Kim Possible and associated characters are © Disney, and used here without permission, for non-profit purposes.
HIDDEN AGENDA
"Trying is the first step to failure!"
Homer Simpson
Chapter ten, which brings terrible choices and shifting luck.
Kim Possible was walking on thin ice.
Not literally, of course. In fact, in real life she was on horseback.
But figuratively, it seemed like a good description of her state of mind.
As long as she was awake and focusing on practical things, the ice held and she was all right. When trying to sleep, though, or zoning out on the back of the horse, she would start thinking about things best left alone, and cracks began to appear in the ice.
If she was taken unawares, the ice would break and she would plunge into the dark embrace of freezing water, clutching at her with the grip of pure terror.
Things that would grab her from below at these times were, for instance, the image of the nurse that had tried to stab her, and what happened to his head when Shego shot him.
Or else, the grimy hands of Mike the mechanic, groping her all over in sweaty anticipation.
Kim had never had these kinds of thoughts before. Oh, she had had her share of narrow escapes, and a good many villains with a variety of mental instabilities had tried to do her harm, yes, even kill her.
This had never stayed in her mind, though. She had always come out all right, and she had always escaped their clutches, and that was that. Just one more challenge met, one more adrenaline rush in the life she had chosen to live.
She had never had nightmares about Drakken, for instance, and Shego had never entered her dream world. Almost never, anyway. The confrontation at the radio tower in connection with the Li'l Diablo scheme sometimes came up in her more vivid dreams. But it had never reduced her to a shivering, frightened wreck, like Mike and the nurse now did.
The only way she had to fight these plunges into sheer panic was to keep busy and focused. Which mostly worked, but not all the time.
Yes, Kim Possible was walking on thin ice.
==##0##==
Kim Possible was riding a horse. The testimony of her rear end made it easy to remember that she had been doing this for four days straight, now.
She was used to horses from her visits to the Possible ranch in Montana, and she was a fairly good rider. She had, however, never gone riding for such long periods of time before, and she wasn't sure she appreciated the experience now, but she was doing all right.
The real surprise, though, was that Shego was also doing fine.
Uncle Slim had gotten her a well-natured horse, but it did have teeth and the legs were not all that short.
Shego had approached it the way Mr. Barkin used to approach a group of students who had failed to turn in their homework in time. After a few suspicious green flashes, however, Shego had established just who was in charge.
And now, she sat the horse in a surprisingly competent way, even if it was clear she wasn't anywhere near as good a rider as Uncle Slim and Cousin Joss. And neither, of course, was Kim.
"What, Pumpkin?" Shego had asked when Kim saw her sit up the first time. "I never said that I couldn't ride! Just that horses are evil!"
It was a good thing that she was OK with the horses as their mode of transport, though. Her healing powers, once they returned, were totally astounding. The fact that she was up and walking just a little more than a week after the complicated fractures she had suffered was nothing short of miraculous. She couldn't be said to be fully recovered, though, and hiking day after day on foot in rugged terrain would not have been a good option.
So they rode the horses, suffering horribly in parts of anatomy best not mentioned in polite conversation.
==##0##==
They had taken the cars as far as they had been able, and the horses had carried them a fair bit further into a wilderness almost totally untouched by human activities.
The landscape was totally breathtaking, alternating between rocky canyons, dense pine forests, and broad open valleys between majestic mountain ranges.
It was the kind of landscape you could often see in wildlife cable documentaries, but no matter how many hours you spent before a TV screen could even begin to prepare you for the experience of being right out in the middle of untouched wilderness.
It would have been an exciting journey in itself, if they hadn't been on such a desperate mission.
It was now early evening on their fourth day of riding.
They came upon a nice spot for camping, right by a small stream, and decided to stop for the day. Shego slipped carefully from the saddle and sank down on the soft moss by a fallen log. Kim went to take care of the pack horse Uncle Slim had provided, and started unloading their gear.
After a while, Shego started collecting what they would need for their evening meal. She removed the saddles from both the horses, so that they would have something to sit on, but didn't start preparing the food.
Instead, she started fiddling with the dark green spare Kimmunicator Joss had lent them.
"Still nothing," she said after a while. "No radio traffic, no radio beacons, no sign of any electromagnetic signals at all. You know we'll have to turn back, if we don't find anything soon."
"Yeah, not just yet, though. Come on, we are just now getting close to the coordinates Wade gave us, so we wouldn't really have been likely to find anything before now, anyway!"
"Yeah, maybe! Still, don't know what you really expect to find. Secret air base, OK. But there won't be a flock of fighters circling about like jackdaws settling in for the night, you know. They could be flying no more than one mission every other week, and, if so, we would have to be really lucky to happen along just when they're about to land."
