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“The Sea Knight was designed to haul vehicles, if needed, with a drop-down ramp at the rear. Alexander flipped a switch and it lowered, allowing arctic air to gust into the helicopter. Even though we’d been outfitted with weapons, they were only for emergencies. Cyrus and Ivan had agreed that no one would bring them to our meeting, so we left them in the helicopter, which made me uneasy. I didn’t like carrying a weapon myself—but I also didn’t like the idea of all of us going to face the Russians unarmed. It felt like we were walking into a lion’s den. Alexander had agreed to stay behind with the helicopter, in case of trouble. He was chosen because he was the only one who knew how to fly the chopper—and because Cyrus felt that the farther Alexander was from the meeting, the less chance he had of screwing things up. “Here goes nothing,” Cyrus said, and then led us down the ramp. As I stepped out onto the ice floe, it occurred to me that I had never been so far from land in my life. Even though I had been on a mission aboard a cruise ship rather recently, we had never been more than a few miles off the coast. The ice I was standing on was a dozen times farther out. All the color in the world appeared to have vanished except for shades of blue (the sky and the sea) and white (the ice and the distant polar bear). There wasn’t a plant, or a rock, or even a bit of dirt to be seen. We were floating in the middle of nowhere. Still, it was as nice a day as we could have hoped for in the Arctic. The sun was shining and reflecting off the white floe so strongly that I felt its warmth despite standing atop a giant ice cube. It was deathly quiet, save for the faint slap of the water against the floes and the distant huffing of the polar bear. Despite the brisk wind, the sea was as calm and level as the Great Plains. The floe was so big and sturdy, it felt as though we were walking across solid ground.”
― Spy School Goes North
― Spy School Goes North
“We had used the radios on missions before; I could hear anything Erica said to me, while no one else could—and mine could pick up anything I said and transmit it back to her. At the moment, though, we were close enough not to need them. “You’re going to be my lookout,” Erica told me. “If you see any sign of trouble, let me know.” “Trouble?” I repeated, slipping on my second skate. “What are you planning to do?” “Find out what Shang’s up to.” “Now? How?” “I’m going to infiltrate his hotel room.” “What?” I gasped. “You can’t do that!” “Sure I can. I’m good at this stuff.” “I meant, you’re not supposed to do it. The mission is for me to befriend Jessica and use that connection to get close to her father.” “The mission is for us to find out what Operation Golden Fist is, period.” Erica was back to her normal, cool self; only somehow, she seemed even cooler than usual. Her attitude was icier than the skating rink. “The other plan is too complicated, the other students aren’t ready for activation yet, and like I said, you’re too emotionally involved where Jessica is concerned.” “Emotionally involved? I saw her for five seconds!” “It was enough. Your ability is compromised. I’m going with Plan B. Which should have been Plan A all along. If you just do your part, this will all be over within ten minutes.” Erica stood again and started toward the ice cream parlor. I followed her. Only, since I now had ice skates on, I couldn’t follow very quickly. “Wait!” I called. Erica stopped by the entrance to the ice rink. We were now close enough to the guy with the newspaper that she had to resume her teenage girl act again. “What is it, pumpkin?” I lowered my voice. “The hotel is crawling with guards. You’ll never be able to get into Shang’s room.” Erica smiled at me in a way I knew was pretend but that still melted my heart. “Oh, sweetie.” She sighed. “You’re so cute when you worry about me. But I’ll be fine. They won’t see me because of the diversion.” “What diversion?” I asked, suddenly feeling very worried. “This one,” Erica said, and shoved me onto the ice. I had ice-skated a few times before, so I might have been all right if Erica hadn’t caught me so off guard. Or shoved me so hard. Or sent me onto the rink backward.”
― Spy Ski School
― Spy Ski School
“gaining”
― Spy Ski School
― Spy Ski School
“We had escaped one threat. But there was now another right in front of us. An exceptionally large one. Planet Earth.”
― Spy School Blackout
― Spy School Blackout
“I could tell Murray was concerned by the sight of the prison and its surroundings. But he did his best to hide it, putting on a show for all of us. “You really think this run-down joint is going to hold me?” he asked tauntingly. “I’ve gotten out of places with way better security than this.” “Yes, but you never broke out of them,” Catherine reminded him. “You weaseled your way out. SPYDER sprang you. Or you cut a deal with the US government to give evidence against other people in return for getting off scot-free. But that’s not going to happen here. SPYDER is gone. And the US government doesn’t even know where you are. Only we do—and we’re not about to share that information with anybody.” Murray’s confidence faded. It was a struggle for him to keep up his display of bravado. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll tell someone, right? You’re not going to boast to anyone at the CIA or MI6 about how you caught the greatest criminal mastermind of his generation?” My friends and I all looked to one another, then shook our heads. We all knew that while Murray would consider going to prison at Tsetseng horrible, the real way to take him down was to deflate his ego. “Greatest criminal mastermind of your generation?” Zoe repeated doubtfully. “You’re not even close.” “What?” Murray cried. “Who’s better than me?” “For starters, someone who didn’t get repeatedly captured,” I said. “There’s a young criminal in Russia named Boris Blatvatsik,” Svetlana reported. “Now he is a criminal mastermind. Much smarter than you. And he has much better hygiene, too.” “Ooh,” Zoe cooed, knowing it would get under Murray’s skin. “He sounds really devious.” Murray fell into a sulk. “Ha ha. Very funny. You’re all a bunch of jerks.” “I guess you’d be the expert on that,” Mike told him. Two prison guards flanked Murray. Each took an arm and they led him across the dusty ground toward the prison gate. I stood with Erica, Mike, Zoe, and Svetlana, watching as the kid who had lied to me, conned me, betrayed me, and tried to engineer my death over and over again was led away. “So long, Murray,” I said. Murray looked back over his shoulder, mustering a final bit of cockiness, and stared me down. “You haven’t seen the last of me,” he warned. Even though it was a threat, I couldn’t help but smile. Because I had the wonderful feeling that Murray Hill was wrong—and I had finally defeated my nemesis once and for all.”
― Spy School Goes Wild
― Spy School Goes Wild
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