Infiltrations
While dreams eluded the detective, his younger brother was sleeping sound. Yet his senses were working even now. It was only a slight noise, but a parabolic dish appeared around his ear. It amplified the sound and the boy was awake in the next moment. The noise continued. It appeared to come from the walls. Gadget got out of the bed.
"Go-go Gadget-flashlight!" he whispered (not wanting to make any unnecessary noise) and the light turned on in his left middlefinger. On tip-toes and with a stooped back, wearing his pyjamas, he went investigating the source of the ever-intensifying sound. He flashed his finger around in the hallway. Nothing peculiar here. But now he was sure that the noise is coming from the bathroom, but there was no light coming through around its door. It was like the sound originated from the plumbings.
Maybe he should call his brother, flashed through his mind, but he rejected the idea. He shall have his rest, he needs his strength in fighting the forces of M.A.D.. Gadget felt he can cope with this alone. Actually – just like any 17-year-old –, he thought he is able to achieve anything in this world. He slammed the bathroom door open and pointed his flashlight inside.
He saw a head emerging from the toilet. It was a moustached man, and the oddest thing: he was smoking a pipe there!
"Wowsers!… Who are you?"
"My name is Quimby. I'm looking for detective Gadget."
"Oh, you must be his chief. He told me about you a lot. I call him."
Gadget pulled out an antenna from his right thumb and tapped his little finger. The moustached police chief gave him a surprised look, but they heard the distant ringing of a phone somewhere in the other part of the house.
The awake detective answered the phone immediately, hoping that his wife won't wake up. But it was too late.
"Hallo" he said on the phone.
"Hullo, brother! Come to the bathroom on the upper floor, please!" came from the other end of the line.
"Look, little bro, this is no time to play."
"No, this is no game, Chief Quimby wants to see you here."
The detective didn't believe his brother, but he knew that he won't get anywhere by arguing. If his brother got something in his head, he stuck to it to the utmost. The quickest way to put an end to this thing was to go there and see what he's up to.
"Alright" he murmured and hook up the phone.
"Your brother is playing his stupid games again?" his wife asked when the detective got out of the bed.
"Never mind! Go back to sleep and have pleasant dreams!" he smiled. But a simple smile wasn't enough to sattle the situation.
"You are too lenient with him" she said frowningly, before turning onto her other side.
When he entered the bathroom, the detective was very surprised to see his boss tucked inside the toilet.
"Chief, what are you doing here?"
"I have a message for you" he replied and pointed at the toilet paper.
The detective torn off a sheet from the roll. It had something written on it. He read it while his brother helped by illuminating with his Gadget-flashlight. The note said:
"Contact is made in secret, due to security reasons. M.A.D. is apparently well informed about police's every move. Suspect that Dr. Claw has an informant at the department."
When George Gordon and his twin brother joined Les Renowned's gang, they obtained a nickname as per traditions of the underworld. After their father's nickname, Big Claw, they were both dubbed Little Claw. Since they were inseparable partners in crime since childhood, having a common nickname wasn't a problem at the beginning. But being called 'little' suited less and less for a pair of ambitious criminals, so when George took his Juris Doctor degree at Metro City University, he demanded to be addressed Doctor Claw. Imitating him, his brother chose the name Doctor Thaw. Even after Detective Gadget has revealed their true identity, most people (even at the police) still kept referring them by their pseudonyms. Some because of habit, some because of fear and yes, there were some, who did it because of admiration.
"The Mad-man has agents everywhere; that's no news, we knew that for a long time" the detective shrugged his shoulders. He still didn't understand why his boss took the long and smelly trip through the sewers just to meet him. "What is so special now?"
"Read the next message!"
The detective torn off the next sheet.
"We got word, that Dr. Claw will be at an abandoned warehouse at 1475 Harbour Road tonight. Your mission is to investigate his intents, foil his plans and arrest him" he read. Now he got interested. "Great, but how do you know his whereabout? Claw has parted ways with Les Renowned more than a year ago, to set up his own, independent criminal organization, into which we are unable to infiltrate ever since."
