Post by IMNB on Sept 4, 2006 4:40:13 GMT
This is the very first part of my novel I am writing. It is a spy story, and it has been inspired by Cherub and Alex Rider. The basic storyline is... 5 teenage spies, trying to break down corrupt fashion designer (v rich!) who is in cahoots with version of Mafia with plans to rob banks. I have written more, but it is not typed up. Also, If you have any ideas for the story, please post!
Young Infiltrators Department:
Avanti Andare
Chapter One: Dare to be Different
Rick Lisbon stood in the background of the crowd and watched the band play. The lead singer twisted around the bass guitarist, singing in her angelic voice, while he strummed his fingers over his instrument. The crowd swayed and danced in time to the music, jostling to get to the front. Rick did the opposite, standing in the background, just watching and listening. His friends were waiting above the park for him to come out, since the dare was just to sneak in. But Rick was enjoying the music, so he tried to blend in to the outskirts of the crowd.
He had a suitable image to do so. He was slimand very flexible. He was about average height for the 14 year old he was, maybe a couple of centimetres taller. His jet black hair hung in around his face, windswept and untidy, and his current black jacket and dark blue jeans helped him to merge into the 9:30 darkness near the river, though the jacket did not cover his arms. They allowed a glimpse as to what this boy must be like with fewer clothes on, strong, muscular and very fit. It came from being a soccer player for the Otago Under-15 side. The band was playing at the stage, about 30 metres in front of him, but Rick chose to stay on the concrete road, allowing him easy access to a quick escape route through the aviary.
He thought about how he’d got in.
He and his friends had been in town, at the arcade, then a quick stop at McDonalds. Then the four of them had made their way to Sports ground, next to the highway. Rick had pulled out a hackeysack, and they bounced it around for a while. When, at about quarter past nine, they heard the music start across the road in the Dunedin Botanical Gardens, they dared each other to sneak in. Rick was they only one who actually said he’d do it, so his friends armed him with a smoke bomb and cap gun (which Rick ‘accidentally’ dropped on his way across the road) and set him off.
Rick had crossed the busy road and walked into the Gardens through the gate on the front of the park, closest to where he was. He looped through an ornate Rose Garden, in which beautiful flower intertwined around simple wooden arches. The effect at night, with small lights shining out from by the ground, was simply enthralling, and he thought about how he ought to come here with his girlfriend. It was utterly beguiling.
He walked along a bit more, till he was at the corner of the Gardens and the main entrance. A small plaza-type area surrounded by plants and masterfully crafted wrought-iron gates was dominated by a gigantic statue, a curling, sweeping column of swirls.
But, Rick thought, he could admire in the day. He should get on with the dare.
The entrance to the concert was simply a path, with a security guard taking tickets and a portable turnstile next to a rope and a conveniently placed rubbish bin. Rick joined the small queue lining up to get in. When he was second in line, he discreetly threw the armed smoke bomb into the rubbish bin. The person in front moved on, and the guard spoke to Rick.
‘Ticket please.’ He was a rather fat man, cropped blond hair and a belt that was too tight. Rick put his hand in his pocket and faked searching for a ticket. Getting increasing more desperate, he waited for the smoke to start rising out of the bin. Just as the guard was saying, ‘no ticket, no entry,’ the smoke appeared, and a girl screamed ‘fire!’
The guard, momentarily distracted, looked around at the smoke. With everyone’s attention on the bin, Rick leaped over the turnstile and walked in, flashing a thumbs up to his friends watching.
His cell phone, a brand new Nokia N9-1, played a short extract of ‘Diary of Jane’ by Breaking Benjamin, twice, bringing him back to the present. Reading the first, Rick resolved to begin to head towards the exit. It was from Dmitri Kovik, one of the boys outside the park waiting for him. The text read, ‘wer r u? we no u gt in fyn, nw gt owt. We gon go 2 da prk.’ As Rick walked towards the main entrance he read the other text, from his girlfriend Bella.
‘hey boi, wat up? cn u cum 2 da skul in 15 mins? I wana ask u sum@.’ Wondering what this could mean, Rick slipped through the gate, dodging the guard by tapping his right shoulder, the ducking around to the guards left. It was a trick he’d learnt in primary school, and was amazed at how many people still fell for it. Then he ran across the road onto the sports ground where a group of his friends were waiting.
