by Stuart Gibbs
“You did try to destroy a large part of New York City,” I reminded her.
Ashley waved this off, unconcerned, as though I’d merely accused her of being a litterbug. She studied the affidavit carefully, then nodded approval and turned to Erica. “Okay, let’s do this. I’m good to go right now.”
“So are we,” Erica said.
“We are?” I asked. “Don’t you think we should talk this through a bit more?”
“No,” Erica said flatly. “We’ve already gone through the trouble of breaking in and the guard is still unconscious. We won’t get a better chance to spring Ashley and we’re running out of time. If you want to clear your name, we need to know what she knows—and this is the only way we’re going to get it.”
I turned to Mike and Zoe, hoping they might serve as voices of reason and back me up, but neither of them did. In fact, Mike was thrilled about the whole thing. “We’re springing a prisoner from maximum security!” he exclaimed. “This is so cool!”
“It’s a felony,” I pointed out to him.
“To save you,” he said. “Man, this school is amazing! The most exciting thing we ever got to do at our old school was dissect a frog. And mine had some kind of frog fungus.”
Meanwhile, Zoe wasn’t arguing my side either. Instead, she asked Erica, “Do you think we should maybe spring Nefarious too?”
“Why?” Erica asked. “He doesn’t know any crucial information.”
“I know, but it doesn’t seem fair to leave him here and free Ashley. He actually helped thwart SPYDER’s plans, while she tried to kill us.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Nefarious said, without even looking up from his game. “I’m good here.”
“Really?” Zoe asked.
“Really,” Nefarious answered. “I get to play games all day and have all the food I can eat. What more is there?”
“Uh . . . freedom?” Zoe suggested. “Fresh air? Not having your toilet be six inches from your bed?”
“Mneh,” Nefarious grunted. “I like having the toilet right here. That way I can keep gaming while I do my business.”
“See what I have to deal with in here?” Ashley asked. “It’s hisgusting.”
“Horrible plus disgusting?” Mike asked.
“Bingo,” Ashley told him. “So please, guys, let’s get out of here. Now.”
“I’ll decide when we spring you,” Erica said. “And we’re not taking you anywhere until you tell us what SPYDER’s plotting.”
“Ha!” Ashley barked. “I’m not a boron. If I tell you what I know first, then you’ll just leave me here. I’m not saying anything until I’m safe and sound in Turks and Caicos.”
“That’s unacceptable,” Erica countered. “It will take weeks to get you set up there, and we need that information right now. So cough it up.”
“No way.” Ashley crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.
“Then you’re staying right here. For the next twenty years.” Erica started for the door. “C’mon, guys. Let’s find someone else who’ll talk.”
Mike, Zoe, and I dropped in behind her—although I didn’t really want to. For all my concern about springing Ashley, I didn’t have any idea who else we could go to for information. I was pretty sure Erica didn’t either. I could only assume she was bluffing, hoping to get Ashley to crack. . . .
Which was exactly what happened. “Wait!” Ashley cried. “You don’t have to get me out of the country! All you have to do is spring me. Once we’re off the spy school property, safe and sound, I’ll tell you everything I know!”
Erica turned back to her. “Is it enough to clear Ben’s name?”
“It’s enough to take down SPYDER once and for all. Those schmerks deserve it after making me take the fall for them.”
“Schmoes plus jerks?” Mike asked.
“Schmucks plus jerks,” Ashley informed him. “But close enough.”
“All right,” Erica agreed. “We’ve got a deal.” She went to the electronic keypad for the cell door and entered the combination. The cell door clicked open.
“How’d you know that code?” Zoe asked.
“The principal keeps all the top secret codes for campus written down in a folder in his office so he won’t forget them,” Erica explained. “It’s labeled ‘Top Secret Codes.’ ” She removed the dart gun from her holster and aimed it at Ashley. “Try anything funny and I’ll knock you out, drag you back in here, and make sure they add sixty years to your sentence.”
