Hey oaks... please would you guys let me know if you like where my story is going so far and your thoughts on the characters and all... and if you like the book's new name. I just think it would be super cool to hear your thoughts on all I've been doing. I really appreciate you all supporting me so early on in my book and all and I hope you will keep on enjoying it.

I really appreciate each and every vote and comment and I've decided that for the next super awesome comment I get, I'm going to dedicate the next chapter to them. Love ya! Enjoy.



Chapter 11



“This is good.”

“Good?! Drew, I totally freaked out! I was having like a mini panic attack just standing there like an idiot while he paid for my frikken ice!” I complained to what would look like to any observer would be mid-air.

I promise you, though, I was not arguing with mid-air. That nifty supercomputer I had practically living in my ear also doubled as a cell phone and right now I was updating Drew in my mission’s daily briefing.

“He was the one to make the first contact, am I not correct?” he asked, not bothering to wait for an answer, knowing he was right. “Well then he will feel as if any association you two will ever make would be because of his initiation of the connection which makes him think he is in control and not suspect that you were actually meant to make friends with him anyway. It was the action of him reaching out to you that would make him feel secure, get it?”

I huffed. Drew was right. I just hadn’t been prepared for the mission to officially start this soon. I hadn’t felt prepared at all earlier today when I had met the mark for the first time. My training in itself should have been preparation enough for me to be ready for anything to happen. I felt like an idiot for the way I initially reacted to the situation, but there was no going back now.

“Alright, so you’ll see him at the heats to-” he started.

“After,” I butted in.

“Excuse me?”

“He said that I will only be seeing him after the heats tomorrow,” I elaborated.

“But why only after?” Drew ask, clearly feeling slightly confused by the specific nature as to when I would be seeing Miguel again. “Did he mention why he would only see you after?”

I blushed slightly at this, remembering Miguel’s excuse.

“No.”

“Well then you’ll need to find out now, won’t you?”

“And how do I do that?” I asked.

“Zero, you’re the agent. You’re the one that needs to come up with that part of the plan. We trained you to think in these situations and you won’t always have someone to run to for help,” Drew explained.

“So I spy on him?” I clarified.

“Zero, did you not just hear what I said. You decide, ok? Now we need to hurry this up because it’s late where you are and you need to sleep to actually do well in the heats tomorrow.”

“Yeah, ok. Sorry,” I apologised. “Has my bike arrived yet?”

“Yes, they’ve been delivered to the heats race sit-”

“They?” I interrupted. I seemed to have made a habit of doing that a lot to people lately.

“Yes, we ordered two bikes. They’re exactly the same, just have different colours and stickers and what not. We have to be prepared for any unforeseen complications. There’s also a couple different helmets and gear, but try keep all those doubles hidden. It’s unusual for someone racing in this type of race to be so jacked up.”

I nodded for Drew to continue, not really caring that he couldn’t actually see me.

“Three will only arrive once the heats are about to begin so that he can blend in with the spectators. Don’t expect him to help you if anything goes wrong, maintaining your cover is absolutely vital. If something happens to one of you then anything found out by the other becomes of even more importance. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then, that’s all for now,” Drew said, swiftly ending the conversation.

“Aren’t you going to say it?” I said quickly, hoping he hadn’t hung up just yet. For some odd reason agents just never said goodbye. Or maybe it was just my family. I hadn’t met many other agents so it was kind of hard to tell.

“Say what?” Drew asked.

Phew, he hadn’t ended the call.

“Wish me good luck? It is my big day tomorrow, you know.”

Drew sighed, but I could virtually hear the smile that I knew was on his face.

“Good luck, Agent Zero,” he said, and I could hear it was genuine, even though it had been me that was the one that had asked him to say it.

“Thanks,” I whispered and the line officially went dead. Next time I talk to Drew would only be after the heats. Let’s hope I even last that long.

***

Clank.

