The Return of the Stone
Part 4
Higher for Hire
Trader Moe, with a gun in one hand and the stone in the other, stepped out from behind the desk. "All right, hands up, everyone, nice an' high where I can see 'em. You too, blondie." He warily watched Molly eye his shins. "Go an' sit on da stairs."
Slowly, the foursome inched over to the stairs and sat down, all with their hands in the air.
"Wave bye-bye," Trader Moe said as he sprinted from the office. He hurried to his shiny black Doozyburg and got behind the wheel. Tossing the gun on the passenger seat, he slammed the door shut. "Hee-hee! Nothin' can stop me now."
Just as he reached to turn the key in the ignition, there was a 'click' - the cock of a gun trigger.
"Hand over the sub-electron amplifier," said a quiet, menacing male voice from the backseat.
Trader Moe's eyes turned to find a gun pointed at his head. On the other end of that gun was a grim-faced lion with damp, matted hair, who smelled faintly of oil. "I ain't got no sub-electron amplifier."
"You have it right there in your hand. The stone."
"Oh, is dat what dis is?" He looked down at the sharp point on the top of the stone. An evil plan whirled in his mind.
"No sudden moves," murmured Leo Stedman, catching the scheming glint in the alligator's eyes, "or you'll activate the pressure-sensitive bomb that I planted under your seat."
"B...bomb?" stammered Trader Moe; his beady eyes grew wider.
"Move one muscle and BOOM!" Leo Stedman carefully took the stone from Trader Moe's hand and climbed out of the car very, very slowly. He got into a sporty silver Porche that was parked a little ways down the street and sped off.
Mindful of the bomb, Trader Moe sat as still as a mouse. Then, through the open window, flew a fly. Sweat beading on his forehead, he watched as the fly circled his head and buzzed in his ears. "Shoo!" he whispered through clenched teeth.
He exhaled a sigh of relief when the fly left through the window. A second later, the fly returned and alighted on his nose. Trader Moe wriggled his nose in an attempt to get rid of the fly, but the insect wouldn't budge. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Then, horror of horrors, he felt a sneeze coming on. He clamped his mouth shut and held his breath, but to no avail.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah-choo!"
Trader Moe kept his eyes shut in anticipation of the searing pain, the big BOOM, but it didn't come. He opened one eye, then the other. He and his car were still in one piece. "No bomb? Why that dirty so-an'-so!" Starting the car, he grumbled, "No one steals from Trader Moe an' gets away with it, an' no one tricks Trader Moe an' lives!"
When the Doozyburg squealed around the corner, Baloo jumped up off of the stairs. "Follow that stone!"
Several blocks away, in the Porche, Leo Stedman smiled at the stone on the leather passenger seat. Now that it was in his possession, all he had to do was deliver it to Shere Khan. Within an hour, he would be on one of Shere Khan's private planes heading for a few days of RR in beautiful Rio de Jalapeño where he would be surrounded by women almost as attractive as himself.
Pressing the gold star in the middle of his ruby ring, he waited for Shere Khan to answer.
"Yes?"
"I've got it, sir."
"Excellent." Shere Khan's blasé tone belied his delight. "I'll expect you in exactly fifteen minutes."
"Yes, sir."
Stedman peeked in his rearview mirror when he heard the wail of a police siren. Thinking that they were chasing after someone else, he frowned at his reflection - that horrible flat hair with the dark, oily roots! He would have to make sure that there was a hairstylist aboard the plane to Rio de Jalapeño.
"You in the flashy silver car, pull over!" ordered the policeman over the loudspeaker mounted to the top of the police vehicle.
"Drat!" muttered Leo Stedman. Reluctantly, he pulled over to the curb and turned off the ignition.
The policeman, a small, tan feline, strolled up to the Porche. He was so short that he could barely peek into the car. "License and registration, please."
"But, officer, I'm a secret agent on a very important mission," Leo Stedman averred, flashing a debonair smile. If he was late to his meeting with Shere Khan - well, he didn't want to think about that!
"So important that you were doing forty-five in a thirty zone? The law is the law even for hotshotsecret agents. Get out of the car, spy guy."
Leo Stedman grumbled, but complied. "I bet James Band never gets treated like this."
While the agent argued and pleaded with the policeman, Trader Moe stopped his car, snuck to the passenger side of the Porche, quietly opened the door, picked up the stone that was lying on the seat, raced back to the black Doozyburg, and took off.
Seeing Trader Moe with the stone, Stedman cried, "Hey, stop, thief! Get him, officer! The thief's getting away!"
"Nice try," the policeman ripped off a ticket and handed it to Stedman, "but it won't work."
Angrily shoving the ticket into his jacket pocket, Stedman drove slowly until he was out of the policeman's range of vision, then he floored it. Two streaks of smoke billowed from his tires.
Meanwhile...
"Baloo, slow down!" Rebecca screamed for the fifth time in as many minutes. The grey Chevrolette sedan was zooming down the street at a breakneck speed, weaving in and out of slower traffic.
