“These safety glasses are specially designed to protect your eyes from harmful radiation,” Dr. Chen said softly, adjusting the sleek frames on Sarah’s face. The lenses gave everything a warm, amber tint.

Sarah touched them gingerly. “They’re… comfortable. Almost like they’re not even there.”

“That’s the point.” Dr. Chen’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “In your role as our deep-cover operative, you’ll need to blend in seamlessly with the Mars colonists.”

The year was 2157. Earth’s governments had fractured into competing colonial powers, each vying for control of Mars’ resources. Sarah had trained for years for this mission - to infiltrate the American Mars Colony and extract critical intelligence about their quantum computing program.

“Remember,” Dr. Chen continued, “the glasses will automatically record everything you see. Just act natural.”

Sarah nodded, though something about his tone made her uneasy. The warm tint of the lenses was oddly soothing, making the stark walls of the Chinese Intelligence facility feel almost homey.

Three months later, Sarah sat in her tiny Mars apartment, watching dust devils dance across the red plains through her window. The safety glasses had become like a second skin.

“Beautiful sunset tonight,” her neighbor Tom remarked as they crossed paths in the corridor.

“It really is,” Sarah replied with practiced ease. “The way the light hits the dust clouds… almost like Earth’s ocean at sunset.”

Tom’s eyes crinkled. “You’re a poet at heart, aren’t you? Not what I’d expect from a mining engineer.”

Sarah’s pulse quickened slightly, but she kept her expression neutral. Had she revealed too much of her artistic side? Her cover identity was supposed to be strictly technical.

That night, as she prepared to transmit her weekly intelligence report, Sarah noticed something odd about her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The safety glasses seemed to be… glowing? She removed them carefully.

The world snapped into sharp, cold focus. The warm amber tint vanished, revealing harsh shadows she hadn’t noticed before. And there, etched microscopically on the inner surface of the lenses, was English text: “Property of US Colonial Intelligence.”

Sarah’s blood ran cold. She’d been played from the start - those comforting, warm-tinted lenses had been feeding everything directly to American intelligence. Dr. Chen’s strange smile suddenly made sense.

But when she tried to contact her handlers back on Earth, all she got was static. And then a message flashed across her computer screen:

“Thank you for your service, Agent Sarah. Your data has helped us map the entire Chinese intelligence network on Mars. Don’t worry - we’ve made sure both sides know exactly what the other has been doing. Perhaps now they’ll realize the futility of bringing Earth’s old conflicts to this new world.”

It was signed: “The Mars Independence Coalition”

Sarah laughed until tears came, still holding those treacherously warm safety glasses. Three layers of espionage, and in the end, the colonists had outplayed them all. As she watched the sunset paint the Martian sky in shades of amber, she had to admit - it really was beautiful without the glasses.