The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume One: A Secret Lost (11 page)

Most of the flooring was intact in this
particular room—that was a luxury at this stage of The Playground.
The maple-color laminate flooring was placed in a diagonal pattern
from back to front. It started to extend into the hall but was
still incomplete.

The walls and ceiling of RD1 had been freshly
painted white not more than two days prior, and the smell was still
thick in the air.

Kid walked toward the back wall of RD1, where
there were two hallways. Between the two doorways, in large silver
letters, the word “SOCKs” was written. The Secret Organization of
Clever Kids. What a perfect name, Kid thought to himself as he
walked through his new secret base.

The door to his left led to a small lab and a
group of conference rooms. That was where members of SOCKs would
spend their time planning cases. Those rooms would be busy soon
enough, but for now, they were empty and barely complete. Kid
couldn’t help thinking about the future and the exciting missions
that lay ahead. He imagined the rooms fully completed and in use by
future team members.

He could see it all.

The bright metal tables with their white
cabinets below. The black and white checkerboard floor. The white
walls that would enclose the whole place. He hoped that one day, it
would look like a real research lab.

Kid saw himself and his closest friends
working hard on missions that would lead to the safety of the other
children in town. He saw his town slowly being pulled out of the
destructive ways it was being led down. He saw his town being rid
of Jones.

But all that was a long way away.

For now, his small lab was nothing more than
a few makeshift tables that sat on some plywood and subflooring.
The walls were anything but white; most were barely covered in
drywall. The conference rooms down the corridor were in no better
shape, save one, the main conference room. It would take a long
time before The Playground was up and running at a hundred percent.
Kid knew he and his team had a lot of work ahead.

But all that would have to wait. He couldn’t
think about that now, and he tried to focus on the mission at hand.
One of his own was missing, and he needed to focus.

Kid shook off his emotions for The Playground
and walked down the right hallway, which led to the team offices,
including his own. This hallway was in better shape. The floors had
the same maple floor as the last room, and glass walls lined the
hallway. It allowed people to look into the offices, keeping an
open, friendly atmosphere.

Kid passed Gears’s office, then his own, and
headed straight to Samantha’s office. He stumbled in among all the
boxes and papers and hoped to find a clue to her whereabouts.

As Kid approached her desk, it became
apparent that she had left in a hurry. He also noticed the change
of clothes on the floor to the right of the desk, the ones she
slipped out of to put on her black suit.

He made his way around the other offices and
into Gears’s workshop. Boxes were strewn all over the floor. Kid
walked over and noticed one box in particular that was ripped open
and laying on its side. As he approached, he saw the label on the
box: “Remote.”

It didn’t take the boy genius long to figure
out what had happened.

Kid made his way back to Samantha’s office,
sat in her chair and thought. Question after question flew into his
head, and he didn’t know which to answer first.

Why would Samantha go after Jones? And why
would she do it alone?

Kid then began to worry about the safety of
his friend. What if he has her? he thought.

He momentarily got angry at his friend. Why
would she do this on her own? She knew better than that. A simple
radio call to one of the guys is all it took. She had done it a
hundred times before. Why not this time?

All those questions plagued Kid as he tried
to decipher what was going on. The most important thing, though,
was finding Samantha. His mind quickly shifted. Kid figured Jones
would take her back to his mansion, as it provided him with plenty
of cover and guards to keep an eye on her.

Great, Kid thought. He knew this wasn’t going
to be easy. He needed his crew. It was time for The Playground’s
first official meeting. Kid made his way to his office, found his
radio, and signaled the boys.

Not too far away, the twins were sitting down
to lunch. The two were bickering, as most siblings do at that age,
when the signal came through.

“KC to Wedge. Come in, Wedge. Over.”

Timmy reached for the radio, sitting on the
edge of the table. He started to answer Kid’s call when the radio
was ripped out of his hand.

“I’ll take this one. After all, he asked for
me,” Wedge said with a devilish smirk.

“Wedge here. Go ahead, Kid. Over”

“The girl is missing. Meet me at The
Playground. Over.”

The twins gasped and looked at each other.
Many emotions went through their heads, from confusing (Samantha is
missing … What could have happened to her? … Where could she be?)
to excitement (The Playground? … We’re meeting there? … It’s
time!).

Finally, Wedge picked up the radio and said
softly, “Roger.”

“Let’s go!” Timmy yelled to his brother and
gave him a quick smack on the shoulder. With that, the twins didn’t
even bother eating. They stormed toward the back door, heading for
The Playground. As they were about to run out their mother entered
the room.

“Where are you two off to in such a
hurry?”

Already half way outside, the twins stopped.
They didn’t know what to say. It was Timmy who finally uttered the
phase they’d been waiting to say.

“We’re just heading to the, ah, to the
playground, Mom,” he said with a half smile.

The twins gave each other a look and shared a
smile. They didn’t have to say anything. At that moment, they
finally realized why Kid named their secret base The Playground. It
was for situations just like this. When parents or friends asked
where they were going, they wouldn’t be flustered and spout out
something they weren’t supposed to. They could simply say they were
going to the playground. Naturally, everyone would just assume they
were heading out to play, not heading to their secret base.

Their mother didn’t even hesitate at the
notion. She dismissed them from lunch and told them to be home by
dinner. Timmy and Wedge then continued on to The Playground.

