Mission: Possible

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 5:

In Drakken's and Calamitous' hurry to leave with their captives they had, as most others did, overlooked the fifth member of the opposition. Early in Ron's skirmish with Beautiful Gorgeous Rufus had dove clear of the battle to await an opportune moment to join in. He had witnessed Kim's and Jimmy's abduction, seen Ron's and Cindy's defeat, and overheard Drakken's reference to a surprise that Shego had left behind. Rufus had long experience with Drakken and Shego, and knew that any surprise that the two would leave behind could only mean disaster. As soon as the ominous ship had departed Rufus raced frantically about the large facility in a frenzied attempt to find what Drakken's surprise could be. Fortunately most of the area was in darkness beyond the circle of light cast by Jimmy's dropped lantern and Rufus was quick to spot a faint red glow pulsing in one corner of the room. He quickly scampered over to investigate and discovered the glow came from an LED numeric display on a metal box slightly larger than a loaf of bread amongst a pile of metal. As Rufus watched the glowing display changed from 3:58 to 3:57, then to 3:56, then to 3:55.

"Uh-oh," the little rodent said.

The device was too large for Rufus to deal with himself, even had he known how. He turned and scurried back to where Ron was lying and began frantically bouncing up and down on the unconscious boy's chest in a desperate attempt to rouse him. After a couple minutes the small rodent's efforts paid off. Ron stirred, opened his eyes, and looked dazedly about him.

"Kim?" he asked thickly. "K.P.? Are you there?"

In response Rufus began chirping rapidly and waving his forelegs. Ron ignored the naked mole rat's excitement, scooped him up, and got unsteadily to his feet. Seeing Cindy lying nearby he half-walked and half-stumbled over to her and raised her to a sitting position, taking care to cradle her head as he did so. As Rufus continued his frenzied chattering and gesturing Ron gently stroked Cindy's forehead and face, not certain how else to revive her. As he did so Cindy awoke, and looked in puzzlement at Ron. "Jimmy?" she asked weakly.

"Gone," Ron replied. "Kim, too."

"Where did they take them? And why? And why didn't they take us, too?"

Ron shook his head. "I guess they figured we weren't important enough to bother with."

Cindy became aware of Rufus's animated squeaking. "What's wrong with him?"

"Upset about Kim, I guess." He put a hand over Rufus to quiet him. "Calm down, fella. We'll find her. The first thing to do is get hold of Wade."

Rather than calm down Rufus became more agitated. Cindy watched with growing concern. "I don't think that it's Kim he's worried about," she said slowly. "I think he's trying to tell us something."

Rufus nodded his head vigorously. "Uh-huh, uh-huh," he squeaked.

"Like what? What could be so important?" Ron studied Rufus carefully. "Is it something about Drakken?"

"Or Calamitous?" Cindy added.

In answer Rufus hopped to the ground and spread his forelegs as wide as he could as Ron and Cindy paid close attention. "Boom!" he seemed to say.

Cindy and Ron looked at each other. "If I didn't know better," Ron said in growing apprehension, "I'd say he was telling us that Drakken left a bomb around here." He looked around nervously.

"A bomb?" Cindy suddenly felt as nervous as Ron looked. "But where? Rufus – do you know?"

Rufus nodded vigorously and shot off into the darkness. "After him!" Ron yelled as he took off after the rodent. There were the sounds of a painful collision just beyond the ring of light almost immediately after, followed by a yelp from Ron. "You might want to bring the light," he called.

Cindy sighed, picked up Jimmy's light, and headed in the direction Ron and Rufus had gone. Rufus seemed to understand the situation and waited for her to catch up before continuing on. Smart rat, Cindy thought to herself as she and Ron hurried after the excited mole rat. Rufus stopped abruptly by a large pile of metal rods and pointed at the box. Just as with Rufus the intent of the device was immediately apparent to Cindy and Ron. The countdown now read 2:42.

"I think you were right, Ron," Cindy said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

"Why do I always have to be right when it's about something bad?" Ron demanded of no one in particular. "Do you know how to defuse a bomb?"

"No. Do you?"

"No. I don't think even Kim would know. Wade might, if we could get hold of him, but the Kim-municator went with Kim."

Cindy was studying the box, the metal, and where they were. She noticed that attached to the suspected bomb was a small tag that read, rather enigmatically, "Ho, Ho, Ho." There was something about the situation that was like a puzzle with a missing piece. Something not quite reason but more than instinct was telling here that if she could only find the missing piece she might be able to solve the puzzle. But what was it?

