Spy School King's Cage (Completed)

Death Threats

Hi there, wonderful readers! I've been awfully busy with online classes and teacher check-ins, and I'm only available on weekends, which sucks. But I've written the drafts of the next chapters, and I'll be publishing them. Hopefully this book will end towards the end of April, and I will be starting an exciting fanfiction in May.

Oregon Governor had also announced that schools are to remain closed for the rest of the year! I have no school until...September. Then I'll be a high school, so I'l never get to see my middle school ever again, which is kinda sad. On the bright side, I'll be able to do a lot more updating. Anyways, enjoy this chapter and have a wonderful day!

Ben's POV

"Hello there!" Catherine said cheerfully.

The king smiled back. "Fancy meeting you here."

Catherine pulled the piece of paper from her pocket. "Do you know anything about this?" she asked sweetly. Her tone indicated that she had absolutely no clue as to what was going on.

The King, as I expected, frowned in confusion, then gasped in shock. "Wha-? Oh no, this must have flown off. I have never even, er, seen this. Yeah. It looks like an email...?"

"Oh," Catherine said. "Who's Daniel?"

"There's a typo," he stammered. "Danielle is a woman. She's my manager. Oh well. I have to go talk to her. Thank you."

He ran off, a little faster than I expected. We could all obviously tell that he was lying. Though he bolted away quite fast, I heard his voice.

"...they must've found out. We're screwed," he was saying.

I turned to Catherine, confused that the king's voice sounded closer than usual. She pointed to her phone, which was on speaker. "Bug," she whispered.

"Oh well," Cynthia said. "He tried to cover himself up, and well, horribly failed."

"What now?" Jamie asked.

Catherine only shrugged. "I guess we wait. Lunch is still a half hour away. We'll continue the hunt for Erica. That's our priority."

Everyone nodded and obediently started their way back to the rooms. I followed last, and as everyone poked into their rooms, I lingered in the hallway for a moment, staring at Erica's closed door.

We'll find you, wherever you are, I thought. That's a priority.

Just as I reached for the doorknob, I heard a voice.

"Ben," it said, and I reflexively spun around to see who had called me.

I found myself a few yards away from Queen Skye. She had a look on her face that was friendly yet stern. I gulped and kept my guard up as she made her way towards me.

"Oh, it's so lovely to see you," she said sweetly. "I wanted to talk to you...in private."

"Um...hi," I said weakly, then added, "your Highness."

She laughed. It was a high pitched, shrill laugh. "Oh, goodness no, you don't have to," she said, stopping a two feet away from me.

Motioning for me to come closer, she put on a smile that even Catherine couldn't top. I hesitantly walked forward, unsure of whether or not I could trust her.

"Oh, darling, you are very smart," she practically drawled. "If you were even the tiniest bit faster, I would have...say, shot you right on the spot."

That took me by complete surprise, my heart skipping a beat. She pulled out a gun from behind and polished it with a handkerchief as if it were a toy on show.

I stole a glance behind me, about to yell for help, but Queen Skye stopped me.

"Oh darling, I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said. "Have I mentioned that I have at least eight bodyguards on this floor with handguns?"

I could hear cocking sounds all around me. Her tone was surprisingly menacing, and a bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. I made no effort to wipe it away, my eyes locked on the Queen.

I had no idea if she was bluffing or if the gun actually had bullets. Even if it didn't, she probably had a knife somewhere.

"Anyways," the Queen continued, "I know you know who we are, and I also know that you know we're with SPYDER. But they're not here. They've fled the country. We're rich, and we paid off the remaining debts."

I suspected that was a lie.

"So you're not going to cause world chaos?" I asked slowly.

She laughed. "Heck, no. We're with you because Joshua needed someone to...get rid of you."

"Me?" I asked. "Not my whole team?"

"They're all morons," the Queen said. "Foolish morons."

"So you volunteered to kill me?" I asked.

She laughed. "Do you know who we really are?" she growled.

I didn't really know the answer to that.

"You don't know. Of course you don't know," she said. "How will you know? We've kept it a secret, but because you're going to die, I'll let you know."

I gulped, aware that wasn't an idle threat.

"You found Ms. E in Paris, didn't you?" the Queen asked. "The leader of SPYDER?" At my nodding, she smiled. "You think so, huh? You think SPYDER would reveal their boss so quickly?"

I didn't like where the conversation was going. "Uh..."

"You still don't get it? That woman isn't SPYDER's leader."

"What?!" I gasped, mortified.

She let out a laugh, which quickly clammed up. "That woman is just the real Mr. E's secretary. She doesn't do any of the work. She's just there as a decoy. This whole time you didn't know, did you?" She burst into laughter again.

I mentally smacked my forehead.

"You think we'd let you meet the leader of SPYDER so soon?" she demanded. "Heck no. SPYDER operates on multiple levels, and you thought that you were done with it."

"So..." I trailed off, waiting for her to finish my thoughts.

"Yes," she said. "My husband is the real Mr. E. The real leader of SPYDER. The brains of everything. Here."

I inched backward, ready to bolt into Catherine's room, but the Queen cocked her gun and pointed it right between my eyes. "Oh no. You can go, Benjamin sweetheart, but my men are everywhere. If you even try to open your mouth about any of this to anyone at all, your girlfriend dies, you die, and your team members die. I'll show you their deaths. I'll target everyone."

I opened my mouth to protest, but I shut it, knowing it would do me no good.

"I'll make your deaths horribly painful. None of you will survive. The original plan was to end you off and ship everyone else back to Washington D.C. But plans can change. I'm evil," she said with a smirk.

I slowly walked to my door, not taking my eyes off her. My hand felt around for the cold metal of the doorknob, and a wave of relief washed over me when I gripped my hand around it.

"See you soon, darling," she cooed, "and keep your mouth shut. Or else consequences."

Then she disappeared around the corner.

I turned the doorknob, avoiding the gazes of every guard shooting a suspicious look at me. I bolted inside and shut the door behind me. They must be SPYDER agents, I thought.

I sunk to the floor against the door, heaving a sigh of relief. My heartbeat slowly returned to normal and I took a couple of deep breaths.

There was a sudden knock on my door, and I froze. My hand reached for the gun Erica had put in my suitcase for emergencies.

Gun tucked into my hoodie pocket, I slowly opened the door, bracing myself.