Mission: Possible

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 10:

"Where are they?" Drakken grumbled irritably. He had been pacing ever since Beautiful had been sent to fetch Jimmy, and after waiting thirty minutes his anticipation had soured into impatience. "Calamitous, why hasn't your daughter returned yet?"

Calamitous merely shrugged, more interested at the moment in a panel of monitoring instruments than Drakken's questioning. "Well, you know how women are. They're never on time. Probably stopped to talk with your assistant about clothes or hair or men or some such silly thing."

"Not likely. I don't think I've ever seen Shego in another outfit or with another hairstyle. In fact, she's told me to button my lip whenever she even thinks I'm suggesting anything of the kind." He thought bit more and frowned. "Do you suppose that our guests have somehow gotten away?"

"If anything had gone wrong we'd have heard an alarm. Besides, girls can be a bit flighty at times."

"Maybe your daughter is like that. But my Shego is a model of disciplined obedience and efficiency. When I tell her to do something, she does it with no mucking about."

Professor Calamitous looked up at this, blinking behind his thick glasses. "Really? What about when you told her to bring you something to drink this morning?"

Drakken looked sullen. "That's different."

"I believe," Calamitous went on, relishing the moment, "that she said she was your right-hand assistant and not some empty-headed secretary hired to run your mindless errands."

"She's a very complex person. And she got the coffee, didn't she?"

"Oh, yes," Calamitous replied, turning back to the monitor panel. "Pity she threw it at you instead of pouring it into a cup." He chuckled at the memory. "Disciplined obedience, indeed."

Drakken refused to take this lying down. "And what about your daughter? All the way back whining about how she didn't really want to be doing this and how all she ever really wanted was to be a –"

"That childish dream is over and done with!" Calamitous declared, scuttling up to confront Drakken face-to-face. "Just because she has some regrets doesn't mean she's disobedient or that I don't know how to get results. You seem to forget, Doctor, just whose plan this is."

"I have not. How could I forget my own plan?" Drakken replied smugly.

"Your plan? It was my idea to construct the hypermagnetic generator!" Calamitous spluttered.

"Yes, the magnet was your idea. But your silly plan was to use it to pull satellites out of orbit, or pull ships onto shoals to wreck and salvage them. It was my brilliant plan to use it for Operation X."

Unbeknownst to either of the two bickering men there were two young people behind one of the room's ventilator grills who were listening intently to every word. After escaping from their jailers Kim had suggested that she and Jimmy use the air ducts to move unseen through the secret complex. She had given Jimmy a boost up to an overhead ventilator outlet and then swung easily up herself, leaving Jimmy to again wonder how she was capable of performing such gymnastic feats so effortlessly. Once inside the airshaft Kim and Jimmy had quickly determined that the installation was laid out in the form of a series of concentric rings and Kim had concluded that the most important areas were in the center. Jimmy had concurred and they had worked their way towards the center of the installation. It was not long before they had heard Drakken and Calamitous talking and had followed the sound to the opening behind which they were now crouching. Much of the discussion had been uninformative bickering but as the talk turned to the two scientists' plan Jimmy leaned forward in anticipation, gently squeezing Kim's hand to signal her to listen carefully as well.

"Operation X!" Calamitous sneered. "It sounds like a bad…um…um…"

"Idea? Plan? Movie?" suggested Drakken.

"Yes! Movie! You know, like the ones where the evil scientist and his assistant are lurking in a secret laboratory, chuckling evilly about a far-fetched plot to destroy the world while the heroes are searching for a way to overcome the odds and defeat them."

Drakken compared their present situation with Calamitous' description. "What's your point?" he asked at last.

"Well, none I suppose. But it seems so cliché," Calamitous replied.

Drakken threw up his arms in disgust. "All right, so you come up with a name for my plan to selectively nullify Earth's magnetic field."

Kim didn't like the sound of that, and from the way Jimmy suddenly stiffened she deduced that Jimmy didn't either. Considering that he's a genius, she thought, it has to be a lot worse for him to not like what Operation X is. She wanted to ask Jimmy what nullifying the magnetic field would do but he was still absorbed in the discussion going on below.

"How about Operation Nullifier?"

