The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume One: A Secret Lost by Christopher Helwink Page A

packed his things and headed toward the exterior windows of the
office. It was an older office building, and Wedge noticed that the
windows opened manually. He shook his head in disbelief as he
started to open the window.
    “I can’t believe I’m going to do this …”
    He circled the hand crank, and the window’s
gears eked into action. The window apparently hadn’t been opened in
quite some time. With every creak, Wedge looked over his shoulder
to see if anyone heard it. No one did. When the window was open far
enough, Wedge flung one leg out onto the small ledge. He then
braced himself against the window frame and flung the second leg
out the window. A third motion propelled his body out onto the
ledge.
    He wasn’t that far up, but what Wedge failed
to realize was that the window was directly over Main Street. He
looked down on the crowd of people. Scanning back and forth, he
momentarily made eye contact with his brother. A second later, his
radio went off.
    “What are you doing?” Timmy asked.
    Standing up straight and slowly shuffling his
feet along the narrow ledge, a not-so-confident or cocky Wedge
answered, “Ahh … I’m not to sure.”
    “You didn’t say, ‘Over,’ Mr. Spy,” Timmy
laughed as he looked up. There was no reply.
    Wedge continued down the ledge for about
fifteen feet. Baby step by baby step, he neared the conference
room. Sweat ran down his face as his nervousness gave way to fear.
When he was about a foot from the window, he stopped and bent down.
He strapped on a harness and fastened it to the wall to stabilize
himself. He then took off his backpack and placed it in front of
him. He rifled through it and finally produced a small instrument
that looked like a stethoscope, only the tube was longer and it had
a suction cup at the bottom instead of a cold piece of metal.
    Carefully and as stealthily as possible, he
applied the suction cup to the bottom corner of the window. He
raised the other end to his ears and fiddled with a knob on the
middle of the tube. A crackle or two later, a voice rang out.
    “I don’t like it. It’s too risky,” the voice
said, fading in and out. Wedge adjusted the knobs again.
    “Yes, but if it is true, then I say it’s
worth the risk,” another said. Wedge didn’t recognize either voice.
Uproar occurred after that last statement. Wedge heard multiple
voices at once and couldn’t make out any of them. But it was
obvious that the men were bickering.
    Timmy, who could also hear the conversation,
radioed Wedge. “What’s going on in there?”
    “I’m not sure. I can’t really see anything.
Let me get closer,” Wedge said. As he shifted his weight, he lost
his footing. From the street, Timmy saw the minor slip.
    “On second thought, why don’t you stay right
there?” Timmy said.
    “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine,” Wedge replied
with a little bit of embarrassment.
    “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Timmy
said. The two boys didn’t exchange any more words and continued
listening to the conversation in the room. Tempers seemed to have
gotten worse.
    “I’m just not too sure about this plan,” the
same apprehensive voice said. “The risks just seem too great. I
mean, what if we get caught?”
    Finally, two boys heard a voice they did
recognize. “You are entitled to your opinion,” Jones began.
    The man replied, “Thank you.”
    “And I am entitled to mine,” Jones came back
with more anger and volume in his voice. “And mine is that you are
fired!”
    There was silence for a few seconds in
Wedge’s ears. He moved his instrument around, trying to pick up any
sound. There was none. Finally, the man spoke.
    “But, sir, you can’t do this. I’ve been
with—” he started, but Jones interrupted him.
    “I don’t care how long you have been here,
and I don’t want to hear your sob story. You are dismissed.”
    “But, sir! I was just trying to help you
out,” the man pleaded. “What you want to do is against the law—”
Once