by Jaci Wheeler
“Alright, then we will do this again. But this time, when the lights are off, you will practice getting the feel of me. Listening to my breaths, my movements. We will start in close and I will back up, move around. We will do this until you can fight in the dark just as you do in the light.
“Yes, sir,” I say with a smirk. And that’s what we did for the next six hours.
CHAPTER TEN
Aria, 6 Months later
I can’t believe this is it. You can feel the buzz of excitement in the room. This is what we’ve all been anticipating. Not counting the final, this is the most important part of the Academy. We get to go on a live mission with real agents.
They are mostly harmless missions I’m sure, but we all get ranked based on how we do. Then, if we don’t choke and handle ourselves, well, we get to lead our own mission. Of course, those will be test missions; they aren’t that crazy.
Nevertheless, if we score high on our missions and do well in our final, there’s a chance we can be put on an active field agent team. Your ranking determines the team you’ll be placed into. Top ranking, top team; lower ranking, alternate teams. It’s a freaking honor to become an agent no matter where you rank, but everyone wants the coveted elite spots for sure. I can’t wait!
The up and down side is you don’t get your handler for the mission. Everyone gets traded. One, they want to see how you do out of your comfort zone and two, they want to see how well you work with other agents. I’m thrilled. As much as I’ve learned to respect Cameron and the fact that he’s taught me more than any other handler, I also could use a break from his surliness and overall shining personality.
“Trevor, will you calm down? You look like you are about to pee your pants,” I hiss at him. Really I’m just jealous I can’t hop up and down too, but come on, I have a rep to protect.
“Oh come on, Ari. Aren’t you excited? This is gonna be sick.”
“Speaking of gonna be sick, have you seen Tali’s face?” Corbin asks.
Oh no, poor thing is looking a little green.
“Ten bucks says she pukes before we even get in the van,” Trevor says.
“Hey, knock it off. She’s one of us, you guys, and that could be you. So how about you offer a little support or shove off?” Keller says.
He really is such a nice guy. I smile at him and he shyly smiles back. I see Penny walking over to Tali and squeeze her hand quickly. Penny isn’t as shy as Tali, but she seems a little green around the edges too. I’m surprised they are both even doing agent training, to be honest. Hope is standing with the rest of us smiling away and licking a lollipop. Of course, she’s not nervous since she doesn’t have to do the training. She is a total computer geek and loves it. She’d never want to be a field agent.
“Ok folks, listen up,” Edward says, commanding all the attention in the room.
“I’m going to call off the list of handlers and the trainee assigned to them. Then I will give you your groups and team leaders. You will have exactly two hours to plan your strategic attack. Remember, if you make a mistake you bring your whole team down with you. You will all be infiltrating the same corporation. Each team will have a different job to do, but each job is just as important as the next. If your job is to secure the perimeter and you don’t do it correctly, you can blow the whole op and get the person retrieving intel could get killed. So even if you don’t get the job you want, you need to do your best.”
Of course, he makes direct eye contact with me, which tells me I’m not going to like my assignment.
“Trainees, you do as your handler commands. You do what they want and how they want you to do it with no complaints. If you can’t, you are out.”
Corbin leans in and whispers so only I can hear him.
“One guess on what your job is.”
I sigh. Yep, even he knows there’s no chance I’m getting out of this. Edward is going to prove his point one way or the other, and I’m going to have to suck it up and comply.
Edward starts reading off the names of the handlers and they all stand in the front of the room. Cameron makes eye contact with me and nods once. I’ve got this. Edward continues to call trainees. He’s getting further down the line of handlers and I have a feeling I know exactly where this is going. Trevor sends me a smirk and a gesture to tell me he does too.
“Rachel McPherson, you have Aria Richards.”
Yep, just Boobs McGee and me. Cameron McGrumpy-Butt is actually looking pretty good right about now--not that I’d ever tell him that. I walk over to her giving her my sweetest smile, dripping with fakeness of course. She doesn’t bother to hide her scowl, though.
Once we all have our new handlers, we are put into groups. This is the group that will be your team for the mission. Luckily Ezra is our group leader, thank God. He gives me a quick wink when he sees me and then continues to lay out our plan of attack. Our job is to get access to the building, hack into the cameras, and set them on a loop so the next team can infiltrate.
“Aria, I understand you are quite the hacker,” Ezra says, smiling at me.
“I can set up a loop, no problem,” I say, relieved that I won’t have to flash anyone for my part of the mission, that is until Boobs McGee opens her mouth.
“That’s perfect, actually. Since you already have to breach the building, your job will be to also gain access to a security card,” she says, smiling brightly.
Here it is. I could fight her on it, but that would only make me look bad and I need to be a team player.
“Wonderful,” I say, catching her off guard.
“Any idea how to go about doing that, Bo-um Instructor McPherson?”
Crap I really need to stop calling her Boobs McGee; it’s going to come back to bite me. Ezra hides a laugh with a cough and the other trainees have smirks on their faces.
“Intel,” she snaps at Amaya, who is another instructor. She is in charge of background checks, and data. She also happens to be one of Hope’s favorite instructors.
