Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.
I'd like to thank all my reviewers for this story, Feudor, King in Yellow, Screaming Phoenix, and Neihaera.
"Go City was officially founded by two guys from Russia." Shego said conversationally, "Soldiers of fortune who came here some time in the late eighteenth century. Their names were Anton Grigoriev and Peter Oschaevsky."
Sitting beside her in the passenger seat, Kim Possible frowned in mixed annoyance and puzzlement. She hadn't actually realized Shego meant to give her an actual history lesson. Still, she kept her mouth shut and let the woman have it her way for now.
"No one knows for certain what they did before they headed out west..." Shego continued as if delivering a lecture. "They may have fought in the Revolution, but no one is sure which side, or they may have been too young for that, no one is even sure what year they arrived in North America. Anyway, they founded a trading post here on the bay in about 1804. Had plenty of competition further up and down the coast, but it turned out they'd picked the best site when the first really harsh winter hit, and ice closed down all the other nearby posts to lake traffic. I mean, it can get frozen here, too, but not as often, or as badly."
Interested in spite of herself, Kim nodded thoughtfully. "So they outlasted their nearby competitors."
"Yeah, pretty much. May have had to shoot one or two that tried to take over the better real estate, that part isn't certain. Anyway, they named the post after themselves, the Grigoriev and Oschaevsky Trading Post. But that was obviously quite a mouthful, so on old hand-drawn maps of the time, it was marked as 'G & O' trading post. But over time, the punctuation sometimes disappeared as the maps became worn. When proper maps were made, it was so marked, but by that time it had become popularly known as 'Go Post', and that name stuck." She paused her narrative to glance at Kim as they idled at a red light. "Want to give me a hint where we're going, at least?"
Kim pursed her lips briefly, then nodded. "Ever hear of a place called 'The Bolts Hole'?"
Shego's lips moved, repeating the name to herself as her brow furrowed in concentration. After a moment, she nodded slowly. "Yeah, vaguely. I know where to find it, anyway." Back in motion again, she glanced sidelong at Kim. "Back to the history lesson?" Kim nodded, and one of Shego's eyes twitched, but then she nodded herself. "Right! Well, the place grew into a town, incorporated as 'Goborough' in 1834. Then less then thirty years later, the somewhat ambitious City Fathers decided to rename it Go City, though at the time it barely resembled anything remotely worthy of the name. But their were plenty of towns like that then."
Now she became somber, a bit surprising to Kim. "The Civil War practically put an end to the Oschaevsky family, and sickness finished their name. All the adult males fought, and died, for the Union. The three male children alive at that time all succumbed to a smallpox outbreak in 1868." She trailed off briefly, switching on the windshield wipers as the rain began to pick up. Kim sat quietly thinking about the tragedy Shego had just related.
After a moment, Shego picked up the story again. "Their bloodline lives on in the Grigoriev family, there were two marriages between the families. But the idea of something like that ending..." She trailed off again, then suddenly shook herself. "Anyway..um, I should say that their bloodline lives on in the Gregory family."
Kim's obviously aroused curiosity made Shego smirk. "You see, about 1886 or so, the family patriarch decided to 'Americanize' their family name. It caused a split in the family, and some say a frequently bitter one. Until the first Red Scare here in the States back in the 20s. Then they all seemed to have seen the wisdom of the name change." Shego now frowned. Kim, following her gaze, saw that they were now driving along the shore of the bay again. Easily visible was Go Tower, perched on it's island, one of a pair in the bay that Kim could see.
"A lot of things were named 'Go' in the early days." Shego continued, returning her full attention to the road, "Including those two islands, East Go Island, and West Go Island, where the tower is now. But then when Horace Greeley said 'Go West, young man!', the city fathers got cute, and changed the names to Go West Island, and Go East Island. The names may have had a hidden meaning, though. A lot of people at the time thought Go City was getting overrun with immigrants, and they had a slogan, 'Go West, Go East, go anywhere else but here!'" She caught Kim's grimace of distaste and nodded grimly. "Nice people around here, back then."