"Oh, don't be so gloomy! Sometimes you just have to create your own luck!"
"Maybe so. But almost the entire rest of the world seems fairly intent on serving us up with bad luck, so we'll have to be pretty damn creative, won't we?"
"Hey, you know I can do a..."
"I know, I know, you can do anything! No need to go on and on about it, though!!"
There were still a few hours of daylight left, but they were both pretty tired, and didn't feel they could press on any further. On the other hand, they were in no hurry to eat and get to sleep immediately. Instead, Shego plasma-brewed some coffee, and they just took it easy in silence, glad to be down from the horses.
Suddenly, Shego surprised Kim thoroughly with a subject she brought up.
"You know, Princess, your cousin Joss is uncannily like yourself, as you were when I first came upon you. So bright, so basically happy and so innocent it's almost creepy!"
"What!?"
"Yeah, I can understand your nerd liking her! It's like a second chance for him!"
"Wait a minute, now! You mean I'm not bright and happy any more? That I'm a failure, or something?"
"No, Kimmie, I don't mean that. I do mean, though, that you are growing up fast. You are encountering a lot of the really nasty things in life, and you're facing situations and choices that are very different from thwarting the insane plots of a Drakken or a Dementor. It's bound to be changing you. Welcome to the shitty world of adulthood, Princess! And let me tell you, it's not all fun and games any more."
"Don't I know it! Note face – not amused!"
"Duly noted! And so, your Boy Wonder found a new 'you', who was just starting up doing the same kind of exciting stuff you were doing a few years ago. Can you blame him for helping her? Can you blame him for having a second go?"
Kim muttered something not really meant to be heard.
"Yeah, and also, you know, as Joss is younger than you, and the Geek is couple of years older, it might lead to a more ... interesting ... relationship, if you take my meaning!"
"WHAT?" Kim shouted. "Are you saying that Wade and Joss are ... involved? That they are seeing each other? How the hell would you now anything about that?"
"Oh, to be sure, I don't know anything. I just see with my eyes and hear with my ears. They obviously have quite a lot of contact, no?. Joss obviously thinks highly of him, and the Nerdlinger obviously likes her. What's the big mystery? Strong, competent, good looking girl like that? He would have to be a monk not to be attracted!"
"Stop and rewind! Are you by this implying Wade was having a crush on me when he was helping me with the missions? That this was the reason he ran my web-site and gave me tech support? And that he's going for Joss on some sort of rebound?"
"Oh, come on, Pumpkin! Of course he had a crush on you! Who wouldn't have? The buffoon, most of the guys and half of the girls in your school must have had the hots for you at one time or another! And the rat!"
"Shego!" Kim whined. "Shut up! Wade was just a kid, for Christ's sake! He was ten, for crying out loud! You can't be serious!"
Shego laughed and shook her head disbelievingly. "Oh, Kimmie! Of course he must have dreamed about you! So, he was ten? And he never left his room? That's no obstacle for a dreamland romance! And now? He's what? 14? 15? And Joss is 17? Come on, Kimmie! What do you think? "
"I think I'm gonna have a serious conversation with young Mr. Load them moment I'm back," Kim muttered.
"Oh, lighten up! Leave that to Uncle Slim and let them have their fun!"
"Ghaa!" Something else occurred to her, however. "Say, do you think Joss was in Middleton on the Saturday? Was it her at the movies with Wade when the power cut hit? When I called him and we ... sort of ... argued?"
"Now, how would I know that? You'll have to ask her yourself. 'Though if you do, she'll probably want to hear all about our secret romance and our hot nights together!"
"Shego, our nights together are no hotter than a couple of bloody penguins standing around in a blizzard! The only thing hot is if you dream about Drakken and accidentally light your hands!"
"Yeah?" Shego said, wiggling her eyebrows to like Groucho Marx delivering a punch-line. "Would she believe that?"
Kim took a big breath, but in the end could think of nothing intelligible to say. "Faugh!"
They lapsed into silence. Kim was used to the unending baiting and banter, and the snarkiness. She wasn't really well prepared for Shego's sudden penchant for discussing relationships. Much more than the previously so common barbs about her dating Ron, it made her uneasy.
She hadn't been prepared for the sudden glimpses of a serious Shego, either. She had always though Shego led a jet-set life when not supporting the latest Drakken disaster. Casinos, clubs and discos. Biarritz, Saint Tropez and the Caribbean. Shopping in Paris or Rome. Relaxing in exclusive spas. That was how she had been imagining Shego living her life. But after that evening in the cabin, were she now to believe that Shego led a lonely, boring life, mostly sitting around one lair or the other, going more and more exasperated from exposure to Drakken silliness?
