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Annalynn then asked, “But how do I sing Opera?”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Secord said. “Just scream as loud as you can.”
Annalynn tried. She said, “AAAAAAAAHHHH!”
“No, no, no,” said Secord. “You have to scream like you are in pain. Scream like you are terrified. Pretend something scary is happening. Maybe scream like you would if you were chased by an angry Moose.”
Annalynn thought that was an odd thing to imagine being scared of. When she thought of scary things, a Moose never came to mind. She might think of monsters or ghosts or a world without poutine, but not an angry Moose.
She decided she would try that. She pictured an angry Moose charging towards her and screamed, “AAAAAAHHHH!”
“Okay, that’s not working,” Secord said. “You have to scream louder. I have an idea.” She then turned to a man standing by a counter serving coffee and maple syrup. “Jacques! It’s time to release the Moose!”
Annalynn began to ask, “You have a Moose here?” but was interrupted by a Moose. It came charging out of a doorway near Jacques and headed straight for Annalynn.
Annalynn turned and ran away. As she ran, she screamed and screamed and screamed. The Moose chased her all around the room, knocking over tables and mugs full of maple syrup. The Moose chased her into a corner, and she realized she had nowhere else to run. Annalynn was sure the Moose was going to eat her. She didn’t know if Moose ate girls, but she didn’t want to find out.
“Steve!” Secord called out.
“Hrrump?” the Moose said and turned to look at Secord.
“That’s good enough. Thank you for helping us out,” Secord said, and Steve the Moose turned and walked back through the doorway he had just used to enter the room.
“See, Annalynn?” Secord asked. “You can sing like an Opera singer.”
Annalynn looked around. Everyone in the room was clapping. Some wiped tears from their eyes. One even said, “She has such a beautiful voice. That song really moved me... sniff.”
“There you go!” Secord said. “That was excellent. You sounded just like Madam Sent le Sirop. Oh, and one more thing. If you press the Purple button on the collar, it’ll help you jump. But don’t press it now. We don’t have time.”
Annalynn wondered how the Purple button would help her jump, or why she would want that, but she decided not to try it. She also wondered what the Red, Blue, Black, and White buttons on her collar would do, but didn’t ask. She knew they had no time to waste. The tissues needed to be rescued.
“All right. I have two more things to give you. The one is this spy belt. It’s a special belt with all sorts of tools and buttons and gadgets on it, but I don’t know how to work most of them. Some might be dangerous. It’s probably best that you do not use any of them. I think one of them gives you large ears, and one of them might turn you into the colour yellow.”
“If you don’t know what it does, why did you give it to me?” Annalynn asked.
“I don’t know,” Secord said. “I had an extra one and thought it would be fun. The other thing I would like to give you is this spy gadget.”
Secord pulled what looked like a little notebook with a pen attached to the cover out of her desk and handed it to Annalynn. “Okay, so this is a CSIS Notebook. If you run it along your belt, it will open up, and you can write notes inside. Anything you write on the pages inside will be transmitted directly here to CSIS headquarters. We will be able to send a message back to you as well. Try it out.”
Annalynn held the notebook next to her belt and moved it along until she heard a faint “click.” She then flipped open the notebook and grabbed the pen. She wrote “Hi!” on the paper inside.
On the wall behind Secord, a giant message appeared in Annalynn’s handwriting. It said, “Hi!”
Secord then typed a message on her computer. Annalynn looked down at the page and noticed her message, “Hi!” had disappeared, and a new message from Secord had appeared. The new message said, “Hello to you too, Agent Frank.” Secord’s message then disappeared almost immediately.
“There is also a small slot on the side of your CSIS notebook that allows you to put any code or secret message into it, and your gadget will decode it—any code, no matter what,” Secord said. “I don’t think you’ll need that on this mission, but maybe the next one. All right, Frank, it’s time for you to go.”
“Go where? What do I do?” Annalynn asked.
“You’re going to go to Norway to the Norwegian Opera House. You’ll have to disguise yourself as Madam Sent le Sirop. Here are the coordinates,” Secord said and handed Annalynn a small piece of paper. “Keep an eye out for the tissue box. If you see it, grab it and run back to your jet. Simple!”
“That doesn’t sound simple to me,” Annalynn said.
“No, of course not. It’s not simple for you. It’s simple for me,” Secord explained. “Well, it’s time to go. Those tissues won’t rescue themselves!”
Secord took Annalynn by the hand and led her out of the room and into the parking lot. The Director of Cool Gadgets and Spy Missions pointed Annalynn towards her jet, then turned around and walked back into CSIS headquarters.
Annalynn noticed the seat from her jet had been put back inside, and everything appeared to be back to normal. The ladder was also out, waiting for her to climb inside. The mission was about to begin!