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

you,” Kid said as he circled
around the large table. On it sat several pieces of what looked to
be formerly an engine. Kid picked up a piece, turned it over a few
times, and set it back down on the table.
    “Well, I wish I had better news for you,
Kid,” Roller said as he pushed his wheelchair away from the table.
He made his way over to another station behind him, grabbed another
piece, and rolled back to his original work area.
    “That bad, huh?” Kid asked.
    “Worse. The mechanism isn’t working properly,
the shifter keeps sticking, and the steering column broke this
morning,” Roller said.
    “Yeah, that’s pretty bad,” Kid said back.
    “Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to
matter much,” Roller said disgustedly.
    “What do you mean?” Kid said, startled.
    “Oh,” Roller said quietly. “I guess she
hasn’t told you yet.”
    “Told me what?” Kid said back.
    “Well …” Roller started. He pushed his
wheelchair back a bit further from Kid. “Sam said there’s no way
she’s going to be able to complete the access tunnel from the back
of RD1 to Pepper Creek. She just doesn’t have the tools or man
power to do it. It’s hundreds of feet. It would take her months,
years even.”
    Kid didn’t like hearing this news. He wanted
a tunnel that would easily connect up with Pepper Creek. The creek
itself ran through the heart of Maple Forest and had many
accessible paths to every part of Elmcrest. The tunnel would make a
great exit point as well as a quick getaway. The tunnel would also
connect The Playground to a remote part of the creek, deep within
the tree line of Maple Forest, making it difficult for anyone to
find the entry way. The PCAVs that Roller was working on were
supposed to be the vehicles used to traverse the creek. It was
becoming clear that it would be awhile before either one was in
service to SOCKs.
    “Great,” was all that Kid said to Roller.
With obvious disappointment, Kid saw that his comment upset Roller.
Seeing this, Kid tried to mend Roller’s feelings. “You’re doing
your best, I know. It’s just a pain that we are having these
issues. I’ll see what I can do.”
    “OK, Kid,” Roller said back to him. “What do
you want to do now?”
    “Gather the troops in Main Lab B. We need to
figure out how to help the Thompsons.”
    “Sure thing,” Roller said, and he pulled up
his laptop attached to his chair. He sent instant messages to Gears
and to the twins telling them to gather.
    Within a few minutes, the boys were seated
around the large conference table in Main Lab B. Kid was the last
one there.
    “First things first,” Kid said as he walked
in the room, not wasting any time. “We need to find the culprits
behind the attack. Gears, pull up the intel Samantha provided us on
those two boys.”
    “Right away, boss,” Gears said as he started
pounding on his laptop. Kid went over and took his usual seat at
the table. A Security Level 3 folder on Main Server I projected up
on the south wall of the room. Prompted for a password on the
screen, Gears typed in the necessary security word and was granted
access to the folder. From there, Gears pulled up the files on the
two boys that Samantha had created the night before.
    “If my hunch is right, these are the boys we
are looking for.” Kid added.
    “OK, here we go,” Gears said. He clicked on
one of the files and a photo of the first boy was brought up on the
screen. To the right of that photo was all the intel SOCKs had on
him.
    “This is Tommy O’Toole, age eleven. He is a
sixth grader at Byron Middle School. He’s pretty much your average
bully. Tommy has been known for petty crimes around school—stealing
money, lunches, bikes, stuff like that. He’s been arrested once for
vandalizing the school and expelled once for pushing a teacher,”
Gears read.
    “Great. We’re gonna have to go to school with
this guy after next year?” Rocket said, a little intimidated. No
one responded, and Gears