It bothered her a bit. She had no problem beating the crap out of any villain she met, or putting them behind bars for longish periods of time, but for some stupid reason it sort of spoiled the fun to think that Shego may have been a lonely and basically unhappy person whenever they fought. Well, that could explain some of the bitchiness, anyway, she imagined.
==##0##==
Her train of thought was suddenly derailed.
"Hush! Shego? Do you hear that?"
They were both instantly still, straining their hearing for what had caught Kim's attention.
After a while, the low snarling of a small propeller airplane spread out over the landscape.
"It's coming from behind that ridge!" Kim said, grabbing a pair of binoculars, the camera and the green Kimmunicator. "Come on!"
She started running up the steep incline behind them, with Shego following more slowly.
Cresting the rise, they found no need for the binoculars. There, flying low along the valley on the other side of the ridge, was a small red biplane. It looked almost like Mr. Barnstormer's crop-duster, Kim thought.
"Hey, it's red! Not black! Do you think it's our guys? Or someone else?"
"Well, if it's not our Black Jets, and it's flying up to where we think they may have their base, I bet it's gonna flush them out anyway! Get ready with the camera, Shego!"
"Aw, it's heading away! I'm not gonna have time to get a snap of it!"
But the airplane didn't continue away from them. About half a mile further on it started gaining some altitude, and made a wide turn over the continuation of the ridge Kim and Shego had climbed. Then it approached again, but this time down the narrower valley that they had been riding along earlier.
"SHIT! The horses! The camp! They're gonna spot us!"
Kim started down the hill at breakneck speed, Shego following as best she could.
If it was the bad guys, just with a new colour scheme, they were going to be found out in just a few moments. They would be spotted without any chance at all to find and document any secret installations. They would have found nothing but trouble. A total disaster, mission-wise. It couldn't be allowed to happen!
But, while Kim Possible could do a lot of things, she could, in all honesty, not out-run an aeroplane. The red biplane flew low over the valley, spooking the horses, and passed their campsite just before Kim almost fell down the hill and arrived at the scene.
The plane pulled sharply up, and started a turn. The green Kimmunicator Shego was carrying in her hand started blinking and beeping, immediately intercepting some kind of radio traffic.
"Damn it all to hell!" Kim shouted. "Back again, Shego! Hide!"
But there was no apparent way to hide from an airplane by their camp. Trees and higher vegetation grew mostly further down in the valley, along the stream, and only bushes and grasses covered the rocky hillside on the higher ground were they had unloaded their gear.
"Get down, Kimmie! It's coming back!"
The plane now flew at right angles to the valley, straight for their camp, and made a pass just a few meters over the ridge.
"Princess, it's no use! They've seen us. Let's just walk back to camp and look innocent!"
They did just that, apprehensively, while the plane came back for another pass. This time, something was dropped just as it flew past the campsite.
Kim and Shego froze. It turned out not to be a bomb, though. It was just a round metallic object, somewhat like a bowling ball in size, and when it stopped bouncing along the ground it started giving then a message.
"YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY!" a loudspeaker in the sphere announced. "PLEASE JUST SIT DOWN AND WAIT. YOU WILL BE PICKED UP AND ESCORTED OUT OF THE AREA."
"So, Princess, they're pretending they are the government, huh? What do we do?"
The plane started circling above them. Kim kicked the ground in frustration.
"OK, if it is the Black Jet Guys, and they do pick us up and recognise us, then it's goodbye! We've got to get away from that plane. If we run down into the trees, we'll at least have some cover!"
"Fine. Lead the way!"
They ran down the slope at a moment the plane was headed away from them, and threw themselves into cover under the trees by the stream.
"So far so good! What now?"
"Downstream! There'll be more trees that way, as the valley widens! Come on!"
As the plane came back, the loudspeaker in the metal sphere started giving instructions again. "RETURN TO THE CAMPSITE IMMEDIATELY! YOU WILL BE ESCORTED OUT OF THE AREA!"
"Damn, damn, damn! We must get away from that carrion-bird up there, but we can't leave without at least some of the food and equipment! Stay here and I'll make a dash for it!"
"Be careful, Kimmie! It's a double-seater and there's an observer as well as the pilot! They'll spot you the moment you break cover! And they might have other things to drop on you!"
"I'll just have to be quick, then, won't I?"
