Touching down in Nice, Stephanie collected her luggage and then went to the hire car desk. "Do you have a reservation for Miss Lang?" She asked, checking the false name on her passport. "Here you are Miss. You'll find the car in the rental car park outside, space C seven." Stephanie thanked the rental employee and headed for the car park. "The team have got me a nice car." thought Stephanie as she loaded her suitcase into the boot of the Mercedes-Benz E class saloon. After following the directions to the autostrada, Stephanie turned south. The drive to Monaco was uneventful, but blew the cobwebs out as the crisp Alpine air blew in the open window. Stephanie drew up at the Maison D'or Hotel in Monte Carlo, handed the keys to a valet and entered the lobby, her case being brought in by a porter. "Your room is ready Miss Lang." The receptionist said. "Please follow the bellboy, you are in room 35." Stephanie headed for the elevator, and traveled up to the third floor. After tipping the bellboy, Stephanie relaxed onto the bed. She was woken by the sound of her mobile phone, and looking at her watch, was surprised to notice she had slept until nearly lunchtime. "Morning Sugar," Milo's voice came over the phone. "Been hunting for a boat for you. Seems Network Solutions have hired a yacht for entertaining clients during the Monaco Grand Prix. It's been moored in Monte Carlo harbor for four weeks, and the Grand Prix was last weekend. Daniel says you can look around, but be discreet. See you when you get back."

Stephanie hung up, then headed to the restaurant for lunch. Afterwards she walked along the shore, looking for a yacht which matched the photo sent to the screen of her phone. After twenty minutes or so she spotted it, moored in the bay, inaccessible except by boat. An expensive prison, mused Stephanie. Stephanie spent the afternoon in the Japanese Gardens, which were overlooked by her hotel. At dusk She dined in a small seafood restaurant near the harbor. Just as night was falling Stephanie opened the compartment in the bottom of her suitcase and extracted the contents, laying them on the hotel bed. To be a good agent you had to think like a criminal, and Stephanie was a very good agent. The lockpicks and knife glinted by light from the ceiling as Stephanie screwed the silencer onto her ASP pistol. Stephanie pulled her swimming costume on, and slipped the shoulder holster over it. The pistol was placed in the holster, and fitted snugly under her arm. The lockpicks and knife were slipped into pouches on her belt. She then pulled on the wetsuit, taking care nothing snagged on the material. Being a wetsuit for swimming, it was thinner than diving suits and was more prone to rips. Stephanie tested the garrotte wire hidden in her watch, and satisfied that all was well, pulled on her leather trenchcoat and boots and headed for the marina.

Unseen behind an expensive looking yacht, Stephanie shed the coat and boots and lowered herself into the water, careful to make as little sound as possible. Stephanie swam with long easy strokes towards the target yacht, it'd lights reflecting off the mirror smooth ocean. The lights of the city and the other boats in the harbour made swimming undetected impossible if the lookout was keen. Fortunately for Stephanie, no alarm had been raised when she reached the yacht, and climbing on the boat deck, noticed the small launch tied to it. This meant everyone was aboard. Stephanie unzipped her wetsuit,drew her gun and headed towards the cabin door. There were four men in the main lounge, there was a card game going on. Deciding not to disturb them, Stephanie opened the hatch that led to the crew cabin. Finding no-one there Stephanie had no option but to disturb the game. There was no other access to the front cabins. She crept into the room, and silently side-stepped to the stairs to the master stateroom, the edge of the galley shielding her from the guards. Again the cabin was empty, and Stephanie began to think she had the wrong boat, until she saw the machine guns on the sideboard. Sure she had the correct yacht, Stephanie climbed back into the lounge. Just as she reached the galley one of the men left the game and headed towards her. Instinctively Stephanie pulled the garrotte wire from her watch and wrapped it round the man's throat. The guards cut-off yelp roused the others and they piled into the galley, firing as they came. The garrotted guard took three bullets as Stephanie used him as a human shield, returning fire. Five bullets were ejected from her gun and the remaining guards fell, with entry wounds in their heads, necks, or abdomens. The gun battle lasted all of thirty seconds but now four men were dead. Releasing her hold on the now-dead guard, Stephanie tidied up, laying sheets from the cabins over the bodies. Moving to the front cabin, Stephanie, confident of no further resistance, opened the door. Cowering on the floor alongside the bed, was a young girl with flame red hair. Her brown eyes were full of tears as she looked up at Stephanie. "Come on." Stephanie said, holding out her hand. The two women walked back through the lounge to the boat deck, where Stephanie untied the launch. "Get in." The girl numbly obeyed. Stephanie started the motor, and the boat headed towards the shore. Retrieving her clothes from the jetty, Stephanie escorted the girl back to the hotel, and up to her room. "Take a bath Katie," She said "you'll feel better." "How do you know my name?" asked the girl. "I'll explain when you're ready. The bathroom's in there." Stephanie pointed to the door in the corner and then picked up the phone. "Room service."

Katie emerged from the bathroom clad in the hotel's courtesy robe. Her hair hung wetly down to the middle of her back. Before she could say anything there was a knock at the door. Stephanie opened it and a hall porter entered with a tray of food. After the porter left Stephanie, seeing the questions written on Katie's face, began her explanation. After she was finished Katie asked "Can I see my father?" and "Where are my clothes?" "We don't have your father," Stephanie answered "and your clothes are in the laundry, they'll be back before breakfast. In the meantime you can borrow mine." Katie rummaged through the suitcase and pulled on a nightdress. "Being taller than me, nothing else will fit." She said. Stephanie looked at Katie properly for the first time. She was shorter than herself, about 5' 6" . The file said she was 19 years old, and her brown eyes, now free from tears, were large and fawn-like. "We'll pick up some new stuff tomorrow." Stephanie said. "Nowhere better than Monaco for shopping." Katie yawned and lay down on the bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.

