Long time no see and I am so sorry about that! But it's almost winter break AND CHRISTMAS/KWANZAA and you don't know how ready I am! And is currently Hanukkah so Happy Hanukkah for those who celebrate it! Schools been a killer, trying to get all the tests and stuff in before break so I'm sorry for not updating! But seriously! IT'S ALMOST HERE! I'm so in the spirit; I got my lights, tree, decorations, gingerbread house and cookies all make and up. Is anyone going anywhere fun for the break? Any travel plans? Let me know! OK, yes, I'm rambling. But please enjoy this chapter!

"BEN!" Zoe screamed at me, startling me when I was working on my homework.

"What?" I asked.

"Thank you so much for selecting me for this mission. You know, we all are very thankful. Mike and Chip won't shut up about it! And you know how much I care about Erica..." Zoe rambled on for a while after that and I started to tune her out.

"Anyway! I just wanted to say thanks. And I was just talking with Audrey. She's excited too. Her first CIA mission, she's leading it and she hasn't even had any official classes yet! But I agree with you: she's definitely qualified to, and will probably nicer about it than Erica."

I didn't mention the fact that it wasn't my idea for Audrey to head the mission. Audrey and Zoe have gotten a lot closer nowadays. They have a lot of classes together and Zoe needed a girl friend. Erica wasn't exactly the most 'lets paint nails together' person and Mike and I refused to. We also didn't enjoy Zoe rambling about all the gossip and 'girl talk' we were forced to listen to.

But Audrey was perfect for that. They were both girly-girl and found gossip and painting nails an enjoyable pastime (which I can't even fathom). Even though Audrey has her own friend group, they still hung out often. Zoe hasn't been murdered yet with Audrey, so I could tell she wasn't totally evil (or maybe not at all, but I'm still suspicious).

Zoe, at first, was suspicious, but kind of got blinded by Audrey's kindness and beauty, so she dropped her suspicious accusations. And once she got closer to her, she thought she was nice and fun, and her room wasn't full of top-secret documents she shouldn't have (Erica, however, was a different story) so she had no evidence and chose to drop it. But that caused problems for me because I didn't trust Audrey and I couldn't talk to Zoe about it. Even though Zoe's my friend, she's also Audrey's friend and I'm worried she'd blab to Audrey.

"Yeah, no problem. I'm worried about Erica, but she's been a little suspicious before she disappeared. I hope this is a rescue mission, not an enemy attack. But we'll see." I reply.

Zoe frowned, like this hadn't occurred to her.

"Huh. Yeah, I hope not. I don't think any of us could take Erica in a fight. Well, maybe Audrey could. I don't know. You knew she threw that fight right? In the finale? She didn't really try."

"I could tell. She's way more skilled for Erica to beat her by a landslide." I reply.

Zoe nodded, "I was talking to her about it," That peaked my interest. I was wondering why she gave up. Zoe could have crucial information. I leaned in closer.

"Why? Why'd she throw the fight?"

"She thought it was dumb. Fighting someone else for entertainment. She said she's fine with sparring, to train, but didn't like the prospect of the whole tournament. Kind of like the Hunger Games, she was saying. I get where she's coming from. It's kinda weird the whole school was watching too."

I sagged. I was hoping somewhere along the lines of: 'She was working with a terrorist organization and didn't want anyone to figure out she had professional training.' But Audrey's reasoning made perfect sense.

"So why'd she even sign up for it?" I asked, curious.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask her?" Zoe replied. Yeah, no way, "Oh! I forgot! Is Cyrus going with us or is any adult from the CIA coming on the mission?"

I shook my head, "No. The CIA is super corrupt right now. I heard a rumor that they caught a Russian spy deep within its workings. I think he wants this to be covert. And when we find her, we'll radio Cyrus and he can take it from there. But he's fairly sure she's there. He heard chatter, in code, about some 'enemy hostage' taken to that location by SPYDER."

"Oh okay. Anyway, I just came her to say thanks on the behalf of everyone you selected. We're all super excited." With that, Zoe walked away.

It still, to this day, struck me odd that everyone wanted to be picked for this mission. If I was them, I wanted to be cozy in my bed, not potentially running for my life. They're talking about it like I selected them for a trip to the Caribbean.

Anyway, I had to get packing. We're taking a van to an undisclosed location in the morning. We have to find Erica, whether she's good, or bad.

XXX

I woke up earlier than my comfort zone. 5:15 AM. Shoot. I was supposed be at the gate at 5:30. Racing, I wolfed down a breakfast burrito and got changed. I grabbed my light duffel (I was told there is limited space on the van and only the necessities can be brought.)

