Spy School

Ben sits with Murray, Zoe, and Warren at lunch the next day. The dining hall is full of CIA agents, some on guard, and some pretending to be visiting professors. Despite the classified nature of “Jackhammer,” the entire campus already knows about it, the presentation, and Ben’s alleged role. Murray tells Ben to run if he wants to live. Zoe says that it would be more dangerous for Ben on his own and that he needs to stay where the security is. Ben says that Zoe is right, but Murray points out that dangerous people will still want Jackhammer after he makes his presentation. Murray says that Ben should start a disinformation campaign and make everyone think that Jackhammer was only a ruse, and that Ben is a patsy brought in as bait. This is the truth but, ironically, Zoe scoffs that no one would believe it.

Ben says it’s too late and that the only way is for the CIA to catch whoever is after him. Murray points out that whoever tries to kill Ben today will likely only be “some poor schmo who got stuck with a lousy assignment” or maybe even “a freelance assassin who doesn’t even know who hired him” (179). He says it will take the CIA years to find the true danger, even if they do catch an assassin that day. This makes everyone concerned. Murray says he’s going to go get more pie and hurries off just before the rest of them notice Chip, Hauser, and their friend Kirsten approaching Ben. Chip asks why Ben is in the dining hall when he’s supposed to be on probation. He also knows about Jackhammer and says that it “almost seemed like [Ben] wanted probation” (181). Ben tries to shrug this off by asking if they haven’t ever wanted to tell the principal what they thought of him. Zoe says sure, but not enough that she’d risk getting expelled; Chip suggests that Ben “knows he can’t get bounced out of school” (182). As he leaves, Chip whispers in Ben’s ear, “I’m onto you, Ripley. Just thought you should know” (182). He and his friends leave, but Ben notices Hauser watching Ben as they walk away.

Murray returns and Zoe says it seemed like Chip might like Ben a little now. Murray is surprised to hear that Ben insulted the principal the day before. As the others talk, Ben realizes that something feels different about his pocket and discovers a note has been placed there. The note reads: “Meet me in the librery [sic] tonight. Midnight. Your life depends on it” (184). Ben suspects that Chip slipped this note in while he whispered to Ben, but it’s possible that Hauser or another student did it. He tunes back into the conversation at his table and hears Zoe say that “it was kind of sweet” the way Chip was “trying to reach out” to Ben (186). Warren accuses Zoe of having a crush on Chip, but she denies it. Murray says that Tina and Chip are a couple, and that they’ve been keeping it quiet, but he’s seen them together a few times. Ben realizes that if this is true, it could explain how Chip got access to Ben’s file. He stands up to go to tell Erica this news, but before he can make it to her, one of the CIA agents intercepts him. Alexander Hale enters and tells Ben that the presentation has been cancelled and that they need to move him somewhere safer because the enemy is coming for him.

Alexander takes Ben to the security room, the academy’s command center, which is a steel and concrete bunker among the subterranean tunnels. Alexander types a code into the keypad and says, “My dog has fleas” into a voice-analysis microphone, but the door still won’t open. Someone must open it from the inside. Alexander explains that the door is on the fritz again and blames the government’s tendency to choose the lowest-bidding subcontractor to do work. Inside the command center are four agents—two guarding the door and two watching the monitors. Alexander leads Ben to the living quarters and says that the longest anyone ever had to be sequestered there was for a week. Ben asks if they’ve had a situation like this, and Alexander says no, but claims to have protected “the queen of Saudi Arabia from a horde of terrorists with nothing but a Swiss Army knife” (193).

Ben asks if the enemy is coming to kill or capture him; Alexander says they’re not sure and asks if Ben is armed. Ben says no—the head shooting instructor suggested Ben’s aim was so bad that it would be safer for him “not to have a loaded weapon,” and gave him a realistic-looking dummy gun (193). Alexander says Ben will need something real if they’re going to be under attack. He also explains that they picked up some chatter about Jackhammer and one “Get Ripley,” both in Arabic. Ben is glum and unhappy about the situation, but Alexander tells him that most of the other students in the academy would literally kill for the opportunity to be “a key part of a real, live mission” (195).

For a few hours, nothing happens. Ben tries to entertain himself with the decades-old magazines in the bunker. At 7:30 p.m., they spot an intruder breaching the campus. Alexander takes the two guards and musters other agents to intercept the intruder. Ben is concerned that Alexander is diverting his assigned protection, but Alexander assures Ben that he’s perfectly safe in the command center. Ben watches on the cameras as they track down and apprehend the intruder, who Ben realizes with dismay is his friend Mike Brezinski. As soon as he discovers this the door behind him explodes open. The two agents at the monitors are taken out by sedation darts. Ben is hit with another dart and sees “three hooded men emerging from the smoke” before he passes out (201).

