Art Heist

It is quite possible that Mirella's sense of reality has become somewhat warped as a result of watching too many James Bond movies - or watching them too many times. She owned tapes of every movie ever made and watched them constantly.

Needless to say, those were her favorite films. There was, however, one aspect which got up her nose. The female agents who were sent by James Bond's enemies to destroy him, always succumbed to his charm. Those highly-trained, cold-blooded killing machines fell in love with James Bond and ended up abandoning their mission, betraying their cause or their country, disobeying their boss and thus damaging their career prospects.

For Mirella, this was a smear on the professionalism of female agents. She saw it as her role to set the record straight. She would be the female secret agent who would not be swayed by good looks and smooth talk. Mirella saw herself as the one who would bring the undefeated record of James Bond to an end.

She had already selected her undercover name and imagined the impact it would have when she handed over her business card reading

Vagina A. Plenty

Secret Agent

But then she realized that secret agents hardly handed out business cards stating their profession. However, they said things like 'The name is Bond, James Bond', so she pictured herself saying 'The name is Vagina, Vagina A. Plenty'. She didn't agree with people who said that this name was too obvious, both as far as it's single entendre was concerned, and for being too closely inspired by the character Pussy Galore. Besides, most people she knew had no idea what vagina meant. They used other words. Yes, pussy was amongst them, but it wasn't the word the majority of them would use. A complete stranger whom she once asked what he thought of when he heard the word 'vagina' replied "Would that be North Vagina or South Vagina?"

Another guy, one who had read loads of books, suggested she'd call herself Fay Latio. She had to look long and hard in the dictionary before she found what he meant. What use was a name if it took a cunning linguist to figure out what it means? Besides, she didn't want anybody to think she was just another cock sucker.

For the time being she was still working under her real name, Mirella Giovanna Castiglione, a name which betrayed her Italian roots. What she had inherited from her Italian ancestors was the full, dark hair which contrasted so distinctly with her alabaster skin. She was proud of her black hair which she wore long and full enough to cover her breasts completely when she looked at herself in the mirror. She spent hours brushing it so that it would be absolutely straight, with no unruly curls disturbing the picture, but she admitted that her hair didn't have the silky shine of that of the Thai girls she had once worked with during a short spell as a night club hostess.

She envied those girls for their smooth, shiny hair. But that was all she liked about them. Other than that she found them too submissive, too slavish almost. They would giggle when a customer put his paws on their tits and ass and say 'You very naughty man'. Mirella, on the other hand, didn't think it was part of her job to let the customer feel her up.

The job was about smiling a lot, being friendly and making the punter believe that he had a chance of bedding her. It was about getting him to order drinks and then some more drinks and, when he had spent more than he could afford, move on to the next one. So, when one evening an insistent customer grabbed her breasts, she removed his hand, first firmly but not without gentleness, then more forcefully and finally, when his hand returned for a third attempt, Mirella said, "Listen buster, if you don't keep your mitts off my tits I'll bust your balls".

That was the end of her career as a hostess. The 'little shit', as Mirella called him, had the nerve to complain to the manager and Mirella had to go. Threatening a customer was just not acceptable. The rule book stated clearly that the hostess had to remain calm and friendly under all circumstances. Only in extreme cases could she call on the security staff who would remove the offender from the premises. But the girls were advised not to call the bouncers too often; that could give the joint a bad rep.

Mirella wasn't worried about losing that job. It had never been intended as a carrier. It was just another step in her study of male weakness. The next day she walked into the offices of Walker, Taylor and Sons, one of the most reputable firms of private investigators in town, and told them that she was available to join their staff.

They liked the bare-faced boldness with which she confessed that she didn't have any experience in this field, her determination to achieve what she had set out to achieve and her willingness to do whatever necessary to get what she wanted, something Jim Taylor Jr. experienced on his own flesh. They called her 'goal-oriented'. She would have said it was her determination to survive.

-----

The part of town where Mirella grew up was considered a rough area. Concerned mothers would keep their daughters indoors for fear that something might happen to them. But Mirella used to hang out with the boys, joining them in their rough games and becoming almost accepted as an equal.

In those days, the scarcity of real estate and the resulting gentrification of areas which had previously been left to decay had not yet reached her part of town. There were plenty of empty warehouses and abandoned factory buildings which were used by shady elements to hide from the police. The children, oblivious to the subtleties of the law, found those derelict buildings an ideal place to hide from the scrutinizing eyes of the adults and to experience some adventures. They were a far cry from today's youth who seem to know adventure only from video games. It was in the shell of an abandoned sawmill that Mirella had her first smoke - and later her first kiss.

It was there that the kids re-enacted the key scenes of the movies they used to watch on Sunday afternoon. More often then not, these films featured a female beauty who fell into the hands of the baddies - be they a bunch of savage Indians or a gang of marauding bandits - only to be rescued by the handsome hero in the end. Mirella was inevitably called upon to play the beautiful heroine in scenes which involved her being thrown to the ground with a baddy lying on top of her, having her clothes torn off and being kissed against her will. The boys took turns in being the bad guy and the same scene was repeated several times with slight variations. There wasn't much interest in the role of the hero because all the good guy got in the end was a hug and a gentle kiss on the cheek. Mirella reasoned that if famous Hollywood actresses let this be done to them, why shouldn't she?