When he reached them, Dmitri, a tall, muscular, pale blond boy asked him, ‘like the music?’ Dmitri had only moved to Dunedin from St Petersburg three years ago, but his English was perfect and his Russian accent, thick when he first came to New Zealand was almost gone, the only remnants of it showing up when he spoke very fast and didn’t make ‘h’ sounds.
‘Yeah I do actually. Quite like the band,’ Rick replied, missing the sarcasm in Dmitri’s voice.
‘Really?’ asked a boy with blonde hair called Mack. ‘I don’t.’
‘Listen guys, I have to go in ten, Bella wants to see me.’
‘What for? Where?’ a boy called Jesse asked who was concentrating on both the conversation he could hear and the one on his cellphone.
‘She wants to tell me something at school, but I don’t know what it is.’
‘Well you’d better get a move on, school’s miles away.’ Not quite true, but definitely over quarter of an hour if you didn’t speed or hit traffic. ‘Actually I’m gonna go to, got some ‘business’ to attend to,’ Dmitri continued. ‘See you.’
‘See you tomorrow guys.’ Rick and Dmitri got on their bikes and rode through the central town and towards Otago Harbour.
‘Why does she want to meet you at the school?’ Dmitri said.
‘Good question. Maybe because she lives just down the road from it, and it’s easily a two minute walk from her house.’
‘True.’ Rick and Dmitri often went round to Bella’s house. The three of them spent a lot of time just chilling at someone’s house. Rick and Bella both like going to Dmitri’s house the most though. His parents were very rich, and not only was their house massive but it was filled with expensive gadgets, from an intercom system to a games room complete with pool table, table tennis set and home theatre.
Dmitri smiled at Rick. It was an interesting smile, and Rick just had to ask about it. It was a certain type of smile, but Rick couldn’t place it. Dmitri often wore it, so Rick should be able to remember.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘No reason.’
Then Rick realized. It was a smile that meant ‘I know something you don’t!’
‘So what do you want to do tomorrow?’ Rick said, ignoring this look. Dmitri wasn’t up himself, but he definitely spent a lot of time with that look covering his pale-skinned face. It was one of the things that made a lot of girls like him; it was often mistaken as a mischievous look. Which, Rick realized, it actually was, in a way.
Rick and Dmitri said goodbye, then Dmitri broke away from Rick as they neared the Inlet. Rick continued then dropped through the school bus bay and into the courtyard in the middle of Bayfield High School. He hoped Bella wouldn’t take too long. It was nearly ten to ten, and his parents would be annoyed if he was home later than quarter past.
Bella Joneson’s fit, attractive body was sitting on a picnic table, in the middle of the quad, a small paved courtyard in the middle of the school buildings. There were a couple of trees nearby, large ones, Rick knew. But it was very dark, and he could only see Bella because there was one light coming from near one of the buildings that illuminated her. She turned as he came near, wheeling his bike to a standstill against a wall. Rick sat next to her.
‘Hey, what’s up?’
‘Not much’ Bella was average height, and when Rick sat down next to her, she leant her head snugly into his shoulder. Rick and Bella often did things like that, spending hours at a time staring out at the distance. This was unusually late, but Rick shrugged it off. It was so much fun spending time with Bella. Often they would go to the beach, and sit on the dunes, watching the ocean. They’d actually first kissed at the beach, in a game of truth or dare with their friends. That was about a year ago, and when they actually realised they liked each other.
Rick put his arm around Bella’s frame. ‘So, what do you want to do when you grow up?’ That was a game they often played. Bella had thought of it. It meant they could share their dreams with each other, and, if some of them were easy to achieve, they could do it together. Last holidays, Bella said she wanted to ride a jet boat, so when Rick’s family went on a holiday to Queenstown, Bella came with them and Rick and Bella together rode the Shotover Jet.
‘I want… to go to the top of Mt Everest.’ Rick shuddered when Bella said that. He didn’t like heights.
‘I want to mountain bike in France,’ he said.
‘I want to get a degree in Marine Biology at University.’
‘I want to live with you.’
Bella smiled. ‘You do?’
