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He’d escaped! He almost couldn’t believe it, but he had escaped! Those years of his dad training him to be a terrorist really paid off. Now the Chrys Ghoad gang would think him dead. All he had to do was change his name, live in hiding for a while. Suddenly, this thought bothered him. The only places that were out of range of current Albanian terrorism were American Agencies. The thought of joining Laura and the HIA thrilled him and almost scared him, but it really didn’t matter. After all they’d been through, how could anyone trust him?
It had been five years. Five years since the separation. His brother was what now? 22?
But he knew what he had to do. He had to find his brother and ask for forgiveness.
"Kael! Kael?" Jace called.
Kael stepped through a door in his house to see his younger brother standing there.
"You. What are you doing here? How did you find me?" He asked suspiciously.
"I always knew that you were here. Father didn't. I made sure that he never found out. I came to ask you for your forgiveness."
Kael looked at his brother, doubting him.
"I'm done with the terrorism! I can't stand it anymore! I’m not sure if I ever did. I'm asking for your forgiveness so that I can start out fresh when I leave and repay for my crimes in America."
Kael stared at his brother blankly. If he was telling the truth, he might move to America with him. But if it was a lie…
"How can I trust you?" Kael asked.
"I let the agent from HIA go. I helped your love escape."
By now, Fetije had walked into the room. She had heard enough to know what they were talking about.
"It's true. He had a gun pointed straight at our rescuers' face and didn't shoot. He helped us out."
Kael thought and thought. Finally, he held out his hand to his brother.
"Brothers?" he asked.
"Brothers." Jace replied.
"Good luck…Jace."
"You too." Jace responded, and left the house.
****************
“Armaan, thanks to your technology, we finally got the watches working,” Conner said, smiling.
“You’re welcome. Is there something else?” Armaan questioned.
Conner sighed. “Yes…When I came back to the GCA after a quick trip to London for quick supplies, I found that Rebecca was gone. Do you have any idea where she went?”
“I would imagine that she went back to the HIA,” Armaan answered. Conner sighed again as if he knew what Armaan was going to say but didn’t want to believe it himself. “She’s pretty attached to that place, you know.”
“I know,” Conner said, stepping behind the robot in the middle of the room and working on the programming. “It’s just…I’ve been wanting her to come back to the GCA for a long time.” He looked at Armaan, who gave him a skeptical look. “She’s a good agent.” Armaan raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I like her, but she’s still a good agent. We could use someone like her.”
“You’d be better off trying to join the HIA than to bring her to the GCA.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Exactly.”
Conner sighed and wiped his hands. “Okay, that’s all I had to say. You’re dismissed.”
Armaan turned and walked away, but as he headed back to his room, he wondered how hard it actually would be to join the HIA.
****************
Jace knew the next thing he had to do was get to America so that he could settle things with the HIA. He wondered how he was going to get there. Maybe there was an airport further into Ban. He pulled out the map he had stolen from the facility and found an airport not too far away. He folded the map, shoved it into his pocket, and began walking.
After traveling with the HIA, the commercial planes seemed incredibly slow. Jace couldn't believe that he thought that these planes were actually fast at one time. Now, he's falling asleep. It took him 24 hours to get to Arizona. Then he realized his one mistake: he didn't know where the HIA was. Then he found another mistake: the police probably had "Have you seen me?" posters of him everywhere. He needed to find the HIA, and fast. He then remembered where Laura's school was. Maybe he could find her there. He found a bus going to downtown Mesa and became half excited and half nervous. Ok, nervous wasn't the right word. Terrified was more like it, but even though he was terrified, he needed to find the HIA.
****************
"Hey, do you know how hard it is to get into the HIA?" Armaan asked one of his fellow spies.
The agent looked at Armaan strangely and asked, "Are you considering trying to get in? Don't even try! The tests there are so hard, you would die in the simplest one!" she answered him.
"Have you tried to get in?" Armaan asked her.
"No, but I had some friends that did. They were never the same afterwards. Do you know what they do? I hear that they actually do some serious work! They're like the Secret Service, or the FBI, only they're in High School!" The girl looked around, then whispered, "I also heard that some of their agents stopped a bomb going to the White House! Those guys are elite! There's no chance that any of us will get in!"
"Well, what about the Stapleys?" Armaan asked.
