ALLURA'S NEW GROOVE - PART 4

Keith is alone in the sitting room when Dunkirk and I go in to collect the rest of the manuals we left on the table. He’s leaning back on the couch with his hands folded in his lap, studying the carpet. Dunkirk glances at him, looks at me, mouths the word ‘mall’ and shrugs. I make a face at him and shake my head no. Keith never was much for the public scene and big crowds, and that’s been for as long as I’ve known him.

Dunkirk studies Keith with a thoughtful frown on his face. Keith hasn’t taken any notice of us, but it’s not like we’re mice. He has to know we’re here. Dunkirk looks back at me and nods his head in Keith’s direction with a questioning look on his face. Guess he’s gotta find out the hard way that Keith won’t be interested in going anywhere. I heft my load of books and clear my throat a little. Keith looks up at me. I give him a grin.

“Heya, Chief. A bunch of us guys are going to the mall this afternoon. Think you might wanna come along?”

Keith smiles politely. “Thanks, Hunk, but I doubt it.”

“Aww, come on, Captain,” Dunkirk says, “We’ll socialize an’ talk an’ so on. It’ll be a male bondin’ sorta thing. Good for th’ morale of th’ teams an’ all.”

Keith turns thoughtful, like he’s actually considering it. Dunkirk gives me a nudge and looks like he wants me to back him up. I suppose I can give it a shot.

“Yeah, Chief, come on. You hardly go anywhere. An afternoon hanging out with the guys ain’t gonna kill you.”

“We have a patrol schedule to think about, or have you forgotten?”

“That’s why we have backup people now. Let someone from Team Three cover the afternoon slot, then we’ll be back in time for Pidge to take the late afternoon run.”

Keith makes a face and pauses for so long that I think he’s gonna say ‘no’ after all. Then he nods to himself.

“Yeah, I suppose we could do that...all right, I’ll go.”

Dunkirk breaks into a wide grin. “Now there ye go. That didna hurt so much, did it?”

Keith actually laughs at that one. “No, I guess it didn’t. Who’s driving?”

“Me an’ Alan,” Dunkirk replies. “Between me SUV an’ Alan’s Grand Liusa we’ll fit everyone in. See ye at th’ vehicle bay after lunch?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“Righto, Chief.” I give him a thumbs-up and Dunkirk follows me out of the room.

“Well, I’ll be. I didn’t think he would go.”

“D’ye think he’ll actually show up, then?” Dunkirk asks.

“Yeah, ‘cause he gave his word. Keith doesn’t go back on his word when he gives it, not ever. You know, since we got away with this, we oughtta find a way to talk him into going to the club with us. He’s funny as hell when he’s lit.”

Dunkirk arches an eyebrow. “I didna know Keith was a drinker.”

“He ain’t, not really. But when he does get some alcohol in him, he’s a completely different person. I guess that’s why he doesn’t like to do it very much.” I hand over my stack of manuals. “I need to find Lance and Pidge to let ‘em know we got an extra passenger. Be a good sport and carry these down to the library too, will ya?”

Dunkirk nods at me, and we head our separate ways.

“Shannon!” I burst into the auxiliary station with Desiree right behind me. “Guess what? We’re going to -” I blink at the empty room. “Shannon...?”

“Down here,” comes a voice from the other side of the main operator’s console. We walk around it to find her legs sticking out from behind an open panel. I lean down to see if I can figure out what she’s doing.

“Hey, Shanny, we’re making plans to -”

“Smuggle Allura out of the castle and take her to the mall,” she replies casually. Desiree and I exchange glances at each other, and I look back down at Shannon again.

“How did you know that?”

“This is a monitoring station. There’s full-color audio and video footage from the library cameras of your devious plans to steal the princess. Lynne didn’t entirely agree with you, though, so I don’t think she can be charged with attempted kidnapping under standard Arusian law based on the digital file alone.”

“Hey! You were scoping on us?”

“I wasn’t doing anything more than the guards in the main video room would be doing. The reason they won’t pick up on it immediately is because they have dozens of monitors to look at and you’re all castle employees, so they won’t look close at the video the first time through. But when they do their security review for the day they’ll see what went on, same as I did. And you know who’s going to get a report about it, don’t you?”

“Cap’n Keithie will…uh-oh.”

“Dead,” Desiree says. “We’re dead.”

“You can cover for us, can’t you Shanny?”

“I could, but this is Keith we’re talking about. You know how he gets when it comes to looking after Allura. If he thought I was threatening her safety by withholding key information, I’d be up on Arus One scrubbing it out with a toothbrush, and that’s assuming he was in a good mood.”

“Maybe we ought to just forget this then,” Desiree says. “I don’t know if one day out for the princess is worth all this trouble.”

“Oh, come on y’all. We’re not taking her to planet Doom, she’s just going to the mall. All she wants is to spend an afternoon like the rest of us girls do. Shanny, you can fudge the rules just this once, can’t you?”

“Of course I can. What you think I’m doing under here? It takes time to do a digital bypass manually.”

“Manually? What for?”

“Because I’d have to login if I did it via the software, and they’d have a record of my tampering.”

“You can’t just hack it?”

“Not since they decided to Pidge-proof the system. It would take a lot more time to break in than normal. I’m thinking you want to get all this accomplished today, right?”

“Yeah. You need any help?”

“No, I’m fine. It’s just tricky. I have to time it so it coincides with the usual pulse test simulator, then I can re-route the segment, fudge the audio track and put it back.”

