act natural | mi high

04 | The Face of Revenge

'An embittered music mogul plans revenge on pop fans.'

IF MADDIE HAD TO HEAR THE LYRICS 'COME ON DOWN TO PARTY' ONE MORE TIME SHE WAS GOING TO EXPLODE AND SHE WAS TAKING SQUIZZLE FM RIGHT DOWN WITH HER.
She'd taken to hiding out in the store cupboard, as far away from Calvin Lahme and his awful song as possible. "What are you doing?" Dan questioned as he and the rest of the team entered. "Hiding." She answered simply, standing up and pulling the broom to work the lift. Maddie thought HQ would be the safest place, that theory quickly was disproven as the lift doors opened. Frank danced around HQ, headphones on, singing along to the song Maddie despised more than anything in the moment. While watching a dancing Frank was amusing, her irritation didn't allow her to enjoy it as much as she usually would.

Frank stopped abruptly at the sight of the agents, Dan taking the album from the table and looking it over unimpressed. "Calvin Lahme?"

"I say we arrest him for writing 'come on down to my party'" Tom began to sing, everyone joining in and sarcastically mimicking the "yeah, yeah yeah" that followed. "Can we do that?" Maddie questioned, full of hope. "Actually, he didn't write it. This man did." Frank brought a photo up of the man Maddie considered to be a worthy of a life sentence just for writing such an awful song. "His record producer. Cuthbert Peabody." Maddie hated him already. "So, that guy's a master criminal?" Aneisha wondered. "Possibly. In the past few weeks top secret computer components have been stolen from this MI9 research unit." Frank swiped the image to that of the research unit.

"How? There must be cameras all over." Tom asked. "Exactly. To bypass the cameras, the thief must have expert knowledge. So, MI9 fitted some equipment with homing beacons and left it out as bait. Sure enough, within days, it was stolen." Frank explained.

"And they traced the beacon back to Peabody?" Zoe clarified and quickly Maddie interrupted. "Sorry, but how does a music producer steal stuff from MI9?"

Frank looked to Maddie, answering, "that's your mission. Infiltrate CP Records and find out how. And why." He finished explaining the mission. "Cool! How do we infiltrate a record company?" Dan asked, a question that Maddie certainly wanted to know the answer to. The look on Zoe's face indicated that she had an idea and so she and Aneisha set off looking for Byron.

While Madeline was usually the first to volunteer for a mission, she was happy to sit this one out if it meant avoiding Peabody, Lahme and any song that they might create. Dan was a bit more reluctant to miss out on any action but the pair ultimately took up residence around the corner from Tom's desk in HQ as not to bother Frank and their friend as they instructed Aneisha and Zoe as they attempted to enter CP Records with the cover of getting Byron a record deal. The pair left behind were tasked with research, however there wasn't massive amounts of this going on as Maddie sat with her legs out on the table in front of her, spinning a pen between her fingers, while Dan wondered around the room fiddling with devices.

"Is there a member of your family that hasn't been a spy?" Dan's question appeared out of nowhere for Madeline, but it had been something on the back of his mind since Aneisha and Zoe left for their mission. Maddie's eyebrows knitted together as she thought, "Um, I have a second-cousin who's a police officer." She answered, shrugging. "Wow" Dan breathed, "so it really is a family business?" Dan expressed his astonishment aloud. He couldn't even imagine how cool growing up in a spy family would be. "Yeah, pretty much." She nodded softly, returning her attention to the screen in front of her as she read an article about Cuthbert Peabody. Dan looked at her, how her features were soft, solemn almost. As cool as he thought it would be, he couldn't imagine the pressure that growing up in a family of spies entailed. Especially when your grandfather was an MI9 legend and you had to grow up in that shadow.