Chapter 6: Rodents In Disguise

In the evening of the same day, the Rescue Rangers plus Allan found themselves in an alley near the self-proclaimed Greatest Thief in the World's makeshift residence. They had just arrived there from their stop at the Metropolitan Squirrel Squad Headquarters where they had explained their plan to Chief Derek Chesnutt who had had little choice than to accept it, albeit not quite gladly, and now it was time for its first part to go ahead. Everyone was prepared, especially one of them. In particular, while Zipper was on the lookout, Allan and the other male Rangers couldn't help but take glance after glance at a certain blond mouse in a certain skimpy red dress.

"I still can't believe it," the mouse said. "Gadget, I can't believe you refuse to wear this dress. It has to look as great on you as it looks on me."

Her sister replied, "Well, I don't feel too comfortable in it. I'm achally more than glad to have you here as a Rescue Ranger, for now I don't have to wear it anymore. You can have it if you want."

"You mean... Awwwwww, Gadget, that's way too nice of you. Thank you!" Gadget had rarely seen LaWahini so happy. "Hey, you may still borrow it."

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I'll need it anymore, now that I've found someone who's rather the type to wear it than me. Besides, the disguise this dress belongs to involves make-up. I don't like wearing make-up, while you wear it all the time. You and this dress are a perfect match, believe me. Sparky, what do you think?"

The lab rat looked up and down his mouse companion. After struggling for words for a moment, he said, "Allow me to say this. You're looking gorgeous, LaWahini."

"Aw, thanks, Spa-" LaWahini interrupted her talking when she realized what Sparky had just said. Her eyes widened, and a smile grew all over her face which made her resemble her sister even more. "Sparky, you remember my name!"

She was about to hug him when he stepped back. "Wait a second before you touch me." He held his hands close to a metal signpost and lit up a small part of the alley with tiny bolts of lightning shooting from his hands to the metal pipe until all electricity had flown out of his body.

"It's okay now?" LaWahini asked. Sparky nodded, and she gave him a strong hug which he returned as gently as he could.

While they were holding each other tight and giving the impression they'd never let each other go again, Zipper came dashing up the alley and alerted the waiting rodents that Francis was on his way.

"Okay," Chip ordered, "everybody on their places! LaWahini? LaWahini!"

LaWahini lifted her head off Sparky's chest and opened her eyes. "Huh?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but this is your cue. Francis is coming."

She pried herself off the lab rat. "I'm ready if you are..." Walking past Chip, she gave him a smirk and a wink. "...Chop." She headed on down the alley while everyone else hid.

The day was more than unpleasant for Francis. He and his two goons had been all around Manhattan to track down the missing diamond. Their best option had been the first to fail, and if he knew that this first option was after the whole Clutchcoin Collection now, too, he would have reconsidered returning to his human employer.

"Guys," he complained, "this day was a total waste. And I doubt tomorrow will be any better. The diamond could be anywhere by now."

"Don't worry," Moe tried in vain to cheer him up, "we'll find it someday."

"Someday takes me too long! Besides, what do you expect to happen? Do you think someone will come and just lay the stone into my hands or what?"

An amazing sight distracted Francis from his anger. In the alley they were passing by stood a breath-taking blond mouse in a red dress, shining in the gritty alley and luring him like a siren. He hadn't seen such a sight for many years now, however, he remembered a mouse girl that looked just the same. He also remembered who this mouse girl was and into which trouble she and her friends got him, but despite all this, he stopped immediately.

LaWahini motioned him to come nearer. "Hiya, cute stuff," she recited a quote from Foxglove she had heard a couple of times since they both joined the Rangers.

"Do I happen to know you?" he asked uneasily. She couldn't be the same Rescue Ranger mouse as back then, she would look much older if she was, he figured.

"Is that so important?" she countered his question. "What's more important is that I've got something for you." Again, she gave him signs to approach which he finally did. As Louie and Moe were about to follow him, she stopped them. "Uh-uh-uh-uh. Your friends stay back. It's just you and me."

"You've heard her. Stay where you are. I'll be right back." Francis wasn't sure about how long "right" would be, but somehow he couldn't resist the mouse in front of him, so he went after her to whatever would await him.

LaWahini did her best to keep him focused on what was the most important, and that was her. As she walked along the alley with her hips seductively swinging, she figured that practicing with the high heels all afternoon was worth the time and the effort.

And she did it well. Francis forgot everything around him as they proceeded up the alley. And so it was too late for him to react when he noticed a strong arm wrapping itself around him and another one pressing a wet piece of cloth into his face.

He heard a voice with a strong Australian accent say, "G'night, mate," before his surroundings went darker than they already were.

Chip's head poked out from behind a cardboard box. "Got him, Monty?"

"Yeah, Chipper, 'e's sleepin' like a li'l angel. If that stuff's enough ta knock me out, it should work on this bloke with no problems."

