Dal got his chance after lunch. While everyone else settled down for a brief nap, Lady Naraud fetched her datapad and curled up on the living room couch to work. Dal flashed Leia a brief grin before stretching out on the couch next to his mother and resting his head in her lap where he could see her working on the datapad. Leia and Winter cozied up together in the big armchair. Leia was determined to stay awake and keep a surreptitious eye on Dal, but the sun drifting in through the window was drowsily warm. The full lunch meal had left her sated, and the combined exertion of their river play, her emotional outburst, and her late-night scheming session proved to be too much for her. She dropped off to sleep almost immediately.
One satisfying doze later, the soft voices and quiet movements of people stirring roused Leia, and she blinked slowly awake. Her eyes came immediately to rest on Dal, lying sacked out in his mother's lap, his mouth hanging open and looking quite silly. She frowned crossly, wondering if he'd managed to stay awake long enough to accomplish his task. Lady Naraud had fallen asleep as well, her head resting against the back of the couch, her datapad still clutched tightly in her hand. She finally roused, but Dal lay dead to the world until Teena started fussing that she was hungry again. Her high-pitched complaints finally succeeded in penetrating Dal's consciousness, and he woke up, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Now that everyone was up, they moved back out to the deck. The adults proposed a round of cards, and Bail asked the children, "Would you like to play, too?"
Jaffia readily agreed, but before Leia could refuse, Dal piped up, "No thank you, sir. I was kinda hoping Leia would show me where the fish live in the river."
Leia glanced at Dal who was staring at her with an expression that all too clearly said he was hiding something. "Okay," she said. "Let's go, Winter."
"Me, too!" Teena squealed as she scrambled off her chair to join them.
"No, Teena, you're too little!" Dal scolded.
Teena stamped her foot. "But I wanna see the river."
The threesome froze. They had secret work to do, and the last thing they needed was to have a six-year-old snot machine following them around.
"You can't come!" Dal insisted. "Mama, tell her!"
Not looking up from her cards, Lady Naraud said, "Teena, you've already ruined two pairs of shoes and socks playing in the water, and you only have one pair of dry shoes left. You may not play in the river."
"But, Mama," Teena whined, her face dissolving into the prelude of a tantrum.
"Listen to your mother, dear," the governor said, holding his hand out to his daughter. "Why don't you sit here on my lap and hold my cards for me?"
The promise of a cuddle proved enough to avert the tantrum, if not the tears, and Teena climbed up into her father's lap, sniffling and whining about how she wouldn't get her shoes wet, it was unfair, and she hated Dal.
Relieved, the threesome tramped down the stairs toward the river, trying far too hard to look casual. They ducked out of sight around the corner of the house and huddled against the wall.
Leaning close to the two girls, Dal announced, "I got the code! When Mama worked on her 'pad after lunch, I sat with her and saw the code and password and everything!"
"That's great!" Leia whispered. "And they're playing Nar Shadda rummy. That game lasts forever. Let's go look at the 'pad now. Do you know where she keeps it?"
"It's in her room, in the dresser."
Leia nodded. "All right. Come on." She gestured for the others to follow, and led them around to the back of the house, where they crept in through the back porch. Once inside, Leia dropped to her hands and knees. "We have to get down low. Otherwise, if they look through the window, they might see us."
The other two dropped to the floor, and Winter exclaimed, "Oh, no!"
Leia's heart stopped. "What?" she asked.
"Jaffia is seated so she can look right into the window!"
"Did she see us?"
"Not yet, but she could!"
Leia rolled her eyes. "Dummy! That's why we have to crouch low. Now be quiet. She won't see." All the same, Leia wasn't happy. If Jaffia *did* see them, she would squeal for sure.
They crawled across the floor on their hand and knees, creeping among the chairs in the dining area, hiding behind the sofa on their way through the living room until they reached the hall -- where they ran straight into a pair of boots.
Leia looked up, past the boots, past the work trousers, past the crossed arms, and up to the stern face of Aris, looking down at her in disapproval. "Just what do you characters think you're doing?"
Leia gulped, and Dal and Winter hovered behind her. "We're playing."
Aris arched an eyebrow. "Playing?"
"We're... tree lions, stalking our prey."
Aris's lips pressed together in what could almost be a smile. "Well, aren't you three the cutest tree lions I ever saw?" she drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Leia held her breath. She knew Aris wasn't deceived, but she didn't know whether Aris would look the other way.
"Have fun playing, *children*," Aris said at last. "I'm going to the kitchen to see about dinner." She stepped over the three crouching spies and left them alone in the hall.
