t0p 5ecr3t, Leah [books for students to read .TXT] 📗

The woman paused then pulled out what looked like a police badge, but wasn’t. The pin was a shield with two swords intersecting in the middle. The badge read Approved 5156 Bellator. “Rachel I am what you might call a secret agent and I don’t know exactly what happened to your father, but that this was no accident. You see, your father built this Shuttle without any major flaws that would have caused it to crash. We know because we have looked at his plans time and time again. So someone building it must have altered part of the ship.”
“What if they thought they were fixing it?”
“That is highly unlikely. We think someone on the counsel pretended to like Earth, but was secretly planning to take over the mission.”
“Why?” Tears where forming in her eyes. “Why would anyone do such a thing?!”
“I don’t know sweetheart, but we’d like to find out. That’s why I found you.”
Nectar looked up blankly, “What?”
“You see dear, I needed to find you so you could take revenge on your father.”
“How would I do that?”
Elise took her hand. “You would train to fight. You would learn how to defend yourself in the toughest of situations. Join me and become a Bellator.”
Nectar looked away. “I-I don’t know. Let me think about it.”
“Sure thing darling. I will be here first thing tomorrow morning for your answer.”
“Okay-” When nectar looked up the woman was already gone. The sun was setting slowly on the horizon. Nectar pulled her coat up over her head and leaned back against the cold brick wall. She might as well get some rest, she had a big day tomorrow.

The next morning when Elise arrived Nectar was ready.
“Well Rachel,” Elise began, “Do you have an answer?”
“Yes, I’ll go.”
Elise smiled. “Perfect. Now if you’ll just follow me.” She got up, her black coat swaying at the knees.
“Wait!” Nectar called. “Where are we going?”
Elise turned around, blowing a bubble with her gum. “To Insula.”
“Insula? Isn’t that like on the other edge of Mundi?!”
“Yes ma’am.”
Nectar was shocked. “Well…how are we getting there?”
Elise smiled. “Follow me Miss Nectargille.” She turned and began to walk in the busy streets of Argentum. Nectar ran after her, but never seemed to catch up. Elise never looked back at her, she just kept moving through the crowd.
Finally she turned down a narrow street that came to a dead end at a small store that read: Silverlake’s Gift shop. Elise pushed open the door without a second glance.
Inside was a small old woman wrapped tightly in different covered fabrics. She wore a hot pink scarf and a big tan hat to hide her face. When she lifted her head her dark red eyes warned Rachel not to goof around.
“Well, what brings you to my store?” She croaked.
Elise spoke quickly. “It is such a pretty shop, but I am here for a snow globe.”
The woman nodded. “Follow me.” She went back behind the counter and disappeared. Elise ran after her with Nectar on her heels.
The woman stopped by a door labeled storage and pressed a small button at the top of the door. There was a quiet ding as the door spit in two revealing an elevator. Nectar stared until Elise had to pull her. She pressed for the roof and the elevator doors slid shut leaving the woman to go back to her store.
When we reached the roof Nectar about had a heart attack. In front of her was a jet that she swore wasn’t there earlier.
“There is an invisible shield.” Elise said reading her thoughts. “It protects us in all directions.” She walked quickly to the jet as one of the doors slowly opened. Elise climbed in and turned around to look at Nectar . “Well, are you coming?”
Nectar ran toward the plane and hopped in. The inside was huge. There was a long couch and two chairs. A small bar was placed at the far wall as well as a TV. In the middle of the floor was a projector with a keyboard attached.
Elise popped her head in the cockpit. “We are ready for take off!” She called then looked at Nectar. “You’d better take a seat.”

Nectar was flown to Insula where she trained for ten months before getting a mission. Unfortunately her mission was unsuccessful and three agents died in the process. They pulled Nectar out bleeding and minutes from death. She now has a knife scar that runs from her right shoulder to her left hip. To this day Nectar has not found out who is responsible for her father’s death, but she is determined to keep searching.


3

The ship leapt sideways as we avoided fire, causing me to lose my grip on the latter and fall to the gun deck.
“On my mark!” Sulfur shouted from above. I scrambled to my feet and fumbled into the small chair. I flipped the small switch by the controls and slipped on the black headset.
Nectar’s voice buzzed its way into my ear. “There’s three – no four of them out there; all Beetles.”
“Rodger that.” Beetles are one person fighter planes that are intensely fast and agile. This wouldn’t be too much of a challenge, but one that would defiantly slow us down.
“Fire!” Sulfur shouted from above. I let lose a spray of bullets, but I was too slow. The Beetle swerved to the left. I watched my lock screen carefully, following the ship with the gun. There was a soft ding and the words TARGET LOCKED flashed on my screen. I let lose a second round of bullets and the ship went down in flames.
“Nice work.” Nectar said. From my position I could just barely see her firing at a nearby Beetle.
“Thanks,” I said taking aim again. “But we’re not done yet.”
A Beetle drifted onto my monitor. Its left engine was on fire, but it was still flying. It whizzed past the window shooting the ship. I shot at it, but was a few seconds behind. I continued fire until I had it was lost under the ship.
I cursed, but then to my right a ship exploded into a million pieces. Two down, two to go.
“Sulfur!” I shouted. “Who’s flying the ship?” We couldn’t keep this up for much longer, especially when the Spider was going so slowly.
“Flame, why?”
I swore. Where was Willow when I needed her? “Tell him to go faster!” I screeched missing another Beetle.
Flame was one of the new recruits who was studying flight. He wasn’t as good as Willow who joined a few months after I did. She was a good friend of mine and she was all business…usually. On the occasion she would let loose and go absolutely crazy.
A Beetle glided into shooting range. I grinded my teeth and concentrated hard. The ship exploded into a ball of flames. I looked around to find the last ship hitting the streets below.
I sat back and took a breath. “Mission accomplished!” I shouted.
“Good work team!” Sulfur shouted. “Flame, get us out of here!”

The ship slowly approached the mountains of Insula, a private island off Viridi City. The shield surrounding the island fell and huge metal doors inched open. The ship landed with a thud and made me again appreciate Willow’s skill.
The Spider’s doors opened and a few medics rushed in. They led us to the infirmary to check for wounds (I didn’t have more than a few scratches) and take blood. I winced as the needle pierced my arm. Nectar had a large gash in her side from the stampede. I was apparently too absorbed in my work to notice she was in pain.
After we were all patched up, we went to talk to the director. He was a tall man with a scruffy goatee. He wore a black pinstriped suit with a silver tie. His eyes where a dark shade of brown that where hidden behind thick square glasses. His short brown hair was trimmed short in a business like manor. He sat behind his old wooden desk with perfect posture and when he spoke his voice was cold and menacing.
“Director,” I said standing tall with Nectar right beside me.
“At ease.” He said coming out from behind his desk. Nectar and I spread our feet apart and put our hands behind out back. “The mission was a success, I presume.”
“Yes sir, the data files where successfully downloaded.” Nectar stated stiffly.
I stepped forward and handed him the microchip. “Very good.” He turned to look at me. “Now Agent Thistle, I understand you had a bit of a detour.” I swallowed. “What you did will be accounted for. Our mission required maximum stealth, which you seem to lack. Our next target will know we are coming.” I hung my head. The Director waved his hand “Dismissed.” I turned and stumbled out the room.

The Director’s room was on the west side of the building, overlooking the training arena. The training arena was a huge stone room with tons of obstacle courses. In the far right corner was a climbing wall that could be set to any temperature and experience all kinds of weather. There was a boy climbing it now who was experiencing freezing cold climate and heavy snow.
Next to the climbing wall was a simulation