Spy School Revolution

Chapter Eight: Problems Solved and More Arise

Somewhere in DC; The Smithsonian 

Washington, DC

June 30th

1200 hours

Ben's POV

Now, if your friend got captured, I'm bet you run up to them and hug them. Or something like that. I, for one, can't do that to Erica, unless, of course, I want 50 broken bones along with no arms or legs. Then I'd look like Joshua Hallal, only worse.

So when we saw Erica, most of us tried to hide our surprise, and instead of hugging, we just screamed. Actually, it wasn't really screaming, since we were trying to be quiet so we wouldn't alert the guards.

By the time we waltzed into the room, Erica was sitting in an arm chair. She had ditched the glasses, but she still had on a guard outfit. "Took you long enough," she said with smirk. She looked us all over, when she saw me, I could have sworn I saw some sort of gleam in her ice blue eyes.

Nobody knew what to say, so I decided to step up to the plate. "Can you explain yourself? You literally woke me up in the middle of the night, strapped me to a chair, held a gun to my head and blew up the cafeteria, and you're acting like nothing even happened?"

If I'm not mistaken, Erica's cheeks turned a very pale pink, but it went away almost instantaneously. She sighed. "I'll explain, but we need to get out of here first. Get a move on." Mike frowned. "You know how to get out of here without a guard noticing us? Come on. That's impossible." Erica smirked. She smirks a lot. "Of course I do. You are talking to Erica Hale, y'know." 

So we followed her, and she walked to an exceptionally large, but nasty looking air vent. My eyes went wide. "What?! I'm not climbing in a nasty air vent!" Catherine rolled her eyes. "Benjamin, for goodness sake, you've walked and climbed in a sewer before. This is simply an air vent. Hurry up, children, get in."

I frowned. Catherine was right. But still, it seemed gross. We all got in, and despite the vent being large, it was still quite cramped. And I was skeptical. "How do you even know where this goes? Did you memorize all the vents of the Smithsonian?" And then, Erica laughed. She laughed. Did blowing up the cafeteria put her in a good mood? She then stopped herself and replied, "Of course not, idiot. I memorized all the air vents to all the historical buildings in DC." 

Zoe stopped. Which caused a chain reaction, since she was in front. "Ow, Zoe! That hurt!" Mike whined. Zoe ignored him and turned around to Erica, which was extremely difficult, considering the circumstances. "You memorized all the tracks of the air vents to every historical building in Washington DC?" She asked, incredulously. Erica nodded, and then replied, "Yes, now shut up and keep going before this conversation gets us arrested."

Zoe rolled her eyes but we kept going. Erica occasionally stepped in to tell us which way to turn. I was seriously starting to doubt her competence when we reached the exit. I sighed of relief. Erica turned to me. "Did you think I was lying? I'm not an enemy agent." I turned beet red, considering I had just doubting her competence. "No, I wasn't. I'm just glad to be out. It smelled likes dirty socks in there." Erica rolled her eyes and we climbed out of the vent. 

I jumped for joy, mentally. We were outside, in the museum's entrance. Erica and Catherine jumped ahead of us. Catherine looked both ways and said, "Follow me, children! We don't want to miss our bus, now do we?" A few tourists looked our way, but Catherine had pulled it off. I smiled. We had Erica, and now we could go home.

Oh wait. There was still an exceptionally evil organization on the loose. Almost forgot. My bad. I groaned, which made my friends look at me. Zoe stared at me. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, I just realized we still have lots to do," I whispered. She nodded and returned to looking at where she was going. We climbed into the silver SUV, and Erica called shotgun. Of course.

"Erica, can you explain now?" I asked, impatient. She turned around and set her gaze hard. Then she sighed. "Duh. Buckle up, buttercup. (Omg omg omg I love that nickname. :heart_eyes:) This is a long story." We all buckled up, literally, in the car, and turned to face her. Even Catherine seemed curious, though she was driving, so she had better pay attention to the road. I don't want to die. Out of all things, shooting, torturing, gun-fights, and attacks, please don't let me die in a car accident.

"Well, it all started at Espionage. I was sleeping, for once. I normally only get about two hours of sleep, and I guess I had bypassed that limit. Somebody broke into my room and then sedated me. I woke up in a pitch-black room with a cloth stuffed in my mouth and my wrists and legs handcuffed together." 

I hung my head. I couldn't believe Erica had gotten captured. And hurt, it seemed like, as well. She continued her story. "A few people came in the room, which I identified as enemy agents, obviously. They slapped me a few times. They were really good, because they remembered to remove my utility belt, and I had to escape without it. They forced me to set a bomb off in the cafeteria, and they slipped a tracker on me. I knew it was way to dangerous to escape then, so I just left clues for you two," she said, indicating to me and Catherine.

"After I returned, they came back and threatened me," she stated sadly. "Anyways, they told me I had one hour to admit everything I knew about the CIA to them, or else, they'd kill- " 

She paused for a second, seeming slightly confused about something for once. Then she continued. "Um, me. So I took that time to figure out an escape plan. I picked my lock, it was easy. I used my hairpin, and then used my mouth to unlock my hands, and my hands to unlock my feet. I scanned my surroundings, and noticed a window. I grabbed a rock on the floor. It was a really dirty room, built on the ground, almost like a barn or something. As I said, I grabbed the rock, through it at the window, and kept bashing it until it broke through wide enough for me to escape."

I was still confused. "And they didn't leave anybody to watch you?" She shook her head. "That confused me too. I didn't understand why they wouldn't leave somebody to watch over me." Her eyes then went wide. Mine too, I knew what she was getting at. She suddenly screamed, "GO! As fast as you can, Mom. Drive!!!" Zoe and Mike had identical expressions. They looked thoroughly bewildered.

"What are you talking about?" Zoe asked, as Catherine slammed on the pedal. "They wanted Erica to escape. They have a plan, it seems, and I bet Erica escaping was part of the plan," I replied. "Or maybe, they have a terrible security system and have absolutely no idea what the heck is going on. That's always an option," Mike supplied helpfully. I shrugged. I guess it was possible, but I doubted it. 

Zoe was still confused. "Why would they capture Erica in the first place if they wanted her to escape?" I shook my head. "I don't know." Erica was holding her gun in front of her, scanning her surroundings, ready to attack if needed. She also handed us all guns, except me, of course, which was reasonable. "Keep an eye out. We'll get a hotel or something after we get as far away from here as possible, as quickly as possible. If you notice anything suspicious, you have to let me know. Although I'll probably already know."

She gestured to me. "You too, Ben. I didn't trust you with a gun, because we all know you'd shoot yourself in the foot if we did. But you you have a great mind, and you are picking up on observation skills, so watch out," she warned. I nodded, but inside I was thrilled. Erica Hale had just complimented me. Complimented! Maybe she was thawing out, or maybe this mission, which was putting us in a life-threatening position, was making her dole out compliments more easily. 

Whatever was going on with Erica, I was still overjoyed that she was on our side. You never know when a deadly, 15 year old girl could save your life. Multiple times. 

Hey guys! This chapter came in at 1411, isn't that the same as last chapter? I don't know. Anyways, oh my gosh, the views are literally flying in! We have almost 160, and it's only been a couple of days. Thanks so much! Be sure to comment, I appreciate every word of criticism I get. Thanks, and until we meet again!