Chapter 4

Drake had to sit down on the bed and absorb all the recent info. He was sickened that all it would take to make the clone was such a small insignificant feather. Also, he couldn't believe Steelbeak knew so much; too much for his taste. Luckily it seemed that Steelbeak didn't know everything. Drake grunted at the notion of his incredible intellect as a common bourgeois mind. If Steelbeak only knew, although if he stuck around for the mind probe Ol' Steelie will know. Drake was determined to escape the prison to avoid the mind probe and save the day. His concentration was broken by Binkie loudly sobbing in the next cell. Drake noticed that the Egg Personnel had abandoned their posts shortly after Steelbeak left. Drake smirked that they were either on break or goofing off. When the cat's away….

Drake went towards the front of the cell to make sure no one was close by. He whispered, "Binkie, don't worry. Everything will be alright. Please, have hope."

Drake heard a slight stirring in Binkie's cell. Binkie reached through the bars as far as she could towards Drake's cell. Binkie sniffled, "Drake, could you hold my hand?"

Drake briefly faltered. He remembered what happened between him and the clone. He then reminded himself that the Binkie clone was designed to be unscrupulous; the true Binkie in the next cell had good intentions. He knew within his soul despite its mortal flaws, he had good intentions too. He reached through the bars and grasped Binkie's delicate trembling hand.

Binkie said through tears, "I just needed some assurance. As silly as it may sound, with you here I feel a little bit safer. Since hope may be all we got, I hope we'll be able to see our families again."

Drake confidently tightened his grip on Binkie's hand. "I have not only hope but faith that we'll be back with our loved ones. Justice will prevail."

Binkie contentedly replied, "Thanks, Drake."

A diminutive Egg Man appeared with food trays and said, "Bleech! Cut it out you two. This isn't the Titanic." Drake and Binkie hastily let go of each others hands. Drake nervously coughed while Binkie blushed. The Egg Man droned, "Dinnertime."

Steelbeak polished his steel rooster's beak with a soft cloth. He quietly observed the FOWL scientists as they went about their various duties. He noted that it would be about twenty-four hours for the physical cloning process to be completed.  It would then take another twenty-four to copy the memory data from the prime subject with the Commemoreproducer and to suitably alter the clone. About forty-eight hour's total, the Drake Mallard spy clone will be planted.

This project although costly and time-consuming was turning out to be more successful than originally anticipated. The Binkie clone was fully capable of inconspicuously integrating in the environment. She was the idea stool pigeon; the unassuming busy-body housewife. So far she wasn't able to scope out anything that was of significant value to FOWL High Command.

Steelbeak tucked his polishing cloth into his white tuxedo jacket. He puzzled why the Binkie clone fingered her next door neighbor Drake Mallard. Initially FOWL High Command thought about cloning Drake Mallard but from preliminary surveillance, he was ruled out because he was too much of a recluse. For him to suddenly change and become extremely outgoing would've prematurely raised suspicions and FOWL HC didn't want that to happen. Steelbeak had run a background check on Drake Mallard after the Binkie clone brought him in for snooping around The Muddlefoot home. It seemed that she jumped the gun because Drake Mallard turned out to be just an average St. Canardian suburbanite. Maybe the Binkie clone's problem was that she just really wanted to jump Mr. Mallard's gun. Steelbeak cackled at the stuff that goes on behind the closed doors in suburbia.

Steelbeak smiled that at least the good news was that Drake Mallard did have some proclivity for sneakiness. Steelbeak couldn't fathom that crazy Casanova was getting the mighty fine tail of Morgana McCawber. Sure, Mallard had great taste in women but Mallard must be a loon or have balls of steel to romance a woman who's not only a sorceress but who might be seeing Darkwing Doofus. In any case, Mallard's wily propensity could be honed in his clone and that would give FOWL not only two spies in the field but one positioned right next to Launchpad McQuack. That ditzy Binkie clone might've earned a longer lifespan.

Drake gawked at the funky congealed slop that FOWL had the nerve to call a meal. He didn't have to worry about being executed since all he had to do to put himself out of his misery was to eat this FOWL crap. The only edible food substance on the tray was a handful of ketchup packets.

"This food is a good way to lose weight," Binkie said.

"You got that right," Drake rejoined. He figured one can't gain weight if they can't keep their food down. He snapped his fingers and his bill turned up into broad devious smile.

The food tray heavily clanked to the cold hard prison floor. Drake fell to his knees and retched.

Binkie was alarmed. "Drake!" Binkie asked the guard, "Goodness, is he all right?"

The tiny Egg Man guard panicked. "Oh crap! I knew I should've refrigerated those food trays three days ago."

Binkie disgustedly stuck out her tongue. She used her foot to push the food tray on the floor further away from her. Binkie asserted, "I think he's been food poisoned, Mr. Egg Man. Tsk, tsk. Shame on you."

The Egg Man countered, "Stop trying to guilt me. I'm doing the best I can. I better get him to the infirmary. He can't die before the mind probe."

Drake inaudibly laughed that everything was going better than planned.

The puny Egg Man got out a small card and swiped the locking mechanism. He opened the jail cell and approached Drake. The Egg Man put his hand on Drake's back and questioned, "Are you strong enough to walk?" Drake struggled to nod, 'Yes'. The Egg Man replied, "Good. Come with me and don't try any funny stuff. I have a pistol and will use it."

Drake imagined that the pistol is probably larger than the Egg Man. He struggled to his feet and allowed the Egg Man to lead him out of the cell towards the infirmary.

The Egg Man and Drake got out the prison wing and entered a long quiet corridor. Drake figured this is it. He grabbed his stomach and doubled over.

The Egg Man scolded, "You should've thrown up in your cell's toilet. Now I'm going to have to clean this mess up."

