Chapter Seven

The woman was about Will's height. If she was Penelope Gadget she'd be in her mid -40's now. She was blonde, as far as he could see in the deepening autumn gloom and she was only pretending to lean on the rake she had been using when Will had approached the small cabin in the woods.

Judging by the grip on the rake's handle and how she'd shifted her weight from one foot to the other told him she was prepared to use the gardening tool as a weapon.

"Miss Gadget? I'm…" He began.

"Global Justice, right?" The woman said, her tone being far from friendly.

"Why, yes. How did you know?"

She looked him over some more.

"I can guess a whole lot about you, just by looking at you. Let's see some ID. Just make sure you get it out slowly."

Will saw no reason to object just yet and carefully took out his ID. Of course, it identified him as an insurance agent rather than a Global Justice operative. He was about to point this out when the woman reached out and yanked it from his fingers. She deftly applied pressure on the right points of the card, opening it up into two thinner halves, like a small pamphlet.

"Will Du, hunh?" Her face was lit up faintly by the tiny hologram on the ID. "Alright, so you're looking for Penelope Gadget. Well, you found her. Let's get inside, it's getting late and it's getting cold."

Despite the invitation Penny didn't sound friendlier and Will had to catch the ID as she tossed it over her shoulder in his general direction.

Inside the little cabin it was warm and although fairly cramped, it looked quite comfortable.

Penny Gadget ushered Will to a chair by the table. He noticed she placed him furthest from the door out and herself closest.

There were some serious trust issues, Will deduced and he added in his mind that she knew how to arrange things to her advantage in case something went wrong.

"Before we go any further, I would like to state for the record that you are not in any kind of trouble as far as Global Justice is concerned, Miss Gadget. I'm actually just here to ask for your assistance and…"

He was interrupted.

"Global Justice is not getting any help from me. End of story. You people still owe me most of my childhood."

"I...uh… what?"

Penny's blue eyes flashed angrily.

"What do you mean 'What?'? Global Justice put a ten year old child in the field as handler for an organic construct and coordinator for a cyborg law enforcement officer, Then exposed me to a world-wide organization of criminals led by a complete madman who also was a cyborg, to boot!"

Her voice had risen steady as she addressed Will. She was partly standing up, leaning across the table and practically shouting at him.

"And you have the gall, the nerve, the insolence to come crawling out of the shadows to ask me for help!"

"That was under a previous directorate! I wasn't even born then!" Will defended himself and shrank back in his chair, somewhat intimidated by her outburst.

"Bah!"

To Will's relief, Penny sat down in her chair again.

An uncomfortable silence settled over the table, with Penny glaring at Will and Will trying to figure out what to say.

"Uh, how'd you know I was a GJ-operative?" He tried.

Penny sighed and seemed to relax just a little, although her mood remained mainly unfriendly.

"I knew you couldn't be some remaining M.A.D. operative because, as you said, you weren't even born then and I'm still alive. You couldn't be from the government. You didn't drive up the hill. I've never, ever seen a government official who would actually do anything but the lazy way. And you're armed with something that's not a gun." She indicated Will's right arm. "You move that arm too much when you walk. There's something heavy strapped to it. Not a pistol. A stunner or something, I'd wager, right?"

"Why, yes it is It's a shock launcher."

"See? I told you I know a lot about you, just by looking at you." Hostility gave way to a certain smugness.

"Like what?"

Penny's blue eyes narrowed briefly before she replied.

"You're one of Global Justices primary agents."

"It's 'Alpha Operative' these days. But, yeah, how could you tell?"

"You're here. As far as I know, my connections with Global Justice were more or less a secret even within the organization. I was actually ordered to sneak my way into the missions they sent my uncle to do for them. And yet here you are. Your boss must trust you to tell you about me and that means you're one of their best. Finding me means you're at least smart enough to actually use the internet effectively, and stubborn enough to grind through all the red tape to get my address. The fact that the mud spattered on your trouser legs shows that you jogged uphill rather than just walked and you weren't even short of breath when you got here. That alone should put you pretty high on the fitness scale. You had the option of driving up but chose to go on foot. That means you're not just used to exercise but actually enjoy it. All put together, we have model agent."

Will coughed modestly, pleased at the flattering interpretations..

"Of course, I also bet you're not very popular among other agents." Penny went on, a spiteful glee seeping into her voice.