"We received an anonym call from a public payphone."
"Do you trust such an information?"
"Not really, but if it's true, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up. You know well that such tips are often correct; if criminals want to avenge on one another for some reason, they report the other to the police. And these are usually reliable sources, they know about each other's activities."
"Ok, I'll do it."
"There is still one more message."
The detective took the next sheet of the roll and read it:
"P.S.: Destruct the messages for security reasons!"
"You must go alone, Gadget!" added the Chief. "No-one else shall know about this information at the department."
"Alright, Chief! I'm on my way!"
"May I go with you?" plead young Gadget, who was overly excited by getting involved – even just such a tiny bit – in top secret police business. But his brother knew how to put him off:
"No, you stay here! You must accomplish a very important task for me. M.A.D. agents must not find out that their plans are revealed. In order to that, these messages must be destroyed, so they won't fall in wrong hands. Please do that for me!"
"Wowsers, I will!" said the lad proudly. He was over the moon to get this assignment. "You can count on me, I'll be very thorough. Go-go Gadget cigarette lighter!"
His left thumb opened up and he ignited the lavatory paper sheets.
"Then see you tomorrow!" said his brother and left the bathroom.
"Good luck!" Gadget extended his neck and his head followed his elder brother a little way on the corridor. Meanwhile the flaming paper started burning his bare hand.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed and his head retracted to its regular place. "Wowsers!" he exclaimed again noticing the flames. He threw the sheets into the toilet and flushed them – along with Chief Quimby.
"Ga… gloop… dget… glup-glup!" came a distant, bubbling cry from somewhere deep down the pipes.
Young Gadget was standing in the middle of his room; he just changed into his trenchcoat. His hat was already on his head. He was wearing it always, even in bed. He claimed to have it on for the detective look, but in fact it was to cover up the androgenic baldness, he developed recently. First he thought that the hair-loss on the top of his head has something to do with his implants, but professor von Slickstein objected. Only years later, when he travelled back in time during some of his missions, he found out that it was due to the Gadget genes. Almost all his male ancestors had this pattern of baldness, his father being one of the few exceptions.
"Uncle Gadget!"
Three heads appeared at the door; the topmost had blonde locks, one had a red nose, and the one in the middle had button eyes. Little Penelope was still holding onto her new teddy bear.
"Penny, Brain! What are you doing up this time of the night?"
"All that rumbling-round woke us up. But why aren't you sleeping?"
"Your dad has been assigned on a mission and I'm going to follow him."
"Wow…" she clipped the word. Her mother forbade to say it again, when she heard Penny utter 'wowsers' for the first time. She wasn't around at the moment, yet the girl tried to control herself. She thought it's better to prevent to get into the habit, than to have trouble with her mom. "But dad always says that police work is dangerous. Are you sure you are allowed to follow him?"
"I'm grown up now and he knows that well. I'm going to make sure that he's all right. Now go back to bed, you two! Take care of Penny, Brain!"
With that said, Gadget stepped out on the window. His niece and his dog heard:
"Go-go Gadget…" POOFFF! "…'mbrella!"
They ran to the window. Brain wasn't able to reach the sill, the girl lifted him up. When they looked down, Gadget was sitting in the garden, the pink umbrella, emerging from his hat, has just opened. He hit the ground before he could complete the sentence. Fortunately, the impact that would seriously hurt an avarage human, didn't do any harm to his metal fortified skeleton and joints. He got up. Such a minor mishap couldn't stop him continuing his mission.
"Go-go Gadget-rollerskates!"
Wheels appeared on his shoes and Gadget almost fell over. After a short struggle, he found his balance and rolled away.
"I think he's the one who needs to be looked after" Penny said witnessing her uncle's depart.
"Yap." One could sense the agreement in the canine's short yelp. "Woof! Woof-woof." Brain was animately pointing at himself and the way his master left.
"You want to follow him?"
The puppy nodded.
"Good idea, Brain! Make sure he's all right!"
"Woof-woof woof-woof-woof, woof."