"About 1945, the City Fathers had a new idea, to build a big statue out there on Go West Island. Basically an idealized representation of one of our city's founders, welcoming ships into the harbor like he did trading schooners in the old days. Construction began a year later. It was made from blocks of dressed stone, rather then copper." She paused, a half-grin forming on her face, "And it was never finished. Half-finished, as in up to the waist before problems concerning money, naturally, caused it to be suspended. Embezzlement may also have been involved. Another thing was that it was a very rough form, with no details. Someone claimed that they'd be chiseled out later, but that struck a lot of people as bogus. Others claimed, because of it's appearance that it was meant to be a naked man."
She glanced at Kim, who was studying Go Tower thoughtfully, as if imagining the sight Shego described, while shaking her head slightly, possibly in disbelief. "So for decades this unfinished monstrosity stood there for all to see. And to make matters worse, sometimes after a rain, the way the statue dried off, you could easily imagine it to be 'mooning' the whole city." That brought Kim's head snapping around to regard Shego incredulously.
"You've got to be kidding!" She exclaimed.
Grinning, Shego shook her head. "Dead serious, Princess. Definitely an outline of pale buttocks, saw it myself many, many times!" Then she sobered. "Milly and I used to sneak across Bay Drive to sit down by the shore and talk. Wasn't the best view of it, but you could tell..." Her voice trailed off, leaving an awkward silence.
Kim tried to decide how to keep the conversation going, finally asking an easy question. "What happened to the statue when they built Go Tower?"
Shego snorted derisively. "They built the Tower over the statue, Kimmie!" She saw the girl blink in surprise. "From ground level up to the Control Room, the tower is a hollow shell covering the statue!" There's only three actual floors in the place, Control level, living quarters, and the hangar level! And the first two years we were there, we only had the elevator to get in and out! They finally sprung for a stairwell-slash-fire escape. Lucky someone donated the generators that run the place, we never lost power, but still!"
Kim kept her thoughts unspoken, but she somehow suspected that Shego had had a rant or two about the subject before. "After the so-called 'Comet', when we got our powers, we were all minors of course, and orphans. The City government at the time thought that Go City needed someone who classed as a 'superhero' in town, if for no other reason than to keep up with Gotham, Metropolis, New York, et al. They tried convincing some heroes to relocate, especially those who might have been considered the second-string in those places, but they were either flatly refused by those who didn't care about money, or had those who did make outrageous demands. And then, We happened." She shook her head. "Ready made heroes, or so they and Hego thought, and minors who were therefore under their control, and had few rights of their own, or at least that we knew about. In a other words, Exploitable, and Malleable."
Her eyes remained focused on her driving even as she delved into her memories. "So, they made us Wards of the City, and tried to fulfill all our little hearts' desires, the better to keep us from actually questioning our great good fortune. And then they trained us, if you could call it that, gave us all our toys, and a clubhouse to live in, and then they expected us to be good little kiddies, be quiet, except at public appearances, and stay out of the way, while they used our existence as an excuse to slow budget increases to the Police and Fire departments. No cuts, but not much increase." Shego smirked, "Except they didn't know that one of their pet heroes was a long way from 'good'."
"So, you rocked the boat." Kim stated the obvious.
Shego rolled her eyes, "Oh, yeah! See, I didn't like the whole situation to start with, but I hated being a fraud, or someone's stooge! I also saw signs of division between the boys, and that scared me...then. Hego was all into the hero thing, of course, but Mego was more into the 'ego' thing, which shouldn't surprise you! He went from an introvert to the boy we now know and love in just a few weeks. I still wanted to hold my 'family' together, so I started trying to do something, anything, to get the boys to work together. First off, when we heard alerts about crimes in progress, and Police having trouble with whoever they were facing, I would try and convince the others to go. But Hego would say, 'But they told us to wait until we were called!', which would have been never, the cops resented us, or what we represented to them. So, I eventually got tough, and scared Hego enough that fear of the City just suddenly wasn't that important, and off we went."
"Scared him?" Kim queried, "Was that the first time you tried intimidation on him."
Shego scowled fiercely, partly at the interruption, partially because the brief feeling of what seemed to be embarrassment was suppressed almost immediately by one of disdain, and she actually recognized that one had overwritten the other. She chose not to answer the question, but went on with her narrative.
