The G.G.A. 3



“Akito! Leilani! Come downstairs! Now!”

Akito paused his video game, and slid off his bed. He was still in his pajamas, but it was a Saturday. As he opened his door, the light from the hallway windows made him squint, but not before he saw how worried his sister looked.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her with a sigh.

She stood, nervously fingering the ends of her long black hair before she answered him.

“I think it has something to do with the men downstairs.”

“What men?” Akito asked, obviously oblivious.

“The men that came about half an hour ago. They pulled up in an expensive black car, and they don’t look Japanese.”

“Leilani,” Akito told her, “we live in Tokyo. About half the people in this town are tourists. Maybe they are friends.”

“I don’t know…” She started, but their mom called up the stairs again.

“Akito! Leilani! I need you downstairs!!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Akito told his little sister as he jumped down the stairs. He knew he looked a mess, but when he saw the two men standing in his kitchen, he felt even more a wreck.

“Uh, hi?” Akito grimaced at their sharp suits and neatly combed hair. He could feel his hair standing straight up on the back of his head and subtly tried to smooth it down with his hand. Their perfect shiny shoes, perfectly pressed trousers, perfectly tied ties- why would anyone on earth want to be so dressed up on a Saturday morning? Akito realized with a start that he was staring, and abruptly turned to his mother just as she started speaking.

“Akito, these are some men I would like you to meet. Agent Cuff and Agent Daea. They are with an organization designed to keep world peace. The G.G.A. Your father worked with them a couple of times. They need you and Leilani.”

Akito couldn’t recognize the expression on his mom’s face, and that scared him. 

“The project is in need of teenagers.” Agent Daea informed him. “Exceptional or talented teenagers. One’s with a file that could catch an organization’s eye, and that is what you have. Seems like you have a real knack for fighting. While we were scanning the schools here for possible candidates, we saw you have been in a nearly unprecedented number of fights. Why?” The agent looked him straight in the eye. Everyone seemed to hold their breath while waiting for an answer. When it didn’t come, his mother quietly answered for him.

“Ever since his father died, things haven’t gone… well. He has had to work nearly a full time job. Around school, of course. But, um, his grades have gone down and of course the kids at his school never have been very sympathetic.”

“I can’t imagine they would be.” Agent Daea chuckled. “When one of the smartest men in the world dies because of his own stupidity, people tend to get a kick out of it.”

Akito clenched his fists, and immediately stepped up, inches away from the agent’s face, as if daring the older man to breathe.

“Don’t talk about him like he was an idiot.” Akito hissed.

The man’s face was very serious as he quietly asked, “Why. Not?” 

“Because,” Leilani gently stated, “he was our father.” 

No one had seen her come into the room, but she slipped between the two and pushed Akito away from the older man.

“And you.” Agent Cuff said, clearing his throat as he pointed at the small girl. “Your I.Q. points are off the charts.” Leilani said nothing, only looked down, away from the men.

Apparently not needing any response, Agent Cuff turned to their mother and said, “We feel both of your children will respond very well to our mission. The plane is sitting on the tarmac as we speak, and we have more stops to make from here.” Bowing his head respectfully, he stated, “We will be waiting in the car.” As soon as the two men shut the front door behind them, their mom fiercely hugged them both.

“Your father would be so very proud.” She murmured. Akito and Leilani were speechless.

“I will send your stuff off in the mail tomorrow. I love you both very much, and don’t forget to send your old mother a postcard, alright? They are waiting for you.”

Dumfounded, all Akito could think to say was, “I left my video game on.

As his mom laughed, one small tear escaped her eye. “I’ll turn it off for you. Now.” She sighed a little, but her courage seemed bolstered, and unconsciously, the small family stood a little straighter.

“Leilani,” their mother strictly instructed, “make sure he stays out of trouble. Akito, you watch out for your sister. Protect her.” With her eyes, she conveyed a deeper, more serious meaning. Akito solemnly nodded.

Leilani slipped her hand into Akito’s as they proceeded to the car. A sense of dread welled up in him and he held tightly to her hand. As Leilani slid in the backseat first, Akito stole one last look back at their squished, tall house, and their slim, small mother. Shouldering the responsibility he had been given, Akito broadly grinned at his mother, giving her a thumbs up before ducking into the car. Once behind the tinted windows, his grin faded away. Almost panicking, he dug his fingernails into his palms, and desperately hoped his mother had believed his smile.