They sagged in relief. Dal panted melodramatically. "I thought she was gonna kill us!"
"Don't be stupid," Winter retorted.
"Thank goodness we fooled her!"
Leia started to point out that Aris had not been fooled at all, but she realized Dal would probably not find that reassuring. "Come on," she instructed as she scrambled to her feet.
Even though they were safely out of sight, they tiptoed cautiously toward the Narauds' bedroom, slinking inside and shutting the door carefully behind them. Once inside, Leia glanced around. "Where is it?"
"Here." Dal crossed the room to the dresser and opened the top drawer. He pulled out the datapad and held it up, a triumphant smile on his face.
"Excellent," Leia crowed.
Dal beamed and started to sit on the bed.
"No!" Leia cried out, holding her arm out to stop him. "You can't sit on the bed. They'll know we were here." She plopped onto the floor, tucking her legs beneath her and beckoned to the others to join her.
The three of them crowded together, holding the blank datapad in front of them, savoring their moment of triumph. But the moment stretched on to become something much *longer* than a moment. No one quite wanted to proceed.
"Here," Leia shoved the 'pad toward Dal. "You do it. It's your mother's."
"But I don't know how to use it!"
"Why not? Besides, you're the one who knows the codes."
Dal's eyes were wide. "Why can't I just tell you the code, and *you* do it?"
"Because it's better if you do it. I might mess it up."
"But -- but --"
Winter sighed in impatience. "Leia, just do it. This was your idea, anyway."
Leia glared at her friend, but it was two against one. She sighed and reached out a trembling finger to turn the 'pad on. The screen flared to life and the menu came up.
"Open the files," Dal prompted.
"I know that," Leia scoffed. She clicked on the menu, and various folders appeared on the screen. Personal, correspondence, recipes, work, finances.
"Try 'work,'" Dal suggested.
"No, that's too obvious," Leia said. "They always hide the secret stuff under something that doesn't make sense." She clicked "recipes." The folder opened up to show files for soups, side dishes, meats, desserts, and measurements.
"Those don't look like secret files," Dal said.
"Don't be so sure," Leia cautioned. "Who keeps measurements on their datapad?"
"What does it mean?" Dal asked.
"You know, converting different units of measurement," Winter explained. "Like, how many milliliters are in a Huttese drana." She shrugged. "She might keep measurements on her 'pad."
Leia clicked on the folder. It opened up to dry weights, liquid volume, and a folder marked Impending. "That it," Leia said, pointing to the latter. "It's always some nonsense."
"Are you sure?" Dal asked.
"There's only one way to find out." Leia clicked on the file, and the screen flashed "secure file: enter code," with a 10-second countdown.
"Shit!" Leia shrieked.
"You swore!" Dal gasped in shock.
"Quick, what was the code?"
"213745."
Leia hesitated. "All those numbers? Are you sure you got them right?"
"Of course I'm sure," protested Dal. "It's Jaffia's birthday, the little snit."
"Okay, here we go." Leia shakily typed them in and hit "enter." The screen went black, and the three of them leaned over the 'pad, breathless. A flicker of light, and a new screen came up, listing a row of files. Dal and Winter shrieked in excitement. "We're in! We're in! I can't believe it!"
"Shut up!" Leia hissed, her heart pounding furiously. "Do you want them to hear us?"
The others quieted down, but squirmed in excitement as they surveyed the files. "Which ones do you think we should look at?" Dal asked.
"I don't know. Let's look at as many as we can. Dal, you go stand in the hall by the window out over the deck. Don't look through it, in case they see you. Just listen to hear if the game ends or they're going to come inside. We'll stay here and look at the files. Winter can read really fast."
Dal nodded and jumped to his feet to go serve as look-out.
"You ready?" Leia asked. Winter merely nodded, her brow furrowed in concentration as she hovered over the 'pad.
One by one Leia opened files, scrolling down rapidly as Winter studied the screen. No need to go slow; Winter would remember everything perfectly. Leia opened the files too quickly to be able to read them herself. She was dying to know if they had found anything important, but she didn't want to disrupt Winter's concentration.
Leia didn't know how long they'd sat there, but they hadn't made it through all the files before Dal scooted back into the room, eyes wide. "Papa's coming inside with Teena!" he whispered.
"Quick! Shut down the pad!" Winter squeaked.
