The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume Two: The Heist of Spring Road Toys

The Adventures of Kid Combat

Volume II: The Heist of Spring Road Toy

Christopher A. Helwink

Published by Wheatmark at Smashwords

Copyright October 2010

Discover other titles by Christopher A.
Helwink at Smashwords.com

Follow Kid Combat on Facebook and at
www.kidcombat.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com
and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.

Chapter One:

Samantha on the Run

9:00 pm

A surveillance camera omitting a flashing red
light circled on its axis. The small white camera lay high in the
rafters, five floors up, on the outside of the property. It would
be extremely hard for the naked eye to see the device hidden
between two pieces of wood.

The camera’s two-inch lens focused far below
on one of the rear entrances of the building. As the camera turned
and looked around the property, its primary focus was on the
grounds nearest the door.

This building had all the usual security
measures. In addition to the cameras, there were guards patrolling
around the grounds—inside the building and out. They each were
assigned a specific section of land to cover and were responsible
for anything that happened inside that “sector.”

There were also locks. Every door, every
case, and every locker was secured by the toughest and hardest lock
to break. Most of these locks kept people out of certain areas,
while other locks protected valuables from anyone looking at
them.

And then there were the cameras. They looked
at every room, every hallway, and every grain of dirt on the
property. The proprietor considered the surveillance cameras the
main lifeline, the major area of defense. Sure, there were security
guards. They walked their predetermined areas, moving their
flashlights from right to left, but they mostly killed the time
between their coffee breaks, only pretending to look for
intruders.

The cameras, however, picked up everything.
The valuable items inside the building needed to be protected at
all times. Cameras not only picked up live images and fed them back
to a central computer, but infrared images, heat stamps, and motion
sensors lay hidden in every room, hallway, and entrance.

To break in here cleanly, one would need to
disable all these security devices.

The small white camera continued to patrol
the rear entrance. It made a small humming noise as it turned.
Then, there was a small click. The red light that once shined
brightly on the top of the unit went dark. With its final rotation,
the small camera stopped moving, and the lens went black.

The main lifeline was disabled.

It wasn’t hard for Samantha to execute her
new mission. After all, she and the rest of Kid Combat’s secret
organization had planned out every detail.

The entrance point where she would break in
was selected for Samantha because it was home to the fewest
security cameras. She could hide in the shadows at this entrance,
wait for Gears and Roller—who were back at The Playground—to
disable the cameras, and scoot in before the guards noticed the
cameras were off.

Samantha disabled in a matter of seconds the
keypad that safeguarded the entrance to the Science Museum in
Elmcrest from this exact type of invasion. A quick unscrewing of
the faceplate and a snip of the red wire disabled the security
alarm that would sound if this door was opened. She performed the
task the same way she had been practicing for weeks at home, alone
in her room.

Samantha was moments away from entering. She
just needed those cameras off.

She waited impatiently. She was full of
nervous energy, as she knew this mission was not going to be easy.
She stood there, hiding behind one of the pillars that held up the
Science Museum. She huffed. And puffed. Finally, she got the
signal.

“All set, Sam. Let’s rock …”

'Bout time,
Samantha muttered to
herself. She slowly opened the door, crept in, and knew there was
one more thing she had to worry about—the guards. To Samantha’s
knowledge, the guards were in the same positions predicted by her
and Kid’s recent weeks of investigation. They were going about
their daily routines, thinking today was just another ordinary
day.

Little did they know things were about to
change.

Samantha stood in a large hallway and found
herself staring at a laser no more than a few inches away from her
face. She heard the hum of the laser as it pulsed and danced in
front of her. She paused, feeling almost afraid to move. Samantha
knew that if she turned her head quickly, her ponytail would flip
up and shine in the light.

The danger of the laser glancing her hair, or
even her skin for that matter, didn’t bother Samantha. She knew the
beam was harmless. It was merely another of the museum’s security
measures to keep out unwanted guests. With a power loss, a
battery-powered laser shield activated to thwart attackers. What
did worry her, though, was the maze of lasers that lay out in front
of her, and the small fact that Samantha would have to make it
through that maze without setting off a single one.

“Don’t get too spooked, Sam,” a voice rang
out over the communicator that was nestled in her ear.

“And why’s that, Gears?” she whispered. Her
voice was low to avoid attracting attention.

“Just take each set of lasers one at a time
like we practiced. You’ll do fine.”

Samantha began her work. There were a few
techniques she could use to get through the tightly wrapped maze of
lasers. Fortunately, the designers of the security system never
figured a ten-year-old girl would be one of their foes.

The first few sets of lasers were the easy
ones. Samantha belly flopped under them with no real issue. Her
small frame barely rose off the ground, yet she still had a few
inches of clearance below the light.

