Chapter six - Time is of the Essence

After a short period of running, Peter caught up to the two. They all stood on a dock and appeared to be looking for something through the sky. All was quiet and Peter wondered what they were doing.

Answering his thoughts, Kim spoke up, "Wade said our transport would meet us here, but I don't see anything," she peered into the clouds.

Often times, the computer genius would send transportation for the team but not tell them what was coming. And the results varied as widely as a rocket sent from NASA to a donkey in Arizona. There was really no telling what Wade could cook up this time.

Kim wasn't one for waiting. When someone was in danger, she wanted to jump right in and save them. Waiting for someone to pick her up—and that someone being late—was killing her. The thought of swimming to Europe had crossed her mind once or twice…

Suddenly, a small black figure cut through the clouds. It sliced and whirled in silent acrobatics. Peter watched it partly waiting for it to begin fire. To his relief, the aircraft never did. Instead, it pulled near the dock drawing up water with the blades and spraying it at the three on the dock.

A rope ladder dropped from the helicopter into the water; Kim looked around at the crowd gathering. Several flashes struck her eyes. It was apparent that leaving anonymously was impossible in New York City.

Ron climbed into the aircraft first and Kim took second when Peter made no effort to cut in front of her. She stopped halfway up the ladder to look back down at Peter. Kim raised her eyebrows asking silently if he were impressed. Peter smiled back but didn't answer her as she climbed totally into the plane.

Everyone strapped into the seats as the pilot flew back into the sky. It took only a couple minutes to get going quickly through the clouds. Once the helicopter was smoothly flying, Kim Possible unbuckled her seat belt and carefully made her way up to the front of the plane. An elderly pilot sat flying the large helicopter and didn't even notice her at his side until she said something. "Thank you so much for the lift."

"Oh, don't mention it!" the pilot said managing a thankful smile at the hero. "It was nothing after what you've done for me."

Kim glanced up at the ceiling bashfully. "Anyone could have fished a crew out of a burning plane sinking in the ocean." She said. The pilot said nothing further as his trained eyes went to the sky. Kim walked back through the small doorway and took a seat.

She rested her eyes and sighed. Her week had been crazy. Finals for the first quarter, intense cheerleading meetings every day after school to prepare for the upcoming football game, an attack from Lord Monkey Fist, it was amazing even to her how much stress her body could handle. And even though she was flying off to yet another mission, the time it would take to get to France was an excellent time to catch up on the sleep she had missed.

Ron actively searched the seats and floor holding that same piece of paper as before. Peter watched him interested in what the boy was doing. Ron found a small, bashed pencil wedged underneath the seat. "Aha," he said and grabbed for it. Ron sat back up and looked eagerly at Peter. "Could you please sign this?" Kim noticed this happening again, but closed her eyes again to go to sleep.

"Sure," Peter agreed taking the slip of paper and pencil from Ron. He scribbled 'Spiderman' across it and handed the autographed object back to the boy. Ron smiled and stuck it in his pocket.

"Now I just have to find a way to get the Doc's," he mused. Peter smiled at how the boy viewed Dr. Octavious and it warmed his heart to find at least one person, other than himself, that thought he was still something.

Peter pulled out his cell phone. He attempted to turn it on but it refused without only a flash of color to tell him off. His shoulders dropped and he realized that he had forgotten that the battery was dead. Thank goodness he had brought the charging cable. The life of his phone wouldn't have been nearly as important to Peter if it weren't for the fact that it was the only way Otto knew of contacting them. Of course, if it were dead, Otto was surely bright enough to come up with another method of reaching them if the matter were important.

Peter assumed they would be checking into a hotel and when they did, he would have to remind himself to charge the battery. Sadly, this would mean he would have to leave it in the charger—no matter who tried to contact them.

The college student felt his shirt and checked inside his jacket pocket to make sure that he hadn't forgotten his Spidey suit. Peter was relieved to find it there and settled into the cushion seats. He liked Kim's idea of sleeping the entire way there.

Several hours passed and the pilot, after surveying the topography below, turned to look at the team. "We are over Paris, France," he announced as Kim and Peter began to stir. "Now would be a good time to jump."

"Copy that," Kim said standing to her feet and stretching her back. Ron, who had been keeping himself busy by tapping on the inside of the helicopter, reluctantly arose along with Kim and Peter. Rufus stayed asleep in his pocket and Ron didn't have the heart to awake him for the ride. Kim grabbed three parachutes, handed one to Peter, Ron, and kept one for her.

"OK, you two ready?" she yelled over the wind as the door opened. Ron and Peter nodded. Kim leaned out of the open doorway looking over the ground, then jumped followed by the other two.

The air blew fiercely as they waited the desired time of release. The free oxygen rolled over them so quickly that it was a struggle to breathe. The time came and each person pulled the string and released their parachutes. The giant white sheets looked very much like blossoms floating freely downward in a light spring breeze—nothing forcing them in any direction.

The earth came sooner than expected. Kim and Peter landed safely on the ground and discarded their parachutes. Kim looked this way and that; there was no sign of Ron. Peter picked up Kim's emotion and also scanned over the terrain.

"Where's Ron?" he asked. Before Kim had time to answer, a monotonous voice came from the distance.

"Over here," it said. Kim and Peter rushed over to the tall tree overshadowing the grass. Ron hung from one of the large branches by his parachute and appeared to have given up the struggle.