"Now, the City couldn't outright criticize us for stopping...um, was it Aviarius? Yeah, it was that first time, surprised I could forget that! So, they didn't say that we had done wrong, and to Hego, that meant we'd done right! So from that point on, we were off and running, fighting crime, saving lives, being real heroes." She paused as she considered whether to proceed into painful territory. "But they resented losing any control over us, and they knew who was to blame. They began working on reducing my influence. And I let them..." Her mood shifted abruptly as she noticed Kim's increased curiosity.
"I mean, I felt like..." She trailed off. How had she felt? But she shook off her doubts, and fell back on the version that she'd believed in ever since her departure. "They did a good job with Henry and Warren. Originally, they had envisioned me as the leader, because of my brains. But they really wanted an alternative, for many reasons, so they decided to fill Hego's head with ideas, and control the team through him. And I stopped trying as hard to prevent it..." She stopped and barely kept from shaking her head as she again drifted close to something she really didn't want to talk about. Especially with an enemy!
"I began to misbehave, seriously. Sneaking out, going places I didn't belong at that age. I was a serious disaster waiting to happen, Kimmie, I could have shown these 'pop princesses' nowadays a few lessons in bad behavior they haven't even thought of yet! Eventually, I guess, it was too much to get past even Hego, and I lost him." Shego shook her head, "And he began to listen to the City. How I was a bad influence, getting in trouble away from them. And I was more and more apathetic about it with each passing day it seemed I was almost glad when Hego and I had that talk, it gave me an out. A very, very, ugly out."
She shuddered, suddenly refocusing on the present. "They got their team of good little heroes, and held onto them tightly! They would never actually give us a 'Go Jet', because they wanted to keep us at home. I'd almost thank the buffoon for putting that in his story, it probably got Hego pestering the City Government for one. We got the GoCart as a donation, no way the city would have bought it for us!"
Kim frowned at her reference to Ron, but chose to stick to the subject at hand. "What about the Tower, that had to cost something to build."
Shego snorted. "Not really, and cost who? You know, even though we were like you, supposedly, doing it all for free and all, there were some people who wanted to reward us. Well, we never saw any rewards, but I've since learned that the Team has a 'Trust Fund', administered to by the city, and if you ever saw the books on that, you would want to meet the 'Chef' who cooked them, they are a thing of beauty! Anyway, I think the City made their money back on us. As to the Tower...Well, I've already told you all you need to know, they used it to cover an old eyesore." She broke off and began studying the signs on buildings they were passing, frowning in concentration. "This is the right neighborhood...so who are we looking for, exactly?"
Kim bit her lip, then prevaricated. "It might be best if you tried to spot a familiar face, someone from the orphanage." As Shego turned to scowl at her, she added, "If he's not at the bar..." She looked at her watch, "I know where he works, too." Then she remembered something from her talk with Mrs Kenneally, but Shego spoke before she could bring it up.
"You'd better actually know who we're looking for, and not be leading me on a wild-goose chase, Princess, is all I can say!" Shego snarled with more then a little heat.
Taken aback momentarily, Kim quickly regained her composure. "I know, and you should know him on sight, Shego!" She snapped back. As she did, she spotted their destination. "There it is, Shego!" She pointed for emphasis. The building stood separate from it's neighbors at the intersection of the street they were on and a much wider avenue that met and crossed it at an angle, with the bar occupying a triangular area formed by the two streets' junction. Across from the bar were factories, as far as Kim could tell, their grounds enclosed by high chain link fences. There was little activity visible, but then again it was Saturday.
The bar itself was of red brick construction, and reasonably clean on the outside. There was a single row of narrow windows Kim would have had difficulty squeezing through high on the wall, and above it a neon sign 'The Bolts Hole' in blue. Both of the letter 'o's in the sign were represented by hexagonal nuts. The bar had a parking lot to itself, with parking on both sides facing the streets, and three cars were visible adjacent to the building. An alley containing two dumpsters separated it from a row of brownstones that they were driving past currently. The rain was keeping everyone indoors, it seemed, though Kim saw one child gazing forlornly from a first floor window as they passed.
