Spy Mage System

259 Gerard’s Talents

“Those muggers look awfully familiar,” Gerard said. “Are those the—”

“Definitely not,” I chuckled. “Totally not, because if they were, I’m pretty sure they would’ve shot us by now.” Gerard turned to face me in confusion. “The food truck employees would’ve shot us by now?” he asked with confusion present in his voice. I stammered, my tongue unsure of what to say next.

“No, no,” I said. “Nothing.”

He widened his eyes in suspicious understanding, as we continued to keep our distance away from the TSA team. They were probably sprinting by now, and I could feel my head dripping with sweat.

“Hey, guys. Where are y’all?!” I asked on the radio. “We’re coming, don’t worry!” September said on the radio.

“How soon?!” I asked, as I saw the truck in the distance fly towards my direction.

“That soon,” Gerard said with a chuckle, as the truck stopped, gassing out a puff of smoke. The passenger window lowered down, as Malachi’s face revealed behind the glass.

“Get in!” he said. I nodded, as well as Gerard, as we quickly entered the vehicle. I looked behind me, seeing the TSA confused and lost to our whereabouts.

“Good, I think we escaped them,” I said, looking ahead. “Yeah, I think we did,” Tisiah confirmed.

.....

“So what do we do now?” Gerard asked. “Are you guys trying to drop me home or something?”

“No, but in fact, we’re more keen on using your talents,” I said. Gerard nodded. “That’s what all YMPA agents do. Really what the whole spy mage system does.”

I froze. How did he know? Where did he get that information from?

“How—how…” Nikki stammered in confusion, but Gerard only chuckled at her remark. “Have you ever wondered why I even followed you in the first place?” he asked, looking directly at me.

He had a point.

“I guess that makes sense,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Mhm, because you were YMPA agents, and you used those guys behind me, who were all just probably enjoying their day, to make them muggers.”

“Then why did they chase us down then?”

“Probably they didn’t,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I wasn’t looking.”

I leaned over to Tisiah. “Should we tell him?” I whispered, although I doubt Gerard could hear much. Tisiah shook his head.

“It’s probably best that we don’t,” he said, and I nodded agreeably.

“Alright, let me just call Mr. Drails real quick, and then we’ll be on our way to the YMPA,” I muttered to myself.

“Aren’t we already on our way there?” Gerard asked, but I could only give a chuckle to his question. I dialed the code, and called Mr. Drails.

In a matter of a good two seconds, a portal opened up in front of us in the street—which hopefully no one saw—and we ended up in the briefing room.

An entire truck in the living room. Wow.

“What—what kind of nonsense was that?” Gerard asked, confused. “I kind of like the way all this works.”

We exited the vehicle, hoping there was enough space for us to even sit. “Uh…what are you gonna do about this big elephant in the room?” I asked, pointing to the vehicle.

Mr. Drails chuckled, and opened a portal under the truck, as it dropped down to God-knows-where.

“Alright, um, hello Gerard, it’s very nice to meet you,” Mr. Drails said. “How do you do?” Gerard only nodded, and studied the room.

Mr. Drails gave a very awkward smile, just waiting for the answer. But Gerard only looked around, before his eyes stopped on the CEO.

“Oh, you asked me?” he said. Mr. Drails nodded slowly. “I said your name—”

“Well how do you do?” Gerard said, his hands reached out across the table. Mr. Drails almost reluctantly reached out his hand as well.

“Fine, you?”

“Kind of confused to be honest.”

“Hmm,” Mr. Drails said, nodding once again. “Well, unless my agents haven’t already told you so, we need your ability to search for a certain person.”

“How important is this certain person?”

“Like a pandemic-important-certain person,” Mr. Drails said. Gerard stopped, with mouth ajar in surprise. I smirked, knowing exactly what the man meant, and I decided to reveal his identity.

“Malachi,” I said.

Gerard turned his head to face Malachi, who quickly bowed his head.

“So why are we searching for a rogue YMPA agent?”

“The president of the TSA, Redford Bane, has a son, Luthor Bane who was protecting a rogue YMPA agent,” Malachi explained. “Matthew Lock,” Gerard instantly guessed. Mr. Drails chuckled, “Well someone’s been doing their homework.” Gerard looked over at the CEO and sighed, turning his attention back to Malachi.

“Alright, I will help you find this kid,” Gerard said. “What did he do?”

“Well, this rogue agent, Matthew Lock, has a virus that he’s trying to give to where you used to work at: the TSA obviously, but the deal didn’t go as planned and now he has both the money and the virus. Once we find him, we can stop a pandemic from happening. Or at least we’ll try,” Mr. Drails said, as he looked at me. “This is going to be quite the challenge, though, especially with the amount of people that know about this.”

Gerard chuckled. “This already reminds me of my old days. Those were the good old days. I was young, but I was so happy. Now it feels like the world has gone downhill,” he said, looking at the window, as the sun started setting.

“Well, maybe this is your chance to change direction,” I said. “You never know what life has in store for you. You could always make the world a better place.” Gerard smiled, as he listened to my words. “Alright, when do we start?” he said, standing up as he clapped. “Whenever you feel like it,” Mr. Drails said.

