"Jace, I need to tell you something about these people. They're trying to conquer all of the Agencies and change everything about them. Don't tell them anything. Be silent at all times. Don't even talk. They'll track your accents. They already know that we're from the HIA, but they don't know where it is. Don't speak. At all. Remain silent when they take you into that room, no matter what. OK?"
"OK. I promise you, I won't say a thing."
Laura relaxed and leaned against the wall, waiting for them to get Jace.
********************
Agent Katie Hill was pouting. She’d told her friend, Agent Rylee Porter, to tell her everything that was going on at HIA. She meant everything. Unfortunately, he’d told her the part where Laura and Jace had been captured and Rebecca had requested her to go on a mission. She couldn’t, of course, because she was in Tanzania. Life was boring there. Although the native children were fun and she’d been able to ride an elephant, she still missed the HIA.
“Three weeks?!” she remembered saying to the Administrator. “Are you trying to kill me? Why can’t you send Rebecca? She loves this stuff!”
“I’m afraid we might already have a mission for her to accomplish,” the chief had answered calmly.
Katie had given him her best pouting face. “I bet it’s more exciting than mine.” After a while, she finally agreed and left, only to find out that two days later Rebecca had been sent on a mission to track down missing agents in Utah. She’d been so right when she said her mission would be boring. This was killing her!
****************
There was something different about the energy signatures. They were using different technology this time. Armaan glared at the screen of his laptop and bit on his knuckle. He couldn’t figure out what all that stuff was. The facility not only was larger than before, but seemed different than what he’d previously known. He sat back and pulled up the old blueprints to the building. He layered them on top of the new ones and his eyes widened. “Agent Stapley!” he said into the com. “We have a major problem!”
****************
Rebecca winced and put her hand to her ear. “Didn’t I tell you? Radio silence,” she hissed.
“Yah, but this is important!”
“Stop freaking out. There’s nothing wrong. We’ve got this under control,” Rebecca whispered.
“But the signatures! I overlapped the blueprints and—”
Rebecca stuck her finger in her ear angrily and turned off communications. “What was that?” Tyler asked.
“Static. It’s annoying. I forgot to update my Bluetooth, so it’s radio silence for me from here on out.”
****************
Armaan paused. Did she just cut him off? “Hello?” he asked. There was no answer. Just complete silence. Armaan tossed his hands into the air. He could never win with this girl!
****************
Kalyia looked at her screen intently. She had been tracking the intruders by their heat signatures ever since they got in, but just now her system had been shut down from remote access. She began to override the system, but she didn’t know how long it would take. The agents could be on the inside layer by the time she brought it back up. Instead, she whirled around and logged into her second system. This would only be able to track the technology on the HIA personnel, but she was sure the enemy agents would have something on them she could track. Finally. She tapped into their communications systems and sighed when she saw two blue dots on her screen. Then she paused. Weren’t there three before?
****************
"Hey, you know what? You guys should turn yours off too." Rebecca commanded. The two did as they were told.
****************
She couldn't believe it. The dots had been there! They had! Now they were gone! Poof! She'd have to restart the system to be able to find the agents. She'd also have to contact the Man. She did not want to do that, but she had to. She took a deep breath and turned on the link to his system.
She didn't have to have a phone to hear his reaction echo through the halls.
****************
"So, did you tell them anything?" Jace asked Laura.
"No, nothing. I know of these people. Don't say a single word to them, no muttering, no talking back, nothing. They will track us down through our voices. In fact, we ought to stop talking right now."
"O-"
Jace didn't finish his short sentence after seeing Laura's face when he was about to agree. Jace looked down at his feet, ashamed. Laura curled up in a corner and began to fall asleep.
****************