Spy School - Nemesis [1]

11: Paranoia

The Queen Anne

Deck 10

Suite 63

April 26

1300 hours

Cyrus was grilling us about everything that had happened . "What did you see? What did you do? What did they do?"

"Well, " I began, "they have a personal assistant, Eric. He must have also been doing security or other jobs for them, he has a telltale bulge of a gun."

Cyrus waved aside my contribution easily. "He could easily be doing regular security, not any 'other jobs'," Cyrus quoted me. "Not all people who hire security are diabolical. Eric could be the mastermind of this plot as well as Nico; all of them are equal suspects, and we have good reason to believe that this is a busted goose until we have some major evidence." That was obviously true, but something felt off about the visit there. Something was missing, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I decided to put that aside for now.

I started thinking about Eric as a suspect. Could he be the one communicating with the new evil organization? He was awfully nice, but that was a good way deflect suspicion. He could be the one helping with Operation Valley. My thoughts moved from Eric to the two twins. They seemed to be average, nice, funny, kids. Murray was an average kid who was nice to you, my brain thought. Bad brain, I scolded it. Wait, was I talking to myself? Great. Now I'm starting to go insane. My train of thought led me to Mr. Mogilefvsky. He seemed like an actual normal father who actually let his kids do stuff, unlike Leo Shang, who tried to blow up half the Colorado Rockies. But then again, I had barely an interaction with the Mogilevskys and Eric. How could I ever possibly know their true intentions? All their kindness could be a show, they could be plotting as a family, or alone.

"Ben?"

I jumped, shaken out of my daze. "What?"

"Earth to Ben," Mike told me. "Everyone already left. You've been staring into space for like, the past five minutes."

"Oh? I guess I was daydreaming," I said, blinking uncertainly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking about the mission."

"Are you sure?" Mike asked me one more time.

"Well, I don't know when it began, but I've begun to suspect everybody. I think their kindness is fake, that they're only nice because they're trying to deflect attention. I'm only sure about my parents, the Hales, and you," I said, looking at Mike. "I'm becoming paranoid. I used to think Cyrus was weirdly paranoid, but I've been doing this for less than three years, and I'm starting to suspect GPS is not safe to use." I fell down on the sofa, and Mike plopped down next to me.

He said, "I know you think it's your fault, but it's not. Any kid who would have gone through as much as you did would have a similar reaction. I haven't been through as much as you, almost nobody has, but what I do to keep from stressing out is trying to block everything from my mind, go about my life as a normal kid would," Mike looked at me supportingly. "Go swim, hang out with friends, argue with family, purse fanfiction. Try to enjoy life." We stayed silent for a bit.

I finally replied, "I think I did that, back when, you know, Zoe was around. Even when I found she had a crush on me, we could still do stuff together like normal teenage friends. But then, when Erica was framed, and Zoe betrayed me, I think that's when I started getting paranoid. I mean, Murray had already gone to the enemy, along with Warren, although he wasn't much of a loss, and Zoe finally realized and apologized, but I think, after three people who I hanged out with regularly went against me, I started closing myself off like Erica." Was this what Erica went through? Suspicious of everybody, stressful that it was all a lie?

Mike looked me in the eye. "Look, although everyone might not be, I will always be on your side, and so will your parents, and Erica. You've even stronger than Erica; after Josh joined SPYDER, she became Ice Queen, but you've made it through strong with three betrayals." Mike looked around nervously after saying this, hoping Erica wasn't around. "You're a good, strong person."

I smiled. "Thanks Mike, you really helped me out here." I was about to ask him if he wanted to go to the pool with me, but then Trixie bounded in. "Heya, Trixie," Mike and I greeted.

"Hi Ben and Mike, want to go to the pool with with me?"

"Yeah," said Mike. "I'm pretty sure all of us need to get our minds off the new secret organization."

Trixie snorted. "We really need to stop calling it 'new secret organization'. Whoever has to document our mission once this is over will probably get tired with typing the same thing everytime we mention our mission."

"What about naming it SKITTLES?" I suggested, gesturing to the candy Trixie was casually pocketing from Mike's bedside table.

"Sounds good to me," she said, ripping open the packet of Skittles. "Want one?"

After Mike and I gladly accepted a Skittle each, we split up. Trixie went to her suite to change for the pool, while Mike and I took turns using the bathroom in our suite to change, then we met up in the hallway outside our suites and started walking towards the elevator debating which deck to go on, as there were multiple pools, before finally deciding to go onto the one on deck 19, the outdoor one.

As the three of us came out of the elevator and on the top of the ship, I was glad we chose the outdoor one. The place looked like a whole waterpark, somehow fully decked out and taking up almost no space at all, with everything from a purple waterslide to a lazy river. We dropped off our stuff at some lounge chairs (Mike and I were a bit skeptical, not trusting to leave stuff on lounge chairs unattended after we swiped shirts from the Farkles,) and raced to the a fork in the lazy river, following it until we got to a large circular pool area designed for cannonballs.

"I bet I can make a quieter splash than you!" Mike yelled.

"You're on," I replied. "Trixie, can you judge?"

"Sure. Mike can go first."

I looked as Mike slid into the water, barely making a splash. He surfaced, coughing, from what I assumed was accidentally swallowing water, but then I realized that it wasn't because of swallowing water. How could he have been swallowing water, if he had barely made a splash? There would be no flying water to fall into his mouth, and he wasn't screaming a battle cry with his mouth open like he would normally with a cannonball. I soon saw the culprit of the coughing. A nasty rash was spreading from his shoulders to his neck and arms. Looking at Trixie, I knew she caught on as well.

"Wait!" she screeched as I dove into the water to help Mike. I started coughing underwater, and saw the same rash spreading across my arms. I distantly heard Trixie yelling and life guards blowing their whistles.

And after surviving gun fights, assassination attempts, and missiles, I suppose this is how I die.

The last thing I remembered was a familiar figure pulling me by my arm.

I broke the fourth wall twice today, and put Ben through more emotional trauma  (I'm a hypocrite- I don't like fanfics with those, and yet I'm writing one)

I'll probably update more around the holidays, because of more free time. When I write, it's not about finding the time to write, it's finding the willpower to sit down and write. 

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the cliffhanger *cackles*

1293 words.