Interior by KLeenaGirl (romantic books to read .TXT) 📕

together on missions, that’s why we had grown close over the years. The oldest one in our little round of four was Matthew Russell, a 22-year-old bachelor. He was known for being quite a hotshot. His not over-muscled, but well-defined body let every woman drool and his dark hair and dark eyes made him somewhat mysterious. There were a whole bunch of stories people gossiped about him. He was supposed to have slept with hundreds of women and some whispered he had even tried with men. Even I must confess to have fallen for him at some point in the past. Despite all those things coming out of the gossip mill, I had to admit that he was a really good spy. He always completed his mission with precision and excellence, so he made a pretty decent mission partner. (Although his perverted jokes could piss you off after some time.)
‘Sam was pretty harsh today’, Simon sighed and took a bite of his potatoes.
‘Don’t worry’, Colin said, ‘he isn’t usually that way.’ Matthew just ‘hnn’-ed at that.
‘You have no reason to complain’, I explained gulping down some lemonade, ‘Lewis is nothing compared to Cox. She makes you wish you haven’t even been born in the first place.’ I thought of my aching muscles and grimaced. ‘But in the end, it’s okay. I guess it’s worth all the pain.’
‘Whoah, what happened to you?’, Colin suddenly let out, ‘last week you cursed over training like you’d want to quit. And now you seem all positive about it.’
I looked surprised. Had I really been that fed up the last weeks?
‘I’m glad, though’, Colin went on quickly, ‘the true Alex finally decided to make her appearance again. You certainly look better.’
‘Well, thanks, I guess’, I murmured, ‘I feel better, too.’
‘You even look sexier than before’, Matt smirked at me smugly, ‘if that’s possible at all, honey.’
He earned a punch in the rips by me. Just because he and I had some kind of fling in the past didn’t mean he still got to call me ‘honey’ in public. ‘Save it, macho man.’
‘Score! Point for Alex’, Simon laughed.
‘Hey guys, we better hurry up, it’s time for receiving today’s missions plan.’
We quickly finished eating, afterwards everyone gathered up the Great Hall.

‘Alright’, David said, ‘Emily, you, Lucy and Julian are going to gain some information about the latest underground attacks by doing some undercover work in pubs near London’s main railway station. John, you’ll take Matthew and Maria with you to escort a group of some very important CEOs. Tim, Alexandra and Colin, you will shadow the members of the new founded English department of the Mafia. They meet at Fortune Restaurant today. And Christopher, you’re going to help Simon with learning trap techniques. Got it?’
All of us nodded.
‘Well, then you’re dismissed.’
I wasn’t too happy with my mission. It wasn’t that it was difficult or dangerous, no, it was quite the opposite. Shadowing someone all day long was utterly boring and annoying. But at least, it meant that I could relax a bit today.
Tim picked up Colin and me, and we went through the details of the mission together. After that, we decided how we would trail the suspects to their meeting point. Things settled, we collected our equipment and went off to carry out our mission.


