FOUR

Melissa and I headed towards the women’s dressing room.

“Hey!” We turned. And found Jaisen.

“It’s nice to meet you Katie,” Jaisen said. “I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Oh.” I stared at him blankly for a minute, until Melissa nudged me with her elbow. “Me too.”

“Well, I’ll see you tonight then.”

“Yeah,” I said. Really smooth.

He disappeared down the hall.

“Melissa, not that I wasn’t listening or anything, but could we have a little review here?” I asked quietly, as we headed once again in the direction of the women’s dressing room.

Melissa smiled and shook her flaming red-haired head at me. She was enjoying this. “He’s pretty hot, isn’t he?” She didn’t even bother to lower her voice. She didn’t need to, because she would not have been even slightly embarrassed at being overheard. Melissa radiated self-confidence out of every perfect pore in her milky white skin.

The only person who could make her wriggle was Commander Eckle–that’s one of the things I liked best about him.

“Melissa, you are like twice as old as he is! And for your information, Jaisen Bax is not the reason that I don’t know what’s going on.” As we passed the Office, Crandall the Desk Guy looked up from behind the glass and gave me a suspicious look. I turned away quickly and whispered, “I am not interested in him or anything.”

“Right. Anyway, I am not twice as old as he is. I’m twenty-six. That is not twice as old as seventeen.”

Whatever. “He’s seventeen?”

“I thought that you weren’t interested in him?”

“I’m not. I just didn’t realize that he was older than I am.”

“Well, get used to the idea.” Lieutenant Gates held the door to the women’s locker room open for me. It was empty and our feet echoed on the tiles as we walked towards my locker. To soothe the jangled nerves of the secret agents at the U.E., the entire locker room was painted in various shades of pale blue.

I sat down on the wooden bench between the powder blue lockers. “How about that little review now?” I asked.

“According to the personnel file you photographed, Franklin Culpepper, the President of ONC Corp., was fired under suspicious circumstances,” Melissa said. “Someone must have realized this and suppressed the reason for the firing from the press.”

“What was so suspicious about the circumstances?”

“He was accused of sexually harassing one of his female coworkers–the C.E.O.’s personal assistant.” Melissa rummaged through her locker.

“That doesn’t sound so suspicious.”

“This behavior would be completely out of character. By all accounts he is charming and well behaved. He’s also gay.”

“So we think that he was set up?”

“He had access to a tremendous amount of information in his position. He may have stumbled across something that someone didn’t want him to see.” Melissa piled things together in her locker. “Possibly the same someone who was at the building with you last night.

Melissa straightened up. “This is a surveillance mission. We want you and Jaisen to keep a lookout over the complex. From a distance. You are not to initiate any contact with any persons you might come across at this time. From the time you meet Jaisen at the corner of Willow and Park near your house at midnight you will have three hours to complete the mission, which means that you should be leaving the site at approximately 0200 hours to report back here before returning home. This is the same time frame you were there last night. Tonight you are there to look, that’s all.”

“Wait a minute. Jaisen gets to drive?” I had a special spy driver’s license and since I was too young to have a regular one the only time that I got to drive was on missions.

“The procedure for tonight’s mission as well as plentiful details about ONC Corp. and this mission are all in your brief. I suggest that you take a look at it before tonight.” She pulled out a pile of clothes containing a sexy black tank top, a miniskirt, and sandals with three-inch heels, equipped with an emergency button, out of my locker and handed them to me.

I looked down at the risqué black clothes that now filled my hands.

“Are you serious?”

Melissa didn’t bother to repress her wry smile. “Apparently the administration has ideas about the type of girl who would sneak out at night to make out with her boyfriend.”

“You mean, they think that I should look like a hooker.”

“It would appear so, Katie.”

“Veronica,” I reminded her.

“Veronica.” Melissa turned back to shut the locker.

This had to be one of the worst undercover outfits that I had ever been issued. I had tried talking to Jacques, the clothing designer, about the clothes I was issued and all he would say was “Sorry, ma chérie. I follow orders only.” Do these people realize that my mom would never let me leave the house dressed like this?

I changed into the outfit to see if it “fit.” It fit, all right. It fit so well that if I ate too much dinner I was going to be in trouble. There wasn’t a millimeter of give in the outfit.

Melissa clipped the little spy cam and mini mic on me to complete my spy outfit. Right onto the lacy black bra I had been issued. Of course, this was the only place to put it since they hadn’t bothered to give me any pockets. Because there wasn’t any room on my tiny skirt to put pockets.

“How am I supposed to use that thing? Do I just whip it out? Excuse me, Jaisen, while I reach under my tank top and pull out my mini cam.”

“You’re a professional. Figure something out.”

Like Lieutenant Gates didn’t have a clue how to go about using a mini spy cam attached to her bra. Right. She had been doing this stuff since she was my age. A whole ten years ago. The purpose of the mentor program was for her to give me tips. I shot her my dirtiest look.

“Be subtle, Katie. He probably won’t be looking at your chest anyway.”

That Melissa had one wicked grin when she chose to use it.

“Fine.” I really didn’t think that it was necessary to bring up my mammary shortcomings.

“We’ve been working together for four years. At this point, it’s up to you to decide what to do in the field. I’m just your cheering section now.”

Why was this not comforting?