Chapter 4: What's Going On?

It's Sunday morning, and the villa is unusually quiet. Clover awakens and has eaten breakfast, but it's 10 AM and neither Alex nor Sam has come down from their bedrooms. Clover is becoming concerned and goes up to Sam's bedroom first.

"Sammie?" she asks as she knocks quietly on the door, "Sammie? Can we talk?" But as Clover slowly opens the door to Sam's bedroom, she can see that Sam isn't there.

"She left around midnight with a suitcase," G.L.A.D.I.S. states, "and so did Alex. They each took their cars, but didn't leave a clue as to where they were going."

"I better call, Jer," Clover states.

Whipping out her x-powder, Clover calls Jerry at his home.

"Jerry? Alex and Sam are missing!"

"They are?" asks a surprised Jerry. "We had better get to WOOHP and see if we can track them down."

"Right, Jer. See you there."

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It takes Clover 30 minutes to get to WOOHP. She can see by the parking lot that Jerry is already there. She hurries up to his office, where she sees Jerry talking intently to G.L.A.D.I.S.

"…….G.L.A.D.I.S., when did they leave?"

"Around midnight."

"All of them?"

"No, Jerry, only about fifty percent of them."

Clover takes her seat on the sofa and remarks, "That's when Sam and Alex left too. At around midnight."

Jerry turns around and addresses Clover.

"There must be a connection somewhere that links these disappearances together!"

But before Jerry can say another word, Dr. Quincy, the head of WOOHP Labs, enters his office wearing a hearing aid, along with Bob, also wearing a hearing aid, the head of WOOHP Finance, and five of the WOOHP agents who had originally disappeared. The five agents wear hearing aids also.

"You're under arrest! Both of you!" declares Dr. Quincy. "Take them and the other WOOHP agents to the holding cells below."

"Quincy, what ARE you doing?" asks an incredulous Jerry, to his former field partner, as he grabs his arm, tearing a small piece of cloth from his shirt sleeve.

"We're taking over WOOHP, that's what! Take them away!" responds Bob.

And with that Jerry and Clover are herded into the cellblock below WOOHP where they are made prisoners, along with the remaining WOOHP agents. Jerry absentmindedly shoves the shirt piece in his pocket.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The coup agents were in such a rush to put all of the WOOHP agents in jail, they forgot to take away any of their WOOHP equipment.

"…………..Yes, G.L.A.D.I.S., that's what I want you to do, " remarks Jerry very quietly at the back of the cell.

Soon the cells are blocked off from the remainder of the cellblock and the cellblock is inundated with odorless, colorless sleeping gas. After about ten minutes, the gas is suctioned away and the cell doors are unlocked. Quietly, Jerry, Clover and the other jailed agents work their way to the equipment room and garage, where the effects of the sleeping gas are readily apparent, due to sleeping rogue WOOHP agents. They agents grab some weapons, scientific test equipment, and a few portable computers from the equipment room. They then exit through the garage to their personal vehicles and are off!

Jerry has a parting instruction for G.L.A.D.I.S., " It is imperative G.L.A.D.I.S. that you report the 'inadvertent' malfunction of the sleep gas dispenser and jail cell security breach. That way, it should remove undue suspicion from you in the matter, and you can act as our spy within WOOHP. But don't bring up our equipment grab."

"As you wish, Jerry."

Clover wants to know where they are headed. "Where can we go, Jerry? All WOOHP equipment has homing beacons in them. Dr. Quincy and his crew can track us down anywhere!"

"Quite right, Clover, but only if they know that the equipment is missing. That's why we are heading for a secluded set of summer cabins in the Rocky Mountain foothills and G.L.A.D.I.S. won't alert them to the missing equipment. We certainly can't go to our homes. That's the first place they would look."

"What about those implanted GPS chips?"

"The cabins we are going to are three miles inside a stone cave system. The signal will not penetrate, but they will be able to pinpoint the entrance to the caves, so we have to work fast!"

As the agents get to the cabins, they deploy the equipment as well as post guards at the cave entrance. Jerry holds an impromptu meeting.

"There must be a connection between all of these agents disappearing, and then reappearing for the take over, but what is it?"

"You know, Jerry, maybe it's nothing, but Sam and Alex were gorging themselves on Gina's Donuts up to the time they left," remarked Clover.

"And, I noticed the guards noshing on them when we were in the cellblock," added Agent DeAngelo.

"One more thing. Was it me or were they all wearing outfits with HVG on the label showing on the outside of their shirts?" opined Agent Ramirez.

"Now that you have all brought them up, I too remember them eating the donuts and wearing the HVG clothing," remarked Jerry. "But if the donuts have something to do with it, why didn't it affect us? We all ate some of those donuts too."

"That's true, Jerry. But the only way to find out is to analyze a Gina Donut. Does anyone have any?" asks Senior Lab Researcher Carol.

Embarrassed, Agent Billings states, "I have about half a box in my car. I've been munching on them on my way to work."

"That's great, Billings! We only need one to analyze!" states Jerry excitedly. Billings actually surrenders the remainder of the box, which Carol then takes to the makeshift lab.

"Clover, let's see if we can pinpoint who owns Gina's Donuts by searching on the computers," suggests Jerry. Luckily for Jerry and Clover, the cabins are equipped with high-speed Internet connections. Unfortunately, they will be limited to databases available to the public, and won't be able to connect with G.L.A.D.I.S. for any info.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Back at WOOHP, the escape is discovered, about two hours after it happened, thanks to G.L.A.D.I.S. reporting her 'malfunctions".

"Quincy, let's use the GPS locator chips to find the agents," suggests Bob. All WOOHP agents have a GPS locator chip embedded under their skin to help in rescue efforts. Of course, they can be used for other purposes as well.

"Great idea!" exclaims Dr. Quincy as he turns on the tracker. But he doesn't get a reading.

"They must be in a rock or steel enclosure," remarks Quincy, "but no matter. I'll get information for the last two hours from our WOOHP satellites and we can trace where they went."

As the data feeds on the wall, Quincy and Bob can see all the agents heading to the cave, where their tracking beeps disappears.

"Let me call up a map of that cave system," remarks Quincy.

Both men study the map, and note that there are five distinct chambers large enough to hold the agents. They just can't pinpoint which one.

"Okay! Let's put together an assault team! We'll storm the cave caverns and recapture our wayward prisoners. G.L.A.D.I.S., get us the equipment needed to assault the cave, to equip one hundred agents!" orders Bob.

"As you wish," replies G.L.A.D.I.S. as she also tries to get a warning to Jerry. But Jerry doesn't receive it because the cave walls block the signal!