It was beyond a winter wonderland. Annie kept mumbling over and over that it was the North Pole, and it was going to be a white Christmas, after all. Myra ignored her as she concentrated on slogging through the snow.

There were few people out and about, though; as always during a storm, a few hardy souls braved the elements. The few cars that could be seen were slipping and sliding on the roads, which the sand and salt trucks couldn’t keep up with. The nation’s capital appeared to be in lockdown mode. A few more daring souls were ahead of them, trudging through the snow, their heads burrowed into the collars of their coats.

Annie pulled Myra into a vacant doorway with a canvas canopy that looked like it would collapse any minute from the weight of the snow. Her teeth chattering, shivering inside her down jacket, she said, “Myra, I think, but I’m not sure, because I can’t really read the street signs through the snow, but I think we’re about two and a half blocks from Baron Bell’s office. We’re a block west, possibly a block and a half, from the Post apartment. Take a look around you. Bell is not going to be in his office today. He just isn’t. How about we go there now, just you and me? If the weather gets any worse, we might not be able to get over there once it turns dark. And, when it gets dark, law enforcement will be out watching over things. If the weather lets up, we’ll be more noticeable. I’m thinking right now is the perfect cover. What do you think, Myra?”

“I suppose it makes sense, and I’m game, but I think we need to tell the others what we’re doing.”

“That would work if it was a perfect world and cyberspace cooperated, but alas, dear heart, we lost all reception on the cells. Even Charles’s handy-dandy, one-of-a-kind, no-one-can-penetrate phone isn’t working. We’ll be on our own. Are you worried that Bell might be there? Don’t be. Between the two of us, we can render him helpless in…in whatever time it takes us. Decide, Myra. I’m freezing here.”

The last thing Myra wanted to do was go to Baron Bell’s office in the middle of a raging snowstorm with inoperable cell phones. “I’m your girl,” she said sprightly.

Annie grabbed Myra’s arm, and off they went. “Sometimes you just rock, Myra,” she said as she got a mouthful of snow.