‘Of course I do. You’re so great to spend time with, to be with. I want to be always near you.’
Bella smiled again, and leant up to kiss Rick. He turned his head down, and returned the kiss. But before he could heat things up, Bella slightly pulled back, but not so much it would seem like recoil. It was just enough for Rick to realize she wanted to talk, rather than pash.
‘Bella, what’s up?
‘Much, Rick.’ Bella voice was soft and calm. She pulled her long blonde hair out of her eyes. ‘I need to ask you something, a really important something.’
‘I’m listening,’ Rick replied. He knew Bella so well, that he knew if she wanted to tell someone something, she’d flounder around until she got to the point. He had to be patient.
‘Good. Because this is really important.”
‘O.k.’ Rick replied. He held her hand.
‘You have to promise to believe me.’
‘I promise to believe you.’
‘No matter what.’
‘Bella… what do you want to tell me?’ Rick was getting a bit concerned. Bella was usually so bouncy and happy. Her current demeanor was very serious, and the mere fact that she had asked to meet him at quarter to ten on a Saturday night (and not for a make-out session) was enough to make him slightly nervous.
‘I’m, I’m…’ Her voice faltered. Rick was really worried now, as Bella had begun to look frantically around, to make sure no-one was listening.
‘Bella, what is it? Have you done something wrong?’
‘No, no, it’s just… We need your help.’
‘What for? Who’s we?’
‘Listen,’ Bella said. The imperative was, as it should be, commanding. ‘I have to tell you this, so I’m just gonna say it.
‘Rick, I’m a spy.’
Chapter Two: Bella’s Reality
Rick almost fell over.
‘What?’ he exclaimed, reeling with shock. Then, he relaxed. ‘Whatever,’ he said with disbelief.
‘No, it’s true!’ Bella said indignantly.
‘No, it’s not,’ replied Rick. ‘You’ve made that up and you know it. Had me going there for a moment!’
‘You promised to believe me!’
‘You can’t be a spy, Bella.’
‘Says who?’
‘Reality.’
‘Well, reality is wrong!’ Bella took a breath, then launched ‘I’m a spy, a secret agent for the International Intelligence Emissaries, or the IIE. I am specifically a part of the Young Infiltrators Department, YID. I was recruited three years ago, when I was 11, after Miss Bjorn, she’s the boss of YID, saw on the news how I was kidnapped.’
Rick remembered that. Three years ago, Bella had been taken by three men in their mid twenties. They had kidnapped her on her way home from school. For ten days, they had hidden her in a hut in the forests around Dunedin. They beat her, half-starved her, and tied her up. They were trying to get a ransom from the New Zealand Government. Eventually, however, they got drunk, and when they were so intoxicated they couldn’t see, she wriggled out of her bonds, knocked them out with a tap from a baseball bat, tied them up and snuck away. They guys were caught and sentenced to 15 years in jail, no parole. It had been all over the news for two weeks.
‘I spent two weeks in Taupo, on a training course. I learnt outdoor ed, infiltration skills, computer hacking, karate, loads of things!’ Bella’s face was hard, and perhaps, Rick thought, just maybe…
‘Then I went on my first mission. Remember? I got excused from school. I came back with a tan and lighter hair. I told you all I’d been to visit relatives in Florida. I went to Rio de Janeiro and stopped a gang from blowing up the Giant Statue of Christ. That was when Dmitri came, remember? He’s a spy too. He was my partner for that mission. He asked for a transfer to New Zealand, so we could go on more missions together, I’ve never been on a mission without him. His parents aren’t his real parents, he’s an orphan. They are just Russian spies based in New Zealand.’
‘So, you aren’t joking?’ Rick asked.
But Bella and Dmitri… spies? It was just so, impossible.
‘No, I’m not! More proof, after that, Dmitri was going to go on holiday with you, but he had to pull out because he got sick. Well, we actually went to Washington D.C. to stop an assassination attempt on the president. Then in winter, we went to Japan and stopped a couple of members of a Chinese Triad from derailing a Shinkansen Bullet Train.’
Rick thought about that one. He had seen that on the news. Over 1200 people had been on the train at the time. The train had been unable to brake, and nearly derailed and crashed into a high-rise in the middle of Tokyo. If the train hadn’t amazingly stopped seconds from leaving the tracks, the estimated death toll would have been over 2000.
