When Kim responded to the emergency signal, Wade felt a release of tension that he hadn’t realized he had been carrying. Some part of him had feared that Kim was going to move on and never speak to him again and he was thrilled that it wasn’t so.
“What’s the sitch, Wade?”
“Someone’s trying to kill you.”
“WHAT?!?”
“Someone is trying to kill you.” Wade repeated.
“What kind of greeting is that? ‘Someone is trying to kill you…’ That’s not funny!”
“It’s no joke, Kim. Every place you visited this summer was hit by some kind of disaster, accident or attack within twelve hours of your departure. There is an unmistakable pattern of destruction that follows your exact route. I ran the numbers four times.” He paused for a sip of soda, “Unless you’ve become an international terrorist and didn’t tell me about it.” He studied the stricken girl’s face for a moment looking for reassurance. “You don’t watch the news, do you?”
“No, I…” Kim searched Wade’s face for some sign that he was putting her on or a mischievous grin and found none. “You’re serious, places that I have been were… attacked?” The boy nodded. “And you think that someone was trying to kill me?”
“Yep!”
“Well…? Who is it?” Kim went through a mental list of enemies in her mind: Dementor, The Seniors, Drakken, Monkey Fist… It couldn’t be…? She wouldn’t try to…
“I don’t know, but whoever it is has a worldwide organization…” He tried again to think of a way to lessen the blow of his next bit of information but could find one, “Kim,” he said softly, “it gets worse.”
“How much worse could it possibly get?” Her mind raced. A worldwide organization?
“They aren’t concerned with collateral damage.”
Fear stabbed through her heart. “How many deaths?” she forced herself to ask.
“Fifteen.”
Her airway closed up, and the cold fear settled into her stomach. “Wade, I think I’m in trouble.”
Wade soon realized that Kim knew, or thought she knew who was responsible for the situation and she wasn’t going to tell him. Wade interacted with hundreds of people over the net every day. People from all walks of life contacted him for favors or information and pop stars to premiers they treated him with disdain or sometimes pity. Kim was the first person who had treated him with genuine respect and made him feel human. He may not be able to face the world in person but through Kim he could feel like he was a part of it.
He would help Kim do anything she asked, no matter how illegal or crazy, and just about everything she asked him to do this time could be considered one or the other. As he began collecting the information Kim had asked for, he decided that while he would help Kim no questions asked, he wasn’t going to do it in ignorance and started a few search programs of his own.
This didn’t seem like the right time to tell Kim that he’d found the perfect girl for her. Instead, he settled for arranging a meeting at the first opportunity. Ron would have to take the long way home.
Shego carefully removed the display case cover. With one hand she extracted the processor from the device on the stand. The mounting was rigged for pressure, so she was careful not to press down or lift up the device as she slid the chip out of its compartment. Her research indicated that the difference in weight caused by removing the chip would not set off the alarm. She considered whether to install the dummy chip she had brought along but decided against it. It was too risky. She returned the case cover to its correct position, locked it and made her way to the window she had rigged for an easy exit.
As she was climbing out of the window, she heard a noise that reminded her of a small kitten jumping off of a chair onto a thick pile carpet. She froze and listened. Several seconds passed before she heard another small sound. This time it sounded like someone had inserted a muffled pick into a brass lock. The pale woman turned to face the room and at first saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then, like a picture transitioning from two faces to a vase, one shadow became the outline of a person. Judging by its location, the person wanted what Shego had in her bag.
Bemused, Shego went through her mental Rolodex of class ‘A’ thieves currently in Go City that might be aware of the value of the nano-tech control chip and came up blank. This must be a new player, perhaps someone from out of town or even a local burglar for hire without knowledge of the chip’s value. The shadowy form gave no clues as to the identity or build of the… Shego’s mind dubbed the other “kitten” because of the noise by which she had first become aware of it.
Shego studied the kitten from the windowsill while it was removing the display case cover. There was a human sound of frustration when it… she? discovered the processor was already gone. The master burglar decided that now would be a good idea to find out what the competition could do and removed her jumper from the alarm circuit setting off the silent alarm.
Her test subject reacted immediately. “The window alarm? I didn’t even come in through a window!” a young woman’s voice came to Shego. “How many are coming?” Kitten must have a partner thought Shego. The girl carefully replaced the display case cover and then ran toward one of the room’s exits. It was too late. Two guards burst into the room, hands on nightclubs.
“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!”
“DON’T MOVE!”
