Click! 
 
I flinched, but nothing happened! We stood there momentarily confused. The trigger was pulled why didn’t anything happen? I was the first to realize why it didn’t work. I grabbed at the gun, pointing the barrel away from me. My opponent fought back but I won. I turned the safety off and pointed the gun at them, my fingers curled around the trigger.  
 
One day ago:  
 
Ugh! This dress is so uncomfortable, and the music at this party sucks. I wanna go home! I thought to myself, also, it isn’t helping that I'm standing here doing nothing except looking like a stalker. Why am I even here? 
 As if on que, Liz walks up to me. “How's the party?” She asks.  
“Of all the people you could have forced to come along. Why did it have to be me?”  
She giggled “It’s that bad?”  
“No, I'm having a wonderful time.” I said sarcastically. 
She ignored my comment “Speaking of which, do you know where Jessica is?” 
I shook my head. “We split up earlier, she’s probably surveying the backyard, she’ll be fine.” I assured my friend. 
She changed the topic “Oh look, its Mr. and Mrs. Keith. I'm gonna go say hi.”   
“Don’t leave me alone to just stand here!” I whined, as she rushed off. 
“You’ll be fine; besides, it looks like you’ve got some company.”  
Liz said with a wink. As she walked away to go socialize, I saw a figure walking towards me. As the figure got closer it morphed into a man. An exceptionally handsome man at that. I looked away, what do I do? Someone's walking up to me! Is that good or bad? My mind started racing. Just breath. I took a deep breath in and out, then looked back at him. He was still walking towards me; I hadn't just imagined it. When he got closer, he said hi. I stared at him. Say hi back!  
“Hi” I managed to say. 
“Jeremy” he held out his hand. 
I hesitated; can I trust him? Just shake his hand! 
“Stephanie” I said as I shook his outstretched hand. 
“Nice name” he said. 
 “Thanks” I blushed.  
“So, how are you enjoying the party?” he asked. 
We kept talking while I thought about how his suit perfectly complimented his beautiful green eyes.  
 
Eventually, the conversation turned to how stuffy it was inside.  
“Do you want to go outside and get some air?” he asked me. 
“Sure” I said, and we headed for the door.  
 
Outside, there was a small garden and sitting area, one where the hedges had been trimmed to perfection, the flowers glowed in the light, and the lanterns looked almost magical. The scent of dew drops, and fresh flowers floated through the air. Jeremy led me to an area out of the way. I didn’t normally wear heels and my feet were killing me. So, when he led me over to a bench, I gratefully sat down. He sat down beside me, a little closer than he should have. The party was being held at a hotel and there were staff walking around. One of them was pushing a cart and, as he walked past us, offered me a pair of those slippers that they give you for free with your hotel room. I took them appreciatively. Then he left the two of us alone. 
 
“This is better” Jeremy said. 
“Yeah, it is” I said, “there were a lot of people in there and it was getting kinda crowded.”  
 Then he did something unexpected, he leaned forward with his lips puckered. As he did this, I could feel my heartbeat getting faster. He was getting closer and a small part of me thought it was all a little odd and that maybe I shouldn’t trust him so much after only a few hours. But the bigger part of me just wanted to revel in the moment, and the bigger side won out. As he kissed me, I kissed back and forgot about everything else, it was just me and him.  
 
After a little bit of that, we let go of each other and just sat there lost in our own thoughts. My mind was racing, I couldn't stop thinking about that kiss. It was amazing, I had been kissed by one or two guys before, but it never felt quite like this. I know it's too soon to say this, but I think I'm in love!  
 
Bang!  
 
A gun shot rang out through the silence. I ran in the direction the noise came from, worrying that Jessica needed backup.  
“Stop!” Jeremy yelled after me. 
 “It's not safe.”  
I ignored him and kept running. We got to an area of the garden that was far away from the party, where we couldn’t be heard from in there. A small crowd had gathered, and we pushed our way through to see what happened. Off to the side, a girl about my age, was slumped down against the fence. Her hands were covered in blood and there was a bullet hole near her right shoulder, but she was still breathing.  
I looked at Jeremy, my eyes wide. 
“Are you okay?” he asked the girl, concerned. She looked up and that's when I recognized her. 
“Jessica!” I ran over to her.  
Then I turned to Jeremy and said, 
“Call the authorities, tell them there's a girl here whose been shot, and that whoever shot her is probably nearby and still armed.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. As it rang, he said to me, 
“We should probably wait with her until authorities arrive.” That’s when I saw something in the bushes. 
 There are plenty of people around to watch her, but by the time the proper authorities get here the shooter will be long gone. 
  
