Author's Note: In an effort to keep this story moving, I've decided to try and make the chapters a bit longer. Because, I realized that at the rate I was going, it was going to take forever to really get everything that I wanted into the storyline. Thanks so much for those of you that continue to review and to those who don't review but continue to read. I really do try and put a lot of thought into each and every chapter. Maybe that's why it takes me forever to update. Now on with our story...
"Hey Glenn, has there been any activity on Mercer's computer yet?" Kat inquired as she entered Glenn's office.
"Wow Kat, you're in the office kinda early today aren't you?" Glenn asked as he turned around to greet her.
"Yeah, I couldn't sleep, so I figured why not come to work and try to get something done," Kat replied.
"Well, I'm sorry to tell you that so far nothing significant has come up on the bug that Will implanted into Mercer's computer but don't worry I'm sure we'll get something soon," Glenn told her.
"Alright, if you need me I'll be at my station," Kat said as she left Glenn to his work.
She arrived at her desk and glanced at the photo of her and her parents that was taken right before her mother had passed away. She picked up the phone and dialed her father's number.
"Hello?" a groggy voice asked as he answered the phone.
"Hi dad, it's me sorry for waking you up, I know it's really early," Kat said knowing that in Australia it was already tomorrow and it was way too early in the morning for her to have called.
"Is everything alright?" her father asked sounding concerned.
"I'm fine, I just missed you and I realized that I hadn't called you since coming back to America," Kat answered.
"I knew you'd call eventually, I would have called myself but I didn't want to jeopardize your work, how's that coming by the way," he said.
"Slowly but I think we just found a way to speed things up a bit, it's mostly a waiting game but nothing that I can't handle," she informed him.
"I'm glad things are going well, how was the reunion with Tommy," he replied.
"It was nice, he's doing really well here in Reefside," Kat told him.
"So he doesn't suspect anything, doesn't question why you just happened to end up in the same town as him?" Jack questioned.
"No, as far as Tommy's concerned I got transferred here for my job and I'm trying to involve him a little as possible in the investigation," Kat answered.
"Kat, I know he's your friend but you have to start realizing that if he's apart of this in anyway, you can't protect him, you must do the job that the CIA hired you to do," Jack responded.
"So dad, any new leads on Reed's case," Kat said wanting to change the subject.
"A few but nothing's concrete, I promise to let you know the minute we get something," he told her.
"Just make sure that you do because I want to see Reed's killer brought to justice," Kat replied.
"Look sweetie, do you mind if we cut this short, like you said it's early here and I could still get a few more hours of sleep before heading into work," he said.
"Of course, I'll talk to you soon, love you," she replied.
"I love you too," he said and hung up the phone.
At lunchtime, Kat decided to leave the office and headed to Reefside Park. She walked down the trail looking for a park bench to sit on when she saw Tommy's student Conner with a soccer ball in hand. He was standing next to a bench talking to a boy she quickly recognized as Trent Mercer. It looked like a rather heated discussion so she walked closer to them and stood behind a tree hoping to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"Trent, you really don't look so good, maybe I should call your father and have him come get you," Conner told him.
"No don't, I told you I'm fine, just get off my back will ya," Trent said as he got up from the bench and started to walk away.
Kat watched as Conner stood there for a moment as if trying to make a decision while Trent walked away and then he threw down the ball and started to follow him. Kat waited a few minutes and then she followed them. After walking for awhile, Kat realizes that Trent has led Conner to a secluded part of the forest. She watches from behind a tree as Conner looks around but Trent is nowhere to be found. She was about to make her presence know when out of nowhere the White Ranger appeared and attacked Conner. Kat crouched down and watched as Conner morphed into the Red Ranger. Soon the two began to fight but without their weapons which both had thrown on the ground.
The white ranger began to get the upper hand and Kat heard Conner contact Tommy and the other ranger's for help. The white ranger then picked up Conner's Thundermax saber and started to use it on him. Oh no, I have to find a way to help him. Kat thought as she watched helplessly from her hiding place. Just then Conner obviously tired of getting beat called on his Super Dino Mode Powers. Conner finally gets the upper hand and sends the whiter ranger flying, after which he powered down. The white ranger looking defeated tells Conner that he doesn't have to worry about him anymore and he collapses. Conner ran over to his side and tried to get the white ranger to wake up. Kat watched as the white ranger who was only pretending to be hurt used Conner's blaster to get the upper hand once again and was about to finish Conner off when Mesogog and Zeltrax showed up. Mesogog tried to convince the white ranger to join his army but the white ranger refused and took off in his zord.
"Do you want me to finish him?" Zeltrax asked referring to Conner.
"No, he is more useful to us alive as he may lead us to the white ranger again," Mesogog stated and they left.
Kat stayed hidden and waited until Ethan, who had come to help and Conner left before turning around and heading back in the direction that she came. She arrived back in the park where she saw Trent who looked very disoriented and confused. Now where did he come from? She wondered and decided to follow him and find out for herself. She was careful not to be seen and was surprised when she ended up in the warehouse district. Still following Trent she made sure to stay close to the walls of the building. Suddenly, she heard a distinct ringing and realized that in all the excitement she had forgotten to turn off her cell phone. She quickly ducked behind the wall to turn it off. Trent seems not to notice and continues walking. Oh no, I've lost him. Kat realized as she looked up and saw that Trent was gone. She took out her phone and dialed the number that had been trying to reach her.
"You called?" she asked as Will answered.
"Where are you, Glenn said you went to lunch but that was over two hours ago," Will told her.
"Sorry, I must have lost track of the time, I'll be back in the office soon," she replied.
