Nanna Possible smirked; so, her granddaughter was going to pay Betty a visit, eh? Well, she would have to see this. It was about time she got a good read on the young woman’s skill and got to see Ron in action. It would also serve well to evaluate Dr. Director’s current standing as G.J. Head and liaison to the council; the only real question she faced was who to rat out and who to help and that was a serious no-brainer. She stepped into the guest room and keyed the lock then used her ‘hearing aide’ to establish comms with the secretive agency. “Hello dispatch? Yes … Yes … comet zulu eff eff nine nine baker. Oh, do shut up and patch me through with Dr. Director … Betty, it’s the old bat … heh… you lightweight, it was only a few shots of my personal moonshine … ok, fine, but it had better not be spiked or I will know … oh, yes, the reason I called … you will be having a visitor soon, yup that’d be the one and she’ll be bringing the tag along.” She waited for Dr. Director to finish issuing the emergency commands to her staff before she finished. “I will be following along as well, discreetly of course. It’s time I saw her in action for myself … No Drakken’s Florida caper doesn’t count, Shego is the competent one, not Drakken remember?”
Nanna let her hand drop from the hearing-aide com unit temporarily cutting off Dr. Director. She stepped out of the room just in time and caught Kim then hugged her granddaughter briefly, exchanging a quick kiss on the cheek as the vibrant redheaded warrior dashed away, dragging Ron in her wake. Once the front door slammed, she returned to her conversation with Betty. “She is on her way Betty … yes I am positive she is coming out to have a word with you. She seemed rather adamant about that, especially after she saw the report on Shego by the feds.” She chuckled as Betty ran through a litany of curses and swear words, mostly directed at her and the council. “Yes, yes, I am aware that you warned us this would happen. Like I said, I want the chance to see her in action and you said she was negotiating with you about joining correct?”
Dr. Director fumed as she listened to the smug old bat; she was being played like a fiddle and there was nothing she could do about it just yet. “She approached us with an offer to sign up if we made the concessions for her … friend. Concessions you authorized I might remind add. So, do you want me to send a car … oh? Are you sure you’re up for … ok, fine, give me a second.” She stepped out of her office and over to the main console. “Agent Donaldson, set the transit to the Possible residence, hold and I’ll get you the exact co-ords.” She keyed the com unit linked to her belt again. “Ok, you old harridan, give me the digits.” Three minutes later, she was greeting the older woman while wishing she had had more time to prepare for what was to come. “As head of the council and her grandmother are you sanctioning …”
Nanna Possible nodded, but remained silent as she was digging through her purse again pulling out her flask and shot-glass again. “Not only am I authorizing, I want you to take it to level four. Now …” She grinned as she led the way into Betty’s office, “I believe you said you had a better drink in mind. Shall we make a small wager, I say she makes it inside the third lock in o-o-oh twenty minutes?”
Betty grinned and held up a hand declining the glass for a moment, “Give me a minute to get things lined out.” She left the older woman to find her own seat returning a few minutes later; Kim had some of the best help in the world, which meant even their well funded agency was in for a fight. “I think, Ann, that you’re underestimating her. I give her fifteen or under.” For a moment, she felt smug herself. She knew the potency of Team Possible and it was enough that she didn’t mind her oldest antagonist had stolen her seat. Resting against the edge of her desk, she leaned over and opened the drawer containing her personal stress relieving agent, a bottle of peppermint schnapps. “This might not have the kick your junk does, but it does have a more palatable flavour. Shall we have a few before the headache gets here?”
Monique opened the door and let out a sigh of relief as the cold air from inside the restaurant flowed past; the walk from her house to Bueno Nacho hadn’t been a long one, but in the mid-west summer it might as well have been a hundred miles. Yeah, it was only eight in the morning, but the scorching heat of the day prior only barely had the chance to recede before the sun was baking their town yet again. Since Bueno Nacho kept its interior at a comfortable artic cold level, she was not about to complain; she only wondered once why they kept it so cold, but after her first encounter with Diablo Sauce, she figured the frigid temp was to keep people from suing over the hot sauce. Once she got past the arctic blast and was able to remove her frosted shades, it didn’t take her long to find Wade. When he saw her, he gave her his normal ‘Hey Mo!’ Three Stooges greeting causing her to chuckle. If it were anyone else, she would have gone off, but Wade was cute; it didn’t hurt that she wasn’t about to piss off her advanced trig tutor right before she took the college entrance exams.