Mirella's mother didn't particularly care who she spent her free time with or what she got up to, but she got furious every time Mirella came home with torn and dirty clothes. So Mirella decided to take them off. She established herself in a room of the old factory which probably used to serve as an office and charged an entrance fee - after all, a girl needs some money for clothes and smokes - for letting the boys watch her undress.

Later, when her breasts had fully developed and hair had grown on her pubic mound, she charged extra for letting them touch her. Even later, when the boys had come to understand that the hard rods between their legs were made to be inserted into the slit between hers, and demanded more than she was willing to sell, she closed down her first ever business venture, saying "I'm no whore".

A few of the boys tried to take by force what they thought belonged rightfully to them, but she saw them off without hesitation. A short, sharp blow of her knee, aimed with precision between his legs had the attacker rolling on the floor, screaming in agony and clutching his testicles with his hands. She only had to do this twice, then word got around that she wasn't really worth the trouble and the boys left her in peace.

Other business ventures were to follow, the most profitable one was selling counterfeit designer clothes and accessories in the neighborhood. Mirella organized small gatherings and put on fashion shows where she paraded in the clothes she offered for sale. She looked so beautiful in those clothes; the women bought because they wanted to look like her and the men bought because they wanted their wives or girlfriends to look like Mirella. When they eventually put on the clothes and looked at themselves in the mirror, they saw that nothing much had changed.

They had forgotten that it was Mirella who made the clothes look attractive, not the clothes who made Mirella look good. In fact, Mirella had developed into such a beautiful young lady she could make sack cloth look fantastic. A figure like hers looked ravishing just wrapped in a sheet. To tell the truth, the fewer clothes she wore, the more attractive she looked. But the days when she'd take off her clothes for everybody's gratification had long gone.

The one who eventually got to see her in all her naked glory was a young man who called himself Rocky because he thought that name combined well with the tough-guy image he tried to create for himself. He had done a short spell of boxing but had given it up before the sport could leave its marks on his handsome face. Mirella fell for his broad muscular shoulders and matching chest. He was a man she could submit to without feeling she had sold herself too cheaply. Any remaining resistance melted away when he put his strong arms around her, when he kissed her, lifted her up like a box of matches and carried her to his bed. He drove her crazy when he thrust his hard cock into her cunt again and again and she bit her lips in order not to scream when her orgasm took control of her body.

After a few weeks of what seemed like non-stop fucking, only interrupted by the need to eat, to get some sleep and to earn a little money, Rocky suggested she was fucking so well, she could turn pro and he would be her manager. Nothing sleazy, of course, he would take care of that. Only first class VIP customers. She would be picked up by chauffeur-driven limousines and taken to five-star hotels, she would probably earn generous tips on top of her sizable fee.

Mirella's entire body shook when she realized he wasn't joking. She said "I'm no whore". But spitting out these words didn't diminish the rage she was feeling and the words didn't get through to Rocky who babbled on about the easy life they would be leading, the fast cars they would drive, the expensive clothes they would wear, the exotic places they would travel to.

"I'm nobody's fucking whore," she said quite a bit louder and angrier than the first time. But even this couldn't make her anger recede and Rocky continued to try to convince her that there was nothing wrong with being a prostitute. She couldn't cut the flow of words from his mouth, so she decided to cut him. She slashed him repeatedly with his own flick-knife, the one he always carried on him. His injuries weren't life-threatening, but serious enough for him to never want to come near her again. Enough for no pretty girl ever to want to kiss his scar-marked face.

The idea of letting anyone who had enough money to pay for it fuck her, horrified Mirella. She wasn't on a mission to eradicate prostitution from the face of the earth - if others wanted to do it, that was their choice. She was also realistic enough to know that people like her had to sell themselves sometimes to get what they wanted, she just couldn't see herself doing it professionally, on a regular basis.

-----

Mirella felt that her experiences had hardened her enough not to fall for the sweet talk of any man and as a first step to joining the secret service she wanted to become a private investigator. Walker, Taylor and Sons considered her application carefully and offered her a job as a trainee.

Something that Mirella didn't know and most members of the public aren't immediately aware of is that firms of private investigators often have two distinct lines of business. There is the official activity which most people are familiar with because it is frequently portrayed in films and television programs. It involves spying on unfaithful husbands or wives and providing evidence of their trespasses, searching for missing persons or finding the true responsible for a crime on behalf of friends or relatives of a wrongfully accused.

Even in the conduct of these activities investigators sometimes crossed that fine line between the legal exercise of their profession and the infringement of other citizens' rights by entering premises without permission, obtaining information under false pretenses or putting pressure on people who were - for whatever reason - reluctant to talk. But as these excesses were frequently shown in fiction as necessary in the pursuit of a higher goal, breaking the law became part of the normal profile of a private investigator, just as lying to their people about the imminent threat posed by foreign nations was part of the profile of a President or Prime Minister.

