Chapter 34: Night Mission
Carried by soft and breezy nightly desert winds, the two Ranger aircraft flew through the partly starry sky. They approached Las Vegas from the south, a much more convenient way than the one they had left the city on in pursuit of the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14. Underneath them were suburbs which were so new that they had seen the whole 20th century as nothing but barren desert land. Some of them were remarkably luxurious and had their own artificial lakes in between the many spacey estates. On the horizon but slowly coming closer, Las Vegas' colorfully illuminated variety of trademark landmarks rose into the sky, many of which were so high that they caught the eye too easily to even spot the low but vast Versailles Palace at first glance. When the impressive skyline came into reach, Gadget slowed down.
"I've never seen Las Vegas from this perspective," Melissa said, "let alone at night. It's truly breath-taking. I should really have turned around and taken a glance when we were chasing Nimnul."
"What shall I say?" Todd replied. "I was inside that machine trying to defeat its systems. Hey Gadget, where are we going?"
Instead of Gadget, LaWahini answered. In a sense, she had taken over the choreography of the recently started mission. "First we'll fly across the city so you can see it from above, then we'll fly a full circle around it, and last but not least, we'll cruise down the entire Strip."
"You mean..."
"I mean we're going on a little nightly sightseeing flight. See it as a reward for your help."
Todd was amazed, as was Melissa. "Wow, thank you, Rescue Rangers!" he said.
Like LaWahini had announced, the two craft climbed up until they nearly reached the tops of the highest buildings around. Gadget slowly steered the Rangerwing through the skyline, high above the streets below, providing the two local mice aboard with incredible views of their hometown.
The Rangers and their guests had brought the glamorous center of the city behind them, and both aircraft had flown a left turn to start the circle around the city when LaWahini decided to take the next step on her personal list. "You know what's even more fun? C'mon, sing with me!" LaWahini stood up in the middle of the Rangerwing and began to sing Viva Las Vegas. Todd and Melissa both had heard the song often enough to be able to sing along, and so they did. While Todd was able to stay with the original lyrics as a guy, Melissa tried to apply the same adaptations LaWahini spontaneously weaved into the song. And Todd couldn't help but notice Melissa's beautiful singing voice. In his opinion, it should be her rather than him who ought to have an additional singing part in any of Clarice's shows.
Behind them, on the Rangerplane's backseat, Foxglove's sensitive ears perked up. "Are they singing?"
"Crikey," Monty wondered, "is that part o' Chipper an' LaWahini's plan?"
"I haven't got a clue, Monty. I just hope this isn't what LaWahini meant when she mentioned she'd give me a sign."
"Maybe, maybe not," Clarice said. "We've reached a perfect opportunity for you to fly. Your mouse friend might also want to save some time. You'd better get ready, Foxglove."
This wasn't said too early. In fact, when LaWahini was right before the chorus, she threw a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure the Rangerplane was aligned perfectly behind the Rangerwing and thus invisible for the two guests. Then she raised her arms and waved them up and down in sync with the song.
Monty watched in disbelief. "Did the sheila go nuts now? Why's she tryin' ta fly without wings?"
"Fly?" Foxglove suddenly stood up. "The sign! See ya later!" She gave Dale a quick kiss and jumped overboard, soaring on her spread-out wings to save some energy. LaWahini took her arms down again when she spotted the little red bat shining against the light from the resort hotels. What she did not notice was Zipper who got up from the Rangerplane's bottle cap and raced right after Foxglove, trying hard to catch up before she would disappear in the darkness. Monty was about to shout after him and ask him what he was up to, but he realized in time that everyone on the Rangerwing would be able to hear him, and that he wouldn't hear nor understand whatever Zipper would reply over that distance, so he said nothing and simply believed in Zipper's sense of duty.
Foxglove hadn't made it very far when Zipper caught up with her. "Zipper," she expressed her surprise, "what are you doing here?"
Zipper said he decided someone had better go with her in case something happened.
"Thanks, Zipper, I appreciate that," Foxglove said with a smile. "Hey, like to hitch a ride? We've got a long way to go."
