Chapter VI: Treachery

The day passed slowly. Very slowly, for Gadget. True to her word, she didn't reveal her intention to attend the clandestine meeting the leader of the enemy forces had requested. Not even to Chip, which was the hardest for her. In troubled times, she had always sought him out for advice, as he had her. Keeping something that was such a threat to her well being secret made her feel uneasy. What made her more uneasy, however, was the prospect of breaking her word, which Geegaw Hackwrench had taught his little girl never to do. If it turned out to be a trap, then the Rangers would find a way to pull her out of it. They always did. At least this way, the abbeydwellers would have more time to put together their defenses.

As evening came and went, and the sky grew dark, all of the abbey's nonessential personnel started going to bed. As quietly as she could, Gadget slipped into Great Hall, and hung Martin's sword back onto the pegs beside the tapestry. However, in her pockets she carried numerous small devices that she had rewired to produce a shock, when picked up with the right amount of pressure.

'She said come unarmed, but she didn't say anything about not boobytrapping myself,' Gadget thought.

As darkness fell, she made her way to the main door, and prepared to leave. Before leaving, however, she had placed a small note with Chip's name on it on his pillow, where he would be sure to find it. She gave a glance back as she exited the building and made for the south gate.

"See you soon, guys…I hope."

And with that, she unlatched the small gate, and slipped out into the darkness.

Chip was sitting in the dining hall, toying with a glass of dandelion cordial. The strong liquid hadn't dulled his senses enough to let him sleep. Something bothered him…but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"No sense sitting down here all night," he said, draining his drink. He got up and put his fedora back on, heading towards the dormitories.

"Hoy, Chippah! Wait up, lad!"

Monterey Jack jogged up to him.

"Have y'seen Gadget? She wasn't at suppah tonight, which strikes me odd, 'cause you know as well as I do that nerves give the girl an appetite."

"I noticed," Chip replied. "I just figured she needed a little time to herself. Just wish I could have kissed her goodnight."

He looked back up at Monty.
"Um, did I just say that last part out loud?"

"Sure did, pally. Don't worry about it none, I know how love goes. But even the nicest girls need a little space, and you've been with our Gadget every spare minute the past couple 'o days."

"That's true. Ah, well. 'Night, Monterey."
"Night, Chip."

The chipmunk walked slowly upstairs, hung his hat on the bedpost, and started to climb in. The note on his pillow stopped him.

Monterey Jack was telling tales over a plate of cheese with some of the older friars when he heard Chip scream. The Rangers' leader dashed down the main staircase, a frantic look on his face.

"Chippah, calm down," Monty said, catching him on the fly as he raced by the kitchen.

"Wot's goin' on?"

"It's Gadget! The vermin general wanted a one on one meeting, and Gadget agreed! She's already gone!"

"Croikey, wot's the lass thinkin'!"

"She's putting herself in harm's way…to give us time to prepare," Chip realized with a sinking feeling.

"Too roight, that's gotta be wot it is. Her dad always taught 'er that selflessness was a virtue, but this is takin' it too fah!"

"Come on, we've gotta head her off!"
"She's probably been gone too long for that, lad. Somebody'll have to track 'er. C'mon, Zippah!"

"No, Monty," Chip put a hand against the big mouse's chest. "I'll go. If these guys attack, they'll need you here."
"Roight, Chip. But lissen, be careful, y'hear? I don't want ta have to go back home to a funeral."

"Thanks, Monterey. You know I will."

Gadget was amazed at the size of the enemy camp. Rats, foxes, and other animals lounged everywhere, cooking or sparring with weapons. It reminded her of a scene from a medieval history book.

The rat captain, Gurfang, stepped seemingly out of nowhere.

"You came alone?"
"That was what you said."
"Good. This way."

They walked through what seemed like an acre of the teeming camp. Gadget noticed that all of the soldiers stepped back as she passed, giving her an almost…fearful look. Finally, they arrived in front of a large, dark tent. Gurfang opened the flap.

"Inside."

With a sense of foreboding that she just couldn't seem to shake, Gadget stepped into the darkened dwelling. A smaller censer at the center of a table gave the only light. She looked around, letting her eyes get adjusted to the darkness, and noticed a solitary figure sitting at the other end of the table. A black hood was pulled over the face, and body language was impossible to read.

"You wanted to see me?" Gadget asked. "At least, that's what your lackey out there said."