I ran to the front driveway and glanced at my watch. 5:28. Just in time. Unfortunately, I walked up and saw Audrey, Mike, Chip, Jawa, Zoe and worst, Cyrus glaring at me. There were a few other CIA agents as well.

"Glad you could finally join us. We've been waiting for at least fifteen minutes. They all knew they were supposed to be here, so they were early. Have you heard the expression 'if you're on time, your late?' Same rules apply." Cyrus glared disdainfully at me.

I cast my eyes down, "Sorry sir."

He grunted in disapproval, "At any rate, we must get going. Agent Jacob Evanstein will drive you to the location in," Cyrus pointed to a white van that most mothers warn their children of getting near, "that van. From there, you will infiltrate the building, keeping an eye out for my granddaughter. If you see her, report it immediately. If not, come back, and we'll figure another location."

Jacob Evanstein nodded at us. I recognized him. He was the guy who was guarding me in the interrogation room while Cyrus was in there. He looked really young, in his mid-twenties.

"Good to see you again, Mr. Ripley." He said politely.

"You too sir." I reply.

Everyone started to load the van. The other CIA agents were talking and my fellow classmates were packing their luggage in the trunk of the van. I saw Jacob and Cyrus talking.

"Ripley and Audrey!" Cyrus snapped after finishing with Jacob, "Come over here!"

Audrey and I exchange a confused glance and walk over.

"I'm going over the mission one more time, so we have it down. Agent Evanstein will drop you all off at the old soup kitchen on Potter Way. Lemme say, for the record, I don't totally trust and know Evenstein. He's just to drop you off at the location and even if he is evil, you can overpower him. He can only do this because he was in the interrogation room with us and I don't want more people to know of this whole thing than necessary. If you find nothing, radio me and I'll call for an extraction and if Erica is in there, radio me and try to convince her to come back. I have no clue if she's captive or there by choice, so I'll leave it to your best judgement. Got it?" Audrey and I nod to Cyrus, "Okay, good. Get going."

We stroll back to the van where everyone is already in and claimed the best spots. Apparently, the drive is at least three hours, so we're in for the long haul. Everyone wanted shotgun but since Audrey is the leader of the mission, she goes up front with Jacob.

And our journey starts.

XXX

I think I dozed off at one point, but I'm not sure. Someone, I think it was Chip (but he'd never admit it), farted so it reeked in the van for about a half a hour until Jacob couldn't handle it so we stopped at a Get-On-Out burger for a 'bathroom break' to air out the van.

Everyone went to the restroom and as I walked out, I saw Audrey and Jacob talking like they'd know each other for a while. To my knowledge, they didn't know each other that well, but they were talking like old friends. Audrey only joined two months ago and that would be such a crazy coincidence they would know each other from before. As I approached, they acted like they were never talking. I acted like I wasn't suspicious, but I was. For sure.

We got back in the van and drove for another hour-ish. Jawa started a game of I-Spy (ironic, right?) and the game didn't have many spy techniques used in the real word of espionage so it should be called 'looking at random things and hoping someone will notice it too.' We all, Jacob included, reluctantly played.

After another hour, I noticed something strange about the road. There was a highway sign that said 'Entering West Virginia.' This was weird because we were supposed to be heading north towards Pennsylvania. Unless we were going through West Virginia, which would add roughly nine more hours to our drive, we were heading the opposite direction.

Butterflies started to appear in my stomach, but no one else seemed to notice this. Jacob keep acting like he had the whole drive, annoyed at this assignment.

"Uhh..." I finally got the courage to speak up, "Where are we going?" Everyone else in the car, not including Jacob and surprisingly, Audrey, looked around. They noticed the same thing I did.

"Yeah, you're right..." Mike said suspiciously, "We're in West Virginia." Zoe, Chip, Mike and Jawa gave cold looks at Jacob.

Jacob shrugged, not concerned, "It's a shortcut. Says so on Google Maps."

"Really?" Jawa says in condescending sarcasm, "because I'm looking right now and it appears to add eight hours to our drive."

I looked at Audrey because, surprisingly, she hasn't said anything. I noticed a change in her behavior. She was tensed up, suspecting a fight of some sort. Her whole body language changed and a darker mood overcame our 99 bottles of beer on the wall drive. The cheery, roadtrip vibe suddenly died. Audrey's eyes narrowed dangerously and glared.

"Okay, what the heck is going on?" Zoe stated angrily, "Jacob, if you're trying to kidnap us, it's not going to work. There's six of us and one of you."