Zipper nodded and sat down on Foxglove's back. He added only little extra weight to the bat who still had to flap her wings only a few times every minute as she kept on flying along the road. It was such a quiet and relaxing flight after a long and action-rich night that Zipper was about to doze off.
All of a sudden and without a warning, Foxglove quickly rolled to the left twice, and a split-second later, a large bird dashed downward past her. Zipper was fully awake and alerted immediately.
"Red-tailed hawk!" Foxglove cried out.
Zipper asked her if she was able to see what almost attacked her, although the attacker clearly came from behind and above.
"No, I heard her voice! And she's turning and coming back right now! Hold on, we're in for some aerobatics!"
She heard the hawk's voice once more. "I don't hear your sort of accent often in my neck o' the woods, little lady." 'What woods?' Foxglove thought. "Did you take a wrong turn somewhere, or did you come here to 'play wit da big desert boids?'" the hawk imitated what she thought was Foxglove's home dialect.
"What is up?" Foxglove shouted as she dove down underneath the hawk who attacked from ahead.
The bird of prey missed her target and turned again. "C'mon, I know you city slickers. You never leave your comfy cities unless you're in for what you call 'vacation.'"
"Oh great. Wanna hear some clichés about desert hillbillies for a change?" Foxglove countered and flew an Immelmann, avoiding an attack from behind.
She must be crazy to dogfight in the middle of the night, Zipper reckoned out loud as he clung to her back.
"I'm a bat, Zipper. I was born and raised to fly by night. In fact, before I met Dale, I would've been crazy to dogfight at broad daylight. Hey hussy, why's a hawk like you hunting at this time of the day anyway?"
"Do you know what it's like to wake up halfway through your beauty sleep and be too hungry to go on sleeping?" the hawk asked back. She still tried hard to keep up with the small and nimble bat who kept dodging her again and again. "Now stop prancin' about like a freakin' dragonfly, and let's bring this to an end!"
"Okay, you said it." Foxglove went into a rapid descent. The hawk turned again and followed her, closing in fast, but Foxglove didn't change her course this time.
Zipper told her how fast hawks can fly in a dive. "I know," Foxglove replied, "Monty told me." With a grin, she added quietly, "Bad for her, by the way."
Her little fly companion tried to convince himself that she knew what she did. He neither saw nor heard the ground, but he knew it was coming closer at an alarmingly high speed. His subconsciousness had him start to flap his own wings and hoist Foxglove back up into the air, but he couldn't even slow her down as she propelled herself downward instead of just falling.
Then suddenly she pulled up so sharply that Zipper was pressed hard into her back. He knew how low they were from the desert dust that was blown up into the air by Foxglove. The dive had ended, but she didn't climb again. "Guess that taught her not to mess with me," she said.
"Guess again," she heard the hawk's voice behind her. "Did you really think I'd fall for the old 'rapid dive straight into the ground' trick?"
"Maybe..." Foxglove replied briefly before she scanned her surroundings, still flying at high speed. And she found what she was searching for.
"What makes you think you're any better than me?"
Foxglove rose up a couple of feet, and after a few seconds of flight, she spun to her right. From his place on her back, Zipper could barely make out the trunk of a cactus above them and a branch below them, and even that only for a very short moment. Shortly after they had passed the cactus, they heard the cry of the hawk one last time. "OWWWWWWW!"
Foxglove grinned and answered the hawk's question. "Echolocation. Let's find out how superior you are when we're both blindfolded." Happy about her victory, she found new energy to flutter on on her way.
Meanwhile, a large owl landed skillfully on top of the cactus. He looked down to the hawk. "I've always thought those drive-in wedding chapels were ridiculous, Erica, but that express acupuncture of yours is too far out."
Erica raised her head. "Oh, just shut up, Gordon. And help me outta here."
Ahead of Foxglove, at what seemed to be the end of the road, the first lights came into sight. It wasn't an illumination as gigantic as downtown Las Vegas, in fact, there were only a few street lights and the occasional bright window, but they were where Foxglove was heading for, the town Todd and Clarice had talked about.