"There goes Trader Moe!" Kit shouted from the backseat. "To your right! Back there!"
"Aw, dang it!" Baloo swore. He whipped the car down the next alley. "This woulda been lots easier in a plane."
Rebecca, clinging to the seat as the car bumped down the rough, narrow alleyway, asked, "Where are you going, Baloo?"
"Shortcut!"
They spotted Trader Moe's black Doozyburg zoom down the street that intersected the narrow alleyway, going left.
"There he goes!" the cubs cried as the grey sedan grazed a trash can, sending the metal can and its contents flying over the top of the car.
"I see him!" Baloo said, simultaneously sticking his head out the open passenger window and turning on the windshield wipers to clear the newspapers from the windshield. The big bear spit an apple core from his mouth.
Seeing a cat jump out of their path, Rebecca screeched, "Baloo, slow down!"
"Whee! This is fun!" Molly giggled.
At the end of the alley, they were cut off by a silver car.
"Hey, buddy, I'm drivin' here!" Baloo honked his horn as he pulled onto the street behind the sporty automobile.
The four bears watched in horrified amazement as the lion in the silver Porche stuck a handgun out the window.
"Baloo!" Rebecca shrieked, clutching at his arm.
"Boy, some people sure get all fired up about a little blast on the beep-beep." Baloo eased off of the gas until they were a full half a block behind the silver car.
But the agent wasn't aiming for the Chevrolette. In fact, he hadn't even noticed it in his pursuit of the stone. With the confident air of a man who had done this sort of thing countless times, Stedman steered with one hand and took a few well-aimed shots at Trader Moe's back tires, inciting frightened screams from onlookers.
POW!
With shredded rubber flapping from the left rear tire, the black Doozyburg slowed, then stopped. Trader Moe, seeing that his tire had blown out, got out and ran for it, but was no match for the secret agent, who took a flying leap and tackled him to the ground. With a triumphant laugh, Stedman wrenched the stone from Trader Moe, passed his hand over his crispy-with-hairspray hair, and hurried back to his car.
"Who was that?" Rebecca asked.
"The paperclip man!" Molly answered readily.
"The paperclip man?" Baloo, Rebecca, and Kit cried in unison. All stared at the little girl, perplexed.
"How do you know him, Molly?" Kit asked.
"Who cares? He's got our stone!" Baloo stomped the gas pedal to the floor, causing all the bears to be thrown back in their seats.
"Baloo, slow doooooowwwwn!" Rebecca screamed at the top of her lungs.
Khan Towers
A Typical Saturday Workday
Inside the large, airy lobby of Khan Towers, the doorman who guarded the elevators, a brawny tiger in a grey uniform, cracked his thick neck and glanced at his watch. Only a half an hour until his lunch break. Standing there for hours on end, for years on end, had taken a toll on his legs. He didn't see why he couldn't sit down and do the same job, but Shere Khan was adamantly opposed to the idea of a sitting security guard.
Yawning, the tiger shifted from one aching foot to the other, wishing that something exciting would happen, something that would break up the boring monotony of his job and get his mind off his tired feet.
He was about to get his wish.
Through the large windows, he saw a silver Porche stop in front of the ninety-story skyscraper with a deafening squeal of brakes. A well-dressed lion got out without completely shutting the car door and sprinted through the revolving doors.
Leo Stedman flashed an identification badge at the security guard. "Secret agent. Important business!"
Just as soon as the elevator doors opened to admit Stedman, a grey car careened around the corner and also screeched to a stop in front of Khan Towers. Four bears hurried into the lobby.
"We gotta split up," Baloo said. "Becky, you an' Molly go in that elevator. Me an' Kit will take the stairs."
"Be careful, both of you," Rebecca said, giving his paw a quick squeeze.
Returning the squeeze, Baloo said, "You took the words right outta my mouth, honey." He and Kit disappeared through the door labeled 'stairs'.
When the bearesses went to get into the elevator, the guard cordially said, "Morning, ma'am," doffing his cap at Rebecca and winking at Molly.
"Good morning." Rebecca pressed the 'up' button, causing the second elevator's doors to slide open. Both bearesses stepped in.
A split second later, a taxi pulled up to the curb, sideswiping the Porche with a terrific 'crunch'. An alligator, who had been holding the driver at gunpoint, got out.
Gun in hand, Trader Moe ran through the revolving door, straight for the elevator, but was detained by the doorman, who demanded identification and an explanation of the handgun.
"Dis is a free country. I got a right to own a gun or two or three."
"Not in here, ya don't." The security guard picked him up bodily and carried him to the door.
Trader Moe slipped out of his brown jacket and dropped to the floor.
"Come back here!" The guard shot at him as the alligator sprinted across the lobby to the elevator. Dodging bullets, he dove into the elevator that was just opening.
An evil smile crossed Trader Moe's face when he saw who was in the elevator with him. "Long time, no see, pretty boy. Hand over da stone."
"Why should I?" asked Leo Stedman coolly. He had been gloating to himself over the success of his mission so much that he had accidentally pushed the wrong floor number. He automatically held the stone above his head so that the short alligator couldn't reach it.
