YES!

I'm over 10,200 words! I just started Nov. 1st so I'm just super pumped! Book three is officially finished and book four is next on my agenda! In the words of CD, our epic moderator over at YWP: "W00t!"

I ♥ Wordle

Three more chapters

Chapter three

S

he was excited to see Romania; it was where her parents had met. She was eager to see the sights, soak up a tan, maybe meet a couple boys, RELAX!

Katarina sighed; her life had been anything but relaxing during the last year. Maybe this could give her a new life away from the institute, a quieter life, preferably by a pool, but she was an orphan, a kid U-POT picked up off the street, and that meant that everyone thought she was a weirdo. She was doomed to be a social outcast with no life.

Well, also she was a spy, but that’s not as exciting as hot boys.

"Wait!" she cried excitedly to herself, "That is just it, isn't it? All I need to do is make sure that no one finds out I’m an orphan!" She thought this was a wonderful idea and congratulated herself profusely.

Her roommate, Jenna, who had been an exchange student from Sweden, came in and began talking to Katarina in what the other students thought was gibberish. Katarina knew many languages however, and so she chattered on in “gibberish” back.

How the two girls got along so well is beyond me. To tell you the truth they were absolute opposites, while Jenna was tall, Katarina was short, and while Katarina had black eyes, Jenna had a baby blue shade. I think they got along so well because they were both cut out from the rest of the institute.

Weird, new, strange kids that would always remain new because no one would make an effort to become friends with the two girls, for fear that they would become made fun of behind their backs. The girls were like china dolls, in a way, put away on a shelf for no one to play with.

Jenna was very, very attractive and many boys used to make goo-goo eyes after her, but the moment the news was out that she was Katarina's roommate she was very carefully avoided.

"Where are you going?" Jenna asked, in broken English, "You are in bad trouble with Commander Donovan?"

"No, Donovan said that I’m going on loan to the Romanian Agency. If only I was going to Hawaii…"

"Ooh! How long will you be on this ‘loon’?”

"Loan, not loon.” corrected Katarina, “And I'll be in Romania for a whole four months!"

"You will miss curfew" Jenna said jokingly.

"I will miss four months’ worth of curfew!"

"Miss Morgan will be mad very! Miss Morgan love to be mad very. Never happy."

Katarina nodded, Miss Morgan was the least favorite teacher in the entire institute, in fact if there was a yearbook nomination for the ugliest, most hated teacher in the institute Miss Morgan would win for sure, unanimously in fact!

She always (and I mean always) seemed to look as if she had been sucking on lemons. Whenever she walked into the classroom all the students groaned.

The latest news (gossip, more like) in the institute was that between classes she took to smooching Mister Marcus in the halls, the students were horrified and the news naturally spread like wildfire. No one was absolutely sure who had started the rumor, but Katarina had her suspicions.

Jenna had gone over and turned the CD player in the bedroom on. It had in it what it always had in it, a U2 CD.

They immediately started dancing around like crazy people, jumping up and down, turning around in circles, and just goofing off.

It was their favorite band, and Jenna totally had a crush on the guitarist. They danced until the song was over then for the rest of the CD the girls spent packing Katarina's zebra striped suitcase.

Chapter four

K

atarina had not expected so many people to come to see her off, she expected they were most likely excited she was leaving or Donovan had made them come, nobody really liked her that much.

The secret hangar in which she was standing was about the size of a football stadium. In one corner it had a mini escape pod that was still being tested for glitches but was very advanced, in the center of the hangar was the jet she’d be riding on, a 7/47, black with a giant logo signifying the organization it came from, and in another corner was a D.U.K.W or Duck (which, although it was an old contraption, worked quite efficiently).

The jet was sleek and medium sized, inside it was equipped with a bazooka in the front seat, hidden pistols in the passenger seats in case of emergency and, most importantly, a giant flat screen TV.

Katarina stepped onto the stair way to board and almost screamed! I suppose I should tell you something about Katarina, she has a terrible case of arachnophobia. If you do not know what arachnophobia is I will tell you right now, if you know what arachnophobia is you can skip the next sentence and save a few extra seconds of your life. Or you could keep reading. Anyway… Arachnophobia is the immense fear of spiders. Katarina knew that to scream would be a terrible misstep at a time like this so she gritted her teeth skipped the step and went on up to the jet.

Chapter five

W

hen she was seated comfortably a flight attendant came out to give the details, where they were going, what they would do when they got there, what to do in case of an emergency, etc. She was in her late 20’s, she wore a pencil skirt and a polo shirt with a tight jacket; she looked squished.

You might think all that is extremely boring, but you are mistaken if you think so. You think this is an ordinary jet, do you not? But no, it isn't. You are most likely forgetting that this is a spy agency's jet, so there regulations are a tad different than the usual regulations you go through on a normal, boring plane.