The second, unofficial line of business, which Walker, Taylor and Sons called 'Covert Operations', lay almost exclusively on the other side of that line which divides legal from illegal activities. There was no longer any pretence of seeing that justice be done or working for the common good. Covert Operations undertook missions on behalf of individuals or corporations which served exclusively their interests and to hell with justice.

This might involve finding out about the acquisition plans of an industry giant, because the takeover of a smaller competitor usually happened at a price significantly above that at which the shares changed hands before the takeover, and anyone purchasing such shares, say a week before the official announcement, was ensured of making a sizable profit in the process. Or it might involve finding out the exact composition of a new product to allow a competitor to launch his version of that product simultaneously. Finally, there were the cases where an eager newcomer to a market needed to be persuaded to reduce his efforts to increase his market share, efforts which could only serve to introduce turbulence into an otherwise settled market.

Walker, Taylor and Sons felt that Mirella, being such an attractive female and having demonstrated determination and the ability to take some unconventional causes of action, even if that meant breaking a few rules, was particularly suited for Covert Operations. It was Jim Taylor Jr. who broke the news to her. Mirella was pleasantly surprised that the job title of 'trainee' wasn't just a euphemism for assigning her to menial tasks. They were actually going to put her through an intensive training program where she would learn all the required skills.

When Mirella arrived at the appointed room for her first day of training, there were already several men and two women sitting around a large table. The only person she had met before was Jim Taylor Jr. and she assumed that all the others were trainees, just like her. She was quite surprised to hear that everybody in the room was a tutor, coach or advisor on a specific aspect of her new job and that all of them were here to train her and only her.

Jim Taylor Jr. explained that she would normally be trained by one or two Agents at a time, he had just called everybody together for the first session to give her a chance to meet them. Other Agents would be called to cover specific areas as the need arose.

The purpose of the first session was to give her an overview of how Covert Operations worked and to outline the overall training program. He - simply called 'the Boss' by most Agents, but Mirella could also address him as Jim Jr. or simply JJ - was her main coach and responsible for the finished product. He would accompany her through all the steps of the training to monitor her progress and would later brief her on each assignment. Then he introduced the other people in the room.

There were Agent Bob, Agent Frank, Agents Sue and Trish, Agent Steve and Agent Clive, and that was exactly how she had to address them, never just by their name, but always with the word Agent in front, while she, until she became an Agent herself, would be called simply Mirella by everybody. Each of these Agents had been called because they would contribute with their special area of knowledge to Mirella's training.

Next, Jim Jr. proceeded to clarify some of the most frequently used terms. Mirella was being trained for 'front office duty', which meant that she was going to be in direct contact with the informants. 'Informant' was the person who supplied, usually without knowing it, the information their sponsor wanted. 'Sponsor', finally, was the person or organization who had contracted Walker, Taylor and Sons for a particular service, in other words, the one who paid everybody's salary. Needless to say, the Agents were never told who the sponsor for their assignment was.

Before each assignment, there would be a detailed briefing to tell her what exactly the sponsor was after. She would also get all the information they had collected about the informant, his habits, his lifestyle, etc. so they could decide on the best strategy for achieving their goal.

The assignment itself consisted of three phases: Approach, Execution and Disengagement. Her training would cover each of these phases in great detail, but to clarify one thing up front: Approach did not mean that Mirella would take the initiative to make contact with the informant. She would simply create the opportunity for the informant to approach her. In this respect, Mirella, being such an attractive female and most informants being male, had a distinct advantage. Agents Sue and Trish would coach her on approach strategies and techniques. Execution simply meant getting hold of the information and once that had been achieved, Mirella would have to find a way of terminating the contact without the informant becoming suspicious. This was what Disengagement was about.

When Mirella asked whether all the people in the room were part of Covert Operations, Jim Jr. told her that the information she requested wasn't part of her training program. She understood immediately: he told her this was none of her business. But as she had brought up the subject, this would be a good point to tell her a few basic safety guidelines.

Although most informants were completely unaware that they were being tricked into supplying important confidential information, it could not be ruled out that in some cases they might become suspicious or even try to outsmart the Agent. Because of this risk, there were a few basic guidelines on how Mirella could protect herself and other Agents against possible enemies. Most of these rules were almost common sense and applied to anyone, not just to Agents.

Rule number one dealt with caution against being double-crossed. It meant never to put oneself in a position where one was at the mercy of the informant and would be unable to escape from a possible attack. A special case of this rule dealt with drinks. Never accept a drink if you haven't seen it being poured, and even if you have seen it, only accept it if your host pours his drink from the same bottle.

Rule number two dealt with concealing one's real identity. Agents had to keep their real identity secret, even to casual friends and acquaintances. For each assignment they were given a specific identity as part of the briefing which would include name and profession of parents, schools attended, job history, places where they had lived, etc. Some assignments would require them to move into another apartment which would be arranged for this particular purpose.