From his shirt pocket, Trader Moe pulled a pistol.
"Big deal." Stedman whipped a smaller, but more powerful gun from his jacket pocket, smirking.
"Oh, yeah?" Trader Moe said, poking the barrel of his gun into Stedman's stomach.
"All right, I'll buy it - yeah," retorted Stedman, poking the barrel of his gun at Trader Moe's temple.
With an angry "aargh!" Trader Moe leapt for the stone. He bit the agent's hand, causing the stone to drop to the floor just as the elevator doors opened. In the ensuing scuffle, the stone was kicked into the hallway. Both dove for it. There was a mad scramble for the stone with Stedman coming out the winner - for a few seconds. Trader Moe stomped on the agent's hand, causing the him to scream in pain. The alligator then got back in elevator, smiling smugly at the lion while the doors closed.
"Better luck next time, sucker," Trader Moe said. He laughed derisively, because he heard Stedman yelling and pounding on the elevator door.
Fourteen floors up, the elevator car halted. Six nearly identical panther businessmen carrying briefcases crowded into the elevator, squishing the small alligator to the back.
"Ready for the conference, Jenkins?" asked one of the businessmen.
"As ready as I'll ever be. The last one was..." He didn't dare finish the derogatory sentence about his boss Shere Khan for fear that he was listening in. There were hidden microphones all over the building. Instead, he made a cutting motion across his throat.
Both panthers exchanged knowing grins.
When the elevator finally stopped six floors up and more people piled into the elevator, Trader Moe pushed his way through the crowd of legs and hopped off the elevator, disgruntled. Instead of being in a hallway, he was in a large office with two rows of desks stretching as far as the eye could see. Women were methodically clickitty-clacking on typewriters.
A woman, a long-legged crane, on her way to the mimeograph machine, tossed her stack of papers in the air and screamed hysterically at the sight of Trader Moe's gun. "AAAAAHHHHHH! GUN! GUN!"
"Shaddup, or I'll blast you an' yer big mouth ta kingdom come!"
Of course, threatening her made her even more hysterical. All of the women joined in on the chorus of frantic shrieking. With his hands over his ears, Trader Moe stood there, dumbfounded.
Meanwhile, Baloo and Kit were racing up the numerous flights of stairs that wound their way around and around the central elevator system. Like the remainder of Khan Towers, the stairs were finished completely right down to a narrow strip of dark walnut edging each solid oak step.
Of course, the two bears barely noticed the detailed steps in passing. They had more important things on their minds.
Baloo puffed, "Man, kid, tryin' ta find the stone in this place is harder than findin' a needle in a haystack. There's gotta be a hundred twenty million floors. Next time...oh, man, my side!...Becky's takin' the stairs."
While his Papa Bear huffed and puffed, Kit was secretly finding all of this stair-climbing good to keep him in shape for track practice. Hearing the women scream, the boy cried, "Listen!"
"What's that?" Baloo wondered. "Cats yowlin' bad opera?"
"It sounds like someone's in trouble! In there!"
"Oh, good. We get to get away from these stairs." Baloo, his legs feeling as if he were treading in a bathtub full of jell-o, slowly followed Kit through the nearest door marked with a big black '15'.
They ran smack into a bevy of screaming women. The only word they could make out through the chaotic cacophony was 'gun'.
"Kit, where ya goin'?" Baloo yelled, still out of breath, as the boy squeezed through the women pressing in around them and took off across the room.
"Trader Moe!" was all the boy said.
Seeing the cub racing towards him, Trader Moe turned to flee, but his way was barred by the crowd of women who were all trying to pile through the door at the same time to get away from him. "Move it, ya cluckin' chickens!"
In the ensuing chaos, Baloo snuck up behind Trader Moe and snatched the stone from him.
"How dare ya steal what I rightfully stole first?" Trader Moe snarled.
"Who woulda thunk I could stoop so low?" Baloo's laugh changed to a whimper when Trader Moe aimed his gun at him. Watching the gun warily, he drew back his arm. "Go long, Li'l Britches."
The stone soared over the women's heads and across the office.
With a burst of speed, Kit ran down the center aisle between the desks, hopped on top of one of the desks, and easily caught the stone. "Got it, Papa Bear!" he said triumphantly.
A familiar bass voice said, "No, we got you, shrimp, an' da stone."
Ape Goon, who was dangling Kit by the back of his shirt, echoed, "Yeah, we got you."
"How did you get here?" Kit squeaked.
Ape Goon looked, bewildered, at his fellow goon. "How's did we get here?"
Rhino Goon scratched his head. "I dunno. It don't make sense."
"It's time ta take out the trash!" Baloo shoved a wastebasket over each goon's head, causing the big ape to drop Kit. Baloo then grabbed the stone from Rhino Goon. "Now I got lotsa cents," he chortled, pushing his way through the women to the hallways, and, consequently, the elevators.
Hopping up and down in rage, Trader Moe shouted, "Stop goofin' around, ya banana peels, an' get dat stone!"