"You came alone. GJ-teams normally operate in pairs, at the least. You're here without backup, or else your team mate would have revealed him or herself by now. You're also young and, what was it? Alpha Operative. Would I be wrong if I said you were a stickler for procedure and protocol? Things like that always help with a career. Never do anything outside regulations and you don't embarrass the top brass while always having an explanation why things went as they did if you fail a mission. So no one likes to team up with you since you make them look bad in comparison.."

Will wasn't so pleased anymore. But, truth be told, this Penelope Gadget hit a home run with every single assumption about him. It was unsettling.

"Now, with that out of the way, Agent Du, what exactly is your mission here?"

Will was silent for a moment, trying to digest what he'd just heard said about himself. At least she was willing to hear him out as to why he was here. That had to count for some sort of progress.

"As I stated previously…" He began.

"For the record." Penny interjected.

"Yes, for the record. As I stated, you are not in any trouble whatsoever. I'm just trying to find your uncle, Inspector John Gadget and you're pretty much the only lead I have left."

"Why would you want to find him?" Penny's voice turned suspicious again. "Do you even have any idea what Global Justice did to him?"

"Well, not in any detail. Most of the documentation seems to have been destroyed just before the Quimby Directorate ended." Will admitted.

"So you haven't got the whole story?"

"Not by a long shot, I'm afraid."

Penny leaned back in her chair as she prepared to give Will a history lesson.

"The idea of a super cop is pretty old, I suppose. Global Justice had the people and the funding to try to pull it off for the the third time, that I know of. At least in North America. And they picked the right guy to be their guinea pig, victim, candidate, whatever you want to call it."

"John Gadget."

"Yes, my uncle. He had volunteered for the program but it wasn't until he had a run in with M.A.D. and some high explosives that it became urgent. So they brought in Dr. Shlickstein and basically reassembled the remains."

Penny seemed to approve of the brief expression of revulsion on Will's face.

"Of course, computers were needed to run all those systems inside him but they were not nearly as efficient as they are today. So a lot of brain matter had to go to make room for the software and the hardware to store it."

Will started at the revelation.

"Wait, if they removed brain tissue…"

Penny held up her hand to shush him.

"I'm getting to that. They removed parts of the brain after storing all they could salvage on some sort of solid state memory cartridges. Of course, that wasn't useful in the field so they looked elsewhere for a solution."

Will made the connection between what Penny was telling him and the reports he had managed to find.

"A biological construct?" He ventured.

"Mhm." Penny nodded. "Biotechnology had made a few useful quantum leaps at the time that slotted right into GJ's plans. So they created Brain."

"Brain. That's...in sort of poor taste." Will's disgusted expression returned for a moment.

"Oh definitely. See, they pretty much made a copy of my uncle's mind, imprinted it on an enhanced dog brain and then they had a mobile mental support unit. Of course, a dog needs someone to care for it and that's where I came in."

"But you were a minor!"

"Tell me about it. But hey, I was a kid. I loved my uncle and I was promised to go on adventures with him and I got my very own talking dog. Of course I was excited to do as they said and of course it turned out being held hostage by M.A.D. on more than one occasion it wasn't as as fun or as easy to escape as it looked on TV."

Her voice was dripping with bitterness now.

"I'm just surprised I lasted as long as I did."

"What happened?"

"Oh, I was about fifteen when I had a complete nervous breakdown. Fortunately me and uncle John weren't on the job so he managed to get me committed to a mental institution down in New England. After that..."

She shrugged. It was a gesture of helplessness.

"I couldn't go back. And even if I wanted to, uncle John wouldn't have let me. We still keep in touch for Christmas and birthdays and such. Mostly through letters, of course. He's always on duty, he keeps telling me."

By now it was dark outside and the Alpha Operative and the ex-Operative sat in silence, both feeling like the world had ceased to exists outside the circle of light around the cabin.

After a while Penny broke the silence.

"So now you know my side of the story. And now you know why I won't help you find my uncle. I won't be part of you people trying to use him up any further than you already have."

She crossed her arms and the glaring was back.

"But you haven't listened to…" Will began to explain.

Penny was in no mood to hear excuses.

"Why should I listen? Last time I did that, it ruined my life and my uncle's!"

