Blinders and Betrayals

"I'm very disappointed in you, young man."

He's disappointed in me? Jimmy thought furiously as he struggled against his bonds just as furiously. It was no use. The ropes and knots were too tight. Maybe his Dad or Uncle Jim would have had the strength and cunning to free themselves in this situation. He didn't. He had also been stripped of every gadget or chemical concoction on his person with ruthless efficiency before being tied up.

"Your father had such a good head for Chemistry. Self-taught, too, I believe," Professor Niebhausen continued. "Such a waste to spend so much of his life running around on his silly little adventures instead of devoting himself to science."

The professor might have been a little blurry around the edges, but that didn't stop Jimmy from trying to glare at him as hard as he could.

"If my Dad and Uncle Jim were still alive, they'd be kicking your . . . posterior!" Jimmy spat. He'd already spent several minutes in happy contemplation of just what a 'posterior whupping' Uncle Jim and his father would have delivered too.

The professor tutted and waggled a reproaching finger at his bound captive.

"But they are not alive, Mr. Gordon! And you may not be soon, if our Mr. Ratch has his way. That was a very foolish thing you did!"

Trying to defend myself, you mean? Jimmy didn't ask the question out loud. There was no point in wasting his breath arguing with the man who'd caused his peril to begin with.

What a nightmare! Jimmy felt ashamed of how easily he'd been gulled by this former mentor. He'd thought he had a good relationship with his university Chemistry teacher. Their meeting in the street the day before had been more coincidental bad luck for Jimmy and his sister, but hadn't this villain known just how to take advantage of it? Professor Niebhausen dangled out in front of them the very sort of invitation he'd known Jimmy wouldn't be able to resist. Baited like a fish . . . .

"Our employer is rather upset as well," the professor scolded. "Mr. Ratch will be permanently blind in that eye, you realize. I had a difficult time persuading our employer that this was an accident."

As if Jimmy cared about any of that right now! In fact, it was an accident. When Jimmy had been grabbed by the man named Ratch at the professor's laboratory, he'd tried to hit his assailant in the forehead with the dazzler ball and blind him temporarily, like the fake 'machine demon' he'd used one on during their train tunnel 'test' weeks ago. But Ratch had yanked Jimmy hard right at that moment and the dazzler ball stuck directly to Ratch's left eye and had burned rather than 'dazzled.'

At that, the dazzler nearly succeeded in saving Jimmy. Ratch had screamed and let him go while trying to tear the burning, sparkling ball off. Jimmy didn't waste any time bolting for the exit from his treacherous mentor's lab. He would have made it to safety if the door hadn't been blocked just then by the figure Jimmy dreaded most of all – the man with the red hat and a scar running the length of his jaw. One punch from that grim nemesis was enough to send Jimmy reeling into darkness. He'd awakened in this strange place to find himself being stripped of anything he might have found useful for another escape and then being trussed up worse than a stuffed turkey. His head ached, his bound limbs ached, and he didn't need a lecture from the traitor named Niebhausen to know how much trouble he was in.

And what about Daisy? What had happened to her? Jimmy was anxious to know her fate, but he didn't dare ask. He wouldn't risk drawing attention to her while in the hands of such a hostile crew. There was no telling what they might do to get revenge for the loss of Ratch's eye.

Not that Jimmy was particularly sorry about that loss, accident or no. Ratch was a bad, dangerous character, as bad as the man in the red hat. Jimmy's encounter with him had lasted maybe a minute, but that had been long enough. Ratch radiated viciousness, and he spoke with a weaselly nasal voice and dragged his foot. Mandy and Tem had described one of the unseen men who'd tried to burn them back in Chicago as talking with a weaselly voice and dragging his foot. Now Jimmy knew what that man looked like. No – Jimmy didn't regret wounding the awful creep who'd tried to kill his sister and brother-in-law and two other agents. Not one bit. As for the man in the red hat, there weren't enough dazzler balls in the world . . . .