Both goons staggered around dizzily asking, "Who turned out da lights?" and "Where did I go?"
Awkwardly climbing on top of one of the desks, Trader Moe growled as he tugged on the waste baskets, "Ya stupids. Can't even get rid of a little trash can." He and the baskets went falling to the floor.
Rhino Goon blinked from the bright overhead lights. "Wow, da lights turned back on."
"Better dan da dark!" Ape Goon added, laughing gleefully.
"Ya dim-bulbs!" Trader Moe shoved the wastebaskets off of him and scrambled to his feet. "Get dat stone!"
Meanwhile, in the elevator set on a straight course up to Shere Khan's penthouse office, Baloo chuckled to himself about his good fortune. He once again kissed the stone that was his key to prosperity.
Ten floors up, the elevator stopped. The door opened. There was Leo Stedman. He swiftly snatched the stone from the surprised bear. "I'll take that, thank you."
"Hey, who are you?" Baloo cried as the doors shut.
"Someone of consequence." Stedman smoothed his hair down, turned with a jaunty smile, and faced Rebecca. She was holding a fire extinguisher and her finger was on the trigger.
"Hand over the stone, or get sprayed," Rebecca threatened, scowling. "That's my consequence."
The smile faded from Stedman's face. His lips curled in a sneer. He fled down the hall, stone in hand.
Rebecca hurled the fire extinguisher at him, knocking him out. She pried the coveted stone from his limp fingers and ran for the stairs, where she met up with Molly.
"This is a big place, Mommy. Even bigger than the All-in-One-Mart where I got lost."
"Stick close to me, Pumpkin. I've got the stone."
"Correction," Trader Moe said from the landing above. "You had da stone."
The bearesses retreated down the stairs, but the two goons were there and were moving towards them.
"Give up da stone, lady."
"Yeah, da shiny stone," said Rhino Goon.
"Da pretty, shiny stone," added Ape Goon. "An' it's pretty shiny."
It didn't look like she had a choice - Trader Moe above, the goons below and all had guns. Trying to shield her daughter from the guns and goons, Rebecca slowly made her way up the stairs towards Trader Moe with the stone held out before her.
Then, Kit threw open the door, causing Trader Moe to be smashed behind it. "There you are! This way!"
Rebecca, holding Molly's hand, ran up the stairs. Molly stuck out her tongue at the goons before she slammed the door behind her. From behind the door, Trader Moe fell over onto the landing, stiff as an ironing board.
"Dey got away, boss," Rhino Goon said, taking hold of Trader Moe's arm.
"Dem an' da stone," added Ape Goon.
"Don't just stand dere like two dumb statues, ya dummies! Get 'em!"
"Right boss." The goons simultaneously dropped Trader Moe and opened the door, consequently pushing the alligator down the stairs. He tumbled head over heels. On the landing below, he moaned, "I gotta get me new goons!"
Meanwhile, Rebecca, Kit, and Molly were racing up the stairs.
"Dere dey are!" Rhino Goon cried.
"Where?" asked Ape Goon.
"Why can't we get rid of those guys?" Rebecca asked, breathing heavily from running.
"I can't run anymore," Molly gasped, holding a stitch in her side.
"In here." Kit pushed open the door to floor '52'.
Floor fifty-two was no ordinary floor. It didn't house offices, and it didn't even have hallways. Instead, on the other side of the large, cavernous room, was a single glass elevator shaft.
Looking up and to their right, they saw a wall constructed only of panes of glass.
"What's up there?" Molly asked, pointing up.
"We're about to find out," Rebecca replied, hearing the goons' muffled voices becoming louder.
They piled into a glass-enclosed elevator, which wasn't part of the main elevator system that ran the height of the building. It went to one place only - up to the glass-enclosed room. It was sort of a separate building within Khan Towers.
When the doors opened, they found themselves in a scientist's paradise. Men and women in white lab coats tended top-secret projects and painstakingly wrote formidable-looking formulas in laboratory notebooks. The benches that ran the length of the large room were piled with every scientific instrument known to man. Some of these instruments were so new that they were available only to Khan's employees. Beakers of bubbling brews boiled over Bunsen burners. Curious-looking gadgets filled every available nook and cranny. A multitude of sounds - hissing, clacking, humming, clicking, and whirring - met the three bears' ears. The bitter and salty smells of chemicals as well as the faint odor of propane gas wafted towards the bears' noses.
"What is this place?" Rebecca wondered, taking Molly securely by the paw. As they carefully picked their way through whirring machines and flasks full of frothy liquids, the bearess warned, "Don't touch anything."
"Mommy, look!" Molly stuck her head through a banister, which surrounded a long, narrow rectangular hole in the floor. Down through this opening, the first floor of the lab was visible; it was similar to the lab that they were passing through, only with fewer benches and bigger machines.
Kit, peering with curiosity into the story below, grinned at the familiar surroundings. "This is one of Buzz's labs, Miz Cunningham."
"One?" Rebecca's eyes looked around at the large room. It, combined with the room below, could have easily housed all of Higher for Hire.
