Just after Bonnie finished her conversation with Kim, she went ahead and called up Phil. "She just called and I'm on my way. Yes, I still remember the plan, I know what to do. I don't think she suspects a damn thing. Oh, did I tell you about what I told her? Yeah, that. I guess it will be a moot point." Within a few seconds of her hanging up, Bonnie heard the drone of a familiar car's engine.
--
The distinctively souped-up Roth SL Coupe pulled up to the Rockwaller residence to pick up a fourth occupant. The newest member of Team Possible climbed into the seat directly behind Ron Stoppable.
"Hey, you think I could see, you know, where we're going?"
"No problem, Bonnie. Ron, I'm driving here, so if you wouldn't mind..."
"Got it, KP. Now, which of these buttons pulls up the navigation system?" Ron began to hit buttons on the center console seemingly at random, which drew a major eye roll from the occupant of the back seat. After about ten seconds during which Ron managed to activate the car's grail-shaped beacon and release a murder of crows out of the trunk, he gave up.
"Would it kill your brothers to label some of these buttons?" Ron asked Kim. In the meantime, Rufus jumped out of Ron's pocket, pushed the button marked "NAV," and joined Bonnie in the backseat.
"Thank you, Rufus," said Bonnie. "It's good to see someone in this car who's literate." She didn't scrutinize the map too much; unbeknownst to the rest of the team, she had seen it already. It looked like an abandoned airfield on the shore of the Gulf of California, at least fifty miles from anywhere.
"Definitely the sort of place that says 'we don't want anyone anywhere near us anytime soon,'" said Ron.
"Which is precisely why we are going there," said Kim. That may have been why Kim, Ron and Rufus thought they were going there, but Bonnie knew otherwise. She had everything planned out to the last millisecond, but the were still many millions of those to go before she would actually have to do anything. For now, all there was for her to do was wait for the sign that her benefactor would leave down there. His instructions were almost too simple for her to believe, but she had to believe; as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't put her plan into place without a lot of help. Before she could sink too deeply into thought, Bonnie was jolted by Kim's driving. Bonnie was about to scold her once and future teammate, but a quick glimpse out the window shut her mouth. Kim was too busy swerving around police cars which seemed to be at a standstill but were actually in hot pursuit.
"Let's leave this schlub to the cops. We've got bigger fish to fry," Bonnie requested of Kim.
"One step ahead of you, Bonnie," Kim said as she pulled in front of the perp and released a spike strip from the back of the car.
"One schlub left for the cops, as per your request." Kim glanced into her rear-view mirror to see Bonnie's reaction.
"Spankin!" Bonnie put on a forced smile and gave Kim two semi-sarcastic thumbs up. Kim realized that was about as close as Bonnie would get to complimenting her in a situation that did not involve Bonnie in peril, so she turned her attention back to the road. Once the police and perp disappeared behind them, Kim fired the rockets and took to the sky. After all, there's only so much desert you can drive through before it all starts to look the same.
--
"Where is this place?" asked Ron, looking downward, seeing nothing but sand, rock, and the occasional creosote bush.
"You really think that an intelligent evil organization would pick a highly visible location for its headquarters?" Bonnie asked, although ranted might be more accurate.
"Well, Drakken..."
"I said intelligent...and organization."
"But what if they wanted to hide in plain sight?" Bonnie thought about this for a moment.
"Why don't you just go back to looking out the window?" Ron did so, and noticed that everything seemed to be bigger than it was just a few seconds ago.
"Um, KP, I think we're losing altitude."
"I know," said the driver. "I'm bringing us in low. Don't want them to see us while they still have a chance to stop us." The Sloth gradually descended until Kim executed a four-point landing on a dirt track somewhere in Sonora. Kim followed the track until it dead-ended at a dried-up riverbed.
"According to Wade's map, their base will be just north of the mouth of this 'river.' It's in an area a lot like we saw in the Canaries, except no volcanos. There will be a lot of caves, and it looks like we're in for a long and rugged hike again. Only this time it's well over a hundred degrees out there, and it's just going to get hotter from there."
"And who's the only one here who's not wearing dark clothes? Oh, that's right, ME!" Bonnie interjected. Before Kim or Ron could respond, Bonnie heard a tiny but distinctive throat-clearing noise. "Oh, right, sorry about that, Rufus. Point is, if I'm going to keep on doing this, I'd like some more say in how things are done around here." Bonnie knew damn well that she wasn't going to keep on doing this, but she needed to make it clear to Kim that she was, without getting herself abandoned nearly two hundred miles from the nearest Club Banana. Kim and Ron were a little surprised at this outburst, mostly because Bonnie did actually raise a valid point.