I moved towards the bushes. Around the corner I saw a figure running in the opposite direction. I ran after it. Whoever it was, they must have heard my footsteps, because they started going even faster.  
“Stephanie stop!” someone yelled, I turned to see who it was and found Jeremy running after me. I ignored him and kept running, trusting him to follow. Once I left the garden, I found myself in a forest. I kept chasing the shooter through the trees until we got to a clearing. I hid behind a bush while they looked around to make sure no one was following them, then they went inside the cave. I took a deep breath, then I followed them in.  
 
From the inside, the cave looked much bigger, and it had a light on the ceiling, giving life to the darkness. I started to wonder if I was in way over my head. I ducked behind a pile of boxes and tried to stay out of view. I could now see the shooter more clearly and saw he was a man. There were a group of people standing there waiting for him and he walked up to them. I tried to listen to what they were saying but couldn’t, because at that moment, Jeremy appeared. He bent over, hands on his knees, huffing and puffing. He obviously doesn’t run very much. I turned to look at him and put my finger to my lips, then patted the spot beside me. He mouthed the words ‘sorry’ and sat down where I had told him to.  
Unfortunately, one of them heard Jeremy.  
“Look around, find out where that sound came from.” He instructed.  
I panicked if they found us what would happen? Jeremy must have been thinking the same thing, because when one of the guards got close, he tried to move further into the shadows but stumbled over and knocked down some boxes. The guard found us! The rest of them started surrounding us and I did the only thing I could think to do at the time. I pulled my gun out of the holster strapped around my thigh and pointed it at them. 
“CIA!” I yelled. “Drop your weapons!”  
It was no use, we were surrounded. There were too many of them and only two of us. One of the guards grabbed Jeremy and pointed a gun to his head.  
“Drop your gun and kick it to towards us. Or your friend gets it.”  The guard said. I did as he said. One of the other guards grabbed me from behind and we were led to a cell built into the wall of the cave. The cell didn’t have bars, not even glass, it had strong metal walls that seemed to be made of steel. They pushed us inside and locked the door. 
 
Inside, neither one of us spoke, both lost in our own thoughts. Jeremy broke the silence, “Are you really with the CIA?”   
“Yes” I replied, “Those people out there, the ones that just captured us, they’re part of a domestic terrorist group called Cerberus. We’ve been trying to stop them for over a year, but they keep getting away. Our sources told us they might attend to get information, there were a lot of important people at that party. I was sent undercover to try and find them, alongside my partners and best friends, Jessica and Liz.”  
He didn’t say anything, just stared.  
 
 
Stephanie! Can you hear me? Are you okay?  
My Coms! I forgot I had them in!  
Stephanie, answer me! What’s going on? Tim’s voice said over the coms.  
“I'm fine, we found Cerberus and they trapped us in a cell.”  
We? Who’s we? Is Liz with you?  
“No, we split up to cover more ground. I'm here with Jeremy, someone I met at the party.”  
Well, be careful around him. You guys just met.  
“Don’t worry about that. Can you send some backup.”  
Sorry, not yet. We lost sight of you while you were running. Communications have been restored, but I can’t pinpoint your location.  
“Stephanie, who are you talking to?” Jeremy asked.  
“Tim, a good friend and colleague of mine back at the CIA. We can talk over the comms, but the signal isn’t that great so they can’t find us.” I told him.  
“So, you have like, an earpiece?”  
“Yeah”  
“Can I see”   
“Sure” I lifted my hair and turned my head for him to see.  
“Wow” he said, running his finger along the thin wire. “It's so well hidden. You can barely see it.”  
“Yep, Abbey’s the best in the biz. She’s in charge of making disguises for undercover stuff like this.”  
I yawned.  
“Maybe we should get some sleep.” Jeremy suggested.  
  
There were two folding beds against the wall across from the door. I went to the one on the right and unfolded it. Jeremy did the same to the other one and we climbed into our separate beds. They could barely be considered beds; they were thin springless mattresses on a metal frame.  
 
Eventually, Jeremy started snoring, but I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, trying to figure out how to escape this cell.  
“Tim, you still there?” There was no reply.  
I took my comms off and looked at them. They were out of battery. Great! Simply great! We were alone now. After what felt like forever, I managed to fall asleep. 
 