“Hey, Wade, what’s the sitch? Where are Kim and Ron? I thought they’d be here by now.” She asked as she took her seat next to the young genius. The seating arrangement caused them some embarrassment early on, but they got over it once it was clear Ron would not be far from Kim’s side no matter where they were.
Wade shrugged while tacking a slurp from his slurpster; he had been there for a few minutes, enjoying a quick snack while waiting for the rest of the team to show up. He wasn’t sure if Kim wanted anyone else to know about where she and Ron stopped by before they were to head for this meeting, so he kept quiet; yeah, Mo might get pissed, but he wasn’t the team leader, so he didn’t call the shots. “They just said to meet them here so here I am.”
Kim followed Ron in shortly after Monique sat down; if her plan was to work, they needed to make things appear normal, well as normal as passed for them at least. “Hey, guys, hate to call you out like this, but things are critical.” She tried to keep her voice down as she slid into the booth across from the other members of Team Possible. It was going to be a dicey operation, but she was confident in her team; they hadn’t let her down yet after all. “So, Wade, do you have it?” She fixed a firm look on the youngest of her team laying the foundation for the distraction they needed.
Wade shuffled uncomfortably in his seat and looked around before returning her gaze. “Kim, I … I can’t just give this to you. If I hand this over, do you have any idea what happens to my security clearances?” While it was true he was about to throw away all the security trust he earned, he wasn’t as concerned about that as he was other matters. Ron scowled across the table, but was shot down before he could say a word.
“Wade, it’s this simple, I do not care. You saw the report right?” He nodded as Kim laid down the hammer; she was good at playing ‘bad cop’ when she had to. “You also have the sims right?” Again he nodded, only this time he slid a small flat object across the table, “Is that the database and full sim Data-set?” He nodded again; she knew exactly what it was because they had rehearsed this already. In private, of course, though neither would explain how they pulled that off. Snatching the compact flash stick up, she slid it into the memory slot on her Kimmunicator, which began humming and suddenly flared out a miniature representation of the assassination attempt from the day before complete with a digital Shego and Drakken. As they watched the sim played out from a dozen angles, all showing the exact same thing. “They put an innocent person on the chopping block, so you tell me, Wade, what is more important, your stupid clearances or her life?”
Monique almost lost it over that; this was way over the top, even for Kim in EBQFH mode, a state the fiery redhead was often in when it came to her green nemesis. “Hold up there, GF, I know you’re not going harsh on Wade here. He has always helped you, hasn’t he?” She may be the junior member of the team, but this, she knew, was out of line. Before she could say more, Wade grabbed her arm and guided her back to her seat.
“It’s ok, Mo, Kim is right. Just give me a minute, ok? Kim, at least let me order another Naco on G.J.s tab before I do something they’ll regret.” Wade smiled over that; he enjoyed the game they were playing and since Global Justice would never be able to stop him from using their money anyway. He figured he might as well have some fun with it before they noticed he was there and shut him out for a few minutes. While he waited for Ned to come by, he casually slid a small file across the table, which Kim picked up with equally casual ease. It wouldn’t do to be too overt in their action, even if they were expecting to be watched.
Ned came by a moment later and took their order. Once he departed, grumbling about waiting tables not being in the job description, they began to work out the plans for the invasion of Global Justice HQ. Monique had heard only passing bits about the super secret agency and, judging from the layout of the building they were plotting against; it was going to be rough. She figured this might be one of those few missions Kim always worried about; she said as much seeing as it looked truly impossible that they could get past the incredible security and defense systems arrayed against would be intruders.
The debate rambled on for a good while longer and as expected drew the attention of those set to keep an eye on Kim and Ron. So far, the plan was going exactly as hoped. Wade figured Monique would forgive him once he was able to explain things to her since Kim would be occupied for a while yet and he was actually glad for this mission since it gave him the chance to test out his newest gadget.