"Now," said the flight attendant, "Is your seat belt tightened? Good. I will show you the safety regulations and procedures. In the result of an emergency the pilot or co-pilot will release the gun from your seat, the gun is locked into place for safety reasons and will only be released if the pilot presses the button. Your seat, as in all planes, doubles as a floating device just in case we have to make a water landing. If there is a problem with the engine fumes or a grenade hits us, there is a gasmask above you in the overhead compartment along with a laser pen and a parachute.”

Katy nodded, “Where’s the remote for the TV?”

“On the table to your right,” said the lady, “It also doubles as a…”

“Is there anything on this plane that does not have a double purpose?”

“Well, there’s the… No, that has a gun concealed in it. There’s…um… No, I think everything has more than one purpose.”

•♦•♦•♦•

Katarina was watching a movie on the TV when they hit. The planes came swooping down like falcons.

The first bomb was smaller, thank goodness, but the pilot and co-pilot were knocked unconscious. The flight attendant was running around the plane wildly, screaming and lashing out hysterically, but it was no use. Unless someone dropped into the plane that knew how to fly it, they were going to crash.

First 2 chapters and the Prologue of my book Secrets

Prologue

The following is a letter we received from an unnamed operative.

The information you are now reading is extremely dangerous. In the wrong hands it could ruin everything we have worked for.

Our intelligence has reported sightings… You will have to read this file to understand. I have put this together based on the facts we have collected and the facts reported to us by various operatives and agents.

Beware. By reading this you are putting yourself in danger. Look over your shoulder and out your window. Be careful going out alone. Be on your guard for any suspicious activity. No one is safe now. Read this to better prepare yourself for what lies ahead.

No matter what happens, do not let this book fall into the wrong hands. Watch out for people in restaurants, offices, even your own home. If they have found you contact U-POT immediately and hide this book from the people hunting it.

Remember, they will stop at nothing. If they have a chance to get this file from you they will not hesitate to do so. Do not give them that chance.

The stakes are high and the fate of all lies in the balance. Are you ready to turn the page?

Chapter one

K

atarina sat in the waiting room of U-POT headquarters. She had never enjoyed this place, nor did any other wise agent. It was a place filled with uncertainty.

Many a lazy, irresolute or, often enough, traitorous agent had sat in this very room; perhaps even in the same seat she was sitting in at this very moment! If you should happen to lose your job here you would lose your memory. U-pot took no unnecessary risks (which is odd since spying is full of risks), never since that terrible incident with the USSR.

When her name was called she hesitated a moment then she began an awkward shuffling gait, for which she was immediately reprimanded for and was ordered to hurry up and not to keep Donovan waiting. “Oh no,” she thought “I bet this is about the food fight in mess hall this morning!” She had never heard of anyone getting fired over a food fight, but she supposed it was possible.

Donavan’s office was neat and tidy without a pencil, laser pen, grappling hook or pistol out of place. Her escort knocked twice on the door.

“Come in,” said Donovan in his usual, absent minded nature.

“Hello, sir. You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Ah yes, Katarina” he said, looking up from a file he had been decoding. “I wanted to talk to you about-”

“Sir,” she put in hastily, “it wasn’t me who started the food fight in mess hall this morning, honest!”

“Food fight? I haven’t heard anything about a food fight. But,” he added, “I’m sure we can make time to talk about that later. I wanted to tell you that we, U-POT that is, not me, are sending you to Romania. You will be on loan there for the next four months to the AGENCY.”

“Which one?” she asked, “Romania has quite a few.”

“The AGENCY.” he said.

“Woah! They are totally low on creativity!”

“No!” he said, clasping his head in his hands, “The AGENCY! It’s an acronym!”

“Oh… What’s that?”

“What in the world? What grade are you in? I’ll have to make sure that U-POT patrolled schools have better work taught, can’t have dimwitted agents you know. Not that you’re dimwitted!” He said hastily to cover his gaffe. Donovan started rambling, truly embarrassed, until he fell asleep.

After a minute or two he woke up again, then realizing she was still there he said, “Oh yes, an acronym is a set of words that when you put them together in a row top to bottom, and take the first letter of each word, and then put those letters together they make a word or set of words, now, that is very confusing because then the words run together and you must add in punctuation and spaces and all that lot in by yourself.

The AGENCY is the Association of Gentlemen Endeavoring to Neutralize Catastrophes for Yurope.” He shook his head disapprovingly, “The attempts we make at the English language… They do not have the best translators; I’ll leave it at that.”

Katarina did not really care all that much but she politely nodded her head anyways.

Donovan was 42 years old, had a terrible short term memory, and a bad case of narcolepsy (sleeping triggered by certain emotion(s)) on account of this, he often dozed off in the middle of intense conversations. No one had quite figured out what emotion triggered his narcolepsy. Donovan himself had tried more than a few times to figure out what caused it, and more than a few times he had failed. The main reason for his repeated failure was to the fact that every time he was close to making a breakthrough he fell asleep (ah, the bitter irony of it all).

He had black hair that, to his extreme displeasure, was peppered with gray, darting blue eyes, and olive skin. All in all he was quite handsome indeed.

