Mission: Possible
by Gary D. Snyder
Chapter 14:
About the same time that Jimmy and Kim found the door leading to the chamber of the electromagnetic generator Rufus had managed to locate Ron's and Cindy's holding cell. He had learned the wisdom of not rushing into things, and so found a convenient niche in which to hide while attempting to assess the situation. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for the prisoners, that was not long in coming. A beep came from the console at which Beautiful was sitting and she snapped a switch.
"Detention block," she said.
"Daughter? Is that you?" a voice all-too-familiar to Cindy asked over a speaker.
"Well, considering that there are only two women at this deep-freeze you call a base and one of them is with you, it had better be me."
"Mind your tongue!" Calamitous sternly scolded. "I don't know what it is that makes young people such sass-mouths nowadays."
"Sorry, Daddy," Beautiful apologized, rolling her eyes. "What did you want?"
"We're ready to begin our experiments. Bring one of the…umm…umm…"
"Prisoners? Test subjects? Guinea pigs?" Beautiful suggested.
There was a brief pause at the other end. "No, I think 'victims' is more appropriate. Yes, it definitely sounds more sinister. Bring one of the victims to the test chamber."
Beautiful yawned indifferently. "Which one?"
"Good question. Why don't you just pick one at random and surprise me?"
"Fine. I'll have one there in a few minutes." She closed the connection and advanced on the cell holding Ron and Cindy. "Okay, you heard him. Any volunteers?"
"What exactly would we be volunteering for?" Ron asked, stalling for time.
Beautiful shrugged. "As I said before, I'm not exactly sure. But since you've been downgraded from 'prisoner' to 'victim' I assume it wouldn't be good."
Ron swallowed hard. "In that case, I think I'll pass on volunteering."
"How about you?" Beautiful asked Cindy.
Cindy scoffed at that. "Just because I'm younger doesn't mean I'm stupider."
"Have it your way." She searched her leather jumpsuit for a moment and then frowned in annoyance. "I don't suppose one of you has a coin I can flip? I'm afraid I forgot to design pockets in this thing. Not," she added somewhat bitterly, "that I ever get much money from my father to carry around."
"I think I have a quarter on me," Ron offered.
"Ron!" Cindy yelled, aghast.
"I mean, I had a quarter, but I spent it when I grande-sized my chimirito after school today," Ron hastened to say. "Sorry."
"Not a problem," Beautiful replied. She began pointing back and forth between Ron and Cindy, chanting. "Eeeny, meeny, mynie, moe…"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Cindy protested. "You're deciding our fate with that childish rhyme?"
Beautiful heaved a tired sigh. "I'd be happy to use another childish rhyme if that would make you happy."
"I've always liked 'bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish'," said Ron.
This time Cindy couldn't even voice a protest at Ron's cooperation with Beautiful. How in the world can Kim Possible 'do anything' with this dolt helping her? she wondered.
"That isn't too bad," admitted Beautiful. "But I think I prefer 'one potato, two potato' to that."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Ron called out in excitement. "How about 'engine, engine number nine'?"
Beautiful shook her head. "That part about the train derailing sounds too much like shop talk to me. I think that -"
"Will you please get on with it?" Cindy shouted. "You both…my head is …I can't…"
"Are you feeling okay, Cindy?" Ron asked, looking concerned.
"No," she gasped, hyperventilating. "We're both locked in a cell, and you're helping the person who put us in here decide the best way to pick which of us is going to be subjected to some life-threatening experiment! If you had half a brain you'd be trying to figure out some way to get us both out of here instead of cooperating with this leather-look lousette!"
Beautiful seemed more thoughtful than offended. "Wow," she finally said. "Daddy was right. Young people really are sass-mouths."
"Take it easy, Cindy," Ron said in an attempt to soothe her. "I know that things look bad, but it always works out. Just have a little faith and patience and let things take their course."
If Cindy's hands hadn't been tied behind her back they would have been wrapped around Ron's neck in frustration. Our lives are in mortal danger and this nitwit is talking about letting things take their course? she raged inwardly. She didn't think she had ever been this angry before at even Carl's stupidity. A beep interrupted her thoughts and Beautiful snapped the communications switch.
"Daughter! Where is that victim we asked for? We're all waiting, you know."
"Told you I should have gone," came Shego's voice from the background.
"Oh, no," Drakken's voice said. "We know what happened the last time you two were together. That's not happening this time."
"I'm coming," Beautiful called. "I was just trying to decide which one to bring. I've made my choice now."