‘In spring I went back to Japan and saved the Emperor from being ‘sacrificed’ by a cult called the ‘Siblings of Satan’. Beginning of last year we went to France, and we saved the Eiffel Tower from some terrorists. And we saved the lives of hundreds of athletes in Athens at the Olympics when the Italian Mafia tried to poison their food!‘
‘Ok. Bella. Stop. I… believe you. I think.’ This was quite a shock. Bella’s story was so elaborate. He resigned to the fact when Bella pulled out her wallet, and produced a small plastic card, with a magnetic strip and three letters on it, IIE, and her full name. Rick closed his eyes. ‘If Dmitri says it is true, I will believe you.’
‘It’s true. Believe her.’
Dmitri stepped out of the shadows.
‘What are you doing here?’ Rick exclaimed.
‘Bella told me she was gonna let you know tonight. I just went round the Inlet and came back here.’
‘How long have you been hiding there?’ Rick asked.
‘Since you said you wanted to live with Bella.’
Rick frowned as Dmitri sat on the table opposite him and Bella. His wished he’d brought something warmer than the leather jacket. His arms were completely bare, and it had gotten a lot colder all of a sudden.
‘So, all of that’s true?’
‘Completely,’ Dmitri replied.
A thought suddenly occurred to Rick. ‘So you’re an orphan?’ Rick blurted out. He immediately regretted it. Dmitri’s face got suddenly darker. Of course, thought Rick, if he’d wanted everyone to know, he would have mentioned it.
‘Oh,’ Bella said. ‘I mean, sorry, Dmitri…I didn’t think…’
‘Obviously.’
‘You knew?’ How could she have known? Rick asked himself.
‘Yeah, he told me in Rio.’
Dmitri still looked dark.
‘I’m really sorry Dmitri, I thought, well no, I didn’t. But it’s better if he knows everything he can.’
‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Dmitri said. ‘He turned to Rick. ‘My actual parents were spies for IIE, just like my Mum and Dad. They were killed while on a mission when I was 2. I grew up around spies, and when I was 11 they asked me if I wanted to go to Rio on a mission.’
‘Why is it better if I know?’ Rick asked, after acknowledging Dmitri’s story with a solemn nod. Why were his friends so secretive? They had an entire life that neither of them had mentioned until now. Then another thought occurred to Rick. Why were they telling him all of this now?
Because, Rick, we want you to come on a mission with us,’ Bella explained patiently.
‘Really?’ Rick asked, unsure. ‘Why me?’
‘Well, mostly because you are fit, strong, smart, and we are running out of agents, so Ms Bjorn just said that we should find another person, so we suggested you,’ said Dmitri. ‘If you join the YID, which comes as a term of participating in this mission, there would only be 12 of us. Though the best number for this mission would be five, so perhaps there will end up being 13.’
‘You don’t have to come, though,’ Bella said. ‘Every mission is voluntary. However, it’s very difficult to pull out, so chances are, if you accept, you’ll be in it till the end.’
‘No, I want to do it!’ Rick was surprised at the conviction in his voice. One part of him was going, ‘a spy! I get to be a spy, this is so great! It’s amazing!’ but a larger, much more sensible part of him was saying ‘WOAH. Hold up. This is potentially life-threatening!’ However, Rick thought back to the dare earlier that night, and decided to make a dare with himself. He could be a spy, just like Bella and Dmitri.
‘Where are we going?’ he asked.
‘We don’t know. We aren’t going to be told until the briefing.’
‘When’s that?’ Suddenly Rick was bursting full of questions.
‘Three Mondays away. This mission is important, but you have to go through two weeks of basic spying skills first,’ answered Dmitri.
‘Will Ms Bjorn be coming with us?’
Bella answered. ‘No, she might drop in though, and she’ll be at the briefing. There’ll be a supervisor there, an adult agent from IIE.’
‘Your parents have to let you go though,’ said Dmitri.
‘Do we have to go and check with them?’
‘No,’ Bella said, ‘Ms Bjorn said she would call them tonight.’ Then Bella’s cell rang. She answered it, said ‘Ok, bye-bye,’ and hung up. Then she continued to Rick, ‘ Yep, your parents said yes, that was Ms Bjorn.’