"I'm sorry, but I don't understand you."
Brain was trying to tell something, but the girl didn't speak barking. The dog racked his brain for a moment, then carefully stood up on his hind legs, trying to mimic Gadget's rollerskating moves. He lost balance soon, but he continued his mime act by trotting in one place for a short while, then stopping and panting heavily. Penny finally percived what he was trying to tell.
"You are right, you need some form of transportation to catch up with him. I think we can find something in the garage."
They quickly made it downstairs. Within a minute, the garage door opened slightly and Brain rolled out, cowering on top of a skateboard. He dashed downhill on the road, following his master's trail.
The agent wearing black coveralls stood at attention in front of his boss's desk. He knocked his fist against his temple and placed a parcel on the table.
"The portable control center arrived from the research department."
"Excellent! It was about time; sitting so much in this chair gives me the cramps."
George Gordon opened the box. There was a thick, large, blue book inside. It had no title on the cover nor on its spine. He removed the object from the box and examined it in disbelief.
"What is this?" the criminal mastermind had a very pleasant baritone voice, yet when he raised it with anger, it made his agent's blood run cold.
"It's the mobile device you wanted for replacing the control board" the man explained quickly. He had no idea what made his boss so upset, all he could do was to descant on what Dr. Claw should've known well. "It has a huge storage capacity, with vast amount of informations already fed in. It can connect to any computer system or network wirelessly, and remote control every electrical equipment. It has a built-in scanner, a powerful laser blaster, a magnetic field- and sound wave generator and many other features. It is just disguised as a book for concealment and easy transportation."
"I know that, you imbecile. But my insignia is missing."
The agent knew that he is in trouble.
"Err... We have omitted it due to concealment."
"Don't lie to me!" the villain's hands were clenched in fists of rage, as if he had them on his agent's throat, throttling him with his bare hands.
Like most eccentric geniuses, George Gordon wasn't free of vanity. The logo, inspired by his mother's jewels, appeared almost on every equipment of the organization, as if advertising his might and power to the entire world, including law enforcment, in a challenging fashion: here I am, I can do whatever I want and you can not stop me.
"We forgot, Dr. Claw" the black clad man admitted.
"I thought so, incompetent fools! You are not clever enough to think about concealment, you have brains only to forgot what I have told you!"
"We'll remedy that immediately."
"Later. We must settle tonight's operation first. Get out of my face, right now!"
The agent was more than happy to leave the room. Dr. Claw angrily tossed the computer book into the top drawer of his desk.
The warehouse seemed to be abandoned. Nothing moved, there was no light visible in the building. The detective didn't see a single soul at the whole road. Only streetlamps were beaming their flickering lights. After a thoroughout inspection, Gadget gave up his concealment in the shades and approached the house, to get a closer look. The place was filthy, some of the windows were broken. He peeked inside through the gaping main entrance. He saw nothing of importance. There were no footprints or tiremarks in the dirt, which was covering the floor thickly. He stepped inside.
But he made a huge mistake!
A hidden camera was following his every move, sending the pictures onto a screen in a room on the top floor. Once he was beyond the door, a hand pressed a button on a controlboard. The trap door, which was well concealed by strewing dust upon it after its installation, opened on the ground and swallowed the intruder.
The surroundings came to life quickly. Men, wearing black coveralls with attached grey hood, pestered the neighborhood.
"Go-go Gadget-binoculars!"
Young Gadget was within eyeshot of the scene. He saw his brother's figure disappear in the building's gateway, and then dozens of armed men taking their posts around the warehouse. He was so preoccupied by the sight, that he forgot to pay attention to the upcoming obstacle. He didn't see the approaching streetlamp because of the binoculars, and the metal post ended his rollerskating run with a big 'PINNNGGG'.
