Illness strikes, and I assume a new code name

As luck would have it, the cats did not prove to be much of a problem, but my old illness did. Let me explain.

There are two cats here at my new headquarters – one black and rather rotund named Maya who does not take much exercise, and the other an arrogant old cat called Mittens because of his extra digits on the front paws. Maya went to ground in the basement near the furnace the minute she clapped eyes on me. I wonder if we have encountered one another before – in Istanbul or Damascus perhaps, or Grenoble or St. Petersburg. I have run her image through my photographic memory, but do not recall ever meeting her before. Mittens, on the other hand (haha) has clearly never been “in the game.” He grumps around the place, hissing and snarling at me at every turn, not realizing I could turn him into a squeaky toy with one paw tied behind my back. But we are beginning to come to terms and reach an understanding.

Unhappily, my old complaint returned within a few days of my setting up shop in my new abode. My adopted caretakers refer rather patronizingly to this nasty condition as “Kennel Cough,” which is like calling shingles ‘itchy.’ I first contracted what I was told by a back-ally doctor in Havana is a form of recurring pneumonia when I was stationed in Cuba by The Agency. I had hoped the illness was cured, but it returned, and with a vengeance. I can’t help but wonder if this Maya – which sounds very much like a Nom de Guerre to me – somehow tinkered with my food. At any rate, my adopted owners took me to a doctor who prescribed the correct antibiotics, and even though I now feel listless a lot of the time, at least I’m on the mend.

While I was the clinic, I was able access the computer which had been left unguarded by the nurse, and got a message off to the Agency. I am adopting the code name M3.

Must run - more soon.
M3