Three bleary-eyed women walked into the living room and collapsed, two onto the ivory couch and one into the black leather chair.
"Doctor Jane, what could you possibly want at this hour of the morning?!" The one on the chair cried, draping her legs over the side of the chair arm and pushing back her light brown hair. She was tall, with striking blue eyes and straight brown hair that went a little below her shoulders.
"Yea! I mean, if you want us to perform well, we have to get our beauty sleep!" another tall, thin one sitting-no, lying- on the couch complained. This girl had dark brown hair that was almost black, many thin, long bangs, and chocolate brown eyes. Her hair had natural dark red streaks in it and flowed half way down her back.
The blonde haired girl who had her legs folded under the taller girl's legs said nothing. Snores could be heard from her end of the couch.
"I mean, look at this! Even Mayumi is asleep! The perfect soldier!" the chocolate-eyed girl said, gesturing to her couch mate.
The tall, blonde haired woman gazed at them fondly, a little smile on her aristocratic face. She still looked as though she belonged on the cover of a fashion magazine, even if there were a few extra wrinkles under eyes and around her lips.
/that's from smiling so much/, she reminded herself.
"Girls," she began, then stopped and chided herself. At 17, they were no longer her 'girls'. "Ladies, look alive. I need you to hear this." She paused, and then, "you have a new mission."
As expected, a chorus of outcries drowned her out.
"No way!"
"Are you serious?"
"We just got back!"
"Did I hear the word mission?" a sleepy voice said. The blonde girl, Mayumi, had opened her hazel eyes and flipped back her short, wavy, dark blonde hair.
"Yea, you sure did!" the blue-eyed girl on the chair exclaimed, now fully awake.
"Doctor Jane, I know it's a long shot, but do you think we could give the mission to someone else?" the chocolate-eyed one asked, eyes pleading.
Doctor Jane laughed. "No, Shiris, I can't. As you well know, there isn't anyone else. You girls are the last line."
"Yea, yea, I know. But it was worth a shot."
Truthfully, Jane didn't want to send them on this mission. She had a hunch there would be some other people there, and she did not want the girls to interact with them. But it had to be done…
"Okay, here's the deal."
All three sat up, sort of, and looked at her. Once they had a mission, it was all business, no matter how much they did not want to partake in it.
"There is vice foreign minister in Russia that-"
"Oooo, Russia!" The pale brunette on the chair cried, and then clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Julie, please. As I was saying," Jane continued after glancing at her, " the foreign minister is conducting some shady business over there. He is next in line for the head position of the government, and will do anything to ensure his position. He might even want to get it a little bit earlier than scheduled."
"So he wants to kill the existing president?" Mayumi asked.
"Possibly. That is one of the things we need you to find out. We also believe he has a secret cache of weapons of mass destruction, which, obviously, is a national threat. And finally, he may know important information about the federation."
There was silence after her last statement.
The federation. Shiris shivered and balled her fists up. She knew firsthand what that organization could do. Her father, Ryan Barton, had been a part of it. He had ruthlessly killed many innocent people. When doctor Jane found her, she gratefully devoted her life to the Alliance, the sworn enemy of the Federation. Interaction between the two groups was nonexistent. Shiris, Mayumi, and Julie were the top agents of the Alliance, and Doctor Jane was the founder and leader.
Jane's voice startled her out of her thoughts.
"So, you three will go to a party that he is hosting tomorrow. Sorry about the short notice," she apologized, when the girls started, "but we just found out about it. Apparently, it is a very exclusive party. But of course, you girls have been invited."
They smiled. Jane was the best at forging invitations.
"Okay, now I want Mayumi to get a hold of the minister's assistant, Charkovky. Extract any information you can from him, and then dispose of him."
Mayumi nodded. She, at 17, had no qualms about killing a man involved in a criminal scheme. It was innocent people that she refused to kill.
"Julie, you are to find the main computer and get whatever information you can. I'm counting on you to crack the password."
