A Spy's Life: Chapter Seven

1Twist reached out to touch the note, eyes wide. What was she supposed to do? If she went, she could find out whether YKW had any decency left, and she could find out where White Mage was. But she might also be, very stupidly, walking into a trap. Twist could see it: a red-eyed YKW walking slowly and deliberately towards her, giving her a choice of either plummeting a kilometer down to the rocks, or to be taken hostage. Neither prospect was very pretty.

Twist wasn't one to think, "Well, of course I go. It's an obvious trap, and that's why they won't be expecting me," which was what some fictional amateur detectives thought. The whole purpose of a trap was to expect someone to walk into it. They either did or didn't get trapped.

Twist scowled at the ground, and tore the note from the bark.

Immediately, she heard the click of a machine coming to life, and dropped to the ground with sheer reflexes. The fft fft fft sound that came from above her head - actually, probably the precise spot where her head had been a second ago - reminded her of the whoosh of a badminton shuttlecock (Politically incorrect definition: birdie) through the air.

When Twist dared a glance up, mainly to get her face out of the dirt, she saw that the tree where the note had been pinned was now studded with arrows. She gasped. Ugh! I was expected to take the note. It triggered the arrows. Twist then slowly rose to her hands and knees and looked around, a stone statue except for her rotating head, neck and shoulders. This whole segment of forest must be littered with other traps.

Twist gritted her teeth. This was not going to be much fun, that was for sure. She couldn't go over the forest - hang gliders can't start off from the ground, and the way to the emergent layer of jungle was probably booby-trapped anyways. She couldn't go under it - the nearest underground passage was on the other side of the waterfalls, most likely - and it was too late to go around the jungle. No choice but to go through it.

Twist looked around again, but could see nothing that would suggest anything was out of the ordinary.

As ordinary as any rainforest ever could be.

Twist rolled her eyes. Fine. You want me to go through? I will go through. Let me show you how it's  really done.

Twist stepped forward some paces, ducking under space between two trees with little holes in them. Then she shinnied up a tree, trying to get past a very convincing segment of forest floor that would probably send her tumbling into a pit of tarantulas or something, only to realize that the tree was laden with vines that seemed to creep towards her all on their own. They slid forward like snakes and Twist backed away, to grab onto a regular, very long vine behind her for support. Unfortunately, she backed away into empty air and had to hold onto the vine with all her might to not fall into the piranha-infested pool below.

Twist swung just over top the surface of the murky water, clinging to the vine that swung her over with playground swing-momentum. Twist let go on the other side of the pool and barely had time to roll forward to not be caught under a fine mesh net that dropped overhead. A fire sprung up under her feet and she barely had time to dive messily over before she was roasted by the unnatural flame.

Cartwheeling, rolling, jumping, crawling, swinging from side to side, Twist finally pulled a worthy forward-flip that carried her through the final hallway of trees - full of missiles and nets and trip wires - and stood before a little hill.

Twist climbed up in a jiffy and peered over the side.

The waterfalls.

* * * * * *

There it was - the rocky outcropping in the middle of the thrashing, waterfall-fed ginormous pool below. There was a little scooped-out cave in the tower, she saw, near the top. That would be were YKW would want to meet her. The high stalagmite resembled a tower, being very thin and, as promised, very . . . very high.

 ,

To go or not to go?

Twist sighed. She would do anything to get White Mage back and get back at YKW. Besides, there were probably even more traps surrounding this area, and it was too late to try to go around the hostile rendezvous point.

To go, it was.

Twist swung her back pack around to face her and pulled out the folded hang glider. Here we go again. Twist put her hands on the front rung and one foot on the back rung and used the other to push herself off. The weightless feeling filled her again and Twist's stomach flipped. As she flew, the roar of the falling water filled her ears and she felt spray on her face. Waterfalls were a thing of beauty and power. She swooped down gracefully, rounding once, and rode the air currents into the little cave, stepping off the glider and folding it up again into her backpack.

