Kiana Cruise

by Jody Studdard

  He then hit her some fly balls to see how she could handle them, including one that was far to her right near the third base dugout. The sun was in her eyes and the ball was dangerously close to the edge of the dugout, but she was able to run under it and catch it anyway, which impressed Marv immensely.

  “Very nice. Great range, Kiana.”

  After that, he wanted to see how she batted, so he set up a machine in the pitching circle and had it throw her a couple of pitches. She hit the first over the outfield fence in left, then hit the second to straightaway. The second went so far it disappeared into the distant trees.

  That was all it took. He turned off the pitching machine and walked up to her. “Take off your helmet and join the rest of the girls in the outfield. You’re on the team.”

  Kiana could not have been happier. In one week, she had found some new friends and won a spot on a brand new team. To her, it didn’t get any better than that.

  Chapter 16

  As far as Kiana was concerned, September 13 was a great day. For the first time, Michael took her to the USIA’s Seattle headquarters. She thought it was a little ironic, though, since it was called the Seattle headquarters, but it was actually in Bellevue, a city ten minutes east of Seattle on the far side of Lake Washington. Anyway, it was located in a tall, glass skyscraper in Bellevue’s downtown area, right near a large mall called Bellevue Square. Kiana, who had always been a fan of shopping, and of malls in particular, made a mental note to check out Bellevue Square the first chance she got. Since the USIA was a top-secret agency, the building was disguised as something else, a financial institution called Bellevue Coastal Credit Union. A fancy sign with the letters BCCU hung in the middle of the building’s main lobby, which was large and spacious and as far as Kiana could tell looked exactly like a real bank. Michael led her to the far side of the room, to a long bank of elevators, and entered one. He touched his right thumb to the elevator’s main control screen, then pushed the button for the thirteenth floor.

  “They’ll be adding your information to the security database soon. When they do, you’ll have full access. As you can see, it’s standard biometric technology.”

  “Sweet.”

  They departed the elevator on the thirteenth floor, which, in many ways, looked just like any other office building Kiana had ever been in, with secretaries at desks, men in suits, copy machines and file cabinets against the walls, etc. Michael led her down a long hall that eventually ended in small waiting room with a receptionist sitting on one side.

  “Morning, Alyssa.” She was tall and thin, in her late twenties, and had long, black hair with straight bangs. She wore a white blouse and a navy skirt.

  “Morning, Michael. Beckman is expecting you. Head on in.”

  They stopped briefly so he could introduce the two of them (her full name was Alyssa Jamison and to Kiana she seemed quite nice), then headed inside. The office was large and spacious with floor to ceiling windows on the far side. The view was directly to the west, so Kiana could see the Seattle skyline in the distance, just across Lake Washington. It was a beautiful day and the sun sparkled brightly off of the water. The branch’s chief of operations, an older woman named Sandra Beckman, was seated at a large, glass desk and she rose to greet them as soon as they entered the room. She was a small, thin woman with gray hair and dark eyes. She wore a stylish black suit with vertical pinstripes.

  “Michael. It’s nice to see you again. And this must be Kiana.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Kiana said.

  “The pleasure is mine. I was reviewing your file and I must say, Kiana, I’m quite excited to have you here with us in Seattle. Your file says you did an exemplary job during your training in Nevada and I’ve never seen anyone who has gotten higher scores from Master Gwon. I actually had them double-checked to make certain they were accurate. As such, I have a feeling you’re going to fit in nicely here.”

  “I won’t let you down.”

  Beckman smiled. “I’d like you to report to equipment branch so you can be assigned your standard issue equipment. Please treat it carefully since most of it’s quite expensive and with the budget cuts in recent years we aren’t allowed to be quite as careless with our equipment as we used to be.”

  Kiana was so excited her heart was absolutely racing in her chest. She got equipment? She instantly started wondering what it would be and she absolutely could not wait to find out. But there was one more thing she wanted to know before she left the room.