“Here is the background on all of the night guards.” She hands us all a copy.
“Your job, trainees, is to decide who will be the best target. Once you decide who that is, the information provided should help you to um…make contact,” she says, turning red and looking over at McPherson.
Ezra looks down at his watch.
“You have thirty minutes to decide who you chose as the target. Once you come up with a plan, we will reconvene. The other agents and I will set up our plan when your time is up we will meet back together. Feel free to use the computers or anything else you might need for your research.”
I look around at the people in my group; overall I think we are pretty solid. None of my close friends are in my group, but it’s probably for the best.
“Ok, trainees, your time is up. Who is the target?”
Oliver steps up with our findings.
“That would be twenty-two-year-old Lester Valentine. Lester is an entry-level night guard who has been fired from two other positions prior to this job.”
“What was the reason behind his terminations?” McPherson asks.
Oliver smirks and replies “Fraternizing on company time.”
“Both times?” she asks, raising her brows.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She smiles wide.
“Well, well…it seems we have a winner. “Where will the swipe take place?”
Melody, a sweet girl with blonde hair and glasses, steps up with her information.
“There is a bar close to his job where he likes to stop before work. It’s a little hole in the wall, a honkey tonk called Bubbas.”
“Of course it is.” Ezra rolls his eyes.
“The plan?” she asks, now directing her look at me.
“I will go into the bar with Oliver ten minutes after Melody and Wendy. They will get eyes on the bar and feed us the intel. Wendy will flirt a bit and liquor him up a tad and then Oliver and I will go in for the kill.”
“That sounds like a pretty solid plan except h
e will have to be on the clock an hour after that.”
I smile widely. “Not if I’m successful, he won’t.”
McPherson smiles wide and Ezra’s brows shoot up in shock.
“I’m not sleeping with him or anything,” I quickly add. “But I will make sure he is indisposed and then I will access the building using his card to let the next team in.”
“Sounds like a good plan. The other leaders and I will make sure to fill in any gaps. Get your gear and anything else you might need. Let’s do this, rookies,” he says with a wide smile.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Aria
In the words of Trevor, I’m seconds away from crapping my pants. This is a high like I’ve never known. We are all suited up, or down in my case, and ready to go. Ezra fills us in on the way to the bar.
“Ok, I am able to sub in at the bar for the night since their bartender randomly came down with food poising,” he says with a wide smile. “So I’ll be your eyes and ears on that side. The girls will be first on scene and as long as the target is in place they will give you the go ahead. I want you and Oliver to sit directly within my line of vision. The bar top would be best. Girls,” he turns and looks at Melody and Wendy, “if there are two open stools at the bar, take them. If there aren’t enough for Oliver and Aria, I want you to get up and give them yours.”
The girls nod, looking just as excited as I feel.
“Aria, you order shots all night. Yours will be water, but you need to fake it. Speaking of which...” Ezra reaches into his pocket and hands us all fake IDs. “I want every single one of those back when this is over.”
We all roll our eyes.
“Now Aria, when it's time, you give me the signal and I’ll slip something into his drink. You need to make sure you take him directly out to his car right then. If you wait too long we will have a serious problem on our hands. Oliver will be waiting out back to help you.”
“Got it,” we both reply.
“Ok, let’s do this,” he says as we pull up a few blocks from the bar. Ezra exits the van and we all start prepping ourselves. Boobs McGee, oops I mean McPherson, gives us our comms and makes sure we are all on the same frequency.
“I’ll be in the van along with Kyle and we will be able to see and hear you. If anything comes up, say the code and we will pull you out. This op is important, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pull out if you need to. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” we all reply.
Wendy takes the makeup from me and rolls her eyes.
“What girl as beautiful as you doesn’t know how to do her own makeup?”
“It’s because she is so beautiful that she doesn’t need to use it,” Oliver shoots back, making me blush.
“Whatever,” Wendy says as she expertly does my makeup in record time. I’m shocked when I look at the outcome. My lips are bright red, my eyes are smoky, and my hair looks like I should be saying, “Thank you for this country music award.”
I look down at my almost non-existent jean mini skirt and the tube top I’m practically falling out of. Geez, I’m pretty much walking in there naked. I’m not a short girl, and it looks like my legs never quit in this getup.
“Stop fidgeting so much; you look great,” Oliver says, giving me a supportive smile.
“Thanks.”
“You need to be able to sell this, Aria.”
“I know. Don’t worry, I will.”
“Melody, Wendy you are up,” McPherson calls out.
“Wish us luck,” they say and head out.
Oliver and I stay behind and watch them on the monitors as they enter the bar. It really is a dive. The girls find two seats right in front of Ezra at the bar top and order two fruity looking drinks that I know won’t have any alcohol in them. After about five minutes, they order another one and start acting giggly and flirty. You’d never know they were stone cold sober and whispering into their comms the whole time.
“Target spotted. Far left corner chatting up the redhead in sequins,” Wendy whispers.
Kyle pulls up the monitor and, sure thing, there is Mr. Valentine.
Oliver looks my way. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s do this,” I say as we jump from the van and make our way to the bar.