Ashley raised her hands in surrender. “I won’t try anything, I swear. Let me just get my stuff.” She grabbed some hair glitter, pink nail polish, and a few scrunchies, shoved them in her pockets, and said, “Let’s go.”
I led the way out of the Cheney Center, wanting to get off campus as quickly as possible. Mike and Zoe followed me, and Ashley followed them. Erica came last, keeping her eye—and her gun—on Ashley.
“Bye, Nefarious!” Zoe called.
“Mneh,” Nefarious replied. He was so engrossed in his game, he barely even seemed aware we were leaving.
We passed down the hall of information-extraction rooms, through the reception area, then back out into the labyrinth of tunnels under the school.
Where we ran into Warren Reeves. Literally.
He was dressed in a gray outfit that blended perfectly into the cement tunnels. I didn’t even see him until I slammed into him and knocked him right on his butt.
“Ouch!” he whined.
“Hey, Warren!” Zoe said excitedly. “Ben came for Ashley, the same way we did! Now we’re springing her so she’ll turn traitor on SPYDER!”
“No you’re not,” Warren replied with surprising confidence.
An entire squad of campus security agents stepped into the hallway behind him, their weapons pointed at us.
“You’re all under arrest,” Warren said.
ESCAPE
CIA Academy of Espionage
Subterranean level B
February 13
0400 hours
I was caught completely by surprise, not so much because we had been ambushed, but because it was Warren who had engineered it. While many of my fellow classmates at spy school were incredibly capable, Warren wasn’t. It was hard for him to so much as fill up a glass of water without screwing it up. Erica seemed to be equally surprised by Warren’s sudden competence, while Mike merely seemed disappointed that our adventure had come to an end so quickly. Meanwhile, Zoe and Ashley were both livid.
“How dare you?” Zoe shouted at Warren, betrayal in her eyes. “You’re only here right now because I told you we were here!”
“You told him?” I repeated. “When?”
“I sent him a text when you showed up by the jail cells,” Zoe said through gritted teeth. “He was supposed to tell Jawa and Chip that you were here. But instead he’s turned us in.” She glared at Warren hatefully. “I thought you were my friend!”
“I tried to be,” Warren said petulantly. “But you’ve always sided with Ben. On everything. Even now that he’s turned out to be a covert assassin, you’re still siding with him instead of me! Well, now you’re going down with him too.”
The guards surrounded us. While some kept us at gunpoint, the others advanced forward to handcuff us.
“You jidiot,” Ashley hissed at Warren under her breath. “You’re not supposed to do this now.”
Warren appeared far more disturbed by this than he had by anything Zoe had said. He reared back from Ashley and looked around skittishly to see if anyone else had heard her.
And just like that, SPYDER’s plot suddenly became clear to me.
However, there was no time to share my revelation.
Five of the guards shoved me, Erica, Mike, Zoe, and Ashley up against the wall, face-first, then wrenched our hands behind our backs to cuff us. Erica was directly beside me. I started to tell her what I’d realized, but she cut me off, having something even more important to share. “In three seconds, hit the deck.”
Before I could even ask what she meant, a metal pellet the size of a half-dollar dropped from her utility belt. The moment it hit the cement floor, a cloud of smoke exploded from it and enveloped us.
I did exactly as she’d ordered, yanking my hands free from the startled guard behind me and dropping to the floor myself.
From the side of me where Erica was came the distinct sound of another guard getting punched someplace very painful. Then I had the sense of something like a leg whipping quickly through the space over my head, followed by the sound of the guard who’d been behind me getting kicked hard somewhere even more painful.
If I hadn’t hit the deck as Erica had ordered, she would have just sent me to the hospital.
From my other side, where Ashley had been, I heard the sounds of yet another guard being pummeled.
Meanwhile, the guards with the guns were somewhere farther away in the cloud. “Stand down!” one of them yelled, though he sounded far more worried than authoritative. “If you don’t, we will have to . . . Aaugh!” His scream of surprise turned to one of pain, then abruptly cut off, as though he’d suddenly been rendered unconscious.