“Why not just cut the whole piece out?” Desiree asks.

“I can’t delete it entirely because they’d catch the glitch. I’ve already looked at it through the backup buffer. It would make too large a gap to eliminate entirely.”

“Oh.”

“By the way, our best bet for smuggling Allura from the castle is to take her straight to the vehicle bay via the tech’s access. I know the bypass codes for getting through that area. To cover her absence, we fill the DVD player with discs, set it on a random loop and let it run. Then we get her to record some random replies into a digital file and I’ll set up a little loop program that will play them through her intercom. After all that’s done we have Allura decide to retreat back to her room immediately after lunch and make the detour for sneaking her out. Anyone who comes by her room to talk to her will hear movies playing. If they buzz the door, one of her speech clips will respond and they’ll think she’s just being a recluse.”

Desiree is impressed. “You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this, Shannon.”

“Not really,” she replies as she scoots out from behind the panel. “I’ve only had about fifteen minutes to think it over. I’d have a much better plan if she wanted to go shopping tomorrow.” She gives us both a wrinkly-nosed grin and we all laugh.

“So where’s the third of the Three Amigas?” I ask her.

“She’s over at Intelligence, translating some Drule communications we got from Pollux about half an hour ago.”

“Okay, then Desi and I will go and see if she’s free yet. Shanny, why don’t you give Allura a buzz at her room and tell her about your brilliant plan?”

“Okey-dokey.” She gives us a smile and a wave as we leave.

Caroline is coming out of the Intelligence area just as Desi and I reach the end of the hall. I yell at her and wave. She turns and waves back.

“Hola, mis amigas!” She calls cheerily as she heads in our direction. We both high five her when she gets close.

“Caro, girly-girl. Wassup?”

Her cheerfulness promptly fades. “Something big is about to happen on Marlowe, I think. Cossack went back to Doom with prisoners from there not so long ago. Avok’s operatives there think some important people were taken, but I didn’t pick up anything from the transmission to tell me who it might have been.” She frowns a little. “There’s a strong possibility that a mole exists among the Marlowians who work with Avok’s people, but they aren’t sure who it is, so if the operatives try and get more information, the Drules might find them out.”

“Wow,” Desiree says. “That’s pretty complicated.”

“Yes, it is. Especially since everyone thinks Avok is going to try to take Marlowe from Lotor next.”

I nod at her. “But he won’t make a move until he knows exactly what the situation is there. You saw what went down with Breve. He worked that one well. I bet Lotor’s butt is still burning over it.”

“Where do we fit in all this?” Desi asks. “Are we going to help Pollux take Marlowe, maybe?”

Caro shrugs. “I don’t know. Keith made a request for some background details, and Avok said he was planning to send his personal courier with the information.”

“A courier? Why can’t he just send a transmission?”

“Transmissions can be intercepted. He usually prefers to send a person with the information to deliver it face to face. I think it’s going to be Sven that gets sent here.”

“Oooh, Sven.” Desi gets a big smile. “He is sooo hot.”

I fold my arms “You best be coolin’ with the droolin’, girly-girl. That boy is spoken for.”

She rolls her eyes. “Look who’s talking - the president of the ‘I-Like-Sven’s-Booty’ fan club.”

I shrug at her. “Hey, anybody’s allowed to look. Besides, I check out all the booty around here. Cap’n Keithie’s got a nice little bit of bumper action going on.”

“Don’t forget Lance. There’s a real sweet roll for you,” Desi says.

Caro nods and smiles. “You said it. And don’t even get me started about Hunk.”

Desi and I clump together to grin at her. “What about Hunk?”

“What do you mean, ‘what about Hunk’? Have you ever taken time to look at that fantastic set of buns he has? I know I have. I saw him in a pair of Speedos once when he was going mountain biking with Dexter and Dunkirk. He has dimples.” She smiles, sighs and gives a little shiver. “Oooh.”

“Group admiration!” Desi says.

“Woo-hoo!” we all shout in unison, and fall into a fit of giggles. I drape an arm around Caro’s shoulders. “You gotta come with us, dear. We’re planning a castle breakout, and we need your help.”

She looks confused. “A breakout? Why do we have to break out? Have we been put under house arrest or something?”

“No. We’re gonna bust Allura out and take her shopping at the mall.”

Her eyes get huge. “The Princess? Are you nuts?”

“Of course we are. But Shanny’s gonna cover our electronic tracks, Lynne is going to help us smuggle her out, and we need you to run interference with Keith.”

“Me, distract Keith? Why?”

“Because you know how he likes to roam the halls on spot checks from time to time. We need to keep him in one place so we don’t bump into him while the plan is in motion.”

“And just how do you propose that I distract him?”

“Update him on the Marlowe situation or something. Add a lot of filler, talk like a bureaucrat does. You’re creative, you’ll think of something.” I hook my arm in hers. “Come on, we’ll discuss this in the cafeteria. We need to have something ready by this afternoon, because we’re taking her out right after lunch.”

“Tasia...!” She drags her feet as I tug her along. “I can’t fib to Keith!”

“Then don’t fib. Tell him about a subtle nuance in the dialect or something language-wise like that. Whatever. Just come on.” I keep a good grip on her arm and Desi comes up to take her by the other one.

“Ay, pobre de mi,” Caro sighs as we drag her away.

To Allura's New Groove: Part 3

To Allura's New Groove: Part 5