SIMON'S POV

I bit my lip and closed my eyes, willing myself not to give in. I've always had a weakness for a good forensic analysis and Eleanor knew that. She knew a lot more about me than I knew about her, and that gave her a definite advantage. She wasn't afraid to flaunt it to succeed in this ludicrous quest for a fingerprint of some random person.

"Oh Siiiimon." She taunted, as I clenched my jaw and squeezed my eyes tighter. "You sure you don't want to help? I'm finding out some pretty juicy stuff."

I knew I had to play this cool. I had to stop her from noticing her plan was working. I was extremely close to breaking and all she had to do was say one more thing and I would be putty in her hands.

"You wanna help me match these prints to the ones in the fingerprint database?" She asked.

My eyes went from tightly closed to wide open once again. "How did you get access to the fingerprint database?"

"Officer Dangus is terrible at his job." Eleanor snickered. "That's how."

I hate to think she bribed him or something. The much more likely option was that she snuck inside while he wasn't looking and hacked the computer database without leaving any digital evidence of her crime. I was dealing with someone who had twisted morals, but…..we were only looking for someone who purchased a pack of baseball cards...how bad could it possibly be? As I later learned, very VERY bad.

"Okay, okay….." I trembled as I sat down next to the forensics kit. "You know I can't resist, so there's no point in delaying the inevitable."

"That's the spirit!" Eleanor handed me her laptop. Apparently, she also brought that along. I was beginning to wonder what other things she had hiding in Dave's car. "Now, I've narrowed it down to 30 different fingerprints that sort of look similar, but I could really use your keen eyes to find the one that matches exactly."

"My keen eyes?" I suppressed a groan. "Eleanor, in case you haven't noticed….I'm blind without glasses." I tapped my round blue frames for emphasis.

"Yeah, but you're still good at fingerprint analysis. Theodore and Alvin told me so." She argued.

I furrowed my brows. I couldn't think myself out of this one. "Of course they did."

I looked through the prints and tried to match them to the prints Eleanor had pulled off the container. (Excluding my own, of course.) It was fairly difficult at first and I wasn't sure I would be able to find an exact match. Finally, after about 3 minutes of searching, the answer was clear to me. "Jason Collins." I announced.

Eleanor stroked her chin. "So that's his name." I heard her whisper softly. "Do you know him?" She looked directly at me with those intimidating green eyes.

"I know he goes to our school." I said calmly. "I don't know him personally."

She frowned. Obviously, that wasn't the answer she had hoped to hear. "Do you know anything about him at all?"

"He's mean." I reported, recalling the way he had given Alvin several downright nasty challenges to complete in order to be popular. One of them was covering the teacher's lounge in (gag) toilet paper.

"Is that all?" Eleanor prodded.

"Yep." I nodded. "That's about it."

"Not much to work with." She began to tidy up the forensics kit.

"So what does Jason have to do with your mission? Dare I ask?" I inquired.

Her expression got very shifty and I almost bolted out of the trunk in fear. "Let's just say…." she paused, weighing her options and deciding how much she was willing to share. "This Jason guy is in possession of something rare, that he shoplifted."

"Wonderful." I grumbled sarcastically. "And would that something happen to be a baseball card, perchance?"

She nodded and then smiled a thankfully less shifty smile. "Finally usin' that noggin of yours."

"It would appear so." I climbed out of the trunk and started to walk back to the car's passenger door.

Once we were both inside, Eleanor hit the gas and we were off again. And I do mean that, quite literally. As soon as we were in the car, she was already on her merry way. She didn't even give me enough time to buckle my seatbelt.

"Uh….Eleanor!" I gestured to the loose seatbelt strap as I tried to get it fastened. The road was quite bumpy.

"Oh, relax. We're not going very far. This'll save us time." She insisted.

"Eleanor!" I screamed.

"Shhh. Shhhh!" She scolded.

The car once again lurched to a stop. We couldn't have traveled more than 30 feet, by my estimation. "What do you mean we aren't going very far? I thought we were going HOME now."

"There's a few more stops." She admitted. "But then, I promise I'll get you home before dawn."

"But we already completed the mission, right?" I said desperately. "You found the baseball card pack and analyzed it. You now know Jason is the culprit and we can get the card back from him tomorrow, right? Right?" I felt my throat tighten as my anxiety rose even more.

Eleanor looked at me grimly. I could tell she did feel guilty for getting me caught up in….whatever this mess was. "That's only the beginning. Jason's part of a much bigger story."

I gulped. There was just no other reaction that could accurately capture what I was feeling. My blood was like ice. My head began to pound. The rather unpleasant anxiety had become sheer terror.

Eleanor's POV

I helped Simon out of the car as I revealed to him that Jason was only a small part within the larger heist I had discovered. As I figured, he wasn't too thrilled about making another stop...even if it WAS at a place literally one parking lot away from the building with the dumpster.

I opened the trunk again and hid myself away, changing my clothes for the next part of my mission. I now wore a black long sleeved shirt and black sweatpants. I fastened my super spy belt around my waist and pulled on a pair of black boots with sleeping darts hidden in the heels. They were a pretty neat weapon, all I had to do was hold up my foot at my target, press a button, and….lights out. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to use them though. Simon wouldn't be happy that I lifted them from his invention arsenal when he wasn't looking.

"What are you doing in there?" The boy with the evidence sticker still stuck to his forehead asked, opening the trunk and peering inside.