Everyone has breaking points. Even a dedicated operative, such as Will Du has them and he had reached one of his. The long journey from USA into the wilderness of Canada, coupled with the frustration of weeks with limited results simply was too much.

"Enough!" He stood up and slammed his palm on the tabletop. "I've had it with people trying keep me from doing my job!" Just as Penny had shouted before, Will was shouting now. "You know what, Miss Gadget? Why don't you just punch me in the face and get it over with!"

"What?"

"I know people don't like me! Fine, then don't! But John Gadget is out there and he deserves to get retired and I'll be damned if I'll abandon him just because you, or the cops in Metro City or my own co-agents for that matter, think I'm a jerk! So, punch me in the face and then let me do my job and find Inspector Gadget so he can finally go off duty for the first time in thirty years! Tell me he hasn't earned that and more, I dare you!"

Penelope Gadget stared at him, surprised and possibly a little bit embarrassed.

Will caught himself. He had lost his temper. In front of a member of the public, no less. He took a deep breath, reached up to brush his hair back in place and cleared his throat.

"I apologize, Miss Gadget. It seems I've overstayed my welcome. I will be leaving now." He prepared to head for the door when Penny held out her arm, blocking him.

"Sit down, agent Du. I think I may have misjudged you."

Will sat down. He had already made a fool out of himself and he wasn't keen on make it worse.

"I will help you find my uncle." She said.

"Oh. Why the change of mind?"

"Because you're right. My uncle has earned the right to finally go off duty. So, I'll help you. But only if…"

"If...what?"

"Only if you can tell me what you know about me but looking around. Consider it a little test to see if you can impress me." Her smirk was still smug but not so hostile this time.

Will decided that he might as well play the game her way. After all, she had all the trumps.

He looked around for a while. Nodded to himself.

"You have trouble sleeping. Possibly post-traumatic stress disorder. You don't drink coffee. You're also fluent in French, German, Greek and Arabic in addition to English."

"Very good. How'd you come to those conclusions?"

"There are jars for medications there. From what I can see, they're anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. As for the not drinking coffee, I see some used tea bags in the cups on the sink. And they're all tea cups. No coffee mugs."

The woman across the table nodded.

"Go on."

"The bookshelf." He pointed to the piece of furniture in question. "All the books are in alphabetical order but not arranged by language. So it stands to reason you read all the languages equally well."

"I'm impressed." Penny managed a small smile.

"There's one more thing."

"Oh, really?"

"There's a man in your life, isn't there? But he doesn't live here with you."

"Yes, there is. And no, he doesn't live here. At least not yet. Now tell me how you came to that conclusion."

Once again, Will pointed across the cabin. This time towards the door.

"Those are size twelve boots. Hardly yours. And the fact that the owner left them means he intends to come back for them."

Penny's smile was softer and warmer now.

"Dudley has always managed to do right by me, even when I'm at my worst. Yeah, he will come back for his boots when he goes off duty."

She noticed the look Will gave her.

"Oh come on! It can't be that much of a surprise. Dudley is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Of course I'd end up dating a policeman, with my background." She blushed just a little and rolled her eyes at Will.

After that, things went a lot smoother. Penny would still make a little jab at Global Justice every now and then as they spoke, but it seemed to be sheer habit rather than full-blown hostility. She revealed that if Inspector Gadget had cause to avoid someone, a safe bet would be look in the old Global Justice headquarters.

"But it's been decommissioned for decades now."

"Yes, but uncle John's programs don't know that. Remember, it's all pre-programmed maps in his head. Not GPS."

As Will ventured out into the Canadian darkness to walk back to his car, Penny stood in the doorway.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Miss Gadget?" He asked.

"Can you give me my childhood back?" She replied with a sad laugh.

Of course he couldn't. He shook his head.

"I'm sorry. That I can't do. I can only try to give your uncle a decent old age, if I'm lucky."

"Oh, come now, Agent Du. You know as well as I do that for us 'Alpha Operatives', as you call it, there's no such thing as luck. We're all about skill."

Again that sad little laugh.

"But nevertheless, I do wish you good luck. Oh, and one more thing, before I forget."

"What?"

"When you find my uncle, tell him 'Penny loves her uncle very much', OK?"

"I'll make sure to do that."

When he got back to his car and began the long drive back to USA he thought about Penny Gadget had said.

"What a strange phrase to use."

He found a Top 40's station and headed south.