99 and Ellen went into a special training room at CONTROL.
OK, take your shoes and socks off," said Ellen.
99 did this. Ellen also slipped off her shoes. (She didn't have on socks.)
"Before we begin, let's do some foot exercises."
"Foot exercises?"
"Yes. I feel we don't exercise our feet as much as we should. Now, follow my lead."
She sat in a chair and crossed her right foot. She flexed her toes up and down a few times. Then she flexed her whole foot up and down. Finally, she moved her foot in circles, first clockwise, then anti-clockwise. After this, she crossed her left foot and did the same exercises. Finally, she kicked both her feet up and did circles with them.
99 sat to Ellen's left and followed along with her.
"Good. OK, let's get up and walk around the room, for a bit."
They did this. After a couple minutes, they sat down again.
"What do you think?"
"The floor's cold." She crossed her foot and looked at the bottom of it. "And dirty!"
Ellen smiled. "I guess you don't go barefooted that much."
"No. I do sometimes, at home. Think I should do it more often?"
"Everybody should. OK, let's get started.
"Now, our toes are, of course, smaller than our fingers; however, with practice, we can do virtually everything with them that we can do with our fingers."
"Really?"
"Yes. Let's start with a simple key lock."
Various safes were in the room. One black one with a key lock was on a table. Ellen sat in a chair by this table. From her pants pocket, she took out (with her foot) a skeleton key. Positioning this key between her toes, she put it into the lock, turned it, and opened it.
"Now, you try it."
99 sighed. "I could never do that!"
"Yes, you can, honey. You have hands, so you can use them to position the key between your toes."
She shut the door with her foot. Then she got up from the chair.
99 sat down. She took the key out of the lock and positioned it between the toes of her right foot. Then she tried to put it in the lock.
It fell down to the floor! She let out a little scream.
"Now, don't panic, honey! It took me a while to perfect it, too. Let's try again.
99 tried it again. . . and again. . . and again! But within a half hour, she got the hang of it and opened the door with her foot.
"I did it!"
"Yes, you did!"
She hugged Ellen.
"OK, let's try a combination safe."
There was one on the floor of the room. They sat down in front of it.
Ellen placed the toes of her right foot on the dial and turned it. She worked slowly, but within a minute she had the door open. Afterwards, she shut the door.
"Now, it's your turn."
She moved and 99 sat in front of the safe. She put her right toes on the dial and began.
"Feel for the clicks. They're subtle, but they're there."
Like before, it took her about a half hour, but she was eventually able to open it. Once again, she hugged Ellen.
Soon after that, Maxwell Smart entered the room.
"Hi, ladies," he said. "How come you're barefooted?"
"Hi, Max. Ellen just taught me how to open a safe with my feet."
"I see. I was wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner with me, 99."
"Is it dinnertime, already?"
He looked at his watch. "It's 5:02—and 12 seconds."
"I didn't realize that! Dinner sounds great, Max. Thanks for the lesson, Ellen."
"Let's do this again, next week—if we're not on cases."
"Sure. Say, I've got an idea: Let's go to a salon and get pedicures, this Saturday."
"I haven't gotten one in a long time! It's a date, honey!"
The girls put their shoes back on, and the three of them left.