Twist looked around. She could see the back of the cave. YKW was nowhere to be seen. Late! Well, all there was to do now was to wait. Besides, it was about midnight - it had been the longest two days of Twist's life. She had begun the first alongside White Mage, and now, they might never see each other again. Twist huddled at the back of the cave and set up a few alarms and trip wires around her.

No matter how hard she tried, Twist could not hold off sleep.

* * * * * *

Twist snapped awake. By the light, it was about just before dawn. Twist hadn't brought a hairbrush along - nah, too busy taking traps and hang gliders and extra food to worry about that - but now she wished she had. It hurt in its tight 'do, but what else could she do when running for her life? Twist ate an apple for breakfast and had just thrown the core into the falls and went back to the back of the cave when she heard it.

Thud.

Twist immediately spun around and scowled. Against the thin light of dusk, there stood YKW.

"Good, you made it this far." He smiled when he said that, like he was innocent.

"Yes, and I guess it's my bad karma that I ran into some traps, isn't it? "

"You poor thing. Kidnapping people does bring on bad karma. I should know, shouldn't I?"

"Don't you think that taking beautiful girls hostage is far too . . . in character?" Twist smirked. "You always considered yourself the debonair musketeer. Until you turned."
"Oh, no, I am quite humble. Whereas you consider me the debonair hero, don't you?"
Twist put on what she hoped was a dark expression. "I never did. You wouldn't deserve it. Besides, I'm no damsel in distress."
YKW shrugged. "Oh, well. I suppose you'd resent being swept away into the sunset by a charming prince and a white horse, but I think that being taken into a top-secret facility would be a nice substitute. I could let you in on the secret, you know, the agency. If only you would let go of your friend."
Twist resisted the urge to bare her teeth. "Never. I wouldn't want to be part of your dirty, backstabbing group of so-called agents. Why are you here?"

"Because I wanted to warn you not to follow anyone. You can get into serious trouble if you try to reach us on your own, and SINS doesn't need you anyways. Just your pretty friend."

Twist's stomach turned. Bad stuff. Really, really bad stuff. You need to get out of here now! But the other part of her head chided the nervous side: Let's hear what he has to say. He could be useful. "You know who she is! I know you remember us both. Don't pretend not to! You saw us having a great time, back then, while you were stuck with soccer. Your friends could not be counted upon. One year, T announced to the whole class that LB liked -" Twist remembered not to name her "- a friend of mine."

Twist raised her chin. "And I know that you remember me."

"Sure, I do. You believed me when I told you I was a spy. You believed me when I told you I had a whole room for marbles. Once you got your friend to ask me if I was angry at you. Why did you even care? And then you contac-"

"You are gullible if you really believe that I would believe those crazy stories. You were as much like a spy as a beetle was a butterfly. My only mistake was to humor you by making you believe that I believed you. Tell me where -" Twist reminded herself that it was no use, so she changed the question "- why you came."

A sinister smile crept across YKW's face like the thin, creeping track of snail slime. "Why . . . isn't it obvious?" He stepped forward deliberately and where his foot landed, there came a click. He laughed maniacally, the kind of thing that a psychopath laughs when he has you cornered in the basement.

A strike of lightning would be nice.

Suddenly, the whole roof seemed to begin to crumble. Spikes popped out from the back of the cave and Twist thanked her lucky stars that her backpack was on her back and not back there. Unfortunately, the spikes began to advance towards her. From the sides of the cave as well.

Twist started breathing heavily. "No!" she shouted. YKW disappeared, the last Twist saw of him was a shoe dangling from the roof, which was pulled up.

Twist was determined not to give in. It's a trap. It's a trap. It's a trap. And I came anyways. She raced for the cave entrance and nearly toppled over the edge and into the foamy water. It was far too smooth. She had to go up, the same way YKW went.

