“I thought it was obvious,” Alpha Prime stated. “We need your help figuring out where Mouse has gone to ground.”
“Why in the world would I help you hunt him down when I’m not sure he did anything wrong?” I demanded.
“Because if we find him and he attacks again, someone might get hurt,” Buzz stated.
“But if you’re there,” my father quickly interjected, “it’s a lot more likely that we can avoid any conflict. Mouse trusts you – he’ll listen to you.”
I chewed on this for a moment, then let out a sigh. “What makes you think I can find him?”
“Because you know him better than almost anybody,” Alpha Prime said.
“What about Vixen?” I countered. “I’m sure Mouse’s girlfriend will have a better idea of where he’s hanging his hat.”
“Can’t find her,” Luna explained. “She’s disappeared.”
“So track her,” I suggested. “Her cell phone, her communicator… You can use those and other stuff to pin down her location.”
“We tried,” Solar Surge noted. “No luck. Wherever she is, she’s off the grid.”
“Well, did anybody reach out to Braintrust?” I asked.
There was no immediate response to my question, which made me wonder if they had understood me. Braintrust (also known as “BT”) was a cluster of clones sharing a single hive mind. Smart and knowledgeable (and with a wealth of resources), BT often worked closely with Mouse.
“To be perfectly frank,” my father finally said, “we were hoping to keep this in the family, if you catch my drift. And since BT isn’t officially a member of the League…”
He trailed off, but I understood where he’d been going: he didn’t want BT involved.
“So I guess that means I’m ‘it,’” I concluded.
“I’m afraid so,” Alpha Prime said. “But we’ll keep the option of going to BT open, as well as anyone else who might be able to help.”
“Okay, then,” I droned, coming to my feet. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 22
We started off in Mouse’s lab – me, Alpha Prime, Buzz, and Luna. It looked pretty much as it had on the footage (which wasn’t surprising since all of the action had happened just a few hours earlier). The place was a little unkempt, with some papers strewn about and a few computer components littering the floor in some areas – the result of having three League members running around trying to wrangle holograms. Otherwise, aside from all the equipment and monitors being off, the room looked as it generally did. There was one thing I noticed, however.
“What happened to the Construct?” I asked.
“It’s been moved to a safe location,” Alpha Prime said. “Can’t risk whatever happened to Mouse happening to anyone else.”
“That raises an interesting point,” I noted. “Why weren’t you, Luna, or Surge affected?”
“Presumably it had to do with proximity,” Luna chimed in. “Mouse was closer to the Construct, so he was influenced by whatever it did. The rest of us were seemingly out of range.”
“Hmmm,” I droned. “What was that thing doing here anyway?”
“It was found by a research team in some volcanic rock on a remote island,” Alpha Prime said. “It then passed through the hands of a few government scientists, who really didn’t know what it was or what to do with it. Ultimately, they ended up asking Mouse for help.”
I nodded as he spoke, understanding that it was not an unusual pattern. Top scientists in a dozen fields were known to consult with Mouse on occasion. The man was absolutely brilliant, with a level of genius that couldn’t even be defined or categorized.
He was also incredibly organized, I thought, looking around again at the clutter. There wasn’t much of it, but still…
Switching into super speed, I zipped around the lab, picking up papers and other stuff from the floor and placing them on one of the worktables. It took almost no effort on my part and kept the place looking presentable, which was what I knew Mouse would want. Plus, I spent a decent amount of time in the lab, so I felt a certain obligation to keep it tidy.
Satisfied, I switched back to normal speed. Without warning, Luna suddenly advanced on me, looking angry.
“What did you do?” she demanded.
I found myself dumbfounded by her reaction. Luna had a reputation for being a little bit crazy, but I didn’t have a clue what might have set her off in this instance.
Turning on his own super speed, Buzz dashed over and came to a halt in front of her.
“Easy,” Buzz said, holding his palms toward her. “Just slow down.” He gave Luna a moment to take a breath, then continued. “Jim didn’t do anything. I was watching him, and all he did was clean the place up.”
Her face still stamped with an intense expression, Luna casually glanced around for a few seconds. Seemingly satisfied with the explanation (and her own visual confirmation), she gave a short nod.
“I apologize,” she said, although her tone didn’t convey the necessary sentiment. “This situation has me on edge.”
“It has all of us a little wound up,” Alpha Prime added, then focused his attention on me. “Well, Jim, you wanted to see the lab. Thoughts?”
“None so far,” I admitted. “There’s an old adage about criminals always returning to the scene of the crime. Going with the wild assumption that Mouse did something wrong, I was just curious as to what he might come back here for.”
“And?”
I shrugged. “Just eyeballing the place, nothing jumps out at me. I mean, I was here this morning – I’m here practically every day, in fact – and there’s nothing that strikes me as being out of place.”
As I spoke, however, a new thought occurred to me, and I realized I was overlooking something.
“Hmmm,” I droned. “Hang on a sec.”
Without waiting for a response, I teleported, popping up in a huge, cavernous chamber. It was a secret room that connected to Mouse’s lab, although I had only been in it a few times before. It was primarily used for storage, as evidenced by a
