The sign over the entrance to the Morningside Orphanage looked just the same as Penny remembered it, when she pulled over to the sidewalk and stepped out of her car. She could hear the merry chatter of children inside. She wondered if any of them were as lonesome as she'd been as a kid. Penny stared at the building. A part of her needed to come back, for old times sake. Still, she didn't know what she wanted to do here. She couldn't just go in and look around, after all. It was like a person going back to their old elementary school as an adult. You're not just going to waltz into your old classrooms or go on the swings at the playground. It was a world you couldn't go back to again, couldn't be a part of ever again. The building had been fixed up a bit, she could tell, but mostly it was the same. She thought maybe one day, when she was ready, she'd adopt a child from here herself. Someone who was like she was.
Penny sighed, "Well…off to the United Nations building…"
It wasn't as if the orphanage had been right on the way. It was clear across the city from the UN building, where she'd called to book a tour the day before. But today was about rekindling her past, and about finding out whether or not her childhood fantasies were actually fantasies. And seeing the old orphanage again somehow prepared her to reenter that world.
When she drove off, she failed to notice the nondescript black van with tinted windows turning the corner behind her. One which had been following her since she left Maryland.
News of the storm brewing at NIMH had been lost on the rodent populace in the week since the raid on Dapplewood. But the disappearance of the Rescue Rangers didn't go unnoticed by everyone in New York. Several squirrels and mice living in Central Park had watched from a safe distance as humans from NIMH came in and took away their headquarters, powerless to do anything to help. The hearsay spread until a reporter for The Daily Nibbler picked the story up, and printed it in the next edition, which was discreetly distributed across the city. The implications of the story stirred widespread panic; a human actually discovering something of this nature was unprecedented.
"Alright folks, hang on and fasten your seatbelts we're coming in for a landing!" said Wilbur the albatross, carrying two of the Rescue Aid Society's elite agents, Bernard and Bianca.
"Careful vith your back this time, Vilbur," said Bianca in her concerned, motherly manner and Hungarian accent.
"Heh, are you kidding? It's never felt better."
Wilbur swooped down, as Bernard struggled to keep his food in his stomach.
"I'm getting too old for this," Bernard lamented.
"Oh nonsense," Bianca teased, "You're just as fit and handsome as you vere vhen ve first met…and you hated landings vay back then too."
Wilbur hit the ground, running and trying to stop himself, before leaning too far forward and skidding along the ground until his beak stabbed through the wooden door to his shack, jolting Bernard and Bianca in their seats.
"Oh, are you stuck?" Bianca asked.
Wilbur muttered something and tried to push himself free. Bianca and Bernard unbuckled their seatbelts and quickly slid down to the ground, watching for a few moments.
"Um, we'd uh, like to help but…this is kind of an emergency meeting…" Bernard said, hoping not to offend Wilbur.
Wilbur shooed them away with his wing and then continued to push at the door and get his beak out.
"Thanks, uh, we'll probably be back soon."
"Ve can't just leave him this vay," Bianca said, looking up at Wilbur with worry.
Wilbur tried to speak but couldn't, shooing them with his wing again as if to say he didn't mind.
"Oh alright Vilbur, ve vill come back," Bianca conceded, taking Bernard's hand, the tiny jewel on her ring glinting in the sunlight.
The two of them scurried toward a door to the stairway leading down the building, reaching it safely and then proceeding to climb down.
"Why does stuff always come up when we're trying to go somewhere to relax?" Bernard complained, as they exhaustively hopped down each step.
"Ve vill continue vhere ve left off on our second honeymoon, once this business is all settled, I promise."
"They're just lucky Niagara Falls isn't too far away," Bernard huffed, "Maybe we should've gone someplace further to get some peace."
"Like Australia?"
"Um…no, not that far…" Bernard wasn't too keen on returning there unless they had to. But Bianca tried to talk him into going on a trip there every so often.
Bianca chuckled a bit, "This is the thirteenth step Bernard, watch out."
"Oh?" he looked down, knowing he couldn't just hop down two steps at once, "Well there aren't thirteen in total, so it's okay."
"Vhatever you say Bernard," Bianca said, hopping down two more steps before reaching the bottom. Squeezing through a slightly ajar door, they walked down a hallway to take an elevator to the ground floor.
The Rescue Aid Society met in the basement of the United Nations, inside a large discarded and forgotten suitcase. It was accessible through a hole in the wall, near the entrance. Bernard and Bianca traveled down pipes to get there. When they entered, it was mostly empty; only delegates who were close enough to New York had been able to make it by noon as requested.
