Chapter Nine
Mikey adds a little more shading to his awesome picture of himself on a spaceship, then slides his eyes over to glance at Leo's drawing of a green stick figure next to a black stick figure.
I'm a better artist than you, too, he's tempted to say, but he doesn't, because Leo will probably insult him again.
He realizes Leo is looking up, and follows his gaze to see Master Splinter standing in the doorway.
"My sons," Master Splinter says, when they have all given him their attention. "We must discuss something of great importance."
They put their crayons aside, and sit up respectfully.
Master Splinter sits at the head of the bed, closest to Donnie. "I must ask something very difficult of you," he begins. "Tonight, I am going to rescue your brother. I must ask you to come with me."
"Like..." Leo's brow furrows. "You need our help?" The idea of Master Splinter not being able to do something by himself is a completely foreign concept.
That wasn't exactly the reason Splinter had in mind, but it's a better explanation. He smiles indulgently. "Of course," he says. "I have tried to find Raphael by myself, and, as you see, I have failed." Something twists inside him, but he doesn't let it show. "You have already helped by showing me where to look," he says to Leonardo, before looking at each of them in turn. "I will need all of you to help me get him back."
"Yeah!" Mikey says excitedly. "A mission!"
"It is very far," Splinter warns them. "It will be a long walk."
"We can do it," Leo says confidently.
"You should rest now," Splinter says. "We will leave after dark." He kisses each of them on the head, and leaves.
Mikey moves his drawing and his crayons out of the bed, so they won't get wrecked, and crawls under the blanket. Leo and Donnie do the same, curling up on either side of him.
As he settles into the old mattress, Mikey realizes that Donnie didn't say anything about Master Splinter's plan. He turns his head to ask, but Donnie is pretending to already be asleep.
He snuggles down, trying to quiet the anticipation sparkling through him, so he can get some rest before his first mission.
He thinks that this will be the most difficult part of the whole thing.
Alonzo Noyes is, frankly, quite confused.
On the one hand, his department is delighted with this turn of events. Emily has made it very clear to him that she wants Raphael returned to his owner, and is hopeful that she can finagle a research partnership with Wright on the side. Noah is likewise itching to get his hands on Wright's work.
On the other hand, Noyes has never heard of this TGR Institute, despite the fact that they are apparently conducting high-level biological research right here in the city. None of his contacts in the field seem to know about them either.
Then, of course, there's the thorny question of property rights. The best thing for him and his department would be to retain possession of Raphael, while also gaining access to all the data Wright has already collected. Unfortunately, Raphael is far more valuable to Wright than the ordinary emotional worth of a pet to his owner, and Noyes doubts that Wright will be talked into giving up custody. Either way, Wright is certainly under no obligation to hand over his research.
Although, Wright has promised to show them something tomorrow, by way of proving ownership. With luck, Noyes will see enough to put his own research ahead by a significant amount.
Or maybe…
Noyes reaches for his computer, opens a browser window, runs a journal search for articles naming TGRI as the sponsoring institution.
Nothing comes up.
I have to assume that his owner doesn't want everyone to know about him, or…
"Everyone would know," Noyes says out loud.
Maybe Emily was right.
He automatically starts rationalizing his decision. Dr. Wright didn't seem angry about the newspaper article, certainly wouldn't have found Raphael so quickly if it hadn't been published. No harm seems to have been done. Interest in the zoo, and its research, is up, judging by the number of phone calls Noyes received this morning.
So far, everybody is winning.
And if he plays his cards right, his department will take the jackpot.
"Mortu," says the first Council member. "Report."
Mortu bows. "Honored Council. Fate works in mysterious ways. I have found one of the individuals who were affected by the transmat run-off, and he is the son of Hamato Splinter."
"We know this name," says the second Council member.
"Yes," says Mortu. "Hamato Splinter was the pet of Hamato Yoshi, our ally. Splinter was also affected by the mutagen."
"Yes," says the third Council member. "We remember -"
"- Hamato Yoshi. He was -"
"- a loyal friend to us."
"Honored Council," says Mortu. "Permission to assist Hamato Splinter and his sons."
"Granted," says the third Council Member. "But be careful -"
"Mortu. Do not endanger -"
"- our larger mission."
"I will not." Mortu bows again. "Thank you, Council."
Emily Thacker is not having the best day.
After a long, tedious morning of teaching rats to push blocks, she was treated to an oh-by-the-way conversation with her boss. She's losing a project she's become attached to, a project called "Raphael", and while she's not sad about why it's happening, she's pretty irritated about how it's being handled.
She's disappointed that she missed out on the (admittedly brief) meeting with Dr. Wright, but she knows exactly why she wasn't told. Noyes, undoubtedly, spent the whole meeting subtly indicating that the zoo expected, at the very least, to be compensated for finding and taking care of Wright's animal. Emily, herself, would have simply gone up to Wright, given him a hearty handshake, and told him how delighted she was that he and Raphael were going to be reunited.
And, in the process, completely undermined whatever bargaining position Noyes thought he had.
She's pretty confident that she managed to convey, in that after-the-fact conversation, precisely where she stands on the whole issue. Still, it would have been nice to talk to Wright directly, establish a professional relationship with him, and get an idea of whether he would be open to a research partnership.
On his terms, of course.
Well, he'll be coming back tomorrow to pick up Raphael, and she is not going to miss him again.
And, on that note, she had better go and spend some time with the turtle, in case this next twenty-four hours is all she has left.
She heads down to the gorilla enclosure and lets herself in, calling out cheerfully as she enters.
"Raphael? I heard you had a visitor this morning…"
Raphael pokes his head out of the crawl-tube.
"Hey there," she says, walking forward to get a better viewing angle. Raphael is holding something – the stuffed cat. "Where's Alice?"
She looks around, but there's no sign of the grey rodent. As her gaze sweeps across the floor, lingering on the wire cage, she notices something else: neither the turtle chow nor the rat pellets have been touched.
"Oh, no," she says. "You didn't. Raphael..."
He blinks back at her.
She sighs, unable to be angry at him. It's not as if he knows he did anything wrong. It was a bad idea in the first place.
"Well," she says, bending and picking up the little bowl of rat food. "I guess we won't need any of this anymore." She crosses the room, bends again, puts the bowl into the cage and lifts the whole thing in her arms, carrying it over to the door and setting it down again. Then she goes and sits by the tube.
Raphael withdraws immediately, out of reach.
"So," she says, crossing her legs and tucking her fists under her chin. "It looks like you're going home tomorrow. Will you like that?"
He doesn't respond.
"You've been awfully quiet lately," Emily says. "Why did you stop talking to me? Did I do something?"
Raphael only clutches his toy closer.
"I'm sorry," Emily says softly. "I did my best." She leans forward and stretches her arm out to pet him, smooth the kerchief over his head, but he pulls back and she lets her hand drop to the floor. Then she pushes herself to her feet and leaves, taking the cage with her.
Raphael wrings the limp cat, staring at nothing and trying not to believe Thacker's lies.