James Bond's MI-6 had Q, the Kingsmen had Merlin, and CANDY had SAL. A funny, intelligent, and dependable thirty-something year old who led the Yard's gadget lab, they were also Meg's favorite co-worker after Agent Finn. Too bad they were just a hologram.

A holographic interface for artificial intelligence focused on Strategic Adaptive Learning - SAL - to be precise. The name denoted that the longer they existed, the smarter they became. And smart was an understatement. SAL could create a fabric that would tell whether its wearer was lying based on the content of their sweat and develop a type of sign-language using just a series of nods to communicate with cats, all before breakfast. Well, before what would be breakfast time, if they had needed to eat.

Recently, they had designed Meg's micro-storage unit that held 2 terabytes of data without employing any traditional circuitry, all while looking like $100K worth of earrings. Meg couldn't wait to see what new toys they'd come up with next.

After taking the paternoster - a strange, but effective contraption that was a cross between a ladder and an elevator - up to the catwalk, Meg walked across the all-glass hallway and entered the innovation lab. It was a circular room with a large, similarly-shaped table in its center and a great view of the people-mover station below. But Meg was more interested in what was happening right in front of her.

The table's surface had a three foot diameter circle cut in its center. This was where SAL existed in their visual form, with perfectly proportionate arms and legs, perfectly done hair and makeup, and perfectly pleasant demeanor and attitude. In short, SAL was perfect. If they hadn't been slightly see-through, they would have been considered the most perfect specimen humanity had ever produced. This was especially true now as they stood in front of Meg, posing seductively in nothing but a white bustier, garter belt and g-string.

"Uh, honey, did you forget to get dressed this morning?" Meg asked with a smile, shutting the door behind her.

"I am fully dressed for our purposes, Agent Capulet," SAL replied. "I have been anxious to show you my latest invention."

Meg let out a small sigh, relieved that the virtual brains behind the operation wasn't losing their digital marbles. "You have a set of those for me?" 

She stopped at the table's edge. Almost immediately, a panel opened on the apparently seamless, shiny black surface and an unseen mechanism lifted a gift box holding an identical set of undergarments.

"34-26-34, I believe is your size." SAL smiled as Meg took the items.

Meg held the bustier against her torso. "What does it do?"

"Besides make anyone who sees you in them want to rip them right off?" The hologram flipped their platinum-blonde hair over their shoulder.

"You know me too well, SAL." Meg turned the clothing over, trying to discover any hint of its uniqueness. She found none.  "But I assume these aren't something anyone could pick up at Victoria's Secret?"

"That is correct. Allow me to demonstrate." SAL vanished and in their place, a miniature projection of a mid-rise building appeared. Although unseen, they were always present and their voice continued to ring throughout the room. "Imagine that you are caught in a situation that requires a quick exit."

Meg instinctively nodded, recalling several instances where the speed of her getaway saved her life. As SAL zoomed in on a tenth-floor balcony, the agent shifted her position around the table to get a better view.

"The regular routes are blocked. No elevator. No stairs." SAL created an equally tiny version of themselves on the small, exterior ledge. They were gripping the railing and looking down into the nearly one hundred foot drop. "The only way is down."

"All right," Meg said, still not understanding how lingerie was going to save her.

"But you are wearing these." SAL drew their hands down their body, modeling the garments before throwing their slender leg over the metal bar. "So you can calmly climb out like so and jump."

Meg's eyes widened as she watched the six-inch hologram swan-dive off the ten story balcony. Like in a  movie where the director went from a tight, close-up to a wider frame, the display pulled back. The building could be seen in its entirety, but mini-SAL was still plummeting toward the surface. Everything occurred so fast, Meg didn't even have time to begin to worry because about a third of the way down, a parachute - thin as fog but obviously doing its job - popped open and safely delivered SAL to the ground.

As soon as their feet touched the grass below, SAL became their previous five-foot eight inch self again. Turning their back to Meg, they pointed to the section of the bustier between their shoulder blades. "The compressed pouch holding my ultra-thin fabric is there, but you'll find that it doesn't diminish the comfort of the garment."

"Wow," Meg whispered, still amazed by what she'd just seen.

"You will need to manually cut the tethers." SAL faced her, holding a switchblade. Reaching behind their neck, they gathered the thin cords holding up the parachute and severed them with one, swift motion. "For now, this system is for one-time use only."

"Gotcha. Anything else?" Meg asked, her excitement growing at the thought of trying out the goods.

SAL's image vibrated and they reappeared fully dressed in a dark gray suit and their hair now closely shorn. "The deployment mechanism is automatically triggered, so need for you to calculate range or speed. However, it won't know the difference between situations, so I would highly advise against wearing this on a roller coaster."

Meg couldn't help but snicker at the mental image. "No problem." Sensing that she'd heard everything about her new gadget, she put the lingerie back in the box and pulled up a chair. "Stoker's sending me to Macedonia. Do you want to tell me why?"

Making a holographic map appear, SAL smiled. "Oh, you're going to like this."