Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

The hideout

When the truck finally stuttered a stop, I was famished.

Yes, I know, being Erica, this was probably something that happened every few years. But when you've been laying in an uncomfortable position in a car for at least sixteen hours- and before that, I had been sleeping for at least seven more, you've got to expect to need something. Even though I didn't want food, water would do in the current situation.

Zoe was still knocked out. The dart the cute boy had inserted into her neck was painfully effective, and she had been sleeping for the past few hours and not making a peep. That didn't help, since I couldn't arrange a breakout plan with her.

The boy and the man got out of the car first, and I heard them talking to someone in English. Unlike earlier, they were speaking in a natural and helpful tone, meaning they were probably dealing with a commoner unaware of the two bodies in the backseat of the car. I took this precious time and closely examined our surroundings.

There were a few lamp posts strategically placed in spots so that the whole stretch of road was illuminated. I could spot a runaway and an airplane... which meant we were somewhere in an airport. Seeing the majority of the planes were labeled with American Airlines, I deduced we were in America.

Wait- how!? We were driving on a car for the whole time- and there's no path from the United Kingdom to America that didn't include flying or cruising over water. 

After a few minutes, the cute boy got back into the car. He glanced warily at me and seemed to consider his decisions. I smiled innocently, then mentally readied myself for an attack.

The boy pounced. I pounced.  The boy blocked my pounced and swiftly pulled me into a....hug.

I whined, pushing away from his grip and ignoring the fluttering movements of my heart. Pulling the tiny wire out of my pocket and quickly unlocking the side door, I grabbed Zoe and chucked my body out of the car.

The realization hit me when glanced around to see my surroundings. 

We hadn't been driving, we'd been on a boat!

The car had been placed on a treadmill...that's why it sounded like we were driving! ARGH! I was so stupid!! I had directed Ben to Berlin... oh god, we were in really deep crap now.

Waking Zoe up, we jumped off the edge of the cruise ship into the murky waters below. That was the only correct choice, seeing the circumstances. We had to get back to London ASAP, or else we'd be captured again!

But there were many problems. One: SPYDER already had a boat to catch us. Two: It was only me and Zoe, and there was someone on SPYDER that could defeat me in a one-on-one. Three: Berlin was 4,917 miles away.

Zoe panted beside me, surfacing onto the tip of the water. Since we weren't far from shore the water wasn't that deep. We were still next to the boat, and I saw the last of what I guessed to be SPYDER employees exit the cruise liner. The opening to the boat from the bottom gave me an idea.

 Since most of the SPYDER employees had exited, there would only be a few people on the cruise ship. That wasn't a large amount, and I could handle it. Also, going back on the cruise liner was the last thing SPYDER expected us to do. In fact, without someone like me, it would be considering suicide.

But I was Erica.

And I did the impossible.

Quickly, I placed my mouth onto the air close to Zoe's ear, shouting instructions on what to do. Her expression went from confusion to understanding to wildness.

"Sounds crazy. Sounds like suicide," she said with a feisty look on her face. "Let's do it." 

We plunged underwater simultaneously, slowly wading through the murk to the opening of the vessel. I could spot two guards at the opening who held police bats, but that was all. 

I guessed that the captain probably stood somewhere at the front of the boat, though I would have to weave through the internals of the vessel intuitively. There was nothing I could confirm.

Popping up at the edge of the opening, me and Zoe sprang out from underwater and grabbed the knees of the guards, dragging them down into the murky sea. After clambering up onto the entrance, we sprinted inside.

Surprisingly, there were very few people. And the people we did see we made sure to knock unconscious.

After making up a few floors of repeating this action, we found the captain's room. There was a fat man watching a baseball game sitting on the chair, crunching on a bag of Cheetos. Zoe and I snuck up behind him and gave him a hard hit on the back of the head, and he slumped onto the controls.

We dragged his body out of the room, slowly rounding up all of the people we had beaten. After about thirty minutes, all of them were disposed of from the boat onto the sandy beaches, thanks to the handy pulley system that was probably built for carrying the passenger's luggage.

I didn't know if there were more people on the cruise ship, though if there were, we would have to get rid of them. Quickly. I could hear some SPYDER agents shouting orders of trying to get back onto the ship, so I immediately closed and locked openings, backing the giant cruise liner about a hundred feet into the ocean. This would buy us enough time to get rid of any stowaways.

Climbing onto the lido deck, me and Zoe scanned the area for anybody. No person in sight.

I headed over to the security room and scanned the whole vessel with Zoe, flipping from camera to camera and making sure that nothing had been left behind.

After a few minutes, I turned to Zoe and smiled for the first time in a few hours. 

"We're clear. Let's head over to Germany."