Hi people! Ok... You are in for a lot of apologizing... Heh I guess I will start here... SO SOOO Sorry!!! I haven't updated in ages! But as I said before in... I think another of my author's notes...(I know I am pathetic) Is because of school and all the studying... Not only that but also the holidays have gotten in the way of my freetime so don't blame me!... It seems I have been having some major bad luck these last few months and my computer is freaking out and I have had to take care of my brothers and have had to deal with all the drama and... well I'm not going to stop annoying you with my useless complaints... Ha now I just sound pathetic so I am just going to stop now... Anyway! I hope you enjoy the next chapter to The Prince of Thieves!

Chapter 4: The Mission…and Gadgets!

Tara and Alex sat across from each other at a table. "We'll give you two some alone time, to get to know each other." Mrs. Jones had said after many minutes of useless arguing. Mr. Blunt had left with her and now Tara and Alex were staring at each other awkwardly. Once in a while Alex would sigh and shake his head. After about the fifth time Tara blew.

"Would you stop that?" She asked irritated.

Alex seemed unruffled by her anger. "Who exactly are you?"

"Why, I'm Tara." She said. "Your supposedly new partner." She folded her arms across her chest.

Alex shook his head. "No, I mean, who are you."

Tara gave him a blank stare.

Alex sighed. "MI6 wouldn't appoint just anyone to the field. You must have had some sort of special talent, especially if you aren't being put through the special training I had to go through."

Tara mused silently, thinking. "I can run a mile in six minutes." She said.

Alex frowned. "But, what about that running away from the police? What did you do?" He tried to retain a cool composition.

Tara shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I accidentally stepped on one of their donuts. Cops can get really touchy about those sort of things, you know?"

Alex couldn't keep the anger from his face now. "I can't do this." He said to no one in particular. "She's too young and immature. I can't be responsible for her safety as well work the mission at hand!" He was standing up now and started pacing around the room.

"Hey, look here buddy," Tara also stood up. She stared at Alex intensely, her eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare judge me, especially since you've only known me for a few hours." She walked around the table and right up to Alex so she that her face was only a few inches away from his. She jabbed an accusing finger at him. "I am only a few months younger than you and I sure as hell know how to defend myself. So don't be worrying your little head of my safety."

Alex did not back down and met her gaze. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"I think I'll take my chances." Tara said venomously. Alex opened his mouth to say more but just then Mrs. Jones and Mr. Blunt made their way in. They probably had been watching them the whole time and had decided to intervene to make sure their little spat didn't turn into something more.

"I hope you two had gotten a chance to get acquainted with each other." Mrs. Jones said looking at the two.

Tara and Alex did not say anything else and took their seats.

Mr. Blunt seemed oblivious to the tension in the room and pressed a button that lowered down a screen. "You're mission is to follow and protect this target from any and all harm." On the screen a picture of a little girl popped up. She looked to be about ten and had her curly blond hair was pulled back with a ribbon. On the side of the picture were statistics. Jessica Harwood, the name read. Age: 10, Gender: Female, Occupation: Student. "She is the daughter of the multimillionaire Thomas S. Harwood. She is planning on attending John Hazelton's School for the Gifted this year and Mr. Harwood is having trouble letting her go alone. He has a… feeling that someone plans to kidnap her."

"And why is that?" Alex asked.

Mr. Blunt held up a crumpled up piece of paper. "Because of this." He said. A bigger version of it appeared on the screen. It was a note threatening Mr. Harwood. It wasn't very long, about two small paragraphs, and was written in neat floral script. 'Soon everything important to you will be no more.' The last line read.

"Wait just a minute." Tara said. "You mean I got dragged into this spy business just to baby-sit some spoiled brat?"

"There's more to it than just baby-sitting." Mrs. Jones said. "We want you to check out the school, the environment, the teachers, the students. Anything that looks suspicious. We want these criminals found and captured."

Tara sighed. "Yeah, but why do we have to do it? What about the regular cops, isn't this their line of work?"

Mrs. Jones cleared her throat. "Well, Mr. Harwood thinks that they are incompetent in performing the task."

Tara smirked. "He offered you guys a lot of money." She said it as a statement rather than a question. Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones looked at each other but didn't say anything. Tara leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on the table. "Whatever, this job sounds like a breeze."

"Don't get too cocky, Tara." Mrs. Jones advised.

Alex shook his head in disproval of Tara's indifferent attitude. Despite this, the job did sound easy. He thought. Maybe they just wanted to test Tara out before they sent her into anything big. But why did they have to send him? Was she seriously going to be his new permanent partner? Silently, he hoped she would not. He didn't know how long he would be able to deal with her and catch up on the schoolwork he had fallen behind on.

"Be ready to leave immediately. Jessica is due to leave tomorrow and her father wants her to get acquainted with her new 'playmates'.

Tara withheld her comment on the matter. Was Mrs. Jones saying she didn't have to just watch and protect the girl, but also amuse her and play with her? "Well aren't we going to get any 'toys'?" She said instead.

Mrs. Jones frowned. "Toys?"

