Now he found that Armaan was helping the GCA by spying on the HIA and figuring out their secrets. He walked straight across the street, not letting himself be bothered by the fact that he wasn’t at a stoplight. He had to stop Armaan from messing things up. He had to stop him.
"So, Armaan. I am going to be blunt. Why are you spying on the HIA?" Imraan asked, hoping to see a terrified look on his brother's face. Instead, he was met with a confused look.
"I thought that you were the one spying on them.”
Now it was Imraan's turn to be confused. He obviously wasn't lying. Then what were the cameras for?
****************
When Armaan and Imraan had finished explaining themselves to each other, they started to plan how to make it into the HIA.
****************
"Oh, the poor dears."
"What is it?" Agent Hill asked the receptionist.
"Two agents from the GCA are trying to get into the HIA."
"May they’ll survive the first test." She said sympathetically.
The receptionist nodded in agreement as she put the video on public, which was tradition and procedure. It wasn't even five seconds later that the sympathetic groans were heard from the neighboring room.
****************
Rebecca glared at the screen when she saw the two agents being ushered into the facility. She knew those two. They were the tech twins from GCA. Why were they trying to get in?
She heard a knock. “Agent Stapley, you are needed in Chief Administrator Taylor’s office,” came a voice.
“I’ll be there in just a minute,” she answered.
“He says it’s urgent.”
Rebecca sighed. “Two seconds.” The agent left, so she turned off the video of the twins and locked her computer. She set her current paperwork on the rest of the stack and wheeled around towards the door. She’d heard of this before. The Adm. would call up a former agent in mock urgency, then give them the task of administering the first test on the new trainees.
If that was what this was, she was going to kill him.
****************
Rebecca entered the office, and the twins turned to look at her. She hadn’t changed much since last they saw her. She was definitely taller, but she didn’t look much different otherwise.
“Ah, Agent Stapley. You’re here,” the chief said.
“What do you need?” she asked, trying not to think about burrowing a hole into his skull with her eyes.
“Armaan here has just given us a solution.”
Rebecca was surprised. So he wasn’t asking her to be the teacher? “To what?” she questioned.
“To our problem with the agents,” Adm. Taylor answered. “He’s here to help.”
Rebecca nearly fainted. "They can what?" She breathed out quickly.
"They claim that they might be able to heal our agents." Adm. Taylor replied. Rebecca couldn't believe it. Adm. Taylor trusted them to help her friends? Rebecca would trust them with her life to fix a broken engine, but a broken mind? There was no way that she would let these tech nerds anywhere near her friends, especially Xarissa. Armaan began to speak, but Rebecca cut him off. "Leave us. I need to talk to the Administrator for a minute."
They did as they were told. When the door had closed, Rebecca began to release her fury.
"What were you thinking, trusting them? What's wrong with our nurse? I trust her more than I trust those nerds. I don't think that they have ever even touched a book on the mind! I know them, trust me. They would do a lot more good helping us with the airplanes than with the agents. They're engineers! They're geniuses in physics! But psychology? No! Never! I'd rather die than let them anywhere near the nurse's office!" Rebecca couldn't stand it any longer and ran out the door to see the boys sprawled out on the ground. They were apparently eavesdropping on their conversation. Rebecca looked at them and placed her finger on her neck and slid it across her throat, making a sound in her throat to emphasize her meaning. She grabbed both of their ears and took them to the stadium. She locked the doors to the stadium and started scrolling through the lists of different kinds of tests to get into Heritage. Then she found the one, and smiled evilly. The stage was set, and Rebecca shouted, "Come and get me!" The boys, confused, began to walk slowly towards her when the first booby trap went off and the groans and cheers from the audience were heard.
****************
Sarah heard Caitlin groan and ripped the dividing curtain away.
"Caitlin?" Sarah whispered.
"Uhh?" Caitlin responded.
"Is Laura on your other side?" Sarah asked. Caitlin mumbled as she tried to reach the other curtain. She was finally able to move it to see the face of the person on the other side. It was Xarissa's. She was moaning and grimacing in her sleep, which was really painful to see. Caitlin gently moved the curtain back. Sarah reached for the other curtain to see who was there, and as she ripped it from the bar, she and Caitlin gasped at what they saw.
****************
"Jace? What are you doing here?" Laura asked. She had woken up and decided, with the nurse's permission, to take a walk. She was sitting on the bench in the front office when Jace had walked in the front door. Jace jumped when he saw her.
****************
Jace had been half excited and half terrified to see Laura again, but he didn't expect to see her in the state that she was in. He wasn't surprised to hear his name: he expected someone to recognize him, but he was very surprised to see Laura beaten up. "What happened to you? Did Niko or one of the others do this to you?"
Laura smiled and said, "I was expecting something like this to happen. No, this happened on the way back here. Apparently, I'm not 'well' enough to tell anyone what happened, but I don't see the others being well enough to tell in detail what had really happened either. In fact, I'm the only one who knows the full story, really. But I won't bother you with that. I ask you again, what are you doing here?"
Jace looked around, a bit embarrassed, but said, "I was hoping that I could join the HIA."
Laura smiled, and asked, "Do you think that you could beat that?" She pointed to the TV in the room that Jace hadn't noticed before. Rebecca was in the middle of the first test for two wannabe agents of the HIA. Jace walked towards the TV to take a closer look. He smirked.
"That? Piece of cake! But those twins sure look as though they are in trouble."
"That's the first test out of 10 tests. This one is for checking booby traps. It's hard, trust me."
"Hmph." Jace said. Rebecca was finally done with them, unlocked the doors, and said sweetly,
"Thank you for your interest in the HIA. Have a nice day!"
The two boys were hugging each other in pain and embarrassment.
"You know what? I want to try that!" Jace said. He walked up to the desk and said to the receptionist, "Excuse me, but I would like to try to get into the HIA. May I take the test?"
The receptionist looked at him as if he was insane. She, however, said into the phone,
"Agent Stapley, why don't you stay there for a while? Agent Pang is bringing another victim trying out for the HIA."
Jace smiled.
****************
Jake watched the strange boy walk into the testing room. As soon as it was closed, he ran to the two twins, grabbed them, and dragged them into an empty hall. “What was that…?” One of them mumbled. They looked so identical, Jake couldn’t figure out which was which. But he knew their names because of what he’d watched.
“Armaan. Imraan. Rebecca doesn’t think you can do this on your own, but my sisters need your help,” he said quickly and quietly. “If there’s anything you can do, you have to do it.”
One of them straightened and stepped forward. “I am Armaan,” he said. Jake tried not to stare at his black eye. “Agent Stapley said that I am a mere engineer, but she is wrong. I may not have any fighting experience, but I assure you I can help you with this one. The mind is like a complex engine. Just like the wheels and pulleys, every mind has gears that keep it going. If something is stuck in one of those gears, all you have to do is remove it.”
“I trust you,” Jake said.
“I will have to use a form of hypnosis for this…”
“I don’t care what it is. I would do anything.”
“If this isn’t successful…”
“Anything.”
Armaan nodded. “Lead the way.”
****************