It was the sound of riders doing last minute check-ups on their bikes. I had made sure to arrive extra early and had immediately found the large closed trailer that Drew had described to me.

Inside were the two bikes Drew had promised, the two that I had not only double, but triple checked that were in perfect working condition.

Now to find out what Miguel is up to. I thought.

I had noticed his familiar figure entering the racing grounds not so long ago, so I headed in the direction I hoped he had also walked.

Rounding the corner I found myself looking into the area designated for the more well-known back street racers.

It was easy to spot Miguel standing by what I presumed was his trailer. He was doing absolutely nothing unusual, only executing any normal rider’s routine pre-race check-up. I could notice nothing fishy in any of his actions.

He did seem to be in a bit of a rush though, for some unknown reason. So much so that the necklace I briefly remember him wearing yesterday too, somehow got caught on the clutch and caused the pendant to appear to break into two.

Miguel cursed out loud, loud enough for me to hear him from where I was hiding, and started fumbling around for the half of the pendant that had fallen to the floor. As he did that I noticed a glint, a reflection of the sun that his necklace didn’t normally allow and in that second I realised that there was something inside the pendant. A flash stick.

Bingo. I thought.

That, I’m sure, is where he was keeping the data we needed. It made sense; he had it on him at all times so he could keep an eye on it and I must say, it is very well disguised. I would never have probably ever noticed it if he hadn’t made the rookie mistake of rushing.

I quickly turned around and hurried back to my own trailer, not wanting to risk getting caught doing unnecessary surveillance. I had figured out what I needed to, and now just need to retrieve it.

First, however, I needed to focus on the heats.

Throwing on the kit that was lying on the top of my pile and stuffing my head into the first helmet I saw, I pushed the green coloured bike out towards the starting line.

For the heats we were racing around a simple dirt track, nothing too difficult. The actual race is going to be a cross country of sorts, but right now the heats were to see who would actually survive in the official race.

Not that, I’m sure, the people that run this race cared if you made it through or not. I’m sure they were only doing this as an excuse for another race to happen so that they could make more money off people placing bets. It’s simple, the more races there are, the more bets people can place.

Once at the starting line, I started my engine as the other racers did and girl holding a checker flag sauntered her way to the front of all the racers, gaining a series of catcalls which she returned with a wink.

I could see about four racers down was Miguel’s big black bike.

The girl picked up the flag, holding it straight up above her head and I put my bike in gear, being careful to not release the clutch just yet, definitely not wanting to be disqualified.

At that she dropped the flag and I released the clutch. We were off. I flew through the gears, quickly picking up speed all while flying over ramps and dodging other racers.

Pretty soon the slower racers began to fall back and I found myself hot on the heels of a big black bike.

Miguel.

His form was perfect as he took another ramp head on and that was when I noticed the pendant still around his neck, floating up due to the momentum of the jump, before slamming back down onto his chest.

Now was my chance, all I had to do was get alongside him and grab it.

So I took the chance, cutting along the inside of him as we rounded a corner, just hoping I hadn’t taken that turn too sharp and have the bike slip out from underneath me.

I didn’t have much time to think of that though as we were leaning into the corner. All my focus was on that pendant dangling around his neck, as if taunting me to just reach out and grab it. So I did.

But just as my fingers brushed against the pendant we were airborne again, this time the ramp taking me by surprise.

I quickly grabbed the handlebars once more and lined the bike up, ready to land properly.

Focus, I need to try and focus better. There’s no room for rookie attempts like the one I just made.

The one that also cost me second place. The one that allowed three other people to overtake me, leaving me with not as impressive 5th place.

Once crossing the finish line I quickly headed back to the trailer and changed out of the kit I was wearing- it was way too hot to willingly keep wearing that thing.

I then headed back out of my trailer to fetch the bike as I had ditched it at the finish line in order to quickly get out of the boiling hot kit.

