Read Crisis Zero for Free Online

I’d been down to Agency HQ before, and each time it looked completely different. Sometimes it was bustling with activity, people in suits everywhere working hard to thwart whatever rogue threats faced the country. A few of the times I’d been greeted by armed guards pointing huge machine guns at my face. This time, however, I was stunned to find a virtual ghost town.
    The place was empty. Deserted. The normally busy atrium was quiet and still. Half the lights were off, the dimness giving it an even darker vibe, as if it had been converted into an evil lair in my absence.
    â€œWhere is everyone?” I asked, suddenly worried that perhaps the base had been compromised and everyone I knew was dead or captured.
    â€œDirector Isadoris will explain,” Agent Smiley said. “Come on, follow me.”
    I trailed her up the glass staircase and along the secret hallway at the end of the balcony that led to the director’s office. He was seated behind his desk. Two other agents I didn’t recognize were working on laptops at a smallfolding table behind him. His hair was frazzled as if he hadn’t showered in days, and his face was covered in dark stubble. It made the massive man look even more like a giant grizzly bear than he usually did.
    â€œAgent Zero,” he said, not standing or smiling. “Have a seat.”
    I took a chair across from him while Agent Smiley crossed the room and joined the other two agents at the small card table.
    â€œYou succeeded?” Director Isadoris asked.
    I unzipped my backpack and looked down into the splattered interior. I debated giving him the whole bag, but then decided he didn’t really need to know that I had snagged a few spare gadgets from the pantry. After all, he was the one who thought it wasn’t worth telling me about the Chum Bucket contingency plan.
    I plucked out the bag containing Gomez’s hard drive and plopped it onto the desk.
    â€œThere it is,” I said.
    He nodded and shoved the messy heap into a duffel bag.
    â€œAgent Scion,” Director Isadoris said, “take this to the tech lab and see what you can find.”
    One of the agents working behind him stood andwalked over to retrieve the bag. Then he slung it over his shoulder and left the office without saying a word. Director Isadoris treated the entire transaction as if he were asking a friend to get him a soda from the fridge. Then he turned back to me with a blank look.
    I tried to suppress my annoyance. Did he have any idea what I’d gone through to get that? How close I had come to getting myself kicked out of school? How I’d risked being arrested by the NSB? How Agent Chum Bucket actually had been arrested? If it wasn’t that important, then why ask CB and me to do it at all?
    Director Isadoris must have noticed my glare.
    â€œWhat?” he snapped. “You want a medal every time you complete an assignment?”
    I was stunned by his words. And even more stunned to see one of the agents behind him smirking. I just sat there and failed to come up with any sort of a reply.
    â€œThat’s what this job is, Agent Zero,” Director Isadoris continued. “You’re given a dangerous mission, and if you can complete it without being captured or killed, you are given another. This was just another day at the office. You don’t see florists getting a ticker tape parade each time they pick a flower, do you?”
    I shook my head, despite not really knowing what aticker tape parade was. He had a point either way, but that still didn’t quite take the sting out of his words.
    â€œI’m sorry, sir,” I said, not able to look him in the eyes.
    Then he sighed and leaned back in his chair.
    â€œNo, I’m sorry, Agent Zero,” he said. “My words still stand, but they should have been expressed more tactfully. I’m used to dealing with adults, after all.”
    Even his apology felt like a backhanded slap to my