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Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee...
An obnoxious alarm pierced into my sleep-fogged brain. I groaned and rolled over, jamming my pillow over my head to stifle the noise as my roommate, Matt Marshall, punched the snooze on his alarm clock for the second time that morning. 0630 came early enough without having to be wakened every nine minutes for the forty minutes before.
“Just one more snooze, Scott,” Matt mumbled to me, more asleep than awake. He’d said that every time he hit the snooze. I knew better. He still had eighteen minutes before he was required to get up.
With another groan, I glanced at the clock sitting on the nightstand between our dorm room’s twin beds. 0612. I closed my eyes and fell back onto the bed, my pillow in my hands. Only two more alarms before Matt decides to get out of bed.
I covered my head with the pillow again and tried to go back to sleep. “Too late now.” With a grunt, I sat up and threw my covers off. I glanced around the room and tried to decide if the dawning sunlight coming through the window was enough to see to get dressed by.
Not worth it, I decided with a sigh. An unnoticed wrinkle in my uniform could get me in serious trouble when I went down for morning formation. The drill sergeant at John Jay Military Academy could be really particular about the student’s uniforms. He was especially tough on seniors like Matt and me, who he regarded as having been at the military school long enough to know better.
Dropping my bare feet to the carpeted floor, I walked over to my desk, flicked on the desk lamp, and glanced apprehensively at my roommate. Matt rolled over in his bed, but showed no other sign of waking. I almost didn’t care if I woke him or not, it was about time he got up anyway.
A stack of letters I hadn’t had a chance to open the day before sat in the middle of my desk. Wednesdays could get really hectic between school and church and I hadn’t had time to get to them. I had time now. I plopped down at my desk and picked up the three letters. I glanced at the first one before tearing it open. My name, Scott McCully, was written in my grandma’s beautiful cursive on the front of the envelope. Shaking my head, I read the letter in spite of already knowing what it was going to say. My grandparents in Texas were offering to come get me for the third time in the two weeks since I’d told them my parents had disappeared. I’d already told them – twice – that I preferred to stay at the Academy. I wearily ran my fingers through my short, blond hair. I’d just have to tell them again.
The second letter was a voucher check from SATURN, the top-secret government agency my parents had worked for before they had disappeared. It was for the damages to my rusty old sedan while I was helping SATURN track down the terrorist responsible for my parents’ disappearance. I smiled to myself. It was for more than the value of the car itself. I’d tried to tell Mr. Jackson that it would cost more to repair the damages to my worthless car than to replace it, but the head of SATURN had still insisted on covering the cost of the repairs.
I suppose I could use the money to replace the car anyway. I set the check aside. It would be better than paying to fix that old death trap.
The last letter was in a plain envelope with a printed label and no forwarding address. Curious, I tore it open and unfolded the short, typed letter inside. My eyes widened as I read - then reread - the contents.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee...
“Matt!” I hissed. “Shut that thing off and get over here!”
“I’ve still got nine minutes,” Matt mumbled, pulling his blankets over his head.
I stood, flipped the switch for the room’s overhead lights, and walked over to Matt’s bed. The letter still clutched in my right hand, I used my left hand to yank Matt’s covers off him.
“Catch up between classes.” I ripped the pillow out of my friend’s hands and stuffed the letter in his face.
“What’s the big...” Matt began to protest, then gave a low whistle as he read the letter. “Where’d this come from?”
“It came in the mail yesterday.” I sat down on the edge of Matt’s bed . “I just opened it.”
“‘One by one, you and your friends will pay for what you did,’” Matt read aloud. He looked up at me, his brown eyes wide. “Is this for real?”
For an answer, I grimly pointed to a small, red drawing of a coiled rattlesnake in the lower right corner of the paper.
“The Snake!” Matt breathed, staring at the symbol used to identify the terrorist who had taken my parents.
“Apparently he wants to get back at us for stopping his plans to create the ultimate weapon.”