"I know that!" Leia protested, her hands sweating with panic. She hastily closed all the files one by one as Dal bounced on the balls of his feet next to the door. He glanced out at the hallway through a crack in the door. "We can't get out this way!" he frantically whispered. "He's right down the hall!"
"Crap!" Leia exclaimed.
"Hurry! Under the bed!" Winter instructed. She dove beneath the edge of the cover, the other two wriggling after her.
They lay on their stomachs, their noses inches from the dusty floor. "Eww," Dal squealed, pointing at a dead spider snagged in the underside of the mattress.
Slapping his hand, Leia chided, "Hush!"
The door opened, and two sets of feet entered the room, one large, one small.
"Show some sense, Teena," the governor was saying. "You're a big enough girl to know that you shouldn't wear your shoes in the river."
"But the rocks hurt my bare feet," Teena complained. She climbed up on the bed, bouncing on it. The three spies prayed she wouldn't jumped too hard and knock them in the head.
"Then don't get in the water. And stop bouncing on the bed." The governor's feet stopped in front of the dresser, and he knelt down to reach underneath it, where Teena's wet shoes had been set to dry. If he turned around, he would be able to see Leia, Dal and Winter hiding under the bed. They held their breaths, but he didn't look. He pulled the shoes out from under the dresser and stood up.
Teena scooted to the edge of the bed and kicked her feet against the bed frame. The motion dislodged the dead spider, which fell right in front of Dal. He jumped, bumping his head on the bottom of the mattress. The two girls grabbed him and held him still as they waited expectantly to see if they had been detected.
"Goodness gracious, Teena," the governor said. "Stop kicking the bed." He knelt and pulled off her shoes and socks. As he stuffed her toes into one of the damp shoes, Teena whimpered, "It's cold."
"That's because it's still wet."
"So if it's wet, why can't I wear them in the river?"
Naraud sighed. "Because we're trying to let them dry. If you wear these shoes in the river again, then you'll have to wear them for the rest of the day."
Teena whined some more, and at last both shoes were on her feet. As she hopped off the bed, the governor said, "Come on, now. Let's go see if we can find Dal and the others."
As the door shut behind him, the three spies squirmed out from under the bed. "The 'pad is covered with dust!" Winter said. The three of them wiped down the 'pad as best they could with their shirttails, and Dal carefully replaced it in the drawer exactly as he had found it.
They slipped back out into the hall, crawled across the living room to the back porch, scarcely minding the rugburns on their knees, and scampered out the door and up the hill. They ripped off their shoes and socks and plunged into the icy water, splashing around to make it look as if they'd been playing there all along.
"Leia!" Winter gasped, pointing at her head. "Your hair is covered in cobwebs!"
"Ewww!" Leia squealed, swatting at her hair.
"If the governor sees it, he'll wonder how how it got so dirty." Winter tried to brush the cobwebs away, but they clung stubbornly to Leia's braid.
"Get them off!" Leia urged. She could hear the governor's and Teena's voices as they drew nearer.
"I'm trying!" Winter said. She pulled the hairband off the end of Leia's braid and tossed it onto the riverbank. Shaking Leia's long hair free, Winter finally managed to brush the cobwebs off just as Teena and the governor arrived. The three spies laughed and splashed at each other to cover for the fact that they were breathless from running up the mountainside.
"Well!" The governor beamed at them, holding Teena's hand. "You look like you're having fun. Do you mind if Teena joins you?"
"Not at all, sir," Winter politely replied.
"Then I'll rejoin the card game, if you don't mind. Jaffia is in danger of beating me, and I have to defend my honor." He glanced down at Teena, who had crouched on the bank and was poking at a worm she had found under a rock. "Remember what I said about your shoes, Teena," he warned, then smiled at the others and headed on down the hill.
Leia sighed in relief and glanced over at Dal. He was staring intently at her, and for a moment she feared he might say something about the datapad in front of Teena. She might be only six, but Leia knew, just as her father did, that it was never wise to say anything important around little kids. She scowled a warning at Dal, but he only said, "Your hair is so long."
Leia hesitated, gathering her hair together at the nape of her neck. "I ought to rebraid it, otherwise it gets everywhere." She waded toward the riverbank to retrieve her hairband.
"Oh, don't put it up. It's so pretty." He blushed and glanced away, then looked shyly back at her.
Leia was surprised. People were always commenting about Winter's white hair. After all, it was an unusual color, and it shone as bright as silk. Leia's hair was a far more ordinary brown. The only thing remarkable about was its length. Loose, her hair fell to her waist. No one ever called it pretty. Pleased, she tossed her head, letting her hair swing free, and decided not to rebraid it after all.
They spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the river, pretending to be a family of rock bears, catching fish with their "paws," mock-fighting, and rolling around on the muddy riverbank. No one even noticed when Teena waded into the river with her shoes on. They had so much fun just being kids that they quite forgot about their mission, or anything else.
Suddenly a loud screech interrupted their game. Startled, they looked up to see Jaffia standing on the riverbank, hands on her hips, her expression thunderous. "Look at you! You're filthy!"
"Of course we're filthy," Dal shot back. "We're bears!"
"You are *not* bears! And mother is going to *kill* you! Teena, are you wearing your shoes in the river?!"
The little girl froze, her finger in her mouth, water swirling around for drooping socks. "Please don't tell, Jaffia!"
"I won't have to tell her. You're soaking head to foot. In that freezing river, too. You'll catch your death of cold, just you wait and see."
"Nonsense!" Leia scoffed. She inhaled deeply through her nose, puffing her chest out, and exclaimed, "Fresh air and exercise! Just what the doctor ordered! And cold water stimulates the blood."
Jaffia's eyes narrowed in disdain. "Right. Well, I was supposed to call you in to dinner, but since you're all bears, you can just stay out here and eat pinecones." And with an imperious toss of her head, she stalked off down the path.
"Jaffiaaa!" Teena whined, scrambling out of the river and following after her sister.
The other three took their time, retrieving their shoes and socks before heading barefoot down to the house.
"So what did you find on the datapad?" Dal whispered as they picked their way along the path.
Leia had almost forgotten about the mission. "Oh, yeah. Well, Winter was the one who saw it all."
"Um," Winter hesitated. "There was a lot of stuff in those files. I'm not really sure what it meant."
At Dal's crestfallen expression, Leia explained, "Don't worry. She's got it all crammed in her head. Now we just the to get it out of her head so we can read it over and figure out what it means."
Puzzled, Dal asked, "Like downloading your brain?"
"Kinda," Winter said, "but we have to do it the old-fashioned way."
"What's that mean?"
Winter and Leia looked at each other. "I'm not doing it," Winter protested.
"But, Win--"
"It was your idea. You write it all out."
"But I'm not the one with the amazing wonder brain."
"I don't care! If I try to write it out, I get hand cramps."
"But I'll write it down all wrong."
Dal waved his hands to get their attention. "What you guys talking about?"
Winter scowled. "Dictation."
"What?"
"We have to write it all down," Leia explained. "It takes a long time."
"I won't do it, Leia," Winter said again.
"But you want to help --," Leia caught herself just in time, "-- to help Dal, don't you?" Dal gave Winter an earnest look.
"Yes, and I did my part by getting it all in my brain. Now you have to get it out."
"I'll write it down," Dal offered. "You can dictate to me, and I'll write."
Winter smiled and opened her mouth to agree, but Leia hastily interrupted her. "No! No, it's better if Winter and I do it ourselves. After dinner, we'll tell everyone we have to study. That way it won't look suspicious. But you can't study with us, Dal. We'll write it all down, and then later tonight we'll tell you what we found."
"Well...okay," Dal said, disappointed.
They arrived at the house to hear Teena crying while her father scolded her. Jaffia appeared quite satisfied with herself. The threesome tried to sneak off to their rooms unnoticed, but the governor caught Dal and immediately gave him a tongue-lashing for not watching Teena properly -- and for making such a mess of himself.
Bail, who was more accustomed to Leia and Winter making messes of themselves, merely raised an eyebrow at them and instructed, "Go change."
The girls scampered off to their room, but not before they spied Lady Naraud in her usual place on the couch -- datapad in hand. Winter stopped and gaped in a non-spyish way, but Leia prodded her in the ribs to move on.
When they were safely in their room, Winter fretted, "She was working on her 'pad!"
"Yes," Leia replied, "and if you'd been paying attention, you'd have noticed she didn't seem to be upset that someone had been messing with it. She doesn't know! I'd say our mission was a complete success."
They hastily changed out of their muddy clothes, and Leia brushed and rebraided her hair. She'd left her hairband at the river.
"Why didn't you want Dal to help us with the dictation?" Winter asked as she pulled on some clean pants. "Maybe his handwriting is better than yours."
Leia rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Win. We're trying to steal secrets from the Empire. I like Dal, but I don't want him to know what it is we really want."
Winter thought about this. "You're right," she said. "But does that mean we're not going to help him? I mean, we said we were doing this to find out whether his mother was doing anything dangerous. What if we find out she really *is* doing something dangerous? Will we just not tell him?"
