Fan Fiction: First-Hand Accounts
Gangsters and Groceries
by Corey Christopher
1.
One seemingly uneventful day a letter arrived under
my apartment door. To any other observer this letter would go unnoticed
as a regular occurrence. But to an agent of The Shadow, a letter
meant business. These letters were written in code, with ink that
vanished after a few seconds in contact with air. My letter was
no different. It was a call to a gathering of agents, which rarely
ever occurs. Standard procedure of meetings usually included two
or three agents at maximum. This letter told that there would be
many more agents, and that a massive briefing was needed for a large
operation.
Unknown to the agents at this meeting, our "Boss" The
Shadow, was also present, and disguised as the millionaire Lamont
Cranston. Our instructions only told that we were to follow whatever
orders that were laid down by Cranston, and complete them to the
letter, for they were very specific. When I arrived, I immediately
picked out Mr. Cranston, for he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst
the agents. He was dressed to the nines, with some of the most expensive
clothing I had ever seen. Everything was immaculate; not a hair
out of place nor a speck on his extremely polished black shoes.
While I was still pondering his lovely attire, we were arranged
into different task forces. I got placed in the "IVT" group, a name
which was never defined to me. For all I knew it could have stood
for "Insanely Voracious Termites" or "Incredibly Vocal Teammate."
There weren't many agents, maybe two or three in my
group, which made me wonder exactly what I was in for. On top of
that, I was one of the few women present at the gathering. Mr. Cranston
was going from group to group around the room and when he was finished
talking, that group was dismissed. My group was last, and we too
were briefed and dismissed, but as I was leaving for the door, Cranston
snagged me by the arm with a strong grip. Apparently I had another
mission, and he was coming with me. For some reason unknown, we
were to raid a warehouse, find specific items, and make sure they
got to the Boss for inspection. I had no idea where we were going
or why I - out of everyone here - had gotten picked for this important
assignment. All of the agents that were "average Joes" in the world
knew that The Shadow only used Lamont Cranston in the most important
cases, but they didn't know why.
|