Shego turned in to the parking lot and drove all the way around to look at the bar from all available angles. "Front Entrance, Fire exit, rear door." She observed, "Think the person we're looking for will bolt?"
Kim might have been over-thinking things a bit, but she wondered if this was leading to them splitting up to cover the exits. A situation Shego might take advantage of to give Kim the slip. She was certainly not acting normally, being so convivial, especially since they were hunting people who had done great harm to her childhood friend. But Kim chose to ignore her suspicions and attribute it to Shego deliberately diverting herself from thinking about that fact. Except that didn't really make sense either...
"Well?" Shego's voice startled Kim, who hadn't realized she'd taken so long to answer. Almost defensively she replied "Most people knowing you're after them probably would, but he shouldn't know you're after him. So I guess it depends on what kind of past you have..." Kim stopped as she realized that was important. If Tom Frailey had a preexisting reason to fear Shego, he might bolt before they had a chance to spot him. She gritted her teeth briefly as Shego watched curiously. Then the teen spoke again. "We're looking for Tom Frailey."
Shego's brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Frailey? What could he have had to do with what happened to Milly? He was just a kid..well, older teenager, who had to help the handymen his Uncle hired to do some repairs around the orphanage!" Then paused thoughtfully. "Of course, he also is supposed to have had some fun with a few of the girls. Not me or Milly, but some of the others..." She studied Kim with an intensity that had the girl making a considerable effort not to squirm. "Okay, Kimmie, say he's inside, what do I ask him? Because I'm asking the questions, since I'm far more likely to get answers about her!"
Seeing Kim set her jaw stubbornly, she shook her head angrily. "Listen, Princess! You can make a bunch of henchman, not to mention most categories of evildoer, quake in their boots knowing you're coming after them. But these guys won't be breaking the law, they'll be eating lunch, hanging out, drinking...and you just aren't that menacing when you have no just cause for violence!"
Kim wanted to argue, but she knew Shego had a point. Her rep simply didn't suggest that she'd beat someone up for information. Shego's did, not that Kim intended to let her do so. But still, every bit of information she gave up to Shego increased in her mind the chance the thief would ditch her and go on alone, enacting vengeance on the villains.
And that certainty in Kim's mind caused her to view Shego with a degree of disgust. Her dead friend's dying wish had been for her not to harm others on a quest for vengeance, yet here she was. Of course being generally fair-minded, Kim recognized that she had no idea how she herself would act in such a situation. For instance, if Ron was murdered...and there was also the recent understanding that 'fair-minded' might not extend to Shego, Drakken, and the other villains she'd fought.
With the exception of Senor Senior Senior, she'd never completely trusted their word, if given. Even though none of her 'own' villains had ever broken theirs to date. Viewing them as people with their own problems was sometimes hard for her, and it often had taken reading one of Ron's stories and recognizing some of the truth in them to make her realize her failings in that department.
She recognized it partially as trying keep things simple, 'black and white' in her own mind. Even though she knew better. Then again, when she had first met Shego, there had been no problem seeing her as evil, because she had literally oozed it. And Drakken had been a ranting lunatic, no doubt about that. But things had changed, and Kim angrily admitted to herself that she seemed to be the slowest to recognize the fact.
But how did all that self-realization apply now? After a moment of tight-lipped silence, she sighed. "William Frailey arranged Milly's adoption, Shego, and many others. Mrs. Kenneally didn't approve, but the Board of Directors for the orphanage did. All they seemed to be concerned with was finding homes for the children." She paused, frowning, "Unless some of them knew about the white slavery ring, of course, but that seems unlikely."
"Yeah, right!" Shego replied derisively. "Wouldn't surprise me...who exactly is on the Board of Directors, anyway?" She pulled into a parking space as close to the door as she could manage, deciding not to tweak Kim by taking a handicapped spot.
"Just a minute." Kim replied, and pulling out her Kimmunicator, she called Wade. Her young friend seemed a little relieved to see her. "Hey, Wade! By any chance, do you have a list of the members of the Board of Directors at the Crescent Street Orphanage?"