"Very well. We'll see you in five minutes at the test chamber. No dilly-dallying, is that clear?"
"Yes, sure, no problem. I'll see you there in five minutes." She switched off the communicator and lowered the force field. "All right, let's go, Goldilocks. We've wasted enough time." She seized Cindy by the scruff of the neck and began to half-push, half-carry her out the cell.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Ron yelled as Beautiful re-activated the force field. "I thought you were going to randomly select one of us!"
"Well, that's the great thing about being flexible with your plans," Beautiful replied. "Besides, you had your chance to volunteer."
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Ron!" Cindy hollered as Beautiful dragged her from the room. "Maybe someday I can return the favor!" Any additional comments she may have had were lost as her voice faded into the distance.
Once he was sure they were alone Ron moved as close to the force field as he dared. "Rufus! You still there?"
The remote trundled into view with the naked mole rat still on top of it. "Uh-huh," he replied.
"I stalled as long as I could after I saw you come through the door," Ron said. "It's a good thing Beautiful didn't see you. Did you get everything that happened?" Rufus nodded and Ron looked grim. "We don't have much time. We have to call Kim."
At that moment Kim and Jimmy were preoccupied in the electromagnetic generator chamber. When they had first entered they had both been stunned, not only by the size of the room but also of the large structure that occupied most of it. The sheer size and complexity of the apparatus had overwhelmed Jimmy in particular.
"So this is the magnet?" Kim had asked.
"Most of it," Jimmy had answered. "That big cylinder running down the middle is the neodymium alloy focussing element, and those four rings spaced around it are the superconducting magnetic induction coils. That latticework holding it all in place must be what they used the beryllium alloy for." He had shaken his head as he paced around it. "I just can't believe the size of this thing. It must be five stories tall."
"Yeah, Drakken would probably need a pretty big refrigerator for this thing," Kim commented.
"It's definitely a lot bigger than I expected."
Something in Jimmy's tone had made Kim feel uneasy. "Well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?"
Jimmy had shaken his head. "I'm not sure I can get it to fall. I don't have any tools big enough or powerful enough to take this thing apart."
"Can't we just unplug it?" Kim had asked him.
Jimmy looked around worriedly. "I don't know. I don't see the gigawatt generators anywhere in here. They're probably buried somewhere underneath here."
Kim had pointed. "What about that cabinet there? It looks like there are power cables running from it to those coils."
Jimmy had investigated the panel and come to a dismal conclusion. "It looks like an auxiliary power panel for fine tuning the induction current. I could reverse the polarity so that it would oppose the main current and partly cancel out the field, but that wouldn't work for long. Once the auxiliary power supply was exhausted the magnet would be back up again."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Well, we could sever the power cables and shut it down, but that would just be temporary and easy for Drakken and Calamitous to repair." Jimmy had begun to pace as he usually did when he was thinking about a particular problem. "Or I could sabotage the liquid helium lines so that the superconducting cables ceased to superconduct, but that wouldn't be hard to fix either. Or if I had time, I could figure out the operating parameters of the design and maybe throw it out of alignment…"
At that moment four musical tones came from the Kim-municator and Kim activated it. "Kim here."
Ron's face appeared on the screen. "Kim!" he called frantically. "Thank heavens!"
"Ron? You're okay?" Kim sounded pleased. "What happened with the bomb at the –"
"No time to explain. Where are you?"
"At Drakken's supermagnet," Kim replied. "And it definitely deserves the name. Why? What's the sitch?"
"It's Cindy," Ron replied. "Beautiful is taking her to some test chamber so that Drakken and Calamitous can try out the magnet on her."
Jimmy felt angry and anxious. "And you didn't try to stop her?"
"Hey, I'm tied up and locked in some cell with a force field for a door," Ron countered defensively. "If it weren't for Wade and Rufus I wouldn't even be talking to you now. The important thing is that Cindy is in major trouble and you've got to help her!"
"When are they running these tests?" Kim asked, her voice taking on a no-nonsense tone.
"I can't see my watch, but Beautiful said something about five minutes, and that was a couple minutes ago."
"I'm on my way," Kim said. "After I get her out –"
"There's no time for that!" Jimmy protested. "You'll never find the test chamber in time. It took us forever just to find this place." He looked around the room in desperation. "We have to shut this thing down and for good."
"How?" Ron asked over the Kim-municator.
"Yes, how?" Kim echoed.
Yes, Jimmy thought miserably. How?
End of Chapter 14