"Oh really?" Jacob sneered and it all became clear: he wasn't working with us. "What are you going to do?"

"Take over this van." stated Chip.

"Actually," Audrey snarled, "that won't be happening." Audrey's pretty face overcame with an evil smirk and she pulled out a gun and pointed it at us.

Multiple different things happened at once. I felt Mike tense up in fear next to me. Zoe screamed, "You betrayed me!" Chip, from the way back, shouted, "Were you evil the whole time?!" and Jawa, the sensible one, pulled out his own gun at pointed it right back at Audrey. All I could think was 'I WAS RIGHT!'

"Drop your gun Audrey." Jawa demanded.

Audrey gave a malicious but somehow still sweet laugh, "Oh really?" In a second, she swiveled in her seat and grabbed my shirt front and yanked it towards her. I was in the middle seat and pulled towards the front of the van. I felt a cold gun barrel pressed against my temple. Jawa's face paled and gun wavered a bit. Through my peripheral vision, I saw Jacob watching us with an amused expression.

"How about you drop your gun and I won't blow Ben's brains out?" Audrey's smirk just grew.

Jawa surrendered and set his gun in Jacob's outstretched hand, driving with only one hand.

"Fine, I gave it up. Let Ben go." Jawa's voice shook. Normally, we would be at the advantage, seeing we overpowered them in numbers, but we knew that Audrey could defeat all of us by herself.

"Alright, I'm gonna let Ben go. But if anyone tries to do anything funny, I'm shooting him right in the head. We have more than enough without him." Audrey still faced us, gun pointing at me.

I had no words. Even though I was suspicious and pretty sure Audrey was evil, it doesn't prepare you for when you are right. It was a bitter-sweet moment. Sweet because I was right. Bitter because there was a good chance you could die. I guess more bitter than sweet.

"So where are we going? Who do you work for?" Mike asked, apprehensive.

Audrey gave him a sweet, condescending grin, "Knew you were going to ask that sweetie! I'm not dumb like Joshua, so I won't bore you with the details of our 'evil plan! How the world will soon be ours!' but instead just say that it would has gotten to the destination without a fight if Ben didn't noticed. Joshua made the mistake of delivering his great plan to you guys before it even happened. Josh needs something to fuel his cockiness. I'm not an idiot, so I won't tell you. Ben has a history of stopping us, so I'll keep quiet. Jacob, will you pull over?"

"Gladly." Jacob smirked and pulled over.

"You were in it too?" Zoe asked, disappointed.

"Not originally. But SPYDER needed someone inside, so they paid me off. I'd gotten a lot of pressure to join them for most of my life now. I arranged for me to guard Agent Hale to the interrogation room and listened to Ben and Cyrus talk. I reported it all to Audrey and the whole plan came together!" Jacob grinned.

"So what was the plan?" Mike tried to ask innocently.

"Ha! I'm not that dumb. Everyone, get out with hands in the air." Jacob put the van in park and all the good people exchanged a glance. Defeated, we exited the van with our hands up. Audrey came out first and pointed the gun at us.

Jacob came around with a box of handcuffs and started to handcuff Mike. He didn't protest, because he knew it was a lost cause. Chip and Jawa, however, tried to fight back but Audrey simply punched them in a painful spot and they doubled over in pain. While injured, Jacob handcuffed them.

I didn't protest. I had no clue what to do. I normally rely on someone else with more skills than me to bail me out, but I knew we were in a dire situation.

After he restrained us, he went back to the van and moved all our luggage out of reach from our seat and Audrey gestured with her gun for us to get back in. We obeyed.

I tried to get a read on Audrey. She showed no hint of remorse or regret in her actions and attitude. But I had a sense she, even in the deepest part of her, felt bad. Or maybe that was just my wishful thinking, since she is basically our only hope, and she's evil.

We drove in silence. Audrey kept the gun pointed at us most of the drive but got bored after a while. But we didn't try anything. It was an useless risk.

But something kept bugging me about what Jacob had said. 'I'd gotten a lot of pressure to join them for most of my life now.' Most of his life? That's interesting. Shouldn't it be a few months or years maybe at the most? Life? He's not that young. Jacob. Jacob Evanstein. Evanstein. Evan... E! Evanstein. E. E... Where have I heard some association with someone evil with an E...?

It hit me so hard that I gasped. Mister E. Is there a connection?

There you are folks! Because it's the holidays, I probably won't update very frequently (as you may have noticed). I'm so sorry about that and Happy Holidays!