by Jess Keating
I scoffed. Marching over to the kitchen island, I helped myself to the bowl of pasta that was waiting for me. “Well, that’s all fantastic.” I shoveled a mouthful of food into my face and sat back down angrily. “So I was the only one who had to poison myself, huh? That was awfully nice of Martha.” I swallowed down the bitter taste of resentment. It did not pair well with cheese, let me tell you.
“Yikes,” Charlie said. “Did you really barf all over?”
I nodded.
“At least we’re all safe here, and together again,” Mary said. She walked over to give me a quick hug. “We’ve got food and laptops … We can continue the mission from here.”
Mo’s large shoulders drooped. “I was kind of hoping for a chance to shower first,” he admitted. “I still smell like skunk.” He glanced at Bert, who plugged his nose with two fingers.
“It’s true,” he said. “Mo caught the worst of the stink bomb.”
“Yeah.” Mo glared at Bert. “Funny how you managed to keep yourself mostly out of range when you threw it, huh?” He gripped his fork in one hand and flicked a noodle at Bert. It landed directly on his glasses.
Ignoring the droopy macaroni, Bert continued. “There’s also some good news.” He smiled proudly, reached down beside his chair, and lifted a small laptop with one hand. “I’ve got information on Victor.”
I perked up. With all the handcuffs, escaping, and barfing, I’d almost forgotten what had brought us to England in the first place.
“Martha gave me a coded message while we were in custody,” he said. “Leo and I deciphered it and found coordinates that led to—”
“Wait!” Mo hissed. He jumped up from his chair, faster than I’d ever seen him move before. Then he held his hand up to silence us.
Instantly, we froze. I held my fork still poised in midair in front of my face.
Mo’s hearing was so finely tuned he could sense when a lightbulb was about to burn out or the breeze changing direction—sounds that were much too quiet for the rest of us to pick up on.
“What is it?” Grace whispered. She held tight to her bowl as she stood, creeping over to the single window in the room. It faced the road, but a thick brown curtain lay draped across it, preventing anyone from seeing inside.
Click.
“I heard it that time,” Leo’s voice was barely audible. “Do you think we were followed? Nikki, did you watch your back on the way here?”
I looked longingly at the bowl of noodles in my hand. Was it too much to ask for ten minutes of quiet to sit and enjoy a meal without running for my life?!
“Of course,” I hissed. Setting the bowl down beside me, I held my breath.
The sound returned. Click.
Click click.
Someone was definitely at the front door, trying to quietly open it. Pretty soon, they’d be kicking it down.
I snatched Pickles from the floor so she wouldn’t investigate the window and shift the curtains. Nobody could know we were here.
But it looked like we were too late. Had I been followed? Was I not only the late one but also the sloppy escapee who’d let herself be tailed? The cold sweat of shame crept over my exhausted body.
“Hold still …” Grace let out a long, slow exhale. Her arms hung at her sides and her fingertips wiggled slightly. The heel of her right foot shifted ever so slightly, sending her weight to her toe.
I’d seen it a hundred times before.
She was preparing to run.
Leaning back against the wall, she moved the curtain with the tip of her finger, nearly imperceptibly. Recognition flashed in her eyes, and her mouth grew tight.
“Everyone …” she said. She shifted on her toes again. Her gaze moved to the array of backpacks and laptops spread around the room. “There’s a crawlspace on the second floor. It’s a hidden passage that loops around the house to outside. Once you get to the street, break off into pairs and make a run for it. Do not all go in the same direction.”
“Where do we meet?” Mary’s voice was strained and sharp. Beside her, Charlie rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck from side to side.
Grace’s eyebrows knit together as she ran through the layout of the city in her head. “The pizza place by Tower Bridge. Get the Circle line there. Spread out on the cars. Bring whatever you can carry. Go!”
At Grace’s instruction, all heck broke loose.
We dove toward our collection of safe-house backpacks, grabbing whatever we could and bounding our way up the stairs. We moved so quickly that I barely had time to wrangle Pickles and nearly tripped over Bert’s long legs on the way.
