CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE

When Launchpad awakened for his usual pre-breakfast breakfast, he was surprised to find the kitchen lights on and annoyed muttering coming from beyond the kitchen door. Cautiously, he poked his head into the kitchen, seeing a mess covering the table, counter tops and much of the linoleum floor.

Amidst it all stood Drake, crazed look in his glossy gaze and cup of coffee in his shaking left hand. "It -- it all means something," he said in creepy falsetto.

Launchpad couldn't be sure if Drake was talking to him, if he was even vaguely aware that his sidekick stood in the doorway eyeing him with concern. So Launchpad glanced around, making sure Gosalyn was not present to witness this bizarre episode. Certainly she wouldn't appreciate seeing her adoptive father in what seemed to be an altered state of consciousness.

Rather, Gosalyn would have greatly appreciated seeing it, if only to obtain fodder for later blackmailing purposes.

"Uh . . . Hey, Drake," Launchpad said slowly, taking careful steps into the kitchen. "What's goin' on? Have you gone to sleep at all tonight?"

"No," Drake replied in that same unnerving falsetto and between fits of highly inappropriate but thankfully not contagious laughter. "No! Look at all this stuff! Just . . . Just look!"

"What is all this?"

"Everything I could find on that girl Miss Germaine wants me to locate."

"What girl?" Asked Launchpad.

"The one who's been keeping bad company, the girl with Megavolt. Tegwen -- "

"Dodgers?"

Drake glanced up at Launchpad with furious eyes. "Yes! How did you know that?"

"She worked for Mr. McD., too. I didn't talk to her much but she seemed real nice!"

Drake eyed Launchpad warily, wondering if his assessment of the girl had anything to do with her appearance. He chose not to ask. It was entirely possible Launchpad didn't even know the answer to that, himself. "I don't get it! This girl . . . She's got connections to everyone!" He pointed to each piece of evidence as he prattled off the list: "Bushroot, Liquidator, Quackerjack, Negaduck and -- of course, Megavolt! Magica De Spell, Scrooge McDuck and half of high society from Duckburg! And apparently some up-and-coming new journalist she used to be good friends with, Kayla -- also from Duckburg! Not to mention most of Old Town St. Canard, Steelbeak and his new partner, and -- oh! You should see this dossier F.O.W.L.'s got on her!" Drake paused only long enough to take a deep breath. "And you know her, too! She really gets around! I wouldn't be surprised if she was a Kennedy!"

"Maybe she's just . . . real outgoing?" Launchpad suggested, with a chuckle.



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