a tracking device embedded in it.
“I’m fine, dad.” Another lie I hoped was believable. “And Jake and Danny are pretty convincing.” Jake and Danny were two of my best friends.
“So, Ronaldo or Messi?” he asked. I didn’t understand why guys thought girls only liked football because of Cristiano Ronaldo.
“I’m a Barcelona fan, dad,” I said, finally finding a little energy in my voice, although I could tell I sounded defensive. “Barça is a good team, and that’s why I like them. Though it doesn’t hurt that Messi is an amazing player.”
“So it has nothing to do with how hot you girls think Ronaldo is?”
This time I allowed myself to catch his gaze, and I held it. “Seriously dad, it’s all about the game.” Again, my voice sounded defensive.
My father smiled, and I couldn’t help asking, “What?”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard you take an interest in anything and talk about it with a little passion.” Wasn’t it a shame, though, that all we could talk about was football? But then again, what were we supposed to talk about, the fact that I walked around waiting for something bad to happen because he imprinted that idea in my head?
“I talk about a lot of things I’m passionate about.” I looked away from him again. I couldn’t tell him that I wasn’t truly passionate about anything, because he took that right away from me when he handed me one, one that involved guns.
Suddenly, the car came to a stop. I glanced out of the window and saw the familiar old, seemingly abandoned warehouse. Suddenly all the air in the car seemed to have disappeared. I couldn’t breathe for fear of collapsing if I did.
I didn’t want to disappoint my father. Logan and I had been training really hard, and from what I’d heard, my father was this brilliant, hard-working, awesome secret agent, and I was pretty sure he expected me to be just as good as him—or at least appear half as good. He needed assurance that I’d be able to take care of myself, and if he found out that all those years of training were a waste, he’d be disappointed in me. I definitely didn’t want him to be disappointed in me or worried about my mother and me.
“You coming, princess?” the door to my side of the car opened. I hadn’t even noticed that my father had stepped out and walked around to my side.
I swallowed my fear, got out a “yes,” and with shaking hands pulled myself out of the car. I had put on my training outfit before we left.
I followed my father into the warehouse. The outside of the warehouse didn’t look like much. It seemed old and abandoned. A tall, chain-link fence surrounded it on all sides, and rusted barbed wire clung to the top. Signs warning of Danger and No Trespassing littered the fence. The inside of the building, though, was a different story. The first time Logan brought me here, I had refused to believe this was where we were supposed to be before we entered.
“Just relax,” my father said as he pulled open the door to the warehouse. When we stepped inside, we entered a musty, ruined space. Broken pieces of wood and bricks surrounded us. I watched expectantly as my father pushed aside one of the slabs of wood and a hidden keypad appeared on the ground.
First the keypad asked for my father’s thumbprint, and after that his password. He punched in the password, and I turned just as the hidden door into the training center opened. My father took my hand in his, and together we entered.
The moment we stepped into the hall and the door closed firmly behind us, all the lights turned on and machines roared to life.
“Welcome, Agent V,” a machine voice announced my father’s arrival.
I followed my father down the hall. The training hall was divided into three sectors. We stood at the forefront of the second sector, where the more advanced training equipment was located. The first sector had excise machines, boxing bags, mats for push-ups, sit-ups, or whatever work out one chose, as the first sector was the warm-up sector.
The last sector was the all-in-one sector. The sector was made up of different-sized rooms, some of which contained broken electronics that the agents had to fix. I was pretty convinced that there were bombs somewhere. There was also a swimming hall. The first time Logan took me there, I thought swimming laps was the