Or any more that Jimmy had been keeping on his person. That might be for the best. The last thing he wanted was for one of his inventions to fall into the hands of the enemy, especially if Niebhausen was working for them. The professor could have dissected one of those dazzler balls to figure out how it was made, but he'd never be able to do it with the tiny traces of residue left behind from a burned one. It was bad enough that the enemy now had Jimmy's mini-ornithopter. At least the professor shouldn't be able to figure that device out. Niebhausen was strictly a chemist, not a mechanic. But Niebhausen wanted to know more about the dazzlers. Jimmy wondered if that was the only reason he was still alive.

"Can't you see I'm trying to help you, young man?" the professor asked.

You sure have a funny way of showing it! Jimmy wanted to say. But there was nothing funny about this situation at all. He was definitely going to die, no matter what Professor Niebhausen implied. He knew the professor was involved, he now knew Ratch's name – last name, anyway – and appearance. He'd seen the man with the red hat. He'd been brought to some kind of hideout they used. He knew too much. There was no way they'd risk letting him go, or letting him live either. His only hope now was that Tem and Mandy would find some way to rescue him. It was all a question of whether he could last that long.

"Pretending to ignore me doesn't help your situation," the professor tutted again. "I know you are very intelligent – so use your head! There is no need to go running around on silly little adventures! Our employer has access to unlimited amounts of funding! You could spend your entire life in the worthy cause of scientific research, advancing mankind's understanding of the universe. Isn't that adventure enough?"

The professor wasn't just being insincere – there was a genuine zealous gleam in his eyes as he said these words, and possibly believed them. Research over everything else, pursuit of scientific discovery without any regard for what it was being used for. Knowledge sought no matter the price.

"Your employer makes weapons," Jimmy stated, gritting his teeth in order to resist the urge to spit. "Your employer killed my mother and my Uncle Jim."

"It is regrettable," the professor conceded. "But it is in the past – done with. We need to think of the future! Imagine all the things mankind could be capable of when he is truly in control of the world around him! What wonders he could accomplish!"

Regrettable? Bound as he was, Jimmy managed to lunge his body forward enough to make Niebhausen take a step back. In his sheer rage he would have bitten the professor if he could.

"I'd rather die than work for you!" Jimmy shouted, more furious than he could ever remember being in his entire life.

"That can be arranged," a deep voice rumbled behind him. Jimmy twisted and turned his head as best he could. From a sideways vantage point on the floor, he saw the man in the red hat enter the room he and the professor were in, with Ratch – now wearing an eye patch – following close behind.

So this was it. Now he was going to die.

"I am not nearly finished with him yet," Professor Niebhausen objected.

"Neither am I," Ratch leered unpleasantly while pulling out a bowie knife.

And it looked like it wasn't going to be a quick death either. Damn. Jimmy was terrified, but he didn't want to let these goons know that. Even if he felt like crying right now, he didn't want to let them see him cry. Uncle Jim would never show fear in a situation like this. His father . . . his father would be making jokes at a time like this! Maybe that was what he ought to do. He was Artemus Gordon's son after all. He should try to be as brave as his father and Uncle Jim when staring death in the face.

The menacing man in the red hat leaned over to grab the prisoner by the shirt collar and Jimmy attempted the first joke that came to his mind.

"Knock knock."

"What?" the big man stared down at him in confusion.

"No, no," Jimmy said. "You're supposed to ask who's –" Whoops! Wrong kind of humor! Dying wittily was going to be harder than he thought.

"I still have a use for him," the professor argued again. "There is much useful information that he could tell us."

The man in the red hat halted in mid-motion to consider. The look he gave Jimmy was as cold as a snowman's heart. He dumped the boy back onto the floor.

"See what you can do with him," the hatted figure told Niebhausen. He made a restraining gesture as Ratch started to move forward, knife in hand.

"Not now," the scar-jawed man said. "We might have some use for him yet."