In the morning, there was a tray of food sitting by the door. Maybe they’re not that bad, at least they feed their prisoners. Jeremy sat on his bed, lost in thought.  
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.  
“Just wondering what’s going to happen now.” 
“Well, we escape, of course”  
“But how?” He asked.  
That was a good question. We spent a long-time running ideas back and forth, trying to figure out how to escape. None of the ideas were any good.  
 
After running out of ideas, the conversation turned to me.  
 “So, what made you want to join the CIA?” Jeremy asked.  
“I always knew I wanted to do something that helped people. My dad was a police officer, and I would always look up to him. So, I started training to become a police officer. Near the end of my training, a week or two before I graduated, my training instructor goes up to me. Gives me a time and address but doesn't say what it's for. I go there and it turns out he had recommended me to the CIA. I was at an interview! Long story short, I'm now part of the CIA.”  
“Wow,” was all he said.  
 
That’s when there was a knock at the door. We both stood up.  
“Lunch time,” a gruff voice said from behind the door. He walked in and put down the tray. “What are you people planning to do with us?” I asked. “You can’t keep us here forever”  
In a grumpy voice, he replied “That, is up to Typhon to decide.”  
“So, your people haven’t decided yet?”  
He looked up at me but didn’t reply. Then he left us alone, locking the door behind him.  
 
“Hey Stephanie, look what I got!” Jeremy held up a gun.  
“Great job! Now we can get out of here,” I said.  
“I don’t think so” 
“Why not?” 
“Because I'm getting out of here and you’re not going to be following me.  
I was confused. “What are you talking about?” I took a step towards him.  
“Don’t move!” He yelled and positioned the gun towards me.  
“Jeremy what are you doing?”  
“Never mind that. Just sit in the corner and don’t move. I'm getting out of here.”  
“As soon as you leave, they’re going to go after you. You won’t get out of here without my help,” I said.  
“They won’t attack their leader”  
“But you’re not their leader” 
“Oh yeah?” He spoke. “Who is? Typhon?” 
I nodded.  
Have you ever actually seen you ever actually seen python” 
I looked down at my feet. “No” I said quietly.  
“Well, you’re looking at him now”  
“What?” I looked up.  
“I'm Typhon, now sit!” He commanded.  
“No, I don’t think I will.” I replied stubbornly.  
“Fine, then you leave me no choice.”  
 
Click! 
 
I flinched, but nothing happened! We stood there momentarily confused. The trigger was pushed why didn’t anything happen? I was the first to realize why it didn’t work. I grabbed at the gun pointing the barrel away from me. He fought back, but I won. I turned the safety off. Then I pointed the gun at Jeremy, my fingers curled around the trigger.  
 
The door burst open. “Drop your weapon!” a guard yelled. It was the same guard Jeremy had stolen the gun from. I realized now that he had let Jeremy take the gun. Guards surrounded me; guns drawn. I reluctantly set mine down in surrender. Then everything went black.  
 
Present day: 
 
My eyes fluttered open. As they adjusted to the light, I could see that I was in a dimly lit room with one single light bulb on the ceiling. I was sitting on what I assumed was a chair. I was alone in the room, my head hurt. Instinctively, I raised a hand to touch the spot where I had been knocked out. Something cut against my wrist and realized my hands were tied together. Great! So, I was here, taken prisoner by an enemy terrorist group and I couldn’t do anything to help myself, backup wasn’t coming, and to top it all off, Jeremy was the head terrorist. Jeremy! How could he have done this?  
 
Jeremy walked in, followed by a small group of people. “Good morning princess, did you have a good nap?”  
I scowled at him.  
“You’re probably wondering why you’re here” Jeremy said. “Well, let’s just say we’re looking for someone to take the blame for our next plot. You would be perfect for that role.”  
“What exactly is your plan” I asked, trying to sound innocent.  
“I really shouldn’t tell you. You know, in case you escape and tell someone. But you’re never going to get out of here alive. So, what do I care.” He said to me. “All I will tell you is that you will be responsible for destroying the government, of the United States of America.” He laughed menacingly, and the rest of them joined in, it sounded as if he had told some hilarious joke. Then they left me alone.  
 