Ben wakes up bound and blindfolded in a moving vehicle and deducts that it’s a van. He hears faint conversation coming from the front of the van and realizes it’s sports radio. He wonders what foreign terrorist organization would choose that station. Suddenly there is an attack on the van. Ben can’t see, but he hears thuds and groans, the van weaves around the road, and then Erica says, “Hey, Ben […] You can stop faking being unconscious now” (204). She evades their pursuers and stops once they’re safe. Erica examines his pupils and says he was likely drugged with Narcosodex, a mild tranquilizer. She asks if he feels nauseous, which he confirms but attributes to motion sickness. Erica jabs him in the stomach so he will vomit. He hates it but feels better afterwards.

Erica unties Ben and pulls a post-it off him that has the number 70,200 written on it. Ben says it doesn’t mean anything to him. Erica leads him through the woods to an out of the way memorial to Chester Alan Arthur, “one of our least effective presidents” (210). Erica twists a ring on the statue’s finger, which opens a keypad. She enters the code number, and the statue moves, revealing a staircase. Down below, she gives Ben a thin silver jacket to keep him warm and leads him through the tunnel into the Washington monument, which she explains is a surveillance tower built just before the Civil War, and that her grandfather gave her the keys. They climb the stairs to the top of the tower where Erica can observe the movements of their pursuers.

Ben asks how Erica was able to find him. She explains that she’d been watching the whole time, and that when everyone fell for the distraction of Mike, she went the other direction and saw the actual attack and abduction. She stole a motorcycle and followed the van, then rescued him by taking out the abductors. Ben asks why she and Alexander don’t have a system worked out, and Erica says, “That never really seemed like a good idea” (217). This pushes an idea Ben had been having into clarity and he asks if Alexander is not a very good spy. Ben suggests, “So maybe all your father is really great at is convincing everyone how great he is” (218). Erica is surprised but impressed by Ben realizing this. She explains that many have died because of him and he takes credit for what they did. She tells Ben stories about Alexander making a disaster of things, and they both laugh the whole time. After some time, Erica says that their assailants have given up and are leaving. She warns him that she will destroy him if he tells anyone anything about what she said about her father. Ben asks if Erica has considered telling anyone higher up in the CIA about Alexander’s incompetence, and she says that no one would believe her, and that it would destroy her career. She says they’re going back to campus to see “the one person we can trust” (223).

Erica and Ben carefully make their way back to campus, taking “an extremely indirect route” to make sure no one is following them (224). They avoid the main gate and enter a bank across the street from the campus. In the ATM kiosk, Erica enters a pin number that reveals another hidden staircase. They navigate the tunnels until they emerge into faculty housing. They make their way up to a room where Erica uses a key to let herself in. Ben is surprised to see Professor Crandall, the teacher who set the ninjas upon him in the first day of class. At first, Crandall seems confused, but then Erica tells him, “You can drop the old coot act” and Crandall changes into an alert and sharper man (227).

Crandall explains that he pretends to be out of it for several reasons, primarily that people are often indiscreet in front of those they think are “a drooling idiot” and also that your enemies “tend to underestimate you when they think you’re not playing with a full deck” (227). Crandall explains to them that Alexander has already convinced everyone that he was the hero of the night and pinned the blame on one of the agents from the control room. He goes on to say that the CIA director believes the Jackhammer story: “I quite think he’s forgotten it was his idea to falsify Ripley’s crypto credentials in the first place” (228).

They have cookies and tea and ask Ben what he remembers or noticed about his abductors. He mentions the sports radio station in English but also that one of the men said something in a language he didn’t recognize. Erica says, “they certainly looked Arabic” but that she couldn’t be sure and that it’s possible it was a ruse, including “broadcasting the chatter in Arabic” (230). Ben says he finds the chatter suspicious in general and wonders why they’d alert the CIA if they knew the campus so well already. He says that it doesn’t make sense for them to do this unless they knew there would be a diversion and that there was no way for them to know Mike was coming—as he’s saying this, however, he has a thought. The number on the post-it, 70,200, is the time in seconds, meaning 7:30 p.m. Erica and Crandall agree: “So they plant the chatter and get the CIA to put you right where they want you. Then they tell your friend to come see you at exactly seven thirty to divert the CIA” (232).

Ben asks about Mike; Crandall says the CIA is holding and questioning him, and that they will ultimately not kill him but will make sure he either believes a cover story or forgets the whole thing in some other questionably ethical way. Crandall also says they’re talking about implementing “Project Omega,” which is a total shut-down of the academy if its security and secrecy have been compromised. Erica reacts strongly to this. Crandall suggests that they might be able to stop it if they find out who the mole is before the meeting later that day.

Erica asks Ben what he thinks their best lead is. Ben says Chip, which Crandall dismisses, but Ben makes a good point when he says that maybe Chip is only pretending to be an idiot. This resonates with Crandall and Ben shows them the note. Crandall says it isn’t much of a lead, but Erica points out that Chip was connected to the last bomb under the school. Ben adds that Chip is dating Tina, which neither Erica nor Crandall knew. Suddenly, they hear noises outside and realize that armed agents are approaching the apartment. Erica and Ben flee through the window but are quickly swarmed. Ben is caught. The last time he sees Erica, she is running into the woods being chased by agents.