A few hours later she walked into the reception area of the WSN office in Columbus Circle and approached the new girl at the desk. 'Very pretty,' she thought. "Good morning," said the receptionist, "You must be Ms. McManus. I was told to expect you. Please go right in to see Mr. Wan. Oh, and congratulations," she said with a bright smile.

Peggy mumbled her thanks and headed for Mr. Wan's office. 'Congratulations?,' she wondered. 'For kicking some guy in the face?' As she passed the staff on her way to Wan's office, several others congratulated her. A couple of her friends who had called her 'Peggy' on Monday were now calling her 'Ms. McManus'. Weird.

Mr. Wan was waiting by the door as she approached. She knew he hadn't slept in two days, but he looked totally fresh and composed. As usual, he was immaculately dressed; today in a light grey suit, blue shirt and silver silk tie. His shoes gleamed. He hugged her silently and gestured for her to sit at his side table, where he took a seat next to her. Tilson joined them.

"First of all, Peggy, how do you feel?", Wan asked.

"Well, Willie fixed up my nose, packing and taping it. I'm in a little pain but I've taken Tylenol and that takes the edge off. Willie says I'll be like this for at least a week. My voice sounds funny to me; I think I sound like Donald Duck. And it's embarrassing to walk around with this stuff on my face and especially sticking out of my nose," she laughed, "but that should be my biggest worry."

"Well," said Wan, "you might want to know that you are in better shape than Sullivan. Jack and I had breakfast with Steve Taylor and Mam'selle Blaise this morning. Taylor says the doctors estimate he will need several surgeries to reconstruct the bone structure of his face. All at taxpayer expense, of course. He will be a guest of the government for the rest of his life, until Oklahoma executes him, that is. Taylor is very grateful."

"And Sullivan's men?"

"Two are dead, two escaped somehow, the rest, including Sullivan, are hospitalized and in custody. Mary is fine and back with her family, who think the world of you, of course. The guy Sullivan sent to the hospital to kill the Holders is in custody, too."

Tilson put a gentle hand on her arm, "You must have been very scared, Peggy."

"Actually, I…I was…", she looked down at the table for a few moments, embarrassed, "I was thinking about Modesty Blaise." Tilson gave a quiet bark of surprise. Wan did not.

Peggy and Sammy Wan stared at each other for a few moments of silence, and he said quietly, "So, it's like that."

"Yeah, Mr. Wan, it's like that."

Jack Tilson realized that they were sharing something that he was not a part of.

"Peggy, I …I want you to know that I think about her many times every day. What would she do or say. I understand better than almost anyone how she can …influence you. I understand completely why you were thinking about her. And, Peggy, from now on, I'm 'Sammy' and this is 'Jack', no more 'Misters'."

"Mr. Wan, thank you, but no, I can't do that. The other folks will get jealous if I get special treatment."

"Huh…. Peggy, that woman who greeted you out front is not a temp. That's the new receptionist", said Wan.

"I don't understand."

"This memo went to all WSN personnel, except you. We didn't put you on the message because we wanted you to hear about it from us." He slid a paper across the table.

To: All WSN Personnel

From: S. Wan

Re: Margaret McManus

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Margaret McManus has been promoted to the position of Executive Vice President of Wan Security Network effective immediately. In her new position Ms. McManus will report directly to me and Mr. Tilson. When you see Ms. McManus, please congratulate her on this well deserved promotion.

Peggy was stunned. In an instant she had become number three in the company. It was ridiculous, and all because of last night. "But… all I did was kick him," she said breathlessly.

"No, no, Peggy," said Tilson. "You don't understand. This message went out Monday night, while you were on your date with Willie."

"In fact," said Wan, "this decision was made right after Jack told you the story of Modesty Blaise and the Network. The first thing he did when you left his office was to have Phil hire your replacement at the desk. Only then did he come to talk to me about it."

"But, I … I don't understand."

