...Sort of?

For as long as I've known Maisie, her ability to get into all sorts of troubles (from which I've been the one getting her out her whole life) has been simply phenomenal. Taking the wrong bus and nearly leaving the state, all while forgetting to charge her phone? Easy! And of course, I "accidentally" showed up at a gas station where a panicked girl jumped out! (An accident called "micro-tracking beacon, mark 2027ZZVY"). Getting involved with a traveling pimp posing as a "producer" (a fairly recent story, by the way), and nearly galloping off with him "over the horizon" – no problem at all! (We probably won't go into detail about the fate of the "producer" who suddenly "dumped" her, but I'm convinced he won't turn another girl into a prostitute. Never.) In the same "folder of cases", you could send her triggering the airbag in her new car by fiddling with the charger port, or slamming herself in a "haunted house" on Halloween three years ago, after the holiday (if I hadn't noticed her disappearance, she would have been stuck there for at least a day)...

All in all, I honestly wasn't surprised that she managed to perform a rather unobvious sequence of manipulations involving a closet door, a table lamp, and three scallop shells lying on the nightstand.

So, my... Hmm... Bride? (This realization somewhat distracted me from what was happening.) She stood dumbfounded in front of the closet, which had practically been "turned inside out," revealing behind the slid-apart shelves of underwear and socks a display case with a high-tech "Dragonscale" body armor, two P229 SIGs, and a heavily modified Vector. A small tactical backpack with other gadgets, thankfully, didn't attract attention. But the tactical "half-helmet," with its digital HUD eyepiece, raised questions.

"Okay, Brad. I think we need to have a serious talk! And I REALLY ask you—please don't use the 'you-know-what' and don't 'erase' my memory of what I saw. Unless, of course, you truly love me. You can just tell me not to talk."

I double-facepalmed again. I think this is becoming a habit for me....