Magda ran from behind the desk, bursting onto the snow-ploughed street. A phone rang insistently in her wake. 

No time for that now. 

The three goons were following fast, but Magda's athletic ability was legendary, even in the Agency. She had to draw them away from the population center and into the woods. In the woods her white skinsuit would provide a bit of camouflage. In the woods, she could also make use of the cache of automatic weapons she had left there. 

Magda darted from tree to tree, stopping every so often to listen. She could just make out the sound of the phone still ringing in the distance. Magda couldn't hear the three goons, but knew they had to be hot on the trail of her footprints in the snow. By the time they caught up, she'd have the MK-212 in her hands, waiting and smiling. 

Magda imagined them sprawled on the ground before her, red slush pooling underneath. If the villains were still alive and in pain when the office exploded, that would be perfect. 

A voice from over her shoulder startled her. Had one of them circled around? Magda spun in her chair to face the menacing figure in thick spectacles behind her. 

"Ms. Witty," he said, looking concerned. "Are you all right? The phone has been ringing off the hook. I have two very important clients in my office--" 

Secretary Magda Witty blushed and reached past a pile of unfinished paperwork for the phone. "Sorry, I was away from my desk for a moment." 

Her employer looked at her harshly, then pushed his spectacles a little farther up his nose. "Well, don't let it become a habit." 

He spun on one heel and returned to his office. Magda could hear him making apologetic noises to the two clients within. 

The dingy office walls closed in on her, shifting subtly. "A habit, indeed," said Sister Magda Witty, adjusting hers as she began to counsel the poor, wretched soul on the Crisis Line. 

Lon Prater is the lucky father of two great girls, a stunt kite flyer and a writer of odd little tales. His work can be found in Writers of the Future XXI, the Stoker Award-winning anthology Borderlands 5, and other venues.