“Stop right where you are!” A loud voice boomed below us, yards away from the staircase. Then, BANG!—something erupted in the sitting room where we’d been moments earlier. The clatter of broken porcelain rang out through the stairwell; whoever had busted into our house had crashed into the messy pile of dishes we’d left on the floor.
“Not good!” I yelped. “Not good!”
We clamored up the stairs in a raucous, shifting heap and bolted for the crawlspace exit. Panting hard, Grace stood by the small hole in the wall and ushered us through it. Charlie, Mary, Bert, Mo, Leo … everyone ducked into the dark crawlspace, leaving behind nothing but the trailing sound of footsteps on the secret passage’s cold cement steps as they raced off.
“Grace!” I motioned for her to go ahead of me. “Get out of here!”
She shook her head and waved me forward, then gripped me by the strap of my backpack and hauled me closer. “You first! Go! I’ll follow behind!”
“Don’t move a muscle!” I recognized the voice. The pounding of heavy shoes on the floor told me that Agent Donnelly was right behind us, and he wouldn’t take kindly to me slipping out on him again.
So much for a safe house.
Cursing my mistake, I lunged forward into the darkness. The others had gotten a small head start. They could still get away. But would Grace? Why hadn’t I covered my tracks better?!
There was no time to think of that now. I focused instead on the panicked, labored sound of my breathing and the slapping of my feet against the concrete as I ran down the passage as fast as I could. Pickles clung to my shoulder for dear life.
Grace’s footsteps echoed right behind me, and within seconds she shot past me, quick as a bullet. I’d forgotten that Grace was part cheetah. We were going to make it!
We burst onto the street, our safe little home far behind us. I already missed the food and computers and everything else we needed to survive.
Keeping pace with Grace out of pure panic, we bounded into the closest tube station, leaped onto the first train that came, and kept moving, hastily weaving around the passengers until we found a quiet spot to catch our breaths.
“Tesla!” Grace gasped as she doubled over from exertion and pointed to the underground map on the wall. “Eight stops,” she panted. “Then we get off this train.”
I nodded once, and as we pulled into the next station, I prepared myself for the inevitable face of Agent Donnelly waiting on the platform. The doors to the car beeped in warning, then opened widely for the next wave of passengers.
But he wasn’t there.
A very tense half hour later, the seven of us met outside the agreed-upon pizza shop. Scanning every one of my friends from head to toe, my shoulders relaxed slightly. We’d successfully evaded Agent Donnelly! For once, I couldn’t believe our luck. Outsmarting a skilled agent was one thing. But doing it twice was practically a miracle.
So why weren’t they happier?
Leo looked the worst, with weary eyes and a strained, resigned frown on his face. I couldn’t take any more bad news today, but had to ask.
“What is it?” I grabbed his hand instinctively. “Tell us so we can fix it, Leo.”
He solemnly held up his phone, displaying the tiny white screen for us to read. The presidential logo sat proudly at the top. Grace took the phone and flicked over the page with her thumb.
“The presid
ent has shut us down,” she said, shaking her head in disgust.
Charlie wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “What do you mean us?”
Grace tossed the phone back to Leo, then let her hands drop angrily at her sides. “I mean us—all of us. Martha’s been detained at MI6 and will be handed over to the American government. All operatives investigating Victor are still compromised, and the president has a warrant out for our arrests because of what happened at the Tower of London. All of us. We’re not safe here. And now we’re not safe at home.”
It was like running into a brick wall. One minute I was moving fast, with the scenery whipping by around me.
And the next?
Smash.
Mary asked the question going through my mind, even though I was afraid I already knew the answer. “What about Genius Academy?”
Grace leveled her dark eyes on Mary. Her expression confirmed my biggest fear. “What about it?” She clicked her tongue in annoyance. “We’re wanted for stealing one of the world’s most priceless diamonds, and the head of the Academy has been arrested on conspiracy.”