The G.G.A. 2

Nervous foot tapping, pencils scratching, and the incessant second hand on the clock were the only noises heard in the Jackson High School Algebra 2 class room. That is, until the P.A. system turned on with a great deal of static. 

Over it, a female voice said – “Aydan Walter, Diego Manwell, and Mona Cole: please report to the principal’s office.”

Eyes wide, Mona looked behind her to an equally surprised Diego. Prompted to move by another bout of loud static, they both scooted out of their desks and closing the classroom door behind them, stepped into the hall. 

As soon as the door shut, Mona quickly stated, “We don’t know if he has done anything.”

“Yeah, and we don’t know if he blamed us for it either.”

They walked, side by side, down the unfortunately very familiar path to the principal’s office.

“If we were in trouble for something he did, why would Aydan be called to the office, too?” Mona asked Diego, her eyebrows arched with the question.

Wearily, Diego ran his hand through his dark brown hair, as he held open the office door for Mona.

“After you.” He sighed. 

She smiled encouragingly, and passed under his outstretched arm into the room.

The secretary briefly looked up as they entered, then instructed them to sit and wait for the principal to see them. Right behind them, Aydan smoothly slid through the doorway, betraying no signs of being nervous. 

Without having to be told, he sat down next to Mona. Leaning over her, he asked Diego, “What’d ya do this time, buddy? Shine the teacher’s shoes the wrong way?”

No one but himself laughed, but that didn’t phase Aydan.

Mona tried to remain calm. She started slowly. “So? What is this trip about?”

Diego harshly interrupted, “What did you blame on us now?” 

“Believe it or not,” he started, noisily unwrapping a piece of gum, “I actually didn’t do anything.”

“Then why are you here? Why are we here?” Diego silently hissed.

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I don’t know.” 

The quiet conversation came to an end when the principal opened his door and invited them to come in. Inside, two wide, muscular men wearing black suits, stood to acknowledge them. 

Before anything else could be said, Principal Mho simply stated, “These men have a warrant for your arrest.”

Shocked, Mona exclaimed, “Aydan!”

“No, not just Aydan. All of you.” Principal Mho corrected.

“Ha!” Aydan lauged in Diego and Mona’s shocked faces. 

“Why don’t you take a seat?” The principal asked, motioning to the extra chairs he had placed along the wall. Once everyone but himself had been seated, Mho cleared his throat. Holding up the three arrest warrants, he continued. 

“They are from the G.G.A. The Greater Good Alliance. I’m not really sure what all that is, but they say that on matters of global security, they are required to escort you to their base in Russia.”

“And you’re just going to let them.” Diego moaned, rolling his head back. Principal Mho ignored him and continued talking.

“Your parents or guardians have been informed, and your belongings are en route to Russia as we speak. Housing, food, and schooling have already been arranged. The flight to Russia leaves out in 2-1/2 hours, so you guys need to get to the airport. You don’t want to miss your flight.”

He chuckled, trying to lighten to mood, but the tallest of the two men told him that they would be traveling in one of the G.G.A’s personal carriers.

“So, not an airport?” Mho asked, his curiosity apparent and embarrassing. 

“Not an airport.” The shorter agent told him.

Her mouth set in a straight line, firmly stated, “I will go nowhere until I have some answers.”

There was a moment of silence before one of the men nodded his approval.

“Who are you?” 

The tallest man answered for both of them. “I am Senior Agent Daea and this is Agent Cuff. I am a Russian national chosen to represent the G.G.A. Agent Cuff is one of the seven representatives for America. The G.G.A is an alliance of the major powerhouses of the world; it is the G.G.A’s job to maintain and protect global security.

“Why are we being arrested?” Diego spoke up, turning everyone’s heads. “We haven’t done anything wrong.” Catching himself, Diego turned to look at Aydan. “Well, he probably did something wrong, but Mona and I didn’t.”

“Yeah, I’ll admit. I have done a lot of bad things,” Aydan started, mock fully repentant as he placed his elbow on Diego’s shoulder and hung his head remorsefully. “But nothing that needs an arrest warrant attached to it.”

“The warrants are only to insure that you will come with us.”

“Look,” Mona said desperately, “I’m not American. Neither is Diego. I’m Canadian, he’s Columbian. You can’t just take us without having to deal with two foreign embassies!”

“Ms. Cole, that has already been taken care of. Right now you just need to trust that the Greater Good Alliance needs youto assist in a mission we have been working on.”