"We'll survive," Kim declared. "I've had to work in Alaska in winter wearing nothing but my cheerleading uniform, and Ron lost his pants there. Didn't stop us."
"The shrinkage...the shrinkage," whispered Ron. The Sloth continued towards its destination, finally hitting water about ten minutes later. Kim piloted the craft up the coast a short ways until she arrived about as close as she could to where the base was supposed to be. However, she saw nothing. She called up Wade for clarification.
"Wade, I'm not seeing anything here."
"Yeah, shouldn't there be some sort of secret evil base?" asked Ron.
"Hang on, I'm having a few problems with my satellite feed. The base should be on the back side of one of those mountains. It looks like you'll be on foot the rest of the way. Hope you brought lightweight, light-colored clothing."
"One of us did," Bonnie smirked while Kim leered at her.
"Let's just go already. I've got a spare hair dryer/grappling hook in the trunk you can use until Wade can get you all set up. He wanted to have everything ready for you, but you know how villains can be."
"Yes, I do," said Bonnie. "More than Kim would ever know," she thought to herself. Kim, Ron and Bonnie fired their grappling hooks in unison, and much to Kim and Bonnie's surprise, Ron's pants stayed on. However, only Kim was able to get a grip on a ledge.
"Okay, now what do we do?" asked Bonnie. She didn't come all this way, do all these things to be foiled by a malfunctioning grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer.
"Hang on, this is probably strong enough to lift all of us. Ron, Bonnie, attach yourselves to the rope." They each grabbed a carabiner from Ron's pocket and did as Kim recommended. The trip upward was no picnic; Bonnie ended up scraping along the side of the cliff, but at no cost to her new mission outfit, while Ron ended up with Kim and Bonnie on top of him at the top of the cliff. Ordinarily, he would not have objected, but the cactus that he ended up on top of was a source of consternation for him. Fortunately, he rolled the right way off of said cactus; rolling the wrong way would have put the three of them right back where they started. They then detached themselves from one another, dusted themselves off and continued onward and upward. Bonnie, of course knew a lot more about what lay ahead than Kim or Ron did, but that was for her to know and them to...not know.
"Okay, Wade, which way do we go from here?" asked Kim. Wade looked at his scans, then relayed the information to Team Possible.
"It looks like the easiest path is through the pass at two o'clock."
"What should we do until then, Wade?" Ron's question was met with simultaneous slaps to the back of his head. Bonnie turned to look at the pass, and recognized the location from one of the pictures that Phil had sent her earlier. She knew that she had to act fast, or else everything could literally blow up in her face.
"Wait a minute! There could be a trap here," said Bonnie. "Can your Kimmunicator scan for that sort of thing?"
"In its sleep," said Wade over the device. "It'll work best if you can get a little underground...I might even be able to scan the mountain for secret entrances or exits."
"There's a cave over there," Kim pointed next to the pass. "Bonnie, if you wouldn't mind."
"Not at all," said Bonnie. The entrance to the cave was high enough for her to walk in with only a slight duck. As soon as she could get out of Kim's line of sight, Bonnie waited about as long as she imagined a scan would take, pressed a few buttons on her own iPhony, and called out to Kim and Ron.
"You're all clear! I'll catch up with you in a few minutes!" Bonnie's words echoed from the cave, and Kim and Ron began to hike towards the pass.
"Bonnie seems to be taking her sweet time in there," said Ron.
"Trust me, it is not sweet at all," Kim replied. "Just consider yourself lucky we didn't switch minds a week later, otherwise...did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That clicking sound, it sounded like it came from below us," Kim and Ron looked down at their feet, and saw that they were standing on a flat platform buried in a little sand. "It looks like there's something written down there. Rufus, could you dust things off for us?" Rufus hopped out of Ron's pocket and began to sweep away some of the sand around the raised lettering. As the wording was revealed, a look of panic began to creep across Ron's face, then Kim's.
"Bonnie! Call Wade! We've got a problem here!" There was no response. "Bonnie! Where the hell are you?" Rather than a response, Kim merely heard the words that she had just read to herself upon their revelation: "HENCHCO Security Systems Anti-Intruder Device - 100 kg/80 kg trigger - frag range 100 m." Kim and Ron were standing on top of a booby trap.
--
Wade was having all kinds of technical difficulties. For some reason, he was unable to make to contact Kim, Ron or Bonnie. It was like there was some kind of very localized electromagnetic pulse that had knocked out everyone's communications. He was also having satellite issues. For some reason, he could not pick up any real-time pictures of the site, only what appeared to be an archived version, from before there was any development on the site. Problem was, the time/date stamp indicated that the feed was live. He zoomed in a little further, and discovered two familiar figures on the mountain. He put everything together right then and there, but had no way of reaching Kim and Ron, whom he feared could be in a world of trouble. He didn't see Bonnie down there, but he thought nothing of it initially.
