~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"Great googly-moogly, Agent P.! You got a personal interview with Dr. Gevaarlijk? That is some seriously good work." Major Monogram announced proudly. "Make the call, and we'll see what we can find out."
The mission was actually quite a success, despite the lack of convicting evidence they seemed to collect. Agent Pinky had discovered from some of the students that Shade Terror had been gathering resources from Danville's coast, and Agent Mike the Monkey had been given an opportunity to sneak into Dr. Rewind's belongings, and found a document listing all of Danville's police officers and where they were usually stationed.
The conclusion still led to a massive attack on Danville, but for then, Perry was happy to relax underneath a shady tree as his boys build their next summer invention while O.W.C.A. worked on their next move.
True to Perry's predictions, that day Doof invented some kind of "ice-inator" that he planned to shoot at every Danville citizen's cars, covering them in thick sheets of ice and forcing them to have to scrape it off. Perry had been so speechless with the stupidity of the plan, that he even let the doctor try it.
Apparently some people could just forget it was almost ninety degrees outside, though how, Perry hadn't the slightest idea.
The evil scheme ultimately failed as the ice just melted right off the cars, and Doofenshmirtz admitted rather sullenly that he was running into another "evil-scientist's block."
The agent hoped it meant a few days off for him.
"Hey, Mom?" Candace peered around the corner of the kitchen.
"Yes, dear?" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher smiled. Perry was laying on the couch next to her, happily drifting off to one of his favorite soap-operas.
"Do you mind if Vanessa comes over for a sleep-over? Her parents got into a really big argument and she doesn't really want to stay at either of their houses.."
"Poor dear." Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher sighed. "Of course she can stay over. Does Vanessa need a ride?"
"No, one of her friends is dropping her off."
"Okay. Does she like chocolate? I was looking for an excuse to try this new recipe."
Perry's ears perked up at the new development. Vanessa, as in Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, his nemesis' daughter, spending the night? Her father may be easily fooled, but Perry knew Vanessa would have no trouble making the connection between him and the Perry she knew.
Perhaps he should disappear for a couple days?
But didn't you want to find out what that girl is up to? This would be too perfect of an opportunity..
Perry weighed his options before finally deciding to stay. He was an extremely skilled agent; he could handle a teenage girl, even a brilliant one.
A few hours later, Vanessa was inside the Flynn-Fletcher household, thanking the kid's mother and nonchalantly listening to Candace ramble on about her brothers and how much fun they were going to have.
Perry followed the girls upstairs and laid right outside of the Phineas and Ferb's door, hoping to blend in. He listened as Candace showed Vanessa the guest bedroom and where the bathroom was. The girl's chatted for awhile about boys and bands and boy bands, before Vanessa admitted she was tired and shut herself in her room.
The agent sighed. Nothing interesting there; not that he was expecting there to be. With a yawn, Perry dipped into Phineas and Ferb's room, hoping to catch some sleep.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~ His eyes fluttered open.
Something wasn't right.
Perry was in the boy's bed, just as he had fallen asleep. The time read 12:47. All seemed normal, except someone was outside, whispering.
Curious, the platypus jumped off the bed and stealthily snuck out the door. The hallway was empty, but the whispering was definitely coming from Vanessa's room. Perry debated whether eavesdropping was a good idea or not. It seemed a little creepy, especially since he was really a man and she was a minor.
What if she's in trouble?
His logic jumped back and forth, but with a desperate sigh, Perry climbed over to Vanessa's door and stuck his ear against the threshold, laying down as if he'd fallen asleep there. Surely the family wouldn't question it too much if they saw him.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Although Perry couldn't see her, he heard Vanessa's voice waver, as if she was actually rather nervous about something. A pause.
"No, I'm not backing out. It's just..
"Yes, I know but.."
"Fine. Fine. I will be there tomorrow night."
Another pause. Perry held his breath.
"You better know what you're doing, Orville."
The girl hung up and resorted to pacing the room. After awhile, once Perry could only hear light snores and assumed she had fallen asleep, the platypus snuck back into the boy's bedroom and laid back down. Although the agent tried to let exhaustion take over, his mind would not stop racing.
After peeking at the boy's snoring faces, Perry opened his watch and surveyed the scans of the teenagers she had been with during the Students of Evil convention.