"Peggy, you impressed the hell out of Jack while you two were talking. You are smart and incredibly perceptive. You also have an instinctive empathy that gives you insight and understanding that others miss. The hospital outside of Tangier is still running, as you very well knew. The way you understood what would happen if Mam'selle handled the ransom drop alone…I've never seen anything like it. Amazing. Jack and I think that you are just what we've been looking for," said Wan.

"And," said Tilson, smiling, "you have a huge stamp of approval from Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin and that doesn't hurt a bit. Everything that's happened since Monday morning has only reinforced the decision I made, we made."

"So that's why you looked so smug Monday night," said Peggy.

"I didn't look smug," said Tilson defensively.

"Yes, you did," Peggy and Sammy said at the same time. They all laughed.

Sammy went on, "Here's your new salary." He slid a paper across to her.

She looked at it and laughed hard, which hurt her nose, but she laughed anyway. It took her three or four seconds to realize she was the only one laughing. "This is a joke, right? Right?" The other two just looked at her with smiles. "This is crazy. You can't do this. This is…this is…ten times…more than ten times what I was making."

"Yes," said Sammy, "and I believe that you will be worth every penny." He saw no reason to mention that her salary had doubled overnight.

Her head was spinning. They sat quietly, giving her time to process what had happened in the last few minutes. She walked into the office as a receptionist and now found herself a ridiculously well paid executive in the company. It would take her parents years to earn what she would now earn in one. Her student loans would vanish. She suddenly knew how the Network men must have felt at the opportunities they had been granted by Modesty Blaise. She found herself crying, and used the back of her hands to wipe the tears away as they spilled down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and let it out, then once again.

"Mr. Wan,.."

"Sammy," he corrected.

"Sammy, Jack, thank you for this opportunity. I will not let you down," she said slowly, carefully, and with purpose.

"Don't you even want to know what we are going to ask you to do?", asked Jack with a smile.

"Sure I do, Jack. But it doesn't matter," she was staring into Sammy's eyes and Jack realized that once again they were sharing something special. "Sammy," she continued, "what would you have said to Mam'selle Blaise when she first offered you the Network job?"

"I would have said that I will not let her down, and I wouldn't have given a damn what it was she wanted me to do." He still stared at her and, without looking at Jack, said, "Jack, she's pretty determined."

He continued, "Peggy, we don't really know yet what your responsibilities are going to be. A lot will depend on you. What you can learn to do and how quickly you learn it. The one thing we absolutely have in mind, though, is another voice in our hiring process. One mistake there and we're done. Not to put pressure on you, the final decisions will be mine and mine alone every time. However, Jack thought your insights would be very valuable in that process and I agree with him."

"Ok, just let me know what you need me to do, Mm...Sammy."

"Well, after you finish dealing with the fallout from the Sullivan thing, I'm going to ask you to review the files of each of our employees, and then arrange to meet them informally. We want to know what you think. Write up whatever you want, but if you'd prefer that any report or portion of a report is to be oral, to just Jack and me, that's in your judgment. To make those decisions you'll need a familiarity with employment law, so that will be part of it too. I don't want us sued based on something you write down. As we go on, of course, you will interview each prospective new hire."

"OK." She was grinning. Everything they'd been saying sounding interesting and she loved the thought of her new role. She realized she was enjoying the hell out of this morning. She was almost giddy. From the moment Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin had walked through the door, things had been very, very different and, broken nose aside, spectacularly better.

"We think, maybe, more than that. Think about what we do. We take bad guy skills and use them to help the good guys. We have both bad guy and good guy skillsets in-house and offer the latter for sale. Our worth is in the fact that we have the best former bad guys on our side. We'll want you to develop the skills of both sides. If you want to advise a client on what locks to put on his doors, we want you not only to know locks inside and out, how to rebuild and repair them, how to describe and sell them, but, most important and what sets us apart, to know how to pick them all. Which ones are the hardest to pick and why? How long does it take to pick them? What tools do you need? How you can by-pass them entirely? The same with an alarm. Or a safe. Or whatever."

"Oh, my God, that is so cool," she said with a huge, happy laugh (which also hurt her nose). "That sounds like so much fun. I can hardly wait. Thank you both. . … But, okay, first things first. What about Sullivan and what needs to be done there?"