The following morning Stephanie and Katie, dressed in the jeans and t-shirt she had worn throughout her ordeal, went shopping. Store after store they visited, until they arrived back at the hotel with an armfull of bags adorned with fashion house logos. Stripping out of the clothes she was wearing and tossing them to Stephanie, Katie cut the labels off her new gear as she put it on. Red lace bra and panties, Versace jeans and shirt, and Gucci sandals. The other outfit she bought was loaded into the Mercedes along with Stephanie's case and the girls drove off towards Nice, the airport, and home. Both girls slept on the flight and for most of the ride to Cube 1, after being collected from the airport in a Cube people carrier. After the debriefing Stephanie asked Katie where she was staying. "I could go back to school, but your boss wants to put me in a safe house somewhere. I don't want that." "Daniel says I can stay with you. It's in a quiet part of town and no-one will know you're there, so you'll be perfectly safe." Stephanie led the way through the underground cavern, through the building above it and into the car park.

The drive to the safe house was silent. Stephanie showed Katie into one of the rooms and went into the kitchen. By now it was six o'clock, and Stephanie began to cook dinner. Katie appeared and set the table, after they were finished the cleaning up, and their second bottle of wine, the girls headed towards their rooms. Stephanie was in her underwear when she became aware of someone watching her. She turned around to find Katie standing in the doorway, in the nightdress she had worn the previous night. "I wanted to thank you for saving my life." said Katie. Before Stephanie could answer Katie walked up to her and kissed her. The girls split apart and Katie said "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." Katie made to leave, but Stephanie pulled her back, and kissed her, their tounges exploring each other's mouths. The girls remained locked together as Katie's hands squeezed Stephanie's buttocks and lifted her onto the bed.

Stephanie went back to work the following morning, leaving Katie in the flat. Daniel came to see her shortly after 10am. "We have tracked Dr. Anderson to an ex-Russian chemical weapons plant in Siberia. The Russians have been selling off hardware and weapons to boost their ailing economy. We don't know yet who's running this plant, and that's what you're going to find out. There's no point using commercial travel, so a jumpship fitted with long range fuel tanks will drop you as close as possible. You leave this afternoon." With that Daniel turned, and headed towards his office. Stephanie's locker held the Arctic gear she would require, and she quickly suited up. There was a thick white sweatshirt and trousers, a white flak jacket, white boots, snow goggles, thick gloves as well as fingerless gloves for dexterity, a large padded white polar anorak with hood, and a white balaclava. Once changed, Stephanie went to see Milo. "You're getting a new watch Stephanie." he said as she walked in. "An improved version of that Omega we gave you. Take it off." Stephanie did as she was told, placing the watch on a cloth on the desk. "Now this," Milo continued "I'm really proud of. Stainless Steel Rolex Submariner, contains a standard garotte wire of course. Since Dr. Anderson has a locator card on him, I've built a GPS tracker into the watch. The bezel rotates like a compass, pointing towards the signal. It's activated by pushing down on the bezel like so." Milo demonstrated the device, and the bezel of the Rolex swung round, the hour marker pointing at Stephanie. Milo pushed the bezel again, and the locator deactivated. "One final gadget is a self-destruct. Use the timer on the watch, and when it reaches zero, bang. Contains enough explosive to open a safe, or a blast door." The equipment supplied for this mission also included a surveilance kit, binoculars, ASP silenced pistol etc. Stephanie climbed aboard the jump ship, and sat back in her seat. This would be a long flight.

The jump ship dropped Stephanie behind a small hill, out of view of the weapons plant. Climbing onto the ridge, Stephanie used her binoculars to survey the scene. The facility looked like an octopus on steroids. There were pipes wound around, between, and sometimes through the small buildings spread around the complex, ringing the central, two storey, command building. Barbed wire and chain link fencing surrounded the compound, including the aircraft hanger at the end of a runway carved from the ice. Stephanie crept closer, darting quickly between outcrops of ice, she reached the fence undetected. Cutting a hole, Stephanie slipped through the shadows towards the main building. Activating the GPS tracker built into her watch, Stephanie headed in the indicated direction. There were few people about, and those that were paid more attention to the machinery, and keeping warm, than to her, so she reached the control room with minimal fuss. Hiding in a small store room, Stephanie pulled the surveilance kit from her pocket. Using the fiber optic camera to see through the heating vent, She started the minidisc recording, and watched the action. The room beyond contained Dr. Anderson, a guard, and a man wearing a General's uniform. "General Mishkin," Dr. Anderson began. "Why am I here? What does the Russian military want with me?" Mishkin spoke in fluent English. "Calm yourself Doctor. The Russians don't want you. The spray you will develop is for a business deal. This is a private facility. Here we have everything you need to continue your work. Now if you'll excuse me, you really should get back to work."

Mishkin motioned to the guard, who pushed Dr. Anderson through the door, and out of Stephanie's eyesight. Mishkin sat down at a desk, and lifted the phone. After a few seconds he began speaking, again in English. "The Doctor has settled in, it should only be a matter of time before the merchandise is ready for our South American friends."

Stephanie packed up her surveillance gear and stole out of the building. "Well I accomplished the mission goal." she thought. "This place is run by a General, privately, with the output being sold to South America, but in return for what?" She crossed the ice and ducked through the hole in the fence, before heading towards the pick up point.