Ah.. there he is. Orville von Roddenstein. Rodney's son.
What on earth are they meeting up for?
An uneasy feeling in his stomach, Perry laid on his back and prayed to whatever being out there that she wasn't doing something stupid.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
The next morning, Vanessa didn't say much at breakfast, other than random comments about Candace's conversations, or thanking Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher, or saying hello to the boys. She was picked up by her friend before noon.
Candace didn't seem to notice her quiet mood, and continued on with getting ready for a surprise date with Jeremy.
Perry sighed, concerned. Hopefully he could quickly finish up his shift that night and find out what she was up to.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Perry walked into Vintage Docks in a rather foul mood. Although his arm was healing quite nicely, he'd accidentally jammed it into Doofenshmirtz's latest evil invention, causing it to bruise and ache. Lifting trays was not going to be fun.
Thankfully, the night carried on uneventfully. Tammy dropped a whole table's order of soup, and the manager had to apologize to a severely upset customer over something that was, in Perry's opinion, stupid. But other than that, uneventful.
Until, of course, Jordan had some news for him.
"Hey, the guy asked for you specifically today."
Perry raised an eyebrow. "What guy?"
"You know." She sighed. "Lab coat guy."
The platypus scowled. Great, what a way to improve his mood. "He wanted me to be his server?"
"Maybe we can pull the fire alarm." Another server piped up. "Send us all home."
Perry chuckled. "That's okay. Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."
"I tried to warn you about him." Jordan grinned.
Perry peeked into the dining room to see Doofenshmirtz sitting at the exact same table he had occupied last week, but instead of holding blueprints, he had a novel in his hand. Funny, the platypus hadn't really taken Heinz for the reading type.
The man had definitely changed his lab coat. Perry remembered scorching the thing to smithereens earlier that day. He smirked, recollecting how furious the scientist had been.
Forcefully wiping the smile from his face, the agent strode up to the table and a set a water with absolutely no lemon in sight in front of the man.
Heinz sighed. "You forgot my coffee, but we'll work on it."
"So I'm assuming it'll be your usual?"
"Yes, thank you."
Hm, so we're being civil today?
The man looked worn down. Perry wondered if his supposed argument with Charlene had anything to do with it, although he hadn't seemed any different this afternoon during their usual daily brawl.
Perry had the coffee and the salmon out, prepared perfectly, in front of the man in less than ten minutes. Once he was sure Doof wouldn't need anything else, he busied himself at the end of the bar, polishing wine glasses.
Two minutes later, Doofenshmirtz flagged him over. "I need another cup of coffee."
The man had actually downed it like an espresso shot. Perry raised an eyebrow but said nothing, doing as the man asked. At least it was decaf.
"Can I ask you something?" Doofenshmirtz interrupted suddenly as the agent was setting his fresh coffee down.
"Certainly."
Did he suspect something?
Surely not..
"Let's say for.. hypothetical reasons.. your ex-wife and your daughter both hate you." Doof tapped his fingers against his glass. "And you now have to find a way to get them both to understand your point of view. What do you do?"
So, the argument was affecting him.
The undercover agent inside of Perry was sending flashing lights through his mind. This would be a great way to gage more information about the man than even Agent P would be able to get. He decided to peak the man's interest.
"Hmm. Well, normal people would probably tell you to get together with a counsellor. I, on the other hand, would probably create some unnecessary device that bent the laws of nature to make them see my way." Perry shrugged. "I'm not great at advice though, sorry."
Now that will definitely catch your attention.
Doofenshmirtz gave him a quizzical look. "You tinker?"
"I used to. It's been awhile." The agent said nonchalantly.
For a second, thoughts of all the inventions he'd tried, and failed, to create flashed through his mind and he cringed internally. Never again.
"Well, I tried that whole 'inator' thing before, and it didn't actually.. well.. work." Heinz sighed. "All it did was get me divorced in the first place."
Perry suddenly felt a little sorry for the man. The agent knew his family was important to him, even if he covered that fact up with an "evil genius" attitude. Loosing them completely would be a huge blow, especially if he lost Vanessa.
The agent sighed. "I suppose I couldn't interest you in a glass of wine to help your thoughts?"
"Actually," Doofenshmirtz cracked a smile. "why not?"