"We said before, we were with Taylor this morning," said Jack. "He's holding off on how to handle the announcement of the capture. He wants us to tell him what we would like. He's already agreed to keep Mam'selle Blaise and Willie out of it. I've never seen the FBI act like this, but then again, I've never been in a situation like this. We have to tell him, and soon, what we are looking for. Sammy and I thought you ought to be the one to tell him how you want to handle it. You're the one who's going to be the hero. You captured Pretty Pete Sullivan. You saved the child. You get the reward."

"No," she said vehemently. "No. I don't want that. I don't want to be a hero. I don't want my name in the papers. No, no. I don't want any of that. And, guys, look at me, broken nose or not, you know I'll be in the papers. 'BLONDE TAKES DOWN KILLER'. You know that's what's coming for me. My picture will be everywhere. I'll have paparazzi. My parents will be interviewed. I'll be on TV. I'll get an offer to pose for Playboy. No, I don't want any part of it. No, no, no."

"There's a reward," said Jack.

"He killed the family in Oklahoma, right? Let's give it to the children who survived. Hell, I don't deserve it anyway. I just stopped one guy. Mam'selle Blaise and Willie stopped a half dozen."

"Peggy," said Jack, "It's a lot of money. You aren't rich."

"I am now, Jack," she said as she waved the paper with her salary. "Anyway, Mam'selle Blaise wouldn't take the money, so I won't either," she said with finality.

"Of course not, she's rich. Before that, she'd have taken the money."

"I'm sorry, Jack, but you're wrong, even before she was rich, ….Sammy, what would Mam'selle Blaise do with the reward money?"

"She'd give it to the kids, the victims' kids."

"Even before she was rich?" asked Peggy.

"Even before she was rich," said Sammy, after a pause.

"Thank you"

Jack said, actually baffled, "How did you know that? How did you know she wouldn't have taken the money?"

"I just knew. Sorry, Jack, but that's the best answer I can give you," she said with a small shrug.

"Okay, Peggy, you win. Call Taylor and tell him you want out of it. Tell him what you want done with the reward," said Jack, with a flip of his hand.

'We could benefit from publicity, though." she said. "Do you think I could get him to say "unnamed officer of WSN'?"

"Maybe, I don't know, but that's good thinking. See what you can work out with Taylor. If you decide to go that way, when you're done, please draft a press release from the company. Now come with us. I want to show you your office," said Sammy.

They walked out of Sammy's office and stopped about 5 feet away. She looked at the door of the empty office between Jack and Sammy. She had walked right past it on her way to Sammy's office minutes ago. On the wall of the corridor, beside the door, was the name "McMANUS". She wanted to cry again or something. She stepped in. The view of the Park was breathtaking. There was a big desk and a side table and chairs. The office was about 2/3 the size of her borrowed apartment. She touched the desk gently, looking out the window. Jack and Sammy came in behind her, quiet.

Sammy said, "After you deal with Taylor, call Phil. Tell him to get you a lease for a company car. Jack and I have Mercedes's, so why don't you think along those lines?"

"Of course," she was almost giggling, "I get a Merc too. Why wouldn't I get a Merc? A Merc." Now she really was giggling. She tried to stop. She put a hand over her mouth, but giggled away. "Sorry," she said, "I can't stop." They smiled.

When she could, she said as soberly as she could manage, "Ok, I'll call Steve Taylor and work something out."

"OK, just let us know," said Sammy as he and Jack left her office.

She closed the door to her office, jumped up in the air as high as she could, spun in a circle and shrieked with glee at the top of her lungs. Grinning, she opened the door to her office and looked at Sammy and Jack, frozen in the place in the hall, staring at her. "Sorry"

Now so much more than "eye candy," she turned to her desk and sat down to negotiate a deal with the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's New York office.

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A/N: There we go. Peggy's set up for a bright future. Thanks to anyone who made it this far in the story. And thanks to all the authors I've been reading here lately for both the fun and the inspiration.