Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

The Operation is a Go

"Operation Bomb a SPYDER?" Zoe said in the hallway, snorting. "That sounds like something Murray would do when he sees a daddy longlegs."

"Well, that's at least what Catherine said. Not my idea." I said. 

"If it were me naming the mission, I would at least go for some kind of cool name," Mike said. Before he could continue, I interrupted.

"All of the cool mission names are used up."

"Fair point- but still, at least have something that rolls off the tongue easily. Saying a mission name that long and simple is just giving me  mental OCD."

"We've changed the name," Erica said, appearing in thin air behind us. "You can get rid of all those OCD feelings now, since the mission is officially being named Operation Incendiary Arthropod."

"That's literally just taking two synonyms of 'bomb' and 'spider' and putting them in one phrase," I said. "The CIA really needs more creativity."

"And it's still a pretty long mission name," Mike put in.

"A pretty long mission name in which you're probably not even going to be in," Erica said. "It's only Ben and me for now. You two better have exceptionally high hopes to even think about being in this."

"I mean, haven't we proven ourselves multiple times already?" Mike said, making a turn to the Artillery Range. The rest of us followed, including Erica. "We literally have annihlated SPYDER more than three times, with the help of braniac here." he patted my shoulder and picked out a Bergara B-14 HMR from the shelves. I just settled for a simple handgun, since as you all know, I was horrible with weapons.

Erica took four handguns (don't ask me how she was going to shoot all of those at the same time) and Zoe followed what Mike had done, taking the same gun and loading it up.

Mike shot a few rounds, hitting about a few inches from the bulls-eye each time. Zoe had similar results, while Erica shot four handguns with her hands while blindfolded. As usual, she nailed every shot.

"Also, Ben," Mike said after I completely missed the target fifteen multiple times in a row. "We're fairly better at weaponry than you are."

"You can say that again," I muttered and missed another shot. Mike couldn't help but snicker when I missed another five in a row.

"Shut up," I muttered and headed back to my dorm to get some rest. I needed some refreshing before the big mission, and hitting the hay for a while sounded like exactly what I needed.

Around 3:00 AM the next day, I woke to something knocking on my door. Fumbling with my lamp, I clicked it on and headed to my door.

As I set my hand on the handle, I realized that letting someone into your room at 3:00 AM wasn't exactly the smartest idea. Looking through the peephole, I saw someone dressed in complete black.

I sniffed. My nose caught the slightest scent of lilacs and gunpowder.

"Come in," I mumbled and Erica quickly walked in my room. "Why didn't you sneak in as usual? You finally knocked and came through the main entrance like a regular person."

Erica laughed. "How do you know I never come through the main entrance? With you're eyesight, I could sneak in without even trying."

"No," I denied. I looked back to find Erica in the hallway again.

"See? I just walked through the main entrance and you didn't notice. Point proven." she strode in again.

I groaned. "Just tell me what you came here for."

"There's been a change of plans," she said. "Due to the delay of the bomb shipping, we're going to have to place them in the SPYDER headquarters instead of having other agents doing the work."

"Of course. That's the typical CIA. Laying the dirty work on the junior agents. And why did you choose to tell me about this at 3:00 AM?"

"Because we're going to the airport right now. The royal banquet is three days hence, which means we still have two days to go. The flight to Britian alone will take a while, and then we have to get situated and have Cyrus relay the mission to us there. We also have to get used to the territory."

"Cyrus's already in Britian?" I said. 

"Yep. And so is mom. After our conversation yesterday, they both left on a private plane."

"What about Mike, Zoe, Chip, and Jawa?" I said.

"Well... they got into the mission."

"Yes! And we're already done packing!" Zoe said, striding into my room with Mike. They were both holding thick suitcases which were probably ninety percent weapons and ten percent clothes.

"Chip and Jawa are already at the school borders." she relayed to us.

"And I'm still in my jammies, and I haven't packed anything. Also, I really just need some sleep." I collapsed onto my bed.

"Get up and pack," Erica jabbed my on my side, making my whole body jerk up. "We'll be meeting you in ten minutes at the edge of the school. Also, splash some water on your face. With that amount of energy, I doubt you'll make it there without collapsing."

"Ten minutes?" I said. "I have to brush my teeth, change, pack my clothes, get situated, get some weapons, and walk halfway across campus in ten minutes!?"

"Yep. Good luck." she said. With this, the rest of them left, leaving me by myself with a ton of things to do.

I sighed. It was going to be a looong day.