Agent Will Du sat in his nondescript automobile and watched the emergency crews respond to the blast. He was uneasy about this assignment, planting a bomb seemed too much like terrorism and he really didn’t understand why the agency was requiring it. All of the codes had been correct, he had double-checked and triple-checked. He had even considered contacting the head office directly, though it was prohibited by his coded orders.
When he spotted Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable among the survivors being tended by the emergency crews, the agent made a note to find out what they were doing in the area. It was possible that they were working toward the same purpose and coordinating their efforts would be more efficient. With the situation under control he left to report that all had gone according to plan. He did wonder briefly why this building had been chosen as a target, but dismissed the thought as unprofessional.
After making sure that Ron and Rufus were being taken care of, Kim began looking for Shego. She pestered the relief workers and emergency crews until they removed her from the triage area. She was informed that everyone who had survived was here and the Pale woman was nowhere to be seen. From a distance she watched as a full body bag was loaded into a waiting ambulance.
"Wade,” she said into her Kimmunicator, “tap into the police and emergency bands. I want to know if that was Shego.”
“They haven’t released a name yet but the police are speculating that it was her.” The computer genius replied. “The blast was powerful enough to completely destroy everything in that apartment but precise enough to leave the building structure intact! Even the occupants of the apartments directly above and below the blast were treated only for minor injuries. Who ever set that was a real pro; bomb squad thinks it was a mob hit.”
Ron spoke up, “Kim, we are so lucky, twenty minutes earlier and we would have been in there!”
“Uhn-huh! Luckee!” agreed Rufus.
Kim wasn’t ready to be distracted. “Was it her apartment?”
“From the camera angles on the news coverage I’ve seen, I believe it was.” Wade replied. “I’m sorry Kim.
She took a deep breath, “Do you think it was intended for me?”
Wade looked pensive, “I don’t think so.”
“You just told me a few days ago that everywhere I went this summer was attacked, and now you’re telling me that a bomb in the apartment that I spent the last day in was not meant for me?” She shook the Kimmunicator, “Don’t try to sugar coat this, Wade.”
“Honestly, Kim!” the computer genius said, “The attacks that followed you were nothing like this. The people who were after you would have flattened the whole building.”
“So…”
“So, maybe this was a mob hit like the police are saying and you are not responsible for Shego’s death.”
“Are you sure she’s dead?”
“The police believe so,” He paused and looked at one of his secondary monitors, “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
“I think I just got confirmation.” He typed rapidly for a minute, “Kim, I just received a file from ‘Jade.’” He started typing furiously while talking to her. “It looks like it is part of a larger program in the event of her death. I’m trying to salvage what I can, but there is a lot of wanton destruction of the information. Whoever set this up knows what they are doing and they’re determined to render all of Shego’s files completely irretrievable.”
Kim wrestled her emotions into submission; there would be time for grief when she was put back together. “Can you do anything Wade?” she asked, “I still need to find that processor.”
“That information is actually in the file I got from Jade, and you won’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” Ron asked, “What’d I miss?”
“Shego sold it to Drakken.’”
“’Drakken’…? She sold my Nano-tech processor to Drakken?”
“Thanks for letting us crash here, Mo.”
“NBD Kim. You and Ron are welcome to stay here until it’s safe to go back to your apartment.” The dark skinned girl grinned, “Hope you don’t mind slumming.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Ron, “this is a kickin’ pad!”
“Kikkin’” agreed Rufus from the couch.
“You guys must not have seen Kim’s apartment.”
“Are you kidding?” exclaimed Ron, “We swung by there before we left the building, that place sucked!”
“WTF?”
Kim laughed, “No PS2.”
“Well, I guess I just don’t have my priorities straight.” Monique replied with a chuckle. “Bathrooms right over there and you two will have to fight over the couch…” she was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Are you expecting anyone?” she asked as she checked the peephole. “Ron, it’s for you.”
“What?” The blonde replied puzzled. “No one even knows I’m here…” Monique opened the door with a flourish. “Bon-Bon!?”
The brown haired girl rushed into the room and embraced Ron, burying her face into his chest and almost overbalancing him. “Wade told me you were alright but I didn’t…”
Kim was aghast, “Wade told you where to find us?”
“Bonnie?” Ron said incredulously, “What are you…? Are you crying?” She shook her head but he could feel the warmth of her tears through his shirt. “Why are you…?” her grip tightened on his arm and he realized she didn’t want him to mention crying, “…here?” he corrected himself, and immediately knew that was wrong too.
She stiffened against him and suddenly the wrathful Bonnie of old was back. “Where am I supposed to be?” she railed at him, “Where am I supposed to be when my boyfriend almost gets blown to bits on national TV?” She stepped back and put her hands on her hips, “And just when did you plan on telling me you were back from Europe?”
“Well,” he said, scratching the back of his head, “Wade called me back early and I had to meet Kim and we sorta… heh…”
“Oh! My! GOD!” Bonnie screamed, “You screwed her again! Didn’t you!”
“Ron!” Kim shouted. “You told Bonnie about…”
Bonnie whirled to face Kim, “You stay out of this!” she waved her finger in the red head’s face, “for the last year I have held my tongue while everyone gossiped about me being too blind to see that he was in love with you. I have spent a hundred lonely nights waiting up while he breaks dates with me so he can go off to backwater nowhere and save the world with you.” The finger poked Kim’s chest for emphasis. “Well, let me tell you this; I’m done sitting idly by while you twist him up inside by screwing him mentally and physically whenever you feel like it.”
