Ben's POV

I woke up at 0845 hours with my alarm ringing in my ears. I shut it off, then lazily got out of bed. Looking at my calendar, I realized that I was supposed to report to Cyrus in fifteen minutes. I quickly brushed my teeth, put on a pair of decent jeans and a t-shirt and rushed out of my dorm.

Since it was the first day of summer break, most of the kids were still in bed. Unfortunately for me, I had to be at the Nathan Hale administration building in eight minutes.

On my way, I received a text from Erica.

Good morning. Don't talk about what happened to ANYONE.

I cracked my brain, trying to think about what had happened. Then it dawned on me that I shared a kiss with her the previous night. I thrust my phone back in my pocket as I ran to the building. I had a minute and a half left.

"There he is," Alexander said cheerfully as I found him, Cyrus, Catherine and Erica outside, waiting for me. Erica was dressed like me in a pair of jeans and a top for a change, and I smiled at her. She looked my way, and I could tell she was trying to tell me through her eyes that she was smiling, too. Unfortunately, since Cyrus was looking at her, she couldn't smile back.

"Okay, both of you will go with Alexander to the airport. From now on, Ben, he is your legal guardian. You both will be with him for the whole mission. Do you understand?" Cyrus said.

We both nodded. Alexander hopped into the car. Catherine pulled me and Erica into a hug before leaving.

To me she handed a box of chocolate chip muffins. "For the journey," she said, then winked and waved goodbye. Cyrus returned to the building, and we got into the car.

I opened the box of muffins and gobbled up three of them. To my surprise, Erica sat in the backseat and grabbed a muffin as well.

The whole ride was silent, but the only reason that happened was because Erica was texting me.

Erica: Ben

Me: hey

Erica: I'm going to text you because I don't want my dad to hear us.

Me: right

Erica: we'll look at the document on the flight

Me: what document

Erica: ...

Me: I should be knowing this

Erica: The flash drive the Idiot had

Me: oh yeah

We arrived at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and followed Alexander to the private airstrip, where a jet was waiting for us. The jst was not ready yet and would be ready after twenty minutes according to Alexander, so Erica and I made ourselves comfortable in some seats.

Alexander had brought with him a backpack with essentials and three designer suits. Erica just had a small suitcase, probably filled with dangerous weapons and grenades. I just threw in a couple of good-looking shirts and some jeans and hoodies in mine.

"So, will you explain what in the world just happened today morning?" I asked softly. Alexander was on the phone so he wasn't able to hear us, but just in case, I spoke softly.

Erica looked into my eyes as she spoke. "I didn't want to keep it in any longer. I wanted you to know what you mean to me. You would always be filled with doubt when someone teased us as boyfriend and girlfriend, so I just wanted to clarify. I do indeed have feelings for you, Ben. I don't want anyone to know at all. At all. Do you understand?"

"Why, Erica?" I asked. "Why?"

Erica leaned in to whisper. "Though my mom may think that it's the sweetest thing ever, my dad and grandfather are not like that. My dad may seem nice, but he's too overprotective of me. He doesn't like me getting all open and stuff. My grandfather is even worse. He doesn't even want me talking to you like this. Since my whole family will lash out at me, this will forever remain secret until we grow up."

I nodded. Erica's family expected a lot from her, and this included the fact that they were very strict about friendships as well.

"My grandfather lets us be on missions together only because you have a gift of math and a good sense of logic, Ben," Erica said, her face turned away from me. I could tell she was trying to keep tears in. "Not because we're friends. He doesn't like me having friends. Not even acquaintances."

I placed a hand on Erica. She whipped her head around, sending her hair flying. Then she relaxed, and flipped her hand over. I laced my fingers around hers and she let it stay like that.

Alexander walked over to us a couple of minutes later. "Our flight is ready. We can depart now."
He hadn't noticed Erica's hand in mine. A wave of relief flooded over me. We got up from our seats and followed him to our jet.

It was a very nice jet with soft cushioned chairs, a bedroom for sleeping and a nice kitchen. There was air conditioning as well as a heater system. As soon as we boarded the flight Alexander took his seat next to our pilot, a well-known agent in the CIA.

"Ready for takeoff," Alexander said, and we took off into the air.

The first thing Erica did as soon as she got settled in was grab her laptop. Since there were only six seats in the jet, three on either side, there was a center table in the middle of the plane. Erica unbuckled her seatbelt, then plugged in the flash drive. I joined her as well.

Password, it read. Erica frowned in confusion.

"It's the Idiot," I reminded her. "He's an idiot. His password has to be super easy to crack."

Erica typed in password when it asked her to enter a password. It pinged and opened up to all the files we needed.

"The password is password?" Erica gasped in exasperation. "What kind of an idiot does that?"

"Our kind," I replied, and we burst into laughter. It felt so good to see Erica laughing and smiling.

She pulled up all the files on the flash drive and skimmed through them. Then she frowned in frustration.

"These files are all empty," she said, then cursed under her breath. "I did all that surveillance for nothing?"

"Principal Sidebottom may have made this file to store data that he learned about," I replied.

Erica nodded thoughtfully. "My grandpa isn't stupid enough to give the principal any information."

She pulled the flash drive out of the laptop and shut it. She pocketed the flash drive for later and let out a long sigh. "This makes no sense."

"When will we get more information on the mission?" I asked Erica, hoping she would have an answer. She simply shrugged.

"I haven't been given any information on this," she replied, then moved on to reading out of a textbook I identified as Pitts' Introduction to attacking while blindfolded: Understanding the enemy.

I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through my Instagram instead. I figured that I could search up Cynthia and Jamie Mirgher on social media to get some basic information.

What came next surprised me.

Have a good day!