The next day.

Standing in front of another hotel, Katie waved her phone, and a black car stopped beside her.

Since the events of yesterday, Katie went to and checked into another hotel. It was expensive, but she had at least ten cards, debits and credit, in her pocket, each with a significant amount of money inside. Each of them was linked to a different name and identity so if one of her identity was compromised, she could turn to the other nine.

Usually, when she had some free time, Katie would either lay back and stick a knife into her leg and twist it every ten minutes or just go out and have some fun, but now she had something much, much more fun.

Ghosts, or just supernatural beings in general.

After Katie went into her new place last night, she pulled out her computer and logged in onto a website called ShadowNet. It took her a while, but after entering four completely different passcodes, each twelve digits long, she got in.

ShadowNet sounded all fancy, and it was, to a degree. It was a website where those who dedicated their lives to relatively shady occupations exchanged information and made deals. This excluded all sorts of criminals, grave robbers, paid assassins, hackers, and men and women who have trouble with the law.

It was also used as a platform where certain people could go onto when they needed a problem solved. For instance, if someone wanted their wife to have an accident so they could marry their mistress, they could log onto the website and place a bounty. Someone might take the offer, and a few days later the wife might die of a car crash. The customers would wire the money they promised to the website, who would then deliver the money to the problem solver after taking a small cut.

Something like this was obviously against the law, but Katie discovered the website three years ago when she was thirteen, when she captured an assassin that was on drugs and tortured everything he knew out of him, and now the website was still standing. Katie didn’t know what exactly happened and why the government didn’t do anything, but just like every other user of this website, she decided it didn’t matter.

In the past she used this site to find some contracts when she needed fast cash. Other times she was just bored, and killing or beating up someone who already had a bounty on his or her head would be hitting two birds with one stone.

But this time she was searching more than a random contract. This time she was looking for cases that might involve supernatural beings.

Not everyone on the ShadowNet wanted someone dead, though most of them did. Some users merely wanted information or aid. Some may even desire protection. They included police detectives, government officials, and even the common people who had problems who couldn’t find help from the authorities. As long as they could pay, the customers could usually find someone who would take the job.

In this case, Katie set her eyes on one case. After a brief communication, she was going to meet the customer now.

Katie got into the car. The driver was a man in suit and tie. Katie eyed his side, which was packed. The man didn’t say a word, and Katie crossed her legs in boredom. Rolling her tongue in her mouth, she looked down on her hands and decided to dig her long, silver nails into her palms. Just for the fun of it.

The car stopped in front of a large mansion twenty minutes later. Katie walked out, wiped the blood off her nails, and walked into the house. Another large man at the door showed her the way in.

Finally, Katie found herself standing in front of a woman in her forties. She looked rich. Her clothes and jewels costed more than everything on Katie. Of course, Katie already knew that. After all, she was willing to pay a seven-digit paycheck to get the job done.

“Queen of Spades?” The woman asked. Queen of Spades was Katie’s avatar on ShadowNet. This was normal among the users of the ShadowNet. While the government couldn’t control or block out the net, it was capable of sending in undercover officers and pose fake missions. ShadowNet once declared it wasn’t responsible if its users were tricked by other users, and it was the responsibility of the individual users to recognize a trap and respond accordingly. Only fools would give their real identities to potential threats.

“Yes.” Katie sat down. “Mrs. Adams. You wanted to discuss this with me alone.”

She knew the woman even before the deal was struck. Jane Adams was the CEO of a multinational corporation, Adams Combine. She was married to Mr. Adam, the senator of the state. She might be one of the richest, and most powerful, persons in the city.

“Indeed.” Mrs. Adams waved her hand, and the waiters and bodyguards left the room. Katie rose her eyebrows. She could never understand these rich guys and their secrets.

“My daughter, Caroline, is enrolled in Charleston Central High School. She’s a sophomore there.” She glanced at Katie. “She’s sixteen, the same age as you.”

Katie rose her eyebrows. “I don’t believe ShadowNet gives the personal information about their users to the public.”

“You’re correct, but I’m not just the public.” Adams evaded the question. Investigating another person, likely a professional criminal, might be seen as an insult, but she was sure this Queen of Spades wouldn’t stay on this topic for long. The wealthy had their privilege. “Back to the point. I chose you because you are the perfect person, the only person, who can blend in to the school without anyone noticing. You have both the skill and the appearance to complete this mission quietly.”

“What do you want me to do?” Katie decided to go straight to the point. She wasn’t a fan of words. “The mission briefing you sent me talked about something supernatural.”

“It talked about a cult.” Mrs. Adams clarified. “Two days ago, when I was near Caroline, I saw scars on her. Some are on her back. Some are on her chest. I even saw a strange looking cut on her arm. There was no way that cut was an accident. I asked her what happened, but she said it was nothing.”

“What makes you think it’s a cult? She might just be enjoying herself.” Katie rose her eyebrows. As a fellow masochist, she felt slightly insulted.

“Perhaps, but that curve on her arm, it was showing something.” She took out a piece of paper. On it was a hand drawn picture. Katie took it over. It was a sword.

“I put down what I saw on her.” The mother explained. “Your job is to go undercover to her school, locate the reason behind this, and deal with it. I want to see my daughter sent back to me before I pay you in full. My real daughter, not some maniac who is determined to hurt herself.”

