Double Agent

Chapter 6: Reina

"Who exactly is Mr. Sancoy?" Reina demanded, stepping into the light. Her mom was taken aback. "N-no one, dear," she said, flustered. "You must have heard me wrong--" "I know that I didn't," Reina snapped. "And you're going to tell me why you're meeting with that man."

Instead of answering, her mom ran for the front door. Before Reina could stop her, she was already out the door.

But Reina wasn't going to make it that easy.

"Oh, no you don't," she murmured, sprinting after the silhouetted figure running in the dark. Her mom ran through alleys and hid behind tunnel walls, but, being a spy, Reina was incredibly fast. She kept barrelling along the tunnels, keeping pace with her mom, until her mom stopped at a strange room.

No, Reina corrected herself, it wasn't a room. It was some kind of old elevator, but when Reina looked up, the elevator shaft extended farther than she could see. Farther than any skyscraper building would go...

Which left only one option, one almost too horrifying to believe. Reina grabbed her mom's sleeve. "You aren't going to the mainland, right?" she asked quietly, but inside she wanted to scream. "Please say it's anything but that!"

Her mom didn't give an answer as she pressed the UP button. The elevator opened with a pleasant ding! which made Reina want to kick it down, if only it was possible. "Please go. You... you can't be here," her mother tried. "I need you at home, where you'll be safe."

"Safe?" Reina cried as her mom stepped into the elevator. She followed, and the doors closed. "You want to talk about safe? You're in a creepy elevator in the middle of the night, going to the mainland to meet someone who Mr. Grehen warned me about! I don't think he warns people--much less strangers--to stay away from someone unless he really means it!"

By then, the elevator had finished its ride upward, and the annoying ding! rang through the elevator again. The doors started to close, and as Reina's mother stepped out, she attempted to push Reina back inside. It didn't work, though, and Reina stayed away from the elevator doors as they closed.

"I wasn't expecting a visitor."

A man walked out of the darkness, and cold wind blew around the three people as he continued, "Why is she here?"

"Reina followed me, Mr. Sancoy," Reina's mom said, her voice sounding strained. "I tried to stop her." Mr. Sancoy raised his eyebrows. "Well, perhaps we should get this over with before the girl does anything to ruin the plan."

"What plan?" Reina asked desperately. "What are you planning? Why are you so plain evil!?" Mr. Sancoy's half smile faded. "Well," he said darkly, "perhaps you would like to see it?" "Run!" her mom shouted, but Reina stayed frozen in fear as he advanced, and pressed some gadget to her head.

*****

The first few seconds were a blur. Everything faded into a blend of different colours, and Reina could vaguely hear a voice calling, "Reina! Can you hear me? RUN!"

Suddenly, the blobs of colour shifted, and then focused into a scene. There, she saw a young Mr. Sancoy laughing beside another man--young Mr. Grehen. It seemed that they were great friends...

Almost on cue, Mr. Sancoy's voice reverberated through the scene: "Richard and I were great friends." The scene was muted, so Reina could only hear Mr. Sancoy's narrations. "We did plenty of research together." But the strangest thing was... this was back when the mainland was still fine.

He stopped narrating, and the scene's sound could now be heard. "We finished the armadillo research already, Philip," said Richard. "And--hey, what are you doing?" Philip poured some serum into a flask, and it exploded into a bunch of pink bath bubbles that coated Richard from head to toe. Richard laughed, and Philip said, "Riiiichard, you have the soap but forgot the bath!" in mock surprise.

"One day," Mr. Sancoy--the older version--said, his voice returning, "Richard and I got into a big fight. Gradually, he had stopped laughing at my crazy experiments, and things then seemed hopeless. He seemed... grown up. He told me that I should grow up too."

Mr. Sancoy sounded so sad, Reina wanted to feel bad for him. But she didn't have time, because the scene shifted again.

"We got over our bickering," Mr. Sancoy continued. "But we stopped doing science together. It was no use. Our personalities, once almost identical, had drifted apart and become polar opposites."

"I thought that he still cared about me," he said, his voice cracking. "I gave him another chance to make it up to me! When the robot animals started to take over the mainland, he was standing right between me and Kelly, your mother, who was working for him as an intern at the time in his science business."

"Kelly was following Camila, and I was closer to Melanie. But he chose Kelly, who he'd known for less than three months, over his longtime friend. When he ran in the direction of Kelly, He looked back one more time at me, and said: 'I'm sorry, Philip. But you're not the same anymore. And Kelly has much to learn. That was the last thing I heard him say to me."

Then, the picture of Philip's heartbroken face disappeared, replaced by an image that seemed to have happened more recently. "Kelly, you're going to help me take down Richard," he said. "Then I'll wipe out the UA, and Richard will see how foolish he was to go with YOUR mother instead of me. But it will be too late by then."

Reina stared at the scene.
It was her mother, shaking her head at Mr. Sancoy. "I won't help you. I am part of the UA." "Oh, yeah?" he challenged. "Well, then, you won't mind me harming your family." Kelly gasped, then hastily agreed to the deal. Reina's jaw fell open. "You threatened my mother?"

Mr. Sancoy lifted the gadget off of her forehead, and the real world became visible again. "Since you have seen very much and I have been very generous, I am asking you for a favor. Agree to help me with my schemes. Take down the UA like a double agent. Refuse... well, I have horrible things planned." He pulled out a remote, pressed a button, and about fifty robot dogs appeared from the darkness.

"Richard constructed this remote for Camila," Mr. Sancoy explained. "Sadly, she was not taught how to use the complicated controls. But it won't be long before I figure it out... and the UA will fall. If you agree to help, I'll spare you, and your family. Maybe even your friends..."

That was all he said, and then Reina's mom yanked her back into the elevator.

*****

Reina knew that she shouldn't, but the deal seemed so tempting. She was half-asleep at school for basically the whole day, but noticed that Maggie didn't have her usual glow of happiness. However, when Reina tried to ask her about whatever it was that was bothering her, Maggie yelled--which was very unlike her--for Reina to go away.

It was during lunch recess when Reina's phone rang. But it wasn't a normal ringing noise. It was the sound that Reina's phone made only for emergencies.

Camila--yes, Camila--was calling.

"We did some hacking, and intercepted a phone call," she said. "The spy is planning a break into Tulipton tonight."