-Hello and welcome, I know it´s been a while but here I am. Back with a new story. I don´t want to talk to much now so just enjoy.-
Deep in the T.U.F.F. building, deep deep inside the basement there is that certain room. A room which turns hard criminals into harmless sheep, a room in which the biggest villains get confronted with their enemies, a room which main purpose is to give the T.U.F.F. agents answers.
Answers that bring these agents closer and closer to their final goal, the truth. Meant is of course the legendary interrogation room. If you ask the T.U.F.F. agents about that room they would all say that it has some kind of magic. They were pretty superstitious about that room.
But not Kitty Katswell, T.U.F.F.´s number one agent. This tall tanned cat always believed that magic wasn´t the thing that made the bad guys finally crack. She believed that it was just something called skill. And in her opinion she had the most of it in the whole agency.
But on this one special day her self-confidence was put on a hard test. It was the day when she interrogated her former partner Dudley Puppy who tried desperately to light his cigarette with a broken lighter.
"Dammit." He cursed as the small flame went out again.
"Again Dudley, what happened in that apartment?"
Dudley didn´t even thought about answering here. He was too preoccupied with lighting up this damn cigarette.
Nervously he fished in his pockets for this pack of matches he got once as he visited that strip club in Petsburg. Luckily they still were there and they were also still functional. With relish he sucked in the warm steam which burnt slightly as it reached his lungs and blew it directly in Kitty´s face. "Well Katswell, it was self-defense."
"SELF-DEFENSE?!" screamed Kitty shocked. "You killed an old man! An old defenseless man!"
"It was necessary. And I would do that again."
"NECESSARY!" Kitty almost slapped him. Her ex-partner scared her and made her angry at the same time.
Especially the pictures see saw of what he done haunted her thoughts like an old powerful ghost. One of that ghost which just wouldn´t leave the house after six exorcisms. One of these ghost because of that you have to leave the house.
She saw him with a knife stabbing furiously on an old weak man. How he sat on that man´s chest and maltreated him. The blood that spurted fountain-like out of the heart near wounds… so much blood. Kitty has seen so much disgusting and bloody scenes in her career but this somehow overcame that all.
Not because it was the most terrible thing she saw but maybe because it was Dudley who did that. The man who saved here was capable of commit such an atrocity.
"Yes, of course it was necessary." Repeated Dudley who took another pull on his cigarette. He finished it so he threw the cigarette butt on the table and rummaged in his package for the next.
"Oh… These things saved my life." He said eying the cigarettes almost loving.
"What are you talking about? And when have you begun to smoke?"
"Oh that must have happened after I pressed that guy the cigarette into his eye. Oh, that was fun! Must have been after I strangled this miner in Paraguay."
"God, Dudley… You changed." Kitty shook her head in disgust and turned away from him.
"Wouldn´t you?" he mumbled with the cigarette in his mouth. "Tell me Katswell, wouldn´t you change if you´ve been through something like that?"
"I´ve also been through a lot Dudley!" She opened a few buttons on the black blouse she wore and showed Dudley the ugly round scar near her heart. "Do you remember?"
"How could I forget? This sunny day seven years ago. The day of the massacre. How could I forget 231 casualties?"
Kitty stayed silent. She wouldn´t answer to this rhetorical question and also no answer would be good enough. But only the mention of the massacre let these picture flashing up in front of her mind´s eye.
She could hear the gun rattling mercilessly sending the unlucky who couldn´t find shelter one after the other to the shores of the river Styx. She opened her eyes fast again. Her therapist advised her not to abandon herself to these memories too long. Otherwise the panic attacks would start again.
For a T.U.F.F. agent there was nothing worse than crouching after every suspicious noise under a table. No, she was done with that. Since two years she´s been attack free now and that shouldn´t change. Generally her psyche suffered under that incident.
It became worse after Dudley told her that he would leave the city to hunt the culprit of the massacre. His words still echoed in her ears like an old sad song. "I owe that to Mom Kitty. And to the other 230 people."
That was almost seven years ago. And now Dudley was back and he had the blood of an old defenseless man on his hands.
"Dudley you better tell me now what happened exactly in that apartment or I have no other choice than arresting you!" urged Kitty after a short break.
"As I said, self-defense."
"Dudley that man was 62 years old. His name was Kelvin. Kelvin, Dudley! Such a guy isn´t dangerous!"
"You really think that?" giggled Dudley like he was laughing about her naivety. "He is maybe known to the state as Kelvin Mathew Rogers. But NSA knows him as Carlo Stevens also called 'Fingers'. Jugger, diamond thieve and Bank robber. Oh and he was violent one, too! You should read in his file about the incident in Copenhagen. So believe me Katswell, he was dangerous. I visited him to gain some information. He went mad and tried to kill me. So I got ahead of him."
"Jugger, NSA, Copenhagen? In what have you gotten into?"
"That´s a long story…"
"Well, I got time." Kitty crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited expectantly on Dudley´s answer.
"I´m not allowed to talk about that." Again she almost slapped him for that answer. This sentence was a boon and bane for all spies. On one hand you could imply in every interrogation of governmental agents that there are higher authorities what bought you time until they done all the paper work to gain your alleged security level.
On the other hand it meant a lot of paper work for interrogating agents. Besides, working with authorities was something no agent liked to do.
"Anyway, it was funny but enough of that." Dudley stood up and stretched. "Ah, well good bye."
He wanted to leave the room but Kitty prevented him from that by stepping between him and the door. "Where do you think you going?"
"Katswell, step aside."
"First you tell me what you´re up to! And don´t lie to me."
"What do you think? I´m still hunting this damn bastard. And I´m so close to him that I can almost smell his fear." He pushed Kitty aside and walked into the office to his old desk. With one arm he shoved down the personal items of the present owner.
"Home sweet home." He laughed, sat down on the chair and laid his feet on the desk.
"Dudley, stop it!"
"Is that the stuff your new partner Katswell?"
"Yes and Rick will be angry when he returns!" screamed Kitty furiously. Dudley´s behavior was not worth discussing. And if Rick returned and see that he… maybe he wouldn´t be angry. More intimidated. Rick was Kitty´s new partner and protégé.
A little squirrel that wore a suit but he always looked like a child that tried daddy´s old suit on.
Summarized he wasn´t the guy you would expect being the typical secret agent.
"Get off his desk!"
"Nope" meant Dudley as he searched through the drawers.
"Get off my partner´s desk Dudley!"
"And again, nope. That´s my desk now. And because that´s your partners desk, I´m your new partner."
"That doesn´t work like that." Protested Kitty.
" Oh, this time it does. And you will help me to get the culprit! You help me to avenge the people no matter what it cost!"
