Chapter 9
Double Down
Kim watched Shego leave the bathroom and close the door behind her. A chill swept through her body. It was like Shego had taken all the warmth out of the room when she left. Kim slid back under the warm water and hugged her arms around her knee.
"Now you have to make the same choice." Shego had said. Kim still wasn't sure what Shego was talking about. She had said she had to choose to be herself. Unfortunately, Kim wasn't even sure who she was anymore. The Kim she knew didn't abandon her friends and wasn't a killer. If it was between the person she used to be and the one she had become she would wish to go back to who she was. But, part of her knew that was not possible. Maybe that was Shego's point. Kim could waste her time trying to reclaim a past self she could never be again. The other option would be to embrace her present self along with the sins she had committed. Kim wasn't sure what that would make her. Was she a hero or had she become the villain? What was the difference between them anyway?
Kim had always lived her life in black and white. Right and wrong had clear boundaries, as did who could be called good and bad. This was the first time those lines looked burry. White and black melted together into gray. The world spun around her as her moorings snapped, leaving her to float in a torrent of ambiguity. Kim felt dizzy, she closed her eyes and place a hand on the wall of the shower to steady herself.
"Hush…" She heard a comforting voice. It was Monique's voice.
"It's okay…" She heard Monique say. Kim opened her eyes. At first she didn't see anyone, but then Monique slowly came into focus. The image settled in front of her. She wasn't really there, Kim knew, but she didn't really care.
"Monique…" Kim felt tears gather and slip down her face. The image of Monique stretched out a hand and gently brushed a few locks of wet hair from Kim's face.
"It's okay Kim…"
"But… the things I've done…" Kim fumbled for the words. Monique smiled and shook her head.
"Doesn't matter." Monique leaned closer. "All that matters…"
Her hand caressed Kim's cheek and then dropped to her chest.
"Is what…" Monique pressed her fingers against her skin.
"Is inside here." A blinding light ignited beneath Monique's fingertips that filled the room. When it faded Monique was gone. Her fear and apprehension were gone as well. Monique was the reason she was doing this and she was worth it.
Kim rose to her feat and turned off the shower. She dressed and exited into the bedroom. Shego sat on the bed filing her claws. She glanced up for a moment as Kim came into the room.
"You seem better." Shego quipped.
"I am." Kim nodded.
"Good." Shego set down the nail file and stood. "What do we do now?"
"I don't know." Kim shrugged. "All our leads are gone."
"Then we need a new lead." Shego said each word slowly as if talking to a child. In reply a beeping sound came from one of Kim's bags. Kim searched through it and brought out her wrist Kimmunicator. It beeped again and the blue bubble on top pulsed signaling an incoming call. Kim strapped the Kimmunicator on and answered it. Wade's holographic image hovered over her wrist.
"Kim, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you for hours!" Wade said.
"I'm sorry, there was an accident… I lost my handheld."
"Are you alright?"
Kim paused. "More or less."
"I can get you a replacement Kimmunicator ASAP…" Wade typed at his console.
"Done, I can have it dropped to your GPS coordinates in no time."
"You rock hardcore…" Kim smiled.
"And I'm not even done…" Wade took a slight bow. "The reason I've been trying to reach you is that I finally cracked the encryption on Betty Shepard's files."
Kim blinked. "You got into the files?"
"I did and now I understand why she gave this to us and why it was so heavily encrypted." Wade took a deep breath and scanned the screens in front of him.
"Betty believes there is a mole inside GJ."
"You've got to be joking" Kim scoffed
"Nope, it's someone high up. She'd been secretly conducting an investigation to find out who." Wade explained.
"Why would she take that on by herself?" Kim asked.
"She was afraid any official inquiry would tip off the mole and she'd lose them. She had done a lot of digging and had narrowed it down to three agents." Wade pressed a series of keys and three dossiers appeared.
Bryce Holloway.
Head of cyber crimes division.
Age: 31
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Holloway has worked as head of the cyber crimes division for the past four years.
Jordan Hunter.
Chief of Operations.
Age: 29
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Hunter spent time undercover and then oversaw all of GJ's covert operations. For the past year she has been unofficially fulfilling many of the duties for operations chief, but was officially promoted to the post following the attack on GJ headquarters.
Lucas Lindsay.
Second in command…
Kim stopped reading. "Lindsay is on this list."
"I know." Wade said. "But, don't jump to conclusions. Any one of these three could be the mole." Shego had come closer and was reading the files over Kim's shoulder.
"At least it gives us something to work with." Shego said. At that Wade's image reappeared scowling at Shego.
