I salvaged the mess I was making of my code, but I’m going to work on the surfboard story for a few hundred words, because I’ve been neglecting it! Where was I?

I had a lot of people under foot for a few days, word of mouth gets around and I can’t very well drop everything, but I did lean on some not terribly reliable emergency help, surf-bums, really, though people I liked to hang out with anyway. They kept the shop running, yapping away, but I noticed when things got too quiet the next afternoon. I stuck my head out there and saw some suits. Marley gave me the pleading eyes  and mumbled something about feds before he, frankly, fled.

“Which of you is Agent Smith and which is Agent Jones?”

“I’m Agent Mike Nakamura, and this is Agent Elizabeth Green. We’re with the FBI, you know, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not the men-”

“And women!” Agent Green had dimples and a sense of humor. I think I was in love.

Nakamura sighed heavily. “*Not*. The men. Or women. In black.”

"So... you're actually Scully and she's Mulder?"

I think that Mike took an instant dislike to me, but I couldn't quite be sure.

“Perhaps you could just answer a few questions for us, Mr. Boyle, some of our questions, and we can leave you alone? I understand you have a big new rush job going on?”

“Well, I don’t suppose it would hurt to admit that an alien named Hro’garh, one of those big toothy bear types-”

“A Jorth’ar’hrot,” Green said, a statement, not a question, and her pronunciation sounded spot on, as far as I could tell, glottal stops and all.

“God bless you.” I told her, impressed.

“Thank you.” She smiled, tossing the dig right back at me.