‘Go pack, mate,’ said Dmitri. ‘Big day tomorrow!’
Young Infiltrators Department:
Avanti Andare
Chapter One: Dare to be Different
Rick Lisbon stood in the background of the crowd and watched the band play. The lead singer twisted around the bass guitarist, singing in her angelic voice, while he strummed his fingers over his instrument. The crowd swayed and danced in time to the music, jostling to get to the front. Rick did the opposite, standing in the background, just watching and listening. His friends were waiting above the park for him to come out, since the dare was just to sneak in. But Rick was enjoying the music, so he tried to blend in to the outskirts of the crowd.
He had a suitable image to do so. He was slimand very flexible. He was about average height for the 14 year old he was, maybe a couple of centimetres taller. His jet black hair hung in around his face, windswept and untidy, and his current black jacket and dark blue jeans helped him to merge into the 9:30 darkness near the river, though the jacket did not cover his arms. They allowed a glimpse as to what this boy must be like with fewer clothes on, strong, muscular and very fit. It came from being a soccer player for the Otago Under-15 side. The band was playing at the stage, about 30 metres in front of him, but Rick chose to stay on the concrete road, allowing him easy access to a quick escape route through the aviary.
He thought about how he’d got in.
He and his friends had been in town, at the arcade, then a quick stop at McDonalds. Then the four of them had made their way to Sports ground, next to the highway. Rick had pulled out a hackeysack, and they bounced it around for a while. When, at about quarter past nine, they heard the music start across the road in the Dunedin Botanical Gardens, they dared each other to sneak in. Rick was they only one who actually said he’d do it, so his friends armed him with a smoke bomb and cap gun (which Rick ‘accidentally’ dropped on his way across the road) and set him off.
Rick had crossed the busy road and walked into the Gardens through the gate on the front of the park, closest to where he was. He looped through an ornate Rose Garden, in which beautiful flower intertwined around simple wooden arches. The effect at night, with small lights shining out from by the ground, was simply enthralling, and he thought about how he ought to come here with his girlfriend. It was utterly beguiling.
He walked along a bit more, till he was at the corner of the Gardens and the main entrance. A small plaza-type area surrounded by plants and masterfully crafted wrought-iron gates was dominated by a gigantic statue, a curling, sweeping column of swirls.
But, Rick thought, he could admire in the day. He should get on with the dare.
The entrance to the concert was simply a path, with a security guard taking tickets and a portable turnstile next to a rope and a conveniently placed rubbish bin. Rick joined the small queue lining up to get in. When he was second in line, he discreetly threw the armed smoke bomb into the rubbish bin. The person in front moved on, and the guard spoke to Rick.
‘Ticket please.’ He was a rather fat man, cropped blond hair and a belt that was too tight. Rick put his hand in his pocket and faked searching for a ticket. Getting increasing more desperate, he waited for the smoke to start rising out of the bin. Just as the guard was saying, ‘no ticket, no entry,’ the smoke appeared, and a girl screamed ‘fire!’
The guard, momentarily distracted, looked around at the smoke. With everyone’s attention on the bin, Rick leaped over the turnstile and walked in, flashing a thumbs up to his friends watching.
His cell phone, a brand new Nokia N9-1, played a short extract of ‘Diary of Jane’ by Breaking Benjamin, twice, bringing him back to the present. Reading the first, Rick resolved to begin to head towards the exit. It was from Dmitri Kovik, one of the boys outside the park waiting for him. The text read, ‘wer r u? we no u gt in fyn, nw gt owt. We gon go 2 da prk.’ As Rick walked towards the main entrance he read the other text, from his girlfriend Bella.
‘hey boi, wat up? cn u cum 2 da skul in 15 mins? I wana ask u sum@.’ Wondering what this could mean, Rick slipped through the gate, dodging the guard by tapping his right shoulder, the ducking around to the guards left. It was a trick he’d learnt in primary school, and was amazed at how many people still fell for it. Then he ran across the road onto the sports ground where a group of his friends were waiting.