I remained where I was, curled in a ball on the concrete floor. I knew it wasn’t very chivalrous of me to let Erica and Ashley handle all the fighting, but then, a big part of being a good spy was playing to your strengths. I was good at solving problems, doing complex calculations, and working out what SPYDER was up to, but I was pathetic at fighting—while Erica and Ashley were astoundingly good at it. If I tried to help, I’d only get in the way and would most likely end up unconscious, which wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
In addition to the various thumps, punches, and yelps of pain around me, I could also hear Warren growing more and more panicked. “Erica?” he asked worriedly. “What are you doing? Erica . . . ?” Then I heard him fleeing through the cloud of smoke. Or trying to flee. There was a distinct thud, followed by a yelp, as he blindly ran into a wall.
An alarm went off. Warren or one of the guards must have triggered it. A shrill whooping echoed through the tunnels—and most likely, the entire campus above us as well.
The smoke began to dissipate after only a few seconds, but that was all Erica and Ashley had needed. I found myself lying on the floor surrounded by the bodies of guards who were either unconscious or in too much pain to stand. Erica emerged from the cloud, grabbed me by the shoulder, and hoisted me to my feet.
Another guard sailed out of the smoke nearby, crashed into the wall, and collapsed into a whimpering lump. I expected Ashley to follow him from the cloud—but to my surprise, it was Zoe who appeared, revealing herself as the one who’d taken the guy out. She noticed the shock on my face and said, “I’ve been practicing.”
Mike and Ashley emerged behind her. Ashley had an ear-to-ear grin, as though she’d been enjoying herself. Mike was agog with amazement. He leaned close to me and whispered, “The girls here are so much cooler than the ones back in regular middle school.”
As the final wisps of smoke melted away, I cased the tunnel. All the guards were still there, crumpled on the floor in various pained states, but Warren had vanished. The cement corridor was too long for him to have run out of, so he’d obviously put his camouflage skills to work, blending in somewhere around us.
“Anyone see Warren?” I asked.
“Forget him,” Erica said. “We have to move. More guards are coming.”
“We can’t leave him,” I told her. “He’s . . .”
But Erica didn’t give me the time to explain. Instead, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me down the hall. “More guards are coming now,” she clarified.
Sure enough, the sound of more guards approaching echoed from the end of the corridor. A lot more guards.
Ashley, Mike, and Zoe followed us as we fled. In the distance behind us, I heard the guards yell, “Stop or we’ll shoot!”
We didn’t stop. So they shot. Erica led us around a corner right as the sound of gunfire erupted. Hundreds of rubber bullets zinged past where we’d just been. They wouldn’t have killed us, but they would have hurt us badly enough to slow even Erica down.
We ended up in another long corridor. I thought it might have led back toward the far end of campus, where Erica and I had first entered the complex, but I couldn’t really tell. Another set of guards was coming down it in the distance, blocking that route of escape.
“Freeze!” they yelled.
“Nuts,” Erica said, then suddenly yanked me through a door to my left. Mike, Zoe, and Ashley plunged through it after us.
A staircase spiraled upward. It wasn’t a very well-used stairwell, like some of the other entrances to the tunnel complex. Instead, it was old and dusty and looked like everyone but Erica had forgotten it even existed.
“Zoe, can you call Chip or Jawa?” I panted as we raced up the stairs. “Tell them to be on the lookout for Warren.”
“Why are you so concerned about Warren all of a sudden?” Zoe asked. “The weasel tried to have us arrested!”
“He’s working for SPYDER,” I said.
Below me on the stairs, I heard the sound of Zoe stumbling in surprise. “Warren?” she gasped. “No way.”
Ashley burst into laughter. “You didn’t know? That little schmerk really snowed you good!”
I glanced upward at Erica to see what her reaction was, but couldn’t deduce anything. If she was surprised, she didn’t show it.
The top of the staircase dead-ended at a cement wall with a bolting mechanism embedded in it. Erica flipped the bolt and the wall suddenly became a door, swinging open into the boys’ locker room in the school gymnasium. There were ten lockers on the opposite side of it, one of which was my own. I had been using it for a year without having the slightest idea there was a hidden door behind it.
