For a moment Shego expected Rod Serling to walk out from inside the cafe. Her mouth moved soundlessly as her mind worked to reconcile the idea of Kim Possible being a killer with the annoying girl she'd constantly fought and beaten.
Not always though. A memory of a stormy night several months previous flashed across her mind and she closed her mouth. In retrospect she could see the potential that had been in the redhead's eyes. It was something she should have noticed, although several thousand volts of electricity were a hell of a distraction.
Shego gave her head a shake. "How?"
It was a twofold question, and the look in her eyes delivered the message that her voice couldn't. How did Discharge die, when he had proven capable of surviving just about anything Team Go had thrown at him; and how had been put into a situation where he was killed in the first place, since he had been held in Go City's maximum security prison.
"Aviarius broke out alongside Electronique and their escape caused enough damage to the prison's internal power systems to shut down Discharge's containment cell. With your brothers— I mean Team Go," Wade corrected quickly as Shego let out a low growl. " Team Go too busy dealing with the others, the city had no other option but to call in Kim to deal with the bank he was robbing after he escaped."
"The official cause of death was from a police sniper," Wade stated sarcastically. "Of course, the fact that Discharge was killed inside the bank vault and well out of reach of a sniper hasn't been included on any of the public reports. Unfortunately it looks like someone inside already leaked it to the press. So far only a few low-key tabloids and a couple minor newspapers have been able to get past GJ's censors, but it's only a matter of time before it hits the mainstream media."
Wade frowned at the table. Shego took advantage of the pause to snag a glass of water from a passing waiter. He turned to question her only to shut his mouth with an audible click and retreat back inside the cafe at the look she gave him.
"So? What's the big deal already? Kimmie kicked the guy around a bit before the SWAT team dropped him or something?" Shego prompted when the hacker continued to brood.
"A pair of nine millimeters to the face; that's what the autopsy listed as the cause of death. Bastard probably didn't even realize what he was looking at. Ballistics match the bullets to the service pistol of one of the seven security guards Discharge killed while robbing the bank, and the fingerprints on it were Kim's. Of course, it helped that the police found her holding it when they finally arrived."
Shego let out a low whistle, impressed despite herself. Discharge had been the bane of her existence, quite literally, as he had developed some form of technology that granted him to generate and control plasma, even her own. Hego never let her forget that she needed his help to deal with the villain whenever he showed up to make trouble.
"Can't say I expected that. What pushed her over the line?" she asked as she read through the article. She had only made it part way through the page before throwing it down in disgust. For the most part the article seemed focused on painting Kim in the worst light possible, as some thrill-seeking adrenaline junky who couldn't get enough from just beating up her foes and had moved on to killing them as the next big rush. Although several pages were more favorably devoted to covering the rebuilding efforts in New York after the alien invasion a couple months ago, she certainly wouldn't be picking up another copy of the Daily Bugle anytime soon.
Wade stared silently into the distance with a furrowed brow until Shego coughed discreetly. The genius gave his head a shake before sighing and pointing to the newspaper.
"What the media doesn't know, yet, is that before Kim arrived Discharge was holding several of the bank's customers and tellers hostage, or so he claimed. If he had ever kept any of them as hostages in the first place, he'd killed them long before Kim arrived."
Shego leaned back and shook her head. In an attempt to distract herself from long buried memories, she frowned and pointed out an oddity she had noticed earlier.
"That still doesn't explain why you want my help. I can see where she was coming from, hell, next time I see her I may give her a pass for services rendered, if she let's me. If you don't recall, we parted on rather unfriendly terms last time we met. Bueno Nacho Headquarters, radio tower, lots of electricity, any of this ringing a bell?"
"Trust me," Wade said with a grimace. "I'm enjoying this as little as you are."
"Then why not have the sidekick look for her? I mean, sure he's a buffoon, but the two of you have worked well enough together before, especially considering the amount of trouble he causes Monty. Why me?"
"Why you?" Wade repeated bitterly. "You're the only one I can turn to."
"Oh come on, the buffoon-"
"Is in a coma," Wade cut in, silencing Shego immediately. He waited to see if she would interrupt and continued after a moment when she simply stared at him. "If Kim hadn't killed Discharge when she did, Ron would probably be in the ground instead of a hospital."
Resting her chin on the palm of her hand, Shego tapped her cheek absently. She was tempted to make a smart remark, but it didn't feel right. Shego had her own demons, some much worse than others, and it looked scarily enough like one of them had gotten loose to ruin another life.
"Right, no offense, but honestly I'm not surprised the Buffoon hasn't gotten injured like that already. He's not important though, so what happened to Pri— to Kim?" she recorrected quickly, though Wade still raised a brow at her slip.
"Global Justice arranged for everything to be kept quiet and for Kim to take a break from all the attention while Ron recovered in a private facility. You know, an opportunity to deal with everything and recover away from it all. It didn't help that Ron's parents tore into her for getting him hurt like this."
Shego snorted. "And I'm sure Kimmie took that well. Probably already felt like it was all her fault and she just let everyone else pile on the guilt like the good little hero she is."
Wade glared at her. "At any rate, GJ gave Kim a ticket for a cruise around the world on a ship where they could keep a close but hidden eye on her."
"So they put her in confined space away from her support network without supplying a shrink or even a token display that they were there looking out for her and just expected her to magically get better? Good to see that the people in charge of protecting everyone are still as stupid as they were when I was young. Let me guess, Kimmie hurt one of them playing shuffleboard?"
Wade took in a calming breath as the conversation reached the reason he had arranged the meeting.
"Three days after the ship left port Kim disappeared." Shego narrowed her eyes and leaned closer as Wade continued. "No signs of a struggle, most of her tools and clothes still there, and only a small bag missing along with her grapple gun. No message, no clues, just one minute she was there, the next, poof. GJ's been too busy with dealing with that basket-case Summers in D.C. to devote more than a ghost shift towards finding her."
Shego snorted in derision. "I've heard of him. Honestly, if these 'mutants' were so common, you'd think we'd have heard of them by now. And if you say one word about pots and kettles you'll find out what it's like to be one over an open flame."
"Right right," Wade said hastily as his eyes darted nervously about the cafe. "Anyway, GJ's has too much on their plate already without having to track down a notoriously free spirited teenager that vanished of her own free will and I really don't have any other option. I've got some pocket money from a few patents of mine that I can spare to cover your services."
"Really?" Shego leaned back and studied her nails. "I doubt you could afford my rates. How much could you possibly have to offer me?Job huh?"
"Two and a half million dollars."
Shego straightened in her chair and gave the hacker a grin that sent a shiver down Wade's spine. "Well you know what they say, money talks. But that isn't quite speaking loudly enough."
"Five million and final offer. I'm sure Team Impossible would be willing to work for that much." It would take a bit of time to put that much money into his accounts, but it would be worth it.
Shego hemmed and hawed over the decision for a few moments before chuckling to herself. "Toss in a favor from you and you can consider myself hired," she said and extended her hand across the table. Wade gave it a long look before taking it.
Despite all the precautions and contingencies he had prepared, Wade couldn't shake the feeling that he was holding hands with the devil. He just hoped the damnation was worth it.
