Dedicated to: janecullen03

Hey! SO in reply to your comment, yeah, last chapter was more of a filler. But it was still needed. It’s all part of my master plan. Muahahahaha! :3

Thanks for the comment!

                                *              *              *

    September 13th

    Agent R. Harris is confronted by Susan Mitchell. Agents R. Harris and A. Peterson discover a setback in the mission.

    24: Trouble in Paradise

    Date: September 13th

Somehow I find myself standing in front of the pink door that leads to the inside of my dorm, and I am not making any movements to open the door. There are plenty of ways I could get inside. Kicking the door open would suffice. Or even just using my room key.

       But I do nothing.

       It isn’t a good idea to go inside.

       I turn around and inspect the hallways as if expecting them to throw an empty room full of answers my way. It would be nice. And also physically impossible.

       A door closes behind me, and I swivel back to face the pink door only to find myself staring at the one person I was trying to avoid.

       Susan’s dark eyes seem to be even darker upon seeing my face. She stands straight and tall, and if I weren’t playing the part of Rachel Williams she would be towering over me. Her glowing bronze face is devoid of any desire to see mine. In her hand she holds a purse and a pink lipstick tube is wedged between her fingers as her other hand rests on the doorknob behind her.

       We eye each other equally.

       “Susan,” I greet.

       She doesn’t return the greeting. Instead she narrows her eyes at me. “I heard you’re a suspect for the kidnapping.”

      My mouth goes dry. “I’m not,” I tell her. I’m not entirely sure if I’m lying or not.

       But either way Susan doesn’t believe me. “Rachel, do you know something? About where Adrian is?” Her voice is laced with accusation.

       “No,” I state flatly. “If I knew where he was I would tell someone.”

       “Why?” she says.

       Her question catches me off guard. “What?”

       “Why would you tell someone where he is?” Susan asks, stepping closer to me. She puts her lipstick inside her purse and places her free hand on her hip. “You were broken up. In fact, he was a complete jerk to you. How can anyone be sure that you’d speak up if you knew something?”

       “Because I’m not a psychopath who wants my ex-boyfriend to be kidnapped,” I snap at her.

       A group of girls walks by us as I say the words, watching Susan and my exchange with interest, and I regret saying anything about Adrian being my ex-boyfriend in the sentence. I wait until they pass us completely to continue speaking.

       “Look, Susan, I don’t know anything that could help the police find Adrian, okay? I would do anything to help find him. When I broke up with Adrian I didn’t suddenly forget how much I cared for him.”

       Susan smiles frigidly. “But it seemed a lot like he did.”

       I don’t realize it at first, but her words hit a nerve. I blink at her, unsure of what to say at the moment.

       “Rachel,” someone interrupts. Someone’s hand touches my arm, and at the physical contact I realize it’s Alex. Not that it surprises me. Alex may as well be the last person who will willingly speak to me. And I’m sure that’s only because he’s my partner.

       My eyes do not leave Susan’s, even with Alex asking for my attention. I inspect her face. Every other student is scared. Two people from the school have gone missing.

       But Susan is here, with a hard glare, interrogating me. Not a trace of fear in sight. Why?

       She stares at the both of us for a few more seconds, and then she turns on her heel and walks away.

       “Rachel,” Alex repeats.

       Without another word I open the door in front of me and step inside. Alex steps in behind me.

       “Alex,” I start, turning to face him.

       Alex seems to mirror my unsettling emotion in his expression. “Rachel, there’s something you should—”

       “Jacobs thinks I did it. He thinks I kidnapped Adrian, and now Susan thinks I know something and my image is ruined because the whole school suspects me. It’s only a matter of time before my name is connected to Kyle’s, too. And your name will be as well, if—”

       “Rachel,” Alex says. “There’s been an interference with our signal.”

       I stare blankly at the blond boy in front of me, trying to understand exactly what he’s saying. “What do you mean?”

       “Our connection with Special Operations,” he tells me. “The transmitter isn’t working; our signal’s gone. Someone’s been interfering with the connection.”

       “What?” I say. “How is that possible? That connection to Operations is a secure line. It took years to build, it can’t be completely gone. It has to be there somewhere . . .” I pause. “Someone must be cloaking the signal.”

       Alex doesn’t respond. It takes me a minute to understand what I’ve just said, too.