Tara nodded. "Yeah, you know like gadgets. You can't just send people out on spy missions without gadgets."

Mr. Blunt nodded. "Yes, you do get gadgets." Just then a plump cheery man walked into the room.

"Yo, Alex!" He said in a happy tone. "It's been a while."

Tara saw a grin cross over Alex's face as he got up to greet the big fellow.

"Hello, Mr. Smithers."

After an exchange of a few words the two finally turned to Tara.

"So this is your new partner." Mr. Smithers said. "Nice to meet you." He held out his hand.

Tara shook it and tried to put on a smile. It didn't really work to her dismay and Mr. Smithers laughed. "Anyway!" He said. "I heard you wanted gadgets." He swung his bag around and set it down on the table. Even though

Tara was against the whole mission thing, she couldn't help but feel excited with the thought of getting gadgets.

"So lets get started!" He reached into the bag and pulled out a square type of object. It was made up of many little cubes and had different colors.

Tara picked it up and studied it. She had a blank expression on her face. "A rubrics cube?" She questioned. Mr. Smithers held a grin on his face.

"What?"

"Its not just an ordinary rubrics cube." Mr. Smithers said taking the cube from her hands. "No, it is a highly advanced piece of equipment." He pointed to the white center square with the label facing the right way up. "What you do is you twist the top row twice clockwise and then once counterclockwise on the bottom row. This will activate a timer that will set off a little but effective bomb inside. It has a five-minute delay and you want to make sure you're a good ways away before it detonates."

He dug through his bag for yet another object and he pulled out a pair of sunglasses. They were big and had white rims. The lenses were a violet color and some brand name was scrawled along the sides. "Now these are my favorite. They can help you see where people have touched by showing fingerprints on objects. They also can help compare fingerprints with the press of this small button right here." He put them on (looking very weird I might add) and pressed the button. He took them off and on the inside it showed statistics and information about the fingerprints displayed on the table.

Tara moved around and looked on the outside of them. They looked like perfectly normal sunglasses from the outside. She was impressed. The gadgets made her trip seem that it could turn out to be a little more bearable.

"They also," Mr. Smithers continued. "Have a little mirror on each side that can help you see behind you like rearview mirrors on a car." He pulled out another pair that was blue and had a sporty look to them. He waited to see the two's reactions. "So what do you think?"

Alex grinned. "You have outdone yourself once again." Mr. Smithers nodded in gratitude. He turned to Tara waiting for her opinion.

She nodded and shrugged. "They're cool." She said wanting to sound interested but not too much that they think her an overexcited bozo.

Mr. Smithers smiled. "I actually haven't really had much experience inventing for a teenage girl so I decided to start out small." He pulled out a necklace that had a blue and purple butterfly charm.

Inside, Tara grimaced but did not let it show on the outside. She did not want to hurt the jolly heavy man, as he seemed to be the only one who did not seem to annoy her. "What does it do?" She asked.

"It is your average communications device." He held in his hand a little earpiece that matched the color tone of the skin and was hardly noticeable. "We needed some way to for you two to communicate, since you aren't going to be together the whole time. All you need to do is talk regularly like you would to a regular person and he will hear you as perfectly as he would if you were talking in his ear."

Tara smirked. "Well Alex, it doesn't really seem like your color but I guess with a little effort you can manage to pull it off."

Mr. Smithers laughed but Alex didn't look amused. "Don't worry Alex." Mr. Smithers said when he was done. "I knew you wouldn't be too wild for a necklace so I made something else." Using his hand he pulled out a box and he opened it. Tara's eyes widened and marveled at the Rolex watch he held. "The bonus about this," He said. "Is it not only a communications device but also tells the time!" He laughed. "Anyway, I hope you both like the hip new gadgets."

The two teens stared at Mr. Smithers but did not say anything about his new choice in slang.

Mrs. Jones's voice startled them. "You both will be leaving immediately so I suggest you get packed Alex."

Tara noticed her exclusion in the matter and put on a questioning look. "What about me?"

"Oh, you are already packed." Mrs. Jones said.

Tara continued with the blank stare.

"You know… the cloths we bought before we came." Mrs. Jones said.

It took her awhile but finally Tara remembered. Her jaw dropped. "What?" She managed to squeak out.

Mr. Smithers decided this was the best time to leave when the tension was high. "Well I will see all you peeps later." He said walking out the door. "Piece out!"

Alex had a smile on his face. Mr. Smithers was one weird agent.

Tara did not notice Mr. Smithers as she was too shocked with dread realizing what she was going to be forced to wear.

"What?" She managed in a tiny voice again. "You mean those frilly, pink, ugly…" She couldn't go on. She shivered. "The… bows…"

Alex grinned at Tara's torment. "Well I'm going to tell Jack the news and pack." He said. Tara suddenly resented him.

So... I want to say sorry for giving you these useless and pathetic excuses for why I didn't update in a long time... Hey its late and I am tired and... OK HERE I GO AGAIN WITH THE EXCUSES! I AM SERIOUSLY GOING TO STOP NOW! Anyway, what did you think about the chapter? did you like it?