"So, you're still working together?" He said apparently unhappy about it.
"Relax nerdlinger… we're all getting along here." Shego raised her hands in the air in mock surrender.
"What made Betty think there was a mole in the first place?" Shego asked. Wade took a moment to respond.
"Mostly problems with intelligence leaks and some compromised operations." Wade tabbed through some files and then brought one up on Kim's display.
"This is one of the top secret files that got leaked." It was an older file on another agent. A deep cover operative… Jo Ann Watts. There was a lot of information about her. Including a mention of "special skills". The file wasn't clear what that meant.
"What's this about Watts' special skills?" Kim said.
"There isn't much on that. A lot of her file is redacted… But, I think she had some kind of powers." Wade explained.
Kim went back to reading the file. Near the bottom it said Watts had resigned her position and left the agency. The last entry recorded her reentry into civilian life with a marriage to a young up and coming accountant. She then changed her name to Jo Ann Rockwaller.
"Oh my god…" Kim breathed. "Bonnie's mom was a spy."
Kim read the file again but the information didn't change. Kim had a hard time picturing the energetic bubbly woman she had known as Bonnie's mother as a covert agent and spy. Kim barely had time to process this before Shego dropped another bombshell.
"I've seen this file before."
Kim looked at her. "What?"
"I'd was looking for people with special powers. I went to a few different sources and I got this file from Jonathan Write." Shego said.
"Jonathan Write… Meshka mentioned him in Moscow… he owns the club I crashed looking for you." Kim turned to Shego.
"That's him… It was his intel that led me to Bonnie."
"Did you know it came from a mole inside GJ?" Kim asked.
"I had my suspicions but no proof." Shego replied.
Kim scoffed. "Don't you think that's something you should have told me?" Shego turned to face Kim.
"Why would I? I had no way of knowing it had anything to do with the attacks on Bonnie and Monique." Kim frowned, Shego was right and if their positions had been reversed she probably would have done the same thing. However, Kim wasn't ready to give up on this new information. While it was true that a mole inside GJ might have nothing to do with their present hunt there were too many coincidences to ignore. The intelligence in the leaked documents led Shego to Bonnie. Betty had sent her the files on her mole hunt before going to confront Shego in an attempt to save Monique and Yori. It wasn't much but as Shego had said it was more then they had before.
"So, we need to figure out which of these three people is the mole?" Kim said. "Who should we start with?"
Wade answered. "The one Betty had the least amount of information on was Holloway. She seemed to think he wasn't the mole, but she hadn't stopped investigating him."
"You think we should start with him?"
"If he is innocent it should be easy to clear him off the list." Wade said. Kim looked at Shego who nodded.
"Okay, thanks Wade." Kim said.
"One more thing before you go." Wade smiled. "Check outside your door." Kim raised an eyebrow but followed Wade's instructions. A couple of meters from the door a small rocket stuck out of the grass in the yard. As Kim approached it she could see her own KP logo stenciled on the rocket's fuselage. Next to the logo was a small keypad.
"Key in your login code." Wade said. Kim entered her code and the rocket split apart with a hiss. The rocket had only a small impact resistant chamber that carried a brand new Kimmunicator.
"Wow…" Kim said pulling it out from the rocket. Wade's image disappeared from her wrist and blinked onto the screen of the Kimmunicator.
"I work fast." Wade was still grinning.
"And you totally rock!" Kim smiled back and ended the call.
"Look's like nerd boy's got some new toys." Shego called from the doorway. Kim ignored her. She was already trying to figure out how they were going to investigate these GJ agents. They were not bound by the same limitations Betty had been, but they had no access to the inner workings of the agency either… unless. Kim considered the "unless" for a moment. She didn't like it, but wasn't sure there was another option. Kim walked back into the house and past Shego.
"I'm going to my room to make a call." Kim said over her shoulder.
Once in her room with the door shut Kim selected the number from her contact list. It rang twice before there was an answer at the other end.
"Kim… I'm not sure it's a good idea for us to keep talking." Cora said.
Kim brushed off the comment. "We've got a problem and I need your help."
"What do you mean 'we' have a problem?"
"I've got evidence that there's a mole inside GJ."
There was silence on the other end. Kim decided to keep going.
"I've got three suspects and I'm going to need your help…" Still there was no answer. Kim checked the display of the Kimmunicator to see if she'd been disconnected but found the line active.
"Cora?" Kim tried. No answer. "Cora?"
In the next chapter:
Kim and Shego search for a way to expose the mole, with help from some friends and at least one enemy.