Leia bit her lip. "I don't know. We'll think of something."
The girls were quiet for a moment. The spy business was proving to be tricky in ways they'd never imagined.
With a shrug of her shoulders, Leia said, "Well, let's go to dinner."
One satisfying doze later, the soft voices and quiet movements of people stirring roused Leia, and she blinked slowly awake. Her eyes came immediately to rest on Dal, lying sacked out in his mother's lap, his mouth hanging open and looking quite silly. She frowned crossly, wondering if he'd managed to stay awake long enough to accomplish his task. Lady Naraud had fallen asleep as well, her head resting against the back of the couch, her datapad still clutched tightly in her hand. She finally roused, but Dal lay dead to the world until Teena started fussing that she was hungry again. Her high-pitched complaints finally succeeded in penetrating Dal's consciousness, and he woke up, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Now that everyone was up, they moved back out to the deck. The adults proposed a round of cards, and Bail asked the children, "Would you like to play, too?"
Jaffia readily agreed, but before Leia could refuse, Dal piped up, "No thank you, sir. I was kinda hoping Leia would show me where the fish live in the river."
Leia glanced at Dal who was staring at her with an expression that all too clearly said he was hiding something. "Okay," she said. "Let's go, Winter."
"Me, too!" Teena squealed as she scrambled off her chair to join them.
"No, Teena, you're too little!" Dal scolded.
Teena stamped her foot. "But I wanna see the river."
The threesome froze. They had secret work to do, and the last thing they needed was to have a six-year-old snot machine following them around.
"You can't come!" Dal insisted. "Mama, tell her!"
Not looking up from her cards, Lady Naraud said, "Teena, you've already ruined two pairs of shoes and socks playing in the water, and you only have one pair of dry shoes left. You may not play in the river."
"But, Mama," Teena whined, her face dissolving into the prelude of a tantrum.
"Listen to your mother, dear," the governor said, holding his hand out to his daughter. "Why don't you sit here on my lap and hold my cards for me?"
The promise of a cuddle proved enough to avert the tantrum, if not the tears, and Teena climbed up into her father's lap, sniffling and whining about how she wouldn't get her shoes wet, it was unfair, and she hated Dal.
Relieved, the threesome tramped down the stairs toward the river, trying far too hard to look casual. They ducked out of sight around the corner of the house and huddled against the wall.
Leaning close to the two girls, Dal announced, "I got the code! When Mama worked on her 'pad after lunch, I sat with her and saw the code and password and everything!"
"That's great!" Leia whispered. "And they're playing Nar Shadda rummy. That game lasts forever. Let's go look at the 'pad now. Do you know where she keeps it?"
"It's in her room, in the dresser."
Leia nodded. "All right. Come on." She gestured for the others to follow, and led them around to the back of the house, where they crept in through the back porch. Once inside, Leia dropped to her hands and knees. "We have to get down low. Otherwise, if they look through the window, they might see us."
The other two dropped to the floor, and Winter exclaimed, "Oh, no!"
Leia's heart stopped. "What?" she asked.
"Jaffia is seated so she can look right into the window!"
"Did she see us?"
"Not yet, but she could!"
Leia rolled her eyes. "Dummy! That's why we have to crouch low. Now be quiet. She won't see." All the same, Leia wasn't happy. If Jaffia *did* see them, she would squeal for sure.
They crawled across the floor on their hand and knees, creeping among the chairs in the dining area, hiding behind the sofa on their way through the living room until they reached the hall -- where they ran straight into a pair of boots.
Leia looked up, past the boots, past the work trousers, past the crossed arms, and up to the stern face of Aris, looking down at her in disapproval. "Just what do you characters think you're doing?"
Leia gulped, and Dal and Winter hovered behind her. "We're playing."
Aris arched an eyebrow. "Playing?"
"We're... tree lions, stalking our prey."
Aris's lips pressed together in what could almost be a smile. "Well, aren't you three the cutest tree lions I ever saw?" she drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Leia held her breath. She knew Aris wasn't deceived, but she didn't know whether Aris would look the other way.
"Have fun playing, *children*," Aris said at last. "I'm going to the kitchen to see about dinner." She stepped over the three crouching spies and left them alone in the hall.
They sagged in relief. Dal panted melodramatically. "I thought she was gonna kill us!"
"Don't be stupid," Winter retorted.
"Thank goodness we fooled her!"
