The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume Two: The Heist of Spring Road Toys (8 page)

“Oh, jeez!” Rocket said, rolling his eyes. He
knew he couldn’t win this fight, so he let his brother have his
way. “OK, Mr. Bond, we’ll go with channel ten,” Rocket said,
turning away from his older brother.

As the two boys separated, they took
different sides of the mall. Rocket started to cover the north end
of the courtyard, while his older brother, Wedge, went about to the
south.

The mall was packed with kids, and the search
would not be easy. For several minutes, the two boys investigated.
Rocket went up and down the different eateries in the food court
looking for anyone who matched the description and pictures the
boys had gone over at The Playground. Wedge searched high and low
in the different surrounding stores, but he found no one.

Finally, Wedge spotted a pair of boys trying
to pick up a group of girls just to the right of the food court. He
snuck his way over behind a few pillars and plants and was able to
ID the boys.

“
Bingo
,” he said to himself. Radioing
back to his brother, Wedge reported his findings.

“Rocket. Come in, Rocket. Over,” he said.

“Did you find them?” his brother came
back.

“Right outside the sports store,” Wedge said.
“What’s our next move? Over.”

“Get in closer and try and pick something up
on the microphone. I’ll be there in a minute,” Rocket said, making
his way around the courtyard.

“Roger that,” Wedge said as he started toward
the boys. Cautiously, he worked his way over to them, staying close
to the storefronts.

As Wedge got closer, he drew the attention of
the two boys. Ace, the leader of the two, looked right up at Wedge.
Wedge panicked and ducked into the first neighboring store.
Quickly, he started rummaging through one of the racks in the front
of the store, trying to act casual. Ace dismissed his suspicion and
continued back to the girls.

Occasionally looking over his shoulder, Wedge
kept an eye on the two boys. They eventually tired of the girls and
headed off on their own. Wedge, continuing to look through the
racks, slid his hand down into his pocket and took out a small,
round microphone. With its attached booster signal, it was able to
pick up the conversations of the two boys. Wedge moved in closer,
trying to pick up their signal. After a couple crackles and hisses,
their conversation became audible.

“Stupid girls. They don’t know what they’re
missing,” said Tommy O’Toole.

“Yeah. We’re rich now,” Ace said with a
sinister laugh.

“Not yet. We still need to get paid,” Tommy
countered.

“Yeah, but after tomorrow, we’ll have it
made,” Ace said back to his friend. “We still have a couple hours
before we have to get home. What do you wanna do?”

“Let’s go to the movies. What time does the
show start?” asked Tommy.

“Don’t know. I’ll call on my cell phone,” Ace
said, and he started dialing. As he dialed, he spun around, and his
back became visible to Wedge’s vantage point. A blue object seemed
to be nestled in Ace’s back pocket.

“Rocket, can you make out the back pocket
from your location?” Wedge said to his brother over his radio.

Rocket sat at a table across the food court.
He tried to sit inconspicuously behind a group of men who were
eating at the table in front of him. He lifted his hands up to his
face and looked through the window on his camera.

“Scanning,” Rocket radioed back. With his 20X
digital zoom camera, Rocket zoomed in on the boy’s back pocket. The
object, a blue slingshot plane, became clear as he focused the
camera. Rocket gasped and radioed back to his brother.

“That’s KC’s plane!” Rocket said as he
snapped off a couple photos. “No one has a plane like that. He
ordered it special from Spring Road Toys. It’s one of a kind!”

It was the proof the two boys were looking
for. They had now just linked Ace and Tommy to the break-in of
Spring Road Toys.

Ace and Tommy started to move further away
from the twins. Wedge noticed this and switched the microphone back
on. A rustle later, their voices came in loud and clear in his
ear.

“The show starts in ten minutes. Let’s get
going,” Ace said. The two boys who had vandalized Spring Road Toys
not more than a day ago walked calmly through the mall.

“Should I follow them?” Wedge asked his
brother.

“No. We need to report back. We know where
they are going to be for a few hours. Let’s clue in every one of
our findings,” Rocket said as he looked up to see a saleswoman in
the store approaching his brother. “You have company.”

