Huge thanks to everyone who's been following A Sitch Too Far. Just a quick note that things escalate from here, in case anyone wants to bail out because of the 'M' rating. That said, it's not something far outside the rest of what I've written, just pushing things a bit beyond what I'm comfortable calling 'T'.
Chapter 12 - Aces High
It had been a painless drive to the hotel, where the two teens checked in and dropped off their bags, apart from a pair of mission backpacks. They also took the opportunity to change into their usual mission gear, although Kim was forced to wear a beanie to hide her hair – still a less bad option than wearing the wig on a mission that would probably involve running and crawling around. The chemical plant was not far away, leaving enough time for a late lunch. Since the options nearby at three in the afternoon were Cow & Chow, Bueno Nacho or a Kebab place that advertised its food with the least appealing photos known to mankind, the choice was obvious.
"Man, I haven't seen a Bueno Nacho this empty since…" Ron began, regretting the yet-unspoken second half of his sentence just a moment too late.
Kim finished Ron's thought, "…Valentine's Day."
"Sorry, didn't mean to bum us both out." Memories of being on the receiving of Zita's 'we should be friends' speech and Mankey's 'dear Kim' bombshell were just about the last thing Ron wanted to bring up.
"It's okay Ron, things started off ferociously terrible, but I think we salvaged things and made a good day out of that sitch."
"I did have fun, KP… It's just, you know, not the same thing." Ron saw Kim's smile fade a little bit, making him regret bringing up that day even more. He'd figured he had at least an okay date lined up, and as nice as the whatever-that-was with Kim had been, the next step was just out of reach. She's just not interested, and I don't blame her.
Kim fidgeted for a few moments, then retrieved the Kimmunicator. Wade's voice was heard.
"Hey guys, everything okay?"
"Everything's fine, Wade," Kim replied. "We're finishing up lunch and then we're off to our destination. Got any new intel?"
"Only that we're convinced something fishy is going on with the owner of the factory, but all the details have been a total brick wall."
"Alright then, we'll call once we're in position…" Kim looked over at Ron. "Ready to go?"
"Let's do this, KP."
Leaving their car at Bueno Nacho, the two friends walked the rest of the way to their objective. The fifteen-minute walk was preferable to conspicuously leaving the car next to the plant. On the side of the road opposite the factory and its neighbors was a wooded area that provided some cover for the initial observation. A vacant lot on the far side of the plant seemed to be the best option for ingress, out of sight of the guard's booth at the main entrance and hopefully out of sight of any roaming guards, which were present in unusual numbers.
"Wade, we've got the chemical plant in sight, and there's a whole lot of activity for a Sunday."
"Well, it says here they don't operate over the weekend, so that's another point for something fishy going on."
"See anything special, Ron?"
Ron was inspecting the facility with the binoculars. Some things looked absolutely mundane and very industrial. But others were pretty unusual.
"Yeah, they've got a bunch of glorified mall cops, at least three guys, I guess they're the outgoing shift," Ron answered. "Also, I don't want to be a drama queen about it," he added with increasing concern in his voice, "but a dude just came out of the main entrance carrying a shotgun – and nobody said anything about guns on this mission!"
"Armed private security? For a random chemical plant?" Ron handed her the binoculars so she could see for herself. "You're right, and if that guy is carrying a shotgun, who knows what else they have on hand. Good news is that I don't see anyone on the roof, so that's probably our best bet."
"The blueprints show a ladder on the far side of the building, which you guys can use to get up there," Wade offered.
"Seems like a good plan, if we can make sure there's no one around there," Kim agreed.
The two teens walked on to get a better look at the ladder in question. There did not seem to be any patrols, the guards that could be seen were gathered around the main entrance. Kim looked back at Ron, to confirm that he was following along with the plan. He nodded affirmatively and prepared to follow Kim to the fence. She looked around one last time and ran across the road to the vacant lot, which was full of overgrown weeds and bushes. Ron followed as closely as he could. Kim crouched next to the flimsy fence and took out a set of wire cutters, with which she opened a hole just big enough to crawl through. After both she and Ron had crossed the fence, he folded the cut segment back into place to disguise it. The result would not hold up to any close inspection, but at least it should not attract attention at a distance, so Ron joined Kim who was already by the ladder, a few yards away from the fence.
"Coast is clear, Ron, let's move," Kim said as she moved onto the ladder. It was very exposed should any guards come around the corners of the building, and it would probably take a minute to climb.
"Hang on tight, Rufus, up we go…" Ron glanced upwards, but quickly decided to instead focus on the next rung rather than on what was further up ahead. "Head in the game, head in the game," he mumbled to himself. He breathed a sigh of relief once the climb was over.
