Chapter 11: The Insider

The nine Rescue Rangers gathered in the biggest of the three tents, and Todd joined them. He was not little excited about being able to help the legendary rescuing and crime-fighting team from the East Coast, and that even in his hometown. In fact, helping other animals in real life was already something unusual and exciting to him. While the Rangers sat down around a table, Todd remained standing.

As the leader, Chip opened the conference. "Everyone here? Good. First, as you may have noticed, we've got a guest. Rescue Rangers, this is Todd. Todd, these are the Rescue Rangers. I take it you've figured that I'm Chip, and you've met Gadget and Sparky as I've seen. So, here are the other original Rangers," he indicated the members one by one, "Dale, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. And apart from Sparky, the new members are Foxglove, Tammy, and Gadget's twin sister LaWahini."

Todd was a bit overwhelmed. "Um, nice to meet you all. And thank you for letting me join your team meeting."

"Oh, we might have to thank you later on. But let's first hear what Zipper found out."

Zipper flew and landed in the middle of the table and recounted what he had witnessed, and Monty repeated what he said for those who had difficulties understanding him. "Zipper says we can be glad that checkin' in to the Versailles Palace 'otel takes ferever, otherwise 'e wouldn't've caught our two crooks in time. ... Now comes the interestin' part. The gems won't be 'anded out ta Nimnul before the day after tamorrow, Zipper says 'e 'asn't found out why. Instead, they've been carried inta the Palace's own vault in the basement an' locked away safely."

"Which locker number?" Todd demanded. A few Rangers turned their heads.

Zipper answered, and Monty translated his words. "305."

"Ah, I think I know where in the vault that one is."

Now all Rangers turned their heads. Was he just posing or telling the truth? "Todd," Chip asked, "you know the vault? Have you been down there?"

"I've been down there when it was built, yes, but no more since it's in use."

"Now you've got us curious. Please tell us more."

"I'd love to, but it'd be a long story. How much time do you have?"

"More than enough. We can't act right now anyway."

"Well," Todd started, "to understand what I've got to tell you, I need to go all the way back to my childhood and indeed tell you the story of my life. I was born and raised in the back rooms of a pet shop in some small town here in Nevada. I take it you know that white mice who grow up under such circumstances usually don't have a bright future to look forward to. Some of us end up in laboratories, some of us even only serve as reptile food. I never found out what happened to all my brothers and sisters and the other white mice sold in that shop. Rumors were going around, we did know what fates might await us, sometimes other animals such as birds or other rodents came to an open window and told us what they had seen. Only a few of us were allowed to stay, mostly for the purpose of breeding new mice to sell. It was almost an industrial production of mice.

"Then one day eight years ago, I was almost grown up, this guy came past the shop and saw us mice in our cages in the window. I mean, what's the point in putting living lizard food on display? He stood and looked at us, and then he entered the shop. A typical human geek, that's what I'd describe him, and there are certainly not few geeks who've got fancy pets that live on rodents. So he asked the clerk if he could buy a mouse." Todd chuckled. "It sorta sounded as if he was in a computer shop. You know, 'Which brand, optical or with a ball, wireless or not, how many buttons,' all that. Anyway, the clerk led him to us and had him choose one, and he chose me.

"I'll never forget the sad look in my parents' eyes when the clerk scooped me up and took me out of the cage. I was their fourth child to be sold. The clerk asked that guy whether he wanted a small cage to carry me. No, he said, he wanted to carry me like this, with no cage. First I wondered why, did he really wanna save that handful of dollars a cage would cost, did he have his hungry anaconda in his car parked around the corner, or what was going on? Then he opened his hand. He wanted to hold me. After he had flipped out the few bucks I cost, not quite enough for my self-confidence as I may add, the clerk put me onto his hand. I was his now. He slowly heaved me up and smiled at me. I ask you folks, what do you think, how many humans smile at their pet food, or at a defenseless little rodent they're gonna perform gruesome experiments on? I just sat still on his hand, and he stroked me a few times before he placed me onto his shoulder. I'll never forget his words. 'Now we just need a name for that little guy.' I already had a name then, but humans usually don't care. Neither did I then, at least not for our animal conventions, and so I stood up and whispered the name my parents gave me into his ear. Of course, he did not take into consideration that I could speak, but still that name went into his mind. A moment of thinking later, he took me off his shoulder, gave me another smile, and said, 'Todd. Do you like that name, little friend?' I almost told him that I've heard cooler names, but that it's okay, because it's mine.