If it was working as expected then they would have an hour before anyone figured out what was up; plenty of time for Kim to get to G.J. HQ with the blueprints he gave her earlier that morning, along with the various other gear she specifically requested. Shortly after that meeting, he actually did something he would likely get seriously grounded over, but he wouldn’t pass up the chance. He knew the score and the bet placed at the online casino should give him plenty of resources should the very real threat of his losing clearance become a reality.
Something isn’t right, Betty kept saying to herself while she and Ann Possible sipped schnapps and watched as Team Possible ran over their battle plan for invading G.J. H.Q. The quartet had been at it for almost an hour now and even Ann was beginning to wonder if she might have been off in her estimation of Kim’s nerve. “Something isn’t right. Ann, you are positive she was going to do this today right?”
Ann nodded before she knocked back her shot of the potent liquor, “Absolutely, James and Michelle showed her the … site … last night then she woke up and one of the first things she heard was the declaration made by the official agencies. Hindsight being twenty twenty, I have to agree with your assessment of things yesterday. Shego should have been left to you to handle, but it’s too late now.” She considered Shego to be a very serious threat, but if what Betty told her after the council meeting were even partially correct then she may be on the receiving end of a very pissed off granddaughter.
“Damn straight, Ann, damn straight. Shego has done as much, in her own way, to protect us from Drakken as Kim has and Kim … well you know what I think of their situation, so nothing more needs to be said there.” As head of Global Justice, she was tasked with a number of vital roles, which included monitoring those who had exotic talents, that authority had been stripped from her for one of the most dangerous people their world knew and set things in motion that were unstoppable now. “Dammit, I know something isn’t right … Charlene, zoom in on their table and cue the audio. I want to hear what they’re talking about.”
The conversation seemed focused on how impossible it would be for Kim to sneak into their base, that or how much trouble Wade would be in if anyone ever found out he gave Kim access to the info on said base. Kim went to point at some minor detail and that’s when Dr. Director noticed it; it should have been obvious, but until they zoomed in for a closer look they had missed it. “Ann, tell me you’re not seeing the same thing I’m not seeing.” When Ann shook her head, indicating she was lost as to what Betty was talking about, the one eyed agent took manual control over the agencies remote camera system and zoomed in even closer. “Since when does Kim not cast a shadow?”
Ann leaned in to get a closer look at the spot where Betty was pointing to and, sure enough, the various items on the table were casting shadows, but every time Kim or Ron’s hands passed into the sunbeam the shadow that should have been clearly visible was notably absent. “Ok, that’s odd. Cue it back until we see when things changed.” The footage began to scroll in reverse at a good clip and the pair kept a close eye on it until Betty stopped it and smirked.
“She is good.” Betty made a mental note to have Kim explain this one later, even though she had a pretty solid grasp of what happened. Seeing Ann looking on in confusion, she put a finger on the forward/reverse dial and began cycling through a set of a few hundred frames. At a frame-by-frame replay rate some things became clear, in the middle of the batch she was scanning through, there was a marked hue shift in the lighting around the young man who took their order and left in a huff. With a few quick adjustments to contrast and brightness, the error they’d missed until now became undeniable. “See here … this is where they left.” In the image enhanced as it was the young man had acquired two more shadows. “It’s hard to conceal shadowing over a tiled pattern like that.”
Ann nodded in agreement; she hadn’t expected Kim to be quite so resourceful or brazen, but it worked. The pair managed to escape the surveillance without breaking a sweat. Then she noticed the time indicator on the footage, it had been about forty minutes since that exchange. “Betty, get the transit portal keyed up, so I can leave quickly if I need to.” When Betty returned the curious look she had been wearing up to that point, Ann had to chuckle, “They have been gone for almost an hour while we sat here watching and getting drunk. I might need to get out of here real quick like.”
