Pandemic Spy School

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine - Trees

C.I.A. Winter resort

Montreal Quebec

December 31

0930 hours

"Erica! My name is Emma now!" Sophia pleaded.

"It wasn't the last time I saw you,"

"But now it is!"

"Okay, continue leaving me out of this," I muttered.

"You know Trixie?" Erica asked.

"I wouldn't forget her," I replied.

"Well, this is my other sister. Sophia Hale,"

"Emma Hale," She murmured, rolling her eyes.

I looked between them somewhat confused.

"For sisters, you look like polar opposites," I said.

"Well that's because we live on opposite sides of the world," Erica said sarcastically. "She is my adopted sister,"

"I don't know why you still put it that way," Sophia said, clearly annoyed.

"Since when do you have two sisters?" I asked, incredulous.

"For the first two years of you knowing me, you didn't know I had one sister," Erica started. "For the first year, you didn't know I had a mother, which in retrospect is stupid. Anyways, for several months you didn't know I had a grandfather. Next thing you know, I'm going to have to explain to you how I have two brothers as well,"

"You do!?" I stared at her like she had just told me she was working for CROATOAN.

"She doesn't," Sophia said.

"How do you know? Maybe Mom was keeping more than one secret from you?"

"If she was, I would be surprised. When you guys brought me into spy training last year, she told me it was the only secret she hadn't told me,"

Erica and I both started laughing at this. I was surprised I knew more about their mother then Sophia did.

Catharine Hale works for MI6, and until last fall, no one except for Erica in her family knew. She was one of the few spies I had seen that was able to do their job perfectly. And she was one of the few people who was as pretty as Erica.

"Mom doesn't tell you anything, that's for sure," Erica laughed.

Sophia narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the two of us.

"You are acting weird," She said.

"You're so clueless," Erica muttered.

And with that, she walked past me, through a pile of clothes, and out the room. She didn't hesitate to push Sophia out of the way while doing so.

I looked helplessly at Sophia, and then followed Erica out of the room. She was a good ten metres ahead of me, and she was moving at a pretty high speed. She flew down the stairs, and then towards the front door again. Before I had even stepped off the last stair, she had put on her winter jacket, and her boots and was going outside. I quickly got into my snow gear, and then hurried out after her. But she was nowhere to be seen. Following footprints was out of the question. From the door there were the footprints of several kids, all going in different directions. There were Erica's footprints from when she ran around to the back of the house earlier, and I could still faintly see the spot where Sophia and I had stood near the railing. I had one trick I could use though. I looked around, trying to see which footprints looked freshest. I found them, and then followed them off the porch, and down through the small forest path, which led to all the outside activities. Around the middle of the path, the footprints stopped abruptly. There was only one way they could have gone. I glanced warily up into the trees above me, and sure enough, I could see the tips of boots hanging over the edge of the branch.