I've run out of excuses. :) Valentines day passed! I hope you told your loved ones that you love them! A vote would be a great thing to give me… LOL ;)

Oh, and I need to tell a story. So I was on vacation and went to this cute bookstore. I went up to the desk and asked the women working there if she had an advanced readers copies (books that publishers release before the actual book comes out-I was looking for spy school British Invasion.) To my surprise and joy, she said yes and pulled out a box full of them!! And get this: THEY HAD SSBI!! I was so happy and I asked if I could have it (they aren't allowed to sell then because they haven't been officially released).

She said ‘sure!’ but then asked what school I went to. Since I was on vacation, it was in another state.

Then she told me she couldn’t give it to me because of some school district agreement and some other excuse. Like she needed it back or couldn't lend it to me because of some school thingy.

Bottom line: I COULDN'T READ IT!! >:( I was so bummed out. There was a part of me that wanted to grab it and run but with every ounce of self control I had I refrained.

But if you live in the state of Washington PM me and I'll tell you what bookstore and town it was in so you can read it. But darn, I was so disappointed.

Anyway, sorry for ranting to you guys. I'm so sorry for the long wait but please enjoy. :D

“Lift off!” The techies cry in joy as they hugged each other.

I sat in horror, watching the scene in front of me unfold. I was right. It wasn't an airplane. It was missiles. And they were heading for land.

On the screen, we could see the flight path radar on the bottom and a view from a missile as four race beside it.

I could guess they were thermonuclear missiles because on a screen beside it showed the coordinates and heat signals. Since they were in the air, the only thing that registered was an occasional bird.

“We have lift off! It's on path to go to the coordinates. It's on autopilot now.” the lead techie told Joshua.

“Excellent!” Joshua grinned maliciously, with a murderous gleam in his eye, “You may go now.”

“What?” the techie asked in confusion, a falter in his step.

“All of the scientists in this room. Thanks for making it a smooth take off. You can go now.” Joshua gave him a fake smile and waved him off. Audrey stood next to him and smirked.

“All of us? What if there's a malfunction?” the poor techie looked lost.

“Well, there shouldn't be if you did your job correctly, right?” Joshua prodded.

“Um… yes sir. We will file out.” the techie said meekly.

“Perfect! Thanks for your help.” Joshua smiled and the techie started rounding up all his workers.

I just sat in disdain. It was awful. The missiles were speeding towards land. They’ve been flying for a while, so I can imagine the destination is far away or taking a weird path. For the first time, I was praying my calculations were off.

Finally, the five missiles that were flying together separated and went a multiple different directions.

My blood was turing cold. It all hit me. It became so real to me. Those missiles were real. And they were going to kill people.

Desperately, I turned towards the only other people in the room, aside from some guards. Joshua and Audrey.

I’ve given up hope that Joshua would magically become a nice person and say ‘Just kidding! This SPYDER thing was a giant practical joke!’ That ship has sailed. So I turned to Audrey, who I knew had a little human left in her.

“Audrey, please,” I pleaded, “Those missiles are real. They will kill people. I don’t care how much money you’re getting from this, just stop them. Is it worth a bunch of innocent lives?”

Audrey opened her mouth to respond, but Joshua beat her to it.

“It’s not just some petty cash. This will roll in more cash than we’ve ever gotten. Plus, we didn’t even have to pay for these thermonuclear whatever things. And, since we’re nice guys, we set this plan in motion on a Monday morning. No one goes to work earlier than 7AM on a Monday. We did that because we sorta care about those innocent people. So there.” He smirked at me and Audrey focused her attention back on the screen.

Something struck me odd about what Joshua said. According to him, this gig will pay them well. And they didn’t even have to buy all the missiles. SPYDER probably didn’t even think of the idea to use thermonuclear missiles. Someone much more powerful and smart must be hiring them. If so, why couldn’t they just do it themselves? Working with SPYDER would guarantee some loose ends. Something very weird is going on.

