"Agent Stapley, I understand that you've successfully recovered from your last mission."
"Yes, Adm. Taylor, I'm a lot better now. Thank you."
"Your next mission will grieve you greatly."
"How?"
"You are to recover two agents that have been missing for a week now. I'm afraid to inform you that Agent Pang and Agent 'Higgins' have been kidnapped."
Rebecca stared back at the Administrator, uncomprehending. “Not possible.”
“Apparently, it is, because we just heard word that it happened,” the chief replied.
Rebecca choked on her next words. “That’s not…no way. We just…”
“I know this is hard to swallow, but it’s true. You’re mission is to find them.”
“Unbelievable!” Rebecca said, whirling around towards the door. It had only been three months and already that kid had gotten himself into deep trouble, taking Laura with him. Rebecca shook her head angrily and turned back around. “Was it the Chrys Ghoad gang?” she asked steely, facing the door.
“No. We do not know who exactly has taken them, for we don’t know the corporation they are working for.”
“What do you have that I can go off of?”
“We used the trackers on their coms to track them down. Once their captors found them and destroyed that communication, we were forced to enable the trackers in their shoulders.”
“You gave Jace one?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca almost smiled, knowing that now she could track him down wherever he went. Then she scolded herself for not focusing and turned to look the Adm. in the eyes. “I’ll take Agent Hill, Agent Ray, and Agent S. West.”
“Agent Hill is on a separate mission in Tanzania and won’t be back for at least three weeks. You will take Agent Allen instead.”
“Janaya?” Rebecca asked, surprised. She didn’t even know what Janaya specialized in.
“Yes. She is a great fighter, and has a good eye. She will be a great addition to your team.”
All right,” Rebecca agreed. “Tell me the details.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” Adm. Taylor added.
“What?”
“There is an undercover agent that will be assisting you on this mission.”
“Who?”
“Armaan Helvik.”
Rebecca bit her tongue to keep back the bitter words back. Armaan? Sheesh, of course he would be rewarded with becoming an undercover agent.
"Where are we going again?"
"I'm glad that you asked. I'd almost forgotten to tell you. They were in Provo, Utah the last time we checked. I'm sure that you remember."
Rebecca had a flashback to the strange man that was trying to get information out of them. "Yes, I do,” she said with a far-off look. She turned around and left the room.
****************
"Where do you think we are?" Laura asked Jace. Jace thought, then answered,
"I have no idea. We could be anywhere." Jace remembered how they were about to do their assignment when the strange thugs appeared out of nowhere and overpowered them. His thought process was interrupted by the door opening and closing, announcing the entrance of their captor, or one of his minions.
"So, you have no idea why you are here?" the man asked.
Both of them made their best poker faces. The man paid no heed and kept going.
"We have been trying to find the HIA, and we almost found them, by capturing two of their agents, but they escaped before they would give us their location, so we've tracked you down so that you can tell us instead. Now please, tell us where the HIA is, and we'll let you go."
Jace said nothing. So did Laura.
"Alright, I guess this means no more Mr. Nice Guy, huh? Very well. Lady's first, right?" he announced as he grabbed Laura's wrist and pulled her out of the room.
Jace shouted, "Let her go!" and tackled the man. The man punched Jace and handed Laura to the guards, who placed shackles on her neck, wrists, and ankles and escorted her out of the room.
*****************
Agent S. West was lounging in the Spanish room, working on some math homework. I guess you couldn’t really say “working”. All of this was so easy for her. If she was to pretend to be in another grade, she might as well be in twelfth. All of this was so easy it hurt. It was like knowing the square root of 12 equaled 144. This was as easy as pi. Pun intended.
“Sarah.” She looked up to see Rebecca and Tyler standing in the doorway.
“Hey guys,” she said. “Anything exciting going on?”
Tyler shrugged. “Just the regular.”
Sarah grimaced. “Who this time?”
“Guys, this is not something to be joking around about,” Rebecca said grumpily.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Tyler whispered loudly to Sarah.
“Obviously,” Sarah whispered back.
“Quit it, guys,” Rebecca intervened. “I’m just a bit frazzled and a lot concerned. If your too busy being happy campers, I’ll let you go search for twigs while I start the fire the right way. Get my drift?”
“Yah…” Sarah said, standing. She didn’t mean to complain, but the math homework seemed more appealing than a mission with Agent Nazi.
****************
Armaan sighed as he watched the plane land through the screen of his computer. He knew just by looking at it that he would miss the GCA technology. He turned on his watch and grabbed a couple disks, shoving them in his pocket. Then he got up and made his way to the exit of the underground facility. Although he would miss a few of the niceties of the GCA technology, and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to working with Rebecca, he was thrilled to finally be going on an HIA mission. Maybe he could prove himself and…no. The thought disintegrated almost as quickly as it appeared. He scolded himself for being such a dreamer. Never ever in his life would he ever meet the requirements to be able to join the HIA.
