Mr. McDuck is Missing!
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.
Idea borrowed from "Ducktales Everlasting" by yensid365 .
How is Hannah Montana any more threat to Mickey's popularity than Fess Parker was?
It seems to me that Mickey can well afford to take the long view. "I've seen 'em come and I've seen them go."
One day, Launchpad and I were playing with our four kids, when a phone call from Mr. McDuck's mansion came. It was Duckworth who had just received a telegram. Mr. McDuck was missing!
Launchpad had flown him to Spain recently, Mr. McDuck had gotten there safe and sound, of course- but had disappeared right after arriving there. He hadn't checked into the hotel he had registered at, he didn't show up at business meetings he had planned- nothing. No sign of him.
We spoke to Mrs. Beakly and made a deal with her. She'd take care of our kids till we got back from searching for Mr. McDee if we took Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby along. They'd been useful, so we agreed.(1)
So Launchpad, me and the kids flew to Spain to look for Mr. McDee. I took my camera along, figuring the Duckburg Daily News would buy photos of the search for Mr. McDuck.
We arrived in Spain.
"What do we do now?" the Trins asked.
"This is where I saw Mr. McDee last. Right here at the airport. He wanted to walk to his hotel. Let's ask around and see if anybody's seen him." Launchpad suggested.
So we started asking "people" when a fellow pilot spotted Launchpad.
"Launchpad! What are you doing here!" he asked.
"Hi Ron. We're looking for Mr. McDuck. He came here to Spain and nobody's seen him since." Launchpad replied.
"Isn't he in the hospital? You mean they never contacted you?" Ron asked.
"Is my Unca Scrooge hurt?" asked Webby, distressed.
"His "niece" Webby, and his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie." Launchpad introduced.
"I was on my way back to this airport...I saw Mr. McDuck, only he must of fainted or something. A man in white was carrying him into an ambulance..." Ron began.
"You saw a paramedic carrying on a gurney..." Launchpad asked.
"Actually, he just picked him up and carried him." Ron said.
"Paramedics aren't supposed to do that! You could hurt somebody!" I objected.
"Well, this one did! They took off in the ambulance..." Ron explained.
"How do you know it was an ambulance?" the Triplets asked.
"It had "ambulance" painted on it." Ron replied.
"In ENGLISH?" Webby asked.
"Hey, that's right. This is Spain. Why would it be written in English? But it was..." Ron said, confused.
"Well, we can make some phone calls to the local hospitals and find out if Mr. McDee's been admitted or not." Launchpad said.
Which we did. Mr. McDuck had NOT been admitted in ANY hospital. So, we called the cops to report what Ron had seen. The cops came to question poor Ron.
"Can you describe this man in white who carried Mr. McDuck into the ambulance?" the cops asked Ron, after hearing his story.
Ron did so.
"That's sounds like Mr. Secondary! I've met him! He works for my Unca Scrooge, but I don't like him! He's only nice to me to "butter up" my Unca Scrooge!" Webby said.
"Who's Mr. Secondary?" the cops asked.
"Our Unca Scrooge's second-in-command in Europe. He runs the show when our Unca Scrooge isn't around." Huey, Dewey and Louie chimed.
Meanwhile, Mr. McDuck is "coming to" in a locked room. He finds himself on a cot, with a lump on his head. Finding that he is locked in, he checks his memory to see if it's in working order.
Launchpad flew him to Spain, but diverted from his original flight plan to do so. There was an approaching storm, which Launchpad swerved south of. Taking advantage of the trade winds, Launchpad arrived in Spain ahead of schedule.
Since he had arrived early, Mr. McDuck decided to walk around and re-familiarize himself with the area. But it had been decades since he had been in this part of Spain and it all looked so different...he got lost. He was about to ask for directions when something hit on the back of his head...hard. He had woke up here...where ever "here" was.
"I've been kidnapped! By whom? The Beagle Boys? Flintheart Glomgold? Magica DeSpell?" Mr. McDuck asked.