"This guy did buy a cage then. But it was so big and comfy that I could expect enjoying my life in it rather than just being locked away and kept from escaping, and so expensive with all its accessories that I could expect not being sacrificed for whatever lethal purpose. To put it in a nutshell, I was saved. My parents were sad that I had to go, but glad that my life was to go on in a nice home. My owner lived a few blocks away, and he walked all the way there, my cage in one hand and me in the other. The reactions of the other humans who saw us were kinda funny, especially those of the females. Some screamed in panic, others found me cute and asked if they could pet me. I enjoyed the attention and being referred to as cute.

"When we arrived at his compartment, I realized why he had bought me, and what sort of guy that was. He gave the appearance of your standard geek at the pet shop, but he was living the life of a downright nerd. Computers, probably computer parts to build more computers from, electronics, books about all this, standard sci-fi literature, used coffee cups and empty cans that used to contain caffeinated beverages, it was a wonder that he had some free space for my cage. It's not that I had a bad life with him, he cared for me really well. But he didn't care as well for himself, I actually felt pity for him. Especially after a couple of days. He was a home worker, that is, he spent his working time at his home computer. And he spent most of his spare time there, too. He let me move freely on his computer desk, and so I could see what he was doing. He was a member of a few message boards, he contributed to the Usenet, but he had no social contacts in real life at all. He was such a recluse that I was his only friend on this side of the screen!

"Then came the day when I couldn't stand it anymore. I decided to break one of the few laws we animals have. The law of not talking when humans can hear us. He blabbed all over me all day long and got no response, that's not polite for someone's only friend, is it? I was outside the cage while he was gone shopping. So I grabbed a pencil and a Post-it, wrote on it—barely legible due to a lack of practice—that I've got a secret for him which I'll tell him if he promises to keep it to himself, and slapped that thing onto his screen where he could easily find it. He came back, stored the groceries, shoved a pizza into the microwave, and took his place in front of his computer where he found my note. I walked up to underneath the screen in expectation of his reaction. At first, he was stunned when he learned that his pet mouse could write. Then he asked me what my secret was and declared he'd never tell anyone if I didn't want him to, neither in real life nor online. And then I spoke to my human owner.

"I said my secret is that I can speak, that most animals can speak like me and like him. First he just sat and stared in awe, then he burst out laughing. He told me later that finally having a friend to talk with was a great relief for him. So we sat and talked and talked. He told me his name is Chris. I said that I figured it from some of his screen names, and that my name has always been Todd and where he got the idea from. We also talked about social things, even though we both lacked experience in them. He had the idea of finally finding a real girl by carrying me around outside, not because I can talk, but because I'm cute and fuzzy and all that. But I asked him whether he wanted a girl who truly loved him or one who just loved his pet mouse."

"Excuse me," Chip interrupted him, "that's all very nice, but what does it have to do with our case?"

"Okay," Todd, "I got carried away a bit. But you've requested it, now comes the exciting part. Chris asked me if I knew what he was working on. I said, yes, it's a security system for a bank or so. An utterly overdone one no less, not to mention inspired by quite a number of movies we had watched together, heist movies and such. He corrected me in two points, one being that it was for a casino in Las Vegas," Todd pointed out of the tent, "that one out there, and the other being that you can't overdo a security system. But he confessed that he had been inspired by those movies. According to him, combining all these ideas would let this system turn a vault into a fortress superior to Fort Knox, even without guards. Yet, he had planned to integrate guards into that system to reinforce it even further. Even if someone knew all those movies by heart, he'd still be unable to get in there."

"What a pity. We need to get into the vault and get something out of it."

"You mean... the Rescue Rangers are gonna turn into burglars and steal someone else's property?"

"Yes, but not from that someone else. Actually," Chip explained, "it had been stolen before, and we're gonna steal it to bring it back to its legal owner."

"Not to mention," Gadget added, "to prevent whatever a mad scientist such as Norton Nimnul wants to do with a set of 14 different gems. I can imagine a whole lot of potentially evil purposes for them. Remember what he did with one single ruby."

