Drama, Love, And Dangerous Weapons

“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” I yelled, falling out of the plane that was 7,000 feet above a little teeny tiny spot of land WAY below. And if that wasn’t bad enough, my extreme fear of heights was kicking in.

Bad.

“Jazz, why the heck did we have to come this way?!” I yelled at my partner, who was falling coolly next to me.

“Because they would see us if we went through the front door.” He grinned and winked, and pulled the line on his parachute.

“Hey!” I yanked my cord too, and shot up next to him. I huffed, and tried not to look down. Sure, the academy had trained us for some things, but the day that we learned how to handle falling from an extreme height, I’m pretty sure I was sick.

“Come on, Pip. Scared or something?” Jazz laughed at his little joke. I didn’t find it funny. Jazz and I had been assigned as partners a long time ago, and while I had gotten used to his never-ending teasing, I still didn’t like it. I just stuck my tongue out at him.

“Very mature, Pippa.” Rolling my eyes, I tried to turn away from him, but moving of any nature was difficult, if not impossible, in a parachute.

“Stop wriggling, we’re about to land. Silence now.” Now Jazz was all business, as usual when it came to ‘serious missions’. We softly landed, and unhooked our gear, hiding it under some bushes.

Jazz pulled out his map, and we leaned over it.

“Okay,” he said, pointing, “here is where we make our entrance. We’ll have to sneak through some air ducts. You cool with that?” It was a rhetorical question, because even if I wasn’t, I would still have to do it. I nodded anyway.

“Good. Then we’ll have to knock out some guards from above. Got the stuff?”

I checked my pockets. Yep, knockout powder, check! “Good. Then we have to plant the cameras and get out of there. Got it?”

“Air ducts, knockout gas, plant the cameras. Got it!” He nodded, and then motioned for me to follow him. He normally was the lead, considering he was 2 years my senior. I snuck behind him, and we made it to our entrance point. Slowly and silently, he pulled the grate off, and motioned for me to go in first. This part of the mission had to be absolutely silent. I went in, and slid on my stomach, following his silent directions. Finally, we made it to the place where we were supposed to knockout the guards.

“Masks,” he mouthed. I nodded, pulled them out of my pocket, and handed on to him. We put them over our mouths, and then I dropped the gas ball. The typical reaction was:

Guards: Huh? What is that-?

And then they fall over, silent. Nothing different this time. I nodded, and he gave me the thumbs up. Slowly, I pulled up the grate, put it aside, and dropped to the floor, quietly. Jazz jumped down too, and then we snuck into the next hallway.

“Big place,” I signed to him.

All students at the academy had to be fluent in at least 3 languages, and American Sign Language was one of them.

He signed back, “Yeah. Rich people usually have big mansions, Pip. Let’s keep moving.”

I slipped down the hallway, and pulled out the mini-vidcam that one of our technical guys had invented. The size of an M&M, it would immediately use protective coloring and blend in with its surroundings, sending us feed of what was going on without anyone on the other end knowing about it.

I ran down the hallway, on the balls of my feet so no one could hear me coming. Luckily, the door to the main room was open.

“Alright, PAC. Let’s go.” PAC, or Prototype Ant Camera, was a small bug-sized camera that could sneak into places that were populated, and send picture and sound back to a pair of glasses that I was wearing. Our tech guys are super cool. I turned the glasses on and let the bug go. He slipped into the room.

It was empty. But for how long?

I would have to act fast. I rolled into the room, placing cameras on precise locations that would get us good info. One over the desk, one by the door, and one near the window.

Great. Now to get out of there.

“Yes, Renaldo. Right this way.”

Shoot. I could hear voices coming towards the door. I could only hope that Jazz had made it out in time. I grabbed PAC, and shot a grappling hook at the ceiling.

Just in time, I stuck to the ceiling as soon as a guy in an expensive looking suit (Italian maybe?) walked in with another man, who was balding on the top, and had on a suit as well, but it looked more worn out. I started crawling along the ceiling as they started talking to each other about boring things like stocks and stuff. I made it right above the door.

This was going to be the challenging part.