"No, I'm afraid it was just me." a voice said.
And a figure opened the door, came in, swiftly locking the door behide him.
"I know you, you're..." Mr. McDuck sputtered, fishing for the name of his captor.
"I'm Mr. Secondary. Your second-in-command here in Europe. For the past 25 years! And you STILL can't remember my name! " Mr. Secondary said.
"For 25 years, I've past down your orders. Done my job, done my duty. While you were off treasure-hunting or doing lord knows what." Mr. Secondary explained.
" And not once in that 25 years did I get to make a decision that mattered. Even when you were unavailable, when nothing was getting done, everybody was too afraid of your wrath to make a decision without your OK. " Mr. Secondary continued.
"I even went so far to PRETEND I had heard from you, just so I could make a decision that mattered. Only it didn't work. The others caught on and would not make a move without your say-so. Then you'd come back, make the SAME decision and it was suddenly the best idea anybody ever heard." Mr. Secondary commented.
" I got sick of it. So I kidnapped you. I will sell you to the highest bidder. Who will that be? Your nephews? They can't touch your money without you. Nor can Donald. Who does that leave? Who will pay the most for you? Flintheart Glomgold? Magica Despell? Whoever pays the most gets you. And what they do with you is none of my business." Mr. Secondary ranted.
MEANWHILE...
The cops did some research and found out that the ambulance came from the set of a movie . It had been used in a movie that took place in the USA, but was filmed in Spain to save money. It had been sold after the movie was over to a man who answered the description of Mr. Secondary.
They found the ambulance, empty and abandoned and were searching the area where they had found it. And put out an all-points bulletin on Mr. Secondary.
"Then, Launchpad got a phone call from Flintheart Glomgold!
"Hello? This that crazy pilot who works for Scrooge?" Flintheart asked.
"My name is Launchpad." Launchpad replied, annoyed.
"Listen before I change my mind. Somebody just called me asking me what I would pay to have Scrooge handed to me on a silver platter. I let him think I was a buyer and tapped his phone. You want the address or don't you?" Flintheart asked.
"Why would YOU help us find Mr. McDee and rescue him?" Launchpad asked.
"I have underlings too! If this clown gets away with this, how long do you think it'll take before somebody tries this with ME? I hate Scrooge- but it's bad for my business to encourage employees to kidnap bosses!" Flintheart explained.
"Point well taken. Where's Mr. McDuck- Please?" Launchpad asked.
"That's better." Flintheart replied.
And he told us the address.
"Thanks. Wait a minute- how did you get my phone number?" Launchpad asked.
"Never you mind!" Flintheart snarled.
Click! Flintheart hung up.
"Great. He must of been bugging this line. Now I got to get a new cell phone and a new phone number." Launchpad muttered.
"Gang- we've got a decision to make. Do we tell the cops about the phone call I just got? Or do we try to rescue Mr. McDuck on our own?" Launchpad asked.
"Will the cops believe us? Flinty is our Unca Scrooge's worst enemy! Do WE believe that it's not some sort of trick?" Huey asked.
"Yes. Because what Flinty said about encouraging people to kidnap their bosses setting a bad precedence makes sense. Especially since anybody who succeeded doing that to him would undoubtedly just kill him." I replied.
"Why not go to the address and look around? If we can rescue Unca Scrooge ourselves, we can do that then. If we can't figure out how to rescue Unca Scrooge without risking him being hurt, we can always call the cops THEN?" Webby asked.
"Webby, let me shake the hand of a genius." Launchpad said.
And he shook her hand.
So we went to the address and saw why the kidnapper had no fear of being snuck up on. The little house was between a cemetery and a river. Anybody alive on one side would stick out like a sore thumb, anybody on the other side would have to cross the river to get to the house.
"What do we do, pretend to be a family of mourners, visiting a grave?" I asked.
"I know how to steer a boat. What if I rent a boat and steer it past the house? I can dock the boat just past the house and we can swim back. There is a small bunch of boats docked just after the house, we can dock our abound them." Launchpad began.