Rufus climbed out of Ron's pants pocket and jumped up and down on his helmet. "Help!" he screamed in a vaguely understandable accent.

Reaching into her pocket, Kim pulled out a laser cleverly disguised as lipstick. She aimed it at the parachute strands. "Hang on, Ron," she said as she twisted the base.

A beam of red light shot out from the tip, which cut Ron from the parachute. Rufus held onto the boy with all he had as Ron fell to the ground. "Ow…" Ron rubbed his head. The fall wasn't that far, but one couldn't tell once the pain began to kick in. It might as well have been fifty feet up with the way the impact felt.

A humorous smile formed on Kim's face. "Well, what did you think I was going to do? Carry you?"

"Yeah, that would have been nicer," Ron replied standing up and brushing himself off.

"Come on, it wasn't that far down," she argued.

"It is when you're not ready to fall."

Kim shrugged. "Whatever. I need to look at the map again." she exchanging her laser lipstick for the Kimmunicator. Pushing the button, she looked at the screen and studied the dot becoming smaller and smaller. "Wade," Kim began as the super genius appeared on the screen. "What's happening to the target?"

Wade studied the screen. "It looks as if they aren't in Paris anymore. "He stated.

"Not in Paris? Then where are they?" Peter asked now becoming nervous but not showing it.

"I don't know. As far as I can tell, they're still in France, but who knows if that'll stay true." Wade said in dismay.

"But how could they move from one place to another so quickly?" Kim asked—her tension building.

Wade sighed in frustration at his own mind for not figuring it out earlier. "They planted a false tracker," He said furiously through his teeth.

"We don't have time for a false tracker! Dr. Octavious is wasting away in New York! Can't you cancel out all the false ones?" Kim asked desperately. Her hand went to her forehead. Here came that feeling of helplessness again.

"Maybe…" Wade typed ferociously at his keyboard. After a couple seconds, his shoulders dropped. "Drakken has these trackers planted everywhere! It'll take forever to check all of them out!"

"OK, let's go one step at a time," Peter said calmly. "Do we know what's around each position?"

"Yes," Wade replied.

Kim began to catch his drift. "So if we cancel out the ones that wouldn't be secrete lair material, we can lessen the sites!"

"Exactly," Peter said with a smile. "And the kind of equipment that it takes to operate that kind of technology narrows the possibilities also."

"Good thinking," Wade said. "OK, let's get started."

After a long while of deciding whether a land development was mad scientist material or not, the team got the list narrowed down to three places. Unfortunately, these three places were spread throughout France. It would take a while to check them all out.

Kim, Peter, and Ron walked to the closest convenient stop was located: The Eiffel Tower. The possibilities were limitless. Dr. Drakken could build anywhere below it and use its metal tip as a ray or whatever he wanted. Despite the potential of that hideout, no mad scientist and evil lair was imbedded inside.

Then they checked the next site: a large abandoned warehouse. This sounded like a bright place to hold a laboratory. But, again, it was found to be empty except for the rats and spiders that occupied the space.

These walks through the congested streets and investigation in vain had taken up their entire day. They would have to turn in for the night if any of them expected to be able to fight when the time came. Dr. Octavious was strong, he would understand. Tomorrow they would track down the last spot: The English Channel. A several hour trip from the edge of France they were in. And tomorrow, they would get the cyber-electronic circuit back.

The team was forced to spend the night in a hotel and every minute ate into them. Peter had placed his cell phone in the charger and joined Kim and Ron for dinner. But while he was out, the phone rang…

OOOOO

Dr. Octavious sat at the dining room table. He slumped only in the slightest bit and moved even less. The tentacles were like scorpions on his shoulder—their features cold and calm, the shiver sent as their small needles crawled – pulling the strings – closer and closer to his vulnerability. If he made one wrong move, one wrong thought, they could sting him with things so much worse than pain.

The room remained silent except the continuous whispers in Otto's mind.

You do not want to get rid of our voices.

We are your friends.

We could accomplish so much, be so much, why waste it all?

You are wrong to make this decision Otto, you are wrong to ignore us.

Otto, his hands sweaty and tremmoring, picked up the phone. He took the piece of paper from his pocket that held Peter's number on it. He punched it into the phone and waited for the boy to pick up. As it continued ringing, Otto set it back on the table.

"I can't do it."

You can.

And you will.

Call him up.

Tell him the truth.

That you want to keep us.

Call him.

Otto picked up the phone again and held it to his ear just in time to hear the receiver start. "Hello," he managed to croak out. "This is Octavious…I…changed…um…my mind about…"

Say it.

Say it now.

Otto felt a thread of strength, only enough strength to do what he had to do, though. "I…I don't think I can handle the actuators quite as well as I thought I could." "Which is exactly what happened last time." He thought. "Please hurry back with the CEC. I don't think it'll be more than twelve hours or so. And thank you again for all your trouble in helping me." Otto hung up the receiver and rested back on the chair yet not relaxed.

He wanted to sleep, sleep through it all and be free from dealing with it, free from the world, free from the tentacles.

OOOOO

After the dinner, Peter made his way back up to his room. He didn't bother turning on the light and fell onto the bed. He flipped off his shoes and rested his eyes. A flashing green light on his nightstand forced him to open them back up. Peter took the phone in his hand and turned on the screen. When he found that a message had been left on it, Peter immediately selected it and put it to his ear to listen. When he heard the recording, he realized that all the slack that they had wallowed in was gone.

to be continued...