Realization sank in like a thunderbolt and Dr. Director was moving into action mode. “Leo, fire up the transit and have it open to the Possibles unit. Marcus, bring the alert to silent running level five we have been compromised. Hustle people!” Ann was giving her that look again, “If Kim has been off the grid for this long, it is a safe bet that she is already within the compound.” She snatched up her secure earbud mic and began issuing orders. “Eyes and ears people, I want acoustics and thermal imagers on and a sector by sector sweep starting five minutes ago. Do I make myself clear?”
“OK, Kim, care to explain why we’re in this duct and why I’m getting a space wedgy here?” Ron didn’t mind the advanced space suit when it was used in its correct environment, but suspended from the crawler clinging to the upper surface of the metal ducting was so not the right environment.
Kim smirked and keyed the internal mic of her suit, “Ron, get with the program, you’re smarter than that.” When he arched an eyebrow at her but said nothing, she sighed and focused on advancing as she talked. “OK, fine, the suits shield us from thermal scans and allow us to talk normally without being detected. The crawler is a bit slow, but we aren’t banging around the duct making all kinds of traceable noises … We’re here” She smirked behind the helmet visor of her suit, “Don’t even think of saying it Ron.”
“Aww man, spoil my fun why dontcha … so what’s next, KP?” Ron grinned as he looked through the visor at his partner; she was more than that, but in mission mode, he pushed all but their friendship out of his mind. Hesitation because of their romantic interests could be fatal and he was not about to risk her for a fantasy or daydream. He could see a small visual unit slide over her eyes from inside the helmet and felt a bit cheated; she mastered the suit in a matter of minutes while he was still learning the basic controls. Suddenly, her hand came into view and made a few short gestures indicating they needed to be silent; the suits did enclose their speech, but if someone had a sensitive enough microphone then they could probably be heard if they talked. Another gesture and he watched as her faceplate went opaque. Understanding what she meant, he hit the tongue control that triggered the protective feature that blocked all but the strongest of light, as soon as the helmet’s interior light level dropped below the threshold for normal viewing the inside of the visor went active and displayed the stereo image of what he would ordinarily be seeing. The contact lenses they both wore were synched to the helmets display, so that they blocked the image meant for one eye or the other providing a three-d view of the world in front of them.
Kim smirked as she watched the uniformed agent scan the ceiling and the ductwork with his thermal imager. The agent paused for a moment and she felt her heart threaten to explode; if she had been seen then the alarms would sound shortly and they would have a harder time getting to the person they were after. Watching the old style super-cooled thermal imager in the agent’s hands she relaxed as he continued on, whatever he saw must not have set off any concerns. Switching through her scanners various modes, she saw something that made her curious, so she adjusted the imagers zoom.
The built in imager had a dozen or mode scan modes using some of the most advanced optical, thermal, acoustic, radar, lidar, infra-red, ultraviolet, and ambient background emf; it was on the last of the list, the emf that she saw the floor shifting like a living mass. “Ron, key up your imager and switch to setting nine. Tell me if you can confirm what I’m seeing here.”
Ron struggled to remember the key sequence he needed to trigger the imager and eventually got it. Once he jumped to the correct setting, he let out a low whistle. “What the hell is that, Kim?”
“No idea, but I bet they don’t realize it’s there. I’m at the full zoom and it I can’t get it to resolve fine enough to make it out. When we drop in you take a closer look, but keep it on the down low, ok?” Kim hit the tongue key and the display shifted back to infrared, so she could see the next air register. Once she located it, she pressed the forward button on the wired remote to the mag-crawler. Since there were no air ducts large enough for a person to get into Dr. Director’s office, they would have to wait until she presented herself. If they revealed themselves too early they wouldn’t deliver the impression she was after.
Betty paced uncomfortably as she waited; she was glad she only had a few shots of her preferred drink as it helped alleviate the massive headache she had from the night before and took a bit of the edge off her tension. She would be the first to admit being even slightly drunk on this job was a bad call by any standards, but she knew her opponent in this case and felt confident this wouldn’t be a bloodbath. She cast a stern look to the older woman happily parked in the seat behind her desk; she hoped the council woman would leave the minute they knew they were compromised, but nope, the woman stubbornly remained and watched the displays as the Global Justice machine cranked into high gear. Then the worst case scenario declared itself.