But I couldn’t focus on that. I had to focus on the dangerous weapons speeding toward Earth.

“Please! Audrey, come’on! Countless lives are going to be lost. Think of the children and grandparents!” I tried one last ditch effort.

“Sorry,” she spoke to me for the first time, “I can’t do anything about it. The coordinates are already locked in. Plus, they were your coordinates I tricked you into giving me, so if you think about it, this is mostly your fault. And,” she gave a loving glance at Joshua. Yuck. “Even if I could stop it, why would I? I could be rich before I turn eighteen.” Joshua gave her a proud look. Double yuck. An evil couple.

I knew there was nothing I could do. My coordinates were accurate. They were going to kill people. Giving up, I focused back on the screen. It became a five way screen; each one displaying one missile. Two of them were above the ocean. Three of them were already above land, but hanging close to the coastline. None of them started to dive yet.

I tried to locate, based on the geology, where each of them were heading. The two above water I had no clue about but one of the ones above land were heading across a lushious, green landscape.

Suddenly, I saw a sliver of a old building in the corner of the green landscape screen. The missile veered, and I saw it clearly: the great wall of China.

I couldn’t bite back my gasp of surprise. Oh no. It was heading towards the beginning of the great wall.

Joshua, however, was cheering when the great wall of China came into view. He grinned then looked back at me,

“Nice calculations,” he sneered at me. I just glared back at him.

SPYDER was targeting China, obviously, to hit their most popular landmark. Now I was curious where the others were headed.

Another one that was above land was in a more bare landscape. In that one, the ground suddenly became white, so somewhere in the snow. I was thinking about where places to target were in areas with snow, but almost every country experiences snow at some point, so that didn’t narrow it down much. At first, I was thinking of Antarctica (snowy, duh) because they do some global-warming studies there as well as some snow experiments. But I don’t think SPYDER or anyone else cared about shutting down some snow studies. There are some military bases in snowy areas like in the middle east, Siberia, Russia and even some in Iceland as well as many other countries. So I have no clue where that is headed.

Another one was passing a populated area. You could see buildings in the distance and big ones too. All of a sudden, I saw a very familiar landmark. Big Ben. England. SPYDER was targeting Great Britain.

Dread filled my body. SPYDER was planning a terrorist attack on a few big countries. The other missiles must be targeting other major countries. One country popped in my head. My home country. The United States.

I looked at the monitors for a hint if my suspicions were correct. One of them was still above water whereas another one was above rolling hills and farmlands. Farmlands could be in any country.

Farmland continued for a while and the other was still above water. The other three missiles seemed to have locked in a position but to my surprise they haven't started to dive yet. They were hovering over a spot but didn't strike yet. One was hovering over the great wall, one was hovering over Big Ben and the other was hovering over a military base in the middle of the snow (I'm guessing Russia). Waiting for a signal to strike.

The one with the farmland started to fly over civilization. It seemed like a big city and in the distance, there was a large building standing out from all of the other skyscrapers. Of course, it was the Eiffel Tower.

Lastly, I watched the other screen which was still above water. But in that one, there was land on each side of the water. This gave me a hint that this is above a river or bay of some sort. I prayed that it wasn't the U.S. but every time I pray, the opposite happens. I must be praying to the wrong god.

Naturally, it was in the US. I saw the Golden Gate Bridge come into view. I am beyond surprised anymore. I saw it coming. There was nothing I could do.

All of the missiles were now hovering above their coordinates. I was wondering how the heck the governments hadn't noticed them.

But my question was soon answered as we heard a roaring coming from two of the monitors. The US and British government sent fighter planes to shoot the missiles down.

Joshua and Audrey panicked a bit. They hurried to the phone and yelled in it for a bit. In a few seconds, a whole crew of SPYDER agents stormed inside the room.

I scoffed to myself. How did they not account for the fact that the government of their targets would try to intervene?

