The Future

"Where do I go, now?" James Choke asked quietly into the concealed radio in the cuff of his sleeve.

Amy's voice came reassuringly back at him. "Second right, and then you're in. Don't forget to switch out the lights."

This irked James slightly. "I know what I'm doing, Amy,"

A snort came back at him over the radio. "Over and out,"

James Choke had been working this case for over seven months. This was the final stage. He'd been forced to miss his wedding anniversary, and his youngest daughter's ninth birthday for it. Working undercover wasn't all it was cracked up to be when you're nearing your fortieth birthday.

James turned the handle of the door. It was locked. This was no problem, as James had his lock gun with him. Some might have called it old – fashioned, but it was a lot more reliable than the lock breakers that MI5 had issued. The door creaked slightly as it opened, but James was prepared for it. Keeping his cool, he stopped the door from swinging the whole way open, and ducked under the almost invisible beam stretching between the doors. The beam was designed to set off an alarm and let off incapacitating gas, so that intruders would not be able to do anything inside the room, and if James hadn't given Blades a hand fixing it, he would never have known about it, and would be writhing on the floor at this point.

As James stepped through to the main control room at Help Earth HQ, he contemplated how difficult it had been getting in. Everyone was known by nicknames, and you had to pass a rigorous entrance test that was one of the hardest things James had ever gone through. And still, he was treated with suspicion, and waved out the room, when Blades and Onion wanted to speak business. This was no problem, as minute listening bugs had been dropped in strategic places all around HQ. These bugs were state of the art, and could store up to six hours of sound. They had enough battery life to last for four weeks, but generally ran on solar power. One of the good things about being in the outback was the constant sun, so there was almost no chance of the bugs running out of power.

There was a thump in the passageway outside as James sat down. Anxiously, he leaned back far enough to peek out the door, but couldn't see anything. Listening hard, he heard a distinctive shoe squeal.

"Amy?" he whispered. "Amy, I'm in trouble. It sounds like there's someone here." He paused for a second, expecting a reply. "Amy?"

…

On the other side of the world, Amy Collins was making a big show of frantically tapping away at her keyboard, and gaping at her computer screen. Scrambling frantically, she picked up the radio headphones she'd dropped, as Kerry came over with a hot coffee from the machine in the hall.

"What's up?" Kerry asked curiously.

"I completely forgot, I was supposed to phone my brother and tell him to pick James up from the Help Earth compound."

"Is James all right?" A frown began spreading over Kerry's face, and Amy hurried to rectify it.

"He's fine, you know? Got the bugs planted, and everything, just annoyed that I forgot his pick up."

Kerry grinned. "Well, that's a relief. We have to go up for the reunion in a couple of weeks' time, and it would be a shame to miss Joshua's big day. Especially as he still idolises James."

Amy laughed, rather nervously, Kerry thought. "Are you OK, Amy?"

"Fine. Now, I really need to get on with this mission report, so you wouldn't mind giving us a bit of peace and quiet?"

"No worries." Kerry backed away, and sat at her desk, plugging in a set of earphones as she went.

Kerry was in the middle of writing an email to her middle daughter, Sammi, when a buzz from her pocket alerted her to a text.

MISSION GONE BELLY UP

TELL AMY TO GET OFF HER BUTT,

AND FIND OUT WHA

The message cut off halfway through, and Kerry got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realised her phone had received the text less then five minutes ago, round about the time she'd been chatting to Amy, who'd said that the operation had gone smoothly…

Kerry didn't have time to go through all the implications of the text, and lifted her head to see Amy shutting down her computer.

…

A/N I know it's kinda short, but I wanted to see the response! If I get some reviews, I'll definitely UD!