"I think we might have time to get away if we run fast," Ron was saying.

Cindy barely heard him. She was studying the rods and looking for something that would identify to the mystery metal. After a few seconds she discovered a label on the pallet that read: MAGNESIUM BAR STOCK. "What do you know about magnesium?" she asked Ron.

"What? Uh…" he thought furiously. "Is it important?"
"I think so." She pointed to the box, which now read 2:06. "This is a pretty small device. If it's a bomb, why would they put it so far away from everything else in this room?"

Ron looked skeptical. "It might be small, but it could pack a big punch."

Cindy shook her head stubbornly. "No. If it were an explosive I'm certain they would have put it as close to the center of this room to cover as much area as possible. They wanted it near the magnesium. But why?"

Something in Cindy's voice carried conviction. Ron sighed apologetically. "I'm sorry, Cindy. Chemistry is not my best subject."

"Well, think!" Cindy urged. "Magnesium. It's light…"

"They use it in car wheels…" Ron added.

"It's kind of like aluminum…"

"It's used to make flares…"

"They use it in antacids and vitamins – " Cindy broke off and stared at Ron. "What did you say?"

"What? Oh…that they use it in flares. You know, the really bright ones."

"That's it!" Cindy suddenly had the missing piece. "Magnesium burns. I remember now that in science class our teacher once burned a strip of magnesium. I remember that she had to use a blowtorch to get it started, but once it started the fire was pretty bright and very hot." She eyed the large magnesium rods. "And that was just a small piece. If this stuff were to ignite…"

"Bad news?"

"Major bad. I don't know what kind of fire extinguishers they have here, but I'd bet it wouldn't be enough to stop it if a fire got going." She came to a sudden decision. "And I'll be that device isn't really an explosive. It's something to get the fire started. We have to move it."

Ron was instantly alarmed. "Move a bomb?" He faltered for words. "Isn't that…dangerous?"

"And leaving it where it is isn't dangerous?" Cindy looked at the countdown timer. "We have 45 seconds left. I don't think we have any options." To her dismay she became aware of sirens in the distance, and realized that hey were coming closer. Drakken's indelicate removal of the roof had undoubtedly tripped an alarm and alerted the authorities who were undoubtedly coming to investigate. It they got to the building and the magnesium ignited, people could very well get hurt – or worse. "I'm going to try it. Are you in, or out?"

Ron realized that he had little choice. "In. Let's do it," he said determinedly.

Carefully he and Cindy coaxed the device from its resting-place. With Cindy holding the lantern to show the way Ron gingerly carried the box to the center of a large open space. They were not sure what other substances were present in the facility and so decided that placing it as far from everything as possible was the best choice. Once Ron had carefully set the box on the floor the timer indicated that they had 15 seconds left. Ron, Cindy, and Rufus used every one of those seconds to put as much distance between them and the device as possible.

They had just settled behind a large stack of iron bars when a dazzling burst of radiance illuminated the entire storeroom and left them temporarily blinded. When the purple afterimage faded and they could see clearly again they peered around the sheltering bars. They saw at once that the box was no longer there and that in its place was a large, discolored mark on the concrete floor. More careful inspection showed that the floor in the area appeared to have become very warm as smoke or steam was rising from it, and that some of the concrete appeared to have actually melted. Other than that there was no other apparent damage to the facility. Ron and Cindy slumped to the ground in relief as Rufus clasped his forepaws over his head and cheered.

"It looks like we were right," Ron said with a weak smile.

"Why does it have to be when it's something bad?" Cindy replied with a faint smile of her own. "So what's next step?"

"If you ask me, the next step is getting hold of Wade."

"And if you ask me," a gruff voice above them said, "I'd say the next step is getting you to put up your hands and reading you your rights." Ron and Cindy looked up in surprise, having forgotten about the approaching sirens in the stress of the moment and their subsequent relief. A police officer and his partner were standing on the other side of the iron stack, their guns drawn and pointed directly at the two young people. Ron and Cindy looked at each other, trying to think of something to say. Cindy finally spoke up.

"Actually, officer," she said weakly as she and Ron stood up, "would you believe we're the good guys?"

In response the officers placed her and Ron's hands behind their backs and began affixing handcuffs.

"I didn't think so," Cindy concluded miserably.

End of Chapter 5