--
Bonnie had rehearsed the actions she was currently performing in her head a few times before now, but it was showtime, and everything was going to plan so far. She had a few hundred feet to go before the rendezvous point with Phil, but it felt a lot longer in near-pitch blackness. Bonnie squeezed through a particularly narrow fissure in the rock, and as she made it through, saw the light from a flashlight coming from around the next corner.
"You're late," said Phil.
"Do you want me to do things right, or do you want me to half-ass things and allow loose ends to get in the way of our partnership?"
"Just follow me. The chopper awaits." Bonnie followed her benefactor towards the blinding light of the outside world. "You may want to avert your eyes for a little while. It's going to be bright out there." The warning was quite justified, although the two of them adjusted quickly. Phil climbed into the pilot's seat, while Bonnie entered the back, figuring there would be more room there.
"What are all these boxes?" asked Bonnie.
"Those? Just some military supplies...I should probably get this helicopter back to its rightful owners before they notice it's gone." They lifted off into the Mexican sky. As they emerged from behind the mountains, Bonnie saw Kim and Ron still in the spot where she had directed them.
"They can't stay there forever. They'll just give up and end it all sooner or later. Hey Phil! Fly me over there! I want to say hi to them, and thank them for falling into our little trap!"
"Fair enough." Bonnie quickly wrote a quick note to her classmates, who, upon seeing the helicopter, had began to frantically signal for help. Bonnie tied her note to a chunk of metal and dropped it down to Kim and Ron while the helicopter flew off to points unknown.
--
"Okay, maybe next time, we'll let them know who you are," Ron said as he and Kim watched the helicopter fly off over the horizon."
"Hang on, they dropped something," said Kim. The chunk of metal from above had landed close enough to the booby-trapped trio for Ron to reach it without setting off the last explosion that they would ever feel. Ron unfolded the paper, and immediately regretted that he had done so.
"Sorry I had to jet! Hope you two have a blast! Later, losers!" read the note.
"I think we can safely say that Bonnie will not be joining us again. Anyway, any thoughts on how were going to get out of this?"
"Well, it's well over a hundred degrees, and neither of us can move..."
"But Rufus can!" After Kim's realization, everything else seemed to fall into place. "When Wade realizes he can't reach us, he'll probably pull us up on satellite. Rufus, can you write a distress signal in the ground big enough to see from space?" Rufus thought about this for a second.
"Keys?"
"Rufus! So not the time," said Kim. Rufus shook his head, and repeated his request.
"Keys!" This time Kim understood the naked mole rat.
"Are you sure you can do that?"
"Hnk, I try!" He grabbed on to the end of Kim's grappling gun and just before Kim fired, Rufus thought he saw some more writing on the booby-trap and jumped off. He began to dust off the sand. Once he finished, Ron read out the words that Rufus had exposed.
"In case of accidental activation, please call our toll-free hotline 24/7 for disarming instructions; 1-866-4-NO-BOOM. Kim! I think I know how we can get out of this!" He whispered his plan to Rufus.
"Ron, there's no one within fifty miles of us. Is it really necessary to whisper? What's your plan?"
"Rufus goes down to the Sloth, tells Wade to call the hotline. We follow what I assume will be simple step-by-step instructions, we're home in time for dinner."
"That...actually sounds like a good plan," said Kim, gradually feeling a bit more relieved, albeit a bit sunburnt as well.
"The beauty of this is its simplicity. If the plan gets too complex something always goes wrong," said Ron.
"All right, Rufus. Ready?" The rodent nodded. Kim fired, sending Rufus a few hundred yards. The hook found its way around an appropriate sized rock while Rufus landed nearby. Kim hit the release on the gun, and it shot down across the ground towards Rufus. Once it arrived, he set the recently-installed timer on the gun to allow himself to be shot towards the Sloth. This shot got him within a few feet of the initial ledge; the Sloth was within sight. From there, Rufus anchored the gun at the top of the ledge, and lowered himself to beach level. Only one challenge remained: Getting into the Sloth. Or it would have been a challenge had Wade not installed a way for naked mole rats to enter the vehicle without human assistance.
--
"The beauty of this is its simplicity," said Phil in the general direction of Bonnie, who had re-arranged the crates in an attempt to get a little more comfortable.
"Yeah, leaving Kim and Ron for dead in the middle of a desert. Can't get much simpler than that. One thing, how are you going to claim the reward money?"