       As of right now, Alex and I are completely alone. Special Operations has no means of communication with us whatsoever. Every piece of technology we have that is capable of connecting to Special Operations' interface connects through an open channel that was created specifically for this operation. If we can't find the signal, we have absolutely nothing.

       Someone with a lot of resources has found a way to make the connection temporarily go dark, which throws away years of preparation for this exact mission and puts us in a vulnerable position.

       A strong, burning feeling builds up inside me. I feel it rising, hot like lava, burning through my veins. It isn’t until my arm shoots out to punch the wall next to me that I realize the feeling is anger.

       “What the hell is going on?” I ask no one in particular. I pace back and forth for a while, and Alex watches me silently, waiting for me to calm down.

       I don’t know when that will be.

       “We have to find the source,” I say eventually, positioning myself to lean against the wall. “We have to track whatever information we have left from the signal and where it ends, and we have to—”

       Alex looks up at me from his seat on my bed, and his eyes bore into mine, daring me to finish the sentence that I’m not sure how to finish. “And we have to what?”

       I almost punch the wall again in frustration. “I don’t know; I have no idea what we’ll find. But we have to fix this.”

       Except how? Things are beginning to look impossible now. Not only the mission, but getting out of this place alive, and finding Adrian and Kyle before we do.

       For a moment Alex stays quiet. But soon he gets to his feet and makes his way over to where I am.

       “We can fix this, Rachel,” he says, and it’s as if he sensed me doubting our capability two seconds ago. “Listen, I know this is your first mission. But it isn’t mine. We can’t get in touch with Special Operations, we do the mission by ourselves.”

       I stare at him. “But we don’t have any backup. Anywhere. At all.”

       “Yes we do,” he says, and his lips curl upwards. “I’m still here. Last I checked, I was your backup and you were mine. That’s the only way this works.”

       I think over his words.

       He’s right, of course.

       I scowl at him. “When did you become the rational one? That was me, like, last week.”

       He grins, and I pause to admire his face when he does. “A lot can happen in a week.” Then Alex moves closer to me, staring intently into my eyes. “A lot can happen in five minutes, too. Wanna make out?”

       And just when I thought I was starting to like him.

       I sigh and push him away from me with unnecessary force, watching warily as he stumbles to the side. “I have a better Idea,” I say, “and it involves the mission. So quit joking around and let’s get back to work.”

       Alex is still grinning. “Who said I was joking?”

          .          .          .

I originally believed that being considered a suspect of kidnapping would completely mess up my image. But I was wrong. If anything, it’s made me more popular.

       In terms of attention, at least.

       Alex and I walk through the cafeteria, and the only sounds heard are my footsteps. Alex looks over at me as I concentrate on putting one heeled foot in front of the other and ignoring the stares.

       “Are you sure we can’t still make out?” he whispers into my ear. “I mean if all these people are staring, we should give them a show.”

       I try not to notice the smirk on his face.

       But I’m a trained Special Operations agent. So that’s not going to happen.

       “Alex,” I whisper back. “Enough with the make out requests. I am not a kissing booth.”

       We head towards the table in the far back of the cafeteria. The walk seems elongated with the stares that follow us, but when I start to feel self-conscious, something keeps pulling me forward.

       I look down. Alex’s fingers are entwined together with mine. I pull my gaze back up immediately, unwanted heat rushing to my face.

       Alex’s smirk reappears. “Well, I guess I can settle for this instead,” he whispers. “Besides, I can’t afford a kissing booth anyway. Word of advice, never become a secret government agent. The pay is terrible.”

       I crack a smile at him.

       Before I know it we’re standing in front of our destination. About six or seven heads look up at Alex and me, and Alex tilts his head to the side.

       “Jeffrey Lin,” he says, smiling like he usually does, “We’re gonna need to borrow you for a second.”

                                *              *              *

OMG. That took forever to write.

Anyway. SO I’M ON SUMMER VACAY. YAY! AND THAT RHYMED.

So I don’t know if any of you noticed, but I took out all the year numbers from the dates in all the chapters. I realized how long it might take me to finish this thing. This is going to be a longgg book. So putting a time stamp is going to get annoying, considering I will always want the book to seem modern.

So yeah. No more of that.

FIRST COMMENTER GETS A DEDICATION. So if ya want one, hurry and comment first. First come first serve.

But. You know. Even if you aren’t first, you should still comment. Because I like those. And I might check out one of your stories if you do.

:3

Later, guys!