But he was lucky. Not only because he got away unhurt, due to his mechanicly enhanced body, but the abrupt stop saved him from running into the hands of the M.A.D. agents. He gathered his thoughts, while doing the same to his telescopic limbs, extended by the force of the impact. Breaking through the blockade on ground level for a lone man was close to the impossible. Also, many thugs were positioned on the roof, watching the sky, ready to take on an overhead onslaught. But they didn't expect an attack at medium-height. Of course, why would they? Police can not just appear hoovering in the air, 30 feet above the road. He spotted one of the windows missing on the top floor. With a well aimed leap…
He sneaked closer to the building, as much as he could without being noticed by the agents. Fortunately, they did their job very disdainfully.
"Go-go Gadget-legs!"
The boy was launched into the air by his springs and he flitted past above the sentinels' head.
Brain was getting the hang of riding the skateboard. He rode down the road like a shot, his long ears fluttering in the headwind. He almost caught up with his master, but not quite. He was able to catch a glimpse of the lad's stunt. Then, seeing M.A.D.'s henchmen all around the building, his instincts warned him of the danger immediately. He leaned to the side and turned into the alley behind the warehouse.
The big, grey stray cat didn't had a good day. The transversal black and white stripes on his back made him look thicker than he was, but he was still slim. He's been stalking the trashcans for hours, but couldn't find anything to quench his hunger. Most of the buildings in the vicinity were abandoned, out of use; no food was dumped into the bins. He searched the bins at 1475 Harbour Road again, like he did the other days, but it turned up nothing new. Up until a week ago, lots of people were working in this house, leaving lots of trash behind; he always came up with many good finds here. But they were gone recently and now he had to resign eventually to have that fishbone, which he discarded on the previous days.
In that moment, a little puppy came by whooshing, riding a skateboard and crashing into the trashcans. The cat let out his claws and mewed the intruder, flashing his complete set of teeth; he was determined to protect his meagre dinner. He didn't care if it was a dog. Even if the cat was thin due to his 'waste diet', he was still large and muscular. Life on the street compelled him to fight many times, he wasn't afraid of large canines, let alone a puppy.
When Brain pulled himself together after the impact, he was facing a fierce feline. He hesitated for a second only, but when he saw the cat block the path toward the building, he turned face to face with him. He had no idea that his supposed enemy only fears his meal, he snarled at his opponent. He was determined to follow his master inside.
But before they could clash, thugs arrived to the scene to scout the source of the noises. Both animals decided to elude meeting them. Brain hid under a trashcan lid, but he followed his opponent with his eyes. The cat disappeared beneath a pile of bricks at the building's wall.
The humans left after seeing that the rumble was caused by just a couple of stray pets. Brain left the lid's cover and chased after the cat, following his scent. The trail underneath the bricks lead him to the inside of the warehouse.
The detective was stripped of his firearm and lead to the control center. A black clad agent held him at gunpoint. Dr. Claw turned around in his big, revolving chair, which had the letters M, A and D written on its backrest.
"Well detective Gadget, finally we meet face to face... Falling into such a simple trap; I thought you are smarter" said the pleasant baritone voice.
"And I thought you are taller." The detective had only sarcasm to rely now. He had no illusions regarding the fate, this sinister man has planned for him. But criminal masterminds all like to talk about themselves in their self-satisfaction; they crave for recognition, which they rarely get, of course. If he can get him talking, he may gain time. Time for Chief Quimby to send the back-up, or time for a miracle to happen. "I was right, you are really mad."
He expected a fit of fury, but he was proven wrong. That was bad news; it was like that The Mad-man were expecting this.
"You have always called me a mad-man, detective. Now I show you how M.A.D. I am." George Gordon laughed at his not-too-original wordplay. "Thank you, for giving me the idea for the name; I just added the rest. Ha-ha-ha!… And now you may experience the power of the Malavolent Agency of Destruction first hand. Let me show you something interesting."
He pressed a button on the control panel on his desk, and Gadget saw a very familiar picture appear on the screen. After a closer look, he realized that it's the living room of his parents' house. The lights were on and his wife was sitting on the couch, she seemed to be very nervous. He wasn't sure if this is a recording or live pictures; but in either case, it was a forbodding thought, that M.A.D. was able to penetrate into his private life so deeply.
