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Chapter 12: The Sergeant Has a Plan

When they arrived at the hangar, Razor hurriedly jumped down, stripped and fled to his room. T-Bone grimaced in sorrow knowing how much pain his partner was in and helpless to do anything about it. He slowly changed his clothes and went upstairs, made himself something light to eat then watched some TV for a while.

He prayed tomorrow would be a little better but he didn't hold out much hope.

The next morning, Jake came down well after lunch looking grief-stricken and exhausted. His eyes held a haunted look that was hard for Chance to ignore. Against his partner's wishes, he hauled Jake off to Atakata Island for the rest of the day. They didn't do anything but walk the beach and lay in the sun for a couple of hours just soaking up the heat. By evening, Jake looked a little better though he was still too quiet for the tabby's piece of mind but it was an improvement.

While the bigger of the SWAT Kats tried to cope with his partner's moodiness, Feral spent three days in the hospital and only two weeks returning to normal health. His emotional health, however...Felina was at her wit's end. Her uncle was being torn up inside and still he wouldn't let anyone comfort him. It had gotten so bad, she was even willing to call up her father and have him come to see his brother but she didn't...at least not yet. But, God how she wanted to.

Though relieved at no longer being pregnant, Feral also felt guilty. Though he had been told it wasn't his fault the kitten died, he still couldn't shake the terrible feeling that he might have been responsible in some way especially since he hadn't wanted it in the first place.

This final blow was more than his strong will could take. His grief and emotional pain made him impossible to be around. Those closest to him were both exasperated and extremely worried about his state of mind.

Finally, the Sergeant decided to consult someone he knew. Without giving a name, he asked what could be done. The answer stunned him. He quickly contacted Felina and T-Bone and had them meet him at a secluded place to talk.

The Sergeant was dressed in civilian clothes as was Felina when she arrived. It was dusk and they were meeting at a closed, old gas station not far from the salvage yard. T-Bone took a circuitous route so the other two couldn't tell where he had come from. He arrived shortly after Felina on his cyclotron.

The Sergeant had parked his car in some bushes nearby while Felina had parked her jeep directly behind the old building. T-Bone had parked his bike beside hers. Shutting off his bike, he climbed off, laid his helmet on the seat then leaned against it.

"Okay, so why the secret meeting?" T-Bone asked, beating Felina to the question.

"I went and saw an acquaintance of mine who happens to be a therapist. I gave him a very tiny sketch of what was going on without naming names or descriptions. He was reluctant to tell me anything based on so little background but I told him it was urgent and that we'd tried everything to get these two help but nothing worked. He relented and finally gave me some truly surprising advice." The Sergeant said.

"Oh, what was surprising about it?" Felina asked.

"He said lock the two of them together in a room with only a mattress on the floor, a blanket, some pillows, a box of tissue, and a cooler with a couple of wet wash cloths and several bottles of water then leave them." The Sergeant explained.

"Say what?! That's nuts!" T-Bone blurted out, standing up suddenly from his slouch on the bike.

"I thought so too but he said sometimes emotional pain this large needs just plain confrontation to resolve it. They will either talk it out or, as he thinks is more likely in this case, quite literally beat the shit out of each other until they can't stand and are completely exhausted. Once physically drained then the emotional release can occur in the form of tears. I told him these two were very reserved and not much on showing their emotions. He told me they were even more likely to break down completely just for that reason. Simply because they needed it more than others who freely showed their emotions." The Sergeant finished.

"Uh, well that has a sort of twisted logic about it." Felina said, a little nonplused at the solution.

T-Bone was shaking his head in disbelief. "He has got to be kidding. They just might kill each other instead."

"He really doesn't think so. Admittedly he was hampered by my meager amount of information but he insists since I told him they were very moral Kats and that one wasn't blaming the other for what had happened that this would help relieve the logjam of emotions going on now. Otherwise they are going to make a fatal mistake in their jobs because they are so distracted by their pain." The Sergeant said seriously.

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like the only choice we have." T-Bone sighed in reluctant agreement.

"I have to agree. We can't let them go on like this. So how do we grab and where do we stash them for this?" Felina asked, accepting what they had to do and willing to get to it immediately.

"Well that's the part I'm uncertain about and why I asked you here so we could come up with an idea." The Sergeant said, shrugging his shoulders and spreading his paws to indicate the ball was in their court now.

"Hmm, well there's the old Richert Factory. It's been closed for a year now and it has many storerooms some with only tiny windows for light in them. It had been used from some smugglers a few months ago so I've had a good look at it. A few of the pilferable storage rooms are very sturdy and have heavy doors that can be locked. How's that?" Felina said after a moments thought.