 She wanted to think, Forget it, I'm not touching the ground he stepped on, but it was her only choice. Twist turned up and had her back to the falls for a stomach wrenching-moment, and she welcomed the thrill. She almost never got a good scare. She turned her arm to grab grippy gloves from her backpack side pocket and pulled them on - then she was flying up, catching little dips and holds in the rough stone, using the little push each one gave her to go to the next one. It was terrifying. If she slipped, she would finally get a good grip on how gravity worked, and then, sayonara, world!

At long last, she heaved herself up onto the smooth sort-of flat roof of rock. YKW stood across from her, the rush of the wind only slightly ruffled his hair. His stance seemed tall and powerful, and he looked down at her as if he didn't have a care in the world. For all Twist knew, he didn't care whether she lived or died. His eyes were unfathomable and hard. Twist wasn't sure when he had changed, but he had changed, and she knew she didn't entirely welcome it. Girls were from Venus and boys were from Mars, as it went, but each one had been trying to communicate with the other for a very long time.

Twist, on the other hand, looked nothing like the person standing across from her, the imaginary chess board between them a minefield. When she rose up, the light of the rising sun caught her back and her shadow stretched across the rock, yearning to put distance between herself and the edge of the rock tower. Her long hair had come out of its elastic and was now billowing around her, framing her face, fire in the early light. She stood with dignity and didn't care about poise or her image. She was far beyond caring what any specific person thought of her now.

Twist looked like a part of the sky, and for a moment, as the sun peeked out from the horizon, she could have been the goddess of the dawn.

It was time to put the nervousness and imaginary conversations behind her. It was time to tell the truth that she had never quite shown to herself before.

"Look," she began. YKW crossed his arms. "I'm sorry that I'd bothered you for two years. I didn't know better. I know that I was blunt and tactless and didn't reflect at all at what you might be thinking, and how you were trying your best to be polite and put up with everything. I don't like, however, that you told big lies about me to my former friends after I was out of the picture. I don't appreciate it and I think that you're -" Twist took a deep breath "- that you were thoughtless as to tell everyone how I tried to be friends with you despite all the clues that I should have accepted two years before, and even though I wasn't considerate of the position you could be in when I tried to break the ice, you don't have the right to talk about me behind my back!"
Twist promptly exploded. "Because it all comes back to haunt you!! Every thoughtless word you say about someone, don't be a fool as to think that they will never hear about it, because everything comes full circle! You should have known that! I have withheld the temptation to get a day off from school and come to your school for just one day so that I could see the look on your face when you see me in the halls and realize that I know everything you ever said, that I forget nothing, and that I dare to leave everything behind me and start over. Well, today, the temptation is over, because here we are, and every shade of gray that I have every felt about you is GONE. Maybe you won't ever leave my dreams, and maybe this will be an unfinished fight forever, but you do not - hurt - my - friends!"

YKW looked . . . incredulous. Shocked. Sorry. "I . . . uh . . . I don't . . . how do you know? No, forget that - you still hold this against me? I'm sorry, I am - I thought that you would never hear, I was just trying to seem cool on the bus . . . a lot of people thought that I had -" he looked uncomfortable "-affections, and I wanted to put that right. Seriously. They ate it up. I'm really sorry. I -"

"I . . . don't . . . care!!" Twist spat. "Leave White Mage alone. We had better adventure on the field than you could have possibly had playing sports. You, on the other hand, betrayed me even though we weren't friends; you put my image up to an embarrassment behind my back. You could never be a friend to anyone - not the way that true friends are."

Twist was seething. How dare he apologize now? It was far too late!

She heard a whizzing noise, becoming louder and louder . . . YKW's eyes widened at something behind Twist's back. He sputtered.

Suddenly, Twist was knocked over from behind, with an impact that knocked the wind out of her. A hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her forward with momentum that jerked her feet from under her. Despite her confusion, Twist managed to quip, "Arrivederci!" to YKW as she was swept past him. He was still sputtering with shock and deja vu.