A low chuckle escaped the figure. It walked over near her, and Gadget suddenly had the overwhelming urge to shrink away. Something was so familiar…the pose, the figure, the walk. Now where had she seen the walk before? Times like this drove Gadget to near madness, when she knew a fact was locked somewhere in her brain, and she couldn't retrieve it. Of course, if she had ever taken the simple test for Attention Deficit Disorder, she'd find out why that was. But then, such was the case with many geniuses.

"Yes, I wanted to see you," the oily, charming voice returned. The voice did it. Gadget's memory snapped into place, and she stepped back.

"No," she said, hoping above hope that this was a bad dream.

"Oh yes, Gadget. And I know just what you're thinking. It's not a bad dream. But it's going to be so bad for you, just being awake!"
The figure reached up, and tore off the hood. Gadget found herself staring into a face that was a mirror of her own. A cracked mirror, as Chip had once said. Her features, while identical to Gadget's, had a twisted, malevolent look about them, an evil glare perpetually seated in the deep, blue eyes. Gadget's voice sounded small and dry in the air as she said the name.

"Lawainie Lait."

The same small chuckle again. The sound made the fur on Gadget's neck stand on end.

"I'm so glad to see you remember me, sister dear. After our last encounter, I thought you might have forgotten."
"How could anyone forget you, Lawainie," Gadget replied sarcastically. "Your glowing personality just naturally engenders itself into memory."

She wasn't prepared for the open handed slap that Lawainie delivered.

"Hold your tongue, Gadget, or you may live to regret it!"

Gadget felt her cheek, the stinging blow having numbed it, and her blood rose in defiance. However, her brain kept it in check.

"Just what do you want, Lawainie? You tricked me into to coming here, so out with it!"

"Tricked you? Oh, nothing so strategic, sister. Your own curiosity made you come. You just couldn't resist."

Gadget didn't like to admit it, but her twin was right. Like Chip, she could never stand to leave a mystery or a question unsolved.

"What's your game here?" she asked her double. "I never figured you for the world domination type."
"Oh, there are lots of things you learn when you leave the islands. I was small time then, Gadget. But I spent some time in as a lab rat, afterward. The professor showed me a lot of things I didn't know about."
"The professor…" Gadget trailed off, remembering the last time she had heard someone use the expression. It was when Sparky had been talking about…

"Norton Nimnul," she spat out, disgustedly.

Lawainie clapped her hands in mock delight.
"Your intellect impresses me once again! Your predecessors would be proud of you, if any of them were still alive," she sneered. "So you and those Rangers are the rodents he always ranted about. How interesting. At any rate, there will be one less to pester him after this night."
Gadget tensed.

"Meaning?"
"Meaning, o sister, that I mean to avenge myself upon you. Not only for ruining my plans in Hawaii…but for living the life that should have been mine. Father never told you, did he?"
Trying not to show her fear or her curiosity, Gadget projected a stony look.

"There were a lot of things Daddy wasn't comfortable talking about."

"Ah, yes, the typical male habit of pushing things under the rug. Didn't you ever wonder how you got a twin sister? Or do you deny that?"
"I don't deny it. I don't have any evidence to the contrary."

Lawainie considered the response, and then continued on her tirade.

"When dear old Dad visited England on one of his trips, he managed to get himself invited to a gala party. He'd been flying a relief mission for the Rescue Aid Society, always the do-gooder, you know. Must be where you get it from. At any rate, at this ball, he met a woman. A very stunning woman, some would say. Your mother, Annette Sheila Holmes. Great-granddaughter of Basil, that some called the Great Mouse Detective. Over the next few months, push came to shove you know, and old Geegaw popped the question. When Mother said yes, her family was more than a little upset. Their little girl, Basil's heir, marrying a common pilot? It was more than they could bear. They threatened to disinherit her, but she married Father anyway."
Gadget's memory searched back to her childhood, and suddenly she remembered what Monty always used to call her.

A cunning little sheila.

Now she knew there was more to the old Australian saying than he had told her. She reserved comment, letting her evil half continue her history lesson.

"She returned with Father to the States, where you were born. About a year later, the intrepid Mr. Hackwrench had to fly some cargo to Hawaii, where he met another woman that he found very stunning. My mother, Labella Lait. They spent a few days together, and as tends to happen," she grinned, "things got out of hand. Father left immediately of course, saying that he was so sorry, and that he had to make things right with his wife. Mother never saw him again. I was born later that year, your identical double. It's a rare occurrence, but among mice, it has been known to happen."