"I would like to tell you that you were a worthy opponent, but unfortunately I can't. You never had a real chance against me" the villain was contented by observing the dismay on the policeman's face.
"How could you…?"
Claw pressed another key.
"Agent, report to me!"
Gadget's words stuck in his throat when he saw the man entering the room. He was wearing the usual uniform of the organization: a black coverall with grey hood. He knocked his fist to his temple in the manner of the M.A.D. salute. It was his brother-in-law!
"I see you are surprised, detective!" the baritone voice was filled with satisfaction. "Well, I know everything about you, I knew all of your moves. You were bragging with your successes to your family, telling them everything police is up to, and your brother-in-law was happy to relay it to me. He even placed tapping appliance on your phone and planted listening devices and covert surveillance cameras all over your house."
"Why?" was the only word, Gadget could squeeze out of himself.
"For money, of course" his brother-in-law replied, showing no signs of repentance. On the contrary, he seemed to be very pleased.
"But you were still getting too bothering" Claw continued undisturbed by the family conversation. "So I decided to get rid of you, luring you here by an anonym call. And now, let me show you your destiny."
He pressed a button. Part of the wall opened up, and a menacing looking device rolled into the room. It had all kinds of electronic components. Gadget has never seen anything like it before, but its design with a longish, round tube being its main feature, reminded him of a cannon. What looked like its barrel, was pointing straight at him. As one would expect, Dr. Claw didn't delay explaining the function of the machine.
"This gun sends a powerful ray that burns and paralyzes the human body. It's a slow and painful death. If I press this button" his finger pointed at a key on the control board, "you will be fried. But don't worry, I'm not pressing it… yet. First – for all the trouble your meddling caused me – you shall witness the eradication of your family. All I have to do, is to press this other button."
His hand was hanging above the keyboard. Gadget was lamed, unable to say or do anything. It wasn't because of fear or the guns pointed at him. It was the perception of betrayal. He was always self-confident about his deeds, but now it all seemed so pathetic. He was dreaming of capturing the criminal mastermind, while being just a mouse in a lab, constantly under observation. And now it was time to terminate the experiment. He didn't care for his life anymore. But a series of memories flashed into his mind: his parents, his brother, his wife and his daughter! No, this can not happen to them! The thought shook him up from the apathy, he was ready for action!
He had no time for plans, just acted on impulse and jumped upon his captor. But his attempt was cut short. At the very moment he moved, the thug knocked him to the ground with his gun.
"Excellent work!" Claw acknowledged his staff's quick reflex. "Now watch the screen closely, detective!"
"No! Wait! Our plan not included killing them!"
Claw's finger remained hoovering above the button when Gadget's brother-in-law interrupted him.
"You mean MY plan, don't you?"
The baritone voice was filled with so much malice, that the traitor didn't dare to reply, or move a muscle, not even nod or breathe. Gordon continued:
"MY plan does include their elimination, and MY plans are not your business. Understood?"
The man was even more freightened now, but thinking of the fate of his kins gave him the strength to utter a couple of words.
"But…" the voice coming from his throat was so thin, that he had to take a deep breath to regain its normal sound. "But it's my family, my sister! It's my business."
He was a scum, he never cared about his brother-in-law, but deep in his heart, he had a feeling for his sister and his niece.
"You should be happy with the money you got, and the fact that I let you live and serve me. But if you don't find that enough, then you may join them!"
The malefactor's finger altered its course to press an other button and the traitor disappeared through a trap door opening beneath him.
"Eliminate him!" Dr. Claw shouted for his invisible agents down below. "Now where was I?… Oh, yes. I was about to destroy your family."
The detective had to watch helplessly as the finger moved toward the previous button.
"What was that?" The villain looked up, as they heard sharp brattle of glass from the next room suddenly.
The jump was good, but not good enough: the lad missed his target by two yards; he crashed through an intact glass pane next to the missing one. He landed on the floor of an empty room in the midst of showering shards. The noise got the attention of the M.A.D. agents, they came rushing into the room with their guns in hand.