"Got it covered. I'll wait for the explosion, circle back, collect some evidence...instant half-billionaire. By the way, wanna bet on when it'll happen? Get closer than me, and I'll give you a million. Should be enough for a down payment on a lair."
"You're on. By the way, what's all this back here?"
"Oh, that. Just some white phosphorus rounds. Must have been left behind by the people from whom I borrowed the chopper without asking. Makes a good smokescreen, but nasty stuff if it gets on your skin." Phil glanced down at the instrument panel. "Hmm, that's not normal," he said to himself.
--
Rufus found one of Kim's old Kimmunicators and called up Wade.
"Rufus, it's good to hear from you. I'll fly this up to Kim and Ron. If you wouldn't mind staying there, we'll get them home faster, OK?" The Kimmunicator took off up the mountain and disappeared from Rufus' sight. It arrived at the scene of the crime in about a minute.
"Well, there's something I haven't seen in almost a year," said Ron.
"Kim, what's the sitch?" asked Wade.
"Bonnie led us into a trap and our normal lines of communication weren't working. We're on top of a land mine, but there is a Henchco number on here; they can probably walk us through disarming it."
"Sounds like you have everything under control. I'll listen in and jump in if I think they're leading you astray." Kim dialed up the hotline, spent about a minute on hold, then got a response."
"Henchco product support; this is Jim, how may I help you?" Kim began to describe her predicament to the representative, but was cut off fairly quickly.
"Ma'am, something came up, and I have to transfer you to one of my superiors. He should be able to help you better than I can. Hold on one second." Kim heard a dial tone, and then a familiar voice."
"Miss Possible, this is Jack Hench, what can I do for you today?"
"We need your help disarming a booby trap that was inadvertently activated," said Kim.
"I was about to ask you to help me find a booby trap that was stolen from one of our warehouses. Small world, isn't it?"
"Quite." Kim was in no mood for small talk.
"I'll just go ahead and walk you through this, then." Kim listened carefully as the CEO described how to disarm his company's device. She had to improvise a bit, as she didn't have all the necessary tools, but working together, they were able to de-activate the mine. Kim and Ron jumped off simultaneously, bracing for the possibility that Jack had suckered them into a false sense of security. When five, ten, twenty seconds passed and nothing happen, they emerged from their crouches and began to head back down the mountain with all deliberate speed.
"Well, we're out of our predicament, but there's still the issue of the whole Bonnie sitch." Ron said as the two of them reached the first cliff. Rufus saw Kim and Ron coming down in one piece, and happily fired Kim's grappling gun upwards. He let the gun pull itself up to the two recent high school graduates, allowing them to use it to lower themselves to the level of their ride home.
"Wade, are you picking anything up on radar?"
"What should I be looking for?"
"A helicopter with a traitor on board," spat Kim.
"I'll keep an eye out. Do you want me to get Global Justice involved?"
"I probably should...putting me alone with Bonnie would get messy."
--
Wade would not find that helicopter on a radar screen. Burning heaps of rubble aren't visible on most radar systems. But he was able to spot it on one of his satellite feeds. He wasn't sure how to break the news to Kim and Ron, especially without having all of the facts in. So he turned to a mutual friend.
"Dr. Director, we have a situation."
"Care to elaborate?" Wade told her everything he knew about the day's events. The trap Bonnie had set, apparently with some help from...someone.
"I'll have a team down there in about an hour. When should I get in touch with Kim?"
"When you have a definite status on Bonnie's whereabouts, health, et cetera."
"Roger."
--
A few pieces of the helicopter were still smoldering by the time a pair of Global Justice agents arrived on the scene. No one expected to find anyone alive, and indeed, they found the pilot dead in what used to be the front section of the chopper, his neck apparently broken fairly cleanly. The agent who found this body figured his death had been more or less instantaneous.
"Lucky bastard," he muttered. His attention turned to the back section of the helicopter, about fifty feet away from the front.
"We've got another one back here!" This one was in far worse condition than the pilot. They found her in a fetal position just outside the main pile. Her limbs were a patchwork of deep burns of varying degrees, and a short trail led from the debris to the body. Unlike the pilot, she had survived the initial impact and was apparently conscious for a frighteningly long time afterward. The second agent did a double take when he thought he saw the body twitch slightly.
"The heat must be getting to me," he thought. But when he heard a raspy gasp and saw his partner rushing to the young woman's side, he realized that he wasn't nuts. She was alive...somehow.
--
A. N.: Well, isn't this a pleasant way to wrap up the main part of the story? It looks like there will just be an epilogue to tie up some loose ends. Thanks again to everyone who has been reading and reviewing.