Kim, in full-on mission mode, was examining a nearby roof window. "It's unlocked," she announced.
"Are we going inside?" Ron asked.
"Not yet, I want to check things out up here before we go in. You take a look on this side of the roof, I'll start from the other end and we'll meet in the middle."
"Meet in the middle, gotcha," he answered. "Uhm, what are we looking for?"
"Wade," Kim said, "what are we looking for?"
"Well, I'd say anything that looks new and shiny, for starters," Wade replied. "The plant has been around for twenty-odd years, but the equipment to produce the synthogoo would have to be brand new – for instance, GJ's lab is convinced that the carbon nanotubes that the synthogoo uses to carry electrical signals were produced by a cutting-edge vapor deposition process, which would take a room full of support equipment to operate."
"I have to tell you, Wade," Ron interjected, "nothing here looks new or shiny. At first glance anyway."
"We'll have a look," Kim said. "I count 44 skylights, shouldn't take us long to examine and take pictures of anything that looks relevant."
Ron nodded and began working his way from skylight to skylight. Boring industrial workshops gradually morphed into ever dirtier production floors, but with no signs of any advanced manufacturing. He occasionally took a picture or two, unconvinced any of them showed much of interest. When he finally met up with Kim again, she too looked unimpressed by her findings.
"Nothing interesting, Ron?"
"Nope, I'm beginning to think this is not their manufacturing site."
"Guys, any chance they've got part of their operation underground?" Wade questioned.
"Not likely, Wade," Kim answered.
"Yeah, not unless they dug a cavern underneath a running plant and successfully disguised all access routes," Ron added, "which feels like it would be too much effort for something they could just hide in plain sight. Now, if they were producing drugs, that would begin to justify the investment, even if the work involved was –"
Kim interrupted him, "Ron, get down!"
Ron did as ordered and dropped to the floor, instinctively cowering. A few seconds later, he asked, "Uh, KP, what's up?"
"There's a car coming in, we need to stay low," she answered. "Come over here, is that who I think it is?"
Ron crawled up to the edge of the roof to get a view of the car, which had just parked inside the perimeter, close to the fence. It was an unremarkable black European sedan, like a million others on the road, with four occupants. Although the rear passengers appeared unremarkable and the driver occluded the front passenger, the driver's white helmet was rather distinctive. "Uh, are those Dementor's goons?"
"My thoughts precisely, Ron."
"So much for him not being involved in this mess…"
The car doors opened, apart from the driver's. Indeed, two goons stepped out of the rear seats and Professor Dementor himself emerged from the front right seat, barely visible behind the car.
"Okay," Ron commented, "he looks like he's expecting trouble." He reached into his pockets to again retrieve the compact digital video camera that Wade had supplied.
"You mean because of the driver?"
"Yeah."
"Wade, are you getting this?" Kim asked.
"Dementor just showed up, we're with you, Kim. See if you can get some photographic evidence for Doctor Director."
"Way ahead of you, Wade," Ron said, "but there's not much to see yet."
"They look like they're not too happy to be left waiting," Kim commented. "Look, we've got another car coming in," she added a few seconds later. "I don't recognize anyone…"
"Me neither," Ron confirmed. Two men stepped out of the car, the driver had all the look of being in a biker gang, with a leather jacket that carried a number of patches and an aura of troublemaking. His passenger also looked like trouble, but in a much more military way, his posture was rigid and his lack of hair contributed to the comic book villain look. He too wore a leather jacket, but a mundane one that would not particularly stand out anywhere. Ron captured a few images for Wade to examine, as the two men approached Dementor's entourage. They did not shake hands and the tension was evident even from Ron's position, the combined group walked towards the building.
"Guys," Ron whispered after the group entered the building, "any idea where they'll be holding the meeting?"
"I assume they'll use the offices I spotted from the window," Kim answered. "We're going to need ears inside, but I don't think we can sneak in ourselves without blowing our cover."
Ron searched another one of his pockets and called for Rufus, "Hey buddy, think you can carry this bug and pick up their conversation?"
Rufus picked up the device, with some difficulty, and slung it over his back. Satisfied that he could carry it, the naked mole rat enthusiastically gave an affirmative answer and ran into a nearby vent.
"Wade's been giving you new toys," Kim teased.
"It's only fair, and they sure are coming in handy," he answered.
Kim smirked in response. "Wade, can you patch us into the audio feed?"
"Patching you guys in… now!" Wade announced.
The audio that Rufus was picking up mostly consisted of rodent footsteps, he was still on his way to a suitable spot to record from. A little bit later, the background noise stopped and voices could be heard, one of them Dementor's. Whatever the conversation was about, he was decidedly not happy.
