By: RedSwift
Chapter 16
Chip stared at the cat statue in the distance, glistening in the last few rays of the now setting sun. In a few short hours he’d be in there with who knows what. He’d sent Gadget, Monty, and the rest to another building, awaiting midnight so they could sneak in. His earlier scouts of Fat Cat’s casino showed that a few thugs were on patrol, nothing the rest of the team couldn’t sneak by.
*I just hope this all goes well, I have no idea what this guy will want of us,* Chip mused to himself. He went back to his watch over the casino, awaiting his appointment time…
He looked down at the watch installed in the control panel of the Ranger Wing. *11:50, time to start down,* he thought grimly, starting the plane and going towards the rooftop of the Happy Tom Cat Food Factory. As he landed, he saw the distinct silhouette of Monty in the alleyway, waiting for a patrolling guard to pass. Chip shut down the engine, and hopped off the side. He looked around the roof, but saw no one there. He walked down where the red carpet should have been, searching with his eyes and ears for any signs of attack. None came.
The inside of the Casino was in complete disarray. The place had been thoroughly looted, chairs, tables, plants, lights, everything was on the floor. Bottles from the bar were tipped over or broken, coating the floor in now evaporated alcohol, which left the floor sticky under his feet. Lifting his foot and looking with a face of disgust, he tentatively put it back down and moved on towards the elevator, listening for any sounds of habitation. He was disconcerted to hear nothing. He reached the elevator doors, and pushed the call button. The doors immediately opened, and he stepped in. The doors shut with a “THUD” and the elevator started moving up. It dinged as it reached the office floor. Chip tensed himself in a fighting stance as the doors began opening.
As the doors opened, he saw no one at all. The office had befallen the same treatment as the Casino floor. Fat Cat’s desk had been overturned, his files ransacked, the papers blowing in the wind. Chip even noticed that the cushions of the couch had been torn open and the stuffing all strewn about. There was no one in sight. Chip let out his tension with a “WHOOSH” and entered the office, looking around. He made his way over to Fat Cat’s files, and hunched down on his knees, skimming through them. What he wouldn’t have given to have had this kind of access on a few of their cases. Just as he began putting them down, and was heading towards the desk, he heard a phone ringing. He looked around, and pinpointed the sound as coming from a pile of debris in a corner of the office.
He walked over to the pile and started moving the debris away. He uncovered a human cell phone. He looked at it a second, then bent over and pressed the large SEND button to answer it.
“Hello?” he called out uncertainly, unsure if whomever on the other end could understand him.
“Good evening Mr. Maplewood. Do not worry about not being understood, I will understand you perfectly,” a mechanized voice said, as if in response to what Chip was thinking, “I see you violated the terms of this meeting, getting the rest of the Rangers involved.”
Chip stammered a second, trying to deny they were there.
“It is of little importance right now, I had actually planned on them coming, so why don’t the little rats in the ventilation ducts come on out.”
Chip looked up and sure enough saw Gadget’s face staring out at him from behind the grate. She looked frightened, but still looked at Chip for his permission to go or stay where she was. He nodded and she pushed on the grate, letting it fall noisily to the floor. Chip flinched instinctively at the loud noise, and went over to help Gadget and the rest down from the vent. As he helped Rex, the last one down in the shaft, the mechanized voice came back from the phone next to them.
“Good, now that everyone’s here, time for your instructions, you are to go down to the docks, at the end of Pier 13 you will find an associate of mine, he will give you a case, you are to deliver it to another associate of mine who will be standing at the base of the Statue of Liberty. You will receive your next set of instructions there. You have two hours,” and with that a click was heard, signaling the end of the conversation.
Chip looked around at all the huddled faces, “Everyone still with me?”
Everyone nodded agreement, and Chip went on, “OK, I’ll take Rex, Darice, and Støy. Gadget, you, Monty, and Adrian find Zipper, fill him in, and meet us at the docks as quick as you can. We’ll be there scoping it out.”
Gadget nodded in agreement, and led her team out. Chip looked around at his team, “OK, let me and the Rangers do all the talking, we’ve handled this thing before.”
“Gotcha, Chip,” Darice answered, the unofficial leader of her group.
“OK, let’s take this smoothly and see what happens next,” Chip said, going towards the elevator to the main floor of the Casino and the Ranger Wing.
Disclaimer: The Rangers and Foxglove are Copyright Disney. Used without permission but with the utmost respect. Darice, Rex, Adrian, Støy, Linda, and Smiles are figments of my imagination trying to get out. You may post this story in any way, so long as you don’t modify my words or gain profit from it. (Boy, isn’t all this legal mumbo jumbo fun?)