"Sounds good for stashing them but now how do we get them there?" T-Bone asked.

"That actually may be the easier part. I tell my uncle that I think the smugglers have returned but there's no certainty and ask if he'd like to check it out with me before having a squad go in. You could do the same with Razor by taking him on patrol then swinging by here." Felina suggested.

"Okay, that will work. So when?" T-Bone said, pleased with the simplicity of the plan.

"We have to set the place up first. How about we meet at the factory day after tomorrow, Thursday, a couple of hours before dark. Should take us only an hour or so to clean up a room and set it up." Felina suggested.

"Hmm, I can do it. I can even find a good mattress for the room." T-Bone grunted in agreement.

"Works for me. Want me to bring the cooler, water, tissue and wash cloths?" The Sergeant asked.

"Yeah, you do that and I'll bring the blankets, pillows and cleaning supplies. Until Thursday, around six p.m." Felina said. The other two nodded and they all left for their respective homes.

Thursday was cloudy and threatened rain when the three met up again. T-Bone had used the hoverkat to bring the mattress. They parked inside the loading dock area. When T-Bone glided in and parked, Felina closed the roll doors behind him.

"Okay, so now what?" T-Bone asked as he got out of the hoverkat to join the pair.

"Well, let's go take a look at the choices we have. Here, grab some of the cleaning supplies..." Felina said as she grabbed a bucket of water with sponges from her jeep. The Sergeant and T-Bone grabbed mops, brooms, dustpans, garbage bags and bottled cleaners then they followed Felina further into the building.

She went through a door at the back of the loading area. This led to a hall filled with offices. She passed them by and passed the elevator. No one was willing to try that in a building that had been closed a year. She continued on down the hall till they came to a door that opened to a dark staircase. She flicked a light switch on and they went down the wide stairs. At the bottom was a wide hall with many doors. At random they each opened doors and checked the interiors of the rooms. Too many of them were filled with junk and would take too long to empty. Finally they found five that might work. They studied each one critically for ease of cleaning, the strength of the door, the lightning, and whether the lock was still working.

Finally, they picked one that met all their needs and began to work. After a couple of hours they were tired and dirty but the room was clean and ready to be set up. They went back up to their vehicles and collected the supplies they had brought for it.

T-Bone placed the mattress up against a corner wall away from the door. Beside it the Sergeant set the cooler filled with ice, four bottles of water, two wash cloths in a baggy and a large box of tissue. Felina made the bed up. The final touch was some work out tiles that T-Bone had brought. The Sergeant and Felina helped him fit them together to make a good size area covered in the soft rubber material. It was bad enough that the pair would be beat and bloody from pounding each other without getting badly hurt by the hard cement floor as well.

"Nice touch, T-Bone. Glad you thought of it." Felina said, pleased by his thoughtfulness.

"Yeah, thanks. Well we're ready. Now we have to get them here. When do you want to do this?" T-Bone asked.

"Tomorrow! That way they can go home and recover over the weekend. It wouldn't look real good for them to try to return to work wrung out and looking like they did three rounds with Dark Kat." Felina said grimly.

"Okay, but it can't be early in the day. It wouldn't look good if Feral came up missing during working hours. Would he think it strange that you ask him to check this out closer to quitting time?" T-Bone asked.

"Well..." Felina began before being interrupted.

"Excuse me Lieutenant, but I think I should be the one who tells him about the lie. He won't suspect me. Then you just happen to drop by to see him as you usually do. He'll automatically ask you to go with him to check it out." The Sergeant said.

"Huh! You do know my uncle really well, don't you?" Felina said in amusement. "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea and he will never suspect me of doing something nefarious either."

"As for me, I'll ask Razor to go on a testing flight. We have a firing obstacle course in the desert we use and I'll suggest we go out there for a bit. When we're done, if you'll set off an alarm that you send only to me on frequency 47, I'll coax Razor to go along to check it out." T-Bone said.

"Okay, I can do that. But you'll have to be here quickly before my uncle suspects something." Felina warned.

"Roger. We'd better set a time and synchronize our watches." T-Bone said.

"We'll set the trap for four-fifteen. It's eight-ten and six seconds...mark!" Felina called out. Everyone set their watches on the mark. "Okay guys. Here's hoping we pull this off. See you tomorrow." She said with a sigh.

The Sergeant and T-Bone nodded solemnly. They went back up to the main floor and departed their separate ways.