Twist was now flying over empty air, but the arm that held her was strong. She heard an exhilarated, free laugh above her, and the sound was so joyful that Twist wanted to sing. This person had to be attached to a zip line! She looked up, and saw . . .

"K!" she yelled over the roar of the waterfall. "I can't believe it's you!" 

A Spy's Life: Part Six

There are many ways that a teenage girl (not to mention trained spy and explorer) might react to finding herself in a deep, dark shaft and exactly ten seconds away from being fried alive by lava.

Scream.

Panic.

Freeze.

Say good-bye to the world and pray.

But Twist didn't do any of these, because first of all, she was not going to just accept her death *snap* like that. No, no, no. She would fight to the end. But looking around the shaft, she didn't see any way to stay alive -

- except that there was one patch of wall that wasn't stone at all. It looked like a flap, the kind that people used for their cat flap doors. She could probably fit through, and it was either die or try her only chance of staying alive. Hopefully the flap wasn't a dead end. If it was, she was toast.  So Twist pulled a zipline gun from her back, shot the strong string just above the passage, attached the zipline handhold, and let go of her hold on the wall. She rode the zipline at a diagonal towards the phony wall.

The lava seemed to rush up to her, a hungry maw.

Twist swung, and landed behind the wall-flap, and pulled the zipline equipment back behind her. But for all she knew, she might still be condemned. What if this tiny tunnel wouldn't hold off the plasma? Twist crawled along as fast as she could, coughing and sneezing the dust away. Who knew how long she would have to go on?

Twist hit a dead end, and at first thought that she was dead meat, but felt cool air blowing against her cheek, and looked up. Daylight! Earth! She was alive! Climbing out and into the breeze, Twist shuddered at the thought of what might have happened had she not noticed the passageway. Probably YKW's agency knew about it.

Twist sat down and put her face in her hands. "I should have known," she groaned. "When White Mage and I captured him, he must have somehow had an alarm button or something . . . to call for help. What if he really is part of a spy agency, too?"

She remembered what she'd told him when she'd confronted him in the jungle. It's cat and mouse, and it's too late to return to your mouse hole. And he'd said, "When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby." He knew that he would be helped. They'd been set up!

For the whole day, Twist followed a slight smoke trail in the sky. They must have gotten away by air. She walked, climbed, and ate an apple from her backpack. Insects buzzed around in the air, and Twist got very tired of climbing over everything. The water that seemed to consume everything in this darn rainforest clogged her every move. And it didn't help that there seemed to be something watching her . . .

What was worse, the fear of death - as in looking death in the face - or the prickling feeling of being watched and followed? The latter, Twist decided - at least the first was confrontational. The second was the cold, panicky fear of being stalked. No matter how much she admired jungle cats, it wasn't like they would change their nature just because she loved them. They were still wild. So when Twist spotted a slightly gleaming pair of eyes in the darkness to her left, she wasn't so much surprised as certain that she had to get away . . . somehow.

The wild wasn't a safe haven. Twist ran and ran. Until one moment when she saw a patch of white flashing by - a bit of paper, on a tree.

Huh.

Twist stopped and turned around. Pinned to the tree by its own sap, probably. She crept closer and read:

Enjoying the scenery?
There is a particularly beautiful view east. Where the waterfall is, there is a tall outcropping of rock that is very thin. No weapons allowed. Only holds two people. Bring any of your friends and you're going down. Temporary truce.
"The mouse."

Twist's mind slowed to a halt. She read it once, twice, three times. YKW was inviting her to what amounted to a tourist attraction by a waterfall. This could be her chance to get him to tell her where White Mage was. But how could she, when they would both be a few meters from plummeting to death?

A Spy's Life: Part Five

Flying was exhilarating.

