“Rachel, stop tormenting the dog,” Heidi yelled over the sounds of the music blaring from the radio as she dried the last of the clean dishes and set it neatly in the kitchen cupboard. Heidi’s younger sister stopped fussing with her robotic pet to glare at her.

“I’m just trying to reprogram it,” Rachel yelled back.

“Can’t you reprogram it the normal way?” Heidi demanded, turning down the sound on the microstereo. “If you keep banging it on the head like that, you’ll blow its circuits or something.”

“It’s a learning process,” Rachel said huffily.

“It’s a machine.”

“This is the way the instructions said to do it,” Rachel answered defensively.

“Will you stop treating instructions like the Bible? It’s so much simpler to copy a program off the Internet in an hour than to use the touch sensors in the thing’s head and take a month to do it,” Heidi replied.

“Well, why don’t you do it?” Rachel snapped. “You’re the professional hacker in this family.”

“Because it’s your dog and your responsibility and you can do it almost as well as I can,” Heidi explained with exasperation.

“No, I can’t,” Rachel said as she picked up the robotic dog and moved in the general direction of the computer. “You know how computer illiterate I am.” She disappeared down the hall.

With a sigh, Heidi plopped herself down in a chair in the family room as she pulled her palm screen out of her pocket and started reviewing her most recent assignments.

“Angelfield,” she muttered, “June seventh, AD 2050.” She pulled up her personal calendar on the screen and glanced at the date. She growled to herself. “I haven’t had a decent assignment in eleven months,” she complained to no one in particular. “When are they going to remember I’m here and waiting?”

Rachel poked her head around the doorway into the room. “Feeling depressed because your precious EBAI has forgotten you?” she asked, somewhat tauntingly.

Heidi glared at her. “Don’t you have something to be doing?”

Rachel smiled innocently. “The computer is downloading my puppy’s data. It’s going to take a few minutes.”

Heidi’s glare only intensified. “Go away.”

Rachel looked hurt. “You know, you aren’t being very nice today. Maybe I should tell Mom and Dad when they get home.”

“And what are they going to do? They can’t do anything worse to me than what EBAI’s been doing for the past eleven months,” Heidi said, turning her palm screen off and returning it to her pocket.

Rachel stepped inside the room, looking worried. “You really are feeling depressed today, aren’t you?” she asked, seating herself in the chair next to Heidi’s. “Look, EBAI probably hasn’t gotten a hold of you recently because there’s no work that needs to be done at all. Maybe no one else has any assignments either.”

“Or else they’re all being given to Rapier Marlowe,” Heidi said darkly. She sat for a few moments without saying anything, and Rachel waited patiently for the inevitable outburst, which came several seconds later.

“What’s so special about Rapier?” Heidi said suddenly, standing up to pace. “He’s not even a very good hacker! He’s messed up more assignments than I can even count, but he’s still their first choice when they need someone to gather intelligence! He has such an utterly minuscule knowledge of stealth tactics and tracking technology that it’s amazing he ever got a job for EBAI as a hacker in the first place! All his expertise is in physical disguise and surveillance, not computer technology! He isn’t even on the Intelligence Team! But he’s older,” she added bitterly. “Older than me by a few measly months! They act as if I’m still a child. ‘We’ll give the easiest assignments to Heidi Farrell, because she’s not mature enough to handle anything difficult!’ I hate it!” Heidi kicked the leg of her chair viciously.

Rachel was staring at her in fascination. “How did you find out so much about this Rapier kid? You’ve never even met him.”

Heidi turned to glare at her sister. “I hacked into EBAI’s mainframe and found his records, that’s how.”

Rachel looked impressed. “Then this guy must really be bothering you. You never hack into EBAI, no matter what.”

Heidi sat in the chair again and put her head in her hands, running her fingers though the short brunette hair that curled around her ears. “Yes, he’s bothering me. He’s a threat to my station in EBAI! I’m a senior in computer intelligence, and yet the assignments that should rightfully be mine are being given to a junior in disguise and surveillance! It’s like one of those puzzles – ‘guess how many things are wrong with this picture’!”

“Hey,” Rachel said sympathetically, “maybe you should do something about it. Why don’t you just talk to the director of EBAI and tell him what your problem is? Maybe he’ll tell you why he hasn’t been assigning you recently.”

“I’ve tried that,” Heidi said, depressed. “The director insists that information like that is ‘classified,’ and that I don’t have access to it.”

“But you’re a senior!” Rachel exclaimed, confused.

“So?” Heidi demanded. “He’s the director of the Elite Branch of American Intelligence. He’s the one who manages my privileges, which apparently don’t include access to classified information, even if it involves me.”

“That is absolutely not cool,” Rachel said, her forehead wrinkling in thought and worry. Heidi noticed this and stood up, stretching her muscles to dispel her bad mood.

“Look, Rachel,” she said. “Don’t mind me; I’m just in a bad mood today, okay? Teenage hormones and all that.” She tried a half-hearted smile.

Rachel stood up as well. “Yeah,” she agreed, “the computer is probably finished downloading my puppy’s data. I should go find a program to install.”

“And you also have studying to do,” Heidi added. “You have a history test on Monday, and you need to bring your grade up.”

“You know, I’m so jealous of you,” Rachel sighed. “You’re only sixteen and you’ve already graduated from Yale.”

“Yes, I know,” Heidi said with a small laugh. “You’ve told me enough times before. Now go and reprogram your dog. You should install some sort of trivia program, to help you study your history.”

“Ha, ha,” Rachel replied sarcastically, heading out of the room. “Very funny.”

“I’m going to be leaving for work soon,” Heidi said, following her out of the room and down the hall to the study. “I have a meeting at noon that I can’t miss. I probably won’t be home until late tonight, so I want you in bed by nine o’clock. Mom and Dad get back from the Caribbean on Tuesday, and if they find out that I haven’t been making you get to bed as early as I was supposed to, they’ll skin me alive.”

“And why should I do that? I’m twelve, for crying out loud. Shouldn’t I be allowed to stay up later?” Rachel complained, seating herself in front of the computer.

“You should do it because if you don’t, I’ll skin you,” Heidi replied. “If you get me in trouble with Mom and Dad...” She left the sentence hanging.

“...It will be my extraordinary accomplishment of the week, and I’ll be very proud of myself,” Rachel finished, giving her sister an impish smile.

Heidi stuck her tongue out. “Brat.” She turned to leave the room again. “I’m going to get ready. Will you be able to find something to eat today? I didn’t make anything this morning, so you’ll have to find something in the leftovers.”

“Ick,” Rachel said. “Freeze-dried.” Heidi shook her head and went upstairs to get ready.

After a quick shower, Heidi dried her hair with a towel and put her suit on. As she fiddled with her gold tie, she examined her appearance in the mirror, making sure that her dry-cleaned black pants had no lint on them and that her white blouse had been ironed properly. Deciding, like she did everyday, that the tie was a lost cause, she laid it in her dresser drawer and picked up her black blazer. She slipped it in as she made her way downstairs, where she took her briefcase out of the entryway closet and fished her car keys out of the pocket of her windbreaker.

“I’m leaving,” Heidi shouted in Rachel’s general direction as she opened the front door.

“Good riddance,” Rachel shouted back.

“See you tonight, brat,” Heidi replied and closed the door behind her. She stood for a moment, taking in the fresh, Saturday-morning air and the sunshine that lit her expansive front yard. Then, with determination, she unlocked the door of her car and got inside, starting up the engine and pulling out of the driveway with excited determination.

Today was the Intelligence Team’s yearly review meeting. Rapier Marlowe had been stealing her assignments, and today Heidi would find out why.