They only had to wait a few minutes before two uniformed officers arrived, one of them Officer Hobble himself.
"Kim Possible!" he said, "What is..."
Kim held up her hand. "Bonnie is in charge, sir."
"Oh. Um... what's going on, Miss Rockwaller?" he asked, puzzled at this unexpected developement.
"Adrena-Lynn Rush lives here, and may have been kidnapped. I decided it would be best to wait for you. But Adrena works for us, so this is personal," answered Bonnie. "A scan shows nobody inside."
"I see. Oh, this is Tom Wilson," he said, introducing the other officer.
"Nice to meet you all, especially you, Miss Possible," he said, shaking hands.
Bonnie's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.
Hobble stepped to the door, and loosened the strap on his weapon. He pushed the door open, and stepped inside. Tara found the light switch and turned it on.
At first glance, the living room was untouched. The two police officers moved toward the other rooms while Team Rockwaller pulled out their multispectral sunglasses.
"There's a stain here," said Bonnie, and knelt by it for a better look. She pulled out the BonnieCom. "Wade, are you seeing this?"
"Yeah... hold on a minute..." said Wade, and they heard keys tapping. "It's an industrial lubricant, in the shape of a partial footprint."
"I've found something," said Tara, and Kim and Bonnie turned to her, taking off the sunglasses.
She pointed. "This side table has been shifted. The clock fell off and unplugged at. 4:14."
"Sounds about right for the faintness of the infrared traces," said Wade, "Good catch, Tara, looks like we have a time."
Officer Hobble came back into the living room. "There are signs of a struggle in the bedroom," he said.
"Kim, you take a look," said Bonnie. She smiled to herself. Giving Kim orders still felt pretty good.
Kim nodded and followed Hobble back to the bedroom.
Wilson came back in. "Nothing seems to be disturbed in the kitchen or bathroom or the other bedroom," he reported.
Bonnie nodded. "Thanks."
A few minutes later, Kim and Hobble came back in. "It looks like two, maybe three people were in there. Her purse and money are undisturbed; looks like they came just for her" said Kim.
"Which points to someone she knows..." said Bonnie.
"I'm on it," said Wade, and signed off.
"Kim, what do you suggest we do?" asked Bonnie.
"Let's go outside, and see if we can find any more clues," answered Kim.
Donning the sunglasses again, they made their way down the corridor. Kim and Wilson took the elevator, while Bonnie and Tara took the stairs. They met outside.
"We didn't find anything," said Bonnie.
"Us either," said Kim.
Wade called on the BonnieCom. "I checked the security camera records, and might have found something," he said. His image disappeared, and was replaced with a picture of the parking lot. The time stamp in the corner read 4:22 AM. A dark car waited by the curb. Suddenly two large men, accompanied by a smaller man came into view. The two large men were almost carrying someone between them. The back door opened, one of the large men got in first, and the other pushed the person between them into the car, getting in after them.
"I recognize that hair style," said Bonnie, "That was Adrena."
Using the sunglasses, they looked around where the car had been. Tara spotted a much smaller stain of the same lubricant.
Officer Hobble walked up. "The crime scene unit will be here in a few minutes," he said.
"Good," said Bonnie. She showed him the security tape, then the stain. "We're going back to headquarters."
"Would you mind staying, Miss Rockwaller? I would like your help with the evidence," said Hobble.
She glanced at Kim and Tara. "Fine," said Bonnie.
"We'll go on back," said Kim.
Bonnie nodded, then left with Hobble and Wilson. "Please, call me Bonnie," she said to him.
Back in her office, Kim found on her printer a report containing all the evidence collected so far, along with vidcaps from the tape and a tentative timeline. Kim didn't even need to ask; she knew a copy had been sent to Middleton PD.
Kim sat and rocked, thinking. She decided not to tell Ron about this until it was over. He would cut short his training and take the first flight home to help. As much as she wanted him home, she had to look at the bigger picture.
Looking at her hands, she was surprised to see she had taken the Crystal from its box, and was using it like a worry stone. She was rolling it between her hands, and rubbing her thumb over it. It might have been her imagination, but she did seem to be drawing comfort from it.
Bonnie came in about ten o'clock, to report nothing new. They decided to call it a night;
they would be notified if anything happened.
For two days they followed every lead they could, to no avail. They kept in close contact with the Middleton PD, but no ransom demands were received, and every lead ended up a dead end.
On the afternoon of the third day, Wade called. "I might have something," he said, "Meet me in the conference room."
