AMBER

As soon as we walked into Harry's office, I knew something was up. He sat behind his desk, grinning like a clown, hands nervously tapping the folder on the desk in front of him. We- the Famous Five as various officers had so affectionately dubbed us- sat down in the assorted chairs scattered about and waited for Harry to speak. When he finally did, it wasn't exactly exciting, nail-biting, edge-of-yer-seat stuff.

'How have you all been?' Harry smiled politely, switching from freaking clown to concerned middle-aged guy, neither of which he actually was.

'Ah...' Li, normally bright-eyed and energetic, was sitting slumped in her chair. She's not a real morning person and I can't exactly blame her.

'You dragged us all the way down here to ask us how we are?' Typical Hex- straight to the point, cut-the-crap, tell us what we need to know and move on. A usual response to a standard Hex comment is offence and perhaps a bit of embarrassment, depending on the comment and location. Harry... Well he was either stone-deaf or had really thick skin.

'Good. Good.' Beaming at us, Harry was silent for a few seconds. I stared at him, trying to read his mind. What did our boss have in store for us? A pay rise? More paperwork? It struck me then that this impromptu meeting was most likely so that Harry could give us another mission. He'd never have called us in to talk to him otherwise.

I was both excited and utterly terrified at the prospect of going undercover again. Excitement because anything beat mooching around the MI5 office with nothing to do other than drink caffeine and do paperwork. Terror because, well, we would be, no doubt, in danger and putting our lives on the line. I also couldn't quite get past our last- and first for that matter- mission with MI5. Occasionally I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, reliving every moment back in the warehouse when-

But I digress.

Harry wasn't put off by our apparent lack of enthusiasm. He flipped open a laptop and waited for it to wake up, all the time still smiling at us. Something weird was going on.

The door to Harry's office opened and Maggie Walker edged in nervously. She was a tiny little thing, built like a China doll. It amazed me greatly that she worked with the Secret Service, but rumour had it that she was a black belt in Karate and had, on a previous mission, landed three huge security guards in intensive care.

I regarded Maggie curiously as she fidgeted by the door.

Harry didn't seem to have noticed Maggie waiting patiently; he was staring at the laptop in frustration. 'This is one of those new, trial models, isn't it,' he muttered. I could almost see Hex's ears perk up. The way he leaned forward suddenly before leaping from his chair and darting around to stand next to Harry reminded me of one of my dogs I had back in Boston, years and years ago. I was youngish, nine or ten, and Bella Lou was my little Jack Russell. She would go berserk whenever she caught wind of a squirrel, but right before she would race off after it, she would lean towards it, ears so erect they were just about touching above her head. Bella was also stubborn, pig-headed and could be incredibly annoying at times- yet more similarities.

'Harry?' Maggie quavered.

Harry looked up sharply. 'Maggie! What can I do for you?'

'Your appointment arrived. They're waiting outside. Do you want them to come in now or not?' Maggie was holding a clipboard and for the first time I realised: she was Tanya's replacement. Yet more reminders of our last mission. I wondered whether I would ever be able to get totally away from it.

After regarding the five of us- me, gazing in wonder at an insect buzzing lazily around; Hex, fiddling with the laptop with an expression of pure joy on his face; Li, still sort of lying on the chair, eyes at half mast; Paulo, eyes completely closed and head titled slightly back; Alex, the only one looking reasonably alert, perched on a chair- Harry nodded at Maggie and she disappeared to let the "appointment", whoever that was, know that they could come in.

Unlady-like as it was, I couldn't help but crane my neck around to peer with fascination at Harry's mysterious "appointment". Li and Paulo also woke up with a start and blinked curiously at our two new arrivals. They sauntered past us and addressed Harry. Apparently we didn't exist.

'I'll get straight to business,' one man said. He was dressed in a spiffy blue suit, tie and black lace up shoes.

'Ah.' Harry, who was not dressed in a spiffy suit, sounded a bit nervous. 'I haven't exactly explained anything to them yet. Maybe it's best if you two do the talking?'

The second man frowned. 'We have a deadline. This mission is of the utmost importance. You said that your officers would be capable of undertaking this task, yet you haven't even informed them of it?'

'I was about to,' Harry said, sounding bitter. 'But you guys showed up.'