"He has his own private lab a few floors up."
"You've been here before, Kit?" Rebecca asked, leading Molly away from the banister.
"Sure. Baloo's brought me here to visit Buzz a couple of times. He sure has some weird inventions."
Staring at ten scientists bouncing on top of a large piece of plastic as if it were a trampoline, Rebecca murmured, "I see what you mean."
Molly stopped in front of a large, complicated machine that reached to the ceiling. The sole purpose of that machine seemed to be blowing bubbles. The little girl watched, fascinated, as the growing bubble changed from one pastel color to the next. "Neat-o!"
"Come on, Pumpkin. We can't stop to look today."
"Can Baloo bring me here someday?" Molly asked eagerly. "I wanna see some more of Buzz's inventions."
"We'll see," Rebecca answered vaguely.
Molly frowned up at her mother. She knew that 'we'll see' was a polite way of saying 'no'.
They were almost to the door on the other side of the lab when the goons burst in. "Hey, you!"
"Who, us?" Kit retorted with a smirk. "Sorry we can't stay and chat, but we were just leaving!" He grabbed a chair, pushed open the door connecting to the main building, and, after they were all on the other side, wedged the chair underneath the doorknob in an attempt to buy them some time.
The goons thundered side-by-side through the lab, overturning chairs, knocking machines and scientists over, and sending beakers and their boiling contents splashing to the floor.
Faintly, there was a gurgling sound that started in low, then started to grow. Emanating from the bubble machine was the biggest bubble that grew...
And grew.
And grew!
The goons watched, fascinated and alarmed, as the bubble pressed them against the bench. They gasped for breath as they were squished almost flat.
Finally, after what seemed a breathtaking eternity to the goons, the gigantic bubble blew with a deafening POP! The goons were propelled across the room, through the wall of the lab like two missiles. Rebecca and Kit dropped to the floor, but Molly wasn't so lucky. She, caught up in the goons' wake, was thrown through the open window as the two lives missiles flew down the hallway.
"Molly!" Rebecca and Kit cried, watching with horror as the little girl plummeted towards the busy street below.
Without hesitating a second, Kit jumped out the window, grabbed his airfoil from beneath his sweater, 'swam' towards Molly, caught her around the waist, opened the airfoil with a flick of his wrist, and slid the airfoil beneath their feet. Spotting another open window in Khan Towers, he aimed for it. In the office, they surfed across on top of desks, swung three times around a coatrack, and lurched to an abrupt stop in a female elephant's lap.
"Sorry, ma'am," Kit apologized, quickly helping Molly off of the amazed and peeved woman's ample lap. "You okay, kiddo?"
"That was great!" Molly giggled. "Can we do it again?"
"No," he replied firmly. With a push of a button, he folded his airfoil and concealed it beneath his shirt. " Let's go find your mom and Baloo."
Meanwhile
Sixty-Seven Stories Up
In his penthouse office, Shere Khan was enjoying his daily feeding of his Venus flytraps. Tending to the large, lush jungle that lined both sides of his opulent office relaxed his nerves and provided an escape from the everyday pressures of running a multi-billion dollar corporation. Needless to say, it was the most enjoyable part of his day. The tiger businessman took a wriggling beetle from a large jar and held it over one of the flytraps' open mouths. A slight smile crossed Khan's normally impassive features as he listened to his pet's satisfied crunching.
"Mr. Khan?" said Mrs. Snarly, Khan's devoted secretary over the intercom.
A frown replaced Khan's smile as he set the jar of insects on his desk and punched the intercom button. "This had better be worthwhile. I told you that I wasn't to be disturbed unless it was for something more than a million dollars."
"It is, sir. There's something that you should know."
"Mr. Stedman is here?"
"No, sir. Security recommends that you listen to your microphone system."
With a flip of a switch, shrieks and shouts as well as a few gunshots were audible. Khan's face darkened. "What exactly is going on, Mrs. Snarly?"
"It appears some hooligans are causing disturbances throughout the building, sir. Security is on it."
Khan listened to the screaming and shouting, scowling. "Tell security to be on it," he flicked his razor sharp claws out; "faster."
"Yes, Mr. Khan."
He savagely slashed his claws across his desk. "I want this bedlam stopped."
Thirty-Seven Stories Down
Or the 53rd Floor
Rebecca got in the elevator. Her heart was still hammering in her chest from seeing her daughter and her future son plunging to their near deaths. She looked at the bank of floor numbers - some above, some below. She thoughtfully gazed at the stone in her hand. Sure, it was worth a lot of money, but a lot of money wouldn't mean anything without her children or Baloo. Pursing her lips, she decidedly pushed 'twenty-five'.
To her immense surprise, one floor down, the elevator stopped. The doors opened. When Trader Moe and the goons crowded in, she quickly jammed the stone in her pants pocket.
"Small world, ain't it?" Trader Moe leered up at her. "Where's da stone?"
"I don't have it." Rebecca's fingers closed around the stone in her pocket. She cast discreet glances at the hulking goons, who were on each side of her. She knew that they could easily snap her in two like a toothpick.
