Having all that security, you never get to fight the enemy agents for real and use the really cool forbidden moves that you’ve wanted to use on someone for FOREVER unless they get past the defense system. CON.
If there is someone without the enough clearance level to know the truth about the real curriculum that the academy teaches, the security system alerts us when they are in a three mile radius of the academy. Therefore, it helps us prepare for a potential Code Red. PRO.
Having a security system so high that it’s impossible to get in- especially spies-in-training with only comms units, a laptop (Sophie never leaves home without it), and a few extra gadgets to get into the GALLAGHER ACADEMY undetected- and if you do, you may lose an important body part and/or be extremely injured. CON.
That’s what I thought as everyone in my Junior CoveOps class was staring at me, wanting direction, in Roseville’s theater. “What?” I asked.
Emmalie Jonason (codename: Silver) responded with, “Well, you know all the secret passageways, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but not all of them,” I blurted.
“And you pretty much know the security system like the back of your hand, too,” Emmalie continued.
“Well, kind of...”
I’m one to generally like the center of attention, but only in certain scenarios. Right then, in the Roseville theater with my classmates surrounding me, I wished that I were invisible. I didn’t like to be relied on, especially if there was a high chance of me failing. I relied on myself and nobody else- even now, it’s very hard for me to depend and trust other people. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I wouldn’t ever be able to be proud to wear the Goode name. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I’ve lived pretty much lived my whole life lying to the people that I love. Maybe not.
“It doesn’t matter, the question is can you get us in?” Joze asked.
I looked around at all the hopeful faces of my sisters, then I looked around to make sure there weren’t any people eavesdropping (there probably weren’t but it was a just-in-case kind of thing, and mostly a habit). “I can try.”
Not kidding you, in less than ten minutes we were in the woods that were located on the east side of the Gallagher academy, ready to break in with a plan already coordinated, and we were already camouflaged (let’s just say that we were fast runners, we formulated a plan very quickly, and Maddie protested greatly to us putting mud on her face). Basically, we were going to run across the grounds to one of the entrances to a secret passageway that lead into the mansion. Simple, right? Ha, when you’re talking about the Gallagher academy, nothing is simple.
“Ready?” I asked into my comm as I crouched behind a bush- out of the line of sight of one of the many security cameras we had to get by. I heard “Ready” from the entire CoveOps class through my comms (everyone was hiding behind something, waiting for my signal).
I watched the security camera move away from where we were hiding, and whispered a small “Go!”. We would have eight seconds until a camera would make its way to us. After seven seconds I whispered a “Down.” indicating that we needed to get out of the camera’s sight (obviously). Everyone dropped to the ground. I counted to twelve, and making a quick counter surveillance to make sure that no cameras were trained on us, and said “Go.”
My sisters and I silently trekked across the forest floor (which was really difficult considering leaves were all over the ground and we had to be absolutely silent). Eight seconds passed and I ordered everyone down. Again, we all fell to the ground, camouflaged by the mud that we smothered all over ourselves. We went on like this until we came to the entrance of the secret passageway that my mom use to use to sneak out of the Gallagher academy. I discovered it the first week I was there. I brieftly remembered that I was absolutely determined to find something of my mom to hang onto, and this was the closest thing considering the CIA took everything from me that had to do with my parents.
When we finally reached the willow tree that the passageway was hidden in, I knew that not one camera would be able to find us once we crossed that line. Easy. Simple. Just kidding. I hadn’t been to that passageway since last year when I snuck out to get cheez-its from a nearby little store in Roseville.
“It’s blocked off,” I said, dumbfounded that Mr. Taylor went to the extent of blocking off the only secret passageway I knew to get into Gallagher. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, he is one of the best spies in the world... He was just trying to make this difficult. Great.
“How do you know?” One of the girls asked.
I looked at her for a long moment and gestured toward the tree trunk that was solid as can be. “Do you see a secret doorway opening this this trunk?” The girl shook her head, a little embarrassed, and I just shook my head and grinned.
“What do we do now?” Emilie whispered quietly from behind me.
Suddenly, and idea seemed to spread throughout me, Sophie, Jordan, and Maddie at the same time. Maddie, Jordan, and I were all smiling slightly, and Sophie was furiously shaking her head. “It won’t work! We’ll get caught for sure!”
“We won’t,” was Maddie’s reply.
“Not with me here,” I said.
“What am I missing?” A few of the other girls murmured.
