The Mouse Watch, Volume 1

  Bernie shook it, and forcing herself to overcome her trepidation about mice her age, managed a smile.

  “Hi, Alph.”

  Bernie looked around at the cabin of the high-tech drone. “This…is amazing,” she said.

  Alph nodded. “Yeah, Gadget designed a whole fleet of them. They’re mainly for crowd control like you saw back there, helping people forget that they’ve seen us so that we remain secret. So far, knock on wood, we’ve only crashed one. Ninety-nine trouble-free missions.”

  Before Bernie had time to ask about the one that went wrong, the other mouse extended his paw. As Bernie shook it, she noticed he was missing his little finger.

  “Craddock McMuenster, but you can call me Digit.”

  He released her paw and wiggled the missing bit where his finger used to be. “Lost it to a R.A.T.S. operative. HA!” he chortled. He glanced at Bernie, seeming to size her up.

  “You might be the smallest recruit I’ve seen. What happened, forget to eat your spinach?” he said with a wink.

  Bernie’s expression must have shown that size was a sensitive topic, because Digit immediately held up his hand in apology. “Don’t misunderstand! If there’s one thing I’ve come to realize in my vast years of experience at the Watch it’s to never underestimate a recruit based on appearance. Why, I remember one guy, what was that mouse’s name?” He snapped his fingers, remembering. “Charlie Twitchynose. Tall and skinny as a beanpole. But I saw him personally take out three R.A.T.S. operatives using nothing but a strand of spaghetti and a stick of gum. Don’t ask me how he did it, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

  Bernie chuckled. She couldn’t say why, but she liked Digit right away. She could tell he really hadn’t meant anything by observing how small she was. After all, most people reacted with surprise when they saw her. But the fact that he seemed so accepting of her appearance made her feel that he was okay, a nice older dude who didn’t judge anybody.

  Glancing down, Bernie noticed that Digit carried some cool-looking gadgets on his belt. She pointed to an odd-shaped hook in a holster and couldn’t help asking, “Wow. What’s that?”

  “This?” said Digit, glancing down. “It’s a zip-line grappling hook. Designed it myself. It actually saved my life during that skirmish I mentioned. You should have seen what happened to the other guy; I gave him something to remember me by.” His expression changed, his eyes gazing out into some imaginary time and place.

  “I was twenty-three. Still a new recruit. First mission turned out to be Moscow. ‘Bring it on,’ I said. Nothing I couldn’t face. I was king of the world. After a chase through St. Petersburg, there we were, me and a rat three times my size, squaring off on top of a fountain. I had never learned how to swim, never saw the need for it. But you’d better believe right then I wish I had! I knew it was him or me. I reached for my handy zip-line grappling hook and—”

  “Pleeaaaase, Didg…let’s not tell that story again, shall we? I really don’t want to talk about R.A.T.S. right now.” Alph rolled her eyes. “She just got here. There’s plenty of time to catch her up on all your adventures. She probably has a dozen questions.”

  “Rats?” asked Bernie.

  “R.A.T.S.,” said Alph, spelling out the letters. “It stands for Rogue Animal Thieves Society. And, yeah, they’re mostly rats, too. A few other creatures here and there. A snake. Some mean iguanas.”

  As Digit rattled off the other creepy species of Rogue Animal Thieves, Bernie shivered as she remembered the one time she’d encountered a rat.

  The horrible creature that attacked Brody had almost certainly been a rat at one point, before it had been fused with metal appendages. She could tell by the long, thick tail, and bloodred eyes. She would never forget those eyes. They made her fur stand on end. Ever since that day, rats were her biggest fear. She believed they were always lurking in the shadows, waiting for a chance to strike.

  “I actually have a lot of other questions….” said Bernie, making a list in her head. She was just about to ask one of the thousands of things that she’d wondered about the Mouse Watch when a voice from the drone cockpit interrupted her.

  “Save it, rookie! We’re approaching HQ. Radio silence and buckle up.”

  “Roger that, Leo,” said Alph. She leaned over to Bernie and whispered, “Better do as the pilot says. All your questions will be answered at orientation later.”