"Maybe I better stay with the boat. A: I still don't swim all that well. B: I know how to steer a boat, too(2) and I have this weird hunch that you guys are going to need a quick escape. Besides, all those boats are being repaired- somebody is aboard them fixing them. If somebody isn't aboard ours, pretending to fix it, it'll look fishy. Excuse the expression." I said.
This sounded like a good idea, but we ended up making a slight modification to it. Launchpad spotted a small boat for rent that had a smaller rowboat on board. And he realized that if he docked the larger boat in the right spot, we could row to the house without kidnapper being able to see.
"Now you can come, too." Launchpad wheedled.
"And who's going to rescue you if you need a quick exit? I'd better stay here. I can signal you with a mirror if I think you'd better scram." I said.
So Launchpad kissed me.
We rented a boat and docked it just past the house, where the other boats were being repaired. I stayed with the boat, and made sure it was ready for a quick rescue/escape. I even did a few small repairs to keep myself from worrying and so I could keep half an eye on the house without looking suspicious.
Meanwhile, using bioculars, the would-be rescuers "cased the joint". On the second floor, in the back was a large room with tightly shuttered windows. Somebody kept banging at them, as if trying to get out. And another "person" was downstairs. Not having to worry about nosy neighbors, he ignored the racket.
"I'm too big and clumsy to be good at being sneaky. What if I keep kidnapper busy while you four sneak in and try to rescue Mr. McDee?" Launchpad suggested.
Launchpad knocked on the door of the house and the kids snuck to the back. They climbed a tree. Webby clambered out on a stout limb, but she couldn't quite reach the window. She broke off a branch and using it to pick at the shutters until she finally opened them.
Meanwhile, Launchpad had taken out the digital camera I had given him and was trying to convince kidnapper that he, Launchpad, was a reporter/photographer for the Duckburg Daily News.
"I'm investigating supernatural phenomena like ghosts, as Halloween is coming up. Since you live right next to a cemetery, I was wondering if you had ever seen or heard any ghosts?" Launchpad asked, making it up as he went along.
Nearby, Webby had gotten the shutters opened and Mr. McDuck had opened the window. But the limb Webby had climbed out on would only hold her weight, and not Mr. McDuck's. He took one of the few pieces of furniture in the room, a wooden chair and propped it against the window, upside-down and backwards. The legs were on the floor, the back of the chair was out the window.
Mr. McDuck climbed on the chair's back, holding one of the shutters and half-jumped, half-swung into the tree. Crash! Mr. McDuck landed in the tree, unhurt, but he had made a racket doing so.
"I knew it! I KNEW if I hung around Launchpad for too long, I'D start crashing!" Mr. McDuck muttered.
"What was that? You have a ghost you're keeping secret, don't you?' Launchpad asked, hearing the noise and trying to cover up for it.
It was no good, Mr. Secondary saw the kids and Mr. McDuck running for it. Launchpad kicked Mr. Secondary and ran and joined them.
"Head for the rowboat!" Launchpad screamed.
I had been watching and was already steering the larger boat towards the house as they climbed into the rowboat.
"Throw me the rope!" I yelled, wondering how I could catch the rope and steer the boat.
Launchpad did one better: he lassoed the belaying pin at the stern of the boat.(3)The rowboat was pulled by the larger boat and we got the bleep out of there.
Once we were a safe distance, we radioed the cops. They caught Mr. Secondary as he tried to escape. And Mr. Secondary was locked up for kidnapping for a long time.
The End.
(1) Frankly, I liked them better as the mischievous trouble-makers they originally were, but this way I don't mind taking them along.
(2) Three guesses who taught me and I'm married to him.
(3) One of the Trins lassoed that "walrus" in the SOUTH Pole in "Treasure of the Golden Suns" which was LONG before that cowboy who turned out to be a bad guy allegedly taught the Trins to lasso. And since Mr. McDuck is a city slicker and may not know how...three guesses who I think taught them how to do that.
I hope it's called a belaying pin.
.