Wade gave her an admonishing look. "Kim, how could you doubt it? I have a list of all current members as well as everyone who served on the board for the last twenty years!" Then his expression sobered. "I've also found more of those 'irregular' adoptions. Thirty-two total, so far. Boys, girls, all ages from 8 to 15. Kim, what happened to all of those kids?" He asked helplessly, a barely concealed plea for a comforting answer in his words.
Which Kim felt guilty for not having. Sometimes she wondered why she let Wade continue to help her. After last summer, the possibility of him confronting something truly evil had bothered Kim a great deal. As did her failure to consider that possibility before. "Wade, I'm not sure..." She replied honestly, "But hopefully we're going to find out, and do something about it!"
Wade did seem a bit cheered by that, but after all the time they'd been at this, Kim wondered how accurately he read her. She tried to sound as confident as she could. After all, their were other people following this trail as well, too many for the villain to escape, surely? "Give me a quick printout of those names, Wade." She requested.
But Shego just shook her head as she read them. "I vaguely recognize some of these names, but back then to me, they were just suits. You know anything important about any of them?" Whether or not the question was addressed to Kim, Wade, or both, it was the boy genius that answered first.
"All the current ones are clean, a few traffic tickets is the worse any have as adults. A couple have juvenile records, but they're sealed." He added the last carefully, obviously hoping for a response from Kim. Wade chafed a bit when Kim forbade him to do some things that were child's play for someone with his talent, and always hoped that she'd change her mind for special circumstances. He never disobeyed a direct instruction not to pry in any area, but if it was somewhere Kim had not expressly forbidden...but those were few and far between nowadays.
Therefore it was no surprise that an angry scowl appeared on Kim's face at Shego's next words. "I suppose it's out of the question for you to snoop in their bank accounts and see if any made deposits coinciding with the 'irregular' adoptions?"
After fruitlessly giving Kim a moment to respond, Wade shrugged. "No can do, sorry!"
Shego was tempted briefly to egg him on, but she didn't want bloodstains in her friend's car, and the glare Kim was aiming at her promised violence. Instead she shrugged her shoulders. "I get it, staying all nice and legal, Nerdlinger. Maybe I know a few people who can do that search for me, if it becomes necessary." She then rummaged briefly in the back seat for her hat. "Only one, Kimmie, have to get your hair wet, I guess." She remarked with a smirk, then opened her door and got out. Kim glowered at her a moment, then pulled her jacket up as far as she could to shield her hair, and got out to follow the villainess into the bar.
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"Do any of you happen to know Tom Frailey by sight, and more importantly, where he might hang out?" The question slowly drew the attention of all the men in the room away from the fresh corpse at their feet and to the speaker.
The man in question went by the name Armand Macheles, and he was currently their employer. For some of them, this had been and off-and-on situation for some time. He didn't need them all the time, just when he was preparing to put on one of his 'shows'. Others he needed full-time, mostly to keep the 'performers' for his shows housed, fed, and locked away.
He was an unprepossessing sort to look at, pasty-faced, dark haired, just a little out of shape. He didn't have a lot of hair, but what there was was well-groomed. He was dressed in a white shirt with a plain gray tie, and wore half of a black business suit, the jacket currently draped over a chair set in a corner behind the desk he himself sat at, gazing dispassionately at the body of the man he'd just had murdered.
The actual murderer stood to his left, back to the wall. Anthony Belacost had once had high hopes of being a high-round draft pick in professional football. But a series of incidents, including testing positive for banned substances more then once in college, as well as a disrespect for the law, had left him a walk-on applicant for a defensive line job. And he had never managed to make it past the first cut his first three camps. Then another positive test for steroids, and he was then considered too old at twenty-seven to be worth developing.
That led to eight years working as hired muscle to reach this point. Six foot, eight inches and still packing 290 pounds on his big frame, he had snapped a man's neck at his boss's order. If the fact the man had died laughing upset him at all, it didn't show. After all, he'd been around Mr Macheles long enough to believe that he did indeed have the power to change peoples' emotions as he chose. He'd changed the dead man's fear to feelings of joy and exuberance, even as the man had been intellectually aware that he was about to die.
Now one of the men hesitantly addressed Macheles. "I know where he works now, and most of the guys who work there have a favorite hangout nearby, we can check there." He did his best not to cringe as Macheles fixed him with his gaze.