Unfortunately, the gym was in the dead center of campus, meaning we had a long way to go to get to safety.
The campus guards entered the stairwell below us and began pounding up it. We swung the secret door closed behind us, wedged a bench against it to jam it shut, and fled the gym.
As I’d suspected, the alarms were ringing all over campus. The lights in all the school buildings had come on, indicating that everyone was now awake. We could hear students and faculty forming ranks near the dormitory, grabbing weapons inside the armory, and closing in on us from almost every direction. Flashlight beams sliced through the darkness outside, searching for us.
We ran the only way we could: south, toward the wooded section of campus.
Our route took us straight through the obstacle course.
We couldn’t circumvent it, the way Mike had done the morning before. It was too big, and our pursuers seemed to be closing in around it. Our only hope was to make it through the course as fast as possible.
We didn’t bother crawling through the mud. It had frozen solid anyhow. The paint guns were still set up to blast us if we triggered them, but at the moment we had far more pressing problems. So we ran, skidding and sliding on the frozen muck, while paintballs whizzed past us—and occasionally pegged us as well. My brand-new, awesomely sleek black outfit was quickly splattered blue and red.
“You’re sure about Warren?” Zoe asked me. She had a wounded look in her big brown eyes.
“Yes.” I winced as a paintball clipped my shoulder. “He’s the one who planted the bomb on me. I thought some SPYDER agent had done it on the subway, but I didn’t wear my jacket when we ran this course yesterday; I had my gym clothes on instead. My jacket was in my locker. Warren had plenty of time to plant the bomb after he washed out and got sent back to start over.”
“But plenty of other people had the opportunity to plant a bomb then too,” Zoe protested. “How are you so sure it was Warren?”
“For starters, he was with us in the library right before I got activated the other day.” I ducked as a flurry of paintballs whistled over my head. “That’s when he put something on my jacket to attract the dogs at the White House. Erica said it mig
ht have been meat—or a trace of bomb residue. That way, when he put an actual bomb in my jacket the next day, the Secret Service thought the dogs were making a mistake.”
“Still,” Zoe said, “there were other people in the library too. . . .”
“But Warren’s the only one in cahoots with Ashley,” I said. Then I turned to Ashley herself. “How long has he been on your side? Since I was in evil spy school?”
“No,” she replied, seeming to enjoy how much this was upsetting Zoe. “But we already had him pegged as a strong candidate to recruit back then. So our guys went to work on him right after you blew up our headquarters. . . . Oof!” She gasped as a paintball nailed her in the thigh.
Zoe flinched as another paintball clipped her in the elbow, then asked me, “How’d you know?”
“Because of Ashley’s reaction when Warren surprised us just now. She obviously knew the plan already. Warren must have gotten word to her somehow. But he showed up too early. I’m guessing he was supposed to wait until after Ashley was free to capture us.”
“You think?” Ashley asked sarcastically. “That jidiot nearly got me arrested all over again.”
We reached the far side of the mud patch where the climbing wall stood. Erica scaled it without breaking stride, while Ashley vaulted to the top with the agility of, well . . . a professional gymnast. Mike wasn’t much slower, but Zoe and I still struggled getting over it.
“Warren’s job wasn’t to merely plant the bomb on me,” I grunted, straining to climb the wall. “He was also going to take the credit for capturing me—and you—and everyone else. SPYDER suspected I might try to return to talk to Ashley, so they must have alerted him to be on the lookout for me. . . .”
“They did,” Zoe said suddenly. “Warren was the one who suggested we stake out the jail. And he insisted I notify him if you showed up. I thought he was just looking out for you.”
“No,” I said. “He was looking out for SPYDER.”
A flashlight beam caught me as I reached the top of the wall.
“There they are!” Professor Simon shouted.
Zoe and I dropped over the wall. A second later, a hailstorm of rubber bullets rattled against the other side. It sounded like every student and faculty member had unloaded upon us at once.