Ratch snarled, and his one remaining eye glared pure venom at the young prisoner, but he didn't defy the jaw-scarred man who was obviously boss around here. Jimmy felt a momentary tingle of relief, followed by another spirit-long plunge into despair. The only remaining use he could be – he hoped – was as a hostage, and he certainly didn't want to be that. He didn't want these evil so-and-sos to use him as a shield against Mandy and Tem. To be used as a lure to trap them would be even worse. And he just had to pray that whatever Professor Niebhausen or Ratch planned to do to him, he would be able to meet the torture and death bravely and not give the enemy anything – no satisfaction. No secrets. He didn't know if he had that kind of courage or not, but finding out was going to be very, very unpleasant.

Think, Gordon, think! he implored himself. If he didn't have the presence of mind to laugh in the face of danger, or at least come up with some witty repartee or a gadget or two, what more could he do? What else would his father have done when captured? Well, lie like a rug, for one thing. That was a rude way of thinking about it, but no agent had a greater way with con artistry, guile and trickery than his father in a clinch, from what he'd been told. It came naturally to a talented actor, which his Dad unquestionably was. Artemus Gordon was able to gull just about any criminal out there according to the stories. He'd even gotten the better of Dr. Loveless on more than a couple of occasions. Maybe that's what Jimmy had to do. Figure out a way to beat the enemy not by joining them exactly, but . . . maybe by being just cooperative enough that he could lull them into making some careless mistake, perhaps? Maybe get them to untie Jimmy and take their eyes off of him just long enough for the youngest Gordon to do some real damage? Could he do that?

He wished he'd gotten this idea sooner. He couldn't be blamed for letting his emotions get the better of him, but "I'd rather die than work for you" was a pretty hard stance to talk your way down from. He'd have to make his sudden change of heart sound believable if he was to have any chance of success at all. Think, think, think . . . .

The man in the red hat stalked out of the room, taking Ratch with him. Good. Jimmy could concentrate his energies on conning Professor Niebhausen, though Niebhausen was clearly no slouch at doing his own conning. There really had been what Jimmy thought was a mentor mentee relationship between them once, and Niebhausen was oh so eager to have Jimmy's cooperation. The more eager a person is, Jimmy reasoned, the more he could be made to see what he wanted to see, or hear what he wanted to hear. Painful decisions had to be made, actions undertaken, and concern for his personal pride and dignity couldn't be allowed to interfere. What might most underage individuals do when presented with the horrifying scenario Jimmy now found himself trapped in? Jimmy thought he knew. It was what he'd felt like doing anyway.

"nnnnnn . . . ." he mumbled, twisting again and putting his head down against the floor, exactly like a scared, too-big-for-his-britches child who didn't want to let a grownup see him cry. He could keep all the bravado he wanted inside himself, as long as he didn't let any of it show on the outside. He didn't really have to act. Thinking of his Mom's death, of Uncle Jim's, of his own capture and humiliation, he wouldn't be faking tears. He let himself have the real thing. The sobs started in low and he did his best to muffle and swallow them, just like he would have before deciding on this course of action. He could hear Professor Niebhausen stepping in closer.

Are you buying this, you slime wad? In his mind, he'd have called the professor a paramecium, but that would be an insult – to paramecia. Now this man he had once admired didn't even rate amoeba. Jimmy tried grinding his forehead into the floor a little harder and allowed his quiet sobs to become just a fraction louder. Although his tears were real enough, on the inside he began to feel an odd sense of calm. He was doing something. That meant he wasn't completely, completely helpless yet. Wasn't that what his father had often told him? You can always do something.

"It doesn't have to be this way, you know," the professor said. "You don't really want to die, do you?"

Still with his face pressed and turned away from Niebhausen, Jimmy shook his head only a little. Maybe this wasn't going to be as hard as he thought. He didn't have to play some strange character, after all. He just had to play himself.

You baited me. Now I am going to bait you.

The hardest part was going to be choking down his own hatred and anger while pretending to play along. He'd never been hot tempered like his sister or Grandma Prudence, but this was going to test him to his limits.

