(The New Boss)

"Why?" Keith said. "Remember our last one, Max? The one who got shot by Allison in my F-29?"

"Yeah, I remember him, but I just th-"

Keith cut him off by saying "Enough Ryan. I don’t want a new boss. We don’t need a new boss. We shouldn’t pay someone to tell us what to do. If you think that, you’ve got another thing coming. PERIOD!"

"FINE, BE THAT WAY!"

Then Keith stormed out of the room.

"I wish I never had you as a brother!" Ryan heard Keith yell when he got to the door.

"Yeah!? Same t-" Ryan thought about what he was fixing to say, but didn’t say it.

Ryan was 32 years old and Keith was 31 years old. Ryan’s wife, Andrea was 30 years old, and his son, Ryan Jr. was 11 years old, and his daughter, Lauren, was 9. Keith’s wife, Allison, was 30 years old too, his son, Eric was 12 years old, and his daughter, Sarah was 10 years old.

He remembered the last time he wished for something. He wished for a time machine. He did get a time machine but he kept going farther and farther back in time and couldn’t stop himself. But he finally got back to his right home and to the correct year.

The next day Ryan went to the newspaper company, and asked them if they would put a full-page ad in the newspaper for him. They said yes. (Why wouldn’t they? He was going to pay $50,000.00 for it. They’d only do it if he paid them, so he paid big bucks!)

"That’ll be $50,000.00 sir." the guy said, with a smile that Ryan would call "Smile De La Money".

Then he went home and told Keith he put an ad in the paper that said they were looking for a new boss.

"WHAT!?" Keith exclaimed. "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"If you don’t like it, fine." Ryan replied in a normal voice, "Just leave." Then Keith left the room.

Then Ryan heard Keith say something that sounded like, "That stupid idiot! Doesn’t he realize what he’s getting us into?!"

"Yeah right," Ryan said under his breath.

That night Ryan went into Keith’s room and planted a tracking device on Keith, so he could tell where Keith was, hear what he said, and find out what he was doing. (It was also waterproof, and so small you couldn’t see it.)

The next morning when Keith woke up he thought there was something wrong with him. Like something happened to him yesterday night. (Little did he know, something did happen to him the night before. Nor did he know that Ryan was in his lab monitoring his every move.)

Then Keith went to his lab where he mixed up a potion that he would later put in Ryan’s drink at breakfast. (It was a potion that would make Ryan do anything Keith said, including having his ad taken out of the newspaper so they wouldn’t have to get a new boss.)

When breakfast was served Ryan said, "I’m not hungry or thirsty right now." He knew Keith had mixed up the potion, and he knew Keith had already put it in his drink and maybe even in his food, so that’s why he said he wasn’t hungry or thirsty.

Keith was so mad he stood up and said "Why aren’t you eating or drinking any thing? Do you think it was poisoned or something?"

"You really put your foot in your mouth this time Keith. I know what you were up to."

"Yea, what was I up to ‘Mr. Know It All’?"

"You made a potion to make me do what ever you say, and you were going to make me take my ad out of the paper. Right?"

"Well, um,"

"Don’t deny it Keith, I know it because I planted a device on you so I could tell what you were doing."

"You- you- you what?" Keith stammered.

"You heard me."

"But I don’t want a boss. You take the ad out of the paper, or I’ll do it for you!"

Keith was heading towards the door, but he stopped when he heard Ryan say, "Too late Keith. I already told them to put it in the paper. The paper should be here any minuet now."

Then Keith turned and stomped out of the room.

A few minuets later there was a "Ding-Dong" at the door. Ryan got the door. He knew that the paper was being delivered right now.

When he opened the door the was lady standing in the door.

"Hi," she said, "My name is Martine, and I would like to apply for the job."

"We normally don’t hire ladies for the jobs because our wives would kill us if we did."

"Ahem." someone said from behind Ryan.

Ryan turned and said, "Oh, hi Andrea."

"Hi yourself."

Then Ryan turned back around and said to Martine, "This is my wife Andrea. Oh, and come on in, make your self comfortable. "

"How do you do Mrs. Carter?"

"Fine, how are you?"

"Fine."

Then Andrea and Martine started an argument about if Martine would be the new boss.

Ryan got sick of listening to the argument after a while so he shouted, "Both of you! Clam it!"

This got their attention. They both shut up and sat down on the sofa.

"I don’t want her to be your boss!"

"Look Andrea, I don’t care what you say! It’s settled." then he turned to Martine and said, "Well you’ll have to take a few tests first, and that’ll start tomorrow."

"Thank you very much." she said, shaking Ryan’s hand, "I’ll be back tomorrow at 7:30 okay?"

"Okay, 7:30 it is. Bye."

"Bye." Then she left.

When Ryan was in bed that night, his wife said, "Sorry about this morning Ryan. It’s just that, well I, I just don’t want you to hire a lady for the job."

"I know," Ryan apologized, "and I’m sorry too. I just want to get a boss as soon as possible."

"I understand."

Then they went to sleep.

The next day when Martine came, (she got there at 7:30 to the exact minute,) Ryan told her, "Okay. You can take the tests now."

Then he took her to one of the many rooms in the lab.

"Here is where you will take the fist test." then after a minuet Ryan said, "I hope you know that the tests will get harder as you go."

"I know."

Then they went on with the tests.

The first one was and eye exam.

The second was an alert exam.

