How to Become a Spy

Chapter Six

I had my answer.

As the final bell rang at the end of the day, I was the first out of the classroom door. Throughout all the time it took me to collect my things, leave the school building, and get on my bike, the racing of my heart had not subsided.

I tried to take deep breaths as a peddled, but nothing could calm me from the fact that I was on my way to a park to meet someone who was practically a stranger and make a decision that my mother would probably kill me over.

Winter had arrived within the past week and even the afternoons were becoming a struggle to stay warm in. Arriving at the park, I was reminded of that fact as the tree leaves rustled with a huge breeze.

I looked around the deserted area, searching for any sign of Eric. Knowing I still had time, I sat down on the same wooden park bench where I'd met him for the first time that Saturday night.

While I'd been so certain of what I was doing a few hours earlier, it didn't take long for me to begin questioning everything in the same way I had the day before. My eyes were darting around anxiously, looking for movement. Part of me wondered if there were hidden cameras placed all around the area and there was an entire film crew ready to jump out a humiliate me for falling for something so ridiculous. I could hear their laughter already. I could hear the ridiculing at my gullibility and downright stupidity for even believing something like a secret undercover agency could be real.

I was being paranoid.

Lifting my feet up onto the bench, I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my chin against my knees. I watched the pigeons on the sidewalk, studying how the pecked at the crumbs on the ground as a distraction.

I still had time to bolt if I wanted to. Eric hadn't shown up yet and it would only take me a split second to jump back on my bike and ride off into the sunset. Though as heroic as I was trying to make it sound, I knew doing such a thing would only make me feel like a total coward.

Debby's words echoed through my head again, reminding me that if I didn't see this through, I would always be left questioning what might have happened.

I checked my watch. 4:59 pm. I still had a minute. I could make a run for it and then pretend this whole thing just never happened. I could jump on my bike and bolt right now and never have to see or think about any of this stuff ever again. It would be so eas-

"You're here."

I turned around in shock to see Eric standing behind me. I hadn't even heard him approach. I noticed he had green eyes and dark brown hair, which I hadn't seen the other night due to the darkness.

"Yeah...I am," I cleared my throat as I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear that had fallen astray from my ponytail.

"Too early. You got here ten minutes too early." He said bluntly studying my appearance before looking up at the sky.

"You were here the whole time? I didn't see you." I said confused shuffling around on the park bench nervously.

"Agents don't exactly make themselves visible." He an- swered pulling out a small device from his jacket. I watched closely as he began pressing buttons on it, wondering what it was.

"And what do you mean too early? It was only ten minutes early and isn't it better to be early than late?" I argued.

He placed the device back in his pocket swiftly before looking down at me. "No, it's better to be on time. Lesson number one, always be on time. Not too early not too late."

I looked at him dumbfounded, unsure of how to reply. "Uh, okay?" I said slowly in agreement even though I thought that was the silliest rule I'd ever heard. In my opinion, he should've been lucky that I even showed up at all.

"Now I'm guessing that by the fact that you're here, you're accepting my offer?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

I stayed silent for a few seconds. "I....guess I am," I answered uncertainly. I felt my stomach swirl.

He stared at me for a few seconds, making it hard for me not to squirm, I felt like I was under a microscope. He looked like he was as unsure of my answer as I was. But after a moment, he responded. "Alright. What time do you need to be home by?" he asked.

I looked down at my watch. "Well, my dinner time's six."

He nodded. "One hour. That should be enough for at least a brief introduction. Come on." he said as he started walking towards the road.

Wait, he wanted me to follow him? Why?

He pulled out car keys from his pocket and pressed a button. In the distance, I saw a black Mercedes lights flash. Cool car, I thought to myself as I took in its appearance.

I walked slowly behind him to the vehicle. This isn't smart. What am I doing? He opened a door in the back seat for me. I stood there silently trying to hide my look of discomfort.