When he reached them, Dmitri, a tall, muscular, pale blond boy asked him, ‘like the music?’ Dmitri had only moved to Dunedin from St Petersburg three years ago, but his English was perfect and his Russian accent, thick when he first came to New Zealand was almost gone, the only remnants of it showing up when he spoke very fast and didn’t make ‘h’ sounds.
‘Yeah I do actually. Quite like the band,’ Rick replied, missing the sarcasm in Dmitri’s voice.
‘Really?’ asked a boy with blonde hair called Mack. ‘I don’t.’
‘Listen guys, I have to go in ten, Bella wants to see me.’
‘What for? Where?’ a boy called Jesse asked who was concentrating on both the conversation he could hear and the one on his cellphone.
‘She wants to tell me something at school, but I don’t know what it is.’
‘Well you’d better get a move on, school’s miles away.’ Not quite true, but definitely over quarter of an hour if you didn’t speed or hit traffic. ‘Actually I’m gonna go to, got some ‘business’ to attend to,’ Dmitri continued. ‘See you.’
‘See you tomorrow guys.’ Rick and Dmitri got on their bikes and rode through the central town and towards Otago Harbour.
‘Why does she want to meet you at the school?’ Dmitri said.
‘Good question. Maybe because she lives just down the road from it, and it’s easily a two minute walk from her house.’
‘True.’ Rick and Dmitri often went round to Bella’s house. The three of them spent a lot of time just chilling at someone’s house. Rick and Bella both like going to Dmitri’s house the most though. His parents were very rich, and not only was their house massive but it was filled with expensive gadgets, from an intercom system to a games room complete with pool table, table tennis set and home theatre.
Dmitri smiled at Rick. It was an interesting smile, and Rick just had to ask about it. It was a certain type of smile, but Rick couldn’t place it. Dmitri often wore it, so Rick should be able to remember.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘No reason.’
Then Rick realized. It was a smile that meant ‘I know something you don’t!’
‘So what do you want to do tomorrow?’ Rick said, ignoring this look. Dmitri wasn’t up himself, but he definitely spent a lot of time with that look covering his pale-skinned face. It was one of the things that made a lot of girls like him; it was often mistaken as a mischievous look. Which, Rick realized, it actually was, in a way.
Rick and Dmitri said goodbye, then Dmitri broke away from Rick as they neared the Inlet. Rick continued then dropped through the school bus bay and into the courtyard in the middle of Bayfield High School. He hoped Bella wouldn’t take too long. It was nearly ten to ten, and his parents would be annoyed if he was home later than quarter past.
Bella Joneson’s fit, attractive body was sitting on a picnic table, in the middle of the quad, a small paved courtyard in the middle of the school buildings. There were a couple of trees nearby, large ones, Rick knew. But it was very dark, and he could only see Bella because there was one light coming from near one of the buildings that illuminated her. She turned as he came near, wheeling his bike to a standstill against a wall. Rick sat next to her.
‘Hey, what’s up?’
‘Not much’ Bella was average height, and when Rick sat down next to her, she leant her head snugly into his shoulder. Rick and Bella often did things like that, spending hours at a time staring out at the distance. This was unusually late, but Rick shrugged it off. It was so much fun spending time with Bella. Often they would go to the beach, and sit on the dunes, watching the ocean. They’d actually first kissed at the beach, in a game of truth or dare with their friends. That was about a year ago, and when they actually realised they liked each other.
Rick put his arm around Bella’s frame. ‘So, what do you want to do when you grow up?’ That was a game they often played. Bella had thought of it. It meant they could share their dreams with each other, and, if some of them were easy to achieve, they could do it together. Last holidays, Bella said she wanted to ride a jet boat, so when Rick’s family went on a holiday to Queenstown, Bella came with them and Rick and Bella together rode the Shotover Jet.
‘I want… to go to the top of Mt Everest.’ Rick shuddered when Bella said that. He didn’t like heights.
‘I want to mountain bike in France,’ he said.
‘I want to get a degree in Marine Biology at University.’
‘I want to live with you.’
Bella smiled. ‘You do?’
‘Of course I do. You’re so great to spend time with, to be with. I want to be always near you.’
Bella smiled again, and leant up to kiss Rick. He turned his head down, and returned the kiss. But before he could heat things up, Bella slightly pulled back, but not so much it would seem like recoil. It was just enough for Rick to realize she wanted to talk, rather than pash.