The third, a reflex exam.

The fourth, and the last, an exam where they found out how good she was with weapons.

When the tests were done, Ryan said, "Well done Martine, you will be our new boss.

Then he went to a closet and picked up an umbrella, a badge, and a permit.

"Why do I need an umbrella?" Martine asked.

"This isn’t just any umbrella. It’s called "The Death Dart Umbrella."

"Why?"

"It’s called that because if you press this button, abra cadabra, it’s a gun, and it shoots out darts that are poisonous. Really poisonous."

"Wow."

Then she started her job as being their boss.

One day when she was working, she heard a gunshot right outside her office. She then thought about going to see what had happened, but decided against it.

Then she heard another gunshot. This time she wanted to see what happened.

Before she could even get out of her chair, the door to her office was blown away!

She reached for the umbrella, but she got knocked unconscious before she could get it.

The next thing she knew, she was tied to a chair in the middle of a room.

"Where is Ryan Hall Carter?" a voice asked.

"Who are you!?" she screamed, "LET ME GO!"

"No use in screaming my dear. These walls are sound proof. Now, I’ll ask you again, where is Ryan Hall Carter?"

"I don’t know!"

"And if you did?"

She hesitated a moment, then said, "I wouldn’t tell you for the world."

"Well then, we have ways of making you talk."

Then he pushed a button and an ear killing noise came from a speaker somewhere in the room.

"Alright, I’ll talk!"

Then he turned the sound off and said, "Tell me now, or be prepared to die."

"Ryan is probably at his house arguing with his brother."

"What is your name anyway?"

"Martine."

"Martine, huh, I like that name."

"Now tell me yours."

"If you insist. My name is...Ryan Hall Carter."

Then suddenly, lights went on in the room.

"What!? Why?"

"We had to test your skills. Your still in training."

"But why?"

"We needed to know if you knew how to handle a situation like what just happened to you."

"Well, if that happened again, I’d probably do the same thing."

"Think Martine." he hesitated then said, "Think about the innocent people that could get killed if you told the bad guys everything you know. You should be prepared to die for your country."

"Well, just don’t do that again. And by the way Ryan, what were those gunshots outside my door?"

"Those? Well, they were blanks, just for fun, and to get you scared. Oh yeah, we won’t do it again."

Then they went back to their offices.

The next day she heard gunshots outside her door again. She remembered the other day, and how Ryan played that trick on her, and she thought he might be up to it again. But then she remembered that he said he wouldn’t do it again.

Then she got up, got her umbrella, and climbed out of the window... And into the arms of a bad guy!

"Well, well, well." he said, "If it isn’t the little boss of Ryan and Keith Carter."

"Who are you?" she asked, "And why are you doing this to me?"

"Simple. I want money." he replied, "and my name is of no importance to you."

"Hold it right there buster!" someone said.

Then the bad guy turned around and said, "Never copper!" Then he turned and ran, pulling Martine along for the ride.

Ryan started running towards him, but the bad guy got into a car and sped away before Ryan got there.

"This ain’t over yet." Ryan thought.

Then he ran as fast as he could to his AH-98 (The best, and only, in the world). When he got there he got in it, and started it up, and then he flew away.

When he was hovering over the car, he turned on his silent blades, and lowered the chopper three feet above the car. They were traveling about 100 mph. They traveled for about two hours down a highway, then the bad guys turned down a road, and went to an old, abandoned shack.

Ryan was still hovering in the air when the bad guys went into the shack.

After they went in, Ryan landed at the back of the shack.

Then he got out and peeked through the window. It was dark in the shack so he couldn’t see anything. He decided to go in and see for himself what was in there.

When he opened the door he saw a bright light coming from one of the rooms. He peeked through the key hole and saw Martine in the room.

Then he kicked the door opened and took out his gun and aimed it everywhere.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Fine." she was quiet for a minute, then screamed, "LOOK OUT!!"

Ryan had only enough time to turn around before he was knocked unconscious.

The next thing he knew, he was tied up to chair beside Martine.

"Alright Ryan, if you’ll pay me two billion dollars, I’ll let you and that pretty little boss of yours over there."

"Fine. Let us go and I’ll get you the money."

"No, no, no my friend, I don’t want the money right now. I want to wait till I’m sure it’s safe, then get the money."

Ryan couldn’t stand it any longer, so he wished to get out of there. (Hey, what’s to lose? He got his wish last time, why wouldn’t work this time?)

Just like that, his wish came true!

The real Martine kicked the door right off it’s hinges, and came into the room, and blew the bad guy away.

Then she untied the ropes on Ryan and the fake Martine.

When they got home Ryan asked Martine, "How did you do that?"

"Well, I knew something like that might happen in my turn as boss, so I got someone to take my place when that happened."

Then Keith walked into the room and said, "What’s going on in here?"

"Come here Keith. I’ve got something to tell you." Ryan said excitedly.

"What do you want to tell me Ryan?"

"Sit down Keith." he said.

Then Keith sat down, and Ryan said, "Here’s our story. It all started on the day I hired Martine as our new boss..."

When Ryan was done with the story, Keith said, "Wow. I guess it might be good to have a boss after all. We’ll get more adventures and action."

Then they all laughed, and when they were done talking and laughing, they went back to work.

Before Martine went into her office, Ryan said to her, "Well, just for what you did, your new code name will be ‘Double Agent Martine’"

"Thanks."