“Good, because I want to show you how we can find him,” he said. He looked energized, like he was ready. As he was walking, I tapped his shoulder, making him stop as he turned to look at me. “Yeah?” he asked, his voice lower and quiet.

“Why are you helping us?” I asked. “You’re basically betraying your entire life.”

Gerard looked away, as he started to walk away.

“I’m not betraying anything. I have my own reasons.”

I grabbed his arm, as I turned him to face me. “Why? Because of what happened between us?”

Gerard nodded.

“But it doesn’t mean you owe us anything. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were just a victim.”

“I was just a victim, huh? Yeah, I was just a victim, and that makes me a good person. Listen, Connor. I told you that the TSA brainwashed me into thinking that I was a hero, when I was more of a villain. I’ve been betraying my life, but now I can redeem it. I don’t want to see the world die anymore. I don’t want to watch the TSA destroy the world. I don’t want to watch the world become a terrible place to live. So, I am doing this for the world. Not because I owe you.”

He looked ahead. “As I was saying. Here’s a way you can find Lock easily. I’ll just need someone’s computer. Not your personal one, but just a random computer. Someone’s personal computer. I don’t care whose it is. Just someone’s. And I don’t care if they have any security on it. I just need to check something out.”

“Alright,” I said, but Mr. Drails already handed him one.

“This should be good enough,” Gerard said.

“Alright, thanks,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks. Hey, don’t worry about that whole thing from earlier, okay?”

I rolled my eyes, as I watched Gerard go outside and shut the door.

“Oh, and by the way. This guy I’m looking for. I need to know what he looks like, what his hair color is, what his eye color is, what his height and weight are, where he lives, where he works, everything.”

“Would a picture do you some good?” Mr. Drails asked. Gerard nodded excitedly. “Yes, yes, a picture would be great!”

Mr. Drails quickly pulled up a photo of a man.

“Is this close enough?” he asked.

“Yeah, this is perfect!” Gerard said, and he smiled as he looked at the picture. “Alright, let me use your computer, and then we can get started. I’m glad that you’re able to help me. It’s not like I expected anyone to be able to help me.”

“Oh, I think you will be surprised to see who will be helping you. But let me just go and make sure there’s nothing suspicious on my computer.”

“I hope we get somewhere,” Mr. Drails said, as he walked over to his desk. I just sat there, and waited. I knew that I couldn’t trust him, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

Gerard was still smiling, as he sat in front of Mr. Drails’ computer and started to type.

“Here’s the picture of the guy I was talking about. He’s got brown hair, blue eyes, his height is about five-foot-eight, and he’s about one-eighty-five pounds. His name is Matthew Lock. He’s the rogue YMPA agent, and I need to know where to find him.”

Gerard continued to run his fingers through the keys, as his eyes widened more and more, as if he was reaching something. He licked his lips, as suspense intensified in the room. Finally, he stopped typing, and just stared at the screen for a good ten seconds.

“Lock… Lock… No, I’m thinking of someone else,” Gerard mumbled, before starting to type again. And now, as the minutes passed by, Gerard typed harder than ever.

“Alright, here it is!” Gerard exclaimed, and he turned to Mr. Drails. “Can you confirm, please?” Gerard asked.

“You think this is him?” Mr. Drails asked. Gerard nodded his head, slowly and deliberately. We looked at him, and the picture was indeed Matthew Lock. “What about his location?” September asked. Gerard clicked a button. “Here we go,” he said. “This is the address of where he lives!”

“Well, what do you expect? This is New York. It wouldn’t be hard for him to live there! I mean, I grew up in the Bronx, in New York, and my parents never had any problems with finding me. So, unless you have some sort of tracking device on your body that we don’t know about, I’m going to assume that you can find him. Right?”

“Yes, I can find him easily. I guess I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“So how do you plan to find him? With your eyes? Is there some kind of YMPA agent that can see around corners or something?”

“I don’t think so,” Mr. Drails said. “But we have a very, very elite group that, in fact, finds Matthew Lock.” He turned to us and smiled. “They are like ninjas, so they must be able to move around undetected and even invisible. Oh, this is going to be great! I’m sorry if I took so long, but I just needed to get them prepared.”

Gerard paused, and slowly nodded, “Alright. So I guess my work here is done?”

“Yes, how much do you want?” Mr. Drails asked.

“How much of what? Dollars?” Gerard asked. Mr. Drails chuckled, as he got up and walked behind the desk. He grabbed a large stack of bills, and passed it all to Gerard. “This is $10000, and if you want more, you can just say so.”

“I’m already rich. That’s the only good thing I got from working with the TSA. I could use another million dollars, though, just for fun,” Gerard said, before he began to count the cash. He started to slide each bill onto the floor as he counted. “A few million more maybe,” he muttered with a chuckle, before he quickly stood up. “Thank you guys! You’re awesome. Good luck!” Gerard said, as he held up his hand, which was shaking.

“I’ll have some agents escort you to your home,” Mr. Drails said with a smile. “Good-bye, and good luck!” Gerard waved his hand. “Bye!”

Then he and the other two disappeared. I shut the door, and just shook my head. Gerard was definitely an old man.

.....