Chapter 3

When he arrived in Metro City, Will Du had demanded and expected the full cooperation of the local authorities. After all, he was Global Justice's top agent.

Instead he slammed into a massive wall of red tape only moments after he had stated his requests and past the red tape the proverbial 'thin blue line' was forming.

There was nothing formally wrong with the paperwork he had to go through. What Will failed to understand were the reasons why his problems began to stack up in such a hurry.

He had simply walked in, shown the police commissioner his GJ identification papers and asked to see all and any files on Inspector John Gadget.

The fact that he had been his usual, abrasive and demanding self, and that it had made the police commissioner dislike him right away, escaped Will Du completely. After all, he was doing it by the books, how could anyone possibly disapprove of that?

Because it was Global Justice business and he had been ordered to be discreet, Will Du had also insisted that the commissioner and the man in charge of the files sign a nondisclosure waiver. That did little to enamour Du to the MCPD.

Since no answers to any questions on what was going on were allowed to be given to anyone outside the document storage or the commissioner's office, rumors began to spread among the other police officers. Some facts had managed to slip into the rumor mill: Some outside guy was looking for Inspector Gadget and the guy was a jerk.

"I don't understand why I can't have a copy of the files and take them to my hotel. This can be done under the Hammer Act of 1998!" Will complained.

"Yes, that is true but the very same act states that local legislation takes precedence if the situation so merits." The clerk smirked condescendingly. "And will you look at that? Seems the commissioner just made such a call and signed this new regulation that says that documents may only be studied under supervision of the head clerk (that would be me) and in the reading rooms of the archives. And since you do not have a warrant from the United States Supreme Court, something which might take years to get, I might add, well..." The man shrugged. "Looks like you'll be sitting here to do your homework."

"But that new regulation didn't even exist when I got here!"

"Those are the breaks, buddy. Here we do things by the book. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

Will Du ground his teeth in frustration but swallowed his pride.

"No, I don't."

"One more thing."

"What?"

"For you, coffee is 50 cents per cup." The clerk grinned. "Since you're not an employee, just a visitor."

"Fine."

Hours turned into days. The bureaucrats and clerks insisted that Will had to go through the books in chronological and alphabetical order and return each binder to it's place on the shelves before getting a new one.

Every objection from Will was always met with the same response: "Do it by the book or not at all."

Right from the start, one pattern was very clear: Inspector Gadget had been working non-stop during the three previous decades. Nothing major, just being out there, in the field all day, every day. A bank robbery foiled here, a pimp beating a hooker stopped there and so on and so forth.

Judging by the reports, the old man was getting tired as the years ground on. The things he did became increasingly more small time and the intervals between the good deeds became longer.

"Jeez, he's really working himself down to the bone. What kind of director treats his operatives like this? Not even giving the guy the option to stand down, that is...out of order." Will thought. He had read somewhere that a good general should 'covet his soldiers like pearls and not spend them like water'. Well, it seemed to Will that Inspector John Gadget was getting spent and it was amazing that he'd lasted even this long. It was obvious that Gadget, and by extension, Will Du, were running out of time.

What was almost as interesting, was what was not in the files.

Neither the 'handler' nor the 'construct' was mentioned.

Or were they?

In a few of the very earliest police reports in the Metro City there was a name: Penelope Gadget.

But very soon any further reports involving her ceased. Why was that? Where had she gone and what had happened?

This obviously merited further investigation, as soon as Will Du had located the Inspector.

"One thing at a time. I'm still on top of this situation."

After all the sorting through reports, looking at maps and assembling information, Will Du had a pretty good idea on what parts of Metro City were most frequented by Inspector Gadget.

He got up from his chair and stretched.

It was time to leave these stuffy archives and hit the streets.

"Places to go and people to meet."