"You got it," she said, and saluted smartly.
"Shiris, you will find a guard and take his or her clothes. Impersonate a guard and glean information from the real guards. If they are giving you trouble, use force. Since you are the best at disguises, I'm sure you can handle it."
"Definitely. Sounds like fun."
"Okay. Now, upstairs you will find a catalog. I want you to find a dress and bring down the picture to Lisa. She will get the dress fitted for you. It is the dress you are going to be wearing to the party. Then go and pack the essentials. After that, you are free to do as you please!" She smiled warmly and left the room. She also had an agenda.
Back in the living room, the three girls relaxed.
"This doesn't seem so hard," Mayumi commented, stretching out on the couch.
"Hey, give me some room!" Shiris muttered, putting her legs over Mayumi's.
"I wonder if we will have any free time on this mission?" Julie wondered out loud.
Shiris laughed. "Hoping to meet some handsome man?"
"You bet."
Although all laughed, inside they really did hope to met a handsome, charming man. A boyfriend wasn't exactly in their job description, and during missions was really the only time they got to go to parties. All three were finished school. Their intelligence, among other things, was the reason they were the top three spies of the alliance. Each had been recruited at a young age, each discovered by being in the right place at the right time.
Mayumi, the first, had grown up at the alliance, trained to be the perfect spy. Jane had explained to her long ago that she had found Mayumi abandoned near her house and had decided to rear her to be a spy. Jane didn't hide the fact that she had raised Mayumi more as a worker than as a daughter, but Mayumi still considered Jane her 'mother'. And Mayumi hadn't let Jane down. Over the years, her skills in marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and intelligence had increased to astronomical levels. She was the first official spy in the trio.
Jane recruited Julie 13 years later, after Julie cracked impossible codes and got information from one of the lower level bases of the Alliance. After a long and complicated trace, Jane traced Julie back to her house in New Jersey and approached her. Her parents were top research scientists, and Julie had always wanted to be a spy ever since she had received a pair of binoculars from her parents. Jane approached Julie and, even tho0ugh she was young, Julie agreed to join the alliance and became the second girl spy. She had to leave her parents, who couldn't know where she had gone, and it took her a few months to fully devote herself to the alliance. But once she passed her grieving stage, she found a whole new, exciting life ahead of her, and knew her parents would be proud of her.
Shiris was found 8 months later when Jane was at a party at the Barton's house, trying to get information on the federation. Shiris, at 14, was acting as a spy for her father. She was dressed in a blonde wig and lots of makeup and had pretended she was a guest. She went around to the top officials of the US government, using conversation to trip them up and make them unwittingly give her information. Jane was included in these officials, and had completely fallen for her act. Jane had discovered whom she really was when she ducked into the computer room only to find Shiris already there, typing away. Shiris, who had been forced to act as a spy numerous times against her will, didn't hesitate to join the Alliance, and became the third member of the new team. The day Shiris was to secretly join Jane, her house was torched and her father killed.
Each girl had no one but Jane and the other girls. Mayumi had never met her real parents, and Julie had her parents, but she was not allowed to contact her family. She had "disappeared" while walking home from school one day. Julie, obviously, had a hard time at first, but she had agreed to join the alliance. And once you joined, there was no going back.
"We better go get our dresses," Mayumi said, getting up and stretching. After four years of being together, the three were closer than sisters and best friends.
"Yea lets go. I hope there's a red dress," Shiris said as they headed up a flight of stairs. The place they lived in was huge, even though it was all under ground. The ground floor consisted of the offices for the employees stationed at the base, which consisted of inventors, scientists, computer technicians, and anybody else needed to plan a mission. The next level, which was where they were starting from, contained the living room, kitchen, rec. room, gym (which had a full track, weight room, and all the accessories), and a pool. At the third level were their rooms, each decorated in the respective girl's own preference. Finally, at the very top, were the vehicles. Cars, motorcycles, and a jet rested up there. Usually, a chauffeur drove the girls to their destination, but more and more they had been driving themselves, much to their delight.