“What sort of mission?” Aidan perked up. He looked incredibly interested until the short one stated, “We can’t tell you that until we arrive in Russia.”

“Well,” Aydan said, standing up, “I’m in.”

Diego looked beat as he stared down at his hands.

“Our parents know?” he asked quietly.

“Yes. They have been informed.”

“Then I guess that’s it.” Diego stood alongside Aydan.

“Diego!” Mona whispered loudly. “We can’t go with them!”

“I don’t think we have a choice.”

Turning to the men, she asked, “What will you do if I don’t want to go with you?”

“Miss,” Agent Cuff said, “we have a warrant for your arrest. Technically, we’re  allowed to drag you by your hair all the way to Russia.”

After a small tired yell, Mona said, “Fine! I’ll go. But you can’t expect me to be happy about it.”

“The G.G.A. isn’t interested in good attitudes. If they were, Dave would no longer work with us.” 

Aydan cocked his head toward Mona and mouthed, “Dave?” 

Ignoring him, the tall agent motioned to the door. “But your principal is right; we need to leave immediately. We have a couple of stops on our way to Russia.”

The G.G.A.

“Flight 1263. Flight 1263. All passengers for flight 1263 from Moscow to Rejiavick, please board now. Flight 1263 is now boarding.”

Bronte jumped up from her seat and stretched. As she leaned over to pick up her shoulder bag from off the floor, Mrs. Taspen spoke.

“Bronte! Go to the bathroom!” she snapped.

“But we’re boarding. Plus if I have to, I’ll just use the one on the plane.” Bronte tried to explain to her frazzled teacher. She noticed that Mrs. Taspen’s face was more stressed looking than normal, but she was too busy watching the ever-growing line in front of the flight attendants stand to really care.

“I will not walk you to the bathroom on the plane; it is too embarrassing.”

“You don’t walk with me to the bathroom on the ground. Besides you wouldn’t have to. I can do that all by myself.”

“Bronte!” Her teacher said this as though she were spitting a flying insect out of her mouth. Her hand flew to the side of her head, as it had the entire trip, whenever she had started to get a headache. 

Knowing Mrs. Taspen would not get onto the plane until she had won, Bronte offered the trip to the facilities to anyone else. But Mrs. Taspen quickly said no one else needed to follow her.

The teenager jogged to the bathroom. After washing her hands, she looked at her watch and saw that the flight was already delayed fifteen minutes. Bronte ran out of the ladies room to rejoin her group. But they weren’t there. She stood in the now short line to speak to the attendant at the desk. Once Bronte got to the front, she tried to explain her problem of disappearing teachers to the flight attendant who spoke limited English.

“My group is already on the plane.” she said, a little bit louder than what was needed.

“Okay.” the lady said cheerfully.

Bronte was a little surprised that she was so understanding until the lady said, “Ticket, please.”

“No, you see my group is on the plane, and they have my ticket.”

“So you have no ticket?”

“No, I do, but it’s on the plane. All I need you to do, is get ahold of my group, and ask…”

“Look.” the Russian lady cut her short. “I will not have you harassing passengers on this plane. It is not their problem if you didn’t get a ticket. I’m sorry, but no ticket, no plane.”

“Hey! I’m sixteen. I speak no Russian. I am here on a school trip. You can’t just let me be left here in Moscow!”

“Right. Tell me your name.” the short flight attendant asked her impatiently.

“Bronte Prim.”

“Ms. Prim it shows here that a ticket for you was hand delivered about half an hour ago.”

“What? Why?” Bronte asked this, a little scared of what the answer might be.

“Beggars can’t exactly be choosers, can they now?” the attendant quipped. Before Bronte could retaliate, the attendant looked at the ticket and said, “Your flight boards in… seventeen hours.”

Shocked into silence, Bronte accepted the ticket packet from the hurried flight attendant and watched her latch the door behind her, sealing off her safe way back home. Confused, Bronte sat down in an empty chair not far from the one she was in before she was abandoned by her group. Seemingly oblivious to the loud airport noise, she pulled the ticket out of it’s envelope to see who had sent her this timely ticket. 

In bold black type was printed: 

Departure- Moscow, Russia

Arrival- Yakutsk, Russia

On the back, were the words: 

To- Bronte Lauren Prim

From- the G.G.A.

Enjoy your flight, Ms. Prim.