For the first time, the two guys seemed to realise they had company. They blinked at Hex, still completely absorbed in the laptop and slowly turned around. I had to bite down hard on my lip to stop giggling like a maniac. It was just like a movie scene, where the bad guys suddenly realise they're being watched. Our two guests did the turn perfectly. Slowly and with trepidation, they did a 180 and faced the four of us, waiting patiently in our chairs.

'Hiya!' Li exclaimed brightly. They actually jumped a bit.

'Hello,' the first one answered coolly. He half turned and said to Harry, 'These are the "fantastic and completely capable officers"?'

'In the flesh,' Harry nodded. 'Amber, Li, Alex and Paulo.' He pointed at each of us before patting Hex on the shoulder and adding, 'And Hex.'

Man number two cleared his throat and smiled tightly. 'Can you five leave us alone for a moment.' It was a statement, not a question and we immediately walked out of the room, but not before we heard a gasped 'Are you insane?'

Paulo shut the door behind him and we faced each other outside Harry's office.

'Wonder what that was all about?' Alex finally said.

'Hmmm.' Li tapped a finger on her bottom lip. We stared at her expectantly.

When she didn't say anything else, Paulo asked, 'What?'

'Huh?' Shaking her head slightly, Li dragged her gaze away from the utterly fascinating ketchup stain on the floor and looked at Paulo. 'That's all.' He just sighed.

I, for one, was utterly disgusted at how we had been cast out like that. Taking decisive action, I sidled up to the office door and pressed my ear to it.

'How old are they? 21? 22? This is a huge operation. ASIS have been working on it for months. I doubt they'll want a bunch of rookies bumbling around.' I couldn't tell whether it was Mr Snazzy Suit or his companion; they'd both sounded the same: annoyed and pompous.

'I understand the position you're both in,' Harry said patiently, 'but believe me when I say that these guys know what they're doing.'

'One mission! They've been on one mission. And need I remind you how that almost ended.' Ouch. I winced involuntarily, but then felt a surge of anger. Who the hell did these two think they were?

'MI6 didn't seem to care two weeks ago when I was approached about helping out.' My eyes bounced out of their sockets and my jaw dropped. MI6? Holy crud. And they were talking about some big mission. With the Australian secret service. And they'd asked Harry if he had any officers that could help out. And he'd recommended us. Crap.

'What's going on?' Hex whispered in my ear. I whacked his shoulder and pushed him away, putting a finger to my lips as I did so. He caught on quick but, instead of backing off, found another section of door and leant in to listen as well.

'I don't see why you can't give them a shot,' Harry said, sounding on the verge of exasperation. 'You were fine with it until you knew their ages.' There was a pause and then, 'I've got files as long as my arm on them. They haven't just turned up on our doorstep with no experience.'

I could imagine the scene: Harry, rustling in his drawer, finding our files. He'd hand them over to the two MI6 guys. They'd be sceptical at first, then, as they read through them, they'd actually realise that we all knew what we were doing.

'Well,' one of them said eventually. 'That is rather impressive, but I'm still not 100 sure.'

'Trust me,' Harry said. I could hear the smile. 'You'll have some officers in there too, right? And ASIS will as well. Give them a chance.'

There was a pause and finally, almost grudgingly, one of the men sighed, 'I guess they won't do any harm...'

Hex and I whirled around and grinned triumphantly at Li, Alex and Paulo. They immediately looked suspicious.

'What?' Alex asked, frowning slightly.

'We've got another mission,' I trilled quietly. Li grinned and grabbed my hands, spinning me around. Unfortunately, just at that rather immature moment, our two Very Important Guests pulled the door open. Four eyebrows shot upwards and Harry gave a nervous chuckle. We stopped our little celebration and formed a ragged line in the corridor. The eyebrows came back down, but frown lines appeared. Oops. They'd obviously guessed what we were so happy about. And how we'd found out about it.

'That shows initiative, right?' Harry suggested.

The two men grunted and walked past us, leaving Harry shaking his head and grimacing.

'Here I am, trying to convince them that you guys are mature and responsible,' he said, 'when you're eavesdropping on our conversation and then dancing in the hallway.' He sighed, ducking his head so we wouldn't see his smile. 'Real mature.'