"But now we might have to wait until that Greatest Thief in the World gets them back out of the vault," Chip worried.

"Not necessarily," Todd said. "That rule of not being able to intrude mostly applies to humans. As far as I've seen the whole concept, it could be possible for rodents and other small animals to get in, and your casework experience might be helpful. Now all we need is someone who knows movies such as Mission: Impossible by heart. Not to mention a whole number of classic and modern heist movies."

Eight Rangers synchronously pointed at Dale.

"What?" he almost apologized. "Didja think I'll stick with nothin' but horror B-movies forever? Preferences change."

Tammy snickered. "Yeah, Foxy's preferences for certain human actors, for instance. Right, bat girl?"

"Oh, shush, Tammy! Or shall I tell everyone which human movie stars bring you close to melting away into a puddle on the couch? You know," Foxglove mimed exclamation marks with her thumb claws, "those certain little secrets? Besides, no matter how good an actor or a movie character is, my cute stuff is the real stuff."

Chip slapped his forehead. "I can't believe it. I can't believe that Dale's movie addiction will serve us on a case. Again. Can we please get back to the case now, ladies?"

"Whatever you wish, Chip," Foxglove and Tammy said in unison.

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome!" came as the answer, again in unison.

Chip sighed and tried to find back to the original topic. "So, where were we?"

Todd reminded him, "You told me you wanted to get into the vault, and I told you that some movie knowledge would make things a lot easier."

"Ah, yes. So you say you can lead us to down there and help us into that fortress of steel and concrete?"

"I can help you with the vault, yes," Todd answered, "but I'm afraid I don't know the way down to it. It has most probably changed since the building was completed."

That wasn't what Chip expected to hear. "Great, this makes our combined burglary skills worthless. It'd take forever to find a way into the vault, and we haven't got that much time."

"It doesn't. I know someone who lives in the Palace and spends a lot of time in there. It's not unlikely that she knows the way."

"A human again?" Chip asked.

"No, I've only ever talked to one human. Besides, if she were human, how could she show you the rodent alleyways in that building?"

"She's not a cat either, or is she?" Monty requested his fears to be denied.

"Don't worry, Monterey, she is a rodent. But I'll have to go and ask her if she can spare some time for you." Todd's voice didn't conceal well that he felt uneasy about doing that. "She's, well, she's in the showbiz."

"Wowie-zowie," Dale expressed his amazement, "she's a singer or a dancer? I bet she's a pretty big star!"

Todd explained, "She's a singer. Mostly. She..." he fumbled on his collar nervously, "...also dances occasionally. And yes, she... is a star. So if you want to meet her... I gotta go now." He stood up and moved towards the exit.

"Sure we want to meet her, Todd," Chip confirmed. "Go ask her, maybe she can provide us with some help."

"Well, then... see you later, Rescue Rangers." With these words, and with no gest at all, Todd left the tent.

Gadget watched him go, waited until he was out of hearing range and took the city noises into consideration before she said, "Golly, did anyone notice how nervous he was when he talked about that singer?"

"Yes," Tammy answered, "one could almost see the steam rise from around his neck. Maybe he's an obsessed fan."

Chip shook his head. "I don't think so, Tammy. Dale was obsessed with so many heroes and stars, be it the Red Badger of Courage, be it Flash, but he never showed anything like this. Besides, if he was obsessed, that star would never let him anywhere near her as soon as she finds out."

"Y've 'eard what 'e said, Chipper," Monty pointed out, "she's a lass. An' probably a gorgeous one no less. Remember, we're in Vegas. There's no place fer a li'l country mouse from Alabama an' 'er six-string."

"Would you go all mental about a female superstar, darling?" Foxglove asked Dale. Nuzzling his cheek, she added, "For if you did, I'd get very, very jealous."

Gadget cracked a smile and took Chip's hand. "My Chip is above such behavior. Right?"

Chip wasn't too sure if Gadget was right. Something was trying to fight its way from his memory back into his mind, and he felt like it had to do with the case, maybe even with Todd, despite them having never met before. He cleared his throat and tried not to give a definite answer. "Anyway, I say we'll meet this singer if we get a chance. But we'd better stay cautious when we're there. As long as we don't know what to expect, we have to expect everything."