0 January Secret Agent #3

TITLE: MIRANDA CUNNINGHAM, OTHERWORLD GIRL DETECTIVE
GENRE: YA Fiction

When the bell on my communication device awoke me from my after-school nap with a fluttery clang, I picked it up. Still exhausted from my last assignment that saved the mayor from kidnappers, I’d barely glanced at my geometry assignment.

“Miranda Cunningham, go to Shangri-La-La, ten o’clock tonight, and go alone.” The deep male voice gave me directions to my next assignment for New York Futures, an cool e-zine for teens like me.

“Can’t you guys give me a little break?”

“I would, but there aren’t too many sixteen-year-olds who can flit back and forth between New York City and Kroy Wen.”

He hung up before I could protest. Yes, yes, my alternate universe ability was the standard answer my editor loved to give. There were even fewer of us willing to take assignments with little or no prep and who had investigator training, which my detective dad had provided—before he disappeared.

A minute later, my school disguise of glasses, T-shirt, ripped jeans and sneakers lay on the couch beside me. I pulled on my red leather mini-skirt, yanked my red hair out of its rubber-band hold and fluffed my fingers through my long tresses. At the door, I stepped into thigh high red boots and stepped into the street.

With five minutes to spare, I emerged from the crossover subway on the south side of Kroy Wen. This highly dangerous underbelly of the city was sometimes visible if you knew where to look and kept your eyes open.