"Well, the Stapleys are the Stapleys. They're super elite! Of course they would get in; they were the best that the GCA ever had! I need to go, ok? Catch you later!" And the agent skipped off.
Armaan walked off, a little more depressed than normal.
****************
"Sarah? Sarah! Sarah!"
Sarah woke up to hear Rebecca shouting her name.
"Oh, hello Beck. Wake me up later when we actually get there, then I'll get up." and started to snuggle back in. Then the terrible memories started flooding back. Sarah sat straight up and shouted at Rebecca,
"Where's Laura? Is she ok? And when did you get here?!"
Rebecca placed both hands on Sarah's shoulders and pushed Sarah down onto the bed.
"Don't worry. Laura will be fine. You're the first one that's fully conscious after you landed. It was really frightening. Believe me--and to answer your last question--I got here shortly before you did, but we need to know: what happened on that plane?"
Sarah started to sob. "There was a camera in the plane, right?"
"Yes."
"Did you see what we did?"
Rebecca paused, then nodded.
"Then you know what happened. We turned into monsters. That's all you need to know."
"No, there was a reason why you did all of that. I'm sure that you were overreacting to something, but we don't know what, and that is why we need you to tell us exactly what happened. We won't judge you."
"Yes you will."
"Please."
Sarah looked around, then whispered to Rebecca,
"Make sure that nobody is listening in."
Rebecca checked and leaned closer to Sarah. Sarah sat up and whispered to Rebecca everything that had been said. When Sarah was done, Rebecca leaned back in the chair in disbelief. Sarah looked down in embarrassment. Rebecca stood up, said goodbye to Sarah, and walked towards Adm. Taylor's office, thinking over what Sarah had told her.
"Ah, Agent Stapley. What do you need?" Adm. Taylor said.
"I found out what happened on the plane. I've come to tell you." Rebecca replied as she closed the door and sat down.
****************
Imraan waited until Armaan left to go into his brother’s room. He knew the pass code; he’d seen Armaan type it in a million times before. “Welcome Agent Imraan Helvik,” the AI said. Imraan smiled, not even caring that Armaan would be able to track the person who went in his room. By the time he figured that out, Imraan would be long gone.
He would have already found the HIA.
****************
Armaan stood outside the school. The only reason he’d been able to find the HIA and tap into their systems was because he followed Rebecca when she had left the GCA and joined the HIA. He had been looking for a way out of the GCA. Even though the GCA was called the Global Conservation Agency, it seemed like it was more focused on bettering its own technology than helping the world. Ever since it had been created, the GCA had always tried to be better than the HIA—which would never happen. The HIA was possibly the best Agency in the world. He knew he wanted to leave the GCA, but he didn’t know how welcoming the HIA would be to a former GCA operative. That’s why he had to find the cure for the three agent’s mental illnesses. That was his ticket in.
****************
Imraan turned on the computer. It was nice that he and his twin shared the same brain. Armaan had used almost all of the same codes he would have used. In the matter of a few minutes, he was logged on and could see all of Armaan’s files. He went to the most recent update, and what he saw surprised him. It was a camera video of what was going on inside the HIA. It wasn’t just one camera. Armaan had cameras posted all over the facility, and even on a few jets. He was using GCA technology to spy on the HIA. Why would he be doing that?
Imraan closed down everything he had opened and walked out of the room. He didn’t know what was going on, but he had to find out.
****************
Armaan was walking back to the car when he saw one driving down the road. It wasn’t the same car as his, but he could tell it was a GCA model. He knew running would make him look suspicious, so he walked to one of the benches on the sidewalk and sat down, waiting for the other car to park and for whoever was in it to step out.
****************
Imraan watched his twin sit down on the bench and smiled slightly. It was funny how he knew exactly what his brother was going to do. He parked the car across the street, turned it off, and stepped out.
****************
Armaan hadn’t expected this. The person stepping out of the car was his twin. How had he followed him here? He had let himself be tracked down by a GCA operative. He should have known that Imraan would start figuring things out. Unlike himself, Imraan had always been stuck to the GCA, doing whatever they told him to do. He wouldn’t let his brother get in the way of things. He had to stop Imraan from ruining this chance. What he was going to do would help himself and the HIA. By helping the HIA, he would be helping the world.
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