Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

The Night With Erica

After finishing my fried rice, I had gathered my nightly supplies and headed over to Erica's room, preparing for an eventful night. When you were expecting an assassin, you know you're not going to get much sleep other than a few winks.

After a brief scan of the perimeter, Erica confirmed that the intruder was camping around the MI6 headquarters... but she didn't know where- well, that was my guess.

"Do you even know where the intruder is?" I asked her after arriving in her room.

"Still out under there, hidden," Erica said, glancing out the window. She scanned the area around the window, then pursed her lips.

"But still, considering the fact that he's been camping out here for a while, then he's probably prepared as heck. He's more ready than you'd probably expect."

"But even readiness loses intruders, nevertheless," Erica said. "You never know."

I sighed, flopping my head onto my pillow. It was useless arguing with Erica.  

"Get some sleep," she said. "You're going to need it."

The first eventful thing that happened during the night was when Erica suddenly jerked upwards from her blankets. Her eyes scanned the room for any visible intruders, then after a quick security sweep, she assured me that there were no breaches within the room and the sound she heard was likely a water drop from the bathroom. I didn't even know how she heard it in the first place, since the bathroom door was closed and she was on the far end of the dorm.

Nevertheless, I just shook the thought off and tried to get some sleep- which as I guessed before, was impossible. 

During this period of silence, I discovered yet another scientific breakthrough- Erica snored! Not the big, long, and loud kind, but the small, short, and brief cute little sniffles that came from her mouth. It made sleeping much harder, and I had to resist the urge to take out my phone and record this evidence of Erica's snoring. It would make a killer blackmail. Still, Erica would probably delete the recording before I could even use it as an advantage.

At about 2:00 AM, after falling asleep for a few hours, I woke from the sound of Erica's shuffling on her bed. I groggily rubbed the crustiness out of my eyes, scanning the room around me for any commotion. My eyes came up dry.

Erica had just been moving around in her bed. Nothing particularly interesting had happened.

Heaving a sigh of relief, I continued sleeping and tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something was wrong. My ears were taking in much less sound than usual for some reason, but I shook the feeling off and kept sleeping.

A few hours later, I woke to the sounds of chirping birds a few meters away from my window. Despite the fact that this sound was unusual to be heard in our dorms, I still raised my eyebrows in confusion. No assassin had arrived, at least that I had known of. There was a slim chance Erica had dealt with the threat while I was snoozing.

Or, there was another option. But I wasn't going to expand on it since there was a slim chance of it's happening.

But of course, of course, it happened. After I got out of bed, my eyes had taken in the impossible scene.

Someone had outsmarted Erica Hale.