“That means …?” I braced for the worst.
Grace’s jaw clenched and she stared forward with stony eyes. “It means there is no Genius Academy.”
“This is madness!”
Charlie was in the middle of a world-class freak-out, and since we were all stuck in the back of a pizza place on a crowded city street, we couldn’t exactly get away from her. I leaned against the window and shifted my backpack on my lap.
“They’re shutting us down because they think we nicked some posh diamond?!” She flung her hands into the air, sending her fork clanging from the table.
Mary leaned over to retrieve it, wiping it on the hem of her shirt before placing it back beside Charlie.
Here’s a quick summary of what happened when we learned that Genius Academy had indeed been shut down and that we were all officially homeless in a foreign country. No safe house. No Martha. Not even a bowl of macaroni and cheese to our name.
Bert squealed and nearly fainted.
Mary cried.
Grace consoled Mary.
Leo sighed very loudly.
Mo grunted in annoyance.
I sunk down to my knees in a bout of dizzy sadness.
And Charlie? Well, Charlie absolutely lost her marbles.
Which, as you can probably guess by the noise, she was still in the process of doing.
“We have private jets at our disposal. People with private jets don’t need to steal jewels. What are we going to do?! Hiding in some pizza shop isn’t going to help anything!”
Grace set her jaw, but so far hadn’t reacted to Charlie’s outburst. “I told you, Charlie,” she repeated calmly. “With those agents after us, our best chance is to lie low. You know how many surveillance cameras pepper the streets of London? We’d be caught within hours. This is our chance to regroup without eyes on us. We’re not leaving this restaurant until we have a plan. A real one.”
Charlie rolled her eyes and began pacing around our table. “But what can we possibly do?! We need the Academy! We can’t even go back to the States—they have all our documents! The Academy’s our home, and they’ve shut it down all because of an ancient”—she kicked the air—“ridiculous”—another kick—“rock!”
Bert lifted his finger and grimaced, dodging out of the way of one of Charlie’s air kicks. “Technically, they probably shut us down for organizing a global operation to steal said diamond while simultaneously endangering the lives of thousands of people at what is probably the most famous historical landmark in the world. Just wanted to clarify that.”
Charlie scoffed. “But it was a setup! Anyone with two brain cells could see it!” Her face paled as she continued to put together the problem. “And Martha?!” She whirled around and pointed her finger at Grace. “How could they think Martha is some rogue thief or terrorist? She’s got more decency and integrity in her pinkie toe than every one of those daft MI6 agents combined!”
Grace stood up and got between Charlie and the rest of us to shield us from those long runner’s legs of hers.
“Okay,” Grace said, lifting her hands in the air. She started pacing around our table. “We’ve got to get it together here. We aren’t homeless.”
Bert raised an eyebrow. “Well, the Academy is off-limits for the time being, along with most of our belongings, so I’d say we are.”
Grace’s brow furrowed. “No.” She shook her fist. “Our home isn’t the building we live in! That’s just where we keep our stuff.”
I exchanged glances with Leo, who seemed equally intrigued by Grace’s change in demeanor. It wasn’t like her to get up and give some big speech. Clearly things weren’t working in our favor if she was bringing out the pep talk already.
“We are home.” Grace spread her arms wide, motioning to all of us. “Don’t you get it? We are Genius Academy. Each one of us. We all bring something unique to our team, and together, it’s a lot more than the sum of its parts.”
Charlie opened her mouth, then closed it again. A timid smile grew on her face. Her cheeks, which had been red with frustration moments ago, began to pale to their usual color.
“Grace is right,” Mary said, sitting up straighter. “We don’t need Genius Academy. We are Genius Academy.” She lifted her chin at Grace and gave her the tiniest nod.
Solidarity.
“Err, that’s all very lovely and poetic, you two,” Bert muttered. “But somewhere out there, a virus is set to destroy humanity, and the last time I checked, we needed to stop it, right? So as squishy and heartfelt as this all sounds, what do we actually do here? Hugs won’t save the world.”
