"Congratulations Ms. Giggles. Another successful mission. Tell mister Giggles he is not the only prodigy in the family"

"Thanks Chris." Gerti grinned at her new secretary/office manager. "I'll be sure to rub it in his face. But enough about yesterday's mission, what about today? I heard something serious came up."

"It is serious."

Gerti turned to see her father standing at the door to the briefing room.

"And this couldn't have come at a worse time." A distraught look on his face.

"What is it?" Gerti inquired.

She could only think of a few incidents that had caused such a look of worry on her dad's face.

Mr. Giggles shoulders slumped and he turned to Chris.

"Mr. Stallings, could you please leave us."

Gerti could hear the urgency in his voice and all her doubts dissipated. The situation must be grave if her father, a man usually comfortable speaking in front of anyone, was telling people to clear the room.

After Chris left Mr. Giggles continued.

"I don't have time to explain too much but someone stole a dangerous device from the OSS Deep Vault."

Deep Vault huh. I wasn't aware the OSS even had a vault.

"It's a prototype EMP device that was still undergoing testing. Someone tripped the silent alarm last night and when we opened the vault the device was gone. The cameras were damaged. There are no fingerprints or significant evidence that someone even entered the vault."

"Wait, wait, wait, you least me at Deep Vault. What is that? Why do we have one? What else is stored down there?"

Mr. Giggles motioned with his hand for silence. "I'm getting to that." He said matter-of-factly. "But I'm trusting you with this information, so I need you to listen not talk."

Gerti grunted but nodded in agreement.

"Over the past few years the OSS has been a completely independent facility. The local government has never approved of this due to our covert operations around the globe. This is especially true in the case of the military. For years were able to stay independent until 3 years ago when our budget fell into the red…"

Gerti fidgeted in impatience

Gosh, briefings are always full of boring jargon. Please hurry up with point

"When our budget tanked a few our adult representatives went to city hall to negotiate for funding."

You mean beg Gerti thought as she rolled her eyes. Adults are always try to change things

"After a long debate we finally came to an agreement. The OSS would receive government funding if we agreed to become a public entity and build a storage facility for most of the military's experimental devices."

And now we lost one.

Gerti was starting to get the picture.

"And now we lost one." Mr. Giggles continued. "Now normally this wouldn't be a problem if not for the government's routine monthly inspection of the vault… which is in 2 weeks"

"Which means we have two weeks to get it back." Gerti blurted out. "Plenty of time."

Mr. Giggles sighed.

"Normally you would be right, but with most of our agents out on other missions and the remaining ones preparing for this year's graduation ceremony." He paused for emphasis. "Your brother's graduating ceremony."

Gerti turned to the flyer on the wall behind her. These flyers were posted all throughout the building, but she somehow forgot about it. She always loved the food and games and dancing to the hottest pop music but this time it was special. He brother, and his class would be graduating from the OSS Spy Kids Division to pursue is career on a higher level.

"We need to get this case finished before the event starts and the military inspectors come." Mr. Giggles said.

He moved closer and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I want you to lead this operation."

Gerti turned around in awe.

"Really?!" she exclaimed. "It's about time!"

She paused in realization

"Wait, but why not Gary?" She looked at her father intently "We are usually paired together on missions."

"Gary is not here." Her father answered. "He and his partner are off on another mission."

With who?! How dare he not tell me! How dare you not tell me! Gerti's mind raced. What is going on around here!

"He's paired with Carmen Cortez."

Suddenly it all made sense. Carmen was her brother's girlfriend. Even though they had never officially broken the news everyone knew there were an item. Gerti also knew that Gary was dying for a solo mission with her, so they could have some unsupervised alone time.

Well looks like you finally convinced mom and dad huh. Gerti shook here head in disbelief and admiration. Wonder how you guys convinced the Cortezes

She looked up at her dad.

"Does this mean I get to run this mission alone?!" She exclaimed. "Your finally trusting me with something for once! Oh my gosh th-"

"My goodness no!" He dad cut her off. "You'll most definitely have backup. The only thing I;t trusting you with is to find a partner and report to the debriefing room by oh-five-hundred. I have a meeting in the next hour but I will be there to see you off. Good luck"

And with that Mr. Giggles hustled out of her office.

Crud. Gerti pouted. I though Dad was loosening up a little. Oh well, there is only one person I would want to partner with besides my brother for a mission. I just hope this number is still good.