Spyfall

Sabotage!

Nightfall eventually came to Los Angeles and with it came a tranquil lull that ran through the whole of WOOHP headquarters.

It would soon prove to be the proverbial calm before the oncoming storm.

A seemingly ordinary janitor was making his routine rounds down the corridors of the building, pushing his cleaning trolley ahead of him. He seemed to be a somewhat scruffy man, with dark greasy hair covered by a long baseball cap, opaque glasses covering his eyes and a dishevelled black beard covering the lower part of his face. He seemed harmless enough as he fiddled with a wooden toothpick jammed between his teeth, but in truth, there was much more to this janitor than meets the eye.

As he reached the main security room, he parked his trolley and picked something up from the bottom shelf, before opening the door and entering the room. Inside, a couple of security guards were sitting at the monitoring station, watching the various surveillance screens that displayed all the different areas of the building. On one screen, Jerry could be seen working at his desk, while others showed views like Britney working out in the dojo and the currently frail Sam, Clover and Alex lying serenely in their beds in the infirmary. Meanwhile, a notable number of the main screens were concentrating on the various holding cells of the containment facility, in which could be seen some of the nastiest and dangerous villains on the planet.

Realising that they were not alone, the first guard turned away from the screens to face the janitor.

"Can we help you?" he politely asked the janitor, regarding the man curiously.

The janitor gave an innocent smile and shrugged. "Nah, I've just come to take out the trash."

The second security guard gave a puzzled look on her face. "But we had all the bins sorted just this afternoon," she said.

"That's not quite what I meant," chuckled the janitor maliciously, before he suddenly aimed the tube of Immobilising Stun Tan Lotion that he had in his hand and sprayed the two guards with it, instantly paralysing them! With a smirk, the 'janitor' scratched at his fake beard and briskly moved to the main control panel and spent a couple of minutes fiddling with the controls. Once he was certain that he had achieved his aim, he then picked up a chair and used it to smash up the entire control panel. He then looked up at the screens and to his satisfaction, several of the prison cell doors began to swing wide open, much to the surprise of the villains inside.

"Perfect. Now to get out of here before all hell breaks loose," said the 'janitor'. He fiddled about a bit more with his toothpick, only to wince in pain as he accidently pricked his gums!

"Gah, stupid toothpick," groused the 'janitor', as he flicked the useless stick away. The only reason he had it in the first place was to complete his disguise and he was all too happy to be rid of it now that his mission was complete. Satisfied that everything was going according to plan, he darted out of the room towards the emergency exit.

******

Jerry was quietly busy going through the latest reports sent to him by various WOOHP field agents, when the automatic security alarm system suddenly started blaring. Somewhat startled, he looked at the surveillance screen on his desk and was shocked to see that the doors of the containment facility were wide open and the prisoners were simply walking out of their cells! He quickly activated the speaker system on his desk and started bellowing commands.

"Emergency! Mass prison breakout occurring at the containment facility! All agents are to go down there at once and assist in containing the escapees. This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!"

******

A couple of floors down, Britney was just finishing practicing some new Karate moves in the dojo when she heard Jerry's message over the speakers.

"Uh-oh! This cannot be good!" she said worriedly to herself as she darted out of the room and down the corridor, glad that she still had the gadgets from her last mission with her.

******

A few levels up in the building, Gabby, Carmen and Stella had been calmly sleeping in the guest quarters when they were abruptly woken up by the loud alarm klaxon.

"What on earth is going on?" grumbled Stella, annoyed at having her slumber interrupted.

"That's the prison cell alarm," realised Gabs in horror. "There must be trouble downstairs!"

Carmen immediately leapt out of bed. "We better get down there fast. If someone has broken out, they could try to get at our daughters!"

******

Unable to get to sleep after only just coming out of her coma, Alex had been quietly reading one of her comic books, which her mother had kindly brought down for her, while Sam and Clover were peacefully sleeping in their beds. Suddenly, the alarm sirens started blaring from outside the room, just loud enough to make Alex jump in alarm and wake up the others.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Alex anxiously.

"Yeah, what's with the major nine-one-one alert?" yawned Clover, frustrated at being woken up so abruptly by the noise of the alarm.

"It's the containment facility alarm," answered Sam with a look of dread. "There must be a prison breakout occurring!"

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go and kick some baddy butts!" said Alex, who had momentarily forgotten what state the three of them were still in. She was just starting to get to her feet, when her world suddenly started spinning again and she had to slump back into her bed with a groan.

"You can't go out there, Alex," pointed out Sam solemnly. "You're still concussed, remember, and that ankle is pretty busted up too!"

"But we can't just lie here and do nothing," argued Clover, frustrated at being utterly unable to move her legs. "Our moms might be in totally serious trouble down below!"

Sam looked miserably at her friends, unable to bring herself to respond. The brutal truth was that because of their injuries, the three of them were effectively trapped in the infirmary and there was not a single thing they could do to help. All they could do was wait anxiously and hope that their mothers and friends were all right.