"In here," I called to Athena. I walked into an empty shop called "SF Garments." I told Athena I had just Googled it, but all C.D.A.D.U.O. agents knew the local and global "outposts." Outposts were where agents could gather supplies and information. Or, if they were in trouble and had a problem, they could do whatever they needed to do. In this case, I lead Athena to the closest outpost so that I could get reactivated as an agent and pick some supplies up.

"Welcome," a woman called from behind a counter. Her shawl was sunshine yellow with little cats on it. Plastic, blue fox earrings hung lazily from her ear holes. A pink scarf held her stringy hair in a bundle. In total, the whole effect was blinding. "Can I help you, ladies?" Her sweet, melodic voice registered strange in my mind. Something nagged at me; a distant memory of one of our first training as young C.D.A. recruits. I had a growing theory about this woman. But it was when she spoke these random words that my theory was confirmed. "How elegant are eels?"

Athena was taken aback by the odd question. "Uh-umm..." She turned away from the shopkeeper. 

I, however, walked up to her and shook her hand, saying in return, "Remarkably, eels can evade incredibly voracious elephant decapitations."

Athena, baffled and confused, let out a rather loud "Huh?"

To an ordinary person, the shopkeeper of SF Garments, and I had had a rather odd exchange. Again, I wasn't normal, and neither was the shopkeeper. I had picked up on a message embedded in her odd words. The first letter of each word except for "are" spelled the word "Here." The "are" represented the "r" because it sounded like it. In my response, I had said "Received." When I shook her hand, I had slyly given her a necklace that I kept in my pocket for encounters like these. Each agent kept their own special object to hold information that is downloaded like a USB drive. My object was an old Air Force pendant necklace. The necklace is scanned with a hidden scanner embedded in the right-hand pointer finger.

The shopkeeper/C.D.A. agent flipped the necklace over in her palm and traced her right-hand index finger over the back of the pendant. She looked up at me and smiled. Her eyes danced from right to left as if reading words on a page. In fact, that must have been exactly what she was doing. Active C.D.A. agents wore Info-Lenses, which were contact lenses that showed information from the nail scanner, the internet, C.D.A.D.U.O. records, and basically anything else you would need. When an agent retired, their Info-Lenses were deactivated and they went into the "quiet life," also known as a regular person's life. Work, sleeping-in, neighbors, cute suburban houses, etc. At the moment, my Info-Lense was being reactivated, along with my status as an agent.

After a few moments, the shopkeeper's eyes slowed their movements. She blinked hard as if she was trying to bat sleep away. 

The information transfer must have been completed, for the shopkeeper handed my pendant back to me and said cheerily, "Welcome back...to SF Garments." 

I took the pendant and thanked here, noticing a blue flicker in my vision, as if a screen had just been turned on and was struggling to stay that way. Green text scrolled across my vision: Agent Mills, Loretta Cheyenne; Rank 5; Area=Frontlines. That confirmed my rejoining as a C.D.A.D.U.O. agent. A grin unwillingly spread across my face. Even after my past experiences I couldn't help but love my work. I walked off to join Athena in finding a dress...or more.

~~~~~~~

Athena had been browsing in the formal gown section, of course.

"Did you find anything?" I asked her.

"How about this one?" Athena held up a fluffy, dark blue gown. I couldn't help but giggle.

I snorted. "Sure," I replied, trying not to choke on the words.

She narrowed her eyes and put her free hand on her hip. "Where's your sarcasm?"

I hadn't finished my sentence. "...If you want to look like a fairy in a corset."

Athena made a face at me and folded the bottom half--without much luck with all the poofiness--so that it wouldn't drag on the floor. "Find a dress while I change. I need your not-really-helpful advice." With that, she walked away to the dressing room.

When Athena was out of view, I walked up to the C.D.A. shopkeeper.

"Would you mind helping me find a ball gown?" I asked politely. No, we do not always use code.

"Of course," the agent replied. She lead me over to an off the shoulder, sky blue gown that was splattered with gold flowers and kept tight from the waist-up, stretching out elegantly to the floor, creating a bubble around the feet. "I think you'd like this one." She smiled smugly and walked away, heels clicking on the wood floor. 

I slipped my hand into the dress and pulled out a blank tag. There was no price or information. I stared at it as if willing something to appear. Nothing happened. But, when in doubt, use the nail scanner.

I traced my index finger over the blank tag in a criss-cross pattern. The recently reactivated Info-Lense in my eyes displayed flickering words and images. A women's voice filled my head via Audio-Info V7., which were like AirPods or hearing aids, but more compact and less visible.

"Welcome back, Agent Loretta C. Mills," she announced primly.

Glad to be back...kinda, I thought. Audio-Info V7. was controlled by outward thoughts, kind of like telepathic communication.

Okay, Metis. Let's get back in business.

"Got it. Here's what's up." Metis, my personal A-IV7, loaded information about the upcoming masquerade ball, which I already knew. 

Metis, is there anything I'm supposed to know about this dress?

"Uploading... Okay. The dress is equipped with weapon pockets, disarmers, more weapon-related things, bla bla bla. The 'usual' poofy ball gown."

Great. I took the dress off its rack and made my way to the dressing rooms, passing the C.D.A. shopkeeper. I had enough of calling her the shopkeeper, so I asked Metis to give me profile information on her.

"Recognizing face... The woman by the counter is agent 135739, Marian Meadow. Rank 3, Department of Worldwide Communication, Ears, and Eyes."

I kind of figured the department part out by her re-activating me and all. I closed the door of the empty stall closest to the entrance.

From somewhere down the dressing rooms hallway I heard Athena. "Loretta? Is that you?"

"Yup," I replied. Silence followed. I started to take the dress off the hangar. I have a fear of being exposed in public, so I always started by getting ready and then spent as little time as possible being undressed. 

From the entrance where I had just walked in, heavy boots clanked on the floor. As a secret agent, details like who walks in, what they're wearing, or what they say are crucial for gathering information and staying out of danger. I could be in a crowd of hundreds of people, and I would examine each one of them to analyze potential threats.

"Agent Mills, warm-up by training your ears," Metis advised from inside my head.

Okay, here goes nothin'. I listened to the heavy clanking of boots that clunked against the tile floor of the dressing room for a moment more while working on getting undressed. They sounded like they were pacing up and down the row of stalls along the wall. Back and forth, back and forth, before they stopped outside my stall. The clanking went silent. I'll put my money on...size eight feet, male, and six-foot-four in height. Am I right?

"Nice job! You were correct."

I internally congratulated myself. The size eight, six-foot-four man remained parked outside my stall, his tall shadow seeping onto the floor and into my stall via the gap in between the floor and the door. I also paused to stop the achingly loud ruffling of my clothes and listened. What was the man outside my stall doing? Just standing there? Waiting? For what?

And then, with a heavy metal clang, the door swung open and hit the stall wall; The man that had been lurking outside barged in, pressing a weapon against my forehead.

Aw cr--