8

"99, that's some story." Smart was almost in bed as his wife finished adjusting her hair. "Your father was a counter-agent during the war, and worked with Siegfried's father! How does all that affect you now?"

"A lot, Max." She sprayed her hair with hairspray. "My father died in the line of duty as a German agent, and because of the military protocol at the time, his real name and identity along with my birth certificate was sealed up in the government archives. It was all to protect my mother and I from retaliation."

"Oh, I see..." Max thought a minute. "But still, the war was a long time ago. When is it dated to be released?"
"March 15..."

"March 15!" Max became excited. "That's only a few months away."

"2050."

"2050!" Max noticed the look of regret in her eyes as she slid into bed by him and dropped her head into the pillow. She sighed out loud as her eyes rolled back into her head ready to go to sleep.

"Gosh, I'm sorry, 99." He stroked her bare shoulder and kissed it. "But there's one other thing. The briefcase your father wanted to protect. What ever happened to it?"

"Probably lost at the bottom of the ocean, Max."

Several hundred miles away in the South Pacific, a skinny young man in his early twenties wearing a red shirt and sailor hat was fishing with his buddy in the lagoon of the island that was his temporary home. He pulled and reeled on the line as he expected a fish, but instead noticed his line had dragged the bottom and pulled something else up.

"Hey, Skipper, look what I got." The young man replied. "I think it's a fish." He turned to another figure digging a pit.

"Shaped like that?" His best friend responded in disbelief at his childlike naivety. He ambled up to the waterline and took a look.

"Could be a box lunch?" The young man grinned jokingly.

"Let's see what it is." The overweight captain in the skipper's cap and blue shirt mumbled under his breath and did a little Oliver Hardy grimace before taking the line and unhooking it. He pulled the seaweed off and noticed the handcuffs on the handle and government insignia on the waterlogged case.

"Gilligan, do you realize what you have?" The skipper grinned. "Some government agent lost this, and when he comes looking for it, we'll be rescued!"

"Rescued?" Gilligan jumped up in surprise. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh..." He headed for camp and ran forward blindly and excitedly into a palm tree.

"Gilligan, look out for the…!"

KNOCK!

"…Tree." Captain Jonas Grumby removed his cap, palmed his white hair back and looked around toward an invisible audience.

END