Brian Saves the World, Maybe

Chapter 30 - Monkey Business

It was Monday afternoon. Brian had just sat down at his desk when Dale texted him.
"Need to talk. Meet at my office."

Dale's office was on the other side of the Talon complex. Brian was nearly there when he heard a crow caw. The sound was coming from his pocket. He sighed. That morning, Talon had rolled out a new communications app—TalonTalk. Jack Martin had insisted that everyone install it on their phones and that everyone use it for all company communications.

Brian looked at the screen. It showed an incoming call (or, "caw", as Jack had referred to it) from Ralph. He tried to figure out how to answer it.

The new app had been one of Jack's pet projects, and he expected everyone to be as enthusiastic about it as he was. But he must have hired idiots to design it.

How do I answer the call!

Caw, TV corrected.

Apparently, they had chosen a crow caw as the official Talon alert sound so they could use that stupid pun. Jack seemed to hope that "cawing" would become as popular as tweeting.

Do crows even have talons?

The term is most often used to describe the claws on birds of prey and is not usually applied to crow claws.

See? Exactly.

He finally found the right button. "Ralph, what's up?"

"Hey Boss," Ralph said, "Just trying out the new app. Took me two minutes to figure out how to make a call. Lame, right?"

"Yep. Hey, I'm headed to a meeting, so gotta go."

"Okay, see ya."

"See ya," Brian said. He put the app on silent (he hoped) and stuffed the phone back in his pocket.

Dale's office door had a sign that said, "No Solicitation," and included a drawing of a man pointing a gun at the reader. Shaking his head, Brian went in.

Dale motioned Brian into a private meeting room, adjacent to his office. As Brian was just sitting down, Jessica arrived.

"Hey guys," she said, taking a seat.

Dale looked at Brian and Jessica with a serious expression. "Things are escalating quickly, so I thought we should meet up to discuss next steps."

Brian let out a deep breath. "Yeah. We need a plan."

Dale nodded. "Let's go over what we know."

"Okay, well, we know they have spies everywhere," Brian said, "And we know they are in constant contact."

"Right," Dale said, "And what about the Resistance? What are they doing?"

Brian shook his head. "Aunt Carol hasn't told me anything." He looked at Jessica. "How about you?"

"I wish I could help with that," Jessica said, "but I'm just an informant. The Captain doesn't divulge information to me."

Dale began typing something into his phone.

Brian raised an eyebrow. "Just an informant? You were sitting in that room with all the computer screens and stuff. What was that for?"

"I was just filling in for somebody on break. He told me to call him if I saw any big blinking red lights. That's why I was watching a movie."

Brian sighed. "There's got to be a way to figure out what they are up to," he said, chewing on his lip.

Dale's phone buzzed, and he looked at it briefly. "Maybe there is," he said, smugly.

Brian raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"While you were off cosplaying with my cousin in the mountains, I had a long talk with Watkins. I got the impression he's not one of her lackeys. Maybe we can get him to leak something."

Brian looked at Jessica. "Do you think he knows anything?"

"He may," she said, thoughtfully. "But I'm not too sure what role he plays, other than acting as a spy, like me."

Brian frowned. "It may not matter. I doubt he would even agree to meet with us."

"He already has," Dale said, holding up his phone with a smirk. "We're meeting him at Holmes Park tonight at 8:00."

"Well, count me out," Jessica said.

Brian figured meeting a bunch of guys in a dark park at night wasn't her idea of fun.

* * *

Brian looked at the sign posted at the entrance to the park.

"Closed for renovations."

"Makes sense," Dale said. "Shouldn't be anyone else here."

Brian nodded. "Where in the park are we meeting?"

"The monkey bars, he said."

They had been standing near the monkey bars for over fifteen minutes, but Officer Watkins still hadn't shown up.

"Don't think he's coming," Brian said, "Did he send you a text or anything?"

Dale checked his phone again and shook his head. "Nothing."

Brian groaned. "Figures. Probably a doughnut sale going on, or something.

"Let's give him a few more minutes. By the way, got that little device you told me about?"

Brian raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Can I... see it?"

That is probably not a good idea, in public.

Whatever. Nobody's here anyway.

Brian fished the invisibility device out of his pocket. "Sure," he said, tossing it to Dale.

Dale caught it, looking a little like a kid on Christmas morning. "How does it work?"

Before Brian could answer, Dale had disappeared.

"Like that," Brian said, grinning.

"Whoa!" Dale said, "Hey, how come all my clothes are invisible too?"

Brian smirked, enjoying the rare moment when he knew something Dale didn't. "It cloaks anything in contact that has less mass."

"Nice!" Dale said, flashing back into view.

As Dale reappeared, they heard a strangled cry and rustling in the nearby bushes.

Dale rushed into the foliage to investigate. A moment later he emerged from the bushes, dragging someone with him—someone wearing an Iron Man costume.

Brian's heart raced as he stood there, unsure of what to do.

I warned you.

"Who are you!?" Dale shouted at Iron Man.

All they could hear was a mumbling sound beneath the mask.

"Speak up!" Dale shouted again.

More mumbling.

Dale pulled the mask off.

Brian's eyes widened in shock and confusion. "Wha-what are you doing here!?"

The person in the costume looked dazed. "Uh... Hey, Boss," Ralph said.