"Look, Zipper," she said, "we're almost there."
Zipper mentioned that the town was so small that it wouldn't take them too long to find what they were looking for.
"Right, we won't even have to split."
They were luckier than they had expected. Their very destination was located at a street corner on the main street which was the extension of the road they had been following all the time. They stopped and hovered outside one of the two large windows. On the other side of the pane, a few rodents of several species were cuddled up in their cages and sleeping. Among them were two mice whose furs shone brightly in the rays of a nearby street light.
"Do you think it's them?" Foxglove asked.
Zipper shrugged and remarked that although he might be able to get into the building, he might not be able to communicate with the mice. He could however try to help Foxglove get inside. Saying this, he pointed at an air fan installed in the wall above the window.
"But Zipper, the fan..."
The housefly just saluted and flew up to the fan. It was installed in a plastic casing which was not bolted but clipped in place, so he figured it would be easily removable. He grasped the lower edge of the casing, pushed his feet against the wall, and began to use all his strength against the clips. Foxglove was about to express her doubts about it despite what she had witnessed that fateful morning in Winifred's hideout and on many later cases, but before she could say anything, she heard the clips snap out of their sockets. Zipper had detached the fan successfully. He caught it before it could fall and carefully balanced it down until it hung on its own wires. With a wave of his hand, he motioned Foxglove to enter.
"Now I'm really glad you came after me," Foxglove said as she flew up and into the now open air duct.
She and Zipper kept as quiet as possible when they entered the room. The pale light from outside barely revealed shelves with pet accessories, pet food, and also a number of cages, in many of which animals were living. Most of them were asleep, only a group of three hamsters, nocturnal and awake, stood right behind the bars of their cage and watched the spectacle speechlessly. They knew neither how the fan had disappeared nor where the bat came from whose black silhouette was surrounded by a bright aura produced by the street light.
Foxglove took a concentrated glance around. She couldn't see much in the dark corners the street light was unable to illuminate, and she didn't dare to use her natural sonar so she wouldn't wake up those animals who could hear frequencies that high, but what she looked for was bright white and clearly visible. She stepped forward to the edge of the air duct, spread her wings, and jumped down into the room. At first, she almost headed straight for the hamster cage, and she did fly past it closely, causing the hamsters to leap for cover. Finally, she landed on the table on which the cage with the two white mice stood. Zipper watched her flight from the air duct, and he felt he would have applauded under different circumstances.
'Now comes the really tricky part,' Foxglove thought as she went to where the mice slept. 'Wake them up, Foxy, but don't scare them silly.' She put her nicest smile on her face and knocked on the cage bars. Knocking wasn't easy with bat wings, but she couldn't knock too loudly anyway. It was still a noise loud enough for both mice to wake up.
Their initial reaction was to crawl away from whatever was outside their cage. Foxglove could in fact hear their hearts race. From the far side of the cage, they stared at her.
"Hello," Foxglove greeted them with still the same smile. "Please excuse me for waking you up."
The first mouse to speak was the female. "Who... Who are you?"
"My name is Foxglove. I'm a friend. There's no reason for you to be afraid."
The mice began to notice that their visitor who gave them an almost angel-like impression with her wings and her soft voice was a bat, one that was not any taller than themselves.
"How did you come in here?" the male mouse inquired. "Has one of the windows been left open?" He wondered who would even open a window for long enough by that time of the year, let alone one which allows for a bat to pass through.
"Well, I came through the air duct up in the wall."
This was even harder to believe for him. "The air duct? But how did you make it past the fan?"
"A friend of mine removed it." Foxglove gave Zipper a sign to come down to her, and so he did.
The male mouse had to pinch himself. The bat claimed a fly had yanked the fan out of the air duct. He suppressed both the pain from the pinch and the strangeness of the whole situation which, now that he knew he wasn't dreaming, was still more than eerie enough for the two mice.
"And why did you came here?" the female mouse asked.
"First of all," Foxglove began, "I'd like to ask you a few questions. What are your names?"