The next set was a bit more complicated and
required more finesse. Delicately, Samantha balanced on one foot
and went up on her tiptoes. She turned her body sideways toward the
lasers and held her arms out straight on each side. Carefully,
Samantha pivoted on one foot, raised her other leg over a set of
lasers, and slid her limb between the beams. Ever so slowly, she
put her leg down safely on the other side.

Mom was right, ballet lessons would pay off
one day, Samantha said to herself.

Back on flat feet, Samantha bent at the waist
and slid her midsection through the same set of lights. Her second
leg bent, shifted, and came within a fraction of an inch of the
light. Samantha was nothing but focused as she gently and carefully
made it through this set of lights.

“How’s she doing?” a voice said from behind
Gears back at The Playground. Gears pivoted in his chair to see Kid
Combat walking into Main Computer Lab 1. Dressed in his usual
three-piece suit, Kid approached and looked at the monitors.

“She’s doing fine, KC,” Gears said, typing
away on his keyboard. “She is midway through the lasers right now.
Should be on the other side in no time.”

“Is the rover ready?” Kid asked.

“Checked it ten minutes ago, Kid,” Roller
said. Sitting to Gears’s right, Roller was the newest addition to
the Kid Combat’s group, The Secret Order of Clever Kids, or SOCKs.
Roller swung his wheelchair around and faced Kid Combat. “All
systems are operational.”

“Good. Patch me through to her,” Kid ordered.
Roller spun back around, typed some commands on his keyboard, and
responded. “You’re on.”

“Hey, Sam, how’s it going?” asked Kid.

“Little busy right now,” Samantha answered
back with a little agitation. Her voice rung hollow throughout Main
Computer Lab 1’s speakers. The last, and most challenging, set of
lasers lay right in front of her. Distraction was one thing she
didn’t need.” Can we have our little chat later, KC? Trying to save
the world here …”

“Just get in, get the intel, and get out. I
still don’t like this plan of sending one in alone.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on sightseeing.
Besides, I was the only one who could fit through here this easily.
I’ll radio you on my way out. Over,” Samantha finished. She rolled
her eyes and shook her head back and forth. She knew Kid Combat
meant well, but she also didn’t need to be checked up on.

Samantha was now inches away from making it
through the last of the security measures that kept her away from
her mission. Her body was tired and began to get weak from all the
bending and twisting.

She took a deep breath and paused.
One
more
, Samantha thought to herself.

The lasers crossed several times, making a
spider web of light. She spied an opening in a small, eight-inch
gap near one of the walls. Samantha would have to slide through the
narrow opening on her back.

Samantha bent down with a blank stare of
concentration on her face. Her eyes fixated on the doorway on the
other side of the lasers.

She crouched down, sat on the floor, and
outstretched her body. Blindly guiding her hands under the lasers,
then her arms, Samantha lay flat on the floor.

She pushed with her feet at first. Slowly,
her arms made it under the set of lasers. Samantha tilted her head
back and looked at the lasers as they approached her. Her heart
raced inside her as, with every push of her feet, the lasers got
closer and closer to her face.

Samantha tilted her head back down as the
lasers danced right above her head. When the red lights moved
across her forehead, Samantha started to sweat. They were closer
here than when she practiced this at home.

For a brief second, Samantha had to close her
eyes as the red lights came even with them. It hurt to look at the
intense beams.

As the laser went across her mouth, neck, and
chest, Samantha tucked in her stomach and used her arms to push
herself under the lights.

Once her legs and feet made it through,
Samantha popped up to her feet.

“Piece of cake,” she said out loud. Back at
The Playground, Kid Combat’s secret base that lay deep beneath
Maple Forest, the boys were relieved.

“Good work, Sam,” Gears said back to her over
her communicator. “On to part two.”

The lights were off in the museum and it was
difficult for Samantha to see the dim walls around her. She walked
up a flight of stairs to her right and found herself on the second
floor of the Science Museum in Elmcrest—doing anything but seeing
the exhibits.

She slowly stepped down the dark hallway that
separated the two wings of the museum. Wearing all black to blend
into the shadows, Samantha crept her way in further. Her footsteps
were short and she almost tiptoed as to not cause a sound. Below
her, the marble floor reflected the small amount of light that hit
it. She was careful to watch where her shadow danced on the floor,
making sure it wouldn’t tip off any of the guards. As a precaution,
Samantha took out a ski mask from her pocket. As she walked down
the hallway, she put it on to conceal her identity.

The museum was full of guards when it was
closed, and Samantha didn’t want to alarm a single one of them.
After a short time, she made her way to the middle of the museum.
Here, the one hallway opened up into an airy foyer.

The inside of the museum was similar in
design and shape to the plus symbol used in math. Samantha was
smack dab in the middle. The intersection spanned all four floors
of the museum and was void of displays. A person standing here
could see in every direction and had access to all levels.