Dova and I split up as soon as we got in front of the elevator. He took the left elevator to the boys' dormitory, while I carried my two suitcases up to the right elevator to the girls' dormitory.
"Suri! Good morning," greeted a girl in a yellow suit in front of me. That was Freya. Freya was a very smart girl. She could use five languages and all accents. Before entering this academy, she was a well-traveled tour guide.
"Morning, Freya! Am I too late?" I asked as I tried to carry suitcases.
"Yes, go put your suitcases in the room, and unpack later. We have to be on time," Freya commanded as she hurriedly exited the elevator to the school grounds.
When the elevator doors closed, I immediately pressed the button to the fifth floor.
****
Our schoolyard was similar to a stadium. There were many stadion chairs surrounding it. It's roof was covered by a transparent canopy with sunlight but no rainwater.
I got in line at the back. Behind me was Manda from room 506, I heard she was a lip reader, even remotely. She smiled when I turned my gaze to her. It seemed most of the students were already standing in their own seats. We might looked like ants swarming around a small podium, where the headmaster with sunglasses was welcoming us. I had never seen his face without his sunglasses.
"Hello," greeted Mr. Purnama checked the microphone. "Is everything ready, huh? Young spies can not be too late!"
Suddenly we were all simultaneously be in ready position. All my friends were in full uniform, and it looked like the entrance to the stadium was closed.
"Holiday is over. Now we are focused on the goal, which is world security around us," he exclaimed to all of us. "I'm about to announce the top score for last semester. Best of linguistics classes there's Freya from room 501, and from math class there's Suri from room 503, from visualize class there's Mila from room 506, from bodily-kinetic there's Dova from room 507, and ...,"
I did not pay attention to the whole thing because there were so many special kinds of intelligence mentioned. But I had caught quite a few things that matter, that both my name and Dova had been mentioned. So, our struggles after studying last semester were not too bad.
"But such intelligence does not matter! Rank does not matter!" Mr. Purnama's intonation raises, sounded loader. Then he sneezed hard enough at the microphone, so suddenly we were all surprised. "What matters is the success of the mission and cooperation."
"Today, do your best!!" he yelled, beckoning all of us to get disperse.
****
I found a new mission this afternoon. The televisions in my classroom suddenly switched screens from a world map, into a division center display. Mr. Ferdy as chairman of the mission enforcement division, suddenly called me and some of the other students to come in his office.
By the time I got there, a bunch of students had already arrived. I knew them, there were Freya and also Manda.
"Okay, that's it!" Mr. Ferdy shouted as soon as he looked at me. "I will send all three of you on a secret mission." Then he shuffled a red paper. "It's a red mission."
Freya and Manda were glancing at each other. Red mission was a secondary highest mission after black mission (the super highest one). Red mission required a junior spy to do so without any guidance, a.k.a fully released. It was really just gonna be the three of us later. It was the first time I got a red mission. I was on a yellow mission before, which meant in that moment the senior spy still watched us around on the mission.
"The three of you will be working together to spy on a certain target named Mr. Lion, not his real name. He was an international drug dealer."
I swallowed my saliva nervously. It would be kind of a hard case.
"We have important information about his existence," declared Mr. Ferdy while he was focused on typing on his laptop. The large screen above the window then featured a picture of a heavy metal concert brochure. "It's a Broadersonic band concert, it will be held on this month at twelve in the night. Come and get all the information you can."
Freya interrupted, "I'm sorry, Sir. Are we just looking for information?"
Mr. Ferdy suddenly stopped typing and looked up. "If you can show me the evidences, it means you have finished the black mission. It's for upper class," he said. "I won't forbid you to have the evidences. But you know the risks," he said with such a horror laugh.
"Yes, Sir!" the three of us said in a hurry.
****
Every time a mission was given to all junior spies simultaneously, whether it was yellow, red, or black, it was usually followed by room rotation as well. One mission given a limit to be completed in a month (including the remedy period), which meant that each team member should be in the same room immediately. I felt troublesome at first too, but eventually that would be the real life of a professional spy. There wouldn't be much time to linger anywhere, because it would increase the leakage of my real identity.
"So, are you girls deal with using this room?" I asked before turning the key.
"I agree, I like a room that far from the toilet," Manda replied.
"Right, a room near the toilet was a bad idea. Even our conversation could be heard by others," admitted Freya as she pulled the door. "The toilet walls can be so thin as tissues if we're careless."
I didn't want anyone eavesdropping on our team's conversations either, because every mission was a secret. If I could figure out what the other team's mission was, then my team would get points, and the opposing team would get a point reduction. So, we wouldn't let anyone knowing this secret mission, until the mission was already complete.
Then I unlocked the room 454 carefully. The three of us went in and made our beds quickly.
****