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face. But I nodded and accepted it. Once again, I couldn’t really argue with his logic.
    â€œAs I’m sure you’ve noticed,” he continued, “things are a little different around here at the moment. First, we diverted a healthy chunk of agents to a new initiative, one that could be a real game changer. But even more drastic has been the need to scale back to essential personnel only. We simply don’t know who we can trust anymore. The fact is, we’ve never had a security breach of this severity in the seventy-year history of the Agency. A former agent, systematically taking down every aspect of our operation . . . Medlock has all but destroyed us from the inside out.”
    I nodded slowly, the true gravity of the threat starting to sink in.
    â€œWhich is why capturing him has become our soleobjective at the moment. Every other resource—outside the new initiative that we have—is now aimed entirely at finding, detaining, or eliminating Medlock. In the pursuit of this task, everything—even an agent—is considered expendable.”
    I could only assume that was his way of confirming that Agent Chum Bucket was now on his own. I wanted to ask the director if he counted himself as expendable, too, but I stayed quiet. I didn’t want to make him even angrier than he already was.
    â€œAnd in line with that,” Director Isadoris said, “we have another immediate assignment for you. One that relates back to our primary subdirective, which is to figure out what exactly Medlock is up to. That is, if you feel you’re up to the challenge.”
    Director Isadoris might have been a little sarcastic with that last bit. But it didn’t matter: I was in too deep to back out now.
    â€œYeah, I’m in,” I said.
    â€œGood. As you know, we believe Medlock has yet another operative inside the school. Someone who likely framed Principal Gomez, set him up to get caught by the NSB. And it could be an adult, but it’s just as likely another student.”
    â€œWhat makes you think that?” I asked.
    â€œJake, Medlock’s son,” Director Isadoris said. “Children are easier to manipulate than adults, and generally appear less suspicious. And, as you and Jake have both demonstrated, can be just as effective. While Medlock could have planted adult agents at the school, it’s equally possible that Jake recruited other agents himself among the student populace.”
    It made sense, but it was hard to imagine who else might be working for the bad guys. What kid would get on board with a plot for world domination, or whatever Medlock’s endgame was, besides his own kid?
    â€œLet me guess,” I said. “You want me to find out who this inside agent is?”
    â€œIndeed,” Director Isadoris confirmed. “It could be anyone, so suspect everyone, and discount no one.”
    â€œOne thing I still don’t get,” I speculated aloud, “is why Medlock would go to the trouble of framing Gomez if he wasn’t working with the Agency.”
    â€œWell, that’s another thing we’re hoping you can help us find out,” Director Isadoris said. “It must have something to do with the base, the Agency, and our ties to the school. As we speak, a new principal, Ms. Pullman, is being brought in to take over for Mr. Gomez.Her background checks out: she has a family, a complete educational record; it’s hard to imagine that she could be under Medlock’s thumb. But circumstances dictate that we consider her a suspect for the time being.”
    â€œSo, what’s next?” I asked.
    â€œWell, that’s hard to answer completely until we know what Medlock is up to. Once we figure that out, we can come up with a definitive way to stop him. So, next is simply doing everything we can to uncover his plans, starting with a thorough search through the files on the hard drive you brought in. Hopefully to confirm that