But the plane had now settled into doing smallish circles up above, and wasn't making isolated passes over the camp any more. There was no way to avoid being seen, so Kim just dashed out into the open when she had caught her breath, relying on her speed.
The loudspeaker started speaking at once, as the plane turned wider to make an approach along the valley. "STAND STILL AND WAIT! STAND STILL, OR WE'LL OPEN FIRE!"
Kim, of course, didn't, and the plane made good on the threat.
It wasn't cannon fire and missiles like at the power lines, but good old-fashioned machine gun fire. The biplane, however, could maintain a much lower airspeed than the black jet fighters, and the pilot had much better possibility of directing his fire.
Kim threw herself down behind a small boulder as a line of bullet impacts approached and then passed beyond her position.
"Kimmie!"
The plane made a turn upstream. Shego had visions of "North by Northwest" and the scene where a man in a biplane tried to kill Cary Grant. Here, however, there was no cornfield to hide in, and no road where any trucks could be flagged down.
Kim had snatched a saddle bag while the plane made its turn, and was now running madly back towards the cover of the same boulder as before. The plane made its approach downstream, firing its machine guns again. It looked like it would be a close race.
"To hell with this!" Shego roared, stepping out from under the trees and letting lose a bolt of plasma.
The plane was flying at not more than 20 metres above the ground, and still gently descending. It was making a very slow pass to enable the pilot to aim his guns. Consequently, the plane was also an easy target for fire from the ground, and Shego had no trouble directing her plasma straight at her chosen target, the engine. There was no explosion but a large cloud of oily smoke instantly burst from the cowlings at the front of the plane.
Incongruously, the communication sphere the plane had dropped earlier now relayed the frantic conversation between the pilot and the observer. "Goddam it! What happened?" "They have a bazooka or something!" "Climb, dam' you! We gotta bail!" "No, I'll set her down over their, on the meadow!" "Climb, I said!" "---"
The sound died away into white noise as the aircraft continued down the valley. It was evidently an extremely short range transmission device, like a cheap walkie-talkie.
Kim stood up, looking at Shego
"Grab the bag, Kimmie! We have to get out of here before any back-up arrives!!"
The pilot had finally decided to try to gain enough height for a safe parachute jump. They could see the airplane climbing steeply, almost straight up, further down the valley. Thick, black smoke belched from the obviously struggling engine. Only a couple of hundred metres up, though, the engine suddenly stopped, and the plane started dropping back to earth, turning over backwards, in sudden silence. Two figures could be seen leaving the craft, and the chutes opened quickly. Maybe they could land safely without too much injury.
The plane hit the ground in a ball of burning fuel, high up on the ridge. It was not an explosion, more of a conflagration, but the fire was so intense that they could hear the flames even at their distance to the place of impact. It burned like a beacon, releasing a pillar of smoke that would be visible for a long distance.
"Holy shit! Did I do that?"
Kim ran up to Shego. "Yeah, I'm officially impressed. Come on, now. We've got to get under cover!"
They started running along the stream, hoping fervently that the sparse vegetation would soon give way to an area with more continuous tree cover.
They hadn't been running many minutes, though, before another sound broke the silence. A helicopter. The plane had obviously radioed their observations back to base. The short response time showed that the base must be quite near.
"Back in black, I see!" Shego commented, looking at the approaching machine while trying to regain her breath.
It was not the same type of gunship that had buried them in the rockslide by the power lines, but a smaller helicopter. As Shego had remarked, though, it was black, without any markings except a big figure '3' on the underside of the body.
It came in low, the downdraft from the rotor tearing through the trees that Kim and Shego were hiding under. This time, there was no spherical speaker dropped, but a loudspeaker mounted directly on the helicopter crackled to life.
"COME ON OUT OF THERE!" a voice commanded. "WE'VE GOT INFRARED, AND WE CAN SEE YOU PERFECTLY!"
"They're bluffing?" Kim said hopefully. "Let's head back upstream!"
But their movement was evidently spotted.
"DON'T TRY TO ESCAPE! JUST COME ON OUT WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS. DON'T THINK WE'LL HESITATE TO TAKE YOU OUT, AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO OUR RECONNAISSANCE!"
There were missiles or rockets of some sort mounted on outriggers on both sides of the helicopter body. There was also some kind of cannon mounted centrally, under the fuselage. This became evident as a warning shot was fired, hitting the ground just a upstream of where Kim and Shego were hiding. The riverbed erupted in a cloud of pebbles and water.
"This isn't going to work, Kimmie! What's your call?"