Ever since being ten years old, Twist had dreamed of hang-gliding after a magnificent dream about hang-gliding over pristine nature - fall-coloured trees, mountains, sunshine, a crystalline river - and at last, after many years, her wish had come true.

The wind was lovely, the freedom heavenly. Free of gravity, Twist completed a roll-over, laughing with delight as she flew over the gray-blue sea and dangerous outcroppings of rock. Whether or not she was headed towards capture, torture or death, this was the next-best feeling in the world.

Steering was hard, but Twist managed to aim for the far-away cliff face where she and White Mage had rested - or, more likely, been injected with sleep syrup. She aimed downwards and went into a wicked nose dive. This hang-glider was not the spread-faced tourist attraction. Designed by Agent Bombay herself, it was more like a fighter jet. Angling its wings to the side, Twist veered upwards as the ground rushed up, doing a loop-de-loop, and finally setting down on the ground, feet slightly tingling.

The ground where she and White Mage had slept was ravaged clear of all foliage and greenery - now just a burnt-out dust plate. You could see exactly where the bomb had hit: the center of the destruction. If she hadn't fought the artificial sleep, Twist would have been blown to bits. So YKW wasn't sorry, but willing to kill someone he barely knew.

Twist folded the hang-glider once more and examined the sleeping spot. But there was absolutely nothing left, just charred . . . charred everything. She would just have to examine the perimeter.

Five minutes later, she found some footprints. Careless YKW. She started to follow them, and almost immediately fell through a hole, sliding down some steep tunnel that only just kept her from falling straight downwards. Terrified, Twist tried to grab on roots, walls, anything, but the surfaces were sleek, featureless and hard as stone.

Really? Twist thrust out all limbs and held her weight bent between the walls, holding by her fingers and toes, like a playing card bent between two fingers. She brushed away some dirt with one finger, and revealed the solid gray behind it. Twist groaned. This trap wasn't even natural, it was probably dug out by YKW's pals - they had guessed she would follow the footprints. Careless Twist!

Suddenly, she looked downward. Fire was rising - lava. How deep was this thing, anyways? Twist panicked and wondered randomly how YKW could have arranged this. How had she managed to fall for this? - literally? There must be some way out . . .

Higher and higher the plasma rose, heat bubbles bursting and looking very, very hot.

A Spy's Life: Part Four

Content's of Twist's backpack:

• 1 iPod nano, 6th generation. It had some really cool mods. For one thing, there was a camera built into it, and Twist could also do something like Skype/Facetime with it, to see her fellow agent's faces and to receive messages. (and, along with the other mods, Twist had installed a few games and videos on it. Boredom kills.)
• 1 mini cooler, containing fruit, granola bars, water and vitamins.
• 1 extra change of clothes.
• 1 fold-up hang-glider.
• 1 parachute.
• 1 enormous length of rope to be disguised as a braid put up on Twist's head. The rope was lightweight but could carry maximum 2 passengers.

Twist gave the pack in her hands a glum look. Radical equipment, designed for tiny photos and jumping off cliffs. It wouldn't be any fun without White Mage by her side. To give her some more willpower, Agent Bombay had promised her the iPod if she succeeded. Twist was too tired to give her boss the necessary lecture she deserved to explain that if her best friend was killed, no music would ever compensate.

Twist took the elevator to be too slow, so she just entered the shaft and climbed up, catching wires and cables to hold her weight. If only she could be light, like a good spy should be. But no one can fight gravity. She sprung from wall to wall, using momentum to carry her upward. This was extremely challenging. You take a break from reading and try it, go on! Twist was close to the top and making good progress when she heard a whirring below her. The elevator was coming up. She knew that it was coming towards her, because the very topmost level was underground. To get aboveground unseen, a natural stone tower close to the rocky cliffs was hollowed out, and that was how you got to the roof. The elevator shaft was in stone, with nothing but wind and air all around. The roof was the tippy-top of the tower cliff.