“Dive bar was putting it nicely,” I mutter into the comms. I can see the girls start to giggle. They don’t make eye contact with us, but as soon as we walk in Melody grabs Wendy by the hand and stumbles out of her seat to dance. They make their way to the dance floor and we take the seats now open at the bar top. Ezra makes his way over.
“What’ll be folks?” he asks with no recognition.
“What do you say, babe, tequila?”
“Oh, why not? The night is young,” Oliver says, acting bored.
“Four shots hon, and keep ‘em comin’,” I say with a wink.
Ezra smiles back and sets up our “shots.” He makes a big show of pouring the tequila and if I weren't looking for it, I wouldn’t have seen him switch them out for the shots of water. Wow, he’s good. As he passes them our way, he quietly mutters.
“He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you walked in. This should be a piece of cake.”
I fling my hair over my shoulder, laugh, and glance in the target’s direction.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” I mutter.
Oliver and I do our shots, suck our limes, and make a spectacle of ourselves. Speaking of spectacle, the girls are out grinding on the floor, and Wendy is looking a little worse for the wear. Dang these girls paid much better attention in acting class than I did. Wendy glances at me and gives the signal.
“Showtime,” I whisper to Oliver. He takes two more shots that Ezra sets up and starts getting loud and obnoxious.
“Calm down, will ya? You’re embarassin’ me,” I drawl.
“Awe, come on honey, why you gotta be so uptight all the time? Can’t you just let your hair down once in a while and have a little fun?” He starts pawing at me and falling over, resting his head on my cleavage. I quickly kick him as hard as I can in the shin to get him off of my chest and he gives me a sheepish smirk.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room, Stanley. You better sober up by the time I get back.”
That’s my signal for Wendy to swoop in. I head to the bathroom and listen to McPherson on the comms.
“Good job, Aria; he took the bait. He’s waiting for you right now outside of the bathroom. Remember, get him back to the bar top and Ezra will do the rest.”
“Copy.” I wash my hands in the filthy bathroom and make sure I’m looking good, then head out the door where I accidentally on purpose run into the target.
“Oh my heavens! I’m so sorry, sugar; I didn’t even see you there.”
“Oh geez, that’s alright,” he says, looking like he won the lotto.
“The name is Lester.”
“Tammy. Nice to meetcha.”
“Can I buy you a drink, Tammy?” he asks, sounding so nervous I feel kinda bad for the poor guy. But I can’t think of that now; I have a mission to see to.
“I’m sorry, darling; I am here with someone,” I say making a show of looking around for Oliver.
“You mean that guy?” he asks pointing to where Oliver and Wendy are making out on the dance floor.
I suck in a dramatic breath.
“Well, I never.” I square my shoulders and loop my arm in his.
“Looks like a spot on my dance card was just freed up.”
I pull him to the floor and we start to dance. Thank goodness the song is already half over; the man is stepping on my feet more times than I can count. When the song finally ends, I start fanning myself.
“Man, I could use a drink. Shall we?” I ask, pointing to the bar. He nods and I make my way back to my seat.
“Four more, honey,” I indicate to Ezra.
He starts pouring shots and Lester and I take turns taking the shots.
Ezra nods and I know I have exactly two minutes to get him out to his tru
ck.
I start nuzzling his neck and try not to gag. Geez, when’s the last time he took a shower? You’d think you would want to go into work smelling fresh. My word! I make my way up to his ear and whisper, “What do you say we take this party elsewhere?”
Lester is already slurring so bad that I’m worried about making it out the door.
I nod to Ezra and notice Oliver is nowhere in sight, which hopefully means he is in place at back waiting for us. As soon as we make it out the door, Oliver is instantly at my side and helping me put Lester into the truck. I go through his pockets and find the security badge.
“Poor guy. I almost feel bad for him.”
“Come on. We gotta split.”
When we get back to the van, the girls are there, totally sober and waiting.
“You guys are amazing, you know that? I could have sworn Ezra didn’t switch your drinks and that you were actually drunk.” They both grin back at me.
We are all on a high from completing the first half of the mission, but quickly change into our black gear and boots. I have the badge and am given the all clear. I walk to the corporation’s building with the next team and swipe us in.
“Remember,” Ezra says in my ear, “the other team is in charge of clearing the security room, and you only have five minutes, that is all. Set the loop, change the time, and get out of there.”
“Yes, sir,” I say and take off as fast as I can.
I ease into the shadows, following where I know the cameras can’t see. I see the guard room has been cleared so I hurry to the monitors. I can see where the other team is effectively causing a scene outside; the front guard must have called for backup. I hurry and start the loop. It’s child’s play really.
Now time for the second part of my mission, the part nobody else knows about. Right as we were about to leave for this mission, my father pulled me aside and gave me the order to wipe the system clean.
It didn’t seem too odd to me until he said that no one was to know. I know I shouldn’t question his instructions, but Edward lost my trust and love years ago and something was screaming foul play to me. I hurry to take a USB out of my pocket and download the data, take it out, then stuff it in my boot. I locate the USB that Edward gave me and upload a virus that will destroy the system. I look down and see I only have a few seconds left so I grab the flash drive and take off.