I knew I had to find some way to get out of here and stop whatever they were planning. But how? I looked around. They must use this room as extra storage space because there were tools lying around everywhere. On the ground a few feet away, there was a box cutter. If I could only reach it, I could use it to cut myself free! But there was one problem, how would I reach it? I started squirming around in my seat, trying to tip it over. I rocked around and the chair started to tip, but it never lost balance and fell completely. After what felt like forever, I started to get tired. Just one last try, I thought. I leaned over again and this time it finally fell all the way down. I put my head against my shoulder furthest from the ground to lessen the damage. I listened carefully in case someone had heard me, but no sounds came. I tried to grab the box cutters from behind me but couldn’t reach. I stretched my fingers all the way out. Finally, I felt my fingers brush against something, I pulled the item closer to me. I used it to cut myself free. When I got my hands free, I untied my feet, then felt the area around my ear. Shoot! They had taken the earpiece when I was knocked out.  
 
I peeked through the window in the door. There was a guard standing on either side, rifles at the ready. But there was nobody else in the halls. One of the guards turned to the other one and said something inaudible to me. The other guard took something out of her ear and nodded, then she put it back into her ear as the first one walked away. There was only one guard now, but who knew when someone else would come. I had to escape now!  
 
I wracked my brain for all the information the CIA had taught me on lockpicking. I touched the doorknob and to my surprise, it opened! What were the chances that they would forget to lock the door? Well, I guess that meant all my lockpicking training was just a waste of time. I could see the guard clearly now. She was wearing earbuds. Who listens to music while on the job? Especially when your job is guarding a prisoner. I carefully crept up behind her and put her in a head lock, squeezing tightly, until she passed out. I grabbed her before she could hit the ground. Carefully and quietly, I set her down. There were several hallways branching off from here. The other guard had taken the far-left path. I took the one to the far right, hoping I would meet as little people as possible. I took the unconscious guard's rifle just in case. On the way out I saw few guards, luckily, I always saw them before they saw me, so I was able to hide from them. Other than that, there weren’t any other obstacles until I got outside.  
 
When I got outside, I started running. My eyes took some time to adjust to the natural light and anyone watching would have thought I was drunk, because I kept going all over the place and running into things. Soon, my eyes started to adjust. Once I thought I was far enough away, I stopped to catch my breath and gather my thoughts.  
 
Even if they had lost the sacrifice, they would still proceed with the attack. Afterall, I'm sure the whole taking the blame story was just an excuse to use me, they were just fine with taking the blame. That meant it was up to me to stop the attack. If their plan was to destroy the government then they’d want to attack when a bunch of members were at the same place at the same time. There was to be a big meeting between several government officials on August 2nd. The meeting was going to be held in a secret location in New York city. No one was allowed to know where the meeting was for the safety of those attending. Though, Cerberus must have figured out where it was, and that was probably where they were going to attack. I must stop them before that happens!  
 
I could hear the quiet sound of car engines off in the distance, I started walking in the direction of the noise. As I got closer the noise started to get louder. Eventually, I could see cars and buildings and people through the trees. I stepped out into the open and was immediately greeted by the unpleasant scent of car exhaust. I was suddenly conscious of my clothes; my dress used to be a pretty, light green color, it was now a mix between dark green and brown, and my hair looked like a rat's nest. I tried to pat my hair down and brush a few of the tangles out with my hand, it didn’t do much. I saw a telephone booth in the distance and started walking. As I walked towards it, I went past some store windows. One of the stores was a bookstore that also sold calendars, inside, I could see an open calendar with a bright red circle around August 1st, today's date. The meeting was scheduled tomorrow, and it was already late afternoon. That meant I had less than a day to stop the attack! I started walking faster. Inside the telephone booth, I closed the door behind me and dialed a number.  
Someone picked up and in an overly sweet voice that was obviously fake, answered. 
“Rubies charity how can I help you today?”  
“Is Marie Philips there?” 
“Yes, she’s there. Would you like to speak to her?” 
“Yes please” 
She transferred the line. Marie, my Boss spoke. 
“Hello?” 
“Hi Marie” 
“Stephanie, so glad to hear you. Tim told me you had been captured” 
“Yeah, I was.” I explained to her what happened and Cerberus' plan.  
“I'm going to make some calls. We’ll find them, you go home and rest.” She instructed.  
“Okay,” I said without hesitation. I didn’t have money for a cab, so I just walked home, luckily my house was not too far away. I got home and cleaned myself up, then I took a cab to the office. 
 