I hopped out, now fully dressed and ready for my mission, flashlight in my gloved hand. "Getting camouflaged." I answered.

"I thought your entire body was camouflage." He joked.

I gave him a nasty glare. "Not the time, Simon. Look, if I'm spotted….it….it….well, it won't end well. That's for sure." I explained.

"What about me?" He asked, looking down at his shirt and jeans.

I began to walk with him, toward the dimly lit entryway of the toy store. Yes, that's where we were. A toy store. The toy store that the baseball cards had been stolen from.

"You're dressed in dark blue. You should be okay." I led the chipmunk boy through the nearly empty parking lot.

His eyes darted around, I could see how scared he was in the beam of the flashlight. "What happens if I'm not okay?" He whispered.

I grimaced. "Let's hope you never have to find out." I whispered back. "Have you ever watched Mission Impossible?"

Simon shook his head.

"Drat, okay, then you don't know the cruel fate awaiting you if you fail." I said.

He gulped. "This feels like an improbable mission, that's for sure."

I rolled my eyes. "Not mission improbable...Mission Impossible. It's a movie and...oh nevermind." I didn't have time to waste explaining it.

The entryway was locked, but it didn't take me long to pick it with the paperclip I had brought along in a pouch on my spy belt. I unlocked the door and took a step inside, before ducking low and rolling my way over to the wall. I got back to my feet and pressed my body up against the wall, as far as it would allow me to. So far, so good.

Then, Simon entered. Now, Simon Seville was many things that start with his first initial. A scientific genius? Absolutely. A sarcastic champion? Sure. A singing sensation? Well, duh. But a super spy? Simon was the furthest thing from that.

You might be thinking, "but Eleanor, all he did was walk inside. Isn't that what you did?" Yeah, it is, but the way he walked in was all wrong. His form was sloppy. His execution was poor. He was going to get us caught. I could feel it.

My instincts went into overdrive when I saw him nearly walk into view of one of the security cameras sweeping the area. I grabbed his arm and pulled him up against the wall with me.

"What is it now?" He whispered.

I wordlessly pointed to the camera high above us. "Stay and do exactly as I do." I commanded in a firm whisper.

He sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

I managed to avoid another security camera by jumping up, and ducking behind a display of stuffed animals. Simon tried to follow me, but he misjudged distance and fell right into the stuffed animal display. Luckily, the display in question was basically a pile….and being a tiny chipmunk, Simon didn't look too out of place among the teddy bears, kitty cats, puppies and various other stuffies. We could still save this...as long as he was perfectly still the next time the camera turned in the direction of the display.

"Don't move." I whispered loudly, yet still quiet enough.

"Not a problem." His strained voice whispered back.

The camera turned to face him and then it turned again, facing a different direction.

He scrambled down from the display while the camera wasn't watching and I followed.

"That was close." I said softly.

"Ya think!?" He whispered angrily.

"This way." I pointed toward a room behind the store counter and we dodged the moving cameras to reach it. I picked the lock to get inside, just like I had done at the entryway.

Simon crouched down and wiggled his tail, I could tell he was getting ready to spring up and open the door.

"Not yet." I cautioned. "Wait for the camera to complete its cycle. Then we have five seconds to open and close the door."

He nodded and we held our breath, waiting for the sweeping camera to complete its rotation.

"Now." Simon whispered, jumping up and opening the door. We both darted inside and then I closed it. From the camera's point of view, the door would have never been opened at all.

"Nice one." I raised up my hand for a high five.

Simon looked angry. Guess he wasn't in the mood to be all chummy yet. "What are you looking for here?" He asked.

I decided, since he had managed to help me, at least a little, I could let him in on some of the details. "Oh, just a security tape."

"You want to watch the tape so you are absolutely sure Jason is the culprit?" He raised an eyebrow.

I shook my head. "Not exactly. I'm taking the tape for evidence."

His jaw dropped and he started his panic rambling again. "You can't….It's not right…..The security tape is property of this toy store….taking it would be stealing. That's a crime! It's a crime! And I'd be an accessory! Eep!" He let out a high and squeaky yelp. "You can't….please don't….we can't do this."

While he was busy repeating the same words over and over and pacing, I found the tape with the correct date and popped it into the old VHS player confidently located in the security office. This place definitely needed some upgrades.

I watched the tape and there he was. A tall and gangly looking kid, named Jason Collins, apparently. I recognized his sneakers. I had only ever seen his feet before, long story.

The tape played on and I saw exactly what I expected to see. The teenager grabbed a pack of baseball cards and looked at the barcode number. I knew the trick well. It was a good way to tell if you were getting a rare card in the pack or not. Just to be sure he was getting the rare card, he opened the pack up. He must have been one brave guy, opening the pack right in front of the camera. Brave or stupid….Or! I gasped. The security guard must be IN on it! Maybe Jason bribed him!

The creepy boy shoved the opened pack in his hoodie and snuck out of the store. This was it. This was pure evidence! All this had to do was wind up in the hands of someone who could press charges against Jason...and not be bribed. A vigilante might just have to anonymously deliver this to Jason's parents. I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy if they found out what their son was up to after curfew.

Granted, my guardian wouldn't be too happy if she found out what I was doing after curfew either….and neither would Dave. I had to make sure nobody found out….and hope Simon wouldn't blab. I don't think he'd blab now that he's in so deep. Like he said, he's an accessory, an accomplice. He'd be in as much trouble as I am.