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classified government information, as well as bringing the vice president’s kidnapper to justice,” Prime Minister Falcon said in a stiff and formal manner befitting a conversation with the queen.
    â€œTo you he may be the vice president, but to me he’s just Carl, a close personal friend,” Shelley stated proudly while seated before the prime minister’s desk.
    â€œIn the spirit of full disclosure, I feel you should know that Shelley has an incredibly low bar for what constitutes a friend,” Jonathan chimed in. “If you so much as wave at her, she’ll consider you a bestie.”
    â€œBut am I correct in assuming that you two were responsible for the success of the aforementioned mission?” Prime Minister Falcon pressed on.
    â€œYou are, sir,” Jonathan confirmed, and then quickly bit his tongue to stop himself from adding, “
But I’m pretty sure the whole thing was a fluke
.”
    â€œGood,” the prime minister responded with a nod. “I do not ask for foreign aid easily. Only the most grave and dangerous of situations has brought me to do so today.”
    â€œPM—may I call you PM?”
    â€œPlease don’t,” Jonathan whispered to Shelley.
    â€œYou needn’t worry,” Shelley went on, “because while my middle name isn’t ‘Grave and Dangerous,’ it would be if it weren’t illegal for minors to change their names without parental permission.”
    Prime Minister Falcon’s stiff expression grew strained as he looked from Shelley to Jonathan expectantly.
    â€œOh, me? I don’t have a middle name, which is actually a good thing when you hear the ones my parents were considering…Flash, Boon, River…I mean, what were they thinking? I could never pull off any of those names.”
    â€œNo way. Frank or Larry, maybe,” Shelley added.
    â€œI do not wish to offend you two, but—” the prime minister began.
    Shelley held up her left hand. “Don’t worry, it takes a lot to offend us, right, Johno?”
    â€œRight. It’s actually one of our strongest assets.”
    â€œYou two seem terribly inept, rather shockingly so,” Prime Minister Falcon declared unapologetically.
    â€œInept? You mean like we don’t know what we’re doing?” Shelley asked.
    â€œExactly,” the prime minister answered.
    â€œThat’s because we don’t know what we’re doing. And we’re pretty much not good at anything,” Jonathan explained.
    â€œI hate to disagree with my partner, but I actually have quite a few hidden talents.”
    â€œShe doesn’t,” Jonathan stated emphatically. “But what we do have is an ability to blend in, to go through life without registering on anyone’s radar. Why? Because we’re average, forgettable, normal. In the words of the League’s chief operating agent, Hammett Humphries, we live in the world’s blind spot.”
    â€œAnd that blind spot gives us access to just about everything,” Shelley said as she removed her glasses and looked the prime minister straight in the eye. “You may not believe it now, but in the end, you’ll wish all your spies were as unexceptional as we are.”
    â€œThis is a most interesting theory. It is not the talent of the operative that matters, but the operative’s ability to go unnoticed,” the prime minister pondered quietly.
    â€œWe saved our government from some pretty scary stuff, and if you’ll let us, we’ll do our best to help you too,” Jonathan said.
    The prime minister stared at the boy for a few seconds before turning to Randolph and nodding.
    â€œTwo nights ago a BAE agent—that’s the Bureau of Adolescent Espionage—named Nina Mitford went AWOL,” Randolph said while placing a photo of the teenage girl on the table in front of Jonathan and Shelley. “She disconnected her tracking device, turned