"We'll see about dat. Shake her up, boys."
Taking her by the shoulders, they roughly shook her like a paint can until she felt like she was going to pass out from a concussion.
Trader Moe slapped a hand to his forehead. "No, ya bozos! I meant shake her upside-down!"
"Oh, I gets it!" Rhino Goon said slowly. "Upside-down, like on her head."
"Downside-up on her head." The big ape pointed to his backside, which he thought was his head.
"Her head's up here," Rhino Goon corrected, gesturing to his bald pate.
"Oh, head," said Ape Goon, giggling stupidly.
"Don't you...ah!" Rebecca was flipped upside-down and shook. The stone clattered to the floor and emitted a small spark.
"Hello, light o' my life." Trader Moe reached down to pick it up. A jolt of crackling electricity coursed through his entire body, turning him into a jittery light bulb.
Rhino Goon offered amiably, "I'll save ya, boss."
"Yeah, save ya," said Ape Goon.
But in trying to pry the stone from Trader Moe's shaking hands, they too were shocked - and they were unable to break their connection with the stone.
Rebecca clamped her eyes shut and shrank against the wall, flinching at the horrible sizzling and cries of agony.
When all was silent, she cautiously opened her eyes, Trader Moe and his goons were charred black like three burnt hot dogs. Thick grey smoke rolled from them, and there was a horrible stench of scorched fur.
To Rebecca's great relief, the elevator bell dinged and the doors slid open. Heart pounding, she grabbed the stone, swiftly pressed the first floor button, then the 'close door' button, and fled, colliding with...
"You!" Rebecca and Baloo cried simultaneously.
Rebecca slipped her hand into the big bear's. "Oh, Baloo, I've never been so glad to see you in all my life."
"Same here, Beckers." Feeling the stone pressed against his palm, he beamed with delight. "You an' yer sparkly friend."
They sidled over to the second elevator.
"Have you seen the kids?" Rebecca asked concernedly.
"Uh-huh." The big bear shook his head.
"We've got to find them." She pushed the 'down' button.
Baloo pushed the 'up' button. "After we cash this stone in."
"How can you be so selfish, Baloo? This is Kit and Molly we're talking about."
"Kit can take care of himself an' Molly."
Rebecca's voice and temper rose as she retorted, "I don't want my children in the hands of that...that...Trader Moe and his lamebrain goons or that other strangely handsome..." Catching her fiancé's annoyed look, she swiftly amended, "I mean, strange weirdo - whoever he is! We're going after the kids!"
"We're cashin' in this stone, Becky!"
They jabbed the elevator buttons more forcefully with each angry sentence.
"Kids!"
"Stone!"
"KIDS!" Rebecca put her paws over the buttons, glaring defiantly at Baloo.
"Fun game," said Rhino Goon, behind them.
"Yeah, fun," echoed Ape Goon with a giggle.
"I know what comes next," said Rhino Goon. "Stone, right?"
"Right," said Trader Moe, wiping soot from his face. He and the goons were aiming guns at the two bears. In a sweetly sarcastic tone, he said, "If you would be so kind as to hand it over."
"See what your arguing has gotten us into, Baloo?" Rebecca scolded.
"Me? If you had just listened to me, Rebecca, we'd be in Khanny's office right now, collectin' our moolah, but noooooo, you knew better!"
Trader Moe's furious, "SHADDUP!" echoed through the hallway. He and his goons pointed guns at them. "It's time we got rid of two annoyin' obstacles. Boys, when I say 'fire', you fire at da two bears. Don't fire at me. Fire at da two bears! An' you don't listen to a word dey say. Only listen to me!"
His forehead creased in concentration, Rhino Goon nodded his head. "Okay, boss."
"Okey-dokey." Ape Goon also nodded his head.
"Ready..."
Baloo drew Rebecca close, shielding her in his arms. He whispered loudly, "Ya shoulda listened to me, Becky, then we wouldn't be in this mess."
Trader Moe's malicious grin widened. "Aim..."
Rebecca buried her face in Baloo's chest. She whispered back, "For once, Baloo, can't we die without bickering?"
"Fi..." Squeezing their eyes shut, the bears inhaled sharply, then breathed a collective sigh of relief when Trader Moe said, "Wait, boys! Dey still have da stone. Hand it over, den we'll blast ya!"
Still keeping one arm protectively around his fiancée, Baloo took the stone from his shirt pocket and looked at it. "I'll only give it to you if you promise to let us go."
"Let me think about it." Less than a second later, he shouted, "Forget it!" causing the bears to recoil. "I'll get it after yer kaput."
"Kaput," said Rhino Goon menacingly.
"Yeah, bye-bye."
Testily, the alligator blurted out, "Ready, aim, AAAGH!"
Trader Moe and his goons were plowed over by people pouring out of the elevator right behind them. It was lunch time and everyone was headed for the cafeteria, which happened to be on that floor.
The bears were swept along in the mob of hungry people.
As they got closer to the cafeteria, Baloo sniffed the air with appreciation. "Mmm-hmm! Somethin' smells good."
