Chapter Two

Danger Encountered

"CONTROL, this is Agent 99 calling CONTROL. Come in, CONTROL," 99 said quietly but urgently into her concealed transistor. Instead of a shoephone for female agents, CONTROL issued the women compact phones, lip stick phones, and one overeager female scientist even thought of a feminine product which could be used for a phone. However, that was absolutely nixed by everyone, no matter how private the use would be. Agent 99 was using instead her tried and true fingernail phone considering how far away Washington, DC, was the reception was incredible.

While 99 stashed herself behind the counter at a local boutique in Beverly Hills, California, she was multitasking as she tried to contact headquarters. She was also ensconced on surveillance of Tara Muleski, Agent 93 and best female friend of Agent 99 as well as Natalya newly christened KAOS agent.

Fortunately, 99 remained frozen and hidden from storefront view. Her cover on this assignment was a boutique manager in the bottom floor of a swanky Beverly Hills hotel for whom the only patrons were that of celebrities or persons who carried so much clout they wished to remain unknown. The real manager of the boutique had contacted CONTROL and had voiced her suspicions about the current activity of one of her models-Tara Muleski. Hence, the reason 99 was sent to California.

Well, 99 thought , I haven't seen anything of Tara today nor any obviously suspicious transactions happening here. I suppose I will have to be patient. Maybe Tara, uh Natalya, will let something slip when I meet her for drinks at 7:00 p.m. I'd better call Max in an hour. It'll be 5:00 p.m. back home and he'll be home from the office by now. Oh, that's right. His shoephone is working again, so I can call him at Maxi's softball practice.

99 fervently hoped that Max was not still mad with her having to leave on a secret mission by herself. She knew the first thing he would do was to contact the Chief and have him insure her safety. As she, herself, had explained to him, as well as Max knew himself, when he went on an assignment, there were never any guarantees that your life was not expendable. She tried to make Max see reason and then she made him stop arguing with him the only way she knew how.

"No, 99! The Chief has some nerve sending you on a mission you can't tell your husband about!"

Max had been very angry when 99 came home that day and mentioned she would be leaving in the morning for California for an interminable amount of time. She explained as best she could why the Chief was sending her, but Max was not buying it one way or another.

"Maxwell, stop! I don't pump you for answers when the Chief sends you on an assignment for which I know you may never return."

"Why? Are you hoping I don't come back one of these days, 99?" Max asked stupidly with puppy dog eyes and slightly downturned expression.

"Of course not, Max, I love you more than anything in the world."

Ninety-nine melted when Max would turn the tables on her like this. She had walked up to him and put her arms around him and held him tightly. Then she knew she had him where she wanted him. She began to nibble his ear and whispered how much she adored him. Max's resistance was broken when 99 nibbled his ear. Her breath sent chills down his spine. Max's arms pulled 99 closer and held her tighter. He kissed her then not because she had begged him to but because he knew what she was doing. Max melted like ice cream left on the counter. He then carried her upstairs and they made love, perhaps for the last time, until they heard Zach, Maxi, and Avery come home from their respective extracurricular activities.

When they told the children that their mother was going on a dangerous assignment, none of them except Maxine had questions. All the children adored their mother, but they worried more when their father accepted an assignment alone. They all loved Max, and they all knew secretly that their dad was not quite as adept as he professed himself. He had brains, but Max suffered from what they term now as Attention Deficit Disorder, so he was easily distracted and sometimes did not catch everything the enemy might be saying. The fact that he had not been killed by himself on a mission showed that the man had not lacked intelligence just attention to detail.

The Chief finally answered 99 on her fingernail phone and she gave her noneventful report. She told him of the appending appointment with Tara/Natalya and then she said she would notify him if the mission were successful.

"You call me when you're in trouble, 99," the Chief berated. "Your husband has not left more than five minutes ago reading me The Riot Act. I didn't tell him anything, but it was difficult. Before he left I had to swear to him that you would be back soon. So don't disappoint me, Missy, or I am sure your husband will shoot me."

"Ok, Chief, I will contact you with ANY further developments." 99 hung up her fingernail phone by replacing the fake nails over her own. Ninety-nine was happy that after 16 years of marriage and three children, Max still loved her and wanted to protect her. Ninety-nine could have spent the next half hour reminscing about she and Max and their life together, but other matters soon intervened. She wasted little time on distracting thoughts of her and Max's last time together because she knew that KAOS was going to make their move soon.

After replacing her fingernails, she came out of the phone booth where she had been hiding in the event that someone saw her talking to her fingers. There was a strange man in the boutique now. Strange but standard KAOS detail was how the man was dressed from head to toe: black trench coat, dark glasses, and black fedora. Apparently the agent thought she had not seen him and was now getting ready to shoot her. Well, 99 would surprise him. She surreptitiously retrieved her small red pistol from the pocket of her suit jacket and quietly walked up to the man sticking him in the back with the barrel of her gun.

"Don't move. You're under arrest, Solitaya. Drop the gun," 99 said quietly. Solitaya, a notorious KAOS assassin dropped the gun on the floor as 99 said. However, as 99 bent down to retrieve the gun, she was hit in the back of the neck with a pistol butt. Ninety-nine, though thin and frail looking, had borne three children with little medical help and had been an agent too long not to be able to stay conscious long enough to identify her killers.

"Tara…"