He stayed by the door but a look crossed his face of what seemed like understanding. He walked to the driver's seat and opened the door and stuck his head in the car after a few seconds he pulled out a small bottle and handed it to me.

"Here," he said. I grabbed the bottle looking up at him confused.

"Pepper spray," he explained. "Just in case you don't feel safe or something."

I gave a small smirk and looked up at him. "You could have just put water in here or something."

"Well if you're so certain, I do recommend testing it out on your own eyes," he muttered, opening his car door.

I tightened my grip on the spray, ignoring his remark.

While it seemed stupid to admit, there was something reassuring about him, even though the whole situation was ridiculous. I climbed into the back door he left open and sat down. He also entered the car shutting the door and putting the keys in. The engine started as I put on my seat belt. I could smell the leather from the car seats and another scent that smelt like some kind of cologne he must have been wearing. I sat back into the seat clutching the pepper spray and trying to relax.

My Mom would kill me if she knew what I was doing.

"Where are we going?" I asked as the car took off down the road.

"RUA headquarters" he answered.

After driving for about ten minutes we stopped in front of what looked like a factory. I peered forward, my head almost pressed against the window. There was no way that could be right. That couldn't be where he was taking me. But Eric got out of the car and then waited for me to do the same. I slowly slid out and shut the door behind me, my guard raised as I kept my distance from him, suddenly suspicious again.

"Come on," he instructed as he started walking towards the factory.

I began walking but still felt puzzled. Why were we at a factory? As we began to approach the main entrance, I noticed the pad of buttons on the side of the door. You must have needed a pin to enter the building. Eric stopped and punched in what seemed like an endless amount of numbers and then waited before we heard a click. He reached for the handle and the doors opened. He walked inside and I followed a few steps behind.

As we entered, I wrinkled my nose at the bad smell that hit me like a ton of bricks. Inside there were huge machines and multiple conveyor belts. This really was a factory. But it was abandoned. Everything was old and rusty and it was almost impossible not to step on all the junk that was on the floor. I started to feel uncomfortable as I heard my breathing increase. What was going on?

"Not exactly the most glamorous hideaway," Eric muttered, kicking a cardboard box out of his way, stepping forward.

I didn't warrant him with a response as I was too caught up in the situation to pay attention to his words.

I was positive Eric heard the change in my breathing as we walked forward and I grew more concerned. "Don't worry, we're nearly there," he reassured. I slowly nodded even though he had his back to me and tried to control my breathing, but was still feeling like there were numerous reasons for me to still be worried.

We continued walking as I tried not to trip over on the amount of junk that covered the ground until we came to an elevator. There was no way it could work. Not in a dump like this. This factory seemed like it was decades old. But to my surprise, Eric pressed the button next to it and its doors opened like the thing was brand new.

I stepped inside after him, wondering which floor he was going to press as the doors shut. There were only 3. But to my surprise, he got down on the ground, causing me to step back. He felt around on the tiled ground and lifted one of the tiles off the floor, revealing a button underneath it. Just a plain red button with no writing or anything. He pressed it and I immediately felt us move.

"Are we-"

"Going down," he confirmed, placing the loose tile back over the button, hopping up in an instant.

"But, we're already on the ground floor." I pointed out.

"We're going underground," Eric said staring ahead at the door waiting for it to stop.

After a few seconds it did and the doors opened. I felt my mouth slowly open. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

He hadn't been lying. There was a whole operation running down here. The place was huge and seemed dark yet the lights from all the technology lit up the room bright. I saw many men and women dressed in mainly all black, swiftly moving around the room, all barely noticing Eric and I. I noticed a woman seated at what I could only assume was the reception desk. She was dressed in bright colors smiling directly towards us. Then a phone rang next to her and she picked it up and started talking.

I looked around more. There were electronic devices everywhere. There were dozens of TVs along the walls all showing different channels. All of them were on news, politics, and security tape channels and I noticed some of them were in a foreign language. Underneath them were desktop monitors and people typing away on them, eyes glued to the screen.