As I reached forward and picked up my helmet the crowd grew quiet and silently formed a clear circular area around me. Unsure of what was happening, I turned around only to see the infamous Mexican cartel leader staring at me with an evil glint in his eyes, Miguel standing just behind him with shock written all over his face.

Before he could say anything though, Alex jump out of the crowd.

“Oi, just what do you think you’re doing with my stuff?” he demanded, grabbing the helmet from me.

“Wha-” I stepped back in shock, not sure of what was happening.

“You!” the Mexican demanded, shifting his glare to Alex. “Get ‘em.”

And with that one command, two heavily tattooed men stepped out and grabbed Alex from both sides.

The Mexican dude let out a sinister laugh.

“You know you’re not the first agent to try and steal what is mine,” he said lowly. “And do you know what happened to them?” he asked.

His evil smile growing by the second.

“Do you want to find out why we’re called Daga Negro? Why we’re called the Black Dagger?” he took threatening step forward. “I think we should just show you, ey? That sound good? Because I’m getting tired of people trying to steal information I worked so hard in obtaining myself.”

At that he angrily turned around, throwing a simple ‘Bring ‘em’ over his shoulder. The two goons holding Alex then walked after their boss, dragging Three along with.

I didn’t get to see where they were taking him because the next thing I knew I was engulfed in a hug.

“I almost thought it was you,” Miguel mumbled into my shoulder.

“Wha-” I started to say before clearing my throat. “Miguel, what just happened?”

He released me from his tight grip and took a step back, looking slightly sheepish.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Um- I didn’t mean to- I just…” he trailed off.

“It’s fine,” I brushed off his excuses for the sudden hug. “But what was that other thing all about?”

He sighed.

“Someone tried to steal something from me during the race and when I saw you pick up the helmet that person was wearing, for a moment I thought it was you. You have no idea how relieved I was when I saw it wasn’t actually yours,” then he paused. “Why did you pick up that helmet anyway?”

The reason for what had just happened suddenly cleared up in my head. Alex took the fall for me.

“What can I say,” I quickly covered up. “I’m a curious gal. I liked the look of it and wanted to see it closer up,” I let out a short laugh. “Should have known better than to pick up other people’s stuff. Well done in the heats by the way.”

He smiled at my compliment.

“And how did you do?” he asked me.

“5th” I risked stating the place I came when riding the bike they think belongs to Alex. We turned and started heading back to my trailer.

“Impressive,” he commented. “For a girl.”

“Excuse me,” I acted as if I was hurt. “That was just merely my warm up.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was,” he winked.

I flicked him lightly on the shoulder, but laughed anyway.

“Jessie,” he addressed me, nervously rubbing his hand on the back of his neck, his pendant lifting up in the process as if it was mocking me. It was so close yet so far.

“Yeah?” I responded.

“I hope you won’t mind me asking… uh… if… if I-”he stopped walking. “Could I please have your number?”

A full blown grin formed on my face as I took in his nervous stance as he waited for my response.

“Sure,” I replied, reaching my hand out for his phone.

He grinned back at me in relief and quickly dug in his pocket for his cell phone. He handed it to me and we kept on walking as I filled in my name and one of my cover numbers I had memorised. I handed it back just as we reached my trailer that was stupidly left still open by me in my earlier rush to change and fetch my bike.

Lucky for me, though, with everyone thinking that my other bike and helmet was actually Alex’s, I only had one of each double left in my trailer. All in all, my trailer now looked like any other racer’s trailer would look.

“Miguel!” a booming voice echoed across the trailer lot.

“I have to go,” Miguel quickly apologised, glancing at the Mexican standing by a large truck with his arms crossed. “Can’t keep my dad waiting now can I?” he chuckled nervously.

“Call me,” I said, waving goodbye and trying to keep the shock of him being the cartel leader’s son in.

“I will,” he nodded and then jogged away to where his dad was waiting. I could only assume that they had Alex locked up inside that truck somewhere, along with what they think is his bike and helmet.

Great. I thought. I already have made such a mess of this.



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