Meanwhile, Kid radioed ahead to Gears. He was
up in the tree house, as usual, working on a gadget. Kid asked him
to make a side trip over to Jones’s mansion before coming to The
Playground to see if Samantha was in fact there. Gears obliged and
told Kid he would check the infrared and let him know when he
arrived. But Kid already knew she was there.

He sat back in his chair and swiveled it
around as he thought of a plan to save his friend. As he turned,
his eyes finally noticed his suit hanging on the wall. His Kid
Combat suit. A smile crossed his face as he realized it was time
once again to put it on.

Chapter Nine:

Meeting at The Playground

Gears entered the main conference room only
to find Kid, Wedge, and Timmy waiting for him. The main meeting
room was at the end of Hall Two, the same hall with all the
offices. The room was well lit. A large white conference table, big
enough to hold eight, sat in the middle. The walls were made of dry
erase whiteboard. It was in this room that most of the planning for
missions would be done. The walls were blank at this time, but
future missions would be tactically thought out in every detail
along these walls.

“She’s there. Jones has her,” Gears spoke as
he rushed into the room and took a seat at the circular table.

“What do we do now?” Wedge asked.

“I’ll tell you what we are going to do,”
Timmy said. “We’re gonna call the cops! He has no right to be
holding her like this.” Timmy got up and headed toward the
door.

Kid quickly combated that idea. “No. We can
handle this. We don’t need any cops.”

Timmy stopped and looked back at the
boys.

“Kid’s right, Timmy,” Gears said. “Jones
would only use that against us, try and pin us as some kinda
renegades. Besides, the cops are on his payroll. They’ll do
nothing.”

Timmy thought for a moment, then realized
that the boys might be right. Quietly, he sat back down.

Kid stood up and began pacing. He asked
himself what Jones’s plan might be. What did he want with Samantha?
It just didn’t make any sense to him. Then, his thoughts changed
direction—a direction he had never gone before.

Kid realized this was entirely his fault. It
was because of him that his closest friend had been taken away and
made to suffer. Kid did not like the train of thought that was
running through his head. He moved back and forth in the room,
almost off in his own world.

This was the first time Kid felt something
like this. It mostly stemmed from the fact that this was the first
time any of his team had ever been put in real harms way. He
couldn’t shake the thought—Samantha was suffering because of him.
If he hadn’t started all of this—if he wasn’t Kid Combat—she would
be home right now, safe, away from Jones. Kid’s mind dwelled on
this fact, and it wasn’t going to go away any time soon.

The boys, still sitting at the table, noticed
the concern on Kid’s face. Timmy, always the most astute with
people’s feelings, got up and approached Kid. He stopped about
three feet short of him.

“Hey, Kid, what is it?” Timmy said in a low
voice.

Kid turned slowly and looked down at the
floor. The boys all felt a strange feeling wrap around them. They
had never seen Kid humbled like this before, and a feeling of
nervousness entered the room. Doubt was slowly creeping in behind
it.

“It’s my fault she’s there, Timmy,” Kid said,
barely audible. “She shouldn’t be there.”

There was a slight pause, and an awkward
silence was quickly filling the room. The boys were confused about
what Kid was getting at. They couldn’t tell if he was afraid or
sorry for what was happening to his friend. Or both.

“He’s baiting us,” Kid said as he turned to
his loyal friends. “He wants us to come and get her. Don’t you see?
That’s why he’s holding onto her. He knows we won’t go to the cops,
and he knows we will come and get her. He wants to expose us,” Kid
said. He then retracted his statement. “He wants to expose me.”

No one said a word, but all of what Kid said
made sense. Jones wanted Kid Combat. Somehow, he must have gotten
the impression that Samantha was involved—probably from the letter
that Kid recovered the other night. That’s why he took her and why
he was holding her at his mansion. It was all a ploy to lure Kid
out into the open.

The boys got up from the table and approached
Kid. They all formed a circle around their leader and waited for
him to say more. After a few seconds, Timmy, who was starting to
really freak out, spoke.

“Kid, I’m getting scared. I mean, this is
serious stuff. Jones has taken Samantha—doing whatever to her. I
think we are over our heads here. I’m afraid.”

Kid finally lifted his head and turned to
face Timmy. The look in his eyes was of total determination with a
hint of rage. The true Kid Combat was starting to show through, and
the boys could see that he had spent the last few minutes
calculating something in his head.

“You have that backward, Timmy, my friend,”
Kid said in a powerful voice.

“What do you mean?” Timmy questioned..

“It isn’t we who should be afraid of Jones,”
Kid continued. His usual sly smile returned. “It’s Jones who should
fear us.”

Kid finally realized that it wasn’t his fault
at all. It was Jones’s. It had always been Jones’s fault. The
momentary slip was all Kid needed to re-energize and regain a
perspective on why he was there. He was there to protect the kids
of Elmcrest from Jones and the likes of Jones. He was there to
protect his friends and his family. And he was the one who would
get Samantha back—even if it meant confronting Jones once again or
even revealing his identity. He didn’t care about that, anymore. It
was all about Samantha now.

“Yeah!” Wedge exclaimed.

“Yeah, we’re smarter than he is!” Gears
chimed in. Almost as quickly as it came in, the doubt was sucked
out of the room. The group of friends, close enough to be brothers,
high-fived each other and worked themselves into a frenzy. Kid
quickly brought them back down to earth.

“Okay, okay, I’m excited, too. But this is
going to be a lot of work. We all know the type of security Jones’s
place has. Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if he doubled his guard
staff. This isn’t going to be like last time. He’ll be
prepared.”