But after a moment's blank-faced scrutiny, Macheles nodded. "All right, you and Perry go see if you can find him." He said, nodding towards one of his rougher looking minions, "I need you to find out everything you can about this video footage he managed to shoot, thanks to that idiot." He indicated the cooling corpse on the floor. "Especially if he pointed his damn camera at the audience at any time! Also whether any such shots were given to whoever posted the video online."
Both men nodded, then Perry asked "And after we get this info, you want the same for him as this guy?" At Macheles' nod, Perry looked doubtful. "His uncle won't be happy." He observed.
Macheles' indifferent expression didn't change a bit. "His Uncle hasn't contributed a thing to this enterprise in nearly a year! And besides, he knows what's at stake here, and his own security is far more important than his nephew's well being to him, trust me!" He looked at the corpse speculatively for a moment. "One more thing, is there any chance that fool told Frailey where tonight's show is being held?"
One of the more noticeable men before him replied. John Sutekichi, better known as the supervillain 'Pseudo-Sumo'. Though he currently appeared to be no more then 225 pounds, tops, on a five-eight frame, he could somehow increase his mass to nearly 390 pounds for brief periods, with a corresponding increase in his strength and resistance to harm. There was no actual physical alteration in his body, the excess mass had no visible presence, and defied current understanding. In Go City, there was no one who could withstand his charge except Hego, and then only if the hero braced himself in advance.
"I doubt it, Sir." Sumo indicated the deceased, "He was asking for that information himself just before you summoned us all here. I myself am still ignorant of tonight's venue."
Macheles' nod was perfunctory, having known this already. He waved at the two men he'd detailed to seek out Tom Frailey dismissively, and waited for them to exit before speaking again. "For the record, we'll be holding tonight's show at the Dunn Theater." He nodded to a pale, thin individual. "You'll see that all our 'guests' are informed a suitable interval in advance?" He shifted his attention to another individual even as the first bobbed his head nervously in acknowledgment, "And see that our stable of performers is there at least by six."
He barely acknowledged the man's nod as he continued. "Our craftsmen are already there, preparing the sets. It's a pity we can't have a celebrity performer tonight, but no one suitable can be obtained." He seemed to brood briefly on that fact, then his expression brightened perceptibly. "Still, the show must go on, and all that crap! Everyone get busy, and let's put this unpleasantness behind us! Anthony, notify the usual people to dispose of this idiot's remains."
His bodyguard nodded and ushered the others out as he himself left, leaving Macheles to brood once again. "A real pity..." He mused aloud, "Three shows in a row with no special participation. And I don't believe there will be that many more, this has gone on far too long for my sense of security." He shook his head, then opened his laptop computer and began to work with it. "Real pity..."
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The bartender on duty in the Bolts Hole was also the manager, and he looked up with interest as the door opened to admit two new arrivals. Currently he only had three other customers, all office workers from the factory across the street, and he hoped that the rain didn't keep the crowd this small. One man sat at the bar, while a young couple shared one of the booths and talked in low voices.
The newcomers were obviously female, and his eyes drifted from the obvious feminine attributes of the first to fall upon the more slender second, brow knitting in a frown. But as the taller one came more fully into the light, something about her caught his attention and held it. The color of her skin.
His eyes widened in recognition as his stomach did a flip-flop before settling down. He managed to completely regain his composure before Shego finished a quick sweep of the bar with her eyes, and ended looking at him as she took a seat on one bar stool. "Bud Light, draft." She ordered.
The bartender kept himself from showing undue haste as he complied with the order, eyes again drifting to the second newcomer as he did. He again frowned as he recognized her, the jacket now back in it's proper place no longer shadowing her features. His response was automatic, before considering what situation would cause Kim Possible to enter a bar in the company of her most notorious foe. "Sorry, Miss, but you can't be in here."
"Huh?" Kim blurted out before her brain produced the reason for the bartender's statement, causing her face to redden slightly. "Oh..."
"No one under twenty-one allowed during serving hours in an establishment offering hard liquor." The bartender stated firmly. "And I can't make any exceptions, even if I wanted to."