"Wait, where are we going?" Sarah asked. Janaya was pretty quiet, sharpening her tools. It was rather intimidating.
"Provo, Utah,” Rebecca answered.
"That was where you were kidnapped."
"Yeah, and that's where we're going to look for the two missing agents."
"May we know who they are? I mean, it's not like Laura's weird mission where-" Sarah paused. Her memory was a bit fuzzy. She didn't understand why.
"You're right. It's our mission, and we don't keep secrets from each other unless we really have to. Laura and Jace are the two agents missing,” Rebecca replied. Janaya paused in her sharpening, then continued. Sarah and Tyler's jaw dropped to the ground.
"What?" Tyler asked.
"Yep, they've been missing for about a week, and we've tracked them here. I remember the terrain, but not very well. It would be better if Xarissa was with us, but you guys know that she's busy on her own mission with Agent Whetten and my brother."
"Huh." Sarah responded. How could Laura be kidnapped? She then remembered some parts of the fuzziness. They had been attacked, but Laura was the only one who had been physically hurt, which didn't make sense. She was one of the best at defense, and they were all good at defending themselves. How could they have walked out of the attack without much harm and her walk out nearly unrecognizable?
"You're in deep thought, Sarah." Tyler noticed.
"Huh? Yeah...I was thinking about the day that we were attacked on the plane..." Sarah responded. Rebecca inhaled sharply at the mention of 'attacked on the plane'. "What?" Sarah questioned, noticing Rebecca’s reaction.
"Nothing." Rebecca said quickly, and kept piloting. They were nearly halfway there.
No one noticed Armaan sitting in the back, glued to his laptop. He was using new technology to scan the areas they were above for a certain kind of energy. Energy only he knew these people would give out.
He’d met these people before in one of his missions. Although the GCA was pretty laid back, they did send the agents on missions regularly. They were called the SIASS, the Society to Improve America’s Secret Systems. There were many different Agencies spread throughout the United States, the HIA and the GCA being only two of them. Usually there were four Agencies in every state, one in the capital and the other three in separate designated spots. The idea for the SIASS was to overtake these Agencies and make them “better”, so to speak. Mostly, they would just take over, change the ground rules so that it was more lenient, and use the new facilities and technologies to gain power. The SIASS already had control over two Agencies in Utah, and the SLCA (the Salt Lake City Agency) was fighting hard in the capital to keep it from taking over all four: the ADA (Agency of the Disciplined Arts), the CSA (the Civil Strength Agency), the CRA (the Colorado River Agency), and the SLCA. It also had taken over two Agencies in Nevada: the SWUSPA (the Southwest United States Protection Agency), and the NCCA (Nevadan Connotation and Communications Agency). It seemed like the main goal for the SIASS was to take over one of the most powerful agencies in the world: the HIA. And before they could do that, they had to find out more information, from an inside source.
He just had to keep hoping that that inside source wasn’t the new recruit.
"Stop. We're here." Armaan called to Rebecca.
"Why? We won't be at Provo for another two minutes or so."
"The people that we're looking for are right below us. Land in....that clearing over there, then taxi to the trees."
Rebecca did as she was instructed, then turned around in her seat and asked him, "Who are the people that we're looking for?"
Armaan started to explain about the SIASS.
"Stop, we already know these people,” Rebecca said. “We've successfully kept most of them out of Arizona. Those dumb, lazy, fat tyrants thought that they'd be able to trick Laura? Ha, she'll figure them out immediately." Tyler and Janaya agreed. Armaan started to protest, but Rebecca cut him off.
"If this is one of their most important bases, we can create a lot of damage to this group and rescue Laura and Jace at the same time. What do you guys think?" Tyler and Janaya agreed again. "I remember this place. It was so easy to escape from. They'll need to improve themselves greatly if they're going to take over the HIA. Relax, Armaan, we've got this."
Armaan didn't argue, but still had some doubts in his mind.
"Now let’s see...it has been a little over three months, and they had little or no security when we left. They'll probably have worked on their security after my escape with Xarissa, but not very much. Still, we need to be prepared. Janaya, you have a sharp eye, right?"
"Yeah, I'll look for traps and scan for their security."
"Right, and Tyler, once we reach the base, I need you to hack into their security and make sure that they won't be able to see us."
"Yes ma'am."
"Ummmm......I think that-"
"Armaan, I know that you're good with technology, but Tyler has been majoring in hacking. Probably a lot more than you, and when I mean a lot, I mean a lot. I want you to stay back here and watch over the plane. I believe that you have received little training in fighting. We won't have much use of you in there. Understood?"
"Yes." Armaan grumbled.
"Great. Let's go." Rebecca said as she opened the door and the three of them jumped out into the forest.
****************