They were in a large room teeming with Khan's hungry employees. On both sides of the room were several stations that served different types of food - salads, main entrees, desserts, and beverages - and there were long lines of people, trays in hands, queued behind each of the stations. Beyond the food serving area were many long tables where employees were eating.
Baloo, holding Rebecca's hand, snaked his way through the crowds of people. On the way by, he snagged a fried chicken leg. Between bites of chicken, he said, "This is what I call fast food."
Hearing shrieks and shouts of dismay and shock, as well as loud crashes as trays clattered to the floor, Baloo glanced over his shoulder. "Uh-oh, we got company again!"
They ran as fast as they were able through the crowd, then came across the dining area. But there was no other exit. Baloo spun right, left, pulling Rebecca along with him. "Oh, man, dead end!" the big bear cried, tossing the chicken bone into a nearby trash can.
"We'll be dead if we don't get out of here fast," Rebecca said dolefully, peering behind her at the rapidly approaching goons.
"I got me an idea. Becky, you take the stone an' sneak outta here. I'll distract 'em."
"Hey, big, stupid, an' ugly! Over here!" Baloo taunted as Rebecca shoved the stone in her pocket and dropped to her hands and knees.
"Who are you callin' ugly?" Rhino Goon growled, peeved.
"My mother says I'm not that ugly," echoed Ape Goon, his heavy features darkening into a scowl.
Neither goon noticed Rebecca crawling right beside his legs.
Scooping up two handfuls of mashed potatoes, Baloo jeered, "You're the ugliest uglies here, not countin' yer boss."
Trader Moe's face turned a brilliant shade of red. "Why, you...get 'em!"
When the goons got close enough, Baloo pelted them with mashed potatoes.
SPLAT! Rhino Goon scraped potatoes from his face and put it in his mouth. "Mmm."
SPLAT! Ape Goon's large pink tongue cleared a path of potatoes around his mouth. "Yummy."
"Food fight!" both goons shouted. They scooped up whatever food they could get their meaty hands on and, laughing like two little children, slung it each other and at their boss.
"Stop it!"
SPLAT!
"Ouch!"
SPLAT!
"Stop it, ya fish sticks!"
SPLAT!
"Ow! Dat had a bone in it!"
"Hate ta eat an' run," Baloo said, sidling past the two goons and their boss, who were engrossed in the food fight; "but I got a date with some dough."
Meanwhile, Rebecca had left the cafeteria and was hurrying towards the nearest elevator. The hallway was nearly empty. There was only a janitor - an elderly grey mole - vacuuming using a central vacuum system where the vacuum was built into the wall. Then, to her utter amazement, Shere Khan himself stepped up to her.
In his characteristic calm bass voice, he purred, "I believe you have something of mine, Miz Cunningham."
"Why...yes, I do. How did you know?"
Khan ignored her question. "Excellent. If you would be so kind as to return it to me now, I'll see that you get your just reward...reward money."
"All right."
As Rebecca pulled the stone from her pocket, the ruby ring on the tiger's left paw beeped.
Shere Khan's irritated, unmistakable voice issued from the ring. "Where are you, Stedman? I expected you twenty minutes ago. If you aren't here with the stone in exactly two minutes, you will be terminated."
Her mouth agape, the bearess stared at the ring, then up at the tiger's face. "You're not Shere Khan!" Rebecca cried. "You're that man!"
"Give me that stone!"
"No!"
A tug-of-war ensued. Their eyes followed the stone as it flew up, up, up in the air, then fell down, down, down. The nearsighted janitor sucked the stone up in his vacuum.
"Oh, no!" Rebecca and Stedman gasped.
Twenty-three Stories Down
Kit and Molly were walking along a carpeted corridor, passing door after door on their way to the elevators.
"Do you think we'll ever find Mommy and Baloo?" Molly asked tremulously.
"Sure we will, Short Stuff." Kit grinned down at her and took her hand.
They passed a janitor - an armadillo about Kit's height. 'Wiggerstomper' was stitched on his greyish-green overalls. Annoyed that the vacuum wasn't sucking up anything, he peered down the tube, shook the tube, then reversed the air flow. Something shot out of the vacuum tube, ricocheted off the wall, and landed tantalizingly close to the cubs.
"The stone!" Molly cried happily.
Her fingertips almost touched it, when Kit yelled out, "Don't touch it, Molly!"
She quickly drew back her hand.
Picking up a can of floor wax from the janitor's cart, Kit threw it at the stone, then swiftly pulled curious Molly out of harm's way. As soon as the can touched the stone, it exploded with a big 'bang'. Sticky wax sprayed all over. After the stone's electricity had been discharged, there was a burnt spot on the brown carpet.
Kit scooped up the stone, now cool to the touch. His fingers tingled slightly from the electric residue. "I guess this is the real deal after all."
"It really is worth a hundred thousand dollars?"
"Yep." Kit carefully wiped the wax from the stone using his sweater.
"Yay!" Molly clapped her hands joyfully. "Mommy likes money."
