As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story. Now here's chapter 30:

30 – SUSPICIONS

"They claim that they were sent by XL-Jack-3 to cause simple havoc. No matter how hard you push them they stick to that story without change."

The Council was meeting in an emergency session. Twenty-four hours had passed since the capture of Frik and Frak; a very long 24 hours for Tony Ride, who had been given the job of interrogating them. Now he was reporting the results to the Council, results which were very unsatisfactory to everyone, himself included.

"It still doesn't make sense" said Mayor King, "to come all this way just to cause simple havoc. What's the point?"

"That may be the point" said Robot dispassionately, "that there is no point."

"Explain" said the Mayor.

"Logically we would not have caught these people so quickly if no one had happened to be on the roof" began Robot.

"Even XL-Jack-3 can't predict everything" growled Virgil.

"Which is a good thing for us" replied Robot, "if these two hadn't been caught when they were what would have happened?"

"From what they told me" answered Tony Ride, "they would have entered the city and started causing trouble as quickly as they could, and as much of it as possible."

"Define trouble" said Robot.

"Could mean anything" said Tony Ride, "but I had the impression that they were meant to sabotage random everyday systems like elevators, food dispensers, personal communications, that sort of thing. Also they were told commit random acts of violence."

"And what would be the effect of all this trouble on us?" asked Robot, "I mean from a practical standpoint?"

"From where I'm sitting" muttered Kevin, "as a simple systems maintenance worker, it would cause a lot of overtime work for me and my fellow staffers just trying to repair the stuff they sabotaged."

"And the more things they sabotaged the worse it would be." said Robot.

"And the more people needed to set things right" growled Virgil.

"Exactly" said Robot.

"But that can't be all of it" said Toothy. "Yes, that would cause us a lot of inconvenience, but from what you've said it doesn't sound like it would harm us in the long run."

"Maybe not at first" said Robot, "but if they managed to elude capture for an extended period of time, and if they had been efficient in the work, they could keep causing trouble, and adding to our problems. Thereby needing more people to set them right – "

" – And leaving fewer and fewer people available to deal with other issues" said Toothy, "yes I see. And providing targets for violence in the system repairers."

"Could be" said Robot.

"No" said Barry suddenly, "that doesn't feel right. If they wanted to attack the people who were repairing faulty systems then there should have been more Marauders. But there were only two. It's too simple. Between the two of them how much damage can they really do? Even if they were not caught for a long time?"

"Not much by themselves" muttered Virgil, "to really mess things up in the city they'd need the basic access codes, and that information is strictly limited. They wouldn't have it."

"Unless someone was helping them" said Toothy suddenly, "and much as I hate to think about that possibility I can't think of any other way they'd be able to access those basic codes. Right now you can't even leave or re-enter the city without a special pass."

Barry brought his fist down on the arm of his chair.

"Yes, that's it!" he exclaimed. He turned to Emily. "You caught it when we first saw those Marauders arrive but I wasn't listening fully. Do you remember?"

"I was about to ask you how they could have gotten past the forcefield." said Emily, "did it go down at all yesterday?"

"No" said Robot, "if the forcefield had to be taken offline for any reason it would have shown up in the security logs."

"Even so – " began Mayor King.

"Even so I personally looked into the matter" said Robot, "with help from Virgil, Kevin, and Sniffles. I can positively state that the city forcefield has not been down at any time since the city took off weeks ago."

"Yet those Marauders got through" said Mayor King.

"Exactly" said Barry, "with the city on top alert the only way they could have gotten through the forcefield would be if they had the access codes."

There was a long silence, which Tony Ride finally broke.

"I think Toothy has it right" he said, "someone helped them get through the forcefield. We have a traitor in the city."

(To Be Continued)