  Bernie found the seat straps, and after fastening the shoulder belt, she suddenly felt the drone lurch forward with an unexpected blast of speed.

  “HQ, this is Pepperjack Alpha, we’re coming in,” Leo’s voice crackled over the radio.

  After a moment, a second voice crackled back, “Roger that, Pepperjack, you’re clear to approach.”

  The overhead lights inside the drone’s cabin snapped off. Dimly lit, blue LED strips that lined the floors and windows flickered on, casting a ghoulish aspect on the passengers. Bernie held tight to her armrests and gazed outside the tiny windows as the drone continued to pick up speed. Bernie could see the Union Station’s iconic outdoor clock tower, located just off the main terminal building, growing closer.

  Slow down, she thought. As before, this pilot seemed to like pushing for some kind of speed record as he navigated small spaces. But unlike before, as the clock face grew closer she couldn’t see anyplace for the drone to land. It looked like they were going to crash directly into it!

  At the last possible moment, a narrow door, precisely the width of the drone itself, slid open inside one of ten decorative alcoves above the clock. The drone shot inside, a lightning-fast maneuver obviously designed to attract as little attention as possible.

  Bernie had always imagined riding in a drone. But after this short trip she decided drones were definitely overrated. At least motorcycles had their wheels on the ground.

  Once the drone was inside, the door slipped closed just as soon as the back rotors cleared it. Bernie gulped as the entire view outside the windows plunged into total blackness, and she wondered where she was and exactly what kind of dangerous training she’d gotten herself into.

  Two bright spotlights appeared on either side of the drone, emerging from a shaft in the darkness somewhere far below. Bernie stared out the window as the aircraft began to descend like an elevator.

  There was really nothing to see out the window but the dark walls of the inside of the clock tower. The drone steadily descended…and descended…and descended until Bernie realized they must have already reached the bottom of the tower and were now continuing underground.

  Minutes passed.

  Bernie couldn’t help feeling a bit claustrophobic as she thought of the hundreds of feet of rock that must be overhead. She was just about to ask how much farther it would be, when she felt a slight bump.

  The hum of the propellers stopped.

  Then a doorway slid open, and bright blue light streamed into the cabin. Bernie had been in the darkness so long that it felt like she was looking directly into the sun. She blinked, and after her eyes adjusted, she followed Digit and Alph out of the cabin and stared around in amazement.

  She’d always wondered what the Mouse Watch’s headquarters looked like, often imagining something right out of a spy movie.

  But nothing, NOTHING, could have prepared her for the incredible high-tech chamber that greeted her.

  She’d never seen anything like it!

  Bernie felt a paw on her shoulder and turned to see Alph grinning at her. “This is my favorite part of welcoming new recruits,” she said, gesturing before them. “Welcome to Mouse Watch HQ.”

  Bernie gaped.

  She gasped.

  Her whiskers twitched and a huge smile stretched from ear to ear.

  The room was the size of a human airport terminal. The mammoth space was gleaming white, with glowing blue lines traversing the walls. The first things she noticed were the massive, transparent tubes that crisscrossed the length and breadth of the building. She was amazed to see grinning mice shooting back a
nd forth inside them, buoyed by what seemed to be vacuum air currents that plastered their fur and whiskers flat to their faces.

  “Zoom Chutes,” said Alph, noticing Bernie’s stare. “They get you where you’re going as quickly as possible. We don’t like wasting time here at the Watch.”

  Below the Zoom Chutes, on the floor of the main terminal, Bernie noticed Watchers scampering everywhere, some talking into white, wireless earbuds, which must have been communication devices. There was a low hum of chattering voices, police scanners, and, to Bernie’s delight, the whirring of robotic vehicles.

  Some looked like saucer-shaped Roomba vacuums that had been souped up with newer, more powerful motors and a small seat for a Mouse Watch agent to ride on top. Each one was piloted by an agent in an orange jumpsuit and a sleek helmet, and they glided expertly around the room, narrowly avoiding each other and the many pedestrian agents.