‘Bella, what’s up?
‘Much, Rick.’ Bella voice was soft and calm. She pulled her long blonde hair out of her eyes. ‘I need to ask you something, a really important something.’
‘I’m listening,’ Rick replied. He knew Bella so well, that he knew if she wanted to tell someone something, she’d flounder around until she got to the point. He had to be patient.
‘Good. Because this is really important.”
‘O.k.’ Rick replied. He held her hand.
‘You have to promise to believe me.’
‘I promise to believe you.’
‘No matter what.’
‘Bella… what do you want to tell me?’ Rick was getting a bit concerned. Bella was usually so bouncy and happy. Her current demeanor was very serious, and the mere fact that she had asked to meet him at quarter to ten on a Saturday night (and not for a make-out session) was enough to make him slightly nervous.
‘I’m, I’m…’ Her voice faltered. Rick was really worried now, as Bella had begun to look frantically around, to make sure no-one was listening.
‘Bella, what is it? Have you done something wrong?’
‘No, no, it’s just… We need your help.’
‘What for? Who’s we?’
‘Listen,’ Bella said. The imperative was, as it should be, commanding. ‘I have to tell you this, so I’m just gonna say it.
‘Rick, I’m a spy.’
Chapter Two: Bella’s Reality
Rick almost fell over.
‘What?’ he exclaimed, reeling with shock. Then, he relaxed. ‘Whatever,’ he said with disbelief.
‘No, it’s true!’ Bella said indignantly.
‘No, it’s not,’ replied Rick. ‘You’ve made that up and you know it. Had me going there for a moment!’
‘You promised to believe me!’
‘You can’t be a spy, Bella.’
‘Says who?’
‘Reality.’
‘Well, reality is wrong!’ Bella took a breath, then launched ‘I’m a spy, a secret agent for the International Intelligence Emissaries, or the IIE. I am specifically a part of the Young Infiltrators Department, YID. I was recruited three years ago, when I was 11, after Miss Bjorn, she’s the boss of YID, saw on the news how I was kidnapped.’
Rick remembered that. Three years ago, Bella had been taken by three men in their mid twenties. They had kidnapped her on her way home from school. For ten days, they had hidden her in a hut in the forests around Dunedin. They beat her, half-starved her, and tied her up. They were trying to get a ransom from the New Zealand Government. Eventually, however, they got drunk, and when they were so intoxicated they couldn’t see, she wriggled out of her bonds, knocked them out with a tap from a baseball bat, tied them up and snuck away. They guys were caught and sentenced to 15 years in jail, no parole. It had been all over the news for two weeks.
‘I spent two weeks in Taupo, on a training course. I learnt outdoor ed, infiltration skills, computer hacking, karate, loads of things!’ Bella’s face was hard, and perhaps, Rick thought, just maybe…
‘Then I went on my first mission. Remember? I got excused from school. I came back with a tan and lighter hair. I told you all I’d been to visit relatives in Florida. I went to Rio de Janeiro and stopped a gang from blowing up the Giant Statue of Christ. That was when Dmitri came, remember? He’s a spy too. He was my partner for that mission. He asked for a transfer to New Zealand, so we could go on more missions together, I’ve never been on a mission without him. His parents aren’t his real parents, he’s an orphan. They are just Russian spies based in New Zealand.’
‘So, you aren’t joking?’ Rick asked.
But Bella and Dmitri… spies? It was just so, impossible.
‘No, I’m not! More proof, after that, Dmitri was going to go on holiday with you, but he had to pull out because he got sick. Well, we actually went to Washington D.C. to stop an assassination attempt on the president. Then in winter, we went to Japan and stopped a couple of members of a Chinese Triad from derailing a Shinkansen Bullet Train.’
Rick thought about that one. He had seen that on the news. Over 1200 people had been on the train at the time. The train had been unable to brake, and nearly derailed and crashed into a high-rise in the middle of Tokyo. If the train hadn’t amazingly stopped seconds from leaving the tracks, the estimated death toll would have been over 2000.