  “Do you have an assignment for me?”

  “Not yet. But I want you to be prepared at all times. Equipment branch is going to give you a standard-issue cell phone and I want you to have it on you at all times, even when you’re in your classes. If I send you a text I will expect you to respond pronto. Is that understood?”

  Kiana nodded. She was eager to impress and, as such, Beckman would not need to tell her anything twice.

  Beckman smiled. “So off to equipment branch you go. And have fun. I haven’t had a teen agent here in Seattle before so I was pretty excited when I heard about it and I had them throw in a few goodies just for you.”

  Kiana followed Michael out of the office and she was so excited she could barely control herself. She absolutely could not wait to see what the few ‘goodies’ were. As far as she was concerned, it was like Christmas in September.

  They arrived in equipment branch several minutes later. It was underground, in the building’s basement, on a floor that was marked EB and could only be accessed by using a wall-mounted optical scanner, which Kiana thought was so cool (it was the first time she had ever had her pupil scanned). The room was huge and in many ways it looked like a laboratory, with men in overcoats standing at various workstations throughout. In the distance, Kiana saw a small shooting gallery where two men were testing a revolver of some sort. It had a sophisticated laser scope on its top and what appeared to be a miniature flamethrower on the bottom of its barrel. One of the men activated it and a plume of fire shot from within.

  They were greeted by a short, chubby man named Kenyon Walters. He had bright red hair and wore a pair of the thickest glasses Kiana had ever seen. He was quite jovial and his face was all smiles the minute he saw them.

  “Michael. You old dog. It’s good to see you again. How did your new phone work out?”

  “Like a champ,” Michael said, holding it up for him to see.

  “Splendid. I thought you’d like it. We made some nice improvements to it these past few months.” At that, he turned to Kiana. “And this must be the infamous Kiana.”

  Kiana smiled. She did not know if it had been planned or not, or if the people at the agency were just naturally friendly and outgoing, but so far they had done an amazing job making her feel both comfortable and welcome.

  Michael introduced them and Walters shook her hand enthusiastically. “I’ve got to ask. Is it true what they’re saying? You can take down Master Gwon? By yourself?”

  Kiana’s eyes got big. Take down Master Gwon? By herself? “I don’t know about that. He’s a grand master, after all. But I did spend the past three months sparring with him, twice a day most days. And he promoted me to fifth degree.”

  Walters was clearly impressed. “Splendid. Splendid indeed. I’ve never known anyone who could hold their own with Master Gwon. The man is small but he’s a monster.”

  It was all Kiana could do to keep from laughing. She had never considered Master Gwon a monster. Not at all.

  “I’ve got to admit,” Walters continued. “I couldn’t wait ‘til you got here. I’ve been dying to see what you think of the items I’ve selected for you. Most of them are pretty standard and are given to all of our agents, but Beckman wanted me to come up with some special ones just for you since you’re our first teen agent here in Seattle. So I did my best.”

  He led them to his office, which was on one side of the floor, and had them take seats at his desk. Like Beckman’s office, it was large and spacious, but unlike hers, wh
ich was spotless and perfectly organized, it was a cluttered, disorganized mess. Various pieces of equipment were laying everywhere, in various states of disrepair, and there was a huge burn mark on the wall directly across from where Kiana was sitting.

  “Don’t mind that,” Walters said, referring to the burn mark. “It was a mishap with one of the new concussion grenades. Darn things are a bit finicky at times.”

  Kiana couldn’t believe it. “You tested a concussion grenade in your office?”

  Walters smiled. “We didn’t mean to. But you know how it goes. Stuff happens.”

  With a small laugh, he opened a drawer, pulled an item from within, and slid it across the desk to her.

  “This is your new phone. It’s standard issue and is very similar to the one I gave your dad. As you can see, it looks just like a normal iPhone but trust me it’s much better.”

  “How so?”

