The Infiltration

Prologue

Deep within the secret basements of the IFC building, there was a tree. It had massive roots and a wide, light-yellow trunk with leaves the color of jade. The room was silent until a door opened. An old woman walked in and put her hand on a branch and snapped it. The branch fell off but the tree instantly regrew it.

-

Meanwhile, far away, in another part of the city, sitting around a table in a lava-colored room were a group of people discussing the tree. A tall, thin man with pale skin said to the group, “So what’s the plan, then?”

A short man replied, “Still going. Still going. We have been looking at the schedules. We plan to attack during the shift change.”

The tall man said, “Okay, good. Have you found the tree yet?”

A woman on the left of the table said, “We’ve been looking. We know it’s in IFC but not exactly where.”

The tall man said, “Okay, but I want that location in five days.”

Chapter 1

Charlie was sitting on a seat in the middle of a classroom fidgeting with his twig. His teaching was lecturing them about different spells. Charlie thought that it was unnecessary, “Do we need to learn all this? Just let us try it and we’ll be done.”

When Charlie? If you think you know this, why don’t you show the class?”

Charlie said, “Sure” and he pulled out his twig and waved it around, and muttered something under his breath. Suddenly his table flew up into the air and fell down immediately. The teacher looked at Charlie with a look of shock on her face and whispered to Charlie, “You got away this time, but you have to listen.”

After the lesson was over Charlie got up and ran to lunch. Though when he sat down he heard his name called. He looked up immediately and saw the principal, Morgan, in the hall. Charlie stood up and walked over to them. He saw him and whispered to him, “Come to my office.”

Charlie walked outside of the hall and walked up a thin spiral staircase, and into a room. He saw a seat and jumped into it. Once he touched the seat the door opened and Morgan walked in. “I need to talk to you, Charlie.”

“Is it about the flying table?”

“No, even though I was informed about it, I need to talk to you about something else.”

“What is it?”

“It is about what is in your hand. The wand comes from a magical tree hidden in a secret vault. It makes the wands that we use and is the only source. We have found out that some people want the tree for themselves. They want to take it from the government and give it freely.”

“How is this related to me?”

“We could not send a soldier because they might know that it is us. I see that you are a talented wizard. The group wants younger recruits as they can serve them for longer, if they see you, they might want to recruit you and you can infiltrate them. So, do you want to go?”

Charlie was thinking about the decision. It would be nice to do something interesting though he was risking his life. In the end he chose that he would go. He said, “I’ll go, headmaster.”

“Very good, very good, I will expect you to be leaving tomorrow morning before you at the entrance most people wake up, I will meet. You are dismissed. Also I have canceled all your classes for today.”

Charlie hastily got up and walked back to his dormitory. He reached the dormitory and picked up all his stuff. He flicked his wand and all his stuff folded and fit themselves into a bag. He then opened his draw and pulled something out. It was a small device with a screen on it. He switched it on and started to watch something. Even though they were not allowed gadgets at school but Charlie did not care about the rules. Charlie jumped when he heard voices and footsteps coming towards him. He fumbled the gadget and threw it in his bag.

As soon as Charlie shut his bag a few students walked into the room. They said, “How come you weren’t at class just now?”

“The headmaster let me skip, my mum wants to homeschool me and he said I needed to pack and get ready.”

“Okay, cool.”

Chapter 2

Charlie woke up instantly and the sun started to rise. He picked up his bag and walked out of the room. He looked back at his room. It might be the last time he saw it. He approached the entrance of the school, where he saw principal Morgan waiting for him. Once he approached him he said, “Hello, Charlie. I see you are ready.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, here is a card with the addresses of places that the group usually meets. Try to go to these places and show your skills, they might want to employ you.”

Taking the card in hand Charlie scanned it, it was a list of addresses. Charlie looked at one of the addresses. He concentrated his mind on the location. He felt a sudden force sucking him upwards and then dropping him in a new place. He had teleported there. He landed on his feet with ease.

Having landed in an alley in Mong Kok, he looked around and saw a brown-colored restaurant with a striped shade. He didn’t see anything odd and he was about to teleport to the next location when he heard voices from behind him, “...the tree, sir.”

