"Corey!" Nadine spluttered.

"I get to go on a top secret mission with you!" said Corey, giving her that adorable lopsided grin.

Nadine didn't know whether she wanted to hug him real right for being so sweetly dumb, or be exasperated that he would want to go blindly into danger.

She breathed through her nose. "On a mission…!" She shook her head. "Corey, it's too dangerous. You've got no idea what going on a mission means. You can't come." She would have said that she was raped repeatedly by an ogre on her last mission, but she didn't want to upset him. He didn't need to know that the super-fertile chaos ogre had put a lot of his seed into her and even smeared his shit on her face.

Corey's face fell mournfully and Nadine felt her insides squirm with guilt at seeing him disappointed. She bit her lip, but had to be firm.

"Overruled," said Isla smirking. "Young Corey has to start somewhere. And I'm sure you both agree that he couldn't do it in better company."

Nadine glared at Isla.

Isla turned to Corey. "Don't worry. Nadine's just being a sourpuss. I believe you're ready for your first mission. I'm certain Nadine can't tell you a good reason why you shouldn't go."

Isla was making Nadine the bad guy?! The nerve… Nadine covered her face with her hands.

Corey came up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. His soft touch made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. He was such a silly thing… "Don't be sad, Nadine. I want to go with you and make you proud."

"You wouldn't want him to go on a mission with anyone less qualified," said Isla. "That could be dangerous."

There was an implied threat in that. Nadine knew, with a hopeless sinking feeling, that she had to capitulate.

00O00

Nadine took over Corey's target practice for the following week. She tried a different technique with getting him to aim, placing her hands on his shoulders and whispering encouragingly in his ear. Funnily enough, he improved immensely in a short time.

"This gun's real powerful," he said as he fired a cougar magnum at a tree stump that served as the target in the indoor jungle.

"That's loads better, honey," said Nadine, pleased. She hugged him in congratulations, stroking his downy, blond hair.

00O00

Corey was thrilled that he and Nadine would be going on a long mission together. Travelling with Nadine was so much better than having to share a dorm with a crowd of mean novices that it was like a happy dream.

Before they left, Isla ran them through the special gadgets they would be using. For some reason, Nadine seemed uncharacteristically tetchy around Isla. Why was that? Corey noticed Nadine glaring at her with those big, brown eyes. Did Nadine hold a grudge about something. Isla held up a gadget shaped like a lipstick.

"Plastex lipstick – explosive plastex disguised as simple lipstick," said Isla, handling it to Nadine.

She handed them goggles shaped like cats eyes. "Cat's eye night vision goggles. Guaranteed to make you see in the dark." Isla lifted up a rubber suit with a glass visor. It looked like it was meant to fit Nadine. There were spaces for her boobs. "This is a splunking suit. It can recycle air so you can swim underwater in submerged caves indefinitely. There is one for the young man too."

Corey was excited.

Isla held up a little red bug in her thumb and forefinger. "This is a technotick. Useful little robobug to have in various predicaments. And this one is pretty basic." Isla held up a round gun. "A pellet sprayed, for wild beasts, giant crustaceans and the like. It should be a deterrent. I know Nadine's too soft to kill things, even creeping things like crabs or spiders."

Nadine glared at her again. "I won't kill if it can be avoided." She sounded angry. Why was she in such a bad mood? It wasn't like her at all. She had always been in a good temper before the day Isla announced the two of them would be going on a mission together. What had happened to Nadine that Corey did not know about, and what had Isla had to do with it?

"Then there's a stronger deterrent. A stun-stick," said Isla, holding up a pair of metal sticks. "These deliver a mild shock on impact.

When they had their gadgets together they were all set. They got to travel by private jet, then by a private cruise ship. Corey had his own cabin – luxury! He didn't have to be in a crowded dorm with the novices anymore. But when it came down to it, being in his own cabin was a bit lonely, so he went to Nadine's cabin for comfort.

She looked really stunning in her blue, silk gown which just revealed the rounded treasures of her breasts. Well really, she looked stunning in everything. Completely comfortable in her presence, he laid his head on her lap and looked up at the beautiful, freckled face as she smiled down at him. Her cascade of thick, dark hair tumbled all around him, tickling his face. It was so restful, and yet so arousing to be close to her like this. She stroked his hair and told him stories of her past missions. On one mission she had been surrounded in a cave by troglodytes who had made her take part in the ritual of the arrow. Basically giving her a head start to run before they hunted her with their bows and arrows. She had outwitted them by hiding in an underground river, using a little wooden tube to breathe.