  “For starters, it’s both waterproof and shatterproof, so it’s virtually indestructible. Just for fun, I had one of our agents drop the prototype off of a twenty-story building onto a concrete parking lot and it survived. It had some nasty scratches on one side and the corner was dented where it made impact, but it still worked perfectly fine. It also has fingerprint identification, so it can only be used by you, voice activation, a removable cord of twenty feet (just press the app icon that is shaped like a noose and it will start to deploy), and a removable battery that is actually a small flash grenade. Just push the icon that looks like a grenade, pop it off, and get away. It’s powerful enough to destroy just about anything within twenty feet. And it also has a built in stun gun, so if anyone gives you a hassle, touch them with it and press the icon that looks like a lightning bolt. They won’t be a problem for long.”

  “Sweet.”

  “You like that? That’s just the beginning. Here are your glasses.”

  He handed her a pair of sunglasses that were large and stylish and had a thick, white frame. Kiana liked them immediately, even before she knew what they were capable of doing.

  “These glasses have a camera and microphone built into the frame. They’re quite handy if you’re on an assignment and we need to monitor you or see what you’re doing. In addition, they have infrared vision so you can see in the dark, and telescoping lenses so you can zoom in on objects from afar. Everything is activated by touching the buttons hidden on the left side of the frame.”

  Kiana was impressed and she wanted to examine them a little more (and try them on) but she never got a chance. Walters was so excited to show her the rest of her equipment he moved right on to the next item.

  “This may look like a normal stick of lip balm, but it’s actually much, much more. The lower half of the tube is filled with liquid explosive. You can access it by popping the bottom off. It takes a couple of seconds to heat up, but once it does it’s capable of burning its way through just about anything. It’s quite handy if you ever need to burn through something like a door lock.”

  “I used some of it once to get out of a pair of handcuffs,” Michael said.

  “Excellent,” Walters said. “Excellent indeed. Were you on an assignment?”

  “No. I was on something much more dangerous than an assignment. A date. Unfortunately, the woman I was with got mad and locked me up with my own ‘cuffs. It was pretty embarrassing, to say the least.”

  Kiana shook her head. She wasn’t really certain if he was kidding or not, or if the story was true or not, but if it was she wasn’t impressed.

  They went through several more items, including a pen that was really a voice recorder, a ring that was a miniature camera, and a USB flash drive that was a GPS car tracker. She also got her gun, which looked exactly like the ones she had used when she was at the USIA training facility in Nevada. But the best item, by far, and the one that caught her totally by surprise, was her car. They had to walk to the far side of the office and enter an area that was actually part of the building’s underground garage to see it. Kiana’s jaw dropped as Walters pointed to a red Chevrolet Camaro that was parked in a stall just a few feet away from where they were standing.

  “That one is yours.”

  Kiana was floored. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. “I get a car?”

  “Of course. All agents get cars. Otherwise, how are you going to get here when Beckman calls you? I know the two of you are new to Seattle, but trust me, the public transit here is far from impressive.”

  Kiana’s head was absolutely spinning. Like all sixteen-year-old girls, she had wanted a car since the day she had gotten her driver’s license. She had even asked Michael for one on several occasions, but he had always remained noncommittal and had told her they would discuss the topic further when she was ‘a little older.’

  “It has several extras,” Walters said. “All pretty standard. Voice activated GPS, smokescreen, oil sprayer, passenger-side ejection seat, etc. Oh, and at your dad’s request, bulletproof glass.”

  “We could have used that in LA,” Michael said.

  “You can say that again,” Kiana said.

  “Anyway,” Walters said. “I recommend you spend some time reviewing the owner’s manual, as I’ve added instructions how to operate each of the car’s special features within it. And I’ll want to see you again sometime next week to review everything and make certain everything is acceptable as prepared. Sound okay?”

  “Okay.”

  At that point, Kiana was so happy she would have agreed to anything.

  “What are you standing there for?” He handed her a set of keys. “That car isn’t going to drive itself. Get moving, young lady.”