“Follow us,” the three of us said simultaneously with Sophie’s small debate- which she quickly stopped because Jordan sent her a glare that would make anyone shut up.
The rest of the girls followed us three- even Sophie who sighed and started to follow after the other girls pushed past her. “Fine, but if we get caught, I’m not the one explaining,” she said.
Using the same system as before, we made our way to the front gates of the academy. It was a breeze- well, except for the part when I sort of tripped and landed into a thorn bush... yeah, that hurt pretty bad. Anyways, we finally reached the entrance of the Gallagher Academy gates, hidden in between the high stone wall and a tall bush that needed a trim very badly- luckily the bush didn’t have thorns.
It was actually kinda nice in between there. The bush was well overgrown so the entire junior class was able to fit in the space and even stand up! Maintenance needed to fix this, fast. Then again, it was very convenient for hiding by the main gates unseen. The bush could’ve been an amazing hang out place, but I didn’t think that Aunt Macey would let it be here for long.
“So how exactly are we getting in?” I heard Makenzie Morrison whisper.
“We’re going through the front door,” I heard Joze say beside me.
“What?” nearly half the girls shouted (considering there were ten of us, it was a fairly large portion).
“I hope that this plan sounds a lot less insane than it seems,” Olivia whisper-snapped. All of us were extremely tired, covered in mud, and probably PMSing, so it wasn’t a surprise that we were in snappy moods.
I started laughing and my sisters looked at me as if I had gone mad- which I probably was getting there; I was so tired that I was ready to just drop to the ground and sleep the night away, and because I literally got no sleep last night- Maddie, Sophie, Jordan and I were all talking like crazy- I was on the verge of crazy... I think. “I need a mountain dew,” I said in between laughs.
Many eyes went wide and my sisters all shrieked, “NO!” Let’s just say that me and mountain dew equaled no sleep and a very drunken-like Makayla Andrews, but I enjoyed the craziness because it was really fun to be all silly for a little while. In a serious world there always needs to be a bit of silliness to it in order to keep everyone sane.
Immediately after they all had shouted, we could practically feel about seven security cameras eyeing the bush that we were hidden behind. This made me sober up quickly. I knew that if the cameras didn’t hear another out-of-place sound coming from the bush in thirty-seven seconds, they would go back to their normal sweep of the grounds. In the meantime, nobody dared to move or even breath. We were just ten, junior, girl, spies-in-training who were covered in mud and praying that we wouldn’t get caught even when our real mission hadn’t even started yet.
“We’re clear,” I said in a hushed tone thirty eight seconds later.
“We can’t just waltzed right through the front doors. We would get caught,” Makenzie said, getting right to business.
“Not if we’re careful,” Maddie said.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re not going to literally waltz through the front door,” Maddie said, a smile threatening to break through onto her face. “But we are going to literally go through the front door.” She caught my eye and we simultaneously smiled; her and I were thinking the exact same thing.
“I’m not following you,” I heard Emmalie say from the opposite end of the circle.
This is the time when I chip in. “What she means is that we’re not going to open the doors- we would definitely get noticed that way- but we’re going to literally go through the door.”
Realization dawns on them. “But how?”
“Haven’t you paid any attention in History of Espionage? Especially when we covered the academy’s history and structure?” Maddie said with a smirk. “Mrs. Linquist told us that the oak doors took days to built- considering that they were made with panels.”
“Okay, so the doors are made of panels. Big deal,” Makenzie snapped. Jeez, she really needed to go to bed.
Maddie, however, continued on as if she hadn’t heard Makenzie’s snappy remark. “That night at dinner, Shea overheard Kayla, Jordan, Sophie and I talking about the ridiculous use of that information. So Shea started to talk about rumors- what a surprise- and she told us about a boy. A spy boy. He had snuck into the Gallagher academy somehow, and wasn’t caught by the security camera. Well, a certain Tina Walters was looking out her window that particular night and happened to see how this spy boy- who later became her husband- snuck into the academy.” The way Maddie told the story reminded me of Mr. Taylor’s lectures in CoveOps- very intriguing and informational at the same time. It was cool the way she presented the story with a certain bluntness but at the same time it left you in the dark until the kicker finale: “He pulled the lower right hand corner panel of the oak doors out from its place and then crawled through the hole.”
“Long story short, ladies,” Jordan mimicked Mr. Taylor then looked at all of us. “We’re going through the Gallagher academy doors.”
No comments:
Post a Comment