Charlie spun around and saw two people talking. He took his wand out of his pocket and started to use his skills to levitate a nearby plant. The two people immediately looked at him and came over. One walked up to Charlie and said, “What are you doing here?”

The other man walked up to them and looked at the first one, he muttered, “Wait, he looks talented, he might be useful” he then looked at Charlie and said, “You seem like you know what you're doing, want a job?”

Charlie immediately blurted, “Yes.”

“Okay, come to this address in exactly 5 hours.”

Charlie looked down at the card but saw that it was full of odd symbols. He understood what the gang was planning, it was a test.

Charlie first read the whole card and immediately recognized some characters as an ancient language that his friends used to talk in secret. He then saw that some characters were in different languages. After decoding the card for 30 minutes, he finally found out the address.

After waiting for 4 hours Charlie decided that it was time to teleport to the address. He concentrated on the name of the address and felt the same sucking sensation.

Charlie swiftly landed on his feet and looked at the area that he was in. It was a mountainous area with a small hut near it. He assumed the hut was the place he was supposed to go.

Once he reached it, he knocked on the door, and it swung open. Inside of the hut was a man wearing a dark, shiny and blue robe. He had messy black hair and pale skin. The man had a deep and demanding tone. “Come in.”

The hut had dark gray walls and many shelves with lots of glasses with different colored liquids in them. He wondered about the contents. Poisons, perhaps. Magical liquids or cures for strange diseases? The man said, “Take a seat.”

Charlie sat down in one of the seats. As soon as his body touched the chair the man said, “Hello, I am Gary. In case you didn't know, this is a job interview. The reason your card was in a code was because we only accept the best people. So, my first question, what do you think of the government?”

Knowing that he had to answer these questions right or else his mission would fail, Charlie said, “I don’t know, I’m not really into politics.”

“Okay, okay. How would you like a job in a… new government?”

“I dunno, this wouldn't be illegal would it?”

“Oh no, it will not be illegal.” His face drew into a thin smite.

“Sure, I’ll give it a try but first tell me about the job.”

Chapter 3

It was Charlie’s first day and he was walking up to the gang's building. It looked like a normal office that you would see in Hong Kong, but the interior was different, it had blood-red walls with torches that seemed to be holding lava. The security seemed lax at first but it got much stricter deeper in the building.

Charlie was in the gang’s building, it was his first time there and he was thinking about his plan. The man had given him a job as a scribe and to read through what happened in the meeting.

Soon after entering the building, Charlie was at his first meeting. The people there seemed to not be talking about any plans, Charlie wondered if that was because he was there or the meeting was meant to be like that.

After going into many meetings Charlie realized that he was not going to figure everything out immediately, he barely had any information. Luckily for Charlie his next meeting would tell him what he needed.

The meeting started with many people that Charlie had not met before coming in, Charlie was excited because they looked a lot more like senior people in the gang. Charlie thought that the meeting should start as lots more people than the table could seat were there. Suddenly Gary walked in. He said, “What are the plans for the tree?”

“Nabbing that tree is going to be just about impossible. They’ll know exactly where we’ll be at. Can’t use magic, either. On top of all that they got us outnumbered and outmatched. Real dangerous, real dangerous.”

“We just have to deal with those annoying government people. Get them out of the area.”

Charlie’s ears shot up, he had not been listening very carefully but now he could hear every sound. The man said, “Next week on Wednesday. As the shifts are changing. Easiest time.”

The rest of the meeting was not very interesting but Charlie was ecstatic, he had gotten all the information that he needed.

At the end of the day Charlie started to sprint out of the building, the attack should be a failure.

Chapter 4

Charlie was ecstatic, walking out of the building, the government could stop the attack and he could return to his normal life. He kept on thinking that until he saw a group of people from the gang. He heard, “-to find him, boss’s suspicious.”

As soon as Charlie heard that his body froze. Were they talking about him? He quickened his pace and he thought he could get away though he suddenly felt a feeling that something was looking at him. He slowly rotated his head and saw the group of people walking towards him.

Charlie started to sprint away from the group. Unfortunately for Charlie, the group was faster than him. He felt a hard tug on his shirt and he fell over.

