The Bikini Break
EPILOGUE - LEADERSHIP AND COMMAND
Four nights after Gadget had cleanly won Chip’s insidious bet, poker night rolled around at Ranger Headquarters. The game was about halfway done, with Monty and Zipper having just been cleaned out and turning their attention on the kitchen. Chip and Foxglove abandoned their losing hands and followed, leaving Dale to rake in the pot, then join them. Gadget, who had pitched a bum hand at the first ante, was alone in the front room when a soft but insistent knocking came from their front door.
“I’ll get it!” she called. A late-evening knock on the door of Rescue Ranger Headquarters did not always portend trouble. Often it was a visit from friends. Sometimes a request for help. Once in a great while, it was something completely unexpected.
Gadget pulled the door open and her cheery greeting caught in her throat. She always tried to keep herself ready for anything, but she was quite unprepared for this.
“Good evening, Miss Hackwrench,” the mouse said. “Could I speak to you in private for a moment?”
He was a gray and white mouse with a well groomed head of pure white hair. He wore a simple gray business suit coat and watched her with a penetrating bright blue eye. Eye, because the left socket was covered with a black eyepatch. He was not much taller than she, but he seemed to fill the doorway and loom over her. He spoke with a deep, stern, commanding voice. If a voice could have ordered the waters to part, this one would have done it.
“Who is it, Gadget?” Chip’s voice floated in from the hallway.
“It’s for me,” she called back. “I’ll just be a few minutes.” I hope, she thought as she stepped out onto the landing deck, following her visitor. He walked about halfway down the deck and turned to her, putting his back nonchalantly against the railing.
“We did not have the opportunity to be formally introduced when we first met, Miss Hackwrench. My name is Charles Omega. That’s my real name. Most of those who work for me call me Chucky.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Gadget said, shaking his hand with some trepidation. “Formally, that is.”
“I thought I should offer my personal congratulations and thanks. Your efforts in the Marshall Islands preserved a way of life for hundreds of mice. As for your success in Tillamook, you are responsible for saving the lives of millions of small animals, and given the nature of our business, this may be the only thanks you get.”
“M...millions?” she said, her eyes growing wide. “You’re exaggerating. Aren’t you?”
“The intelligence estimates made it clear that if the contamination had gone unchecked, and that toxic plastic had gone into widespread use, the fatality rate could have reached twenty percent among mice alone. That could total two hundred million deaths. I take it my operators didn’t accurately inform you of the nature of the threat. It was not an accident, Miss Hackwrench. It was a calculated attack with a biochemical weapon which was purposefully implanted in the plastic. We estimate it may have taken up to two years to prepare. That you could so quickly put an end to the danger is phenomenal.”
“Oh golly! I never thought for an instant... Who could have done such a thing? Why?”
“It wasn’t humans. If they’d found a way to put a rodenticide in food that was harmless to humans, they’d heap Nobel Prizes on the inventor. It was surreptitious, well crafted, almost unstoppable. It had to be animals. As to why - terror, pure and simple. To disrupt the lives of ordinary rodents and keep them living in fear. To what ultimate end we don’t yet know. But none of what was intended will happen, thanks to you.”
“I wasn’t alone by a long shot. I don’t deserve all the credit.”
“You were the spark plug,” he said with admiration. “You set everything in motion, and in the right direction. You made it all work. It’s somewhat embarrassing, considering I tried to give you the brush-off.”
“That medal you gave me,” she said, catching his drift. “That was meant to be a pat on the head and ‘go home, little girl,’ wasn’t it?”
“Something like that,” he admitted. “I see you don’t take a hint. That being the case, I think you’re entitled to know just what you’ve stepped into.”
“Mr. Omega, is this just going to be a cover story? A little truth with a bodyguard of lies?”
He turned and faced the open field of the park, the lights just beginning to come on in the twilight. Gadget stepped up beside him at the railing.
“We don’t have a name for our organization,” he explained. “It makes us that much harder to find. There are those who would spare no effort to hunt down teams like Dos Gringos Scruffy and kill them, if they could. The secrecy we operate under is not a luxury or a bureaucratic alibi. If operators like Gary and Gordon are to survive at all, a bodyguard of lies may be all there is to protect them.”
“They seem to take pretty good care of themselves,” Gadget said. “I don’t think they’d have a problem taking on the Dirk Suave role.”
He smiled at the reference to the fictional secret agent. “We are not spies or assassins. Our task is protection and prevention. Counterintelligence, if you like. We try to prevent the loss of vital technology or information, and protect against those who would misuse it, be they animal or human. After all, if anyone detonated a nuclear device here in Los Angeles, there would be ten times as many animal causalities as human ones. We do what we can to keep any such disaster at bay. I have a number of highly capable operational teams on call throughout the country. Nonetheless, there have been occasions when I have called my people off a mission because you and the Rescue Rangers became involved.”
“Golly! we never meant to interfere with anything. We just want to help.”
“That you have. I have called off my people to keep them from interfering with you. Regardless of the type of case you’ve taken up, from a lost kitten to a mad scientist to a dangerous spy ring, you have never failed in your mission, and you have never lost a member of your team. That is unique. I don’t think you’re aware of the high esteem you are held in.”
She smiled and turned away at the compliment. “We look out for each other, and we’re careful. Well, mostly careful.”
