The rest of their meeting went very quickly, they shared a drink, then Payne said that he would brief her himself, but he had other appointments. A man in a military uniform guided her back up to the command center, then down another set of stairs to another hallway of what she assumed to be offices. They stopped at a door labelled 101.

"Your handler is inside, ma'am." The man snapped off a quick salute, then turned and marched back towards the command center. Madison took a deep breath, twisted the knob and pushed open the door. Inside was a spartan room, a bed, a dresser, a couch and coffee table, what appeared to be a weapons locker, a door leading off to a bathroom, and a desk with a terminal on it. Sitting on the bed was Patricia, she stood up when she saw Madison.

"Madison, I'm so glad that you decided to join. If half of what Christopher says is true, then I'm sure you'll be very successful." Patricia took her hand and shook it. "These are your quarters."

Madison looked around the room, "I have an apartment."

Patricia's smile widened, "We know, but assignments can run on a rather unpredictable schedule, so most field operatives have keep quarters here instead of offices. Trust me, when you get back from a field assignment at three in the morning, it's nice to just be able to collapse on a bed."

Madison doubted she'd use this room for that, but that was beside the point. "Payne said that you would brief me on my first assignment."

"Yes, I have the files right here." Patricia motioned towards the couch and coffee table.

"What is your name by the way," Madison asked as they found seats on the couch.

"Karen, that leads to another important point, but we'll cover that later. We'll get through the whole orientation briefing as the issues come up. Right now let's get you acquainted with your first operation." Karen opened one of the folders on the coffee table. In it was a stack of documents, at the top of which sat a photo of a young Asian woman with black hair and dark brown eyes.

"This is Xiu Ming, freshman at the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, and distantly related to the current Chinese ambassador to the United States. She lives off campus and spends her weekends at the Chinese consulate in New York. She spends most of her breaks in D.C. at the Chinese embassy." Madison listened while she perused the file. Ming was a computer engineering major, a member of a few clubs, but mostly kept to herself.

"She serves as unofficial tech support at the consulate and embassy, the Chinese are in desperate need of competent computer specialists. We chose her for your first assignment because as a freshman, she shares a number of your classes. Also because she's spending her break in Point Lookout, just as you are. Between her notable family connections with the upper levels of the Chinese government and military, and her access to the computer networks of the embassy and consulate." Ming was also apparently a dog lover, a fan of the Silver Shroud, her favorite movies and books were romances, and went jogging every morning. Other than the romance, it sounded like the dating profile that Emma had set up for her.

"So, I know I'm new at this, but I think this part is pretty important. What makes you think that she's going to betray her country?" Doing that is kind of a big deal, Madison thought, it's not something people just do.

"That comes to the third reason that we chose her as your first potential asset. As you know, heavy military requirements in the past several century have forced the U.S. to drop stigmas in many areas, such as race, religion, and gender. China, having a much larger population than the United States, and being much more reliant on repressive measures, has remained highly discriminatory in those areas. As well as the area most relevant in this case, sexual orientation."

And like that, it clicked in her head, "You realize that I'm not gay, right?"

Karen looked at her sympathetically, "Yes, it is your assignment, so you are free to take whatever avenue of approach you feel is best. But analysis shows that a honey pot approach has the highest probability of success."

For what felt like the millionth time that night, Madison took a deep breath, "Alright, I guess this is what I signed up for. How should I do this?"

Karen's grin returned, "It's your assignment, how do you want to play it?"

Sensing this was another test, Madison closed her eyes and thought for a moment. She pulled out the list of romance movies and books that Ming watched and read. They were all the same standard setup that appeared in so many romances, a woman rescued from dangerous circumstances by a handsome and dashing man.

Hmm, so she's a romantic, Madison checked the POV characters. Sure enough, most of them were told from the point of view of the dashing young hero. A romantic with a hero complex. An idea began to take form. She pulled the map of Ming's jogging route, it passed a small back alley. That could work.

"Alright, I think that I have a plan of approach.