Drake swiftly grabbed the Egg Man and knocked him unconscious. Drake joked, "I guess somebody else will have to clean this mess up." He skillfully searched the Egg Man and got all the necessary items.

Drake looked over the plan that he took off of the Egg Man. Drake then walked over to the map on the wall and scrutinized the layout in order to get oriented. By now he was very familiar with FOWL's general lair design. He reflected that FOWL's architectural design team must be getting extremely lazy. Drake took a deep breath and steeled himself for the next stage of his plan.

Steelbeak was sweet talking the spunky Egg Woman in his luxurious private office when the intruder alarm went off. Steelbeak cursed, he was just a plume away from scoring. He and the Egg Woman collected themselves and left the private office. Just as they got out of the office, Drake Mallard barreled past them, followed by half a dozen Egg Men. Steelbeak and the Egg Woman joined the pursuit.

Drake Mallard got to the end of the corridor and ducked into the engine room. There were three large exhaust fans against the farthest wall. The fans were encased with protective fencing. On the other side of the fans was the exterior of the airborne facility. This particular room was the source of the power for keeping the facility hidden by the use of futuristic holographic camouflage. Drake knew from the pilfered plan that damaging the engine here would put a dent in the operation without destroying the entire facility. He quickly ran to a corner of the room and kicked off a safety latch that was over one of the spinning fans. He stood in front of it and waited for the troops to catch up.

The Egg People angrily panted in the doorway. Steelbeak came out in front of the troops. He snarled, "You stupid fool. What do you 'dink you're doing?"

Drake cried, "I can't take it anymore!" He whipped out the Egg Man's pistol and wildly shot. The bullet hit a pipe and water exploded out of the rupture. Steelbeak and the Egg People jumped out of the room. The water hit the hot engine and the room steamed up. Drake took off his green patterned sweater vest and dropped a handful of ketchup packets into the sweater. He then tossed the sweater bundle into the exposed spinning fan. The sweater shredded and entangled into the fan. The fan considerably slowed down from the ketchup stained sweater's entanglement. Drake timed his jump, cleared the fan's blade and landed on a protruding ledge. He realized the facility was floating over Audubon Bay and noticed that the walls of the facility looked like a cloud. He heard the engine inside screech to a halt. The walls of the airship shimmered and its true nature was revealed. Drake noted there was a ladder nearby which should lead to another section of the facility.

Steelbeak and the Egg People got back into the holographic engine room. The steam was clearing and Steelbeak looked around to assess the damage. He complained, "Oh, perfect. The holographic doohickey has been damaged. Where's 'dat stupid duck?"

The Egg Woman pointed towards a fan in the corner and responded, "I think he's wading in that big pond in the sky."

Steelbeak gave her a puzzled look. He then glanced in the direction she pointed towards. Bits of Mr. Mallard's red stained sweater was scattered on the floor and tangled in the fan blade. Steelbeak folded his arms and griped, "Wonderful! We didn't get a chance to probe his mind. High Command won't like 'dis turn of events."

Steelbeak's communicator vibrated. He took out the communicator and grumbled, "Speak of duh devil." He flipped the device on; the viewer displayed three shadowy figures with an F.O.W.L. logo backdrop.

The tall shadowy figure spoke, "Agent Steelbeak, progress report!"

Steelbeak nervously ran his hand down his red wattles. "Everything is going according to plan with one exception."

"And what exception might that be," the shadowy figure replied.

"Drake Mallard is dead."

The three figures groaned. The tall one spoke once again, "No matter. Complete the cloning process. The resultant Mallard clone can be utilized for DD's sister project, PP."

"Done. Agent Steelbeak, over and out." Steelbeak turned off the communicator and put it away. He cackled, "It all worked out. Good riddance to Drake Mallard. 'Dat guy was definitely a loon." The Egg Woman examined the floor, picked up a steel ball bearing and puzzled over it. Steelbeak looked at the object in the Egg Woman's hands and grimaced.

Binkie forlornly sat on the bed of her prison cell. She neurotically fussed over her light-blue dress and white apron. She momentarily fiddled with her white pearl necklace and then she agitatedly ran her hand through her downy coiffure. She worried about Drake and hoped he was all right.

"It looks like your going to be solo once again," Steelbeak said.

Binkie was startled out of her thoughts. She didn't notice Steelbeak approach her cell. She timidly responded, "What do you mean by that, Mr. Steelbeak?"

"Your next door neighbor is no longer with us."

"I know. He's in the infirmary."

"No. He went kaput, capice?"

"He was catapulted?"

Steelbeak squawked, "He's dead, babe!"

A look of sheer horror washed over Binkie's face. She screamed, "NO!!!"

Steelbeak beamed as he replied, "Yes! Dem's duh breaks. And believe me; he was broken up into nothingness. You better take heed." Steelbeak cackled as exited the prison area.

Binkie put her hands to her face and bawled. She couldn't believe Drake was dead. If it wasn't for him, she probably wouldn't be alive today. My goodness, what will happen to his daughter, Gosalyn? She didn't think Gosalyn had any family besides Drake. There was Launchpad but Binkie didn't really know how close Gosalyn and Launchpad relationship ties were. Binkie cried harder when she realized Gosalyn had already been orphaned. How much more tragedy could a little girl stand?

It would be a little tough but Binkie knew that Herb would agree to raise Gosalyn. Binkie realized that at times she got on Drake's nerves about Gosalyn's welfare. She knew despite her clumsy attempts at motherly advice, she always had respectable intentions for Gosalyn. Even though she absolutely cherished her dear sons, she kind of thought of Gosalyn as the daughter that she wished she had. There was no way that she would allow Gosalyn to go to another orphanage. She swore that no matter what the odds, she had to get out of here. She had to survive for her family and for Gosalyn.