Leia started to point out that Aris had not been fooled at all, but she realized Dal would probably not find that reassuring. "Come on," she instructed as she scrambled to her feet.
Even though they were safely out of sight, they tiptoed cautiously toward the Narauds' bedroom, slinking inside and shutting the door carefully behind them. Once inside, Leia glanced around. "Where is it?"
"Here." Dal crossed the room to the dresser and opened the top drawer. He pulled out the datapad and held it up, a triumphant smile on his face.
"Excellent," Leia crowed.
Dal beamed and started to sit on the bed.
"No!" Leia cried out, holding her arm out to stop him. "You can't sit on the bed. They'll know we were here." She plopped onto the floor, tucking her legs beneath her and beckoned to the others to join her.
The three of them crowded together, holding the blank datapad in front of them, savoring their moment of triumph. But the moment stretched on to become something much *longer* than a moment. No one quite wanted to proceed.
"Here," Leia shoved the 'pad toward Dal. "You do it. It's your mother's."
"But I don't know how to use it!"
"Why not? Besides, you're the one who knows the codes."
Dal's eyes were wide. "Why can't I just tell you the code, and *you* do it?"
"Because it's better if you do it. I might mess it up."
"But -- but --"
Winter sighed in impatience. "Leia, just do it. This was your idea, anyway."
Leia glared at her friend, but it was two against one. She sighed and reached out a trembling finger to turn the 'pad on. The screen flared to life and the menu came up.
"Open the files," Dal prompted.
"I know that," Leia scoffed. She clicked on the menu, and various folders appeared on the screen. Personal, correspondence, recipes, work, finances.
"Try 'work,'" Dal suggested.
"No, that's too obvious," Leia said. "They always hide the secret stuff under something that doesn't make sense." She clicked "recipes." The folder opened up to show files for soups, side dishes, meats, desserts, and measurements.
"Those don't look like secret files," Dal said.
"Don't be so sure," Leia cautioned. "Who keeps measurements on their datapad?"
"What does it mean?" Dal asked.
"You know, converting different units of measurement," Winter explained. "Like, how many milliliters are in a Huttese drana." She shrugged. "She might keep measurements on her 'pad."
Leia clicked on the folder. It opened up to dry weights, liquid volume, and a folder marked Impending. "That it," Leia said, pointing to the latter. "It's always some nonsense."
"Are you sure?" Dal asked.
"There's only one way to find out." Leia clicked on the file, and the screen flashed "secure file: enter code," with a 10-second countdown.
"Shit!" Leia shrieked.
"You swore!" Dal gasped in shock.
"Quick, what was the code?"
"213745."
Leia hesitated. "All those numbers? Are you sure you got them right?"
"Of course I'm sure," protested Dal. "It's Jaffia's birthday, the little snit."
"Okay, here we go." Leia shakily typed them in and hit "enter." The screen went black, and the three of them leaned over the 'pad, breathless. A flicker of light, and a new screen came up, listing a row of files. Dal and Winter shrieked in excitement. "We're in! We're in! I can't believe it!"
"Shut up!" Leia hissed, her heart pounding furiously. "Do you want them to hear us?"
The others quieted down, but squirmed in excitement as they surveyed the files. "Which ones do you think we should look at?" Dal asked.
"I don't know. Let's look at as many as we can. Dal, you go stand in the hall by the window out over the deck. Don't look through it, in case they see you. Just listen to hear if the game ends or they're going to come inside. We'll stay here and look at the files. Winter can read really fast."
Dal nodded and jumped to his feet to go serve as look-out.
"You ready?" Leia asked. Winter merely nodded, her brow furrowed in concentration as she hovered over the 'pad.
One by one Leia opened files, scrolling down rapidly as Winter studied the screen. No need to go slow; Winter would remember everything perfectly. Leia opened the files too quickly to be able to read them herself. She was dying to know if they had found anything important, but she didn't want to disrupt Winter's concentration.
Leia didn't know how long they'd sat there, but they hadn't made it through all the files before Dal scooted back into the room, eyes wide. "Papa's coming inside with Teena!" he whispered.
"Quick! Shut down the pad!" Winter squeaked.
"I know that!" Leia protested, her hands sweating with panic. She hastily closed all the files one by one as Dal bounced on the balls of his feet next to the door. He glanced out at the hallway through a crack in the door. "We can't get out this way!" he frantically whispered. "He's right down the hall!"
"Crap!" Leia exclaimed.
"Hurry! Under the bed!" Winter instructed. She dove beneath the edge of the cover, the other two wriggling after her.
