was already focused on the guards. Apparently the guards had seen Erica climb the roof, and they were closing in quickly on her, but silently. Erica wouldn't notice them until all 20 got to the rooftop!

"Erica," I screamed into my walkie talkie. "Get down from there! Guards are coming!"

But it was too late. The guards had their weapons holstered, and I recognized an add-on the the tip of the gun. A silencer. So no one in the area would even hear Erica's death. Then, the unimaginable occurred. I heard the CRACK! of a pistol. Gunshot. I watched as Erica fell to the ground, she seemed to be dead. The guards then left her there, to bleed out to death on the roof of the McCrackens mansion. I had zero climbing skills before, but now I scrambled to the rooftop like a monkey, desperate to save Erica. I hauled her off the rooftop with strength I never knew I had. I looked around desperately for something to get out of here. If I called 911, they would save Erica, but they would arrest us for trespassing. I couldn't exactly hail a taxi with Erica bleeding out.

"Yes!" I murmured under my breath, there, with the keys in it, doors unlocked, was the McCrackens Ferrari California. I had no clue how to drive a car with manual shift, yet I decided I would take my chances. My Uncle Dave had a Ferrari, and he had given me a joyride once in his car. Then Dave moved to Hawaii, and I never saw him again. I pushed the engine stop/start button, and the car roared to life. I zoomed off, reducing the McCrackens mailbox to toothpicks. On the way out of San Antonio, I got turned around and started heading towards Houston. The only tipoff I had came 40 miles later, where a sign said that we were on U.S. 91 heading south. I frowned and I pulled off into the nearest exit, where there was a gas station, a bank, about 100 houses, and the smallest hospital I had ever seen. During the whole drive I did my best to patch Erica up, yet it wasn't looking good. I veered into the hospital, in the hopes of saving Erica's life. We lucked out, as there were only 3 other patients in the waiting room. There was a man who had his arm twisted in a nasty way, a woman who looked like she was about to give birth, and another man who looked like he was going to pass out at any second. I registered Erica as Jackie Sullivan, and gave her false information for every question asked. The nurse took her into the room D5, and I waited in the waiting room anxiously, awaiting the results. After an hour the nurse came out and gave me the results.

"Jackie here got really lucky," she said. "The bullet was lodged in between the two rib cages. Half an inch to either side, and she would be dead." She went on. "You won't be able to see her for another few hours until she stabilizes, it's still touch and go for now. I'm not guaranteeing anything."

My heart sank. I was hoping for something along the lines of, "Your friend here is 100% fine. You can see her right away, and she doesn't even need to take a break to get back on her feet."

But from now on, I was alone. I then realized that it wasn't really the case. I ripped out my phone and dialed Zoe. She picked up on the second ringtone.

"What's up? And what the heck is taking you so long?" She replied.

"Bad news."

"Why? Did you get caught?"

"No, worse." I sighed. I hesitated for a second weighing the options that I had. I could lie about it and say "just kidding, everything went fine." Or I could tell the truth. I opted for the latter. "Erica's out."

"What?" Zoe yelled into the phone. "You mean she's dead?"

"No, but's she's been shot. She's in critical condition. From here on out she won't be much help to us."

"What! How in the- what the- wha?" I heard Mike's voice blast over the speaker. Turns out Zoe invited him over.

"She's been shot."

"How?"

"We were infiltrating the McCrackens ranch. And the guard caught on." I waited looking back at the door and the car, wondering how much I should say. "She dropped, shot in the chest."

"Did you call 911?" Zoe asked.

I shook my head before remembering I was on a call. "No, then they'll know we were trespassing. I had to steal the McCracken's car." There was a moment of silence.

"When will you be back at HQ?"

"I don't know."

"Can we sleep?"

"Sure," I ended the phone call.