Let me fast forward to two weeks later which was mostly me visiting 'studio 97' constantly training with Valerio as well as visiting the HQ to get to know which Case officer I would hand my monthly Spy Report to, where to find a Cobbler*, where to get gadgets and so on. But what worried me the most was, what rank will I get? Do I have great potential like they said? There was one way I found out - The Spy Games.

*******

My phone rang disturbing my deep slumber. I struggled to pick up the phone which sat on my bedside table.  Once I was able to, I checked the time squinting to see the caller id who was my childhood friend Armani.

"Hello?"

"Girl, guess what?"

"What?" I replied stifling a yawn.

"I think I'm getting a new job!"

"You think so? Like what?"

"I can't give you the details..."

This caused me to raise an eyebrow.

"And why not?"

"You really like asking questions don't you?" She asked.

"Why don't we talk about something else," I said trying to change the topic, "like, why did you wake me up at 9.00am in the morning?"

"Why did you pick up the call? You know I'll give you some good news about myself but not give you the full details - you know me." I roll my eyes at her failed attempt to make an excuse.

"And I pick up your calls because you rarely have good news about yourself so..." that was when I saw a notification telling me I received a text from Valerio.

"Aria? Hello?"

"Oh, hello. Sorry. I just got a text from a colleague telling me they need me at work."

"You have a job now? Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you. What Job is it?"

"I can't give you the details..." I reply mimicking her.

"Now that's not fair. I-"

"Look. I have to go now, I'll answer your questions later, bye."

"But y-" I ended the call and got out of bed, brushed my teeth, showered and ate pancake with Maple syrup.

As I exit the kitchen/ dining hall, I noticed the house was quiet. Weird. But then I just shrugged and did not question myself any further.

I studied myself in the full-length mirror which hung in the corridor leading to the front door. I was happy with my choice of clothing: black Capri trousers, a tank top with a long black jacket and ankle heel boots.

I stood in a car park outside what looked like a very tall residential building which I couldn't see the top of and I asked myself these questions when I looked up, how high does this guy live? How rich is he? Because this building was very modernised and quite urban to me compared to the shabby, antique place I lived in with a horrible old man. How fortunate some people are in this day and age. As soon as I heard the door to the building open, I looked in the direction to where the sound was coming from and I saw Valerio walking towards me in his usual attire but without his shades.

"Shall we?" he gestured to his car which parked a few meters from where I stood and lead the way.

I sat in the passenger seat while he sat in the driver's seat and again he drove in silence. I decided to break the silence by asking, "Do you think I am ready?"

He replied, "Well yes. I think you're ready. No, You are ready," he briefly took his eyes off the road to look at me before adding, "besides, I am the greatest trainer and nicest colleague."

I snorted, "Yeah, like I believe you're the nicest (!) All I've been seeing is your cold side."

He pulled over and parked in the nearest street (with available parking) closest to the station and we headed there. As we were standing in the lift, I was looking at the floor when I felt his hand touch my forearm causing me to look at him. 

He winked at me and told me, "You'll know my good side eventually."

I gave him a puzzled look before I asked, "What is going happen?"

With amusement in his eyes, he answered, "You'll be in the VRD and a Case Officer will explain to you what will happen, I'll just be watching."

Before I knew it, we exit the lift, went through the familiar twists and turns before we reached a similar control room with the same glass but behind it, a bigger dome with about ten people inside wearing the same colour as me: black. I was ushered inside and the door separating the dome and the control room closed behind me. I then strode towards the other people (or more like my opponents) whose backs were to me and stood in line with them. 

"Ah, Aria. Now we can start." Said the case officer looking up from his clipboard whose name when I looked at the name tag read, 'C.O Mensah.'

If you look at him, he wore square named glasses and was average in terms of height and weight and seemed like he's from African descent - Oh, how I like describing people. Besides that, he started to explain how "The Spy Games" worked, "There are five challenges in order to be ranked according to the criteria: being able to cypher code using a Caesar decoder, to be good at convincing, to be a Mole*, to be able to handle other spies - which is my job and there will be a test of combat. Any questions?"

My hand shot in the air and all eyes were on me, "Aria Fortescue."

"What is a Mole?"

"A Mole is like a Double Agent but the duties are slightly different. Yes? Armani Moore."

"Why do you need to be good at convincing?" she asked - I couldn't see her by the way, as she was on the other side.

"In order to gain employment in other Intelligence. Again, it is like being a Double Agent Being a Mole or being good at convincing are all linked as well as the task," I could he was being impatient by him tapping his foot and looking at his watch, "we are scarce on time. Shall we begin?"

"Yes," we answered.

"Each of you will be given a tablet," as he said it, a woman wearing a lab coat pushed a trolley of 7-inch tablets to his side and left, "which a Caesar decoder has been installed in each of them; this is there to help you. You'll be given a card with Caesar code written on it and a piece of paper with a pen. Your task is to decipher the text to the best of your ability writing it down and the tablets are there if you get stuck - I repeat, but you'll only get to use it once. You have 45 minutes. You may begin."

A card was given to me and it had a paragraph's worth of Caesar which made me frown. I then went over to the trolley and took a tablet, just in case. There were pairs of tables and chairs scattered 2 o'clock from where the tablet trolley stood. I sat at one of the unoccupied tables and set to work.

I assessed the card trying to recognise the basic phonetic sounds like a, e, i, o, u, sound blends - Phonemes that make up a word and bingo, I found the first word "you" which I found in 5 minutes. 40 left to go, I thought as I rubbed my temple. As time went on,  I found it easier to decipher the text and by the time 25 minutes were gone, I managed to figure out a sentence.

45 minutes were up and I was done. Relieved, I leaned back and sighed. I watched as the Case Officer checked on our deciphered text. As I was looking around, I saw someone who looked unmistakably familiar, the Case Officer did mention her name and her voice did sound familiar when she asked the question - it is Armani. No wonder why she couldn't tell me which job she got. When we made eye contact, Armani raised her eyebrows as if thinking the same thing.

"Ok," said C.O Mensah bringing my attention back to where he stood which was close to the control room's entrance, "next is the 2nd challenge - being able to be a good at convincing or in other words a Mole. There are about 15 of you am I correct?"

"Yes." Most of us answered.

He stood in the centre to address it properly, "I'm going to give each of you quick questions about why I want to hire you and there will be no time for you to plan. You'll be pretty making up a couple of lies on your own as long as you can convince me."

He looked at his clipboard then he announced, "Libby Hale. You are first."

Little did I know that this Libby Hale would only be another pawn in this charade.