They lay on their stomachs, their noses inches from the dusty floor. "Eww," Dal squealed, pointing at a dead spider snagged in the underside of the mattress.
Slapping his hand, Leia chided, "Hush!"
The door opened, and two sets of feet entered the room, one large, one small.
"Show some sense, Teena," the governor was saying. "You're a big enough girl to know that you shouldn't wear your shoes in the river."
"But the rocks hurt my bare feet," Teena complained. She climbed up on the bed, bouncing on it. The three spies prayed she wouldn't jumped too hard and knock them in the head.
"Then don't get in the water. And stop bouncing on the bed." The governor's feet stopped in front of the dresser, and he knelt down to reach underneath it, where Teena's wet shoes had been set to dry. If he turned around, he would be able to see Leia, Dal and Winter hiding under the bed. They held their breaths, but he didn't look. He pulled the shoes out from under the dresser and stood up.
Teena scooted to the edge of the bed and kicked her feet against the bed frame. The motion dislodged the dead spider, which fell right in front of Dal. He jumped, bumping his head on the bottom of the mattress. The two girls grabbed him and held him still as they waited expectantly to see if they had been detected.
"Goodness gracious, Teena," the governor said. "Stop kicking the bed." He knelt and pulled off her shoes and socks. As he stuffed her toes into one of the damp shoes, Teena whimpered, "It's cold."
"That's because it's still wet."
"So if it's wet, why can't I wear them in the river?"
Naraud sighed. "Because we're trying to let them dry. If you wear these shoes in the river again, then you'll have to wear them for the rest of the day."
Teena whined some more, and at last both shoes were on her feet. As she hopped off the bed, the governor said, "Come on, now. Let's go see if we can find Dal and the others."
As the door shut behind him, the three spies squirmed out from under the bed. "The 'pad is covered with dust!" Winter said. The three of them wiped down the 'pad as best they could with their shirttails, and Dal carefully replaced it in the drawer exactly as he had found it.
They slipped back out into the hall, crawled across the living room to the back porch, scarcely minding the rugburns on their knees, and scampered out the door and up the hill. They ripped off their shoes and socks and plunged into the icy water, splashing around to make it look as if they'd been playing there all along.
"Leia!" Winter gasped, pointing at her head. "Your hair is covered in cobwebs!"
"Ewww!" Leia squealed, swatting at her hair.
"If the governor sees it, he'll wonder how how it got so dirty." Winter tried to brush the cobwebs away, but they clung stubbornly to Leia's braid.
"Get them off!" Leia urged. She could hear the governor's and Teena's voices as they drew nearer.
"I'm trying!" Winter said. She pulled the hairband off the end of Leia's braid and tossed it onto the riverbank. Shaking Leia's long hair free, Winter finally managed to brush the cobwebs off just as Teena and the governor arrived. The three spies laughed and splashed at each other to cover for the fact that they were breathless from running up the mountainside.
"Well!" The governor beamed at them, holding Teena's hand. "You look like you're having fun. Do you mind if Teena joins you?"
"Not at all, sir," Winter politely replied.
"Then I'll rejoin the card game, if you don't mind. Jaffia is in danger of beating me, and I have to defend my honor." He glanced down at Teena, who had crouched on the bank and was poking at a worm she had found under a rock. "Remember what I said about your shoes, Teena," he warned, then smiled at the others and headed on down the hill.
Leia sighed in relief and glanced over at Dal. He was staring intently at her, and for a moment she feared he might say something about the datapad in front of Teena. She might be only six, but Leia knew, just as her father did, that it was never wise to say anything important around little kids. She scowled a warning at Dal, but he only said, "Your hair is so long."
Leia hesitated, gathering her hair together at the nape of her neck. "I ought to rebraid it, otherwise it gets everywhere." She waded toward the riverbank to retrieve her hairband.
"Oh, don't put it up. It's so pretty." He blushed and glanced away, then looked shyly back at her.
Leia was surprised. People were always commenting about Winter's white hair. After all, it was an unusual color, and it shone as bright as silk. Leia's hair was a far more ordinary brown. The only thing remarkable about was its length. Loose, her hair fell to her waist. No one ever called it pretty. Pleased, she tossed her head, letting her hair swing free, and decided not to rebraid it after all.
They spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the river, pretending to be a family of rock bears, catching fish with their "paws," mock-fighting, and rolling around on the muddy riverbank. No one even noticed when Teena waded into the river with her shoes on. They had so much fun just being kids that they quite forgot about their mission, or anything else.
