Next Move
Callie was driving Jake, Chance and Cody back to her house in the Megakat Hills so she could collect some documents.
"So, why do the Enforcers want him so badly?" she asked.
"Who knows?" replied chance.
"Xenon" squeaked Cody.
"What was that Cody?" asked Jake in his best child-friendly voice.
"Xenon" repeated Cody.
"I've heard of him" said Callie "he was a scientist, used to work at Puma-Dyne's weapon technology division. He was accused of industrial espionage and sacked, but he always proclaimed his innocence. He started a small biotech business, Xenon Petrochemical, down in the old oil refinery across the bay."
"How do you know that?" asked Chance, marvelling at Callie's knowledge.
"I cleared his planning application to extend the infirmary part of the refinery. He wanted to build a full-size operating theatre, and he wanted to extend the laboratory area. I don't know how much of it he actually finished though, he filed for bankruptcy last week" she replied.
"Do you know where we could find him?" asked Chance.
"I've got the original planning application at home - that'll have his contact details" she replied as the car rounded a corner into a gated community called 'Megakat Courtlands'.
Callie drove them through the quiet streets, and after a few minutes had pulled up in front of a large three-bed semi that looked suspiciously like every other house they had passed since arriving. As they got out, Chance thought about making some comment on the identikit nature of these communities, but he was about to get inside Callie's house, and fancied his prospects.
After safely getting inside Chance led Cody upstairs to one of the bedrooms, leaving Jake on the living room sofa and Callie in the kitchen making coffee. After a few minutes, Chance joined his partner on the chair opposite him.
"He's asleep, went out like a light." Chance sighed, and glanced up that the ceiling. "Poor kid, he doesn't have anyone to look out for him..." he tailed off, leaving the thought to hang in the air.
"He does, you know" Jake said to Chance, who looked back blankly. "You, Chance. You've been looking out for the kid ever since you first saw him, you're like a father to the poor boy Chance, he trusts you a lot."
"Yeah, I guess" said Chance, clearly not convinced. The two were silent for a few moments, until Callie came into the room bearing three cups of coffee. She set them down on the low table in front of the sofa, next to the staff that Cody had taken from the Lab.
"What's that thing?" she asked, pointing at the staff.
"We don't know" said Jake "all we know is that it's very powerful, and the kid knows how to use it. He created some kind of mini-cyclone inside Enforcer Headquarters with that thing, its how we escaped."
"Say what!" said Callie, whose day was getting weirder by the minute.
"Yeah" Chance said "Cody banged it down on the floor, and it got all windy in there, then he targeted it at the Enforcers that had us trapped, it knocked 'em for six, I'll say that."
Callie leaned over and picked up the staff, turning it around and examining it from all angles.
"Hey, guys, look at this" she said, lowering the staff and pointing to a logo on the top of it. Chance and Jake leaned in closer, and saw the word etched into the staff.
"Xenon..." said Chance, puzzled.
"Is it the same person, do you think?" Jake asked.
"Has to be, it's not a very common name is it?" Callie said. "What I'd really like to know though, is why Commander Feral isn't doing something about the Enforcers attacking people like this, they've gone after you, this kid, that she-kat he was with, there's even reports that two prisoners in transfer were hauled from their bus and assaulted by the roadside. I really don't get it, Feral would never allow this. I know he went on holiday a few weeks back, but surely he'd return for something like this."
"I dunno Miss Briggs" Jake said "Who's running the Enforcers now? There's definitely something shady going on."
Chance was about to add his two cents, but he was interrupted by the sound of Cody crying upstairs.
"I'll be back in a minute" he said, before heading upstairs to Cody's room, where he sat down on the bed and comforted him.
Cody wiped his eyes and looked at chance, tugging on his arm.
"You want me to stay with you 'till you go to sleep?" Chance suggested, receiving an affirmative nod from Cody. Chance sighed, but said "alright then" and made himself comfortable next to the kitten, and waited to see him drop off to sleep. But soon Cody was tugging on his sleeve again, looking up at Chance with pleading eyes.
Chance looked around, a bit clueless, then decided to guess, "Do you want a glass of milk?" he asked, to which Cody shook his head, before going back to tugging.
Chance thought for another moment, "A bedtime story?" This time Cody nodded, rather enthusiastically.
Chance shrugged, trying to think of a story, "Ay, this'll be a hard one to fake." He said, but he managed, soon telling Cody a story even motioning flying and explosions, which was natural since he was telling Cody about the Swat Kats. He made sure it was not loud enough for Callie or Jake to hear, both of whom were drinking coffee in the living room. It gave Chance a pang of irritation to think that he wasn't the one chatting with Callie, but the feeling disappeared when he looked back at Cody.
Downstairs, Callie was rooting through a substantial pack of City Hall files.