"Hey, you kids will have to pay for that carpet!" said Oscar Wiggerstomper in his nasal voice. "And the wax costs seventy-five cents." Waddling after them on his short legs, he was yanked back like a dog on a leash when he reached the end of the vacuum's hose.
The cubs got into the elevator, which was already crowded. The second lunch shift employees filed out at floor fifty-three.
Through the sea of legs, Molly spotted a familiar figure. "Baloo!"
Before Kit could grab her, she took off, sliding between legs, snaking around people, until she was lost to Kit. "Molly! Come back!"
Kit pushed his way into the crowd, but didn't seen any sign of a little yellow bearess. However, he did see... "Papa Bear!"
"Hey, kiddo." Baloo greeted. He held out a half-eaten slice of apple pie. "Want a bite?"
Grimacing, he said, "No, thanks. I've got something better."
"What's better than apple pie?" Around the last bite, he said, "Besides apple pie with ice cream an' roast beef an' potatoes an' gravy an'...?"
The boy glanced furtively around before he held out the stone.
Baloo nearly choked on his pie. He swallowed the big bite in one big gulp and eagerly took hold of the stone. "You're right, kid, that's loads better. Let's go cash in this goldmine before it gets away again. Now, act real cool, Kit. Don't wanna draw attention or nothin'." He ran towards the elevator at full speed.
He was almost there when a foot protruded from behind a potted plant beside the elevator and tripped him. The big bear went sailing into the open elevator and the stone went flying into the hands of the person behind the bush.
A familiar voice said triumphantly, "Ha! I've got it!"
Baloo drummed his fingers irately on the floor of the elevator. Jamming his red pilot's hat on his head, he snapped, "Doggone it, Becky, we're on the same team!"
"Sorry, Baloo," she said sheepishly, blushing a little. "I got caught up in the excitement of the treasure hunt. Didn't see you - only the stone." After helping him up, she straightened his collar and brushed imaginary lint from his chest. "Are you okay?"
"I'm more than okay. We've got the stone!" Baloo said excitedly. Rebecca and Kit followed him into the elevator, sharing in the excitement of imminent wealth.
Just as the elevator doors began to slide shut, Trader Moe retorted, "Look what I got!"
"Mommy! Baloo!" cried a little quavering voice.
"Molly!" Baloo, Rebecca, and Kit exclaimed simultaneously. The pilot frantically wedged his hand between the closing elevator doors, causing them to slide back open. He held it open while Rebecca and Kit stepped into the hallway, then joined them.
"Hand over da stone or da kid gets a big hole in her little head," the food-covered alligator snarled. The gun's barrel was pointed at the girl's temple. She whimpered softly as the cold metal touched her face.
Baloo, Rebecca, and Kit whipped around at the sound of Leo Stedman saying, "No, give me the stone." The grim-looking secret agent had shed his 'Shere Khan' disguise. To his extreme annoyance, he didn't look as handsome as he had that morning. His navy suit was crumpled, and, horror of horrors, his hair was a complete mess.
"Who is that?" Rebecca whispered to Baloo.
"I was gonna ask you the same thing," the big bear replied.
"The paperclip man!" Molly said brightly.
"Shaddup, you," Trader Moe growled, pressing the gun closer to her temple.
"I am not the paperclip man!" Stedman said angrily, running both hands through his bedraggled hair until it stood on end. Crisply, he stated, "I happen to be..."
Trader Moe cut him off with, "No one cares who you are, pretty boy. Give da stone to me."
"No, me," said Stedman.
"Me!"
"Me!"
Rhino Goon, standing behind his boss, pointed down. "Him."
"Yeah, him," Ape Goon echoed, pointing at Rhino Goon. The rhino moved the ape's finger so that it pointed down at Trader Moe. Ape Goon giggled inanely. "Oops, him."
"Three ta one. Looks like you lose, pretty boy." Trader Moe smirked.
Stedman whipped his switchblade and gun from his pockets, smiling smugly down at the short alligator. "We'll see about that, shorty."
Trader Moe lips spread into an evil grin. "I'm gonna enjoy dis. Terminate him, boys."
"No!" Rebecca yelled. "Don't shoot!"
"You can't tell me what to do," Trader Moe retorted, shifting his focus to the trembling bearess.
"You can't tell da boss what ta do, lady," echoed Rhino Goon.
"Yeah, lady, tell da boss what to do," said Ape Goon.
"Just give him the stone, Baloo," Rebecca ordered curtly. She was near hysterics. The only thing keeping her from running to her daughter was Baloo's restraining paw on her arm.
"Which one?" His mind racing to formulate a plan to escape from this explosive situation, Baloo's gaze flitted from Trader Moe and company's semi-automatic rifles to Stedman's weapons then back to Molly's large, frightened eyes. He looked to Kit for help, but all the boy did was shake his head slightly.
"The one with my daughter!" Rebecca snapped, tears beading in her eyes.
Baloo pulled the stone from his shirt pocket. He held it in his hand for a few moments as if he was pondering what to do.
Then he did something completely unbelievable.
End of part 4