"Think of the future!" the professor exhorted. "Think of the discoveries you could yet accomplish!"

Jimmy didn't turn his face toward the professor, but he could hear a note of zeal creeping back into Niebhausen's voice, trying to sound persuasive. Yes, the man was buying it. Jimmy allowed himself one slightly louder sob, then another, and then he let the whole dam break loose, weeping uncontrollably, just like when he, Tem and Mandy had stumbled away from the smoking hospital ruins. He allowed himself to be the grieving, shocked sixteen year old orphan again. He cried so hard he almost threw up. But when he managed to get his tears and his shaking under control, the inner, calmer feeling was still there. And Niebhausen must have thought that all he was still was a gullible, frightened teenager who might do anything – anything! – to escape Ratch's knife.

Niebhausen had said nothing while waiting for his former pupil to cry himself out. But as the sobbing stopped and Jimmy attempted to wriggle himself into a kneeling position, he felt the professor's hand on his shoulder, tugging him upright. As the man stared into his face, Jimmy did his red-eyed and sniffling best to look less like the near-adult he was and more like the shy eleven year old child who'd been Niebhausen's student. It would be easy enough for the professor to think him a harmless naïf. Jimmy had left his Secret Service identification back on the train, as what sane adult would have accepted that he was an agent anyway?

"There, there now. Finished?" the professor asked, taking out a handkerchief and wiping Jimmy's eyes with more efficiency than sympathy. Jimmy nodded and sniffled a tiny bit, so that the professor held the handkerchief out and let Jimmy blow his nose into it.

"I . . . I don't want to die." Jimmy didn't have to lie or fake the nervous quaver in his voice.

"Of course you don't." Professor Niebhausen stood back up and smiled down at his former student, adult to child once again. "And you don't have to! That is what I am trying to make you realize! You can have a long and healthy life, a life full of boundless possibilities!"

Boundless, eh? Jimmy wouldn't mind being boundless right now, but he was on the right track. Acting might be the key to his liberation yet, or at least the key to a chance to sabotage these nasties.

"Wh-what would I have to do?"

Niebhausen beamed at him.

"Why, just what you wanted to do with me before tonight!" the professor exclaimed. "Work with me in my lab! Engage in new scientific endeavors! It is obvious you have already created some triumphs of your own to share with us, and given time I could show you my own. We would collaborate. I could assist you with putting your father's notes in order and making sure he gets credit for his work too."

Aha! So that's another thing he's after – my father's work. As if I would give you that, you . . . you chamberpot!

"But Ratch is . . . is going to kill me!" Jimmy shivered. That didn't require any acting on his part either.

"Not if I don't permit it." The professor drew himself up haughtily. "We may both answer to our employer, but I outrank Mr. Ratch. He will obey my orders."

Jimmy wasn't nearly as confident as Niebhausen clearly was that he could call the shots with a vicious creature like Ratch, but he hoped he'd been successful in buying himself some more time anyway. Mandy and Tem must surely be looking for him by now, must surely be wondering where he was . . . .

Jimmy suddenly felt tired, as if the weight of the whole world was leaning in on him. His headache was fading, but the rest of his anatomy was an uncomfortable mixture of numb and agonized because of the ropes and bruises from his struggle. Nor was Professor Niebhausen going to be lulled into untying him right away. While Jimmy struggled to maneuver himself into a more comfortable sitting position, albeit with his head still bowed in abject humility, the professor left the room, telling Jimmy to think a bit more about what the professor was offering him. Jimmy didn't need more time to think about that. He would never truly cooperate with his mother's and uncle's killers. But he would play for a different kind of time, a chance to do whatever he could to escape, to foil his kidnappers in any way that he could. If it took his own life to expose or thwart these men, so be it. He hoped it wouldn't come to that. He hoped Mandy and Tem would find and rescue him if he could not rescue himself. He knew they would try. He just had to hope he could hold out long enough . . . .

Please, please! He mentally cried out to them. Get me out of this place!