Nate summoned Arena to the dojo after breakfast, announcing they would discuss the mission before her workout.

As far as Arena could tell, Nate never used his office. A pencil sat on his desk that had not moved since Arena arrived at the compound, and the rest of his office was empty except a few books. Lorna had decorated his nameplate with sparkly pink bow stickers, but Arena was sure Nate left those up on purpose. Lorna claimed that she put them on Sterling and Anita’s nameplates, too, but they had quickly disappeared.

"What we did was pretty standard. Either our target has intel, or we do, and we exchange it.” Nate tossed her a medicine ball, then motioned for her to toss it back. “Sometimes you acknowledge the person, sometimes you don't. It depends on the situation and how you can get away with it. And sometimes it depends on the agent. I personally like to acknowledge my contacts, as I did last night. In that sort of situation, walking into somebody probably happens often, because there were so many people in the room. I like situations like that, and I tend to set up meets in that way. Some agents prefer meeting in secret, though. Some like switching it up."

"What about Lorna?" asked Arena.

Nate chuckled. "Well, looking at the record of the feed, I saw Lorna pull one of her favorite tricks. She likes to completely throw people off balance. They notice her, which goes against most training, but think she's either a klutz or an idiot. I've only worked with the Misfits for about six months, but I've seen Lorna trip people, write notes on waitress tabs, and stick her foot in a bucket. I heard that one time she put a pie in someone's face." His brow wrinkled, but his mouth turned up on one side. "I'm not sure if that's true or a rumor. But, she does have a certain style that I'm not sure would be considered traditional. It usually works quite well for her, though."

"Do most places you go have video feeds like that?" Arena asked.

"No, unfortunately not. Hotels and busy public places are pretty good about that, but it's not always feasible or possible to pull a video feed. Sometimes in those places, you can set them up ahead of time, but not always. Audio feeds are usually workable, but in crowded places like that they often have too much background noise."

"That man following you looked drunk, but he had a gun?" Arena didn't know quite how to ask what she was wondering.

"Ah yes, well the contact is undercover pretending to be his girlfriend." The medicine ball slammed into her stomach, and she tried not to gasp. "You see, we think he is an information broker, and some of the information he trades in reveals intel about our agents and movements. She is trying to find out if that is true. But in this instance, I think he thought I was hitting on her. I'm not sure he really thought I was a threat otherwise."

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"Did what she gave you help?" asked Arena, after shoving the ball as hard as she could at his chest.

"Yes, I believe it did, but Anita was still decrypting it the last time I talked to her." He caught it easily.

Arena decided to switch to a new topic, one she had been wondering about for some time.

"So, do all of you play that game a lot?"

He laughed and rested the ball on his knees. "Sterling, Lorna, and Anita seem to. I often read in the evenings or when I'm not on duty. But sometimes I get on and play with them a bit. I mostly enjoy bothering a certain guild leader, though. Did you have fun playing last night?"

"Yeah, I did," she said. "I didn't think I would. I had a roommate that used to play all the time and wanted me to play with her, but I never did. I always thought I needed to study. But it was kinda fun."

"Good," he said, smiling. "It is fun. But only when everyone is online."

"Renata--is that Anita? What is a GM?"

"Oh, yes, Anita is Renata, and a GM stands for game master. She is actually a tech on the game, and invented some of their proprietary technologies. I don't think they have any idea she's a federal agent. I'm not even sure they believe she's really female."

Arena puzzled over that comment. The game was fun, and she really enjoyed playing. She hoped they could play a lot more as time went on. Hopefully she wouldn't be away from the Misfits too long for training, but she didn't really know much about training at this point, or when it was even going to happen.

"How long does formal training last for a full agent?" asked Arena.

"Around six months, but it can vary. People like Anita and Sterling didn't have to go through field agent training, though Sterling does some field work only when he needs to put into place something he or Anita built. They had analyst stuff--hacking, codebreaking, emergency simulations, that sort of thing.” Nate tossed the medicine ball over his head like a basketball. “For field agents, you do a few months of paramilitary training, which is sort of like going to boot camp, then you do a few months of covert operations training. They may exempt you from some of that since that's what we're training you here, but you may still have to go through the paramilitary training. Get to learn how to drive and jump out of planes. I thought it was fun, anyway. You have to pass the army fitness test before you can do that, but I plan to make sure you'll be ready for that before you go."

Arena felt intimidated. She knew it would be hard, but she never really envisioned herself in a military situation. She felt a little better that she had Nate to help prepare her for that training, though. No wonder he has such high standards.

“Heads up!” She looked up just in time to catch the ball.