"Too vague. And not sinister enough." Drakken gave an evil chortle. "Just think of it, Professor. With the magnetic field gone Earth will be at our mercy. No more protection from cosmic rays…"

Calamitous seemed to get into the spirit. "Communications disrupted…"

"Environmental disaster on a global scale…"

"Hundreds of Acorn Lads lost in the woods with useless compasses…"

"Millions of people –" Drakken broke off and gave Calamitous a suspicious stare. "Are you mocking me?"

"Me? Of course not."

"See that you don't." Drakken scowled. "I get enough of the mocking from Shego."

Calamitous rubbed his hands in glee. "Mocking? Certainly not. I despise the Acorn Lads. Sanctimonious little twerps. Didn't finish their infantile initiation, did I? Well, who's laughing now, Troop Leader? Who's laughing now?" He began to guffaw, and Drakken quickly joined in with his own maniacal laughter. Jimmy had heard enough and headed back down the duct with Kim to discuss out of earshot of Drakken and Calamitous what they had learned.

Kim spoke first. "Was what they were talking about possible?"

"In theory. With the power of that magnet they could neutralize or disrupt the magnetic field with an opposing field. If they phase the interference correctly they could nullify the entire field, or just parts of it."

"That sounds bad."

"It is. No one knows what all would actually happen if the magnetic field were gone, but at the least the level of solar and cosmic radiation would drastically increase. The magnetic field shields the Earth from most of it, but without it anything or anyone without special protection would be destroyed." Jimmy frowned. "No doubt they wanted to use us as guinea pigs. That means the magnet is nearly ready to go on-line."

"Jimmy…" Kim began.

"I know what you're going to say," Jimmy interrupted. "We have to find the magnet and destroy it. And we have to contact B.T.S.O. or Global Justice to shut this place down."

"Well, actually," Kim answered, "I was going to say that you can let go of my hand now."

Jimmy realized with a start that he was still holding Kim's hand and hastily let go. Blushing deeply he stammered, "Ah…sorry about that…I wasn't…my mind was…"

"Hey, no big," Kim answered easily. "We both had a lot to think about. But you're right. We have to contact someone to shut this place down."

"Is your Kim-municator working now?"

Kim activated the device and began speaking. "Wade, Kim here. Do you copy?" There was no answer and she shut the device off with a sigh. "No luck. Either this place is shielded or something is interfering with the signal."

"Or both. Although Calamitous has enough trouble finishing one thing, much less two. I'd guess that we have Drakken to thank for whatever is going on." Jimmy looked unusually thoughtful. "I don't get it."

"Get what?"

"Well, you and I are different, and yet we seem to work together pretty well. But Calamitous and Drakken are a lot alike, and yet they don't seem to get along at all."

Kim smiled. "Harmony of opposites."

Despite, or perhaps because of, his intellect some concepts were difficult for Jimmy to absorb. "Huh?"

"Harmony of opposites. Philosophy of complements. Synergy. It's a zen-type thing that comes up in martial arts." Kim took her two hands, moved them together, and interlocked her fingers. "Just because things are different or even opposite doesn't mean they cancel out. They can each compensate for what the other is lacking. It allows the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts."

Jimmy nodded. "I think I see. Whereas because Professor Calamitous and Doctor Drakken are so similar they're constantly competing and getting in each other's way." He sighed. "Cindy and I are a lot like that, I think."

Even with the safety of the world at stake Kim was intrigued. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, she's smart in a lot of ways to and it seems that we're always at odds with each other. And yet she's different, too. It's very confusing."

"Trust me, it will get a lot more confusing before it gets clearer," Kim assured Jimmy as she thought back about her previous infatuation with Josh Mankey. "Or so my parents says. They have a pretty good track record over the years, though, so I'm betting that someday it will all make sense." She looked around. "But for now I think we'd better get moving before things get worse."

Before Jimmy could agree a loud klaxon began to blare while a mechanical voice intoned, "Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Prisoners have escaped. All personnel to be on the lookout. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Prisoners have escaped. All personnel to be on the lookout. Intruder alert…"

As the automated alarm continued to sound Jimmy gave Kim a resigned look. "I think it's worse."

End of Chapter 10