Suddenly a loud screech interrupted their game. Startled, they looked up to see Jaffia standing on the riverbank, hands on her hips, her expression thunderous. "Look at you! You're filthy!"
"Of course we're filthy," Dal shot back. "We're bears!"
"You are *not* bears! And mother is going to *kill* you! Teena, are you wearing your shoes in the river?!"
The little girl froze, her finger in her mouth, water swirling around for drooping socks. "Please don't tell, Jaffia!"
"I won't have to tell her. You're soaking head to foot. In that freezing river, too. You'll catch your death of cold, just you wait and see."
"Nonsense!" Leia scoffed. She inhaled deeply through her nose, puffing her chest out, and exclaimed, "Fresh air and exercise! Just what the doctor ordered! And cold water stimulates the blood."
Jaffia's eyes narrowed in disdain. "Right. Well, I was supposed to call you in to dinner, but since you're all bears, you can just stay out here and eat pinecones." And with an imperious toss of her head, she stalked off down the path.
"Jaffiaaa!" Teena whined, scrambling out of the river and following after her sister.
The other three took their time, retrieving their shoes and socks before heading barefoot down to the house.
"So what did you find on the datapad?" Dal whispered as they picked their way along the path.
Leia had almost forgotten about the mission. "Oh, yeah. Well, Winter was the one who saw it all."
"Um," Winter hesitated. "There was a lot of stuff in those files. I'm not really sure what it meant."
At Dal's crestfallen expression, Leia explained, "Don't worry. She's got it all crammed in her head. Now we just the to get it out of her head so we can read it over and figure out what it means."
Puzzled, Dal asked, "Like downloading your brain?"
"Kinda," Winter said, "but we have to do it the old-fashioned way."
"What's that mean?"
Winter and Leia looked at each other. "I'm not doing it," Winter protested.
"But, Win--"
"It was your idea. You write it all out."
"But I'm not the one with the amazing wonder brain."
"I don't care! If I try to write it out, I get hand cramps."
"But I'll write it down all wrong."
Dal waved his hands to get their attention. "What you guys talking about?"
Winter scowled. "Dictation."
"What?"
"We have to write it all down," Leia explained. "It takes a long time."
"I won't do it, Leia," Winter said again.
"But you want to help --," Leia caught herself just in time, "-- to help Dal, don't you?" Dal gave Winter an earnest look.
"Yes, and I did my part by getting it all in my brain. Now you have to get it out."
"I'll write it down," Dal offered. "You can dictate to me, and I'll write."
Winter smiled and opened her mouth to agree, but Leia hastily interrupted her. "No! No, it's better if Winter and I do it ourselves. After dinner, we'll tell everyone we have to study. That way it won't look suspicious. But you can't study with us, Dal. We'll write it all down, and then later tonight we'll tell you what we found."
"Well...okay," Dal said, disappointed.
They arrived at the house to hear Teena crying while her father scolded her. Jaffia appeared quite satisfied with herself. The threesome tried to sneak off to their rooms unnoticed, but the governor caught Dal and immediately gave him a tongue-lashing for not watching Teena properly -- and for making such a mess of himself.
Bail, who was more accustomed to Leia and Winter making messes of themselves, merely raised an eyebrow at them and instructed, "Go change."
The girls scampered off to their room, but not before they spied Lady Naraud in her usual place on the couch -- datapad in hand. Winter stopped and gaped in a non-spyish way, but Leia prodded her in the ribs to move on.
When they were safely in their room, Winter fretted, "She was working on her 'pad!"
"Yes," Leia replied, "and if you'd been paying attention, you'd have noticed she didn't seem to be upset that someone had been messing with it. She doesn't know! I'd say our mission was a complete success."
They hastily changed out of their muddy clothes, and Leia brushed and rebraided her hair. She'd left her hairband at the river.
"Why didn't you want Dal to help us with the dictation?" Winter asked as she pulled on some clean pants. "Maybe his handwriting is better than yours."
Leia rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Win. We're trying to steal secrets from the Empire. I like Dal, but I don't want him to know what it is we really want."
Winter thought about this. "You're right," she said. "But does that mean we're not going to help him? I mean, we said we were doing this to find out whether his mother was doing anything dangerous. What if we find out she really *is* doing something dangerous? Will we just not tell him?"
Leia bit her lip. "I don't know. We'll think of something."
The girls were quiet for a moment. The spy business was proving to be tricky in ways they'd never imagined.
With a shrug of her shoulders, Leia said, "Well, let's go to dinner."