"Monty!" he heard Gadget shout out.

"Sorry, lass. Couldn't resist."

"Good," Chip ordered, "now bring him here so we can switch roles. Allan?"

A few minutes later, Allan stood in the alley in his brother's trademark spy-like outfit. It was practically impossible to tell any difference. "Fellows," he said, "this plan is crazy. It's not that I don't like it, but it's crazy."

"If you wanted a straight and reasonable plan," Dale told him, "you should've asked the Mets to help ya."

Chip grinned. "Allan, you can be lucky that it's not Dale's plan."

"Hey! I resemble that remark!"

Allan was getting impatient. "Alright, guys, give me the gem, and let's get this done."

Foxglove handed him the diamond she had taken care of all the time, and he left for the street. Chip watched him go, then he gave Zipper a sign. "Follow him and see if everything's going ahead according to the plan. Take care that nobody sees you."

The fly saluted and took off after the rat.

Chip felt a hand touch his back and saw the mouse belonging to that hand step up next to him. "You don't trust him, Chip?" Gadget asked.

"I do trust him, Gadget, at least for now. But I've put too much trust in others in the past. And even if he follows the plan, who can assure us that everything else will? We can't neglect anything that's uncertain in this case. Fourteen gem stones are a wholly different league than a kidnapped kitten."

"I see your point, Chip."

"But we've got all the aces. He can't escape with the diamond. I mean, we've got a whole air force here, and he knows that. Besides, Zipper's eyes are on him."

"Still, if you said something's strange about him, I wouldn't deny that. Have you noticed his sudden eagerness?"

"Yes... it's almost as if there's more that's driving him than just a desire to bring some stolen diamonds back to their owner. Now that you mention it... usually rodents don't come to us when they found out something has been stolen from a human they don't even know. And I've got some serious doubts that Allan has ever met Roy Clutchcoin."

Allan hurried down the alley, firmly clutching the diamond in his hands. Chip's plan was unusual, but he actually didn't expect anything too different from such a colorful team of crime-fighters who, despite their almost 20-year experience, were practically amateurs and randomly cobbled together. And this plan fulfilled his wishes. That was what counted for him. 'Francis, big bro,' he thought by himself, 'you'll curse the day I was born with your looks. Remember how I mimicked you when we were kids? Back then it was fun for me, but now it's serious. My payback time has come!'

Francis' two goons were still patiently standing where they were and waiting. 'At least they're faithful,' Allan thought as he saw them, 'even if Francis doesn't even deserve that.' "I'm back," he announced his or rather his brother's return loudly. "And look what I've got here!" He showed them the diamond.

"Wow... what's that?" Louie asked.

"A light bulb, you moron! Geez, it's of course the 14th diamond!"

"Where've you found it?"

"Not at all. The mouse in the red dress gave it to me. She said it doesn't matter where she's got it from. And to be honest, I don't mind as long as I've got it. C'mon, let's bring it to the other gems."

Allan went ahead towards the wooden wall, his brother's lackeys following him like a couple of sheep. He wasn't sure what would await him on the other side of the hole as he had watched Francis only on the street side. But as long as he looked and acted like his brother, everything would be okay.

Holding the gem as though he guarded it with his life, he stepped through the hole and saw for the first time what hid behind the wall. Where a building used to be, there was a large RV standing. It used to be one of the expensive, luxurious sort on tandem rear axles, but when Allan saw it, it gave him a quite run-down impression. 'Seems like this guy used to make a fine living out of being a thief. Well, how shall he ever be caught as long as he's having rats who commit the actual thefts for him?'

A mechanical trigger in the ground made a bell chime. The rear door of the RV opened, and a bald man all dressed in black stepped out. He was pleased to see Allan whom he mistook for Francis, too, and the other two rats, and even more to see the gem. "Ah, my rats are back. And you've found my diamond!" The human took the stone from Allan's hands. "The Clutchcoin Collection is finally complete again! I'm curious about where you got it from, but you couldn't tell me even if you wanted." He went to a gate in the wooden wall and opened it. "I'm going to Las Vegas now to deliver the stones to the professor at the Versailles Palace Casino. Expect me to be back here in a week, you'll receive your reward and new orders when the deal is done." After saying these words, he got onto the driver's seat of the RV and drove away, only stopping to shut the gate.

Allan looked through the hole and watched him leave. 'Humans can be weird. He talks to us, supposes we understand whatever he says, but believes we can't answer him. Well, he'd better not know we can.' "Guys," he addressed to the other two rats, "I'm leaving for now. We'll meet again later."

"Where are you going, boss?"

"What do you think? I'm seeing that mouse again. We're having a date tonight. Bye!"

He left the two clueless crooks behind as he went out onto the sidewalk. 'That's one advantage of them being such retards. They don't ask for details, so I don't have to think of too detailed excuses. That is, apart from the word 'date', this wasn't even a lie.' He couldn't help but grin. 'This human even told me everything I needed to know. It's getting almost too easy.'