Wedge quickly put his microphone back into
his pocket, turned around, and looked at the rack of clothes in
front of him. He barely got a glance at it when the lady spoke.

“Um, can I help you?” the saleslady said with
a snotty attitude. High school girl—go figure.

“No. No. I’m OK. Just looking for something
for me,” Wedge said and shot a big, fake smile toward the girl.

“I bet,” the lady replied. She let out a
small smile as she walked away. Wedge turned back around with an
inquisitive look on his face. He immediately understood why she had
laughed. Wedge was looking at a rack full of dresses.

“Find anything you like?” a voice came over
his earpiece. An embarrassed Wedge glared out of the store to see
his brother standing there in front of him.

“Shut up, Rocket!” Wedge said under his
breath in embarrassment.

“No, seriously. I think you’d look good in a
pink dress,” Rocket said, busting out in laughter.

“Shut up, Rocket!” Wedge yelled a little
louder and stormed out of the store.

“You’re right,” Rocket said, following his
brother. “I’ll just get it for your birthday. But what size are
you?”

“Shut up, Rocket!” yelled Wedge from the
bottom of his gut. His younger brother, still enjoying the moment,
almost busted his gut laughing so hard.

Back at The Playground, KC and Gears sat
around a computer interface waiting for a report from the twins.
Seconds later, over a secure line, the call came.

“Did you find out anything on the two boys?”
KC asked right away without saying hello.

“Yes. Transmitting,” Rocket said from the
food court. He didn’t have the heart to tell Kid about his plane.
Rocket sat at the keyboard and sent the digital photos of the two
boys back to The Playground. One by one the images appeared on
Gears’s screen. The first ones showed the two boys talking to some
girls, then the next showed them standing in the mall. More images
showed the two boys on the phone, and the last image was of one of
the boy’s back pockets. It showed KC’s blue slingshot plane.

“Hey! That’s my plane!” KC screamed out. It
didn’t take him long to figure things out. “It was them. Samantha
was right.”

“Yeah, definitely, KC. What’s our next move?”
Wedge’s voice came over the speaker.

“Where are they now?” Kid asked.

“They are at the movies at the far end of the
mall. They called there before we lost visual contact with them,”
Rocket replied.

“Do we know anything else?” Gears asked.

“Yes. They have a meeting with the curator
scheduled for sometime tomorrow,” Rocket answered.

“Meeting, eh? We might be able to use that,”
Kid mused to himself.

“Kid, I have an idea,” Gears said, hacking
away at his keyboard. “Get that cell phone. We might be able to use
it.”

“You heard him, boys. Get that phone and
report back when you have it. Out.”

“Roger that,” Rocket said as he closed his
laptop computer and shut off his cell phone. He packed up the
laptop and turned to his brother. “Let’s go get us a cell
phone.”

Several minutes went by. The twins had to
walk to the other side of the mall to reach the recently finished
movie theater. The Jones Cineplex held twenty large screens, plus
every amenity you could think of.

An arcade on the second floor had every type
of video game imaginable. Down the hall, a very elaborate
eighteen-hole miniature golf course existed as a whole separate
wing. Visitors entered through a twenty-foot-high golf ball. A
candy store, an ice cream store, and a café supplied a fix of
whatever they craved.

The two boys walked up to the main ticket
booth and looked over the movies that were showing. They also
looked over the times.

“That one, Bleed Like Me. It’s the only one
that has started within the last hour,” Rocket determined.

“Good thinking,” Wedge said as he approached
the ticket counter. “Two for Bleed Like Me,” he said to the ticket
lady. She collected the boys’ money and gave them their tickets.
They entered the movie theater.

“Which theater are we heading to?” Rocket
said to his brother. Wedge looked down at the tickets.

“Four. Theater Four. It’s this way,” he said,
guiding them to the right entrance.

“We’re late, and the picture has already
started. How are we going to find them?” Rocket said.

“We’ll have to hang in back and check things
out first,” Wedge said as the two approached the door to Theater
Four.

“Right,” Rocket said. “But, let’s try to be
quiet.”