==##0##==
Kim Possible felt totally numb. The ice had broken, and she was now emotionally in the freezing waters of total despondency. Her plan had failed, and not in any recoverable way. All she had accomplished was what Uncle Slim had warned her about. She had delivered herself and Shego right at the doorstep of their enemies. They could stay where they were, and be blown to bits and pieces by military grade firepower. Or they could put their hands on their heads, and just walk out into captivity, or worse.
Shego had been right, earlier. She certainly was now facing situations that were way harder than any she had encountered in all the high school years of missions. There was a choice of some sort, but all the alternatives were so awful that she couldn't bear thinking about it.
Well, if they gave up, there was always the chance that they would get to see the base. With luck, they might be able to escape later, with all the information they needed. It was a slim chance, though.
"Shego ... I'm really, really sorry ..." she said, tears of frustration forming in the corner of her eyes.
"Don't worry, Princess. It was a long shot to start with, but we tried, anyway!" Her features molded themselves into a ferocious scowl. "And we are not done here yet, after all!"
And with that, they put their hands on their heads and stepped out from the trees.
==##0##==
"So, Princess, when they land that windmill, they won't be able to aim the rockets or the cannon no more. It will only be small arms fire. We can dodge that, right?"
Kim nodded, thinking.
"OK, we split left and right. I take out any guns I see, and you go for the pilot and the crew. OK?"
Yes! That way, they would get away, at least. Taking a black unregistered helicopter right from the clandestine organisation! They would make it, after all!
The plan was simple, and the two women so used to fighting together, or rather with each other, that the whole thing should go without a hitch!
The helicopter landed, and two black clad crewmembers got out of the big doors in the back, one on each side. They spread far out, carrying some kind of high velocity automatics in their arms. A third crew member, all in black like the others, but with round badges at breast and shoulders, also stepped down from the cabin, but stayed close to the chopper. He held a pistol in his right hand. His flight helmet was connected with a cable to a panel in the helicopter, and when he flipped a switch inside, his amplified voice came loud and clear from the loudspeakers.
"HANDS ON HEAD! APPROACH SLOWLY! NO SUDDEN GESTURES!"
In an instant, Shego went from hands on head to firing a bolt of plasma from each hand, half melting the automatics of the two crewmen. Moments after, the handgun the officer using the loudspeaker held went flying.
Kim burst into action, running and jumping for the officer. Before the handgun had landed on the ground, the man was out cold after a swift kick to the chin.
This was how it should be! Kim relished fighting visible opponents, settling things quickly with hand to hand martial arts. Shego had given her at way up out of the freezing terror of the figurative waters, and Kim's indecision and dread had vanished completely. This was what she did best, this was the reward for doing the whole hero thing, a good fight where her skills made all the difference!
Kim continued into the cockpit, stopping the pilot and the co-pilot from drawing weapons or making radio contact. They soon landed on the ground, outside, and in no condition to put up any further resistance.
Shego went for the flanking guard that was nearest to her, and soon took him out. The other crew member started running for the helicopter, but hesitated when both Kim and Shego fixed him with a steady gaze. Unarmed and bewildered, he raised his hands, and waited.
Perhaps the crew of the biplane had radioed the information that they had been shot down with a bazooka or something similar. Seeing two unarmed women, they helicopter crew had obviously not suspected what Shego could do with her bare hands. She clearly didn't have a bazooka hidden in her hair, and so should have been powerless to resist capture.
Now, the black-clad men knew better. The man who had surrendered was made to carry his comrades to a spot some thirty metres away from the helicopter. The officer with the loudspeaker quickly regained consciousness, and helped.
Shego jumped in and sat down at the controls. She soon had the rotor spinning at take-off speed. Kim stood in the open door by the co-pilot's seat, observing their defeated opponents sharply. She had put the officers flight helmet on, and addressed them using the loudspeaker.
"JUST CONTINUE DOING NOTHING UNTIL WE ARE AWAY, AND NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN. WE WILL SEE OURSELVES OUT FROM THE AREA, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!"
As Shego tilted the rotor blades for lift-off, and the helicopter rose from the ground, Kim sat down and closed the door. She was triumphant over quick reversal of their fortunes, and the prospects of getting away.
At that moment, however, the officer of the defeated crew pressed a switch on a remote control in his pocket. Cartridges under the seats of the helicopter instantly exploded. The cockpit was filled with gas in a fraction of a second, and the effects immediate.
Kim and Shego were unconscious before the helicopter went out of control and crashed nose first into the ground from which it had just taken off.
==##0##==
A/N. Oh, shit. More text, more action, less talk, but things are going really pear-shaped. However will they get out of this mess?
Please read and review! I'll still be needing help to deal with everything from grammar to geography! Does Wyoming really look anything like this?