After what seemed like seconds awoke Charlie, sitting, tied up to a chair. He looked around the room to see anything interesting but only saw one door.

Gary walked into the room. Charlie remembered him for his messy hair and pale white skin. “I’m going to ask you some questions. First of all, why were you running from your own colleagues?”

Charlie remained silent, the man said, “We were just wondering why you were walking away from work, you looked anxious. We just wanted to confirm that you were not a spy but it seems like you are. I will decide what to do with you later.”

He and walked away. Charlie waited for him to go out of sight and then looked at the ropes that were tying him together. They were very thick and white. He knew he couldn’t break them so started to try to wriggle out of the ropes.

After getting out of the ropes Charlie hastily felt his pockets. He smiled, the people who caught him obviously did not realize that they should take his wand out, the group expected them to.

Charlie first tried to use his spells to find out where he was, in case it was a secret location, but nothing seemed to be happening. After those didn’t work he attempted to teleport out of there but found he couldn’t. Disappointing. Eventually, he chose to risk showing that he escaped and he pointed his wand at the door. When his wand was pointed at the door, it shattered like a piece of glass being hit by a hammer.

Luckily for Charlie there was no one outside. He knew that it was the same building he worked in due to its blood-red walls. He cautiously walked out holding his wand up until he saw a person near a door. Charlie pointed his wand at him and he fell to the floor.

Charlie briskly walked past the guard and out of the area though that was the first part, he still had to make it through the rest of the building and not get caught. He started to look for people looking for him.

After making sure that no one was looking at him, Charlie walked into a crowd of people heading out.

Chapter 5

Charlie returned to his school the second that no one was looking at him. He sprinted to Morgan’s office and knocked on the door. He opened the door and said, “Hello, Charlie.”

“I got the plans for the attack.”

“What are they planning?”

“The attacks are happening on Wednesday when the shifts are changing. They’re going to be sneaky, no using magic… in case you can locate them.”

“Okay, okay. I guess that we won’t leave the area unattended.”

Charlie started to jog back to his dormitory. He then realized that he had left his bag outside. He walked towards the entrance to see if it was there. He ran over and saw the bag so he picked it up. He then heard a noise from behind him. Charlie spun around and saw the same person that had tackled him when he ran away. Charlie shot a spell at him but missed. They then jumped and pinned Charlie to the floor. He then pulled out his wand and shot a spell at Charlie. He felt dizzy as he was dragged towards the exit when suddenly a spell was shot at the person carrying Charlie. Charlie looked up and saw someone running towards him. Charlie tried to get up but couldn’t.

Charlie woke up lying on a bed in the hospital of the school. He looked around and saw no one in the room. He chose to get up from the bed and go out. He didn’t see his belongings anywhere so he assumed that they had been delivered to his dormitory. He walked back to his dormitory.

As soon as the door in his dormitory creaked, everyone looked straight at Charlie. There was a long silence until someone said, “I thought that you were being homeschooled.”

“My parents thought that it was way too chaotic so they sent me back here.” lied Charlie.

“Okay, cool.”

Charlie asked, “What day is it?”

Someone grunted, “Friday.”

Charlie froze. Had defending the tree succeeded? Did the government fail? If they did, was the gang coming for them right now? He prayed that the tree was safe and that the gang was defeated.

Charlie blurted out “Umm, toilet!” so people didn’t wonder where he was as he sprinted towards Morgan’s office. Charlie banged on the door and he saw him walk out. Charlie said, “What happened? Is the tree safe?”

He chuckled, “Don’t worry, the tree is safe. The gang almost did sneak past us though they didn’t use magic until it was too late.”

Charlie sighed with relief when Morgan told him this. He started to stroll back to his dorm when he overheard him talking to someone, “The gang members are being sent to prison?”

“Yes, they are. We are planning on putting them in the red cells.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

Charlie froze. He had heard about those cells before and knew they were only for the worst criminals. He started to wonder if the government was doing the right thing. Only some of the members deserved it.

Charlie kept on wondering about this as he walked back towards his dormitory. He had always thought that the government was always correct and doing the right thing, but he now realized that it was different from that. Had Charlie done the right thing when he chose to go on the mission?