“Dr. Director, Agent Smith here, service grating to air intake oh-oh-three-four is removed.”
Betty jumped a bit at that; their base was securely hidden almost twelve stories below the parking garage of a ten-story office building. They had regular patrols covering every entrance air intake and sewer access with cycles generally less than five minutes between each pass. Five minutes was the assumed shortest period of time someone could possibly carve open one of the grates. Then came the next scare.
“Dr. Director, this is agent Smith again, I have just found Agent Maxwell unconscious. Whew! Dang, that’s foul. Apparently, whoever put him down used some kind of noxious agent. There is a small canister on his chest.” The sounds of coughing and gagging could be heard over the com before the agent continued. “Yeah, that’s got to be what happened that stuff is major foul. I have it bagged and tagged. Maxwell is coming around, but I don’t think he will be up to speed for a while. What should I do next?”
“Tend to Agent Maxwell. I doubt the compound is dangerous, but take him to medical and deliver the item to R&D for examination.” She turned and nodded to her guest, who nodded back and waved her on her way. Betty marched resolutely from her office and took her place at the rear of the large array of desk unit computers and control systems linked to the massive wall display which showed the entire complex in full alert mode. No sooner did she stop than the next surprise revealed itself.
Kim nodded to Ron and readied herself to kick the grating out of her way and drop down; Ron was a bit further down the duct than she would have preferred, but it couldn’t be helped. She held up three fingers then two and finally one where they both sprang into action. They had already removed the security bolts that prevented most people from entering the chamber below them and with a swift stomp of her foot, Kim sent the grating falling out of her way only to drop through the opening at nearly the same instance.
Ann Possible gawked at the scene as it played out before her; one minute Dr. Director was efficiently commanding the complex in the search for the intruders they knew where there, the next those same intruders were dropping in right on the command and control center within meters of the agency’s leader. She stood and marched over to the waiting transit gate; she only stopped long enough to confirm the identity of the intruder. She recognized the suits they wore and as the suits receded and collapsed into the compact wristband her confirmation was presented; there was no mistaking that brilliant hair colour and dominant stance. Kim Possible was in the house and it was time she made her exit, so she stepped through the transit gate; it looked like she would owe Betty the dinner they had wagered.
Shego scowled deeply as she watched her items being loaded onto the stolen SSTO Drakken had had her boost a couple of years ago. She would have preferred to load the things herself, but Drakken insisted she merely stand guard just in case Kim Possible showed up. No one thought they would have to fight the feisty red head or her sidekick because they weren’t currently working on an active world domination plot, but as Shego reminded Drakken regularly it was better to be safe than sorry. She scoffed at the thought; it was probably the only time he took her advice when it came to security.
Drakken was in high spirits as he watched the Bebe unit and the third generation syntho-plasma being loaded into the cargo hold. He had already instructed the mem-dex upload itself to the new mainframe, so he was quite happy. His plans were proceeding better than he expected after he had been forced to play his final trump card against the traitorous green witch. Once they arrived at the new base, there would be no chance for her to scuttle his plans; she would be well and truly trapped and he would savour every moment of her torment.
The last of the equipment took far too long to load, making Shego considerably more irritable; she hated to be held up by minor items, but Drakken insisted they secure everything as it was loaded. Shego was forced to agree when he reminded her, at the speeds they would be traveling if a small part came loose from the top of the equipment stack during launch, it could punch fatal holes through vital bits of the rocket system. Once the final items were loaded and secured, Shego left her post and took her seat at the controls of the rocket; her extensive flight experience was critical since none of Drakken’s other lackeys had a clue how to fly such a complex monstrosity.
“Systems check, fuel?” She asked Drakken who looked at her with a completely lost expression. “Yo! dumbass, look at the fuel gauges and tell me the levels!”
Drakken sneered, but did as instructed; once she showed him exactly which gauges he needed to look at and in what order. “Tanks one through six showing full, Shego. You know there is no need to be rude all you have to do is …” He didn’t finish his sentence; Shego was looking at him with that near murderous glare again.
