Spy School

Ben hurries around to the front of the campus to intercept Tina. He sees two limousines with diplomatic license plates turn into the school and tells Erica the higher-ups are arriving. She says the meeting attendees include: “the directors of the CIA, FBI, and NSA; the congressional chairs of the Intelligence Committee; a couple White House liaisons; and, of course, no party would be complete without my father” (247). Ben sees Tina exit the gates and follows Erica’s instructions to allow Tina to get a half of a block ahead before he follows. He asks what Erica is thinking; she explains that Tina “got a text and bolted all of a sudden” (248). Erica adds that she talked to Chip, who said he was coming to Ben for help the night before. Chip was impressed that Ben didn’t tell the principal about the bomb, as well as by Ben’s disrespect to the principal.

Tina goes into a bank, which Ben reports to Erica. Erica tells him that Chip told her that he thought Tina was the mole—he was investigating her, not dating her. Chip showed Erica hard evidence that she thinks can prove Tina planted the bomb downstairs. Erica’s voice starts to break up because she is in the tunnels under the Hale Building. Suddenly, someone grabs Ben from behind. It's Mike, who spotted Ben and wants to talk. Erica warns that Mike’s presence will tip Tina off. Mike is annoyed and said he was nearly killed the night before. Ben lies and says they’ve had security issues lately and “the patrol got a little overzealous” (250). Mike says he told the agents he believed that story, but that he knows it’s not true and that the agents were professionals.

Erica once again tells Ben to get rid of Mike, but Ben feels too badly to do so. Mike tells Ben that they put him in an interrogation room where he played dumb until they finally let him go. Mike says that Ben has been blowing him off all day, that he’s called, texted, and e-mailed, but Ben has ignored it all. He also says that Ben “totally gave [him] the slip last night” (253). Ben discovers that Mike saw him and Erica going into the ATM vestibule the night before, which is how the CIA agents knew they were back on campus.

Mike asks if the girl was Erica, which makes Erica suspicious. Mike also reveals that Ben told him that Erica snuck into his room and says Ben was right about how hot she is. Erica coldly tells Ben that they need to talk. Ben tries to fix the situation by insisting that they’re not dating. Mike says Ben hasn’t been a good friend since he came to the school: “You’re being a jerk. You’re lying to me. You’re ignoring me. And you’re totally yanking me around” (254). He says that Ben told him to come break him out the night before and then blew him off when he got in trouble. Ben questions this and Mike pulls out his cell phone to prove it. While he does, Tina emerges from the bank. Ben must choose between staying to see Mike’s proof and following Tina—he decides to stay with Mike.

Mike shows Ben the texts, sent from Ben’s phone, with explicit instructions on how to break into campus and avoid the cameras. It was sent at 1:23 p.m. Because Ben has such a good sense of time, he knows where he was and who had access to his phone at that time. He realizes that Tina, like Mike, was used as a patsy. He apologizes to Mike and says he will make it up to him because he’s Ben’s best friend, but that he must find Erica urgently. Mike gives his blessing. Ben races back to campus. He tells Erica he knows who the mole is, but the sounds of Erica being attacked and knocked unconscious are the only response.

Ben uses the ATM entrance to access the tunnels under the campus. As he approaches Erica’s last known location, he starts to hear a beeping from his earpiece. He realizes that this is a tracking feature Erica must have activated. He follows the beeping to a furnace room. Looking for a weapon, he breaks into the maintenance closet across the hall and breaks a broom handle in half. When he goes into the furnace room, he quickly spots Erica unconscious and bleeding against a wall. There is a bomb. It looks like the one Ben saw Chip with, “only several hundred times larger” and definitely “big enough to level the Hale building” (260). Murray is rigging a digital alarm clock as a trigger. Ben knows that Murray stole his phone because the text to Mike was sent when Murray went off to get pie at lunch the day before. Murray must have sent it, set up the kidnapping, and deleted the outgoing text so Ben would not see it.

Ben creeps up behind Murray to hit him with the broom handle, but Murray warns him that if he drops the trigger, they’ll all explode. Ben hesitates, which allows Murray to get away and pull out a gun. He drops the trigger, revealing the warning as another lie. To Ben’s surprise, Murray offers him a job as a double agent. Ben asks why, and Murray explains that his superiors like what they’ve seen. Ben unfolds Murray’s plan as he understands it thus far: playing along with the Pinwheel lie, “All just to frighten the government into considering the activation of Omega. Because you know only a crisis like that would bring all the higher-ups in espionage together at one time, which makes it the perfect opportunity to take them all out” (264). Murray is impressed and delighted. He tells Ben that he works for, “an international consortium of independent agents who cause chaos and mayhem for a price” called SPYDER (266). He says that the governments and agencies are not any better, citing America’s funding of coups, wars, and environmental decline. He tells Ben that the CIA will simply send him out to die for a low wage, whereas SPYDER would pay and treat him very well.

