As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. In addition the character of Fresko the Feline belongs to Deviant Art user Yoshi Lord. I own only my own characters and this story.

Now here's chapter 65:

65 – EAVESDROPPER

"Well" said Kevin after a pause, "that takes care of that crisis."

"A good thing too" growled Virgil, who rose from his seat and stretched. Meanwhile Flippy and Fresko were bending over Zarkwon Du's body.

"Is he dead?" asked Fresko.

"No" said Flippy, "just knocked out. Hello, what's this?" He turned Zarkwon Du over and pointed to the back of his neck. Fresko looked closely at it.

"It looks like an implant of some kind" he said.

"Yes" said Flippy, "a listening device, and if I'm right, it's not the one that he was using to communicate with Dunster."

"No" said Robot, who had come over and joined them, "that is a more specific communicator that allows the subject to be in constant contact with whoever is on the other end of the device. And it will always be the same person."

"You mean a bug?" asked Fresko, "this guy was bugged?"

"Yes" said Robot, "and whoever planted this on him was able to listen in on everything he did or said, and may still be listening if it continues to operate even though its carrier is unconscious."

"Can it be removed?" asked the mayor, who had also come over to join them.

"Tricky" said Robot, "the device is implanted into the body so as to connect directly with the brain. I don't know that it can be removed without killing the host. However if I can just make an adjustment we should be able to trace the communication channel to its source and discover who was watching, and possibly controlling, Zarkwon Du."

Robot's hands moved nimbly over the back of Zarkwon Du's neck. No one was quite able to see what he was doing but after a moment he straightened up, apparently satisfied.

"As I thought" he said, "there's an emergency hologram projector here that allows the host to actually see the person he's being bugged by when necessary. Normally only the host would see this projection, as it would appear to be interfaced directly with his brain. However with a little adjusting I've turned the projector around, so that we will all see the images. We can now speak directly to whoever is at the other end of this channel."

Robot touched something on the implant and immediately a holographic projection sprang into existence. Everyone in the room started when they saw the figure it projected, and that surprise was equaled in the face of the person who was being projected. Barry, in particular, was startled; a terrible look crossed his face as he pointed at the image.

"Klure!" he hissed, but it wasn't necessary for him to say it; everyone in the room recognized the Marauder second-in-command; indeed Klure was almost impossible to forget even if you'd only seen him once. Loco had described him to Fresko as a cyborg – a combination of man and machine – but even that description was not exactly accurate because he had originally been born a pure human. However over the years age, and injury, had necessitated the replacing of many of his body parts. Most of his vital organs had long been replaced – heart, lungs, liver, stomach, even most of his skeleton. His brain, although still organic in nature, was sustained by implants that kept it functioning properly. His mind was as clear as ever though, and he could think and reason as well as any human, animal, or A.I.

But it was his outward physical appearance that was the most shocking thing about him. The thing is, and what is the hardest to convey, is that he didn't really look like either a human or a cyborg. Most of his limbs had been injured often enough that they had either been replaced with prosthetic ones, or contained implants that made them functional. His torso was such a mix of natural skin and synthetic replacement that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other started. But his face was the worst – half of it was natural, but the other half was robotic, and the split went right down the middle, so that if you saw him from his right side you would have sworn he was human, but if you saw only his left profile you would have been sure he was a robot. He had been worked on so many times, and had received so many implants and replacements that it was no longer really clear if he was a human with prosthetic parts, or a cybernetic being who had human remains.

There was a long moment of silence as the Council stared at Klure, and the Marauder second-in-command stared back, as it was apparent that he could see them as well as they could see him. Klure recovered first.

"Well this is a surprise" said Klure in quiet voice, "I knew you'd overcome Zarkwon Du but I didn't imagine you'd discover my link to him. I congratulate you all. It seems the Metramegopolis Council is smarter than we think."

"You were controlling him all this time?" asked Mayor King.

"Yes and no" said Klure, "I didn't control everything he did; his escape and kidnap scheme were his own plans, although I helped with advice whenever I could. I'm more sort of a supervisor."

"Of course" said Flippy, "because XL-Jack-3 doesn't really trust his underlings that much. You were watching over Durago through his lieutenant?"

"No" said Klure, "XL-Jack-3 watched Durago himself. I watched Zarkwon Du."

"And Dunster?" said Robot, "are you watching him too?"

"Oh him" said Klure with a dismissive wave, "he's just brawn. He does what he's told without needing to be watched."

"What, he doesn't have a brain?" Barry asked sarcastically. Toothy, who was next to Barry, placed a restraining paw on the teenager's arm but it was too late as Klure turned and looked at him. There was a silence as they stared at each other. Klure smiled slightly.

"He has a brain" Klure said softly, "and he uses it the way he should."

"You mean not at all?" responded Barry. Klure stared hard at Barry. Slowly his expression hardened, and Barry could see recognition slowly dawning there. Nevertheless he stared defiantly back at Klure.

"Don't I know you?" asked Klure, with quiet menace in his voice.

"I don't know" said Barry, "do you?" and he opened his mouth and snapped his teeth together. Klure started back as if he had been struck.

"Boy, you should be careful" he said with a hiss of pure venom, "you don't want to stir up trouble for yourself."

"It's much too late for that," said Barry softly, "and what's more it's been too late for nine years."

"Enough!" said Klure suddenly, "we're getting distracted, and time is running out. Madame Mayor I wondered what I'd do if you discovered the implant in Zarkwon Du's neck. I'm impressed enough that you did discover it that I will let you know that as soon you activated his communication line back to me it tripped an emergency timer in the device. You have less than a minute before the device explodes and destroys all of you, your whole conference room, and a bunch of rooms all around you. I wasn't going to say anything but I think you've earned the right to know."

Klure smirked at the reactions of the Council at this pronouncement and severed his end of the connection.

"Is it true?" demanded the Mayor. Robot examined the implant.

"I can't tell" he said, "but it could be."

"Leave this to me" said Splendid, not waiting for confirmation. He rushed forward, grabbed Zarkwon Du's body, leapt into the air and took flight. Carrying the Marauder's body he flew at top speed out of the conference room and to the nearest roof entrance which, fortunately, was right by the Council meeting hall. Within seconds he burst out on to the roof and, using all of his strength, threw Zarkwon Du's body upwards. The force of the throw sent the Marauder flying higher and higher and higher until, when it was about 200 meters above the top of the city the explosive device in the implant went off, vaporizing Zarkwon Du completely but doing no damage to anything else. All of this took place in the space of about 30 seconds. There was a small aftershock thunderclap as air rushed in to fill the vacuum left by the explosion. Then all was still.

Splendid stood on the city roof. After a few minutes various members of the Council came running out on to the roof from the nearest entrance.

"What happened?" demanded a breathless Mayor King, "are we safe?"

"We're safe" said Splendid, "and from the size of that explosion I don't think we were ever really in danger. But Zarkwon Du wasn't so lucky."

(To Be Continued)

A/N - Wow, that was close! Or was it? Well you've all now been properly introduced this story's main secondary villain. We're going to get up close and personal with him in the next chapter and before this story is over we'll know him very well, maybe even better than the primary villain. We'll see. Cheers until then, and don't forget to leave a comment or two!