  Around the perimeter of the cavernous room, big glass cubes with glowing edges divided up the space, creating little offices or work spaces. Bernie noticed that many of the glass walls had semitransparent images projected onto them, displaying websites or digital maps. Some mice were using them as touch screens, pulling up surveillance cameras and database information with the swipe of a paw.

  Bernie sniffed happily. The place smelled clean and fresh, with just a hint of lemon disinfectant cleaner. The room was bustling in its own well-organized chaos; a group of highly trained agents operating with clockwork precision and timing.

  Like a watch.

  The agents all wore jumpsuits in different colors. Many of them wore the same black jumpsuit with silver piping that Alph and Digit were wearing. The pilots wore orange. Others wore crimson, and only a few were dressed in gold. Each one sported at least one badge on the front, and some agents had many. Bernie didn’t know if they were to indicate rank, or to show some kind of achievement or award, but the different decorative touches looked impressive. When she was little, she’d wanted to join Mouse Scouts but her overprotective parents never let her. She’d loved the idea of getting badges and awards for her accomplishments even then.

  I want one of those uniforms so bad! she thought. She dreamed of one day covering it with badges.

  She wanted to ask Alph and Digit what the colors of the jumpsuits and badges meant, but decided instead to save her questions.

  Slow down, Bernie. You’ll get a chance later, she instructed herself. Right now, you need to just observe. Take in all you can. Who knows? There might be a test later.

  She decided to trust her eyes and ears. She’d often found that by watching and listening (and sometimes smelling), she could find answers to questions before she’d even asked them.

  She stared with awe as her eyes followed the agents. She couldn’t believe she would soon be one of them. Gadget is just one mouse, but she started all of this. Wow. What a genius! Bernie thought.

  She was so eager to get started training it made her stomach hurt.

  Digit rubbed his big paws together and grinned. “Okay, rookie, time to get the nickel tour. You ready?”

  “Totally!” Bernie said, nodding happily.

  Alph put her paw on Bernie’s shoulder and motioned broadly, encompassing the entirety of the large hangarlike building that they were standing in.

  “As I said before, this is HQ,” Alph began. “It’s the nerve center of the Watch. This is where agents from all over the world check in after a mission for debriefing.” She smiled. “Think of it as the battery.”

  Digit motioned with a tilt of his head to a nearby glass cubicle where an agent in a black uniform held her paw next to a palm reader. “Post Operation Processing. POP for short. After each mission the agent’s identity is verified. You’d be surprised at some of the sneaky tactics we’ve seen over the years. Enemy operatives trying to pass themselves off as Watchers.”

  He barked a laugh. “HA! Most of them have no idea what they’re in for. Gadget’s tech is so good, it would take a genius to sneak past our haptic readers and DNA tests. Impossible, really,” he said.

  “Okay, let’s go this way,” said Alph, motioning for Bernie and Digit to follow. Bernie would have liked to stay longer to watch the entire process of the agent getting checked in after her mission. She longed to hear what kind of adventures she had experienced out in the field!

  She might have saved a world leader or stopped an invasion of some kind. Man, I wish I could pick her brain. She glanced around the incredible, high-tech facility as she followed Alph and Digit to a set of double doors.

  As she took it all in, Bernie realized something: Everything in the building had been specifically designed by—and for—mice. There wasn’t a single item from the Springtime Nancy Collection or Jungle Jay. No doll furniture here! No human-designed plastic toys or bottle caps, either. How someone had designed tiny versions of the most cutting-edge tech she’d ever seen was beyond her understanding. It seemed impossible! And yet, all the mice were using the tech without a second thought, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

  In fact, the only examples of human-size objects in the building were things that the Mouse Watch seemed to be using for training purposes or for analyzing clues. Bernie caught sight of a human-size pencil in one of the glass-enclosed offices, the teeth marks indented upon it being analyzed by a mouse in a lab coat making notes with a stylus on a mouse-size tablet.

  Brody would have loved this.