“You know this thing takes the two of us to manage with a full load, Drakken. You’re smart enough to know the procedures, so quit with the dumb shit and help me run through the check list or so help me, I’ll burn this damned thing to the ground were it sits!” She figured for a moment doing exactly that since she could retrieve the files from the briefcase attached to his wrist after he was well cooked.
Drakken scowled, but said nothing; he knew she was right and he had to tolerate her snippy attitude for a few days longer before he would take things into his own hands. He ran through the each system she barked out, making sure the ship was ready for the extended duration of their flight. With the last of the preflight checks out of the way, she asked for their final coordinates and he had the pleasure of actually surprising her.
Shego was rather stunned, but she had to admit if they were headed to this base Drakken had finally decided to go with a luxury lair, top of the line no doubts. “Wow … uh, ok, I guess, yeah that’s a good place to lay low.” She had been to the smaller sister base, provided by HenchCo. and Saf-House twice and if she remembered correctly Drakken still owed for the time Kim decided to pay a visit and thrash the place. “Ok, WEESN give me a clear for launch.” She called out to the network, giving them a safe route out as she fed them the required destination coordinates. The shadow network tracking the spaceways cleared them for immediate launch for their particular trajectory and she keyed the engine pushing them to full power. Eight minutes of heavy boost later, they were weightless and leaving Earth behind.
Dr. Director wasn’t terribly happy at that moment. For the first time in the history of the agency, someone penetrated in person, the facility had been designed specifically to trap would be invaders and yet Team Possible stood to either side of her. If they were intent on causing trouble, they could cripple the agency in short order. She smiled grimly at the former cheerleader and waited for the space suit collapse; she would have to speak with James about that improved suit of his.
Ron tripped over his own feet as her tried to get the suit to revert to its standby state and fell to the floor. Kim let out a rude sigh and put a hand to her forehead; this wasn’t going to be easy apparently. “Hello, Betty, I need to ask you something.”
“Exactly why do you think you can come in here and question me without my permission Ms. Possible?” There was no way in hell she was going to tolerate this kind of attitude from the young woman. This was her home and she defended it ferociously, “So, you managed to get in here. Big flippin deal. The minute you dropped in the security wing saw exactly where you are. If I so desired, I could have you forcibly removed.”
Kim smiled politely as she stepped right up to Dr. Director. “You saw the news, correct? You know they put Shego in the top spot. Have you run the sims?” She knew they had run at least some of them; Wade collected a fair amount of data from their sims to cross reference against the sims he ran. The end results of both were essentially the same, Shego wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger period.
“Yes.” Betty decided she should just deal with this openly; she would however try her hardest to get her way in the end. “Dammit, girl, this isn’t how these things work. If you saw the news, you saw the people who demanded her placement. G.J. has no say in that because legally we do not exist. Nothing I could say to those people made a bit of difference.”
Before she could continue, Kim’s Kimmunicator sounded off and Betty arched an eyebrow. “Mind if I take this, Betty?” The one-eyed woman smirked and nodded. Kim’s smile dropped as she activated the unit and it flashed the results of the point blank scan Ron had done when he tripped. “Hmm, ok, now that is … creepy.” This new info changed the dynamic a considerable amount and not in a direction that pleased her. “I can prove she didn’t pull the trigger, Betty, but I will need your help to convince the powers that be to do this my way. Will you help me?”
“Of course, Kim, but you know the cost, so can I schedule you for the test?” It was finally time for her to draft the woman and she was prepared to negotiate accordingly. “Until I can report to the various people who need to know that you are … covered there is no way I can make any guarantees.”
“Fair enough, Ron and I are ready but you have a bit of a problem.” Kim frowned and crossed her arms ready to deliver the bad news. “I’m not going to say anything more here, I think we should discuss this over breakfast … on you.” With the suitably shocked and outraged face expression on Betty’s face Kim turned and headed for the primary elevator exit.
Shego grinned as she bounced around her new quarters; there was a certain giddiness to the experience every time she arrived on a lunar base. Yeah, the weightless feeling of open space flight was fun, but it could be insanely disorienting. On the lunar surface, you had just enough gravity to move around easily, but never lose your sense of direction, which for her usually led to use of the small bags they kept in good supply.