"Welcome to the RUA," Eric said seeming satisfied with the view.

He walked out of the elevator with me following closely behind. I looked down as I felt eyes fall upon me. I glanced up as we passed the reception desk to see the lady still on the phone though she gave me a warm smile as I passed.

"Where are we going?" I asked Eric.

"We, are going to Captain's office." He replied as he strode forward.

"Captain?" I asked.

"He's the man in charge of everything that happens here. Kinda like our boss." Eric explained.

"Does he have a real name or..?" I asked.

"Just call him Captain," Eric said bluntly.

And call me sailor, I joked in my head automatically. I couldn't understand the reason for his behavior in response to my question.

As we continued to walk past all the commotion, we came across a huge hallway with a bunch of black doors on each side that must have lead to many different rooms. But at the end of the hallway, there was a door painted gold that Eric was walking straight towards. He pushed it open without even knocking. I stood behind him not wanting to be seen yet peering forward, to see where we were.

"Captain, I've got her." I heard him say. But in a different tone to the way he spoke to me. It was like more official or something. I noticed his entire demeanor change as he stood up straighter, seeming more attentive. Whoever this Captain guy was, he seemed powerful. Like he had a higher position than Eric anyway, judging on his behavior.

"Good, good," I heard the old voice say calmly. "Send her in."

Eric moved out of the way putting me in full view. I saw the man sitting at his desk in the back of his office. In the room was a giant plasma tv and a few file cabinets but other than that, there was just his desk which had a few pieces of paper on it along with a laptop and what looked like a photo frame facing towards him. He looked at me with a warm smile, making me feel more safely reassured. "Come in, child." He said gesturing for me to enter.

Child? I looked towards Eric nervously he nodded to me briefly. I slowly began to enter the room. It was the biggest office I'd ever seen. As I walked in, I noticed that there were also a few couches and a water cooler with styrofoam cups that you usually only saw in waiting rooms. I walked up to his desk and turned back to see Eric closing the door.

"Wait, Eric, you come in too," Captain ordered. Eric opened the door wider before stepping in and shutting it. He stayed leaning against it, meters behind me.

Captain turned to me smiling "Welcome Rebecca, I hope you had a safe journey here?"

I froze as he mentioned my name. I nervously began to talk. "Yeah, I did thanks."

"So I'm hoping Eric has explained everything to you?" He asked.

I stood in silence for a moment. Had he explained everything to me? I was still confused. "Basically you want me to go undercover at a high school to find out who's dealing drugs?" I asked hoping I was right. I didn't want Eric to get in trouble or anything like that.

"A very special kind of drug that has recently been created and has only been found at this school. No one has OD'd or anything of that matter but if we don't send someone in on the case soon, we fear that lives could be lost. The lab has never seen anything like this drug before." He cleared his throat, as he pulled his chair further to his desk. "Usually, we'd just be able to send one of our agents as a high school teacher, but we specifically need someone to get close to the students themselves. None of our agents look young enough to pass for a high schooler," he explained as he picked up a mug of what seemed to be coffee and took a sip.

I turned toward Eric, who was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

"You probably could." I pointed out.

"Eric has more important matters to attend to," Captain answered abruptly. "There are a lot more cases out there that pose a worse threat. However, this one still needs to be solved. We'd give you all the necessary training needed so you're well equipped. You'll have a whole team of people working on this case that'll help walk you through it."

Eric stood up straight, unfolding his arms. "Essentially, we've got everything we need to handle this investigation except...you."

The room grew silent. The two pairs of eyes were on me as I bit my lip and avoided their contact.

"What happens if I say no?"

"We move on to the next ideal candidate," answered Captain. "However, it would save us a great deal of time and trouble if you were to accept the case right now. It could even save lives too."

I needed more answers. If I was going to agree to anything, the least I could do was show some sort of caution and awareness for the unsual situation.

