Mission 3 Part 3

A fancy, sleek limousine drove up to the front gate at the enemy country’s HQ. The guards looked at each other and shrugged; they walked up to the car and motioned for it to stop. One of the guards knocked on the window and the driver rolled it down. The driver took of his incredibly cool-looking sunglasses and smiled. “What’s up?” he said.
The driver was, of course, Ryan Cruise but the guards had no idea. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” the guard asked.
“Well man, I’m just following orders; you’ll have to ask the general why we’re here, exactly.”
The guards followed the jerk of Ryan’s thumb to the back seat. There was a man dressed in a general’s uniform sitting in between two bodyguards. In reality it was Tim sitting in between Zach and Chris, but the guard didn’t know that. “Well, sir,” the guard said in a little nicer voice. “Do you have an appointment? And can I have a name please, sir?”
“I most certainly do have an appointment,” Tim replied in a Russian accent. “And my name is General Vassili. I’m surprised that the director of HQ himself wasn’t here to welcome me.”
“We weren’t informed that you were visiting, sir,” the guard replied.
“What? Not informed?” Tim nearly exploded. “How can this be?” The bodyguards sitting beside the general remained calm but kept their hands by their weapons.
Meanwhile, Laz was working furiously in a secret compartment beneath the backseat, trying to hack into their computer system.
Tim continued to explode in a mix of Russian and English until Ryan quieted him down.
“Sir, it was a surprise inspection wasn’t it?” Ryan asked, stalling for time.
“No, no it was not. I distinctly remember scheduling an appointment.”
The guard was scrolling through a handheld computer. “Well sir, I’m not seeing an appointment on here…”
“Come on Laz,” Ryan whispered.
“Excuse me?” the guard said.
Ryan coughed. “Uh, I said, ‘don’t be such a spaz’.”
The guard frowned.
Ryan shook his head. “No wait, uh, never mind.”
Suddenly, one of the guards spoke up. “I found it, sir.”
“What?” the other guard asked.
“I found the appointment, sir,” the guard repeated.
Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. “Good old Laz.”
Underneath them Laz was breathing a sigh of relief too. “Man that was tough,” Laz whispered to himself. He groaned. “Now I have to go to the bathroom.”
“You can go in now,” the head guard said. “We’ll have some guards escort you into your parking spot and then they’ll clear you for entrance into the facility.”
“Oh goody, goody gumdrops,” Tim replied.
The guard frowned once again. “I beg your pardon?”
“Never mind,” Ryan said. They drove over to the spot that the guards led them to and parked. The two guards opened the door and motioned for them to step out.
“We’re going to have to--” one of the guards began, but he didn’t finish because he was instantly kneed in the stomach and then knocked out by Christophear. The other guard received the same fate from Ryan almost immediately afterward.
As they were hiding the guards in a space that was randomly placed in the garage for hiding bodies, Timothius placed film in front of all the cameras that kept the cameras from spotting them.
“How’d I do?” Timothius asked, talking about his performance at the gate.
“Pretty good,” Ryan said. Then he frowned. “But, ‘goody, goody gumdrops’?”
Tim shrugged sheepishly. “I got a little carried away.”
“I’ll say.” Ryan paused and looked around. “Where’s Laz?”
Zach smacked his forehead. “I think we left him in the secret compartment of the car.”