Once she got settled in, she called Drakken and told him she was feeling nauseous and needed to chill for a day or two. She was fine, but he usually fell ill during the transition and could easily imagine her getting sick while they worked; it was not something he wanted, so he simply agreed. The view from the portholes of her room was spectacular, but there was no Earth to be seen, they had the ‘dark side’ of the moon and it would be a long time before she saw anything, but the pinpoints scattered across the sky.
The lab included with the luxury lair stunned Drakken; he wasn’t happy with the price he had to shell out for the smaller lairs and was not impressed, but this lair managed that feat. He wandered through the well equipped laboratory with a childish smile and a wicked sparkle in his eyes. With all the gear he now had access to, he was sure he would be able to put every thing he needed together in style. When Shego interrupted his enjoyment of all the shiny new toys, he decided it was time to get started and wasted no time in tracking down the containers with his halo network and the Bebe head. They had work to do.
Betty Director sat across the booth from Kim with Agent Du to her left and Wade Load to her right, Monique and Ron framed the redhead. There were trays of Bueno Nacho in front of the lot tempting Betty’s stomach, but not overpowering her anger. “This is ridiculous, Kim, why have you dragged us to this … establishment?” She truly despised the place after the rescue she performed for the woman directly across from her. G.J. had to take her personal jet damned near completely apart to clean out the rotting food Kim’s impact on the fast food left behind.
Kim smirked and nodded to Wade who pulled out his palmtop computer read a few lines of code and nodded back. “Do you remember that fly on the wall cam?” Betty found herself nodding numbly, “We got a scan of your ‘ultrasecure’ base of operations and found this.” She slid the active Kimmunicator; the display showed a swarming mass of red across the floor in the BGMEF scan Ron captured. “You seem to have a flea problem.” The display focused in on a single red spot which quickly resolved into a very clean image. As they watched a mechanical flea crawled through the dense fibre of the short pile carpet lining the floor of the central command room.
“Shit.” No need for polite language, Betty mused; they had been caught with their pants down and Kim, little miss I can do anything, had not only handily demonstrated the base wasn’t as secure as she expected, but was now showing her the base had been compromised for some time already. “Shit, this means serious trouble, Kim. Are you sure we’re ok here?” It wouldn’t surprise her if some of those mechanical monsters hadn’t hitched a ride and were continuing their surveillance as they sat there.
“Wade got the scan before I did and produced a flea specific virus. Any of them that caught on when we got here aren’t alive anymore.” Wade grinned and gave a thumbs up. “He will give you the virus before we leave here. Like I said before we left, Ron and I are ready where do we go and when do we sign up?”
“Ron? The offer was for you, Kim. We need agents like you.” She knew there was more than appeared to Ron, but she considered him an abuse of a valuable agent. If Kim were partnered with a competent aide, she would be unbeatable in Betty’s opinion.
“Kim and I are a package deal. Where she goes, I go, period.” Ron put on the most serious face he could and had to resist a beaming smile as Kim put on her serious face and nodded her agreement. “So … where and when?”
“Well …” She was still willing to negotiate, but she had serious doubts; from all she had seen, there would be very little chance of Ron passing the course.
“You want me to sign up, Betty, there are only two conditions. First, Ron, comes with and second Shego is our primary objective once we finish your test. No further discussion.” Kim felt a moment of queasiness as a touch of doubt ran through her mind; she was confident of her performance, but she worried about Ron for a second. He could be a klutz at times, but she trusted him. “If you don’t like it then Team Possible will remain freelance and out of your control.”
Betty scowled for a moment, but then the weight of what Kim had just said sank in. Team Possible was no longer Kim, Ron, and Wade; Monique had joined up and shown tremendous skill and adaptability in the single year she had been active. “Next Monday, join the Tri City Marathon. Once you reach the end of the race, you will be directed to the remainder of the exam.”
All the younger people, Will included, winced. The Tri City marathon was thirty miles over some insanely hilly terrain.
Kim looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Ron with a question in her eyes. Ron gave a broad warm smile and a nod in return. Standing, she nodded to Dr. Director and ushered Ron out with her. “We’re there.”