"Wait just one darned minute," Gadget spouted, "do you mean to try and tell me that Daddy cheated on Mom?"

"Men are weak, darling. Oh, Mother got a letter from him later, saying that he had made amends at home, and that he hoped that she would find someone. Little difference that it made to Mother."
"I knew that if Daddy made a mistake, he'd make it right."

Lawainie smirked.

"How can you have so much faith in people, my dear? When they are so, so corruptible."

"It's called faith for a reason, Lawainie. And I happen to set a lot of store in it."

The enemy snickered, her eyes seeming to burn with an unnatural fire.

"Little good it will do you. You'll find no good in me to believe in. Trust me, many more than you have tried."

She reached under the table, and pulled out a familiar device.

"Do you remember this, Gadget? I copied the plans from the professor's files one night, before I escaped. It took forever to build, but oh, the things it can do!"
Gadget said nothing, but inside her stomach was churning. She recognized one of Nimnul's insane machines right away. The aging gun.

"Lawainie, that thing's dangerous, don't you know that? It nearly killed Monterey Jack."

"I know."
She flipped a dial, and the gun whirred to life. She pointed it in Gadget's direction, her finger delicately brushing the trigger.

"Why do you think I built it?"

And with that, she pointed it directly down the table, and squeezed the trigger.

Gadget screamed as the energies from Nimnul's invention coursed through her body.

Out on the dark moor, in the bushes near the camp, Chip heard. That scream would haunt his nightmares for a long time. He took off like a rocket through the enemy camp, barreling through mobs of surprised rats. Many gave chase, but the smaller chipmunk was too fast. He followed the direction of the heart-wrenching sound that had pierced his ears. Seeing the light that glowed in the larger, dark tent, he threw back the flap, and flew in.

He almost wished he hadn't.

His mind took in the scene in an instant. Lawainie Lait, he knew instantly. She was holding a gun-like device, which trailed smoke from the barrel. Huddled in front of her was a kneeling figure, a mouse, with a mane of snow-white hair. But the flight goggles that the mouse wore…

"Oh, Lord…"

Gadget struggled to get to her feet as Lawainie laughed maniacally. She looked down at her hands, which instead of being youthful and smooth, were now gnarled and twisted with age. She stumbled away from her sister, and fell into a strong pair of arms.

"Chip…" she gasped weakly.

Lawainie's gaze shot in his direction. She leveled the gun and fired, but Chip was too fast, taking Gadget in his arms and ducking through the tent flap as it disintegrated into dust. Spears and knives clattered at his feet as he sought an exit. One grazed his shoulder, but he barely felt it.

"Get him, you fools!" a voice bellowed. It was so like Gadget's that he nearly stopped, but his mind urged him on. As his feet carried him away from the camp, he could see Redwall in the distance. He started shouting even before he got within earshot.

"Open the gates! Open up! Help!"

Thanking his lucky stars that he had a loud voice, Chip saw the great iron-bound gates begin to creak open. He slipped through as soon as there was room, not looking back to see if the gates closed. All he could think of was getting his precious cargo to the infirmary.

Monterey Jack was helping fix a window shutter in the infirmary when Chip barged in.

"Croikey, Chippah! You scared me out of a month o' cheese attacks! Wot'd you find? And who's this?"
Tears streamed down Chip's face as he laid her on a nearby bed.

"Don't you know?"

Monterey's shocked expression told Chip that he did, indeed know, now.

"How?"

"Lawainie," Chip growled. "It was Lawainie! She's behind this whole thing! And somehow, she's gotten hold of a copy of Nimnul's aging gun."

Chip was startled out of his own rage by Monterey, who shook the room when his fist struck the wall.

"We've got to do somethin'! We can't let our Gadget go like this."
"I know Monty, do you think I don't know? Where's the Abbey physician?"
"In surgery, we had a bit of a skirmish here while you were gone. Oi'll fetch young Tammy."

As Monterey left, Chip sat down on the edge of the bed beside Gadget. She had slipped into unconsciousness. He took her hand, and held it tight.

"Don't let go, Gadge. Do you hear me? Don't you let go! I'll get her, and find a way to help you. I swear it!"

To Be Continued in Chapter VII: An Unexpected Hero