Lies are a Spy's Best Friend

Chapter 7: Read Between the Lines

The rest of the week passed normally; well, it was as normal as a week at spy school could get. It turned out that our little game of POW was the only exchange class scheduled for the week, so we spent the next four days reviewing basic CoveOps skills. Tuesday was full of disguise choice, application, and presentation while Wednesday and Thursday were filled with various types of reconnaissance practice (It's a very different feeling when you're practicing CoveOps in a skin-tight, floor-length sparkly gown with stiletto heels versus cargo pants and sneakers).

Friday we ran partner drills for information recovery practice (or better known as interrogation skills). Nat was always phenomenal at interrogation due to her almost unnatural ability to detect lies, so compared to her, my skills looked pretty shabby (even if they were technically passable). Aunt Abby always paired me up with Nat when we practiced interrogation, and I have yet to determine if it's because

Abby wants to punish me

Abby wants to spare what's left of our senior CoveOps class from Nat's terrifying ability

Abby genuinely wants me to improve my skills, or

Abby enjoys seeing me fail

I'm convinced the reason is a mix of options a, b and d, but Abby always argues it's option c.

Regardless, lying to Nat was one of the most difficult skills I had attempted to learn at Gallagher, and while on the very rare occasion I was able to accomplish the task, it was entirely too stressful and exhausting to pull off to ever really enjoy doing. I'd gotten loads better last semester at hiding my tells from Nat, but I had a lot of catching up to do before I ever reached her ability at seeing the truth in other people's faces. Hand me a sniper rifle? No problem. Ask me to lie to my best friend? No, thank you.

I found myself stumbling towards the dining hall from the barn early Saturday morning, following the scent of fresh pancakes. The room was empty save for a few sophomores who I suspected pulled an all-nighter if the bags under their eyes and day-old-clothes were any indication. Not to mention I overheard them debating the rankings of the James Bond movies they had spent all night binge-watching.

I sat in my usual spot after grabbing a large stack of pancakes and strawberries from the buffet table that was always set out for weekend brunches and tucked into my food. Saturday mornings were kind of a ritual for me since my body refused to sleep past 0700 on any given day. While the rest of the school spent their weekend mornings sleeping in, I went out to the barn and did a solo workout before breakfast was ready. Nat and Gracie joined me a few times during our first year together at Gallagher, but Nat wasn't an early riser and Gracie got hurt a few too many times using the free weights, so we all agreed that I would spend my Saturday mornings solo, no love lost.

I honestly found I preferred it that way; by myself. Saturday mornings were my time to decompress, think about my performance in class and focus on what improvements I had to make for the upcoming week. I enjoyed working my body to its limits before doing a lengthy cooldown and stuffing my face with whatever delicious food was waiting for me in the main building.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts and the breakfast in front of me that I didn't notice my grandma approaching until she sat down and stole a strawberry from my depleting plate of food.

"Hey, Grandma, I wasn't expecting you to be here," I said, looking up. I was surprised to see her on a Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa Joe usually spent their weekends together, trading off traveling every week as Aunt Abby and Uncle Ed did. One couple would spend their weekend at Gallagher while the other was at Blackthorn, so that should an emergency arise both schools were covered, but they mostly kept to themselves if they could help it. "Not that it isn't nice to see you, because it is, but I thought it was your weekend at Blackthorne?" I asked.

Her eyes met mine and I watched as the left side of her mouth tugged down almost into a frown while the rest of her face remained passive. "Yes, originally your grandfather and I had planned to spend the weekend at Blackthorne, but something came up suddenly and Abby went to see Edward instead," she answered, glancing over my shoulder to watch a few stragglers join the other girls in the hall for breakfast.

"Okay..." I hedged. Something was definitely off, but unless Grandma volunteered the information it was almost certain I'd be left in the dark. I figured she was about to tell me something, though. She wouldn't interrupt the small amount of time she spent with Grandpa to interrupt my breakfast on a Saturday unless she needed to tell me something.

Grandma squared her shoulders as her eyes once again met mine in a serious stare, "Your mother broke her mission protocol and made unscheduled contact this morning."

"She what? Is she alright? What did she say?" I fired at her before I realized I'd never get answers that way. I took a deep breath despite the nervous feeling pitting in my chest and asked a different question, the hardest question. "Is she alive?"

Grandma took a deep breath, "We believe she is alive, however, she has gone to ground. She indicated that her mission was compromised, and her last contact was a request to give you this," she said as she slid a folded piece of paper towards me. "Now, as desperate as I am to know what that message means if Cam wanted me to know she would have given it to me. Whatever it is she wants you to know, she doesn't want me or Joe involved. I am going to respect her wishes. For now. But Matti, if you don't know what this means, or if something is wrong or you are in danger, you have to let me know. I love your mother to the moon and back, but her experience at this school was much different than any other student, and I don't want that for you too. You don't deserve that responsibility. So whatever this is, please be smart, and be safe. I've got to be off, but I'll see you on Monday. I love you, dear."

I watched, speechless, as my grandmother stood up from the table and walked out of the dining hall. I was struggling to process everything she told me, but I knew above all else I had to help my mom, and whatever she sent to me in this message was the key to doing just that.

I couldn't let her down.

I pushed aside the remains of my forgotten breakfast and placed the folded piece of paper on the table in front of me. It was small, thick paper, about the size of my thumb with rough edges that probably meant Grandma had ripped it quickly from some cardstock on her desk. Subtly checking my surroundings to ensure nobody else had entered the dining hall or was close enough to see the paper.

I slowly opened the folded piece of stationary to see a single line of my grandmother's scrawl:

VXE OYO 3 FP

I laughed quietly to myself once I saw the code. My mom hadn't even tried hard to mask her message; however, if she had gone to ground she would have needed to come up with something quickly, and our traditional shift code certainly did the job.

This code was one of the first things my mother taught me as soon as I learned how to write my ABCs. We used it as our sole source of written communication for an entire summer once when I was about five, and I had to shake off the memories in order to focus on the task at hand.

The number in the code indicated the number of letters shifted to disguise the message, if there had been no number, her code would have been shifted one letter back, but in this particular message, all I had to do was shift the individual letters three alphabet spaces back while leaving the number in place.

I quickly pulled out my small notebook from my gym duffle and rewrote the code after writing out the alphabet at the top of the page.

SUB LVL 3 CM

I blinked. Twice. This couldn't be right. Mom wanted me to go to sub-level three without grandma's express permission? She wanted me to break into not just the sub-levels, but into the sub level that was the most heavily guarded safe we have?

Wonderful.

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I know, I know. It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted new content, and then what I end up posting is a lot less than I intended *cringe*

Regardless of the length, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!