Spy School Revolution

Explosion

Bushnell Hall

CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

0730 hours

I was having a completely average day at school before the building exploded.

Granted, an average day at the CIA Academy of Espionage involved learning to fend off ninjas, parachute out of planes, and the most effective ways to infiltrate an enemy base, but it wasn't like real terrorist attacks were commonplace. 

It started out normally enough. I woke up and left my tiny room to eat breakfast at the mess. As I had entered, I'd gotten a lot of curious looks from the students already at their tables, but that wasn't unusual for me. Recently thwarting a dangerous enemy organization as a teenager kind of has that effect on people. People seemed to be torn between admiring me for saving the world and resenting me for being able to go on actual missions, especially because I was nowhere near the best spy at school.

I looked around the mess myself, searching for the actual best spy at school, Erica Hale. I couldn't really help myself. She and I had always been partners on our missions, but our relationship was a lot more complicated than that. I wasn't really happy with Erica at the moment, given that she had recently continued to manipulate me into on dangerous operations without bothering to ask if I was alright with it. But we'd been through a lot together.

I didn't see her, but my eyes did fall upon Zoe, one of my best friends. She waved me over with a cheerful smile. I grabbed a plate of some unidentifiable food from the cafeteria and headed to her table.

As I sat down, Mike Brezinski leaned across the table and said, "Ben, I really need your help."

I glanced at Zoe. She shrugged, indicating she didn't know what was going on either.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"What's happening is that I'm going to fail my test!" Mike said, feverishly looking over his notes, which I recognized as from first year math. "I can't even do the stupid example problem."

I looked over his paper, slightly crumpled and covered in eraser marks. Math had always come easy to me, and I was the guy to go to if they needed help. 

"Well..." I tapped a finger on the page. "You've dropped a sign there."

I grinned as Mike slapped his forehead and quickly went to correct his paper.

I looked up from the table. Absentmindedly, I asked "Have you guys seen Erica?"

Mike seemed too distracted to answer. Zoe's eyes narrowed a little bit at the mention of her name, and I instantly regretted saying anything. 

She gave a tight shake of her head. Standing up and shouldering her bag, she said "I'm going to head to class."

I watched her slip out of the mess, concerned. Life had gotten a lot more complicated for me since we had arrived back from our last missions. 

I left Mike to finish studying, my plate untouched. I had to get to class myself, and truthfully I'd rather be hungry than eat a spy school breakfast.

------

One of the consequences of uncovering a conspiracy that several teachers at school are actually double agents for the enemy is that the school becomes short-staffed. If I had known that getting enemy agents arrested would result in me receiving lectures from Professor Crandall, I might have reconsidered defeating SPYDER in the first place. 

I knew his doddering old man act was fake--Erica had revealed it to me during our very first mission--and he was probably more attuned to the classroom around him than anyone else, but I couldn't help getting distracted. In my defense, it wasn't only me. It seemed that nobody could pay very much attention as he ranted and raved about who knows what.

I saw Zoe several rows in front of me. She had determinedly ignored my presence as I walked in, and I had no time to talk to her, not that I was sure what I would even say. One of the reasons I had given her that we couldn't be more than friends was that missions and dangerous situations screwed relationships up... But SPYDER was gone. I figured it was finally time to have a normal school life and  leave real spy work to the adults, at least until I learned how to be a better one. So maybe, just maybe, that meant I could have a normal relationship too.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason why Zoe and I hadn't really talked about it.

"Ripley!" A sharp voice interrupted my thoughts before I could consider it any longer. 

I snapped to attention and hastily focused on Crandall again. "Yes, sir?"

He was laboring over finding his reading glasses, squinting at a note. After failing to locate the glasses, he handed back to the third year student who had delivered the note. The student cleared his throat and said, "You're to head to the principal's office, immediately."

So much for a normal school experience.

I made my way down the lecture hall, meeting eyes with Zoe, who gave me a concerned look. I was happy to see that she wasn't annoyed with me anymore, but we both knew that out of the five times I had been summoned by administration so far, I had always been mixed up in some enemy scheme. Which usually resulted in various weapons being fired at me.

Therefore, it was a good bet that I was probably in some sort of danger. Tell Mike, I mouthed to her. She nodded quickly. I would need my friends.

I took the note and headed to the Hale Building, my mind running through all the possibilities of what I was in for. Maybe SPYDER had somehow come back. Or it was an entirely new threat. Or maybe I was just actually in trouble with the principal, who didn't like me very much.

I immediately felt the need to contact Erica. She would know what to do, if she wasn't already involved. She knew more about the goings-on at school than anybody else. Certainly more than the principal, anyway. Maybe she had been summoned too. The thought made me smile, and I quickened my pace across the courtyard. 

Then, a deafening blast erupted from the Hale Building, sending smoking debris soaring into the brisk morning air. It took me a second to even figure out where the explosion had come from, as my ears were ringing. I blinked hard, focusing on my surroundings. 

There was a dark hole in the second floor of the building. I couldn't tell if there had been anyone inside the room when it exploded, but I feared the worst. I was about to run up into the building to check when a figure cloaked in black appeared from the destroyed room. They whipped a zip line harness and expertly clipped into a thin wire I hadn't noticed before. The bomber swiftly zoomed down the line. I ran after them, but I had no way of preventing their escape. Just before the figure zipped over the other side of the courtyard, they made eye contact with me.

My heart dropped into my stomach. I recognized the bomber; there was no mistaking her black hair and ice blue eyes. Erica Hale.

A/N: Hi! Thank you so much for reading my story. If you enjoyed it and want to see more, please do me a huge favor by leaving a comment and a vote. I'm just getting started here and it really means the world.