The host was talking to the other man, and his back was turned to me, which was good. The bad part was that the other man was very disinterested, and his eyes were wandering. Which meant that they might wander over and see me? If that were to happen, I was prepared of course, but the first rule was never to be seen.

So.

There I was, stuck between a rock and a bald man, when the fire alarm went off. The siren was beeping, and all of a sudden, the sprinklers turned on. “What….?” The host looked around, and motioned for his guest to follow him. They left the room, and I was free to go.

Yes!

I quickly swung around the doorframe, and up into the air ducts. With luck, Jazz would already have been outside, and I would be in the clear. I started crawling at a fast pace, and made it to the exit point. I ran to the meeting spot, and there he was, smirking.

“You’re welcome.” He said.

I thought, and then realized: “That was you that pulled the alarm!” He nodded.

“Thanks!”

“Hey, that’s what partners do.”

“Save each other’s butts?”

He looked back, and laughed.

“Make sure their partner doesn’t screw up the mission.”

“Jazz!” I said, laughing. We quickly ran to the place where our transport was waiting. In all, the whole thing had taken about 10 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. We made it into the plane, and then the lights started flashing, and the set went down.

“Good job, agents 23 and 57.” The headmistress of the academy came down from her seat above the training center, applauding us. “Another fantastic run by one of our top teams.”

“Yes!” We high-fived and the headmistress chuckled.

“Good job, you two. Once again, you have made a spot into the top ten.”

“Great! Which number?” I asked.

She smiled. “2.” My mouth dropped in surprise.

“Really?! Super cool!”

“Who’s beating us?” Jazz asked. I rolled my eyes. He was to be counted on for always making sure we were best.

Miss Becker smiled again. “You are. You are beating yourself, by only a few minutes.”

“No way! That’s great!” I shouted. “We’re the best!” I yelled, dancing around. Jazz rolled his eyes at my antics.

“Pippa, chill out.”

“Sorry,” I said, sheepishly.

“Great job today, both of you. We’ve added several points to your accounts. Pretty soon you might be able to go on a mission….” She winked, and then walked off.

Miss Becker was a pretty, young woman, and she held all of us in check. No one was fooled by her innocent looks. Behind those light blonde locks and dark green eyes was a fierce person who could take down several men twice her size with one hand tied behind her back. I had actually seen her do it once, too.

The Academy for Young Cadets and Secret Agents (or, as everyone called it, the Academy) had been founded around 1938, by a group of government agents that figured that since kids were the future, might as well make them work for you. So, here I was now. My parents had both been top secret agents for the Academy (it was where they met) and Miss Becker expected nothing less of me. It was a hard rep to cover, but Jazz and Miss Becker seemed to think I could do it, so…

And they were the only ones that mattered here.

I didn’t have very many friends. It’s not that I haven’t tried! I have! But, it’s just, I think it’s Jazz’s fault. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. He’s not ugly. In fact, he’s probably the hottest guy I know. He’s got this dark hair, and it falls in this way that just makes you want to run your hands through it. And his eyes, don’t even get me started. They’re this dark blue, which kind of looks like deep ocean water, and they always have this mischievous spark in them, like he’s got some plan he’s waiting to unleash on you. He’s the perfect height, and build, and he’s smart and funny…you know, every girl’s dream guy? Well, he’s doesn’t pay attention to anyone of these girls over here.

Except for me. And I try to tell them that he doesn’t see me in anyway other than a little sister but they don’t believe me. They think that I’m plotting against them all to win his heart.

Oh yeah, like that’s all I do all day. Just sit around thinking, “Now how can I get Jazz to ignore the other girls today?”

Please. I’ve got better things to do, okay?

Anyway. I went back to my dorm, after saying goodbye to Jazz, and threw my bag onto my bed. Then I noticed the bag on the other bed. See, normally, my room is completely empty.

Remember how I said that I have no friends?

That would be the reason. So when I saw the bag, it threw me off, and I went in search of the owner of the bag. I popped my head into the adjoining bathroom on the other side of the room, (yeah, there are TWO bathrooms to a room. Pretty neat having government funding.) and saw a curly, short haired, red-headed girl setting her stuff up.