ALEX

Life was fairly normal for the next week; apart from several little chats in Harry's office, everything went as per usual. It was a bit of a let-down, actually. Here we were, just given the exciting news that we had the opportunity to help out MI6 in a huge mission, and nothing happens. It was a tad disappointing.

Then, one morning, Harry summoned us to his office.

'Good morning!' he warbled as we entered and sat down. 'I have some news.'

'Really?' Amber leaned forward in her seat. 'What?'

'First,' Harry began, settling back in his chair. We were going to be here a while. 'First of all I need to give you a bit more information on what you'll actually be doing.

'ASIS had a few reports from Immigration that a couple of clever cookies had been smuggling refugees in from various countries. Immigration were a bit concerned since they'd had reports of people being smuggled in, but then no more trace of them could be found. It seemed odd and they called in ASIS, worried that the smugglers were planning something big.'

'Like a mass attack?' I put in before Harry could go on. He nodded slowly.

'Something like that. Anyway, they did a bit of digging and uncovered a sort of secret organisation, operating in remote bushland near the Queensland, Northern Territory border. A lot of the buildings are underground so it hasn't aroused suspicion.

'ASIS found all this out, but it didn't lead them anywhere. They kept as close and eye as possible on the base but no one went in or out.'

'Couldn't they send someone in undercover?' asked Li.

'They had a couple of contacts, but also a couple of complications. The majority of officers working in ASIS are Australian. They're trying to encourage Australian citizens from other nationalities to join, but it's a bit of a slow process. There were also strong links to here.'

'What, like, England here?'

'Yeah. So ASIS called in MI6 and they did some more digging. Apparently this secret society thingo gets its security guys from another secret organisation that operates somewhere up north. The guards are trained there, then shipped off to Australia and used at the base.

'The actual refugees come from everywhere and anywhere, though a lot are from Africa and the Middle East. Strange thing is, apparently around half of the people in the base have come from America or Europe. I don't mean that they are American or European,' he added quickly, seeing the surprised looks on our faces. 'I mean that they're, say, Korean, but have been able to escape their country and move into another. They've been in working positions, such as maids, gardeners, etc, but something has fallen through and they've been forced to leave. After living in relative luxury for years, they don't want to go back to their countries, or, if they've already been made to go back, they want out. With the majority being war-torn or poverty-stricken, I can't really blame them.' Harry rocked forward and consulted a bunch of papers siting on his desk.

'So where do we come in?' Amber said eventually.

'Well. ASIS have got one of their officers into the security training camp over here- another contact- and MI6 have a few officers that they are going to putting in. We have no idea how big this facility is, or if there are other ones like it so we need as many bodies in there as possible.

'Alex and Hex,' continued Harry, looking at us. 'We obviously can't chuck you in a refugee camp and say "Are you kidding? Not Indian? Come on". We've made the decision that the two of you will pose as security guards. You'll be sent to the training camp with the two MI6 officers in ten days time. We'd normally give you longer to memorise all your background information, but time is something that we don't really have.

'Li. You'll be posing as a Chinese ex-maid. You came to England six years ago and worked with the...' Harry picked up various pieces of paper '...Donaldson family ever since. However, current circumstances have forced you out of that position and now you're in danger of being sent back to your home country, which you don't want to have happen.

'Amber. Your story is very similar, except that you moved to America from Africa when you were a little baby. Your mum managed to find work as a nanny and later as a maid, but, when she died a few months ago, you were left with nothing. Once again, you're at risk of being sent back to Africa.

'And Paulo. You're, obviously, Argentinean, but your situation is very different.'

'You mean I'm not a maid,' said Paulo, feigning disappointment.

'Unfortunately, no. We're lucky enough to have another Argentinean officer with MI6; she will pose as your older sister. The two of you come from a poor family that made some enemies. Your dad ripped off a manager of a big, well-known company and he and your mum were killed in retribution. You and your sister are in serious danger and want to get out of Argentina as soon as possible.

'These little backgrounds may seem a wee bit far fetched,' Harry explained reassuringly, catching the sceptical looks on our faces,' but believe me, these stories are very similar to the lives of almost every single refugee in that facility.'

'Question.' Paulo raised his hand.

'Fire away,' Harry grinned, pointing a finger gun at Paulo. I groaned inwardly; Harry was a really nice guy but could be incredibly lame at times. Paulo lowered his hand.

'Does MI6 have contacts that can guarantee that we get taken to this "facility" or is pot-luck? Oh, and will I be going to Argentina to get selected?'

'That's two questions, but anyway. Kind of and yes.'

'So I'm going back to America?' Amber said.

'Yep. Li will be the only one selected, as Paulo put it, from here.'

'Hang on, hang on,' I floundered, finally getting a word in. 'What do you mean "kind of"?'

'They have contacts that can guarantee you'll be in the right place at the right time in terms of getting noticed, but they can't be certain you'll get picked.'

'Ok. What about transport? How do they actually get people from their country into Australia?' I ticked off question number two on my mental list.

'Guessing by plane to some small, remote island near the top-end of Australia and then by boat.' Harry was rustling through yet more paper, stuffing bits into Manilla folders and chucking others in his already overflowing outbox. He needed a serious lesson in organisation from my mum.

'For a secret organisation, you sure know a lot about them,' said Li, beating me to it.

'Don't ask me how they did it. MI6 have contacts in the weirdest places. There's also the old "this guy, who's on our side, is good chums with this guy, who knows this guy, who dated this guy's sister, who went to school with this guy, who just happens to work in the facility". Things just have a habit of working their way to us. Quite handy, really.'

Hex had been quiet for ages and he finally decided to speak up. 'Me and Alex. We just going to waltz in there, nod our heads and expect them to accept us? If this training thing is top secret, how are we going to explain us knowing about, much less getting in?'

'MI6 have sorted it,' Harry said firmly, as though he was trying to convince himself, not just us. 'As a matter of fact, they've sorted everything.' He casually picked up and dropped various folders, saying, 'Identities, backgrounds, transport, contact information, what brand of baby food you supposedly ate when you were one... They've done everything.' He actually sounded disappointed, which was surprising. Harry, and everyone who knew Harry, always said how much he hated paperwork and working out seamless backgrounds for every mission. He'd whinge and moan and complain about how boring and time consuming it was, but apparently he rather enjoyed it.

'At least you don't have to do it,' piped up Li, who apparently had not reached the same conclusion as me.

'Yeah,' sighed Harry. Gloomily he handed round our background information and left us to get acquainted with our new lives.