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Ben's POV:

Erica was gone. I still can't wrap my head around that fact. This is Erica Hale. She's not supposed to die. She's the best spy ever, for heaven's sake. Even Cyrus, who rarely displayed any emotion, was mad. His driving was even more aggressive than usual. It took us about an hour to drive there, but it took only 20 minutes to drive back to Spy School thanks to Cyrus's reckless driving. When we got back to spy school he dropped me off without a word, then tore down the road to somewhere else with Catherine. After I trudged up to the dorm areas Zoe and Mike were waiting there to hear about the result of the mission but upon seeing my face they quickly scrambled away to their dorms.

At lunch the next day...

How could she be dead? After everything we've been through, all the missions and hardships, after I finally got her to be my girlfriend. She couldn't be dead. Right?

"Hey Ben, are you okay?" Mike asked, tapping my shoulder and distracting me from my thoughts.

"Yeah I'm fine," I replied, maybe a bit too quickly and defensively. Mike obviously noticed but knew better than to press more. I was distant to everyone the whole day, barely paying attention to class, but when I got back to my room I remembered something about Erica's last words. "Remember the reflecting pool, Ben" I would have remembered it anyway. Right? Why would she need to say that again? Unless.... I ran out of my dorm room and ran upstairs to Erica's room. I tentatively turned the handle. She had left it unlocked when we left! I ran inside, went to the closet and punched in the pin that I had seen Erica put in yesterday. I waited for the wall to open up, ran to the next keypad, and put in the numbers that I had memorized.

After walking inside slowly, I made sure to look everywhere. But to my despair, nobody was inside. I entered the code to the second keypad and walked into the room. Nobody was there. It remained the same as the time Erica had first shown me it, exact same pictures pinned on the bulletin board, exact same phone numbers pinned to the wall. After taking one last glance around the empty room, I heaved a sigh and trudged out of the room.

The next few days, I lived life like a zombie. I went to class, I ate, and I went to sleep. No one could get me to speak, and most people stopped trying. For some reason, after class ended today, I felt the urge to look go to the Reflecting Pool again. Maybe I wanted to do something useful, and make sure Erica hadn't died in vain. I walked up to her room, tugged open the door, punched in the numbers on the keypad, and entered the room, fully expecting to find no one there. I looked at the papers on the wall, thought about the evil world plot, thought about Erica, and decided I couldn't do it. I turned around and was about to leave the room, but I heard a whisper. "I kinda need some help, Ben." I whirled around, once more scanning the room. I gaped at the person who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, who just happened to be Erica Hale. She had multiple scrapes and bruises, along with a nasty gash on her left arm. I gasped and ran to her.

"Erica! You're alive. Oh my god, how did you get out alive? We need to get you to a doctor." She held up a hand to stop me.

"No, Ben. If we go to a doctor BACON will know that I'm alive. BACON most probably has them being watched 24/7. We all learned basic first aid in self preservation 101. If you paid attention, you should be able to do this. If not, then I'll guide you through. Go to my room. There should be a first aid kit under the first floorboard to the front left of my bed. Grab that and then come back here. We'll see what we do next."

I nodded, still worried, but followed Erica's instructions. Sure enough, there was a first-aid kit right where she said it would be. I grabbed it and raced back to Erica. I looked apprehensively at her wounds.

"What do I do now?" I asked.

Erica sighed. "You didn't pay attention in class, did you?"

I looked away, embarrassed. She rolled her eyes.

"First, find the antiseptic wipes. Clean out all of my scratches. Good. After that, there should be a needle in there somewhere. Find the anesthesia injector. Ok, when I flex my arm my vein should come out. Find the vein and inject the anesthesia in. Now stick the thread in the needle and sew my cut up. Please don't mess this up."

I bit my lip and concentrated on the needle. I made sure that the stitches were as even and precise as I could make them, and let out a breath of relief when I was done. Erica smiled at me.

"Good job, Ben. For now, I'll just stay here so no one else finds out. We have no idea how many moles there are in spy school. There should be enough food here to last for a month or so. If Cyrus contacts you, bring him here. Do not contact him directly, he might be monitored right now."

Cyrus' POV

I banged on the car dashboard in frustration. Over the past day, nothing had gone as planned. Erica was dead, we barely had any intel, and a new organization started by that sleazeball Murray Hill to deal with. Now we were being tailed by operatives from his secret organization 'HAM' or something, and I was going out of my mind. I just really wish my granddaughter was alive.

A/N Hey, I've got another update for you guys. So, things are heating up. What do you think of the chapter? Once again, thank you MonkeyMaster77 for helping with this chapter. As always, vote and comment if you liked it or have suggestions. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this.