The Spy Act

Chapter 1

I crawled through the undergrowth and hid behind a tree (just in case, you could never be too cautious) before climbing the tree from branch to branch. This had been a lot easier in training, but now that I was in the field, I felt a lot more nervous that I was going to mess up.

I looked down to my best friend and accomplice for this mission, Luke, to see if he was there. When I caught sight of him, I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Luke had been horrible at the training exercises, but the Agency let us go together, as they had noticed that we worked great together as a team.

“Luke, are you okay?” I asked nervously in a British accent, whispering as quietly as I could so as not to alarm anything. Or anyone.

“Jessica, will you please stop with the whispering, we’re probably MILES away from the research facility. They can’t possibly hear us”, Luke told me, wheezing in between each word.

Our mission was to go to a ‘TOP SECRET’ research facility, where there was a scientific experiment occurring at the heart of it. It was a substance that was being developed to render the wearer completely invisible, if the substance was rubbed onto them. There, we had to take it and the files that contained how to recreate it and escape without anyone knowing, although I had no idea why we had to. Well, you can’t refuse a direct order from the head of the Agency.

“Yes, but what if they have high tech cameras and microphones that pick up our signal?” I suggested, not exactly sure what I had just said. “I know it might sound a bit far-fetched, but it IS a top secret facility, right? They probably went to extreme measures to make sure NO-ONE enters.”

“We’ll worry about that later”, Luke called up to me. “Now will you please hurry up, my legs are aching down here.”

I turned around and walked my way to the end of a very sturdy branch, jumping to another tree close by and shimmying down it before falling behind a clump of bushes, Luke landing right next to me.

“If they camera’s around, this will be good cover”, I said, trying to sound confident, although jelly seemed to be a better replacement for my legs; they were shaking so much.

 “Jessie, duck!” Luke screamed suddenly.

I was confused. Duck? When was I supposed to duck?

Then it dawned on me, and I ducked about a second too soon before whispering, “What was that?!” very unrealistically, conscious of my previous mistake.

“Cut, CUT, CUT!” A voice reverberated around the jungle we were investigating. Well, if you can count a studio as a jungle.

I sighed deeply. The director, Bradley O’Braidy, had been on my case since we had started filming.

“RESTART THAT PART!” the voice called. “TAKE TWO! AND ACTION!”

‘Luke’ glared at me before going back into looking like as if he was spying.

I went back to looking like that as well.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… ACTION!” Bradley’s voice echoed.

“Jessie, duck!” Luke screamed once again.

This time, though, I was on time, ducking and whispering, “What was that?!” when I was supposed to.

Luke’s eyes were as wide as saucepans. “Ultimate caution when treading from now on?” he asked, his voice dripping with fear.

I pretended I was as scared as him. “Yep”, I replied shakily before getting to my feet and moving forward a bit, Luke in my wake.