9:00 am
As they loaded the hovercraft with baby gear Ron complained, “Bonnie should have been home to take care of the girls.”
“That's not fair, Ron. You know how hard she's been working as nanny. She deserved a long weekend in New York to watch some theatre.”
But both Kim and Shego were wondering if he would be so upset if he didn't know she was also doing a little clubbing with Junior while she was on the coast.
There was little communication with the world outside the hovercraft while they were in flight. They were in and out of cell phone coverage areas too fast for coverage. And Drakken had designed the craft without giving a damn about FAA regulations. They actually flew too low for radar to pick them up, but it meant that tall objects like radio antennas were a constant danger. Wade, or Drakken if he really meant to go legitimate, would have to put some radio equipment that met FAA code on the vehicles if they were going to keep flying.
Ron and Shego shared piloting duties while Kim watched the babies. She also contacted Wade; the satellite technology behind the Kimmunicator didn't depend on cellular towers. Wade had no information for them, but promised to send any information he might find or be available in case he was needed.
The Wegos arrived at Go Tower shortly after Mego. They found him trying to sort through old Team Go data logs and scrap books for information on Tank suits or Obtinus.
“God, these records are a mess,” he complained. “Who was supposed to get this organized?”
“Uh, as I recall that was your job. The last couple years Hego has been the only person really hanging out in the Tower, but the mess looks like it goes down to your tenure as official historian of Team Go.”
“Well, there's no point in making accusations at this late a date. These things just happen. It's probably no one's fault.” Will looked at Ed and rolled his eyes. “Why don't we get about forty each of you and we can probably organize this in no time.”
Mego's suggestion proved useless in practice. One Will did not always know what another Will was doing, with the end result that the clippings and data logs were soon spread out over a wide area of the main room, but they were no better organized, only more broadly dispersed. The crowd, so large they were getting in their own way, stared around at each other.
“How about three of each of us?” Ed suggested. “We'll give you the Obtinus and Tank suit information as we find it. That should be the emphasis. And we'll put together file folders for Bella Negra, Aviarius, Hydraulic Woman and other foes as we find them just to get this mess organized.”
“No go,” Will stated. “There were two Tank suits there. I say it could be any of the Gang of Evil and I think we need to organize with all of them as a priority.”
“Way to go,” Mego congratulated him. “Oh, is one of you with the police in case they get any information?”
“Damn,” Ed cursed. “I'm so upset about Henry I wasn't thinking or I'd have left one of me there this morning. Sorry guys, gotta go.” An Ed headed for police headquarters, promising to call as soon as he arrived and let them know if the police had any new leads.
Work was further hampered by the their mother, who kept calling every five to ten minutes to ask if any progress had been made. Finally a Will was placed on phone duty just to keep mom placated.
An Ed also suggested that all local television stations be monitored in case any of them broke stories. A Will and Ed shared the comfortable television monitoring duties, rotating with the filing Wills and Eds as requested.
By 9:50 the backlog of files had been sorted into folders and Mego and various Wegos quickly read through the materials.
“There have been no records of Obtinus in a little over four years. The last time we faced a Tank suit was the time Henry threw it into Lake Michigan about four and a half years ago. Obtinus must have had scuba gear in with him to escape. That had to be one cold swim.”
“Nothing on Serpent King in about the same period,” a Will reported.
“A few years longer for the Alchemist,” a second Will added.
“Bella served her time and has been paroled for around five years. I didn't realize she has been gone for so long. God, she was hot,” an Ed reported.
“And you had acne and she never even noticed you.”
“Hego had a couple clippings from the LA Times. Looks like Hellpike was in California recently,” another Ed said.
The third Ed reported on Aviarius, “He's the most active of the old Gang of Evil around here, but he's either slowing down or better at keeping his activities secret. Hego's last recorded encounter was about a year after he stole all our powers; he was trying to steal a traveling exhibit of Faberge eggs.
The face of a husky young black man suddenly filled the screen that dominated one wall of the meeting room. “Hey, guys, still haven't fixed your security system, have you?”
“Who are you?”
“Wade Load, a friend of Kim's. She asked me to tell you she and Shego are almost there. They've got the babies with them. Take the girls to your mom first, or stop there at Go Tower?”
Mego spoke quickly, to present the air of being in charge. “The girls should go mom and dad's place. We're doing important work here and don't need the distractions.”
“Important work?” a Will whispered to an Ed. “At the moment it looks like important work means waiting helplessly.”