Chapter 5


It was Monday morning and I was on the way to school.
Alright, Thompson, today is the first day of the rest of you life. Oh scratch that. That sounds stupid, even in my mind.
Things can only turn out better than before now. ‘Great, Alex, another cheesy motto’, I giggled mentally. Well, I think you can get what I’m trying to express. I hadn’t had any nightmares since the night I met Sebastian on my favourite tree. Missions and training were going smoothly and my relationships to my comrades had eased. Life was good.
It was still early, but the September sun had already raised and pushed away the cool morning chill. I loved the end of the summer. It wasn’t as hot as in July and August, but instead there was a soft breeze which created such a peaceful, almost lazy mood. I had to enjoy this weather before the autumn rains would begin.
For the first time in this school year, I appeared in class on time. I have to admit, that made me feel a little bit proud.
Sebastian soon came in, too, and sat down next to me. He looked down, there was nothing cheerful about him today. All of his usual happy mood seemed to be gone. His face was pale causing his pierce blue eyes to stand out even more than before. Nevertheless, they appeared to be less alive today because I couldn’t find a hint of glimmering in them. But before I could really ask him what was going on, class started. We had to take a math test in the first lesson.
I started writing down the answers in numbers after I had received the test sheet. A few minutes later my gaze wandered over to Sebastian to see how he was doing. To my shock he hadn’t even started writing yet. He just said there with a blank expression on his face, his eyes staring unfocused at the floor.
When our teacher Mrs Slag turned away, I nudge him with my elbow slightly. ‘Hey Bastian’, I whispered, ‘what’s the matter?’
‘Miss Thompson, would you please be quiet.’ Damn, the old hag had noticed. Couldn’t she see that Sebastian obviously had a problem?
‘But, Ma’am…’, I tried - futile. ‘No buts, Miss Thompson’, Slag almost spit in my face, ‘if you don’t stop it, I will take your test away.’
Great. Damn hag. I shut my mouth and tried to concentrate on the test, but I couldn’t help worry about Sebastian.
Even at the end of the lesson, he still hadn’t written a word (or a number for that matter) down. Mrs. Slag collected the tests and dismissed us.
Wordlessly, Sebastian stood up and went out of the room. I followed as fast as possible. ‘Sebastian, wait’, I shouted, ‘what’s wrong with you?’
In an instant he turned around to face me. ‘I need to talk to you’, he replied in a serious tone. We slipped into the janitor’s storeroom, we often used this place to talk in privacy. Sebastian pulled the door close and stood up right in front of me.
‘So, what’s up, Sebastian? You seem to be confused.’ I said quietly and looked into his lifeless eyes.
‘Sorry for making you worry’, he sounded guilty.
‘Don’t be’, I hastily commented.
‘Well, I tried to phone you at the weekend’, he explained. Oh, I was at ISO headquarters the whole time. ‘Something happened on Friday’s night. Though, I have no idea what…’
Riiing.
Great, perfect timing. That was my emergency-beeper. I had to answer it. ‘Sorry’, I muttered and pulled the gadget out. Just one glance at the short message made me realize that it was urgent.
Come to HQ. NOW.
Sebastian started to talk again. ‘Well, you see…’
‘Sebastian, I’m so sorry’, I explained and looked up to see his desperate expression. ‘I have to go.’ I opened up the door and gave him an apologizing look. ‘Don’t forget what you wanted to tell me’, I yelled back as I ran out of the school’s building.
I felt bad for leaving Sebastian behind like that, but I had no other choice. It was my job. I hurried to the next tube station and arrived at ISO’s headquarters only a few minutes later.
When I entered the Great Hall, I was out of breath. My comrades were already here, they looked like they had been awaiting me.
‘What’s the matter?’ I panted and went over to them.
Dave raised his voice. ‘We received an interesting note today. And it seems to have something to do with you.’
‘Me?’ I asked startled and looked over David’s shoulder at the computer. The e-mail consisted of a sign language I had no idea of. ‘Dave’, I started, but he interrupted me. ‘Don’t worry. Ben succeeded in encoding this.’ He clicked and the transfer version opened.
Alexandra Thompson or they’ll have to die.
That was the message behind it. A picture was attached to the note. It was an image of a man and woman; both of them were around the age of 45 to 50. I didn’t know them, yet, there was something familiar about them.
‘Who are their hostages?’ I asked immediately.
‘Christine and Rupert Beale’. My breath stopped. Now I realized the familiarity of them. They were Sebastian’s parents! No wonder he had been so upset today.
‘Well, the thing is, Alex, the kidnappers want you. I checked your social network and no person with the name ‘Beale’ appeared.’
It was common or rather set for ISO’s members to state all of their friends and relatives in order to save them from being kidnapped or killed. But I hadn’t state Sebastian’s name, since I didn’t want my only friend in the outer world to be watched by ISO. Hell, I wanted a bit of privacy, too. ISO knew almost everything about me by now. Who I loved, who I hated, who I kissed, they even knew everybody who I slept with. It wasn’t easy for me. I had never realized Sebastian or his family could become the target of my enemies. I always hid my friendship to him. There had been a malicious spy following me. I cursed myself. Why hadn’t I noticed? It must have been obvious. I came to the conclusion that I had overseen it, since I had been occupied with all these issues the past weeks.
David looked at me sternly. ‘I need to know, Alex, do you know these persons, or any person they might be connected with?’ All eyes in the room lingered on me. Even though, I was nervous in the inside, I kept my cool on the outside. I couldn’t tell them. Not now, when everything had started to be normal again. I knew they trusted me like I trusted them, but I couldn’t bring the words out. It would be like I disappointed somebody again. I had closed with that phase of my life; I didn’t want to start all over with it. I had to find a solution for this mission myself. I let out my breath and caught it.
‘No’, I answered dryly. ‘I have no idea who they are.’
Dave sighed and the others went away. ‘I’m truly relieved. Sorry, Alex, I didn’t mean to mistrust you. But why were these two abducted? And why would they want you?’
I shrugged. ‘Y’know, I’m not very popular among the world’s villains. And you know that me being an ISO member isn’t the only reason why people might want me.’
‘I understand.’ He pushed some keys on his board. ‘I guess you can go now, I don’t have enough information yet to call in a rescue mission. I’ll inform you immediately, when I got something new for you.’
I gulped. ‘Okay, I’m going back to school.’ With that, I turned. I walked steadily, as if not to be suspected. I felt bad by betraying my work and my friends like that. Why couldn’t I ever do the right thing? My heart raced and when I was outside headquarters, I began to run. I calmed my nervousness down by forming rescue plans in my head. It wasn’t the first time it was up to me to save someone. I could do it, I told myself. But first of all, another person crossed my mind.
I had to find Sebastian, no matter what. Maybe his life was in danger, too. When I noticed,