Left Wing: Part 25

Detector

(Late Saturday Night)

"Quiverwing? ... Quiverwing?"

"Can't I stay home today, dad?" She was exhausted and rather sleep forever than start thinking again, especially with this splitting headache. "Oh, man, I feel like I've been hit by a number five iron." Quiverwing groggily realised that it hadn't been her father's voice waking her.

A moment later and she remembered who was responsible for her headache. On that last thought she sat up holding her head with a sudden need for retribution. "I'm so gonna clobber Steelbeak for this one." She groaned.
"Quiverwing? Are you alright?"
"I'm doing great, Director Hooter," she answered back pleasantly, taking a moment to pull herself together, "how are you doing?"
Director Grizlykoff cut in. "We are prisoner of F.O.W.L. operative Steelbeak." He reported. "This is no time for idle kitty cat."
"Kit kat?" Quiverwing sat up and searched her utility belt. "Here." She handed them both energy bars and scoffed her own.
"Oh, thank you, but I'm quite alright for food. Personally ..." Hooter trailed off as Quiverwing unhooked her mini-flask from her belt and took a swig, then handed it to Hooter. "Thank you, er, personally I find it a mystery as to why they have not disarmed you, Quiverwing."

"I'll tell you why."

Quiverwing looked up at Steelbeak's voice, feeling better for the snack and able to think rationally. "It's because my boys were waiting for her to wake up. She's got too many gadgets to count and a good number of them are already loaded as a couple of my boys found out earlier." Six eggmen walked into the room, aiming their guns at Hooter.
"Six? Ever heard of overkill, Steely?"
"Not when it comes to you, sweet cheeks." Steelbeak nodded at Quiverwing. "Now, if you would be so good as to disarm yourself for the benefit of your director?"
"Gee, now when you put it that way how can I resist?" Quiverwing undid her utility belt and dropped it on the floor and then unshouldered her satchel. "You've already got my bow so these aren't really any good but there's the rest of the set." She announced.

"Louigi."
One of the eggmen raised a metal detector in the shape of a straightening iron in front of him and advanced on Quiverwing. It beeped in alarm as soon as it got within a foot of her.
"That ain't jewellery." Steelbeak gritted. "Ditch the hardware, toots."
"Dear god, no." Hooter exclaimed quietly.
Quiverwing wasn't fazed by this. "Yeah, it's true; I'm the Tin Quack from the Land of Oz" Quiverwing lifted the corner of her cape and held it from thumb to forefinger, pressing lightly, showing off how springy it was. "See; it's got a metal lattice." She locked her eyes on Steelbeak. "Give me a break, Steely, I'll have to strip right down to the feather to shut that thing up coz even my bra is under wired. But hey, I ain't arguing with the guy holding the gun." She shrugged and raised her hands to the fasteners on her cape.
"Wait." Steelbeak stopped her before she'd undone the fasteners. Quiverwing blinked and glanced at Grizlykoff, deciding in that split moment which of her two nemeses was her preferred company before looking back at Steelbeak.

"You good guys cain't lie straight, can you? So look me in the eye and tell it to me straight. You ain't got no more weapons, right, Quiverwing?"
Quiverwing carefully phrased her answer and stared confidently back at him. "I've got no other weapons that I can use against you, Steelbeak."
Steelbeak paused for a long moment staring back at her.
"Well, except for Quack Fu and all of that unarmed stuff." She blushed.
"I guess that's good enough with my name on your nice neat label there." Steelbeak tapped his beak. "... Deakin, grab her toys and keep them safe out of reach. Fellahs, make sure-make dead sure she's handcuffed before you bring her upstairs."

Quiverwing watched Steelbeak leave and took a breath of relief that he'd accepted her answer.

Meanwhile two eggmen put her utility belt on the table nearby and started examining it.
"Such dithering with so many words just to say 'no', Quiverwing," Grizlykoff commented in a disapproving voice. "It is a waste of time."
One of the eggmen jumped away from her belt, trying to shake off the set of automatic teeth that had latched firmly onto his fingers.
"There is a whole world out there, director. It's not just F.O.W.L. and S.H.U.S.H." Quiverwing said, watching in mild amusement as another eggman struggled to get it off his co-worker. "My father always taught me never to-."
"That is your problem, Quiverwing. You do not follow S.H.U.S.H. procedure because you are too busy trying to be like him instead."
Quiverwing clenched her beak feeling absolutely desecrated. "Excuse me, Deakin, I think your boss is up there waiting for me!" She hissed. "Wouldn't be good to keep him waiting for too long now, would it?" Quiverwing added in a savage warning tone.
"Oh, yeah? Well so if you're in such a hurry to get going, then why don't you tell us where you keep your handcuffs?"

"Maybe coz you didn't ask me what you were looking for, bright spark!" She snapped at him. "They're in the second pocket on the left." She glanced at Grizlykoff in disdain before impatiently holding out her hands to be cuffed. 'Hurry up and get me out of here!'