Chapter 24

Dolphin POV: Alvin

       "So what is this emergency meeting about and how come I had to wake up early to come here?" I asked as I approached everyone part of the investigation group, as Piano called it. He was started to get way too get way too paranoid with everything that was going on so we had to change our meeting location to a brand new one; the courtyard. That way, since we were a bit far from the building, we could see if someone was approaching us and we would be able to change our discussion.

       Piano eyed me suspiciously. "Are you working with Mr. Hicks?"

       "What?" I asked. "No. I'm the first one who started helping you out with the investigation."

       "That could have been to throw me off."

       "That's not true, Piano. And why would you think I'm working with Mr. Hicks?"

       "Because you haven't notice the most obvious reason as to why we're all meeting here," Piano said, gesturing towards Uriah who had a brace on the lower half of his leg.

       "Whoa, what happened to you?" I asked Uriah. "Are you okay?"

       "Nope," was all Uriah said. He didn't tell me how he got injured. He just told me that he wasn't okay so clearly it was something bad that caused his leg to be injured.

       "Mr. Hicks happened," Piano said.

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "Mr. Hicks broke Uriah's leg?"

       "Indirectly," Piano said. "During yesterday's basketball game, Mr. Hicks talked to the opposing team's basketball coach who then talked to one of the players who then tripped Uriah."

       "That could have been a coincidence," Pearl said. "At least I'd like to think that Mr. Hicks wouldn't do something so cruel like wanting one of his students to get injured."

       "Yeah, and no offence, Piano, but sometimes you can be a bit too... paranoid," Ester said. "You could just be looking too much into it."

       "Honestly, how dare you assume such things?" Piano said. "I am not too paranoid."

       "No, you definitely can be too paranoid at times," I said.

       "But he's not being paranoid this time," Levi spoke up. "I was at the basketball game too and it just... didn't look right. The way the basketball player tripped Uriah didn't seem like an accident, and there was no reason why he would do it on purpose."

       "I just don't get why Mr. Hicks would want one of his students to get injured," I said.

       "The same reason why he's trying to get some of us to take part in a brain scan that will copy our knowledge in AI form," Piano said. "And why he's really persistent to do that. And why he made the Coyotes purposefully win the competition. And why he made Wayne captain because Wayne's parents basically bribed him. I could go on, if you like."

       "No, that's fine," I said.  "So... What are we going to do about this? Because we still don't know what Mr. Hicks is up to and I still haven't been able to find out anymore information about the A.I.D scan. All I got is what I found the first time."

       "Ooh, I have an idea," Piano said. "What if some of us sneak into S.H.R.E.W.D's headquarters pretending to be interns. They'll have to tell us interns about the scan since we'll be working there. And if they don't tell us, then clearly it's something super top secret, meaning we get to act like spies and uncover their secrets."

       "Okay, I'm seeing a few problems with that plan," Astrid said. "The main one being that I'm pretty sure they'll know if they hired interns or not. We won't be in their system or anything."

       Piano sighed heavily. "You're right." He then smiled as if he suddenly got an idea. "Unless..."

       "Unless what?" I asked.

       "Unless there was a certain someone in this group that can hack into their system," Piano said. "Make us actually interns and say we were hired directly from the higher ups. From the busier people there so the people working at the headquarters wouldn't want to bother them t double make sure. Oh, but where will we ever find someone who can hack into the system?"

       I sighed. "Piano, if you want me to do it, just tell me. Well, after we make sure everybody agrees to it first."

       "I mean, it is a good way to get information directly from the source," Pearl said.

       "But there are still more problems to it," Astrid said. "One, it's hard enough getting permission to leave the school. How would we be able to sneak down there? To sneak down there multiple times? Because I'm pretty sure they'd be suspicious if we showed up only one day and then suddenly quit."

       "We could simply tell Mr. Hicks some of us got chosen to do an internship," Ester said.

       Uriah snorted. "Right. Because nothing is going to make him suspicious more than us telling him we got an internship at S.H.R.E.W.D when both of them are clearly trying to do some... experiment on us."

       "We could fake an internship," Diesel spoke up in the quiet voice that he had. "Find a place sort of close to the school and fake all the documentation. And also fake the email and phone on the documentation so it directs to one of us. That way, if he calls or emails to make sure, we'll be the ones confirming it."

       "That... is a genius idea," Astrid said. "That covers all my concerns about the internship plan."

       "Okay, so if we do this, who's going to be part of it?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure it would raise suspicions if we all do it."

       "Well, definitely people who can understand all that smart talk," Levi said. "So I'm out."

       "You're not stupid," Uriah said.

       "I'm stupid, leave me alone," Levi said.

       "I can do it," Diesel said. "I think I'll be able to understand what they're saying. I mean, I hope. I just hope I don't embarrass myself by rambling on and on like I normally do. And I don't really do well under pressure so it might also not be a good idea for me to go..."

       "No, it's definitely best if you're one of the ones going," Astrid said. "You're the one who was able to understand the A.I.D scan on the website."

       "I can go too," I said. "Since they also deal with computers and all that. That's my language."

       "And I really want to go too," Piano said. "For starters, it's my idea. And it will make me feel like an undercover agent, and I kind of want to be an RCMP officer when I'm older. I'm good at solving things. Also I'm a good actor."

       "Well, I don't think we can say no since it was your idea," I said. "Is it just going to be the three of us or should we even things out and get one more, just in case we have to split in two or something?"

       "There should definitely be four of us," Piano said.

       "I'll do it," Pearl said. 

       "Perfect," Piano said. "Now, to fake all that information so we can finally see what S.H.R.E.W.D is up to."

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plot twist: s.h.r.e.w.d is creating realistic wattpad characters so soon enough, you can buy a grayson or a nolan or a jerome or a grant or basically anyone.

lol i wish

but :o i updated wow so shocking. i'm sorry for the long waits between chapters :( i'll try to update this soon, i promise