Shortly after Kim, Bonnie, and Tara sat down, he appeared on the TV. "Okay, here we go."
The picture changed to an overhead view of large buildings. "This is a current satellite view of the Middleton Warehouse District in the infrared," came Wade's voice, "Our building is here." A red "X" appeared over one of them. "Now, notice over here." Another building, just a block away, was circled.
Four red dots were within it. Three were together, one by itself. "Here is the time lapse of the last several days," said Wade. The four dots were in the building, then they started blinking on and off. The one dot was suddenly by itself, and the other three moving around, disappearing and reappearing. The lone dot stayed steady.
"That looks a lot like a clue to me," said Bonnie, "Let's check it out."
Five minutes later found Team Rockwaller in front of the other building. According to the sign out front, it was for sale and vacant. Wade confirmed that nobody should be in there.
All three of them peeked in a window, and saw three men sitting at a desk, playing cards.
The remains of lunch scattered around. Two of the men were very large; the common street muscle available anywhere, even Middleton. The smaller man took a drink of soda, and frowned at his cards.
Kim narrowed her eyes. The smaller man looked vaguely familiar. She looked at her companions.
Bonnie was still assessing the situation, while Tara sat against the wall and looked absolutely furious.
"Tara?" Kim whispered.
"Those scumbags kidnapped Adrena," Tara hissed. "Who knows what else they've done to her.
They are so going to pay."
Bonnie and Kim stared at her with wide eyes. That statement was totally at odds with the gentle blue-eyed blonde's personality.
"Let's be sure they did it, first," said Bonnie, "You take the big one on the left; Kim the one on the right. But only if you have to."
Tara took a deep breath, and visibly calmed down. She nodded.
They snuck towards the door, Tara in the lead.
"What's wrong with her?" Kim whispered to Bonnie, "I've never seen her like that before."
"Not sure. I think she's being protective," answered Bonnie.
Kim nodded. Made sense.
Bonnie turned the doorknob slowly, but found it locked. She kicked it hard, slamming it open. She barged in, full of rightious fury. The three men stood up, facing this new problem.
Bonnie pointed at the smaller man. "Where is Adrena-Lynn Rush?" she demanded.
"She's..." said the big guy on the left.
"Shaddap!" yelled the smaller man.
That was all the admission Tara needed. Before Kim and Bonnie's astonished eyes, both of the street muscle were suddenly on the floor, unconsious.
The smaller man was backing away from her, slowly, as Tara advanced.
"Tara!" shouted Bonnie.
"Where is she?" Tara growled, paying Bonnie no attention.
The man actually had the nerve to sneer at her. "You'll never find her," he answered.
The man was saved from the beating of his life when Bonnie grabbed Tara just in time.
"Kim, go see if you can find her. We'll wait for the police," said Bonnie.
Kim nodded, then went out onto the warehouse's main floor. Except for trash and some obviously empty crates, there was nothing here. The ceiling was a good hundred feet above her. This warehouse must have kept some serious freight at one time. She walked around, but found nothing suspicious.
She pulled out the Kimmunicator. "Wade, can you give me a current infrared scan of this building?"
"Sure. Hang on..." was the answer, along with the click of keys. He was replaced by the requested view. There were five dots together, and two separate. The latter were fairly close to each other.
Kim walked until the dots overlapped. She looked around for any newly-poured concrete,
or other way of holding a person, but found nothing. That left only one place... She looked up, and could barely see in the shadows the bottom of a crane platform.
She looked around, and in a corner found controls for the platform. But when she flipped the power switch, the panel shorted out. "Have to do it the hard way, then," she thought.
She studied the platform and ceiling carefully. There was nowhere for the grappler to grab on the platform itself from this angle, so something nearby would have to do.
She fired at a support beam, where the claw grabbed and held. She hit the 'retract' button,
and was pulled up. She went above the level of the platform, and stopped the ascent.
There was a set of crane controls on one end, and a small shed on the other.
Judging the distance, she swung back and forth to build up momentum, then let go of the hair dryer, arcing gracefully toward the platform. She landed just outside the side rails around the platform. She grabbed the top rail, and was surprised when her hands slipped right off. She grabbed for the next one down, and it too was coated in something slippery. She grabbed for the third and last rail, and nearly got a grip. But the oil on her gloves prevented it. She slipped off the rail.
Just as she started to fall, a hand reached down and grabbed her left wrist. She looked up at her saviour, and gasped at the smiling face. The only thing between Kim Possible and a messy death on the concrete a hundred feet below was Adrena-Lynn Rush.