"Here's Xenon's planning application, Jake" said Callie, handing him a fat administration file. "I'll see if I can dig up anything else on him when I get back to City Hall. You guys can just stay here until I call."
"Thanks" replied Jake as Callie walked out to her car and drove off.
With Chance occupied and Callie gone, Jake sat down on a large sofa in the living room and began to read the planning file. It showed an ambitious project to turn a run-down oil refinery into a fully-fledged testing centre with on-site laboratory. It was clear that it would have been extremely expensive to complete construction, perhaps why Xenon had gone bankrupt. Leafing through the rest of the file, Jake found details on Xenon himself, including a complete employment history.
As he was about to read the file, Chance wondered into the room.
"Cody dozed off pretty fast," Jake said, looking up at Chance.
"Yeah, he did. What have you got there?" he asked, looking at the open file.
Jake looked back down to read the file as Chance sat down next to him.
Xenon, it seemed, had a chequered employment history. He had several low-level jobs in burger joints and the like during his early life, but after graduating from Megakat City University he had been employed straight into Puma-Dyne, where he had worked in the weapons development division alongside a Professor Hackle. The details beyond that weren't given, but after 32 years of loyal work Zenon had been fired from his post, accused of industrial espionage. From there he had established his own rival to Puma-Dyne, Xenon Industries. Where he had got the money from was anyone's guess, but it had run dry before he could complete construction of the proposed plans, and the facility was left half-finished. At the bottom of the file was a phone number, and the address of the old refinery.
"Should we give him a call?" asked Chance.
"Worth the shot" replied Jake, taking the phone and dialling the number.
The phone rang for several minutes before Jake gave up and put down the phone.
"Nothing" he said, dejected.
"It's probably the number of that refinery, so it's no wonder we can't get through" said Chance, trying to cheer Jake up.
"But if we can't find Xenon, what can we do for Cody?" enquired Jake.
"We'll find a way. We're the Swat Kats" said Chance.
---
At Enforcer Headquarters, Steele was busy making life hell for the Custody Sergeant again. This time he was dismissing his own responsibility for the mechanics' escape entirely, and blaming the Sergeant, who was getting more and more irritated with Steele.
"You let them get out. You are a cretin. You are more stupid than the chewing gum on the bottom of my shoe. You hear that Sergeant. You are a moron..." ranted Steele. He was pleased to be abusing the lower orders, they had no recourse without Feral or his meddling niece being there, and with them away on the Feral's annual holiday there was no way they could get him to take action. Steele had made sure that the Enforcer radio phone that they had taken with them in case of emergency was faulty, and so guarantee that they would be out of his hair until he could fulfil his obligations to Puma-Dyne.
He was just about to rain down another torrent of abuse onto the Custody Sergeant when a trooper entered, slightly out of breath. Seeing this new target for aggression, Steele began to launch another tirade of abuse but was cut off by the trooper.
"Sir, someone tried to call Xenon's facility!"
"Oh, who?" asked Steele, pausing in his attacks to listen.
"We traced the caller to the residence of Deputy Mayor Callico Briggs" answered the trooper.
"Damn it, that's how they got away! There's a bus to the City Hall from here, we covered the trains but not the bus. They must know Briggs somehow and have met her at City Hall..." Steele thought aloud. "Get units over there, arrest them all, and get that kid to me!"
"Yes sir, right away sir" replied the trooper; hurrying off to do his commander's bidding before he could yell some more.
---
Meanwhile, at City Hall Callie had come through once again. Using her access code, she was able to find out that Xenon was now in Enforcer custody at a secure facility in the Megakat Desert. She picked up the phone and dialled her home number.
"Hello Jake, it's Callie, I found out where Xenon is."
"Oh, where? He's not at the number in his file, we tried that."
"No, according to my computer he's been arrested and taken to some Enforcer work camp facility out in the desert."
"What! What for?"
"It doesn't say, it requires very high clearance to access it. Only the Enforcer commander, or acting commander, can read that part of the file. Look, there's nothing you can do about this Jake, you and Chance just stay put there, and I'll call some friends who might be able to help."
"Who?"
"I, err, can't tell you that. Just sit tight and look after Cody. Bye."
And with that she hung up. Only for Razor's Swat Kat communicator to start bleeping in his pocket. He picked it up, and tried to sound different to how he had just been on the phone.
"What can we do Miss Briggs?"
"I need you to look into something for me..." said Callie, before explaining the situation to Jake, or as she saw it, Razor.
"Ok, we'll deal with that for you" said Jake, and hung up. "We need to get to the Turbokat buddy" Jake said to chance. "We can't bust Xenon out of prison as mechanics! We were lucky to get away with it last time."
"Ok, but what will we do with Cody, we can't leave him here on his own" asked Chance.
"Don't worry, I have a plan" said Jake...