After they had helped Laz out of the car, the five of them snuck their way into the elevator and up to the entrance.
“I knew you guys were going to forget me in there,” Laz complained. “I’m always forgotten. I was left behind on the motorcycle, in the Imperial Trade Center, and now in that car. I guess it’s just my lot in life, to be left behind.” Laz looked up and noticed that no one was listening to him, but were already way ahead of him. “Hey, wait up.”
“This could get tricky,” Ryan said when they reached the entrance. “We need a code to get in here and a key card.” He pulled a device out of his pack.
“What’re those?” Laz asked.
“Heat-vision goggles,” he replied, putting them on. “They’ll allow me to see which of the keys on this pad are the warmest, which means I’ll be able to tell what the code is.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you were that smart,” Laz said.
Ryan grinned and gave a modest shrug. “I guess I’m just full of surprises.”
“Actually, he isn’t that smart,” Timothius pointed out. “Emmy was the one that told him that.”
“Dang it, Tim, I told you not to tell them that,” Ryan snapped. “Oh, whatever.” He punched in some numbers on the keypad and then swiped the key card that they had taken from one of the guards through the slot. A bunch of green letters appeared on the screen. “Access granted,” it read.
“And we’re in, couldn’t have done it better myself,” Ryan announced.
“But, you did do it yourself,” Laz pointed out.
“Exactly,” Ryan replied. He started to go inside.
“Wait,” Timothius called.
“What?” Ryan asked.
“We can’t just charge in there with no plan at all.”
Ryan stared at him blankly. “Why not?”
“Because, we need assignments. Like, uh, Christophear and Zach, you two stay here and secure our exit.”
“Aw, how come we have to secure the exit?” Zach whined.
“Because, I don’t want to, and neither does Ryan,” Timothius replied.
“What about Laz?” Chris asked.
“Laz is my dopey sidekick,” Ryan said. “No offense, Laz.”
“None taken,” Laz shrugged.
“Where I go, Laz goes,” Ryan continued. We do everything together, we fight together, break into secret buildings together, die together, and even go out… never mind that last part. Anyways, Laz goes.”
“Bias,” Chris muttered.
Timothius just ignored him. “All right then, now let’s go in.”
“Wait,” Laz said, as if something had suddenly dawned on him. “Did Ryan just insult me?”

Ryan, Laz, and Timothius ducked inside the HQ and quickly made note of where the nearest cameras were.
Ryan tossed Timothius a strange looking gun. “Here, point this at the cameras and pull the trigger.”
Timothius obeyed. “What does it do?” he asked.
Ryan was already picking the lock on a door that happened to be nearby. “It jams the cameras for a minute or two, just long enough for us to get in here.” Ryan stopped and pointed at himself. “My idea.”
Timothius rolled his eyes. “Right, who really thought of it? Emmy, or Kayla?”
Ryan sighed. “You never believe me.” The lock on the door clicked and Ryan pushed the door open. “Okay fine, it was Kayla’s idea.”
“I knew it,” Timothius said.
“What room did you just break into?” Laz asked eagerly. “Is it Top-Secret? Is it the director’s office? Something exciting?”
Ryan gave him a look and they stepped inside. “It’s just the janitor’s closet, Laz. Keep your shirt on.” Indeed it was the janitor’s closet, complete with brooms, mops, and other assorted janitorial equipment.
Laz moaned. “Why did we break into the janitor’s closet?”
“Because there’s no alarms,” Ryan replied.
“That’s it?” Laz cried.
“No of course not,” Ryan looked offended. “Do you think I’d do something that dumb?”
Timothius coughed awkwardly after he said this. “Of course not,” he assured him, with only a little bit of sarcasm in his voice.
“We broke in here because this is how we’re going to get into that secret room,” Ryan said.
“How?” Laz asked, still skeptical.
“Through the ventilation system of course,” Ryan said, pointing towards the sealing. There was a large grate there, big enough for a man to crawl into. They quickly removed the grate and placed it on the ground.
“Timothius, you stay here and guard the room,” Ryan ordered.
“Why me?” Timothius asked.
“Because, dopey sidekick, remember?” Ryan pointed to Laz and then crawled up into the opening. Laz tossed Timothius a small earbud. “Here,” he said. “Stick this in your ear.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, because all the cool secret agents have them. Plus, we can keep in touch that way.” Laz pulled himself up into the hole.
Timothius sat down on the ground and sighed. This wasn’t going to be very fun, unless of course, the janitor came by. As he was sitting there, thinking that he’d much rather be crawling through the ventilation system with Ryan and Laz, his phone suddenly started talking to him. Or at least, he thought it was his phone, but he hadn’t brought his phone.
“Hello, Tim?” the voice said. It sounded remarkably like Kayla’s, but Tim couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.
“Let me try,” said another voice that sounded like Emmy’s. “Tim, down here!”
Tim reached into his pockets and pulled out everything he could find. He searched until he found a small, handheld device that looked somewhat like a PDA system. Instead of showing a background however, it showed Emmy’s face.
“Whoa, Emmy!” Tim cried with surprise.