"Ah, Bernard and Bianca, so glad you could make it," said Mr. Chairmouse, standing at the podium beneath the official banner of the Rescue Aid Society, "Please be seated, I think we'll wait a few more minutes before beginning. I do apologize for the short notice."
"It's quite alright, Mr. Chairmouse," said Bianca, sitting at the designated seat for the Society's Hungarian representative. Bernard sat next to her, in the United States' seat.
Things had changed in recent years for the Society, with the breakup of the Soviet Union adding many more delegates from the newly independent countries, a few of which were present at the moment. Africa had been divided into some individual countries, when in the 70s the whole continent only had one delegate. Bernard and Bianca noticed a young squirrel sitting near the podium, dressed in a nurse's uniform with her orange hair in a ponytail. Being a mouse-only organization this was somewhat unusual.
"I vonder who she is," Bianca remarked.
"I guess we'll find out," said Bernard, "I get the feeling there's something a little strange about this though…like this isn't going to be a typical emergency meeting."
"I feel that vay too…"
Mr. Chairmouse took out a pocket watch from his vest and opened it.
"Ahem, very well then, I regret to say that all the delegates who are going to come are probably already here. At any rate, I'm sure you're all wondering why you were summoned here on such short notice, so early in the morning."
There were murmurs from the crowd.
"I called this meeting because yesterday afternoon, a local vigilante rescue group calling themselves the "Rescue Rangers" had their entire headquarters confiscated by scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health."
The mention of the organization drew gasps from many in the crowd. Bianca put her hand to her mouth and looked to the podium wide-eyed, as Bernard removed his hat and fanned himself with it.
"Of course, any rescue group operating outside of our society is responsible for its own wellbeing. Normally we discourage unprofessional rodents from taking on such dangerous missions and we wouldn't feel obliged to correct their mistakes when they do so anyway. But, this case is unique. Certainly many of you have heard of NIMH, and the grotesque experiments they've performed on mice and rats. Why, many will recall the disappearance of former US delegate Jonathan Brisby, kidnapped by NIMH and never heard from again. So surely you see why their confiscation of the entirety of the Rescue Ranger's headquarters and all its technology therein, is not just their problem. It is everyone's problem."
"And what do you think we ought to do aboat this problem?" asked the Canadian delegate.
"Now now, we'll decide on a course of action momentarily," Answered Mr. Chairmouse, "As you've no doubt noticed we have a guest with us today, Ms. Tammy Squirrel, personal friend of the Rescue Rangers. She contacted me yesterday evening to tell me what had happened. She's here to fill us in on more of the details."
Mr. Chairmouse stepped aside as Tammy stood up to the podium and adjusted the microphone, looking around nervously. Bernard and Bianca watched closely.
"Greetings, delegates of the Rescue Aid Society. Like Mr. Chairmouse said I'm a close friend of the Rescue Rangers. Yesterday after their headquarters was taken, Gadget Hackwrench, one of their members, came into my hospital to have a young badger girl from the forest treated for asthma. She said that two of their members had been taken by NIMH, but the other three were lucky enough not to be present when it happened. She didn't want to involve the Rescue Aid Society, but I was worried about them. So I took it upon myself to contact Mr. Chairmouse after work, without Gadget's knowledge."
"Und ve are supposed to save zese vigilantes?" the German delegate complained.
"They got themselves into their own mess, and pulled the rest of us in too," griped the Turkish delegate.
"Please, pay attention," said Mr. Chairmouse, "Continue, Miss Squirrel."
Tammy cleared her throat, "Gadget didn't know what they were going to do, but she said something about researching on the Internet about NIMH. I think they already left to go there this morning. But that's not all. Gadget told me about the clients they'd taken in at the time. The little badger girl was one of them. She'd gotten asthma and bad eyesight because of a toxic gas leak in the forest of Dapplewood about a month ago. But early this week something even worse happened there; humans from NIMH discovered their homes. They took almost all the animals away, only a handful of kids managed to escape. And they somehow made it here."
"Oh how simply dreadful," Bianca said, clasping her hands to her chest, "Those poor children, and that little girl…"
Mr. Chairmouse leaned toward Tammy, adjusting the microphone so the audience would hear him, "Yes and the rodents of Dapplewood were reasonably advanced?"
Tammy nodded, "That's what Gadget said. They had books and furniture and other things."
There were more murmurs from the crowd.
