The Great Mouse Detection

Chapter Two

The Colonel came through for Penfold, and before long the pair was chatting with one Daisy Day Breaker on the online dating service EyeSpy.

DM appeared to be really enjoying the conversations, and toiled away at the chat for five straight hours, by which point Penfold had retired to bed.

Unfortunately, DM wasn't the only person staying up.

The irritable noise emanating from the floor beneath Penfold and DM's quarters had risen to intolerable levels as all the secret agents of Mayfair brought in the New Year with a half heartened shambolic chorus brought on by an intake of precious and rare wines saved especially for these annual occasions.

Penfold wandered if the assistant agents for any of the other operatives in the base were getting any shut-eye.

They too, after all, had to be in pristine health in anticipation of visits from Aunts and Uncles.

The assistants were often mocked for being good little boys and girls by the Agents, almost in a manner befitting a fraternity house.

Penfold took the restless hours as an opportunity to catch up on his diary and make note of his schedule for the morning and afternoon so he could plan the evening ahead.

He made note to catch the television in the morning and then look up more information on the Humble Grape, where the auction for the Rugby Diamond was said to take place.

He was strangely more interested more in the menu than conducting any sort of business.

Then he began to wonder just how much of his restlessness was due to the party a mere floor beneath him.

This wasn't the first night he had trouble sleeping; indeed this had now been the fifth instance in a row.

He hadn't had such a consistent bout of insomnia since the last Christmas where he had a toothache.

He had to get it plucked out by the emergency dentist on Boxing Day. So sharp was the pain that he couldn't even take to the annual Christmas banquet that year.

Penfold shook his head as he caught himself going slightly off-point.

His mind tended to slip and slide like that.

But then, his mind was exactly what was mucking about with him in these sleep-free hours, leading him to spend the whole of this week's post-Christmas dozing off in the daytime laying like a leech on the lounge sofa.

He often wondered who kept tucking him with blankets of days old newspapers like some homeless tramp that was not up to date on proper homing accommodation.

There was his mind slipping again. Penfold shook his head back and forth again, trying to rattle off distraction.

He needed to trace the source of his issues, what was plaguing his mind enough to keep him up so much.

Initially, he looked for a feeling, he searched for one, but feelings are alien to the logistics of the rational mind, he needed to associate it with a word.

The word that raised him from amongst the snug and the dead.

He finally found it.

Something that, when uttered, struck a chord so loud it rattled his psyche enough to keep him alert and awake.

A word that, each time he found it, would repeat again and again ad nausea until he found himself speaking it. And then it would be forgotten.

A seed planted within his mind.

Seed.

Again and again.

Seed

And in the constant repetition that followed, Penfold realized to his horror he would have no sleep permitted to him for some considerable time.

With a sigh and an utterance of this word, Penfold scored out any plans he had made for the morning and afternoon in his diary.

As morning crept in and the sun came up, Dawn Crumhorn glanced outwards from the balcony of her dream house, taking in the breath-taking sights of the city from afar.

A swift and sudden noise made her turn.

A rattle, a thud, a voice emitting groans of sheer agony. The tell-tale signs that a trap had been sprung.

A trap she'd set herself.

She leapt off the ledge of her balcony, her skirt inflating in an instant to serve as a make-shift parachute, allowing for a soft landing on the warm stretch of lawn outside.

Upon touchdown, she hot-footed across the grass, and towards a can that, only moments before, had been suspended by a metal wire, it had now been released, and had dropped to the ground, successfully trapping someone beneath it.

Her nose picked up the scent of peanut butter and cheddar.

The bait she had placed at the base of the trap.

Dawn lifted the tip of the can, and found Danger Mouse underneath it.

"That's what you get for being peckish" said Dawn in triumph.

"Alright, alright, I couldn't help myself, I'm starved, my fridge gave out overnight"

"Why don't you just ask?" asked Dawn.

"You can't find the time for me, you're always busy...just get me out of here and we'll talk payment for any grub you can offer, I'll even pay you in the tooth I just lost, since you like to play a Grimm fairy on a Wednesday"

"No can do I'm afraid" said Dawn, I've got to be in the city in a couple of hours, looking to it as an excuse to socialize with someone like-minded, a fancy event for a charitable cause"

"Ah, so it's a date is it? Who's the lucky fellow?"

"He's funny, brash, speaks highly of himself, doesn't live a sheltered life, is used to having his own way, I can detect a lot of you in him actually"

"I'm happy for you Dawn, truly. If he can keep you on the straight and narrow better than I can, you'll be the bell of the ball"

"Mouse, nobody's done it better, because nobody's managed it at all"

Dawn placed her fingers in her lips and blew as hard as she could, the whistle swiftly summoned her loyal bodyguard Mr. Snuggles, who dashed out of the house, kicking DM to one side, and scooping Dawn up in his arms to take her to a shopping mall where she would sort out her attire for the evening.

DM was left wondering just what it truly was that compelled him to come here today. What's more, he had fully intended to tell Dawn that he too had alternative arrangements for the evening, even if it were strictly business and not pleasure.

He of course couldn't tell her that last part, due to a signing of the official secrets act. For all her strengths in character, her one constant fault was she happened to still be most diabolical, and very capable of betrayal.

Dawn was a complex beast, but a beast she very much was.