She practically shot up the elevator shaft, bouncing off the walls, and when she reached the top she reached one of her shiny, smooth nails into the key slot at the top. Her nails weren't long enough to give her trouble but just long enough to act as lock picks. She pushed the trapdoor open with one hand while using all her other limbs to hold on to her precarious hold on her position: limbs splayed out, pressed against the walls of the elevator shaft. The elevator was rising speedily and Twist gave it a short look before dropping down the short distance to the elevator; the smooth surface of its roof rose to meet her in mid-air. "New plan," Twist whispered to herself. When it neared the square of bright light that had once been covered by the oddly-shaped trapdoor, she jumped off and into the air, and while at the peak of her jump she reached down and flipped the trapdoor back down in order to make a surface for her feet again, no matter how unstable. Twist landed unsteadily - jumping up an elevator shaft is exhausting, you know - and was suddenly facing the whole world.

The cliffs and turquoise water were spread all around her, with dark gray sky as her beloved dome roof. The surface Twist was standing on was all uneven rock, a square of granite a little less than two flutterboards strapped together in width and length. Dark clouds floated above and seabirds called to one another. Salty air filled Twist's lungs, and all at once, she knew she was home.

Her reverie only lasted a moment. Someone else was coming, after all. She must not be seen. Twist reached back into her backpack and easily pulled out something that was stored easily within reach for emergencies. After all, Twist didn't often have time to swing her backpack from her shoulder and rummage around when she needed this thing.

Twist unfolded it, spread it, grabbed the first rung with her hands and the back rung with one of her feet, using her other foot to push off the precarious rock tower.

For one angelic moment, a shaft of golden sunlight broke through the heavy clouds, alighting one young girl poised on one tiptoe on the very edge of the towering cliff, arms and one leg raised behind  her back in a magnificent arabesque. Her face was turned up to the heavens, determination etched in every feature.

Then Twist took to nothingness, skimming the wind on wings.

A Spy's Life, Part Three

"Agent Twist," someone called. "You're alive!" It was K, the agent that had chosen to stick to work in HQ. Twist flailed around in the water, trying to blink water out of her eyes, coordination gone for a moment. Shock coursed through her. White Mage! No!

Twist gasped with ragged breath and slowly dragged herself onto the cool stone that surrounded the pool she had submerged out of. This was a truly covert entrance to HQ - a natural underground cave, tons of stone protecting the secrets in this place that must be kept at all costs. Of course, it would be guaranteed that they would be buried forevermore if all that stone fell on Headquarters.

Not a comforting thought.

Twist flopped down onto the stone, soaked thoroughly, and closed her eyes, letting the cold seep through. She could just lie here. Wet and tired. But Twist had a mission, and this one was more important than any that she'd ever been given. She had to save her best friend. As usual, it was the cold heart pressing into her neck that gave her the power to get up.

K's chestnut brown hair fell flat in the still, damp air. She was guarding - a spear in her right arm, poised in a defensive position towards the black pool of water. She saw the expression on Twist's face, an expression she almost never wore: despair. "What happened, Twist? I heard the explosion. It swayed the stone . . . I thought you were either dead or captured." Twist raised her eyebrows sarcastically and it dawned on K. "You-Know-Who?" she whispered. All Twist could do was shake her head. "Come," said K. "I'm guarding, but I have to get you some dry clothes."

"No!" Twist cried, pulling away. "I have to tell the Boss. And . . ." she hesitated before admitting it out loud, more to herself than to anyone else. "White Mage was taken," she whispered. "I don't know what happened to her."

K's mouth fell open. "Oh my God," she said softly, and took off towards the thin, claustrophobic entrance to the rest of HQ. The water was like a landing pad. Twist knelt on the ground and lay down, slowly shifting herself until she was facing rock inches away from her face. She started sweating and nearly panicked as she usually did. You had to lie down and pull yourself sideways to get through this path. When she emerged, she saw the enormous beehive of HQ: several stories tall, and even Twist did not know just how far it extended. K gestured down a clean and empty hallway. Twist shuddered in aftereffect of the cold water, and raced down the hallway nearest the office, ignoring stares from other agents, who observed her wet-kitten look and desperate stride.