„…wieder dieselbe Scheiße mit Drohnen, wie oft muss ich ‚nein' sagen? Nein, nein, nein! Und dass der Drakken dafür bezahlt hat soll irgendwie eine Empfehlung sein? Hallo, der sitzt im Knast! Zehn Drohnen hatte er und trotzdem ist Kim Possible praktisch reinspaziert! Und ich, Professor Dementor, soll dafür Geld ausgeben?"
„Das waren keine zehn Drohnen, höchstens vier oder fünf hatte er fertig, mit ze-"
„Das ist mir ganz egal! Fünf, zehn, oder fünfzehn Einheiten Scheiße sind am Ende des Tages immer noch Scheiße. Und dazu kommt noch, dass jede Behörde von hier bis San Francisco wissen will, woher diese verdammten Drohnen kommen – dann rufe ich lieber beim FBI an, Endeffekt ist das gleiche, der Anruf ist viel billiger."
„Die Drohnen sind aber viel billiger als bei Henchco Männer zu rekrutieren."
„Bei Hencho muss ich mit Genosse Wladimir und dem FSB nichts zu tun haben!"
Footsteps could be heard on the audio as the conversation seemed to end abruptly.
"Wait, that was it?" Ron asked. "Couldn't they have just talked on the phone?"
"I'm more worried about the fact that they mentioned me," Kim replied.
"In hindsight, we should probably have had Dash on the line," Ron mused. I only got 'drones', 'Kim Possible' and something about 'Vladimir' and the FSB?"
"Don't worry guys," Wade interjected, "everything's recorded and Dash will be here any minute."
Rufus arrived back on the roof and started gesturing frantically.
"Kim, I think Rufus is saying we should get some better pictures of the dudes inside," Ron said.
Kim was peering over the edge of the roof and answered, "Make that 'dude', singular. Biker guy followed Dementor out."
"I'm on the other guy, KP." The bald man left the office, having taken off his leather jacket at some point, and headed in the direction of the next skylight. Ron followed along, on the roof. "He's got some weird tattoos, but I can't make anything out on the camera's screen."
"We'll have a better look after you send us the video," Wade said on the other end of the line. "We might get lucky and be able to identify him."
Ron's target entered what seemed to be a restroom, and Ron moved to stay out of sight once he came out. "Anything interesting over there, KP?"
"Not really, Dementor's left, biker guy is by the front gate smoking and chatting with the guard. You?"
"Just silently hoping he washes his hands, sure is taking long enough to do so…"
Soon, he did emerge from the restroom and Ron followed him with the camera. Unexpectedly, the man stopped and looked back and up. Ron threw himself to the ground to hopefully avoid being seen.
"Ah, crap, watch out, KP, we may have trouble, the guy might have seen me."
"Everything's quiet…" She said. "So far, anyway. Come over here…"
Ron joined her at the edge of the roof.
"I don't think he saw you, nothing's happening."
Ron heard the noise of the door beneath them opening and closing, but opted not to expose himself further. Kim was still monitoring things.
"Your guy is awfully calm, Ron, I don't think he saw you. He's heading towards the biker guy…"
Ron joined Kim in observing the parking lot below, the bald man was indeed calmly walking towards the entrance gate, where 'biker dude' was still smoking a cigarette. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry.
"This is too good to be true," he mumbled.
Wade was again heard over the air, "You worry too much, Ron, lighten up!"
"Easy for you to say, Wade, sitting at home…"
When the two men met, they seemed to exchange a few words, and almost immediately 'biker dude' looked startled. He looked up at the roof of the plant, shouting, and pointing in the general direction of where Kim and Ron were.
Ron summed up everyone's thought in that moment: "Uh oh."
Speakers of German will not have gotten the desired effect of having little clue what the conversation with Dementor was about. Everyone else will be brought up to speed next week, so don't despair. Small rant, though: For the German dub (as well as the subtitles), 'synthodrone' got translated as 'künstliche Drohne', literally 'synthetic drone'. I don't like it, it's not a particularly natural thing to say in the same way that 'synthodrone' works. It's technically correct, kids are likely to get it, but it just feels wrong. Hell, they could've called them 'Synthodrohnen' and it would have been just as correct - the only disadvantage is that small kids might struggle more than with the more Germanic option they chose in the end, but I view that as an opportunity for kids to widen their vocabulary.
The Valentine's Day Bueno Nacho sitch is a reference to my other story, So Last Semester. That's not my recommendation for today, I'm not going to cheat two weeks in a row. Instead, my recommendation is Molloy's Kim Possible: The End, a continuation of the story set up in MrDrP's Final. Do not expect fairytale endings, though.