At the office I avoided Liz and my other coworkers, knowing they would want to see how I was doing and catch up, but there wasn’t time for that. Instead, I went straight to my boss's office. The door was open, so I let myself in. She looked up and smiled.  
“Nice to see you're back at the office. How are you feeling?” she asked. 
“I'll feel a lot better once we catch Cerberus.” 
“Well, we’re working on it”  
“How can I help”  
“You can help by going back home. You must be exhausted,” she replied. 
“But I want to do something”  
She sighed, “Fine, you can be additional security.”  
She wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to me.  
“Go to that location tomorrow, and tell head of security that I sent you as backup” 
“Okay. Anything else?” 
She shook her head. I walked out and went straight back home. She was right, I was exhausted.  
 
The next day, I arrived at the address early. I walked up to someone in an orange vest. 
“I'm looking for your head of security,” I said. She pointed to a man staring down at his phone. As I approached him, he looked up.  
“Stepanie Taylor. Marie Philips sent me,” I said. 
“You’re here to help with security, right?”  
“Right” 
He briefed me on the plan and showed me to my post, on the top floor with an unobstructed view of the entrance down below.  
 
Over the course of 15 minutes all the leaders started arriving, they all arrived separately at various times. They were all accompanied by several people dressed in all black. These people must have been bodyguards. A car pulled up and a girl in all black got out. Behind her, stepped out a woman in a fancy looking pant suit. I looked through the binoculars I had brought from home. I recognized the women from TV. But that wasn’t what I was looking at, the bodyguard looked familiar from somewhere. But where? She was one of the people accompanying Jeremy when he came to talk to me back in the cave! She was working for Cerberus; she was a terrorist! I had to tell the others! I got the walkie talkie they had given me out of my pocket and reported what I saw. The head of security's voice came on over the speakers.  
“Code silver! We have a code silver! Everyone please evacuate the building”  
Code silver! The international code for an attack on the building! Everyone started running out of the building and in all the chaos no one noticed the girl, but I saw her. She pulled something out and pushed a button. I guessed that the button was supposed to set off a timer for something, most likely a bomb. I zoomed in further with the binoculars and could see a secondary button, this one was a lot smaller. It was the button to stop the timer if needed to abort mission. Then the girl started running away from the building along with the rest of the crowd. I reported what I saw and what I thought their plan was. Then I started running towards the stairwell. 
 
 Once I was outside, I went in the direction I saw her running. There were so many people in the way, it slowed me down. I had to keep dodging people to avoid running into them. But I was still faster than the girl. Eventually, I saw her through a crowd of people. She turned onto a narrower path, leaving the crowd behind, I followed her.  
 
I lunged at her, tossing both of us to the ground. She groaned and tried to turn over, but I wouldn’t let her.  
“Give me the remote,” I said in a deep voice, trying to sound intimidating.  
She struggled, trying to get out. But I only tightened my grip on her.  
“Give me the remote,” I repeated.  
“No!” she replied. 
I tightened my grip even more. She started to lose consciousness and her body went limb. The remote fell out of her hands and on to the cement. 
I let go and sat down. 
  
I pushed the smaller button. An automated voice started talking out of nowhere. 
“Timer canceled. Explosives terminated.” The voice said. 
 
I laid down and closed my eyes. I had done it! I had foiled Cerberus' plan and saved millions of lives! Now I could finally take a well-deserved nap.  
 
The next day, I returned to work. As I was sitting in my desk, Liz comes up to me, “The boss wants to see you.” I got up and she followed me. As we walked over, I caught her up on what happened after we split up at the party. I got to the part about my kiss with Jeremy, when we arrived at Marie’s office. “I’ve got to go now, but we’ll catch up later” she said. Then she walked away, and I was staring at the door to my boss’s office.  
“Come in!” Marie's voice sang out. I walked in.  
“You wanted to see me?” I asked. 
“Yes. How are you doing?”  
“I'm great now that the plot has been foiled” 
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that... that was some impressive work you did out there, some of the best field work I've seen in a while.” 
“It was nothing, really. Just doing my job,” 
“No. It wasn’t nothing, it was awesome. In fact, we could use more people like you on the force, how would you like to be part of the training division from now on? You could help train new recruits.” 
“It would be an honor to take on that position. If it's available.” 
“The jobs yours to take, as long as you promise to stop making out with the enemy.” Marie said with a wink.