Twist burst through the door to Agent Bombay's office. "White Mage is gone!"

The black-haired woman glanced up from her paperwork. "What do you mean, gone?"

"We caught [YKW's name], but when we'd dragged him to the cliff, we stopped . . . we must have been drugged with sleep syrup, because when I woke up, he and White Mage were just gone. I couldn't see her . . . but I had to get away, off the waterfall, because . . . "She trailed off, breathing slowing.

"Because of the bomb," finished Agent Bombay. "I understand that you had to come here. But do you have any idea what might have happened?"

"YKW," muttered Twist. "He must have drugged her, too, and taken her somewhere."

"Then you need to follow them! As quickly as possible, before their tracks disappear. You're one of our best spies, Agent Twist, and one person would be less noticeable than a war party. Go now. And I shall provide you with some equipment in a few minutes. Stand outside the door; this is a top-secret hiding spot."

Twist nodded and stepped out the door, closing it behind her. She wrung out her hair and slowly let gravity drag her down the wall and into a crouch on the marble floor. How could she go on when her superspy best friend had been kidnapped by her old . . . what was he, anyway? She'd been angry for a long time, but she hadn't had the fire to call someone her enemy.

But taking White Mage?

That was crossing the line.

A Spy's Life: Part Two

White Mage slung the teen easily over her shoulder, though he had to be twice her weight. The two trod the path lightly, heading for the waterfall behind which was concealed an elevator to the agency. Twist relaxed, and thought of YKW's expression when he would try to apologize.

They reached the cliff and put him down to rest a bit. White Mage whisked off her mask-cap, bouncing black hair to her shoulders. Finally. A rest. Twist smiled. "Did you ever think we would get this far?"

"Yes," winked White Mage. "It was destined. We fixed our necklaces - " she stroked the purple heart charm on the chain around her neck "- and stayed friends. Our games were prophetic."

The next thing Twist knew, she was opening her eyes slowly and dimly to the warm sunlight. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and glanced around. Her friend was gone.

Twist's reaction was so quick, she herself was surprised and shocked at where she ended up one second later. She back sprung powerfully to swing on a vine around a tree and grab another branch; from where she climbed up to observe the cliff where she had, stupidly, fallen asleep. Their prisoner was nowhere to be seen.

She cursed herself and slowly observed the perimeter.

No one.

Twist was not fooled.

She swung from vine to vine, never remaining on one for more than a second, momentum keeping the thin plant from snapping under her weight. She landed near the cliff and started to run. Run. Run. Run.

She could see an aircraft overhead - the fast and loud kind, not the regular planes that brought people to vacation. A war plane. Something dropped, a dot in the sky growing slightly larger by the half heartbeat and Twist ran even faster, feet rolling off the ground, pounding, running. When she was four feet away from the cliff face and the thundering white water, she pushed off into the air.

For a moment, she fell, flew. It was nothing like she'd ever felt - stomach dropping, falling like a rock. She had never fallen this far before, the beautiful water behind her, the crystal pool before her, who knew how deep.

And then she felt the explosion rock her world, releasing fire and smoke and ash. She turned her face up to see an orange cloud building up and growing, raining bits of matter. Twist remembered who she was and where she was going to end up in half a second. She twisted around and tensed into a rigid dive (a maneuver that would amaze Houdini at her speed) in the nick of time. She literally did this at the last possible sixty-fourth of a second that would have left her alive.

She let go of all her air and fumbled in her pocket for a metal key, and swam under; shoulders and waist aching from the jerk that she felt when in water. She found the rock face, where a seemingly random crack hid away. Twist slipped inside the key and pulled with all her might at the rock. She never had the least bit tolerance for deprivance of air, and she was running out. She slipped inside the rock when possible, into the cavern, and swam up gasping for air.