Everyone ignored me handcuffed to the chair. I was forced to sit and watch the chaos unfold.

Suddenly, a man walked into the room. The room was barely lit so we could see the monitors but this man had an aura of power around him. All of the talking and arguing stopped. It was so quiet, one could hear a pin drop.

The man looked around passively. He was tall and broad. I couldn’t see him in the harsh light, but he seemed no older than 35.

“What's the problem here?” the man's voice was deep with some danger laced into it. It was very intimidating.

Even the SPYDER agents seemed intimidated by the man in front of them. They gave each other looks and tried to get someone to talk. After glancing at each other for a few seconds, Joshua gave up and spoke to the powerful man.

“Sir, I am so sorry to disrupt you. But we have an issue with the missiles. The government of missile 00147 and missile 00153 have sent jets and military planes to shoot them down.”

The man simply raised an eyebrow, “So?”

Joshua looked uncomfortable, “We can’t let them shoot them down.”

“You're right, we shouldn't.” The man smiled and the smile chilled me to the bone. It was freaky.

“Awaiting instructions on how to proceed, Mr. E.”

MR. E??! I stiffened in shock. This man here is Mr. E?! I should have been paying more attention to him. To his voice, body, age. So I could try to identify him.

“Let's light the sky up.” With that, Mr. E walked out.

“You heard him,” Joshua called out, “The operation is a go. Let's blow some stuff up!”

SPYDER agents cheered and I knew Joshua just gave the kill order.

Someone activated the missiles and before I could even think, they were nosediving towards their target. And all I could do is watch.

Joshua, Audrey and the rest of the SPYDER agents looked at the missiles greedily as they sped towards their coordinates and their heat targets. People.

I just sat and hoped that the government would shoot them down. But no such luck. They were too close to land to shoot anyone down and risk hurting more people.

There was no hope.

But then, there was. At the last second, all of the missiles either turned to the left or right, veering away from the targets and completed their dive.

The thermonuclear missiles went off course and hit a random farm, into the San Francisco Bay, green hills off the great wall, a valley of snow and in some water near Big Ben. They didn't hurt anyone. It was a miracle. Maybe I did pray to the right god.

It was almost comical to watch SPYDER's faces turn from joy to confusion then anger.

“WHAT?! WHAT HAPPENED?” Joshua roared.

Audrey’s eyes narrowed in anger and suspicion, “Which one of you moles did this? Turn yourself in and maybe we'll spare your life. We'll find you eventually.”

“What about him?” a SPYDER agent pointed an accusing finger in my direction, finally acknowledging my presence.

“He was tied up the whole time. He couldn’t really do anything. And didn't you check the coordinates Ben gave us? And didn't you approve them?” Audrey glared at him. He shrunk under her gaze. I stared and did nothing.

But inside, I was having a internal celebration. The missile didn't hurt anyone and didn't hit their targets. But why?

I knew my coordinates were dead on. I tripled checked them with the word problem. With the word problem…

Then it hit me why the missiles veered off course a little bit. The original word problem said it was thermonuclear bombs. That's why it went sideways. I accounted for the wind. I originally planned for a plane to drop the bombs. The plane needs to drop it a little bit away from the targets so the bomb could blow towards it's actual target. But SPYDER made a fatal mistake. They said on the word problem that it was a thermonuclear bomb, not thermonuclear missile. That makes a huge difference in calculations.

SPYDER was freaking out. But in the chaos, I noticed someone slip into the room. Mr. E. He seemed to be the only one not concerned about the mishap. In fact, he seemed happy. He gave a sly smile, looking as if he knew something everyone else didn't.

Even though the missiles didn't hurt anyone and didn't goes as planned, something was off. Why did I have a feeling that this isn't over? Why do I feel like I'm missing something here?

Oooh! What's going to happen? Again please let me apologize for this taking so long, but a vote and comment would be nice :)  How about a prediction? Thanks so much for sticking with me!