Kim's blush deepened, partially due to angry frustration caused by Shego's superior smirk. "I'll bet she knew this would happen!" She thought hotly, but managed a civil nod to the bartender. "Of course I understand, I wasn't thinking!"
"Sorry Kimmie, the law's the law, after all." Shego chided her, "Guess you'll have to wait in the car!"
Kim's cheeks burned with embarrassment from not having anticipated this. A quick look at the three patrons of the bar who were all listening raptly to the exchange gave her no cause to believe the person they sought was present, but it was still with great reluctance that she nodded and answered tightly. "Yes, I suppose I have to! But our agreement still stands, Shego!" She added in a lower tone of voice.
One of Shego's eyes twitched in annoyance, but she nodded curtly. "Got it, Princess!" she responded, the added mockingly, "Now run along like a good girl!" The glare that Kim favored Shego with forced the bartender to exert a stupendous amount of willpower not to duck down behind the bar, and he barely hid his relief when the teenager merely nodded abruptly and left.
Not that he had any reason to relax, because that left one of Go City's most notorious former residents sitting at his bar, sipping her beer and studying him speculatively. He managed to retain his composure as he gazed back at her, causing the corners of her mouth to quirk briefly before she addressed him. "I suppose you can guess that I'm here for a reason? Well, I'd like to ask you a few questions about one of your regulars..."
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The rain was still falling heavily as Kim got back into the Mustang and slammed the door unnecessarily. She took nearly two minutes getting her anger and frustration under control while glowering at the entrance to the bar. Finally taking in a long, slow breath and then letting it out, she pulled out her Kimmunicator.
As she held it, trying to focus on what she needed to ask Wade for, she cursed herself yet again for not anticipating her being evicted from a bar. After all, after Ron had written 'So the Drama', Big Daddy Brotherson had actually threatened legal action if Ron didn't add a disclaimer, making it clear that neither teen had actually been allowed into the casino area at The Bermuda Triangle, nor had Ron been allowed to participate in actual gambling on the premises.
Kim smiled briefly as she remembered Ron's predictable response when she'd warned him in advance that some trouble might come from it. "What's he going to do, sue me?" he'd replied with a grin.
Thinking of Ron made Kim sigh deeply, wishing he was there with her. She harbored feelings of guilt about not telling Ron how dangerous things had become on her last visit to Isle Drakkon. She told herself it was solely because she didn't want him feeling guilty that he hadn't been there, but that was only part of the problem. She also hadn't wanted to admit how badly she'd messed up, or cause him to think he had to abandon things important to him in order to make sure she never went solo again. Which would have also tweaked her not inconsiderable pride!
She shook those thoughts off and returned to the present. Activating the Kimmunicator, she smiled as Wade came on. "Hey Kim! How's it going with you-know-who?"
That soured the smile a bit. "Oh, just Spankin, Wade!" Kim stared out the windshield at the bar entrance again, then returned her attention to Wade. "Wade, can you find the location of 'Porsky's Auto Repair', here in Go City?"
"Coming right up!" He replied cheerfully. Less than a minute later, the Kimmunicator screen changed to a map of the neighborhood Kim sat in, with her location and that of the garage indicated. She quickly oriented herself, deciding which direction their target would approach from. If he came to the bar for lunch. Kim wondered if it wasn't more likely that the bar was where Tom Frailey went after work, when he could drink freely without worrying about working afterwards. But, she admitted that she didn't know enough about the man to be certain. But some things about him should be easy to learn.
"Wade, can you find a picture for me of a man named Tom Frailey? His Uncle is a benefactor for the orphanage where Shego grew up, but other then that, I have nothing more for you to go on." Then she reconsidered. "He might have a criminal record...if we still have any access because of Global Justice, you might check the GCPD database."
Wade looked dubious. "Well, we still have the authorization Doctor Director gave us, but using it means she'll hear about the search. So, if you're trying to keep it a secret..."
Kim scowled, but shook her head. "Doesn't matter, Wade, see if you can get that picture."
"You got it!"
As Kim sat and waited, the rain became even heavier, and now the wind was apparently picking up, driving the drops against the passenger side window. Which inconveniently reduced the visibility in the direction where she most needed a clear view. She muttered something impolite under her breath. Then Wade came back on.
