Managing to get out of the mangled car, they grabbed the bags and made their way back to the highway and crossed it, almost getting hit a few dozen times.
"it would suck if we died on a highway after all that," Julie muttered after avoiding a Mercedes that had been hurtling at her.
Finally, they looked up at the neon sign gratefully. Trying to find the least auspicious doorway, they settled on the janitor's entrance. At this time of night, there wouldn't be many people left in the mall except at the casino, which they intended to avoid.
"lets get to a bathroom. They usually have an outlet for different things," Julie suggested, stopping to read the map of the mall. She directed them to a ladies room and Shiris and Mayumi went in. Julie took a piece of paper and wrote out an OUT OF ORDER sign and hung it on the door.
After checking to make sure no one was there, Mayumi took out a laptop from one of the bags and set it up. Then she took out a dampener that she plugged into the outlet. It would prevent their signal form being intercepted and traced.
Next Julie removed a tiny microphone and mini video camera which she plugged in and set up next to the computer.
While they were setting up, Shiris turned on the computer and logged onto the Internet. She typed in a series of random letters, pressed enter, and waited. Immediately a blank screen came up.
"all set," she said to the others.
"yep, all set too," Julie replied, moving the video camera so it faced them.
Shiris typed in the word ALIENKAYORUROSE and pressed enter. That was their secret password. Each girl had picked one of the words in it, and not even the people who worked at the agency knew it. only they could access the top-secret direct link to doctor Jane.
She popped up onto the screen, face stern.
"girls, what happened?" she asked immediately. News traveled fast in the spy world, and she already knew all about the incident at the minister. What she didn't know was who they had met.
"well, we hit some obstacles,' Shiris said vaguely.
"some very…interesting obstacles," Julie added.
"doctor Jane, we were proceeding as planned with the mission.," Mayumi contributed, "Everything was going smoothly until we…uh….kind of…met, I guess you could say, three boys who had the same exact mission directives as we did." Jane only raised an eyebrow in response. She had no idea who they could mean.
"well, anyway, the one who burst in on me just as I was about to get the information, ended up shooting Charkovky in the head before I could elicit anything from the assistant Minster. After that, we all regrouped. Julie managed to get the password for the computer, but I'm sure it's already been changed. Shiris didn't get any information either because the guard she had chosen to use turned out to be on of the boys who worked for the organization. He had chosen her to use to get information."
"And what organization did they work for?" Jane asked, a little tone filtering into her voice. She had an inkling of suspicion, but…
"The federation," Mayumi stated, and the three watched Jane's face go slack with shock.
"The Federation?" She hissed, eyes narrowing. "That bastard. He must have…god! How could they have known about it? I took so many precautions…" the girls looked at each other. Jane was mumbling to herself, not even glancing at them. Then her head snapped back to them, her face composed once again. Only her eyes betrayed how angry she was.
"Girls, you did as best you could. It was those men who ruined it."
Julie and Shiris began to protest while Mayumi nodded in agreement, but Jane continued quickly.
"Okay. where are you now? What's your status?"
"We're in a mall bathroom. Hotel is gone, we have all our luggage. Awaiting further instruction," Mayumi responded.
"Hmm…" Jane looked down, typing something on her computer. "Okay…okay…I see…okay." she looked back up, face determined.
"First, I want you to go inspect one of the minister's suspect sites for the creation of weapons of mass destruction. Get to Moscow and contact me from there. Basically, I want you to get evidence that proves the fact that weapons are being built down there. That will put him out of business for good. But it will be very dangerous. It will be extremely well protected, and getting into there will be difficult. After you send us pictures, we'll take care of the rest."
"And what would that mean?" Mayumi asked suspiciously.
"Just make sure you get yourselves out of there after you let us know what is down there," Jane ordered, not saying anything else. The girls were puzzled. Jane always told them everything about the mission.
"Is that clear?" she asked.
"Yes," they all replied, very warily. This mission sounded like it could turn out worse than their last one.
"Good. Contact me as soon as you get to Moscow."
"Yes ma'am," they chorused.
"Okay. Until then, be careful. Goodbye." Her face blipped off the screen.
"Well, we better get changed into normal clothes," Julie suggested after the computer had been turned off.
"What did she mean; we better get out of there? What is the agency planning to do?" Shiris asked while putting on a pair of jeans.
"I have no idea. But we better follow her orders," Mayumi replied while lacing up her combat boots. "I've never seen her that upset,"
The others nodded in agreement.