  He didn’t have to tell her twice. She gave Michael a kiss goodbye (he needed to head back upstairs and discuss some things with Beckman), and off she went. And she was in pure heaven as she did. The car was a dream to drive, it was lightning fast, and it could take turns with absolute ease. She cruised around downtown Bellevue for several minutes, then headed east toward Redmond, then north to Kirkland, then further north to Woodinville, then west to Lynnwood. Eventually, she came to her exit at Mill Creek but she decided she wasn’t done driving so she zipped right past it with no particular destination in mind.

  As far as she was concerned, being a secret agent was incredible.

  Chapter 17

  Kiana spent several hours driving around Snohomish County, really just enjoying her new car (the stereo was awesome, and much to her delight there was a subwoofer in the trunk so it had mega bass), and she didn’t return home until she had pretty much run out of gas. She thought about stopping to fill the tank up but remembered she had no money (which was too often the case), so she decided she would just wait and bum some off of Michael once he got home. After all, that’s what dads were for, right?

  She spent several hours that afternoon getting familiar with the various items Walters had given her. They were all cool (the lip balm was strawberry, her favorite), but the best item by far was the iPhone. Like Walters had said, it looked and felt exactly like a normal iPhone. With the added gadgets inside, she had expected it to be heavier, but it wasn’t, at least as far as she could tell. She pushed the noose icon, and, as Walters had explained, a small cord emerged from the phone’s headphone jack. Kiana wasn’t sure what the cord was made of but it was semi-transparent, as thin as fishing line (maybe thinner), and amazingly strong. She couldn’t break it no matter how hard she tried.

  This could come in handy, she thought. If a boy ever gets out of line with me, I’ll tie him up.

  But then an even better idea came to mind. She wanted to know if it would support her weight so she tied it to her chair in her bedroom, wedged the chair in place under her desk where it couldn’t move, removed the screen from her window, and carefully lowered herself down the side of the house. The cord was a little tough to hold onto, since it was thin and slick, and it dug into the skin on her palms a little as she slid down it, but other than that it worked perfectly and it had absolutely no problem supporting her
weight.

  She got a bit of a laugh, however, when she was half way down. She looked into her neighbor’s back yard and her neighbor, who was an elderly woman named Bea Ogglesby, was standing there, looking up at her with a puzzled look on her face. Apparently, she had never seen a teenage girl rappelling down the side of a house before.

  After that, Kiana returned to her bedroom and tried the sunglasses Walters had given her. They were awesome. She closed her drapes, turned off the bedroom’s light, and activated the sunglasses’s nightvision. With the blinds closed and the light off the room was pitch black, but even so she could see perfectly fine. Everything had a strange, green tint to it, but other than that it was perfectly clear.

  This could come in really handy, she thought. Especially if I ever want to sneak out of the house late at night to hang out with my friends without my dad knowing.

  She then decided to play with the phone’s stun gun feature. She was curious to see how powerful it was and was tempted to use it on herself to find out. At one point, she even had it pressed against her arm, but she just couldn’t bring herself to push the icon that activated it (the one that was shaped like a lightning bolt). Once, as a young girl, she had touched an electric fence and it had shocked her so badly it had made her pee her pants. She didn’t want a replay of that unfortunate (and unforgettable) experience.

  But then she heard a distant bark and a much better idea came to mind. In their back yard was Mrs. Ogglesby’s dog, Rascal. He was a bright, red Pomeranian, about two feet tall, with big, puffy fur. He wasn’t supposed to be in their yard but he had dug a hole under the fence and had squeezed his way underneath.

  Kiana ran from her room and headed out to the back yard as fast as she could.

  “Come here, Rascal. I have a surprise for you.”

  Like many small dogs, he was high strung and not very friendly, and it took several minutes of coaxing, but she was finally able to get him to come over to her. Once he got within reach, she touched him with the side of the phone and pushed the icon that was shaped like a lightning bolt.