They swung the door open. Just as they had
expected, the movie had already started. In front of them, the
large screen flickered and splashed the crowd with light. The
moviegoers were all engrossed by the film, and not a one saw the
two boys entering in late. Wedge and Rocket quickly walked in,
closed the door, and made their way across the empty back row of
the theater.

People started to “eww” and “ah” at the
scenes from the movie. Bleed Like Me was the latest horror movie to
hit the big screen. There was a lot of commotion in the theater as
the lead villain took form on the screen, but the biggest commotion
was happening near the front of the theater.

Ace and Tommy were seated in the third row.
As they watched the horror movie, they caused a very loud annoyance
throughout the theater. Having no respect for anyone around them,
they hooted and hollered at the screen and threw popcorn up at it.
As the slasher in the movie made its next big kill, the two boys
leaped out of their seats and screamed “Yeah! Get ’em!” They also
gave each other high fives and hip-checks.

Rocket was the first to notice the two boys.
He gently nudged his brother with his elbow and did a head gesture
to tell his brother where the two boys were. Wedge responded with a
small nod. After a few more seconds, Wedge turned back to his
little brother.

“Well, go get the phone,” he said quietly.
Rocket turned to his brother with a questioning look.

“Me? Why me?” Rocket asked.

“Ah, because I said so,” Wedge replied
snottily. “Besides, you don’t like horror movies. I’ve wanted to
see this.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rocket
replied, his voice getting a bit louder. “You mean to tell me you
want me to go get the phone, while you just sit here?”

“That’s right,” Wedge said, dropping into his
seat a little more.

“Now you listen here—” Rocket started, but he
was interrupted. The man in front of him swiveled around in his
chair.

“Shh!” The man said in disgust. He glared at
the two boys for a brief second before turning back around in his
chair.

“Sorry,” Rocket said to the man.

The next few minutes turned into a game of
not so friendly charades between the set of twins. In a vain
attempt not to bother the people there to watch the movie and not
draw any more attention, the boys reduced themselves to a very
crude set of hand gestures to get their points across. Rocket
started with pointing at Wedge and then pointing down to the boys,
all with a very determined look on his face.

Wedge, not impressed, folded his arms across
his body and just shook his head from side to side as he raised his
nose in the air. He extended one finger, shook it back and forth,
and pointed at Rocket, then the boys.

Rocket just shook his head in disgust. He
then pointed to himself and mouthed the word “me” in a questioning
fashion. He recanted the fact that he was the one to find the boys
by pointing at himself again, then mimicked a pair of binoculars in
front of his eyes.

Wedge rolled his eyes as if to say, “Yeah,
that was real hard.” He then pointed at himself, then at the two
boys, and then out the door, as if to say he was the one who had
found them outside.

Rocket made the OK sign back with his hands
and rolled his eyes. The boys seemed to be at a stalemate.

Just then, Rocket got an idea. He swiveled in
his chair and looked at his brother. He pointed at himself, pointed
at the crowd, and pointed again to Wedge. Rocket then stood up, did
a motion of a girl putting on a dress, and sat back down. He called
his brother out and said he would tell everyone back at The
Playground that he had been looking at dresses in the mall.

Wedge glared at his brother with a look that
almost pierced right through him. Rocket just sat back and smiled.
Wedge shook his head back and forth in defiance. He muttered some
parting words, shook his fist in anger, and started out of the row.
Rocket sat back and waved to his brother.

Rocket had won.

Wedge made his way to the edge of the row and
sneaked his way down the aisle. The two boys were about twenty rows
in front of him and were still causing quite a scene. Wedge crept
down the aisle row by row, bent at the waist. He finally made it to
the row behind the two boys and sat about four seats into the row,
almost directly behind the two boys.

Another scene in the movie saw the villain
once again hacking at a body. The two boys jumped up and down in
excitement and yelled at the screen. As they shot back down into
their seats, Wedge moved up closely to the seat in back of Ace and
slid his hand between the two seats. Cautiously, he reached his
hand up toward the belt holster that held Ace’s phone. Wedge then
paused and waited for the right second.