DANGERMOUSE:
PERFECT TIMING
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
Disclaimer: Dangermouse (2015) and all trademarked characters are property of Fremantle Media and CBBC
Jeopardy snuck into the bedroom to check on the kids.
There had been a few minutes of unrest when she had sent them to their rooms to snuggle in for the slow and steady evening hours, but such rowdiness had long since settled by the time she crept in.
She smiled, assured that all had gone according to plan.
She was ever so good with timing.
She kissed the youngest child on the cheek, and steadily groomed the fur between his ears with her fingers.
The younger suddenly began to stir from his slumber, Jeopardy immediately took swift action, wrapping the quilt further over his delicate head and humming a soothing lullaby.
A faint hum suddenly went off in the right pocket of her crisp blue jeans; she took out the source of the noise to reveal a compact phone. She opened the compact to check her messages.
Two missed calls, and a bill for the room.
She sighed.
Exiting the bedroom, she brought the compact close to her ear, and spoke into it as quietly as she could
"I told you to give me five more hours" she said.
"We can't afford you any less than two more" a gruff voice on the opposite end of the phone echoed.
"Two isn't long enough, you know they can only store up to thirty hours worth of memory before they're shipped out" Jeopardy insisted
"You know the rules Ms. Mouse, no attachments" insisted the voice.
"Colonel, why give them only minutes and not hours...days eve?"
"The war affords us very little time" Col. K continued.
"There should never have been such a swift and unanimous vote...it's a fudging disgrace if you pardon my French" remarked Jeopardy
"Don't bring the French into this again" insisted Col.K
Jeopardy suddenly heard a creek, and a tiny patter of feet from behind her, she turned around.
"Oh no" she said, and peered back into the room, dismaying at the sight of an empty bed.
"He was listening in" Jeopardy said.
"Who was?"
"Daniel, oh god, little Daniel, I think he was listening in" Jeopardy continued.
"Is he up?" Col. K continued.
"Yes, yes, he's clear of the bedroom...if he doesn't get any shuteye, his programming will write out sleep altogether, he'll jump straight to the fail safes, survival instinct and combat mode, who knows what damage he'll cause, who knows what harm he'll bring when the other lads awaken, he could disrupt the whole of the next day's drafts "
"That alone could disrupt the harmony of the whole institution, hang in there Jeopardy, I'll see to you receive the best agent as back-up should things go wrong"
"I'm THE best agent, let me handle this" Jeopardy said, "Besides, do you have any agents I could use as back-up BESIDES Dangermouse?"
"I'm afraid DM's the only one on the active roster, everyone else is down with Wine flu"
"Wine flu?" asked a confused Jeopardy.
"An unfortunate consequence of the office party, they all got tipsy and challenged each other to sip through the nose. Now all they do is sneeze out the stuff" the Colonel explained.
"I'll let you know if I need him, Jeopardy out" she said, and closed the lid on her compact phone, tucking it back into her pocket.
As Jeopardy made her way across the corridors, whispering the name of the youngling in an attempt to lure him out of the shadows, she cast her mind back to what she was doing here.
Her experiences in London with the M-1 super tank had given her more privileges with the militant mice in service to government defence, and she had been entrusted with the London branch of the 'Field Mice' initiative, a special compound where genetically modified mice are bred from a clone batch and given approximately twenty-five minutes worth of a progressive lifetime, before they are equipped and despatched to a primary warzone.
It was Jeopardy's job to play nanny to these mice, giving each family unit a total of ten of those twenty-five minutes
Cox him out of the shadows as the dark corridors suddenly ignited into bright infra-red lighting. A 3-dimensional grid lit up around and along the corridor, allowing Jeopardy to see a distinct path ahead of her, and, better yet, to track the footprints left behind of the young Mouse.
Finally, she caught up to him
"Danny? Danny? It's ok, it's ok, you don't need to.." she began, only to be caught with a blinding tackle as Danny darted up to her and grabbed her by the legs, sending her carrering to the floor.
"I'm the champion of the world, you fell right for my lure. You're no sport, way too easy" Danny said in triumph, "You'll have to do better if you want me back in bed" he continued.
"You want to play a game?" said Jeopardy, partially relieved.
"Yeah, I got bored playing 'Giraffe Warriors: Neck to Neck'" he said, "So I browsed Goggletube before I went to bed, and I saw how you tackled that super-tank...physical activity beats boring old war simulations any day"
Jeopardy breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought for sure you'd...overheard something"
"Nah, I've got way too much wax in my ear to hear much from a distance"
"Clean out those big lugs young man" Jeopardy.
"Why don't you clean them out for me?" said Danny.
"Tell you what; I'll give you some advance physical education, p.e for short, I know you don't get this until, well, five minutes after bedtime, but I'll give you some of my moves, and then we'll get you snuggled back into bed and you can sleep off those minutes, then you can get an early breakfast and play in the park before your big trip tomorrow right?"
"Deal" said Danny, "Shall we begin?"
"Anytime you're ready Champ" said Jeopardy.
As Jeopardy showed the young lad what she could do, she reflected on the limits she had to work with, and how, with a little bit of wiggle room, she could make one mouse's world last so much longer.
And the more that thought entertained the precious minutes they spent together, the more elated she felt.
She was ever so good with timing.