(Last Chance Garage)

Charley sighed. Her mysterious contact had turned up again. She sighed. This was not good. They military was planning to let Limburger pinch a prototype plane? Did they not know how insane that was? Why were they letting her know about it?

"I know you're not happy about this Miss Davidson, but who on the planet has the most similar tech-level to the Plutarkians?"

"My friends, the Mice."

"And whose reports are getting squished?"

"Limburger's." Charley sighed unhappily. Still she could still tell the mice about the heist that was going down. It would be best to prep the stuff now especially if the guards were going to be as reduced as she thought.

The man looked at Charley. "Remember Limburger must succeed in stealing the plane. Work out ways to help get the mice to survive, and to take it down but we need a test run."

(Secret HQ)

"What do you think Brough? Will she obey orders?"

"Difficult to say. She'll be trying to square the two bits of her conscience for a while. but I think she'll tell them about it. Whether she helps them stop Limburger - that'll go down to the wire."

"Make sure she can't succeed if she decides to help the mice."

"I'll crosswire the nearby planes missile launch to the ejector seat."

(Events of Steal of the Century)

(Limburger Tower)

Limburger sighed. Even the point of a twelve million dollar toilet on a plane was being squelched by Stilton. As much as he knew it was a set-up, he had needed that plane to counteract the mice. But the report Camembert had got from Stilton had stripped all the information from the report. Earth had generated a plane which could outmatch five Martian bikes. It was so good in fact, that the Mice had to strip armour and guns from their spaceship to survive. Limburger also knew that someone was now actually listening to his reports, since he was still in Chicago. The sooner Plutark went to open warfare the better... The Mice were starting to seem less alien and more like people. Worse Earth was closing the tech gap as fast as it could.

"Leave now!" The command came from Charley and Throttle at the same time. It was in a tone that brooked no arguments and suggested a fate worse than death for anyone who disobeyed the spirit of the command. Vinnie and Modo leave. Modo notices Vinnie's worried lock.

"Throttle and Charley never argue!" Vinnie says in denial.

Modo sighs. Since Vinnie would probably deny crushing on Charley he decided to say something else. "I'm not surprised. Remember we didn't stop the heist. Charley made a good effort, until at a critical moment her ejector seat launch distracted us."

Throttle glared at Charley. "I know a set-up when I see one. I don't like being used as a live-fire test for other people's military technology. You seem to be doing well and then you get ejected at the worst possible moment and that delay enabled Greasepit to start the plane. That looked calculated, Charlene."

"I broke orders, Throttle, and tried to warn you as much as I could. And the jet I was using had been re-wired precisely to eject me at a critical moment. It was a missile launch switch I pressed."

"Someone guessed you'd try and break orders. Come on."

"I did everything I could to get you there and prevent the theft. I made sure we went past the billboard on the way back. I helped keep the goons off your back while you dealt with the main threats. I even warned you not to get overconfident. But once again you refused to listen to my advice and charged in. I expect that from Vinnie, but you know I'm an agent and should actually take my suggestions. I did all I could."

"Except tell us we were going to be the targets in a live-fire exercise. That is what I am angry about. You didn't warn us of why the plane was stolen, nor how tough it was going to be.

"I knew the plane was going to be tough but that tough? Come-on Throttle I didn't realise we'd caught up that much in the arms side of things. I'd been more concerned with dealing with Limburger. As for not telling you about the live-fire exercise, if you had just listened to me Throttle, would it ever have happened? Quite frankly I thought it could be dealt with without you ever being aware. I just forgot to take your stubborn, over-macho, pig-headedness into account."

"And that's the problem. Without us being aware."

"There's stuff you won't tell me, despite the trust you have, because I'm Earth Military. Equally despite my trust in you there's stuff I either cannot or will not tell you. I pushed right to the edges here. And will probably only be forgiven because it worked out."

"True but this was mission critical information."

"So when are you going to tell Vinnie and Modo I'm an Earth agent?"

Throttle lowers his head. He wasn't of course. And that was probably in the end why Charley hadn't done any more than she had. He was rarely on his own, and she like him recognised that Vinnie and Modo were both susceptible to womanly wiles though for different reasons. Best if they didn't know. And if she had revealed how much she knew, she'd have had to reveal she was an agent.

"I'll try to be more observant." Throttle stated

"And I'll try to be clearer in my hints from now own." Charley replied.