“Fair enough.” Katie rose her eyebrows at the maniac part. She mentally took some notes. “Just one question. Why don’t you call the cops? This should be enough proof to start an investigation, and even if the proof isn’t there you can launch the investigation anyway. Even if the cops aren’t willing to act, you can afford to hire PIs and even mercenaries. If I’m not mistaken, those men that led me in aren’t bodyguards, unless bodyguards carry grenades and automatic weapons in their belt. A cult doesn’t threaten you.”

Mrs. Adams sighed. “I’m sure you know our influence?”

“Yeah.”

“What you might not know is how many enemies John and I made to get here. There are more than enough people out there that want to find a way to get to us. If what is going on with Caroline gets out...it will be an opportunity. If we hire PIs or involve the government in this, what is going on with Caroline will be all over the news by the following day.”

“Just wait for my news.” Katie stood up and started walking out. Mrs. Adams cried behind her.

“Do this carefully! I don’t want this to go on the news!”

Katie smirked.

“Relax madame. I do this as a hobby.”

The following day.

Charleston Central High School.

Katie walked into a classroom. She wore a black leather jacket that tightly stuck to her body. It perfectly revealed her curves and made her incredibly hot. Her long brown hair was spread out behind her back. Her fingernails were painted black. She had a cold poker face on.

She wasn’t here to make friends. She was here to infiltrate a potential cult.

Only a few students were already in. Katie scanned them and found her target. Caroline was a blonde girl with soft expressions. She was gorgeous. To most people, the scars on her body, especially the angry red one on her right arm, were pulling down her overall beauty score, but to Katie, it only made the girl more attractive.

At this point, a normal undercover agent would be more careful, but not Katie. She was here to find some fun. Sitting back and doing this carefully simply wasn’t her style.

Katie walked to the group of students.

“Hey. Call me Katie.” She sat down in one of the tables beside them. “Care to fill the new girl up?”

One of the teenagers in the group, a tall man, looked at Katie in impatience. “Go f**k yourself.”

“Done that more times than I can count. It’s fun at first but it gets boring.” Katie tilted her head as if she was treating the insult as a serious piece of serious advice. “You guys, on the other hand, seem fun.”

A couple of boys and girls growled. Caroline reached inside her pocket, and Katie saw something sharp. Her smile widened. This was a school. There were resource officers all over the place and anyone that might pose a threat would be treated very seriously. It took a special kind of craziness to bring weapons into a school. Good. Then again, the more mindless these teenagers were, the more likely they were onto something.

Suddenly, the man that first told Katie to screw with herself shook his head, and the other teenagers rested their arms.

“There are a ton of students here. Why’d you come to us?”

“Those guys?” Katie gestured at the others, who were either on their phones or were reading. “I might just go home and play with myself. You guys, however,” Katie leaned closer to the man. “you guys seem to be onto something interesting.”

She immediately sensed the group tense up. The leader spoke as slowly as possible, but Katie could see a drop of sweat on his chin.

“What do you mean?”

“You know. Drugs. Alcohol. Cigar. Sex. What are you guys planning? Are we gonna jump on someone and take his money before breaking his neck?”

“Wow wow. Slow down there.” The leader relaxed. The good side was this mysterious girl didn’t seem to know what they were planning. The problem was he didn’t know anything about her. She could be working for the cops. A part of him wanted to deny everything, but he also knew for what they were about to do, they needed all the help they could get. Plus, it could never hurt to have a pretty brunette with him. “Ok, assuming we’re onto something, you’ll need to prove yourself before you can join.” He said, pretending to be making a joke. This way, even if the girl was actually a CI and he got arrested, he could always deny being serious about this.

“Prove myself?”

The man started speaking. Katie could see he was pretending to think, but he was actually saying something in mind. “Find someone, knock him out, and take him to this address.” He handed her a note with an address on it. “I want to see him there tonight. Do that, and you can join us.”

“You’ve got it.” Katie casually nodded. She turned around and went back to her seat, but not before blowing Caroline a kiss.

Caroline Adams froze in her seat with her eyebrows knit.

“You know her?” The man asked curiously.

“No.” Caroline shook her head. “Are we really going to let her in? We know nothing about her. We haven’t even met her a minute ago! This is crazy.”

“Maybe she’s just someone who wanted to make friends and maybe she has alternate intentions, but either way we can use her. If she wants to join us, she’ll do everything she’s told until she achieves what she wants. Remember, we are only steps away from freeing our master. As soon as he is freed, no one will stop us. This girl can’t. The cops can’t. The government can’t. Even the army can’t do a damn thing about him.”

“Our master will become the master of this planet, and as his servants, we shall rule over the world by his side.”

The group nodded.

As the teacher started speaking, Katie retreated to her seat and mentally blocked out all the distractions. She went through all the information she has gathered.

These men were amateurs. She could find no other way to describe them. After all, what type of fools would discuss their business in a classroom? Then again, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. High schoolers weren’t exactly skilled in intelligence and counterintelligence. Hell some of the high schoolers weren’t exactly skilled in common sense either.

As for the supernatural connection behind this, Katie suspected this group of teenagers was serving some sort of supernatural entity. There was a reason they wanted her to kidnap someone, and testing her wasn’t might not be the only reason. If they wanted to test her, they could just tell her to kill someone and take a picture as proof. There was no need for them to risk themselves by taking the victim alive and have him delivered to them.

Using her past experience with horror movies and tv shows, Katie came to a conclusion. The supernatural entity needed human sacrifice to either survive or come back to life, and the group was helping him.

She suddenly smiled. This was going to be fun.