The sneak thief didn’t even break stride, she cart wheeled into a series of back handsprings and ended with a flip that dropped her between the guards. She tripped both of them with a roundhouse sweep of her legs and relieved them of their clubs while they were falling. The style looked familiar but Shego couldn’t place it. The little minx dished out a well-placed disabling kick to each guard and sprinted across the room pulling out a… hairdryer? No… a grappling gun. Her momentum and the retracting grappling hook pulled her into an open ventilation shaft. A flash of red hair showed from under the acrobatic thief’s hood. Shego could hear the girl crawling through the duct system now, and she didn’t seem to be making any effort to move quietly. The guards were calling for back up, but neither looked willing or able to actually give chase.
Shego followed the noise up to the roof and was surprised to find it empty. She was sure she had heard the little rogue climbing up the ventilation shaft but didn’t see any sign of her here. In the fan housing she found the blow-dryer/grapple swinging around. The green skinned woman sat back stunned. I fell for a decoy! She thought to herself. This little kitten is craftier than I thought! She pouched the device, went over the probable exits in her mind and headed for the east wall.
Hidden in the shadow of one of the museum’s rooftop gargoyles, she watched the kitten pop out of a sewer access between two Go City police cruisers. To her disappointment, the little sneak didn’t attack any of the officers but instead took off across the street into the park. “SHE’S HEADING FOR THE PARK!” yelled Shego, and watched while the girl avoided gunfire with a series of flips and rolls, in that familiar but infuriatingly unidentifiable style. Within seconds the red haired girl had disappeared into the trees and Shego knew that the cops would be looking for the girl in vain. While they were occupied, the pale green woman made her casual escape.
Kim was furious. “Talk to me Wade!”
“What do you want to know?”
“There was someone in the museum with me. I need to know who it was.” Kim was running toward her vehicle, busily reversing her jacket and stowing her hood into the pouch she carried.
“The museum doesn’t use video surveillance, Kim, just passive alarms. What makes you think there was someone else there?”
“First, the chip was already missing when I got there. Second, someone tripped the building alarm, and I know it wasn’t me. Third, someone on the roof alerted the police as I was making a clean get away. It couldn’t have been any of the officers. They just got there. It couldn’t have been the guards because the voice was female. Find out who wants that chip and let me know where they are.”
The cold knot in Kim’s gut was spreading. What if she is already here? The teen thought. What if she figured out what I’m doing and is coming for me? What if she comes to confront me? I’m not strong enough yet. I need more time.
Kim stowed her gear in the tank bag, donned her helmet, climbed on the motorbike and took off toward her borrowed apartment.
Shego had always believed that fate was what happened to people who didn’t prepare and luck was what happened when you worked your ass off and considered every possibility. Seeing the redhead stride across the parking lot and get on a motorcycle, made her rethink that position. It couldn’t possibly be the kitten, could it? She watched carefully and considered they had both showed up on the same night at the same place to steal the same thing, they couldn’t have parked their cars in the same lot. Could they? She decided to follow the girl and see where she ended up. Even if it wasn’t the same person, this one was athletic and cute and that was worth a follow up anytime.
Within five minutes, Shego was convinced that the red head and the kitten were one and the same. She had been following at a discrete distance but apparently she was not covert enough because the biker had suddenly gone through a series of quick turns and disappeared into a row of bikes on State Street. Shego cruised slowly by the rows of parked motorcycles but didn’t see the girl’s among them. She drove home and almost crashed her car pulling into the parking garage under her apartment building.
Parked fifteen feet from her spot was the girl’s bike. The motor was still warm. Coincidence? Like hell! Someone was playing games.
Wade already knew who was at the museum when Kim was trying to pinch the chip because he had made sure the two of them would hit the place on the same night. The shut-in genius had expected the volatile thief to confront Kim directly but instead she had set the girl against the cops and probably watched the action from a well concealed hiding place. Wade wondered where his calculations had deviated from reality.
He nervously checked the data again. Shego’s profile indicated that she would find Kim attractive and feel protective toward her if she thought the girl was an aspiring thief who was somewhat vulnerable. Kim’s profile indicated that she would welcome the attentions of a slightly older strong female. Mathematically it made sense; the two were perfect for each other and should get along like a house afire. The main difficulty would be making sure it was the right house and no one got badly burned.
He verified the covert data link to Shego’s PDA was still operational and began correlating the data from his latest ferret results. The initial conclusion indicated that he had spent nearly two years searching for clues to Kim’s emotional transformation in the wrong places. The answers were right under his nose the whole time and he had been chasing ghosts. Kim was only partially right; they were all in trouble.