"Didn't your husband have a problem with you doing such dangerous and cool things?" he asked, gazing up at her in awe.

She sighed. "He did… I wonder if that's a reason we grew apart. In the end, he found comfort in the arms of a geisha girl, dressed in oriental style, then left me." Nadine's luscious bottom lip quivered. Corey reached up and touched her freckled cheek. "He was stupid. Anyone would be an idiot to leave you."

She smiled, crinkling her freckled nose. "You're so unbelievably cute."

00O00

They landed at a Dark Moon base on an island in the Diamond Sea. After a respite, they were taken by another boat, this one black so that it wouldn't be seen when it dropped them off at the Isle of the Dawn at night. That was island they would find the stolen heart of Arctur the hero.

At night, the Diamond Sea glittered with the countless reflected stars in the clear night sky. The full moon cast a silver path of light across the water. The sea looked so beautiful, like its name. They stood on the deck, the salty tang of the sea on their lips. The shape of the island with its rugged mountains loomed closer. Nadine looked sort of pale.

"This is it," Nadine said softly. The island and the prospect of their mission ahead were so ominous that they both felt they had to speak in hushed voices. "Now it's important to remember…" Suddenly she clapped her hands to her mouth, retching. She looked pale in the moonlight. Her freckles were really showing. She leaned over the side of the boat and vomited.

Corey laid a hand on her back as she barfed again. "A-Are you alright?" he said anxiously.

She straightened up and tried to smile reassuringly, though she was pale, clammy and trembling. "Don't you worry, darling."

Her breath was foul with vomit. Was she seasick?

The boat dropped them off in a little, sandy cove. Corey had fantasised about this a lot. Dreamed about it… dreamed about himself and Nadine on a private island together. He wondered what it would be like to make love to her on a beach. He sighed to himself. Could she ever really be into him, like that? Somehow, he doubted it. She was a super-cool, older lady, and a super-spy. She was out of his league. What could possibly make her want to be an item with him? What mitigating factor could there possibly be at this or any time? Corey couldn't think of anything, but perhaps you can.

They crept into a cave in the cove, the crashing of the tide echoing eerily around them. The cave walls gleamed with bioluminescence. The shimmering lights cast weird colours over Nadine's pale face, making her look pink, then red, then for some reason green… what could be the significance of that? They held hands as they crept deeper into the cave, which opened onto a tunnel. From here, they intended to find a way to get onto the island undetected. The tunnel opened out into a cavern with a stalagmites and stalactites and a still pool of water.

Suddenly, they heard a scuttling sound, and a giant crab sidled into view. It was bright red and clacked at them threateningly.

"Let's try out our pellet sprayers?" suggested Corey, interested to see how that particular gadget worked.

Nadine nodded and they sprayed pellets at the crab, making it sidle off and into the pool, where it sat just below the surface of the clear water.

"That did it," said Corey.

Suddenly he felt something sting his cheek and then something else sting his cheek as well. He grabbed at it and turned to see a much larger giant crab. He had grabbed its antennae. It had hit him on the cheek with them. Now it clacked its claws threateningly, reaching out for him.

"Get away from my boy, shellfish!" screamed Nadine. She whacked the crab very hard with her stun-stick. There was a buzzing sound as the force of the blow imparted an electric shock to the crab, which sidled dizzily away.

Nadine checked Corey over anxiously, cupping his face in her hands. "Are you alright, sweetie?"

"Um… fine."

Her brown eyes gazed into his. Her freckled face still looked pale and sickly. She started fussing over him. "Hold on… you've got sand on your jacket." She licked her finger and wiped determinedly on his jacket. "There!" She grinned at him. "Don't you look handsome?"

Um… why was she acting like a mom? Was she going to be a mother, or something? She was acting like pregnant ladies who get hormonal and start acting really maternal to random people. Nadine acting motherly… throwing up… what was going on with her?

They made their way from the cave, down the winding tunnels. They came to a crossroad, whether the tunnels branched in all four directions.

All of a sudden, Nadine caught his arm. Her face was eerily pale in the near darkness. Her brows drew together in worry. "I can hear something…"

So could Corey. Something like a rushing sound… no, a pattering sound. A pattering, or a scuttling?

Suddenly a mass of giant, red bugs rushed down all the tunnels and surrounded them. Corey's first shocked impression was that they were giant crabs, but no… they were huge red ants. Giant ants with crude, flint spears. Giant ants surrounding the two of them and staring at them with blank, compound eyes, their mandibles clicking ominously…