"Kim, found three Tom Fraileys with criminal records in Go City. But two of them are over forty, so I'm thinking they're not who you're looking for. Here's a picture of the last guy." Finding no fault with Wade's reasoning, Kim studied the mugshot. Kim had a hunch Tom Frailey had had a hard time just before the picture was taken, he looked disheveled, with shadows under his eyes. Still, Kim judged him to be fairly handsome when cleaned up, just the sort of guy to be appealing to the girls at the orphanage. She could see him having little trouble seducing teenage girls, provided he wasn't completely charmless in his approach.
Wade noticed the grim look on Kim's face. "What exactly did this guy do, Kim? I mean, he was busted for disorderly conduct, three times, but that's not what you're after him for, is it?"
Kim certainly didn't want to tell Wade what Tom Frailey had been up to. "No, it's something different, something he wasn't charged with, Wade. Right now, all I'm interested in is being able to recognize him. Thanks, Wade, I'll check back with you later."
"Okay, Kim, I'll be here." His voice betrayed great reluctance to sign off, and Kim felt a little twinge of guilt. Wade was part of her team, cutting him out of the loop felt wrong. But then again, this sitch was not something he needed to get involved in. "Except he is, because I'm in it! So, am I wrong to get into these kind of things, knowing my friends will get dragged into them as well?"
Kim sighed, then pushed those thoughts aside as she considered her situation. If she saw Tom Frailey come along, what would she do? She didn't want Shego talking to him alone, so that meant stopping him from going inside in the first place. "That's the only way I can talk to him, I can't go into the bar if he does! But it's still splitting hairs, my deal with Shego..." There was also the fact that Tom Frailey would justifiably be disinclined to stand outside in this deluge. There was an awning above the door, but it offered scant protection from the wind-driven rain at the moment. Not to mention it was the only place where they'd be visible from inside.
Then her thoughts were interrupted by movement outside the windshield. The rain made everything blurry, and she practically pushed her face against the glass to try and identify the three forms she could barely make out moving past her towards the door.
She hadn't seen them approach due to the rain obscuring the passenger window, and now as she squinted she was sure that she could make out the features of Tom Frailey, just as one of his companions began to swing the door to the bar open. Kim frantically pulled the door handle and flung it open, shouting "Hey!" Then she was outside in the rain, watching the bar door swing shut. Either they had not heard her, or chose to ignore the shout. She growled in frustration, took a step towards the bar, then angrily turned back and dove back into the shelter of the vehicle, now thoroughly soaked.
She sat there shivering miserably, eyes fixed on the door. Things were out of her hands now. This whole trip to Go City was beginning to seem like her trip to Isle Drakkon, one thing after another going against her.
As she sat there and brooded, another vehicle rolled into the lot and pulled into the parking spot three to her left, on the far side of the two handicapped spaces. Inside it, the two men from Macheles' gang sat. Perry was busy donning a pair of leather gloves. His companion, Mitchell, was having trouble sitting still, eyes darting nervously about at random things as he moistened dry lips.
Gloves on, Perry reached over the back seat and produced a shoe box, which he opened, removing a cloth wrapped object. This proved to be a pistol, a 9mm automatic. He checked to make sure it was loaded, with a round chambered, then stuck it in the back of his waistband. "Okay, let's go!" He told Mitchell, "If we can, we get Frailey out of the bar quietly. Even voluntarily, if you can think of a way. If he doesn't come, we scare him a bit, then leave and wait for him to bolt. Hopefully, we won't have any trouble with him at all, but we will be getting everything Mister Macheles asked for, got it?"
Mitchell's answer was a jerky nod. Perry looked at him for a moment longer, then shook his head in disgust. "Come on, let's get this over with!" He snapped, then opened his door and exited into the rain. After a moment's hesitation, Mitchell followed, ducking his head and dashing for the awning.
He stopped beneath it briefly as Perry went straight inside. He noticed the Mustang, and admired it distractedly for a moment. He noticed it was occupied, but could not make out any details of the occupant. In any event, it wasn't important, he reasoned, as he swung the door open and went inside the bar.
Apologies for the delay in updating this story, needed to be in right mood to write it.
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