  She realized it with a twinge of both sadness and happiness. Her brother was crazy about technology. He was the one who had shown Bernie how to access the internet via her parents’ smartphone and who had proudly given her the secret password for the Mouseweb when she’d turned six. She remembered how he’d put his arm around her shoulder and tousled her hair, telling her that she was big enough to use it. Big enough. He always used words that made her feel tall and important.

  Bernie’s thoughts were interrupted when the three of them placed their security badges in a scanner, and Alph and Digit led her through the doors into a darkened chamber. It took a minute for Bernie’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. She heard Digit’s voice from somewhere just ahead of her say, “Get ready, rook. What you’re about to see is gonna blow your mind!”

  “No need to be so dramatic, Didg,” said Alph’s voice. “It’s cheesy.”

  “Ummmm, cheesy,” said Digit. Bernie could hear smacking sounds as he licked his lips. “I could go for a big plate of melted Gorgonzola right now.”

  Bernie snickered. But her giggle turned to a gasp when she heard a switch flick, and shafts of glowing blue light suddenly illuminated several glass-enclosed training stations. The interior of each one was vast, all containing a variety of themed training exercises for Mouse Watch agents.

  “Careful, you’ll catch a fly with your mouth hanging open like that.” Digit chuckled. Bernie, who had been staring slack-jawed at the glowing training rooms, snapped her mouth shut.

  “Hey, we’re in luck. Here come some agents. Now pay attention, you might learn something,” said Alph.

  Two gruff-looking male Watchers with a tough-looking female between them entered the first training center. All three wore the same glowing blue goggles that Digit and Alph wore. Bernie watched as the three nodded to each other and then pressed a small fingerprint sensor on the side of his or her goggles.

  The three gigantic holographic rats that appeared in front of them looked so startlingly real that Bernie jumped. Each one had a weapon at the ready and began firing as soon as it materialized.

  The three agents leaped and twirled to escape the rounds of laser fire, hitting back at the holo-targets with expert marksmanship. To Bernie it was like watching a deadly, acrobatic circus performance. The agents moved with expertly timed martial arts prowess, but even with their obvious skill, a couple of them got blasted by the holo-rat agents. When one of the virtual laser blasts hit an area on a Mouse Watch agent, a light flashed on their haptic suit, logging the hit.

  A giant scoreboard was
projected on one of the glass walls, keeping track of the hits for each team. Bernie was swept up in the exciting spectacle and cheered for her favorite agent, the wiry female who ended up being the last mouse standing.

  When the drill was completed, the blue floodlights that illuminated the practice room turned red and each of the agents removed their goggles. As they compared scores, Digit turned to Bernie and said, “The program can be adjusted according to the skill level of the agent. That’s a little string of code I added, with Gadget’s permission, of course.”

  “It looks like fun,” said Bernie. “How soon can I try it?”

  “Ha! Not so fast,” said Alph. “You’ve got to pass basic training before you get to do these tests.” She grinned at Bernie’s eager expression and then added with a wink, “But with your spirit, I’ll bet you’ll be here in no time at all.”

  Bernie glowed from the praise.

  Digit led the way to the next room, in which there were already a dozen or so agents in workout gear running through an obstacle course filled with trampolines, monkey bars, tackling dummies, and tumbling mats.

  “Daily workout,” said Digit. “An agent has to remain in top physical condition.” Bernie suppressed a giggle when she saw Digit sucking in his potbelly as he spoke. Alph snorted and said, “The only time I’ve seen you run is when they’re serving cheese crumpets at breakfast.”

  “Nonsense!” said Digit, pretending to be affronted. “I run at lunch and dinner, too. You never know if they might be serving mac and cheese.”

  All three laughed. Bernie found that she really liked her new friends. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d shared a laugh with anyone.

  The last time was probably with Brody, she thought. Ever since his death she’d felt the weight of the world on her tiny shoulders. But right now, even though she missed him terribly, she was feeling good—better than she had in ages!

  The last room in line was empty save for a single figure standing inside it. Digit ran his paw over the scanner and they went inside. As they moved closer, Bernie saw that the figure was actually a mouse made entirely of white plastic and chrome, with glowing blue trim. Its eyes shone as its head swiveled around, surveying all three of them.