“I have careful and skillful people, too, and can’t boast your record. Our operational teams are from two to six members. The average life span of a team, before one or more of its members is killed, severely injured or has the good sense to resign, is eighteen months. Gary and Gordon have been an operational team for over five years.”
Gadget frowned as the meaning sank in. “You’re saying they’re living on borrowed time, is that it?”
“I’m saying they’re the best there is. I would like to keep them around for a while, and I believe you would be a civilizing influence on them. Your presence in a critical situation may keep them from going to extremes.”
“Gary was ready to take desperate measures out at Bikini. He was ready to get himself killed. He wasn’t even going to give Gordon or me a chance to help.”
“As leader of the team it’s his responsibility to see the mission succeeds, and he feels responsible for both of you. If it’s his decision to take the greatest risk... well, that’s why I assigned him.
She nodded and idly flicked a leaf off the railing. As long as she had the boss’ ear, she decided to learn as much as she could.
“There seems to be some difficulty between you and Gary,” she said casually. “Does he dislike someone making decisions for him?”
“I’m aware of his feelings. He has his reasons.” Omega turned his gaze on her and guessed her intent. “A few years ago he had a different partner, a brand new fellow. I had a mission that called for Gary’s particular talents, so I assigned his team. Gary came back, his partner didn’t.”
“And he blames you for sending someone without experience?”
“Gary has never come to terms with the difference between leadership and command.”
“Is there a difference?” Gadget asked, puzzled. “I thought they were about the same.”
“Consider this,” he said. He stepped away from the railing and indicated the Headquarters behind him. “There are people and ideals that you have dedicated yourself to. Things you have risked your life for.”
“Of course.”
“And you have had occasion to take your friends into great danger in support of those ideals?”
“Well, not always intentionally, but, yes.”
“That is leadership. That is what Gary was prepared for out on Bikini. Now,” he waved toward the softly glowing windows of the tree. “suppose you became aware of a great, lethal danger. Could you send your friends out to deal with it knowing, in your heart of hearts, that some of them wouldn’t come back alive?”
Gadget felt a powerful wave of fear, as if she were about to make that decision for real. She shook her head and tried to think it through, but her stomach merely added knots upon knots in response.
“I’d... I’d go myself.”
“What if you couldn’t? Suppose that would lead to a greater loss of life? Could you, at the greatest need, send some of your best friends to their deaths?”
She bowed her head. She tried to imagine a peril so great she could ask such a thing of her friends. She couldn’t think of anything. But to know of such danger and not take action...
“I don’t know, Mr. Omega. I don’t know if I could do that.”
“That is command,” he said softly. “Sometimes, if lives are to be saved, if what we hold dear is to be preserved, someone must say to someone else, ‘Go.’ And it isn’t easy. The point is, I do not consider anyone to be expendable. I will not ask any of you to do anything I would not personally undertake. I no longer have the physical ability to expect to succeed, but I assure you, if the moment comes, I will stand at your side to the last.”
“I would never doubt that, sir. But, with everything that’s happened, all the deaths, the way you’re talking, it’s like you think we’re at war. Animals don’t make war, Mr. Omega.” She considered his age and experience and looked at him hopefully. “Isn’t that so?”
“Animals don’t make war as humans do,” he answered, “with mass armies, mass weapons and mass destruction. But what we’re facing is a war. A quiet war. In the old fable, it didn’t take all the mice to bell the cat. It took one. A soldier. This war will be fought and won by a few dedicated individuals. People like Gary and Gordon and Gloria. People like you.”
He turned and stood beside her, looking at the tree she called home. “You are under no obligation to accept any mission. If you think it too dangerous, or it is simply inconvenient, or especially if the Rangers are on a case, you must not hesitate to decline.”
“Mr. Omega, we can go a long time between cases. I became a Rescue Ranger because I wanted to use my skills to help others, and so that other animals could live their lives in peace and safety. I’ve seen first-hand how important your work is.”
“Of necessity, we do much of our work in secret. Secrets put a strain on relationships and I won’t ask you to keep secrets from your fellow Rangers. You must keep happiness in your home. If you can’t live your own life with a sense of peace and safety, then we have failed. That, alone, is why we do all of this.”
He stepped back and took her hand in both of his. “Good night, Miss Hackwrench. Good fortune to you and yours. And take care.”
“Good night, sir.” she shook his hand warmly. “I’m ready any time you need me. When the time comes, say ‘Go.’”
THE END
COPYRIGHTS AND DISCLAIMERS: Gadget, Chip, Dale, Monterey Jack, Zipper, Tammy,
Aldrin Clordane, Bela Nogoodnik, Ratso Ratsywatski, Prof. Nimnull, and the Rescue
Rangers are © and T.M. The Walt Disney Company and were employed here without
permission. With sincere apologies for making such a hash of their vacation
time.
All other characters, locations, equipment and situations are © 2002 by David D. White. Permission to copy and redistribute without charge is granted, provided the work is not altered, edited, irradiated above 30 R/hr or otherwise fiddled with.
Low Flight is dedicated to the Bicycle Lake Yacht Club, who reminded me that low flying was still hot aviation.
High Flight by John Gillespie MacGee Jr. is available from the U.S. Air Force Museum website on the attached link: www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/
Unauthorized use of U.S. Government property, regardless of how long it has been abandoned, may be actionable under the United States Code. The legal precedents of it’s use by rodents are uncertain.
Bikini Atoll website: www.bikiniatoll.com
Made on Macintosh computers with Appleworks and Adobe Go-Live software.