Dramatic scene: A Spy's Life

Twist crouched under a fern, so tightly wound into a human ball that she was getting cramps everywhere. T'was very tempting to unwind and twist around to crack each of them. A sound came from her comms unit in her earring: White Mage.

"How're you doing, Twist?" she whispered, the comms crackling slightly.
Twist touched her heart-shaped necklace and felt confidence come back to her. "Fine. He hasn't shown up yet, though." She smiled, remembering a fourth-grade day, a fake camera with a ready picture of a toucan in it and an inside joke about a boy. How silly it seemed now - but to this day she was still laughing. "Toucan might have gotten his beak stuck in a pineapple!"

There was muffled laughter from the other end. Twist chuckled too. YKW was still associated with that toucan picture to them. In fourth grade, Twist had had a pink camera that switched pictures whenever she clicked the button - picture of a lion, a toucan, an elephant, a whale, and so on. Guess who they pretended the toucan was?

There was movement along the path through the jungle, off of which was the very fern that Twist was sheltering behind. "Movement," she said softly. "Heavy steps. That's no jungle cat." A jaguar or leopard walked with a soft tread, regal or hunting. This was more like the inexperienced blunder of a city teen . . . her stomach flipped with anticipation. See him again. What would he be like?

Twist sprang smoothly from behind the fern, doing a side flip in the air to stand on the path, blocking the way the figure was trying to walk.

"Unbelievable," she murmured. He looked so much like before although she hadn't seen him for eight years. Bronze hair. Dark eyes. Tan. No mistake: this was the person with whom (unknowingly to him) they were playing cat and mouse.

Twist straightened up slowly, regarding him with what she hoped was the same stare that a Siamese regards you with (those who have walked in on the Queen cleaning her teeth will know the expression). YKW's eyes widened slightly, and he scanned over Twist's face, obviously seeing something that made him try to think back.

"Remember me?" she asked softly.

Twist could almost see the gears in his head line up and click, unleashing an alarm. So he did remember her. Interesting. "I've never seen you before," he retorted. "Get out of my way." He balled his fists at his sides.

"Not likely," said Twist, "because although this is neutral ground - nada, Switzerland - we're in control here."

He tipped his head to the side, scrutinizing her. Twist raised one eyebrow. "Let me jog your memory."

His eyes widened another fraction when Twist pulled the cap off of her head and let her now-long strawberry-blond hair fall, blowing a little in the wind. Recognition dawned on him, but the surprise was replaced smoothly by a smirk.

"Who's we? A spy agency?" A subtle smile spread across his face. Twist knew the gist of what he was going to say next. "Because, you know, I've been part of one since I was nine. I confided that in you - and, you know, they implanted a chip in my ear, allowing me to know wherever and whenever somebody is getting murdered . . . have I ever told you that?"


Twist made a menacing sound no less than a hiss. "You were playing around. Making fun of me. Because you knew how much I wanted to be a spy? Or because I was a stupid girl who would believe anything that one person said to her? I remember everything. You and I have a game of cat and mouse to play, and you've no chance of escaping. Our boss only wanted to ask you a few questions."

YKW frowned and crossed his arms. "Boss? Don't tell me that you're trying to redeem your dignity now. It's too late to present yourself as a spy."

"Is it?" Twist asked. "I never lied to you. You knew it and took advantage of it. I'll never forgive it. And it's too late to return to your mouse hole."

A slow smile lit his expression. "'When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby.' Ever heard of the exprression? Well, cat lady, catch me if you can!" He turned and started to run. I held my ground, crossing my arms, and smiled smugly. Because the next moment, White Mage was standing over YKW's still - but breathing - form, holding a frying pan with a face-shaped indent in it. We high-five.