Ben uses his real anger at the academy and how he’s been treated to act as though he is saying yes and will join SPYDER. When Murray turns around, Ben tries to hit him with the broom handle. Murray was also pretending, so he dodges. Murray sets the bomb timer to five minutes and leaves, locking Ben and Erica into the furnace room with the explosives.

Ben tries to wake Erica, but he is not able to. He goes to examine the bomb, but the device is extremely complicated. Ben suspects that Murray attached several dummy wires to make it difficult to defuse. Ben tries to open the door using the broom handle, but the wood shatters. He realizes that Murray used Ben’s own alarm clock to create the bomb, intending that Ben be seen as responsible for the attack. However, Murray did not know that Ben’s clock was broken and unreliable. Ben slaps the clock, and the timer stops at seven seconds. Ben counts out the seven seconds fearfully, but the bomb does not explode.

Erica wakes up and tells Ben he did good work stopping the timer, but that the bomb is still live. She easily defuses it, explaining while she does, that she was looking over Chip’s evidence against Tina when she decided it seemed like it was faked. Wondering why someone would bother putting a bomb in the tunnels that would cause so little damage, she’d realized that the Omega meeting that day was a much better target. She went to the tunnels to investigate but was so distracted by Ben and Mike’s conversation about her that Murray was able to knock her out. Once the bomb is neutralized, Erica takes a small handful of the C4 explosive and puts it on the door lock. She shoots it with her gun, which blows the door open.

Ben tells Erica that Murray offered him a job. She seems surprised and says that it’s interesting. She calls her father on the radio and tells him about the bomb and that Murray Hill is the mole. They run to the command center to check the cameras in search of Murray, but when they arrive, the system has gone down. They check with the agent and discover that it went down at the same time as the bomb was supposed to go off. Erica says the campus is too big and they will not be able to find Murray without the cameras, considering his head start. Ben says that is not necessarily true and asks Erica if she has a cell phone.

Ben calls Zoe and tells her that Murray is the mole. She asks the other students in the mess hall if any of them have seen Murray, and one says that they saw him leaving Bushnell Hall and heading for the perimeter. Ben tells Erica that they need to go to the training grounds. Erica leads them to the armory, where they find Hauser working the weaponry checkout desk. Erica takes two M16 rifles and, when Hauser protests that they can’t leave before filling out the forms, Ben invites him on the “mole hunt” (281). He also tells Zoe to mobilize the student body. Erica disapprovingly asks if Ben wants to invite anyone else, but he knows she knows he’s right about needing more bodies to cover the ground.

They race towards the training grounds. The mess hall doors burst open behind them—all the other students are coming to help them apprehend Murray. Erica and Ben take the trajectory that Ben calculates will get them to Murray as quickly as possible. On the way, a bit of friendly fire breaks the ice and snow and sends Ben skidding down into the gully he’d wound up in during the war game. Erica runs on without him. Chip appears and helps Ben get free of the rocks. He is surprised that Murray is the mole, which makes Ben think about how Murray has always been one step ahead of them. Ben realizes that the chase is no different and that Murray probably allowed himself to be seen. With everyone pursuing him in this direction, Ben suspects Murray will hide and double back towards the less-guarded front gate.

Ben and Chip turn back and run. Ben sees Murray climbing down from a tree and pursues him. Ben shouts at Murray not to make him shoot him. Murray skids to a stop and says, “Just back off and let me go, Ben. You don’t want to duel me. I know you can’t hit the side of a barn from that distance” (286). Ben tells Murray to drop his gun, but Murray shoots at him, grazing Ben in one arm. Ben shoots too, but he isn’t aiming for Murray. Instead, he hits the roof of the Hale Building, which Murray is standing next to. This dislodges the crust of ice on the roof, and it falls, hitting Murray and knocking him unconscious. Chip, Zoe, and Warren catch up with Ben and are impressed by his actions and his gunshot wound. Erica appears, too; she inspects Ben’s wound, tells him it’ll be fine, and smiles at him and says, “Good work,” when she sees that he’s neutralized Murray (289). The students gasp, astonished by this display of humanity and praise from Erica.

Alexander emerges across the quad and nudges Murray to make sure he’s unconscious. Shortly after that, a group of adults and administrators come running out. Alexander takes credit for having neutralized Murray, and all the adults applaud him. Ben asks Erica, “Did your father just steal all the credit for what I’ve done?” Erica says, “Looks that way. […] Welcome to the wonderful world of espionage” (290).

The chapter ends with an official letter from the Office of Intelligence Coordination to a recipient whose name has been redacted (covered in black so it cannot be read). The letter redacts several pieces of information but expresses that the leadership of the CIA and the academy need to be reevaluated. It recommends that Ben be officially accepted to the school and given security status. It also mentions an “Operation Enduring Assault” and redacts information that would make Ben “flip out” if he knew it (291). The letter also recommends “immediate activation” of someone named “Klondike.” It is signed by the Director of Covert Affairs, whose name is also redacted.