‘In spring I went back to Japan and saved the Emperor from being ‘sacrificed’ by a cult called the ‘Siblings of Satan’. Beginning of last year we went to France, and we saved the Eiffel Tower from some terrorists. And we saved the lives of hundreds of athletes in Athens at the Olympics when the Italian Mafia tried to poison their food!‘
‘Ok. Bella. Stop. I… believe you. I think.’ This was quite a shock. Bella’s story was so elaborate. He resigned to the fact when Bella pulled out her wallet, and produced a small plastic card, with a magnetic strip and three letters on it, IIE, and her full name. Rick closed his eyes. ‘If Dmitri says it is true, I will believe you.’
‘It’s true. Believe her.’
Dmitri stepped out of the shadows.
‘What are you doing here?’ Rick exclaimed.
‘Bella told me she was gonna let you know tonight. I just went round the Inlet and came back here.’
‘How long have you been hiding there?’ Rick asked.
‘Since you said you wanted to live with Bella.’
Rick frowned as Dmitri sat on the table opposite him and Bella. His wished he’d brought something warmer than the leather jacket. His arms were completely bare, and it had gotten a lot colder all of a sudden.
‘So, all of that’s true?’
‘Completely,’ Dmitri replied.
A thought suddenly occurred to Rick. ‘So you’re an orphan?’ Rick blurted out. He immediately regretted it. Dmitri’s face got suddenly darker. Of course, thought Rick, if he’d wanted everyone to know, he would have mentioned it.
‘Oh,’ Bella said. ‘I mean, sorry, Dmitri…I didn’t think…’
‘Obviously.’
‘You knew?’ How could she have known? Rick asked himself.
‘Yeah, he told me in Rio.’
Dmitri still looked dark.
‘I’m really sorry Dmitri, I thought, well no, I didn’t. But it’s better if he knows everything he can.’
‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Dmitri said. ‘He turned to Rick. ‘My actual parents were spies for IIE, just like my Mum and Dad. They were killed while on a mission when I was 2. I grew up around spies, and when I was 11 they asked me if I wanted to go to Rio on a mission.’
‘Why is it better if I know?’ Rick asked, after acknowledging Dmitri’s story with a solemn nod. Why were his friends so secretive? They had an entire life that neither of them had mentioned until now. Then another thought occurred to Rick. Why were they telling him all of this now?
Because, Rick, we want you to come on a mission with us,’ Bella explained patiently.
‘Really?’ Rick asked, unsure. ‘Why me?’
‘Well, mostly because you are fit, strong, smart, and we are running out of agents, so Ms Bjorn just said that we should find another person, so we suggested you,’ said Dmitri. ‘If you join the YID, which comes as a term of participating in this mission, there would only be 12 of us. Though the best number for this mission would be five, so perhaps there will end up being 13.’
‘You don’t have to come, though,’ Bella said. ‘Every mission is voluntary. However, it’s very difficult to pull out, so chances are, if you accept, you’ll be in it till the end.’
‘No, I want to do it!’ Rick was surprised at the conviction in his voice. One part of him was going, ‘a spy! I get to be a spy, this is so great! It’s amazing!’ but a larger, much more sensible part of him was saying ‘WOAH. Hold up. This is potentially life-threatening!’ However, Rick thought back to the dare earlier that night, and decided to make a dare with himself. He could be a spy, just like Bella and Dmitri.
‘Where are we going?’ he asked.
‘We don’t know. We aren’t going to be told until the briefing.’
‘When’s that?’ Suddenly Rick was bursting full of questions.
‘Three Mondays away. This mission is important, but you have to go through two weeks of basic spying skills first,’ answered Dmitri.
‘Will Ms Bjorn be coming with us?’
Bella answered. ‘No, she might drop in though, and she’ll be at the briefing. There’ll be a supervisor there, an adult agent from IIE.’
‘Your parents have to let you go though,’ said Dmitri.
‘Do we have to go and check with them?’
‘No,’ Bella said, ‘Ms Bjorn said she would call them tonight.’ Then Bella’s cell rang. She answered it, said ‘Ok, bye-bye,’ and hung up. Then she continued to Rick, ‘ Yep, your parents said yes, that was Ms Bjorn.’
‘Go pack, mate,’ said Dmitri. ‘Big day tomorrow!’
