La Perdita International Airport: early afternoon...
Kit Piper paced back and forth as he watched the plane Danny, Kristogar, Mick/Mxy and Tobias Christopher were taking to Berlin. He couldn't believe how pokey they were being just when he needed them to get out of his hair long enough for him to raid the Hero Revolution Fund for the funds he needed today. And Danny's group had the longest trip ahead of them out of all three groups, having to cross the Atlantic Ocean and all. He wondered briefly why they didn't have Mxy just "beam" them over to Berlin immediately, but put that thought out of his mind. He had a man to meet here.
Kit continued to sweat profusely as he waited in the airport for Gambini's man to show up with his daughters. His palms were sweaty, and the briefcase he held in his right hand felt heavier by the second. His knees were shaking, and he was racked with guilt over having stolen from the guys and abused their trust so badly.
Oh well, he thought to himself, maybe I can make it up to them later somehow. But the only thing that's important right now is getting my daughters back. Nothing else can matter as long as those bastards have them.
***
North Vancouver, British Columbia: The home of Dr. Henry Quantos...
Henry Quantos took another sip of his English Breakfast tea and smiled as he thought about Barbara Townsend yet again. For far too long now he'd believed himself to be too old to get involved with another woman, and yet once this beautiful redhead (it always seemed to be a redhead with him for some reason) came into his life, he'd found a new passion. He was in his early 60s, but he felt like a young man again when he was around her.
"Time to get back to work," he finally said, tapping a few keys on his computer to log into the MBL Consulting database once again. Dr. Quantos was always ready to keep the team informed of any information they needed, and each field team could contact him at any time they needed to through the specially-built communicators each was given for the missions which tracked their location with a built-in GPS system.
Mandelovia whined at him then.
"Mandy, what are you whining about, girl?" he said, bending down and petting her head. "I just took you for a walk half an hour ago." At the word "walk" the dog began wagging her tail heavily and began fidgeting in excitement. Finally she couldn't take it any more and barked at him. Henry laughed and started wrestling her for the next few minutes. Finally, he got up and said, "Okay, Mandy, I'll take you for a walk."
He clicked the leash onto her collar and went back to the front door of his townhouse. Mandelovia always seemed to get what she wanted.
As he shut his door and took Mandy around the block, he failed to notice that part of his screen was blinking red...