“He kidnaps your parents, makes everyone believe they’re dead, and tries to take over the world, and he wants revenge.” Matt snorted derisively. “Go figure.”
A burning ball of rage rose in my throat as I remembered the day over a month ago that had started the biggest nightmare of my life. My parents had canceled a visit with me again. I had been used to their unreliability and had not been worried, just a little disappointed. Until Matt’s secret agent brother, Chris, came to tell me that my parents had been killed in a plane crash.
I had refused to accept the fact that they were dead. When SATURN, the agency Chris worked for, refused to give me any answers, I began to look for them myself.
The answers were not at all what I had anticipated. My parents weren’t the average middle-class couple I thought they were. They were really spies for SATURN and their plane had been wrecked while they were protecting a revolutionary new weapon and its inventor, Dr. Isaac Kestler, from a terrorist known as the Snake. There were no bodies found in the wreckage, and I began to suspect that they had been kidnapped by the Snake.
With the help of my friends, I’d discovered that Dr. Kestler was the Snake. The three of us had helped retrieve the weapon and capture the Snake’s men, but the terrorist escaped. With him escaped my chances of finding my parents. I was later able to convince SATURN that my parents were still alive, but they still hadn’t found them. If the Snake truly wanted to get revenge on me, there’d be no easier way to get it than through my parents.
“Scott,” Matt spoke up, interrupting my thoughts. He was sitting up in his bed, looking at me with concern. “Worrying about your parents won’t find them faster. Call Chris, maybe this letter will give them a lead.”
“Good idea.” I collected my thoughts and stood. “I’ll call him now, then get ready for class.” I picked up the receiver of the phone on the nightstand and dialed the number I’d now memorized from frequent use: Agent Christopher Marshall’s cell phone.
“Agent Marshall,” Chris’s crisp voice rang clearly over the line. It sounded like he’d been up for a while.
“This is Scott.” I took the letter back from Matt and looked it over as I spoke. “I got a letter I think you should see.” I read it into the phone. “It’s signed with a red rattlesnake.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line before Chris responded. “I’ll be by this afternoon to get it. Have it and the envelope it came in ready for me about 1600. It could give us a lead to Kestler.”
“And my parents,” I added, even though it wasn’t necessary. My dad had been Chris’s mentor and I knew he was almost as eager to find them as I was. Almost.
“Lord willing,” Chris agreed seriously. “We’ll talk about getting protection for you guys when I get there. Until then, be careful.”
“Right, see you then.” I hung up the phone and turned back to Matt. “Chris will be here at 1600. He’s coming for the letter and to discuss our protection here.”
“I’m not so much concerned about protection here as I am about protection when I leave the campus,” Matt commented as he began to dress for class. “I don’t want to be trapped here until they catch that guy.”
“Me neither.” I pulled my sheets tight over my bed. “One of the reasons I’m still here at JJMA is so that I can continue to look for my parents. I can’t do that if I’m confined to campus.”
We dressed quickly and meticulously, pausing for a few moments to read our Bibles before heading to the cafeteria for breakfast.
After speeding through breakfast, we headed to the parade grounds for morning formation and drills. At 0900, we headed back to the Nathan Hale Administration Building for our first class - physics. We entered our classroom and took our usual desks beside each other about halfway to the front.
“Look on the bright side, Scott.” Matt grinned as he took his textbook from his backpack and laid it on his desk. “At least our physics grades are up.”
I smiled tightly before answering. We had gotten tutored by Dr. Kestler as part of the plan to help locate my parents. The tutoring really had helped; I was actually beginning to understand what Professor Davidson was saying. “I guess anyone who could invent a weapon that could take over the world ought to be able to tutor a couple of high school seniors in physics.”
“Are you two talking about that awful scientist again?” Trinity Shiloh, a pretty, redheaded junior, dropped her books on the desk in front of mine. “He’s not back around, is he?”
Do I really need to get her involved? I looked at Matt quickly before motioning for Trinity to come closer. She was already involved and the threat likely included her. I took the letter from my pocket and handed it to her to read.