“Is this a bad time?” All four turned slowly toward the stilted formal voice. “I’m sorry to intrude Miss Possible, but I need you to come down to GJ headquarters and answer a few questions.” Agent Will Du said from the doorway.
The stunned silence was broken by the Kimmunicator, “Beep-Beep-BE-Beep.”
“What’s the sitch, Wade?”
“Turn on the TV, any local channel will do.”
Kim looked at him sharply.
“What?” he asked.
“Interesting choice of words, agent Du just showed up here to arrest me.”
“I’m not here to arrest you, Miss Possible. Only to bring you back to HQ for questioning.”
“Sounds like an arrest to me” Monique countered.
“KP, You’re not going anywhere with this punk!” Ron added.
“Oh great!” Bonnie snapped, “I pour out my heart to you and, as usual, all you can talk about is Kim Possible!”
“Bon-Bon…”
“Don’t you ‘Bon-Bon’ me…”
“Miss Possible, we really need to leave now. I have a car waiting…”
“Kim, I’m looking at the official GJ communiqué site and there are no orders to pick you up for questioning…”
“Bonnie, I…”
“Don’t you ‘Bonnie’ me either…”
“Miss Possible, I must insist that…”
“I’m telling you Kim, There are no orders from GJ to…”
“EVERYBODY… S T F U!”
Monique surveyed the stunned silence with satisfaction. “Ron and Bonnie, why don’t you continue your discussion in my bedroom. Kim, you go turn on the TV. Will, come in and we’ll see if we can’t get everything straight.” She looked around at the still stunned faces and barked, “Move! People!”
click “…here at the scene. Investigators are still confused by a second blast in what used to be an upscale condo complex here in downtown Go City. We go live now to Police Chief Roberts’ press conference…”
“…aiting on the mayor to contact me. Next question.”
“Is there any truth to the rumor that this was a terrorist attack?”
“There doesn’t seem to be any motivation that we can think of for a terrorist organization to blow up this apartment building, but we are not ruling anything out yet. Next…”
“How many bombs were there?”
“We know there were two blasts, the first was a small blast that destroyed one apartment and left the building in tact, the second brought down the whole structure. Next question…”
“Can you confirm the number of fatalities?”
“At this time we have only confirmed one civilian death. Luckily, at the time of the second explosion, the building had been cleared of civilians. Next question…”
“If I could follow up…”
“Yes?”
“You said ‘one civilian death’ have there been any fatalities among the rescue workers?”
“There are currently three firemen and two paramedics missing, we still have hope that they are alive and in a position to be rescued from the debris. One more question…”
“Is it true that the civilian casualty had ties to the mob?”
“No comment.”
“I’m sorry, that’s all for right now, we’ll be holding another press conference at…”
“That was Police Chief Roberts at city hall. The details of this afternoon’s twin bombings are still sketchy but we will keep updating as reports come in. Stay tuned to News Fifteen for all the latest. We’ll be right back after these me… click
Kim turned to Will, he was ashen. “Two blasts?” he whispered, “one death, five missing…?” The red head caught Monique’s eye and jerked her head toward the stricken agent. She mouthed the words; He knows something and pantomimed throwing a rope around him. Mo looked around and frantically tried to silently communicate; where am I going to get a rope?
Kim pointed to the kitchen and made frantic stretching motions with her hands. Monique looked puzzled and backed into the food prep area while the red head pointed at mysterious things known only to her. Finally one word got through, toaster. This was no time for a muffin!
The dark skinned girl picked up the toaster and Kim nodded and made a kind of jerking motion with her hands but Monique still didn’t understand what she wanted so she just started into the living room carrying the toaster and when Will looked at her she shoved it behind her back.
“What’s going on?” the agent asked her.
“You need to talk to Kim; I’m just an innocent bystander.” She replied. And when he turned to face the red head, Monique clobbered him in the back of the head with the toaster.
“You didn’t need to knock him out.”
“Well, I don’t speak wavy hand talk; that was the only thing I could think of.”
Kim took the toaster and yanked the cord out.
“Hey! That was twenty five dollars!”
“I’ll buy you a new one. Help me get him tied up.” After the girls searched and hog-tied the GJ agent, Kim talked to Wade. “Maybe GJ has a secret communications channel that you don’t know about.”
The computer whiz looked hurt. “Kim, how can you say that?”
“Because I just found a print out that confirms his orders.”
“Scan it into the Kimmunicator.”
“You hit me!” Will was awake.
“Not me.” Monique said quickly, “her!” and pointed to Kim.
The red head glared for a moment and just resigned herself to taking the blame, “I’m really sorry Will, but I have to figure out what is going on, and I’m not sure I would be safe at GJ headquarters.”
“These orders look legit Kim.” Wade said from his room, “all of the codes check out but there is no record that they were ever issued.”
“What do you know about it?” The agent sneered.
“Code word… Albatross, Spam, Dead Parrot.” Wade rattled off.
“The world is banana shaped” Will countered.
“It’s a fair cop.”
“But…” The hog-tied agent looked stunned, “That means you’re…”
“Yeah.” Wade leaned back confidently and took a sip of his soda.
“Minister of Silly Walks!” Will seemed quite in awe. “I didn’t know sir, what are your orders?”
The Kimmunicator was facing away from Kim so Wade did not see her look of alarm.