"What kind of drug is it?" I pressed, raising an eyebrow.

"It's synthetic," Eric replied. "It has a lot of chemicals, some of which our lab is still yet to identifyThere have's already been six cases of overdose that we know of. Luckily, none of them fateful and none of them to minors."

Captain continued on. "From what we've gathered so far, it seems the drug originally started out on the streets before infiltrating Kennedy High school. But we have reason enough to believe the outbreak is coming from people directly involved within the school itself. Possibly a group of students or maybe a janitor or teacher. Not only is the drug becoming high demand, but the suppliers have practically created it's own brand."

Eric nodded. "They started off selling it only as pills, but now it's even become a liquid form people can swallow. It's likely to spread to at least two other schools in the area within the next few days if it hasn't already, but we do know the outbreak started at Kennedy. We traced back its first massive distribution to a party two months ago held in celebration of their football game win. So that means it's main distributors likely reside there. If we can work out who they are, their whole operation will fall apart."

"And ...that's where I come in?" I asked.

The offered no reply, giving me my answer.

I nodded slowly, absorbing the information. "Okay...but why me? Why did you choose me? How did you even know who I am? And, why would you choose a gymnast of all people?"

I was flooding him with questions yet he still remained as calm as ever, only watching me.

"Gymnasts are very flexible would you agree?" he asked.

I looked back at him. "Yeah...sure." I agreed, not knowing where this was going.

"You will find that very necessary when training here." He explained, "You were on our radar for a while and all we had to do was attend one of your gymnast competitions. We went to one a few months back and watched you take out a few records, by the way, nice job."

"Thanks," I said awkwardly, though it came out more like a question. I looked towards Eric and Captain. "So you both were there?" I asked.

"Yeah," Eric answered behind me. We locked eyes for a moment until he broke contact and cleared his throat. "Nice work."

"As I was saying," Captain continued taking my eyes off Eric and turning my attention back to him. "All your gym training will come in handy when you train here."

"When exactly do I start going undercover?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," Eric answered in a beat.

I looked at him in horror. "Tomorrow? On such short notice?"

I turned back to Captain. I only found out about this whole thing two days ago. I was nowhere near prepared.

"Well, I was planning on contacting you sooner but Eric was unsure about getting a minor involved in what we do here. It took a lot of convincing. Once all was decided, we had to commence contact with you as soon as possible and see if you'd be brave enough to actually show up." He explained.

Brave? Or just plain stupid? I thought to myself.

I turned back to Eric. "You are lucky that worked, I could have just ignored the message or not turned up."

"But you didn't." He reminded me. "And if it didn't work, we would've just found another way to contact you."

I silenced myself in agreement. Well, he was right. I guess one way or another I would have ended up here.

"So anyway," Captain began, "tomorrow morning I expect you here early to train with Eric and prepare for going undercover. Your ID and information will all be given to you. You will be attending Kennedy High-"

I groaned out loud before I could realize.

"Is there a problem?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh no, it's just that Kennedy High was kind of our rival school. As you probably already know, I go to Maryville and when it comes to sports games and competitions, It can get pretty competitive between the two." I tried to explain.

"You don't know anyone from there though do you? It will make things harder." Eric asked looking concerned, leaning forward.

"No" I reassured him. I was never allowed to associate with the competition. Coach May wouldn't allow it. Not that I would have wanted to, anyway - the Kennedy High gymnasts had always been a little too cocky for my liking.

He nodded looking off into the distance in thought. "Good." He muttered.

"Tomorrow morning I expect you here at 6:00 am ready to start the day, you think you can manage? And like I said before, all your absentees will be taken care of by us for your current school." Captain said. Not a person will suspect a thing.

6 am? The man had to be joking. I'd never be awake before then unless it was the day of a major competition. Though, I knew if I complained about such a thing, I was only going to look silly.

I sighed. "Okay...I'll be here." I answered as certain as I could though I was still on edge.

What was I about to get myself into?