Katarina was seventeen years old, but amazingly smart. She had finished a whole year of college before the U-POT scouts had discovered her and her uncanny abilities. She was quite short, something that she quite despised, five foot two inches; with jet black eyes and trunk load of spunk, she made quite the character. She too had black hair, but hers was dyed that color. She was an orphan so her vast knowledge was an amazing attribute to her already sparkling personality.

Now, of course, I must tell you about U-POT, which, as you have most likely gathered, is a spy organization. And so it is. It stands for Ukrainian Protection Organization of Tomorrow. It is, as the name implies, located in Ukraine, a small country about the size of Texas located in Eastern Europe. Go check a map for it.

Have you found it? Good job. Now find Romania. These two places play vital parts in this book.

Now that you know most of the background of the story (I, of course, cannot tell you all of it, for then, what good would the story do?), which I will now begin to tell you, we must get back to the story itself.

Chapter two

K

atarina went to her institute dorm to pack for Romania.

The dorm was equipped with two water beds and two lava lamps (bought at a yard sale, her roommate’s idea) on two neon orange side tables with homework scattered on top of them. Katy thought it looked like a hippy’s bedroom.

The room was filled with odds and ends, such as a laser pen or two (which were occasionally mistaken for normal pens, which then created quite a problem), a button camera vest, a fake pistol each (even if they were spies they were only a little over sixteen (that was the age limit)), they had tazers ( in case of an emergency), a couple of chests filled with disguises (they were always open and the disguises were spilling on the floor, and then there was the normal mess, school books, clothes, towels, and such.

Her roommate had not yet returned from study hall, so she began to pack for the four month loan to Romania by herself.

“Good thing I’m not going to Siberia,” said Katarina to herself, “Yulia went last year and came back with pneumonia and has been acting so weird lately, like she doesn’t know people she’s known for years…Almost like she was brainwa- No, that couldn’t be it could it. Could it?” She puzzled over that thought for a moment then shrugged it away and went back to packing.

She threw in her socks (none of them were normal looking), one zebra striped dress with a green polka-dot sash (she was in love with zebra stripes), two different disguises (and three wigs to go with the disguises), and about ten pairs of jeans; ah, I have not told you about her pants!

Katarina's fashion tastes are, well, trendsetters (or embarrassing, it depends on who you ask). She can make pretty much any outfit look good on her. Not a single pair of pants are alike in her closet (more like her floor, but why argue over trifles), she has bell bottoms, tye-dyed skinny jeans, boot cuts, pants with zippers, pants of all kinds of colors- neon green to bright and beautiful shades of red. Does she have shirts and jackets to match? No.

She threw in a favorite shirt of hers; she had worn it the first day she came here. It was green with blue stripes and an anime girl.

Katarina paused. Had it been five years already? She remembered the day she came to U-POT vividly.

She had been twelve, begging on the streets. She remembered tugging on a man’s coat and asking for money. He had slapped her so hard she toppled over. His hand smelled sour like alcohol and puke. He kept on kicking her even after he had fallen.

She did the unthinkable for a girl of her age. She swung her foot out, tripping him. The man had landed less than gracefully. Katy had scurried over before he could get up and she had her small knife to his throat.

His gun went up to her temple and he grinned a sour, toothless grin, then the gun was kicked out of his hand. Her vision swam and everything went black.

When she woke up she was in an infirmary with a man standing over her. She tried to get up but he held her down.

“No.” he said, simply.

Katy had glared at him, “Yes! Now let me up!”

The man smiled, Katy noted that his breath did not smell like rotten meat.

“Where am I?” she asked, trying to look as gruff and as grumpy as possible (which is very hard to do when you’re being held down on a hospital bed and wearing a nightshirt with hearts all over it.)

“U-POT infirmary. You were asleep a long time. How are you feeling?”

“Like I’m being held down on a hospital bed.” Katy said, glaring at the man.

The man smiled again, which annoyed Katy, “I’ll stop holding you down if you stop trying to get up.”

Katy scowled.

“Okay, then. Suit youself.”

“Fine!”

“I thought you might say that.” He took his hand off.

Katy immediately attempted to get up. He held her down again. She tried to bite him but she couldn’t reach so she tried kicking him instead. He winced but that was it.

“Let me up!” she yelled.

“Doctor ordered you to stay lying down. I’m Donovan, by the way.” he said calmly.

“I don’t care what some stupid doctor has to say! Let me up!”

“Tsk. Tsk. Stupid is a strong word.”

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” she yelled defiantly, “Let me up!”

“No.”

Katy struggled against him for a few minutes, then gave up and laid still.

“Good girl. I’ll go bring the doctor back in.”

She didn’t know why but she stayed lying down until the doctor came in. He prodded her with a few sticks and left.

She and Donovan had a long conversation after that and he got up and left. In the morning she was told she’d been accepted to U-POT. She and Donovan hadn’t spoken a lot, just brief sentences as they walked down the hall.

However, that was the past and she didn’t want to dwell on the past. Instead she thought of tomorrow. Tomorrow, she’d be in Romania. She couldn’t wait.