"Thanks very much Miss Squirrel for your testimony, you may be seated," said Mr. Chairmouse, taking the microphone as Tammy went back to her seat, "So as you can see, the theft of Rescue Rangers headquarters is but the latest threat. It is possible, even, that those refugee children had been tracked. NIMH is growing wise to mouse society. Humans becoming aware of our intelligence can inhibit not only the work of Rescue Aid Society, but our very way of life as a species. Of course we occasionally do reveal our secret society to human children, who pose no real threat to us, and normally are not taken seriously by adults anyway. But now, knowledge of how advanced we rodents are has fallen into the very worst hands."
The tour guide led a group of visitors through the front door of the United Nations building at that moment.
"As you can see here is the main entrance," said the tour guide, "If you could just pass through these metal detectors and I should be able to show you to the Chamber of the Security Council first, before we head to the Trusteeship Council."
Penny walked through the metal detector, passing through without trouble and joining the rest of the people on the tour. She looked around her, trying to find any little crack in the wall a mouse could squeeze through. The tour moved to the first council chamber, but as tour guide talked, Penny paid little attention. Finally, making up her mind, she raised her hand.
"Yes miss?"
"May I excuse myself and catch up later?"
"The bathrooms are just that way," the tour guide said, pointing, "Just come right back to this chamber when you're done."
Penny nodded and briskly walked back, past armed guards, looking at the walls and floor. Next to an elevator there was a door leading to the basement of the building, for authorized personnel only. She was certain if the mice were here at all, that's where they'd be. She went for the doorknob and turned it. But it was locked.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned around quickly.
"Ah Dr. Stacy," said Dr. Strauss, with Nimnul at his side, surrounded by people in protective fumigation suits, "So nice of you to do some outside research for us."
She was in shock, "What…how did…"
"Step aside, if you please," he said, a security officer unlocking the door for him, "We've government clearance, you see. And there have been troubling reports of a mouse infestation. Some of the mice have been acting strangely so we will take a small sample of them and investigate."
"You…you followed me here…"
"We just happened to be in the neighborhood," Dr. Nimnul said with a grin, "Won't you come down with us?"
Dr. Strauss and his men went down the stairs into the darkened basement.
"What can we do?" asked the Italian delegate, "We could-a try to rescue the mice at the lab, but would-a that really solve the whole problem?"
"They're just going to keep coming for us," warned the Armenian delegate.
"We specialize in rescuing young humans, this problem is way out of our league," stressed the British delegate.
"Ve must not sell ourselves short," argued Bianca, "How many times have ve been told 'you're just mice, you are too small to make a difference'? And yet ve alvays have. Ve have to do something. At least try."
At that moment Bernard's ears perked up. He could hear voices and footsteps in the distance. They were large. Human.
"Bianca, did you hear something?" he whispered, as the debate continued to rage over what to do about the threat.
"Hmm? Vhat do you mean?"
The janitor, a thin mouse in overalls, rushed in.
"Humans! They're coming down here, lot's of 'em!"
"What?" the Chairmouse was baffled.
The footsteps became louder.
"What's in that big suit case?" asked a human.
"Aha! That's where they meet, right Penny?" came an evil-sounding cackle.
The name rang in Bianca's ears. Penny. It was a name she hadn't heard in years. But still she wondered. Who else would know where the Rescue Aid Society met?
"Very well, inspect the area, collect a few specimens, and gas the rest."
"Run!" Mr. Chairmouse shouted into the microphone, and all of the delegates got up out of their seats, rushing for the exit.
"What was that sound?" asked Dr. Strauss.
Penny watched from atop the stairs in terror. She'd clearly heard a voice yelling 'run'. What had she done? This was all her fault.
Mice began swarming from the entrance, some picked up and placed in nets by scientists as soon as they set foot out of the suitcase. A squirrel was picked up as well. Once about six specimens were captured, Dr. Strauss motioned the scientists over.
"Exterminate the rest," he commanded.
Penny tried to get a look at the ones in the net, but they passed by too swiftly. Had Bernard and Bianca been taken? Security swiftly ushered her out of the basement as the exterminators got their rodent-extermination smoke bombs ready, preparing to seal the area with masking tape.
Bernard and Bianca scurried toward the far corner of the basement.
"The emergency exit's got to be here somewhere." Bernard said, searching around a furnace before finally finding an electrical pipe that was disconnected from anything, having been emptied of its wires by mice in case of just such an event.
"Vhat about everyone else?" Bianca pleaded, tugging against Bernard's grip.
"The gas is spreading fast, Bianca, there's no time!"
Bianca was in tears, but she began to cough as the gas became thicker.
Bernard quickly pushed Bianca up into the pipe, before hopping into the pipe himself; a tight squeeze, and he was claustrophobic, but maybe this way, they had a chance of surviving as the poison gas began to fill the room.