278, 279, 280. Almost there, I told myself.

“Are we there yet?” I didn’t respond. It was bad enough that I had to drag along this useless lump and I wasn’t going to waste my breath talking to him. “Rosa!” he called, out of breath. This caught my attention.

“It’s Rosie not Rosa,” I snapped.
“Oh. Sorry, Rosie. When will we be there?” I rolled my eyes, spun on my heel, and continued leaping the short distance across the rooftops. That was one of the good things about the architecture in France. The buildings were close enough that you could easily jump along them.
“Rosie! Wait up!” I ignored him again and continued on. My boss probably wouldn’t appreciate me leaving the new guy in the dust, but it was crucial I finished this mission. Why would my boss even send this lunatic with me on such an important mission?
“Rosieee!” the man called. Chris, I thought his name was. “Rosie, how do you run so fast?” Wow, that was a stupid question.
I whirled around. “I’m a spy, Chris. I’m trained to do this! You would also run fast if you were a real spy and not some stupid excuse for one!” I started to walk away when I remembered I had something else to say to him. “Oh, and don’t follow me!” I knew I was being harsh, but I honestly didn’t care. When I turned to look behind me to see if Chris was following my rapid pace, I was pleased to see he was still rooted in the same place I left him.
I reached the last building. Under me loomed a churning black body of water. Moonlight glistened off it, give it an almost magical appearance. Hmm, I thought. Only 287 buildings. I was told to jump off at 290. Oh well, I must have miscounted when Chris was blabbing to me.
With that thought, I pulled off my trench coat and stuffed it in my waterproof duffel bag. I zipped up the collar to my wetsuit and stepped to the edge of the building.
“Rosie! Wait for me!” Chris yelled. That obviously wasn’t going to happen, so I threw myself off the edge off the building and enjoyed the sensation of falling. I pointed my head down and my feet up so I was in diving position. My dark hair billowed out behind me and my eyes watered. It was several seconds before I came into contact with the water, and it was freezing. I hesitated for a second a second underwater, then swam to the surface. As soon as I felt the frigid air on my face I had about half a second to realize there was a dark figure falling straight towards me.
My spy reflexes helped me to get away from the falling object two seconds before it belly flopped into the water. I rolled my eyes as Chris landed in a painful looking bellyflop and swam towards the shore. What kind of spy can’t do a dive? I swore if he made any more noise I really would get rid of him. Stealth is a key thing to being a spy, and Chris wasn’t really doing a good job with that.
Once I reached the shore, I climbed quickly out of the cool water and was greeted by a blast of frigid air. I ran across the grainy brown sand and ducked into an ally. I unzipped my bag, pulled out a deep red dress and matching heels, and pulled off my wetsuit. I quickly changed into my party clothes a ran a brush through my hair. Next, I rapidly dried my hair and slipped on the ridiculously tall high heels.
I poked my head out of the dark ally, looked left and right, and stealthily slipped out of it. Chris was just now climbing out of lake. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and started to casually walk down the deserted street. It was infuriating not to full out sprint, but I knew I couldn’t. One, it would draw attention, and two, it was impossible to run in these heels. About halfway down the street, I heard heavy footfalls far behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was none other than the big blunder head.
“Go away, Chris,” I said in a bored tone. It was a normal enough thing to say. If anyone was watching of if there were any cameras, no one would pay attention to it.
“But the boss said you had to take me on the mission,” Chris whined. At least he had the decency to change into his suit. Inside, I was screaming with rage. On the outside however, I kept my cool. Instead of giving any sign that I knew what he was talking about, I decided to play dumb.
“What are you talking about, Chris?” I smiled sweetly. “Can we please just go to our party? I’m sorry I told you to go away. You know I didn’t mean it.” I shot him another sweet smile. Chris seemed stunned. Apparently he didn’t know the meaning of good acting. “Come on,” I said, looping my arm through his. I tried my best not to gag at his terrible body odor, and tugged him the rest of the way to the party.

On the outside, the house looked just like a normal building. It had a dirty door with rust forming along the edges. Moss was creeping up the of the bricks surrounding the door. I took a deep breath, regained my composure, plastered a silly smile on my face, and sharply knocked three times on the door. A tall man in a black suit answered the door.

“Names,” he said stiffly. Chris opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

“Stephanie Burger and RJ Winkleross.” Those were the names the boss told me to say if we were asked. The guard checked his clipboard and waved us inside. My first thought as I stepped into the house was dark. I literally couldn’t see anything. How was I supposed to steal the diamond if I couldn’t see?

Just as this thought went through my head I felt a hand on my arm. My first instinct was to lash out, but I remembered that I was pretending to be a clueless girl.
“Who’s there?” I called out in a high, scared voice. I, of course, was not really scared, but the person next to me needed to believe so.
“Oh, shut up, Rosie.” I was startled by the sudden change in Chris’ voice. He didn’t sound scared or timid, but rough and controlling.
“Chris,” I hissed, “what are you doing? We need to get the diamond!”
“There’s a... change in plans. We won’t be getting the diamond.” His grip on my arm tightened as I got a feeling of dread in my stomach. I didn’t like the way Chris was holding my arm or the way he was talking to me. I needed to get out of here. Fast.
I kicked my leg up and connected with Chris’ face, but he didn’t even flinch. I tried to wrench my arm out of his grasp, but ended up just hurting myself. I stopped wrestling with Chris for a moment to assess the damage done to my arm. In the few seconds that happened, a blindfold was shoved onto my head and my hands were violently tied behind my back. The last thing I remembered was smelling a horrible odor before I fainted.

When I awoke I was in a small concrete cell with no windows and only one sturdy looking door. I groggily sat up and rubbed my head. Almost instantly the door opened and Chris walked in. I stared daggers at him and he just looked calmly back.

“Who are you?” I asked. It wasn’t the first question that I though to ask, but oh well.

“My name is Christopher.” Well, duh. Wait. Christopher. Chris. How could I have missed that? Christopher was the biggest super villain the world has ever known. I took a closer look at his face. I guess I couldn’t beat myself up too bad. He had disguised himself very well.

“What are you going to do with me? Keep me prisoner? Convert me to a villain?” I asked bitterly.

“No,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m going to let you go.”

“W-What?” I asked. This was more than I could hope for. This was... a little too easy.

“I really shouldn’t. You have treated me terribly, and you know where my secret hideout is.”

“Okay, Chris, what’s the catch?” He rubbed his chin.

“There isn’t one. want you to tell the world about my wrath, however. I want you to tell them that Christopher is back and more powerful than ever. I want you to do this for me, and you won’t get hurt.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. He needed to think I was considering his offer . Not like I was, or anything. “I’ll do it.”

“Great!” he smiled. I hated it how he was acting so casual when he was asking me to tell the world he was about to destroy them. “You can leave now.” he gestured absently towards the door. I didn’t glance back as I rushed to the metal door and flung it open.My mind was blank as I walked down the street. I didn’t even remember arriving to the building the boss and I had agreed to meet at after I had acquired the diamond.

I pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the warehouse and was immediately greeted by the boss.

“Rosie! What happened?” asked in a panic. As I explained the story, to him, his face grew more pale and more pale.

“So what are we going to do?” I questioned him.

“We are going to track down Chris and stop him.”

“But what about his treat to me?” When the boss answered he looked a hundred years old.

“we will just have to wait and see.”

To Be Continued