“That’s terrible.” Her face went pale as she read. “Have you called Chris?”
“I have,” I answered softly so the other students filling the classroom couldn’t overhear. “He’s coming over this afternoon. Until then, I just want to warn you to be careful. You were with us that day, too.”
“Are you worried about me, Scott?” Trinity asked, a teasing glint in her blue eyes.
“Sure, I’m worried about you.” I blushed slightly and tried to recover quickly. “You’re my friend, aren’t you?”
“Only a friend?” Matt ribbed, a huge grin on his face.
I shot him a look and was about to reply, when a cry from Trinity stopped me.
“Let go, you bully!”
Winston Datona III, JJMA’s newest bully, yanked the letter out of Trinity’s hand. She tried to grab it back from him, but he held it behind him just out of her reach.
“I saw you three standing around, and I needed to find out what all the commotion was about.” Winston sneered condescendingly as he began to read. “I thought you might need my help.”
The last time Winston wanted to “help”, he got himself kidnapped with the rest of us. He ended up cowering under a desk in fear. Some help!
“We need you like a visit to the Superintendent’s office,” Matt snapped angrily.
“Give the note to me, Winston,” I said firmly, standing to my feet. I was several inches taller than Winston and wanted to use that to my advantage.
“So this is your letter, Spy Boy,” Winston taunted. “Getting kidnapped by a terrorist once wasn’t good enough, so you had to make up a new threat?”
“The note’s real,” Matt growled, coming up next to me. “And it’s evidence. Give it back, or I’ll get Superintendent Hinkly.”
“Maybe I want to investigate for myself.” Winston glared back, a challenge in his brown eyes. “Or are you afraid I’ll get all the glory?”
“Give me that letter or I’ll...” Matt took a step toward the smaller boy. He flexed his thick biceps threateningly.
“What’s going on here?” an angry voice boomed behind us.
“Professor Davidson, sir.” Winston smiled sweetly. “Cadets McCully and Marshall lost an important piece of paper. They were getting really upset about losing it, but I was able to find it for them and was just giving it back.”
He handed the note back to the still seething Matt.
“Very good, then.” Professor Davidson nodded, apparently satisfied by Winston’s explanation. “Please take your seats, I’m about to call roll.”
Winston’s smile turned triumphant as he followed Professor Davidson and sat down on the front row.
“What a pain,” Matt whispered to me as he sat down in his seat.
I nodded sympathetically. “Don’t let him get to you. If he can make you lose your temper, he’s won.”
“I know.” Matt sighed. “But he’s so annoying.”
“Attention, class,” Professor Davidson called, tapping his ruler on the podium. “I want to introduce you to a new student here at JJMA. His name is Cadet Eugene Rogers.”
Matt and I looked up to see a small blond teen with pale blue eyes and large glasses standing next to Professor Davidson. He looked down and traced a floor tile with his foot.
“Cadet Rogers is a junior this year,” Professor Davidson continued. “I expect you all to make him feel welcome and to show him the ropes.”
Professor Davidson scanned the class, his gaze passing over me and resting on Winston. “Cadet Daytona, I’m assigning you to give Cadet Rogers a tour of the campus and make sure he gets to all his classes today.” Professor Davidson motioned to an empty desk next to Winston. “Cadet Rogers, you can sit here beside Winston.”
“Scott!” Matt hissed, leaning across the aisle. “We need to rescue that poor guy before Winston torments him.”
“We will,” I assured him softly, “as soon as we can.”
As soon as the class was dismissed, Winston led Eugene out of the classroom, looking for all the world like his best friend. Matt, Trinity, and I quickly tried to catch up.
When we finally reached Winston, Eugene was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Eugene?” I glared at Winston’s crooked grin suspiciously.
“He asked me where to find a restroom.” Winston pointed his thumb behind him. “I showed him one.”
“That’s the ladies room,” Matt cried angrily. “The men’s room is the other direction!”