"Good because I've got news that I think you'll want to hear," he informed her.
"Ok I'll see you in the office, I gotta go," she said hanging up the phone as she heard noises coming from one of the warehouse nearby.
Kat entered the warehouse only to find that it was totally deserted except for a huge fossil that stood in the center of the room. What on earth is this? She slowly walked closer to the fossil and was shocked to see what was inside. It can't be?
"Tommy, what have they done to you," she spoke aloud.
"Dr. O, you in here, Hayley said you tried to contact her," Conner's voice rang through the room.
"I can't let them find me," Kat said as she quickly hid.
"Look like we're too late," Ethan said upon seeing their fossilized teacher.
"We better get him back to the lab, maybe Hayley can figure out a way to unfreeze him," Kira said.
The next day, Kat sat at her work station in I.D. headquarters and read the file her father had sent her from ASIS on Reed's case.
"Have you made a decision yet?" Will inquired as he sat down next to her.
"You mean about this mission?" she asked.
"I thought you'd jump at the chance to see some real action, since not much has been going on here," Will said.
"Of course, I want to go but..," Kat's voice trailed off as she thought about Tommy who as far as she knew was still trapped inside that amber fossil.
"I can handle watching Mercer for a few days without you, I know how much it would mean to you to be one step closer to bringing Reed's killer to justice," Will told her.
"Well, when you put it that way, I guess there really is no reason for me not to go," Kat said realizing that there was nothing she could do to help Tommy.
Kat sat on the private plane across from her dad where they were headed for her first mission since Reed's death. She breathed in slowly and hoped that she would be able to pull this off.
"You sure you want to do this?" he asked.
"Positive," she said.
"Ok, the man you are meeting is one of Chang's frequent contacts, if he's had any sort of contact with Chang in the last several months the information will most certainly be on his laptop," her father explained.
"Tell me again, why this guy is all the way in the middle of the ocean?" Kat inquired.
"From what little we know, he's a very private man and likes to stay secluded, except for every other weekend when he requests female companionship," he said.
"Which is where I come in," Kat replied.
"Yes, now once you're alone with him, all you have to do is use your lipstick to touch him anywhere on his skin and he'll be knocked out which should give you plenty of time to download the information," Jack told her.
SOUTH CHINA SEA
Kat rode in a speed boat across the water to the large yacht that she would be boarding. A red wig covered up her blond hair and she was wearing sunglasses. She was also wearing a short skimpy tight green dress with fish net stockings and strappy high heels. Over this she wore a leopard print faux fur coat.
"Remember, I'll be listening in the whole time," he father's voice said as the speed boat came to a halt.
Kat boarded the yacht and was led below to the door of a room by an armed guard. She removed her glasses and waited patiently as the guard unlocked the door. He held open the door and she walked in the room and he closed the door behind him.
"They didn't tell me how cute you were, do you speak english," she said to the man who lay on the bed and he was staring at her.
"What is your name?" he asked her.
"I'm Mandy," she answered.
"I like that name perhaps you would be more comfortable here on the bed," he said as he grabbed her and threw her onto the bed which caused the contents of her pursed to go rolling all over the floor and her lipstick was lost.
He bent down to kiss her and Katherine smiled thinking fast about what she should do when an idea popped into her head. Instead of allowing him to kiss her, Kat slapped him across the face which to her surprise he seemed to enjoy.
"Oh yes, I've been a very bad boy, you must punish me," he cried. This is going to be too easy.
She looked around the room and seeing a roll of duct tape she quickly tied his arms and legs to the bed and placed a piece of tape over his mouth. She got off the bed and picked up the device that had fallen out of her purse plugged it into his laptop and began downloading the files.
"I'm on my way out," she said knowing her father would hear her.
"The boat's gone but a helicopter is on the way," he told her.
She stuck the device inside her bra and excited the room.
"He asked not to be disturbed," she told the guard as she made her way to the top of the ship where she could hear the helicopter coming towards her.
"Good work," her father said as she boarded.
REEFSIDE
"Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" Kat asked Will once she was back at work.
"Nothing much unless you count that journal that Glenn stumbled upon in Mercer's computer files, so far we've only been able to open bits and pieces of it," he told her.
"What did it say?" Kat questioned.
"He just keeps mentioning a mistake he made with an experiment that's gone horribly wrong and something about not being able to control what's happening to him," Will replied.
"But it doesn't say what kind of experiment?" Kat asked.
"No but Glenn's working on trying to decode the rest of it, so maybe we'll have this case wrapped up sooner than you think," Will said as he left.
"Hey Will, I've got a phone call to make so I'm going downstairs," Kat said as she headed for the elevators. She went down to the floor that housed the E.P.A. offices.
She went to the room that posed as her office and called Reefside High School.
"Hello, Reefside High School, how may I direct your call," the secretary said as she picked up.
"I was wondering if I might leave a message for Dr. Thomas Oliver," Kat said.
"I'm sorry but Dr. Oliver has taken a temporary leave of absence," she informed Kat.
"Do you know when he'll be back?" Kat asked.
"We didn't even know he wasn't coming until he missed his first class, a woman named Hayley phoned and said that Dr. Oliver had some kind of emergency and believe me Principal Randall was not pleased," she answered.
"Ok, well thanks anyway, I'll try him at home," Kat said and hung up. So this means that Hayley has yet to figure out how to break Tommy out of that fossil. Could Trent have done that to him? He was around the warehouse at the time of the incident. I have got to find out what's going on with Anton Mercer and his son.
Hope that's long enough for now, I promise the next update won't be far behind this one. I think I've finally found have this story going the way I want it to. Please review and tell me what you think.