Zipper was relieved to see Allan come back. Like Chip, he had expected a lot to occur, from Allan simply running away with the gem to something bad happening to him that would ruin the plan. Satisfied with the outcome of the recently completed phase, he flew back to the other Rangers and interrupted a discussion which, as the few bits he heard told him, was about Allan and the case. He informed his friends that the rat was on his way back, and the Rangers either stayed quiet or changed the subject.

The next to return was Allan himself. He gave the Rangers two thumbs up. "He swallowed the bait! Not only that, he let me know where he's going."

"You mean he's leaving town?" Chip asked.

"Yup. He's heading for Las Vegas, Nevada. He said he's gonna meet some professor or so at a place called Versailles Palace."

Monty started thinking. "Versailles Palace... right, that was that insanely oversized an' overpriced gamblin' casino with two big concert 'alls an' a built-in luxury 'otel with a 'ole lotta stars. I saw somethin' about it on TV some years ago. The owner's a bloke who believes 'e's a straight descendant o' Louis XIV or so."

Tammy was impressed. "Have you seen it yourself, Monty?"

"Nah, the one time I've been ta Vegas was long ago, long before I joined the Rangers. I traveled most o' the world on the seas, an' it's impossible ta sail ta Vegas by ship."

"Gadget, didn't Mom say she was in Las Vegas when the Versailles Casino was built?" LaWahini remembered how her and Gadget's mother told them about her odyssey across the USA when she was on the run from Van Thomas.

"Yes, indeed... she said that the local rodents made sure they'd have their spaces and installations in the building before it was even completed. By day, it was the humans who worked on it, and by night, it was the animals. She said the whole structure was perfect for rodent installations, even better than the UN building with the RAS Head Office in it. And she heard of a large high-security vault the humans installed in its basement."

"The vault... right, they talked 'bout that one on TV, too," Monty confirmed. "It shall 'ave some thousand lockers an' a set o' security systems that are second ta none."

Tammy chuckled. "Well, in case we'd have to break into that thing, we've got an experienced burglar among us, haven't we?" She earned an unmistakable glare from LaWahini.

"Alright, everybody," Chip called out, "let's go back to the Headquarters for today. Tomorrow, we'll pack our cases, we'll take a bit more with us since we might need field headquarters, and catch a plane to Las Vegas. This guy still won't be there before us with his RV, even if he drove all the way non-stop."

"Wowie-zowie!" Dale was about to pounce Chip with all his joy. "We're really goin' to Vegas, Chipper? Really?"

"Yes, Dale, really. Oh, and Dale—no gambling while we're there."

"Aw shoot, I thought that's what Vegas is all about."

"By the way, I almost forgot," Chip said and turned to Allan. "Who is this man we'll have to deal with? Can you describe him, just to be sure?"

"Hm... tall and slim, bald head, pale, long mustache, dark clothes, and talks with an Eastern European or Russian accent."

"Sounds very much like our man."

"And he calls himself the Greatest Thief in the World," Allan added.

"Greatest Thief in the World? That sounds even more like our man."

"Your man? Right, you said you met him before. How, if I may ask?"

"He used to call himself the Greatest Spy in the World. He tried to steal the blueprints of a brand-new armed vehicle and then the vehicle itself before he was defeated by our very own super spy Double-0 Dale and sent to jail." Chip slapped his friend on the back. "Looks like he's in a new business since the Cold War is over."

"Jail? My brother spent a lot of time around a prison some years ago. I've always been sure he was working for this human all that time."

"Your brother Francis already worked for him when he was the Greatest Spy in the World."

"Yes, he and Francis had already been working together for some years when you had him busted. Francis always felt like standing in the shadow of our evil-doing oldest brother, Rupert..."

"Also known as Rat Capone," Gadget interrupted him with a hint of disgust in her voice.

Allan went on, not minding the interruption, "So when this spy, as you call him, was looking out for rats to help him with his espionage, Francis let himself be caught and taught some spying techniques. And since then, they've been working together. First as spies, then as thieves. Huh, come to think I didn't need any human help to spy after him and find all this out."

"And if we're successful," Chip announced, "then not only will the Clutchcoin Collection be returned to its owner, but this crook won't be able to work with your brother anymore for a long time."

"Well, I hope you'll be successful." 'Indeed, I do.' "Let me express that it was an honor to work with you, Rescue Rangers," Allan said as he shook Chip's hand, "and that I'm thankful for you taking over this case."

"We had to do it anyway, Allan, one could say that LaWahini brought it home to us." Chip gave the other Rangers a sign to get on board the two aircraft. "Allan, perhaps we'll meet again when we're back from Vegas. So long!"

"Good luck to all of you!" Allan shouted as Rangerplane and Rangerwing rose up into the sky. 'And see you soon,' he thought.