I bit my lip. As much as I liked Grace’s speech, I found myself agreeing with Bert. The seven of us might be the heart of Genius Academy, but that didn’t help us get the resources we needed to complete any missions. Money, passports, tickets, state-of-the-art computer systems—they were all vital to our success. You can’t fight evil with love and heart. Sometimes, you need actual weapons to go with them.
Grace put her hands on her hips and turned to Bert. “Let’s start with what we know. What were you going to tell us before we were so rudely interrupted by our agent friend at the safe house?”
Bert pulled the only laptop we’d managed to hang on to from his backpack. “Oh, is Charlie done freaking out now?” He gave her a half-hearted grin. “Because Leo and I uncovered something really important about Victor’s virus.”
On cue, Leo cracked his knuckles and took the laptop from Bert’s hands. Fingertips flying over the keys, he bit his lower lip the way he always did when he was concentrating hard. If I wasn’t worried about being stuck in England for the rest of my life without a passport, I’d have thought he looked adorable.
Okay, he did look adorable.
“There’s an antidote,” Leo said plainly.
Grace’s jaw dropped. “There is?!” She pumped her fist in the air, beaming. “Yes! This changes everything!”
“Not so fast,” Bert said. He cleared his throat. “We also discovered that Victor is planning on selling it.”
Mary frowned. “When?”
“Four days from now,” Leo replied. “He plans to meet his buyer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital at two p.m.”
Charlie tapped her chin with her forefinger, already excited to be scheming. “So it’s simple. We need to infiltrate that meeting and steal the antidote. It’s the only way to clear our names.”
“Uh … and save the world from a horrific virus, too,” Mo added, glancing warily at Charlie.
She waved her hand dismissively. “Right, that too. Details.”
Mo continued. “Couldn’t we just steal the virus itself and call it a day?”
Leo frowned. “That would be ideal, but …”
“We have no idea where the serum is,” Grace said, yawning.
“Exactly. You know what they say about a bird in the hand,” Leo said. “It’s worth two in the
bush. Better to go with what we have than hope blindly for something we don’t.”
“A bird in the hand will poop on you.” Charlie plunked down beside Bert and squinted at the laptop screen. “But you’re right. If we have a shot at capturing the antidote, we need to do it. That way, if the worst happens and Victor unleashes the virus, we can make sure everyone gets the antidote.”
“We need disguises,” Mary said. “We’ve been spotted way too many times by MI6, and now that we’ve escaped for a second time, they’ll be on the lookout for us everywhere.”
Mo drummed his fingers on his knee. “We can’t exactly stack two of us on top of each other and put on a trench coat, you know. What other options are there?”
“Forget the disguises.” Bert shook his head with a huff. “We need to figure out when to strike. Do we go in early and steal the antidote before Victor meets with whoever’s buying it? Or do we let the exchange happen and then steal it?”
“We’re going to need access to the elevators and security cameras,” Leo pointed out. He looked down glumly at his backpack. “I don’t have a lot of equipment, but I can make something work. Maybe.”
“You don’t sound very confident,” I said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
He shrugged. “I’m trying to be realistic,” he said. “Heists, break-ins, disguises … this is why the Academy was so great. Without those resources …”
Charlie’s mouth twisted into a tight grimace. “Without any help from the Academy,” she continued for him, “it’s going to be next to impossible to pull this off. Isn’t it?”
I scratched Pickles behind the ear and cleaned some of the congealed macaroni and cheese from her furry mouth with my napkin.
“What do you think, huh?” I asked her, half joking. She couldn’t answer, of course, but that didn’t stop me from imagining what she would say. Since joining the Academy, we’d seen a lot of impossible things. Kids who could save the world. Rings that could change anyone into any form they wanted. I’d even found that friendship was no longer hopeless for me, something that I’d never have believed a year ago. In fact, I was beginning to think people like us were making the impossible possible every day. What was stopping us from doing it again?