Sure enough, on each bed lay a magazine chock full of dresses in every color of the rainbow.
At the end of much deliberation, Mayumi settled upon a dark green dress with spaghetti straps that went midway down her thighs. On the top of the dress was a design in a shimmer of sparkles that wound its way down the dress to the very bottom. 3-inch high heels and an emerald necklace completed the outfit.
Julie decided upon a shiny, pale blue strapless dress that was also short and had a design of red and green flowers on the top. She selected a thin silver bracelet and a blue diamond choker necklace to accompany it. Matching heels, only one inch, were also chosen.
Shiris picked a shimmering scarlet dress that went past her ankles and had a slit up one side. The thin straps went over her shoulders and then crisscrossed on her back, while the top of her dress plunged low. Red heels, also one inch, went with the dress.
"This is going to be awesome!" Julie exclaimed, twirling in the dress. They had gone back to their rooms and were now gathered in Shiris' room.
Shiris herself stood before the full-length mirror. /I like/ she thought, turning.
"Yea, I actually like this dress," Mayumi said. She usually hated to wear anything resembling a skirt or dress. It was tank tops and combat boots for her.
Shiris checked the seam of the dress where it flowed into the skirt part.
"Yep, its rippable."
The others checked as well. All their dresses had to have a rippable skirt so that in an emergency they weren't hindered by layers of clothes. That's why spandex also came in handy, especially under a tight dress.
"Some boy will definitely notice me in this!" Julie murmured, folding it up and placing it back in the box.
"Don't forget about the mission …shit!" Mayumi muttered while attempting to fold the dress.
Sighing, Shiris took it from her and folded it.
"Don't worry, we won't," she assured Mayumi, who didn't look so sure. Her hazel eyes were boring into theirs.
"We promise!" Julie cried. "Unless of course, he's really cute, and really nice…just kidding!" she giggled, as a pillow hit her in the face. " And you're gonna regret that!" she picked up a satin pillow with Japanese lettering on it and chucked it back at Mayumi. Unfortunately, she ducked and the pillow hit Shiris.
"Oops! Sorry, I di-" a pillow in the face stopped Julie in mid-sentence. A grinning Shiris met her view.
"Ooo, now you're both gonna get it…" Julie warned. Needless to say, the quarrel soon escalated into an all-out pillow fight.
Downstairs, all the way downstairs, Jane was busy getting everything prepared for the upcoming mission. By 10:00 pm, everything was ready. The gadgets were assembled, the itineraries were written, and the hotels were booked. They had a 3 am flight on their private jet, so she went upstairs to ask them to go to bed. She couldn't tell them to go to bed, since they were 17.
The girls heard a knock on the door and looked up form the TV. On it, Legolas was kicking the stuffing out of the goblins.
"Come in," they chorused, and Jane let herself in.
"Hey doctor!"
"Hi Jane,"
"Hello,"
"Hey girls, I just came by to tell you that you should go to sleep, since you have a 3 am flight tomorrow."
Julie fell off the bed.
"Wh…what!?" she managed, staggering to her feet. The other two had opened their eyes VERY wide.
"I'm afraid so. The party is at 5pm, and you need time to change after a 12 hour flight to Moscow."
"But, if the flight is at 3, that means we have to get up at…" Shiris trailed off.
"We might as well not go to bed," Mayumi suggested.
"Nice try. Come on, off to bed with you." Jane said, looking at Mayumi and Julie.
"Okay, okay, but let us just finish this? Please?" Julie put on her puppy-dog-face, and the other two pouted their lips.
Hesitating a moment, Jane finally agreed. "But the second that's over, you two hightail it outta here, okay?"
"Okay," they agreed, and went back to their movie. They had worked out and had swum laps all day, and the break was well deserved.
After she had gone, the three agreed to all sleep in Shiris' room.