"Come again?"
Sam and Alex, after many, many long months of separation, finally sat face to face with Clover and were actually talking to her again. They really missed the days when the three of them could just talk about absolutely everything and to hear Clover's voice again was like hearing a long-lost friend speaking to them, even though her voice was the usual unconcerned, ice-cold tone. Well, in a way, they are pretty much long lost to her.
"Well, you see," Sam tried to explain. "We did a little investigation on the virus that was infecting you and we found out that this virus came from the stink gas Mandy sprayed on you during the last day of the mid-term exams and is actually designed to infect your DNA only."
"And we thought that it could be someone really smart and has a grudge on you, so we did a little research," Alex chided in. "Mandy was out of the list, lucky for her."
"I never thought it was her anyway," Clover replied nonchalantly, as always.
"We thought that it could be someone tampering with Mandy's stink gas while she wasn't looking, so we decided to interrogate Mandy a little," Sam continued.
"We had to use drastic measures, you know," Alex sighed as she pointed at Sam's bandaged wrist. Clover took a look at it and gave a None-of-my-business look. Sam had expected that.
"Anyway, we got what we wanted and we found out that the person responsible for your condition right now is a guy named Johannesburg Robert Wilkinson who works in the North Dakota Health Centre. Does his name ring a bell to you?"
"Not really," Clover replied after giving a few seconds' thought.
"He used to study in Georgia High, Nevada," Alex tried to remind her. "That where you studied before WOOHPS transferred you to study here in Beverly Hills High. We believe that he has a personal grudge on you."
"Many guys have a personal grudge on me. Not that I cared," Clover replied, looking away in an uninterested mood.
"Clover, do you remember ever standing up someone during a prom night?" Sam asked.
"I stood up a lot of guys, and it's not only for prom nights. I can't remember every detail of my life."
"Try, Clover," Sam persuaded, putting her hand on her best friend's shoulder. She could feel Clover tense a little, as if her fingers were burning a hole through her skin, but she disregarded it. She hadn't been in such close contact with her for a very long time now and the feeling of being able to touch her best friend was good enough for her. Clover stared at her hand for a while before sighing and flicking it off.
"There is one guy who asked me to the Winter Prom Night during my first year in Georgia High." Clover admitted. "I don't really remember his name, though. He's quite cute and all and I agreed to go with him. Then I met this other guy--a transfer student from Hawaii--just a day before the prom night and he was much cuter than the guy who asked me first, so I stood him up. Happy now?"
Sam and Alex looked at each other in dismay. This time their worries were coming true. Her flirtatious ways had finally got her into trouble and a vengeful guy was actually getting back at her. They should've known that this was going to happen sooner or later.
"What? Are you trying to tell me that this Johannesburg guy was the person that I stood up for the Winter Prom Night and now he's getting back at me?" Clover asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we believe that's the whole point," Sam sighed. Alex didn't know what to say.
"Then this guy seriously needs a psychiatrist," Clover replied coldly before walking away from her friends, her face showing no concern of what's going on right now and what she was supposed to do. Sam and Alex didn't try to stop her. They knew that Clover is not going to do anything and can't do anything because she had to continue keeping her cool against the Ice Queen Virus.
"So what are we going to do now?" Alex asked as soon as Clover disappeared out of sight.
"What else can we do? We have to find Johannesburg and force him to give us the antidote," Sam said determinedly. "We can't leave Clover like this, although in a way, Clover had started all this trouble in the first place. If we don't find an antidote soon, there is no telling when Clover would suddenly collapse on the floor dead once the virus has finally spread to a critical point."
"You're right, Sam. We have to find the mastermind behind all this and get him to cure Clover. Then we'll have to make Clover apologize for what she had made him to do."
"How's about calling Jerry and ask him for Johannesburg's address and we'll start off from there?" Sam asked.
"That's the only first option we have," Alex shrugged, taking out her Com-powder. Before she could start calling WOOHPS, the Com-powder rang first. Alex answered it and it was Jerry's familiar face.
"Hello, girls," Jerry said. "How's Clover doing?"
"As cold as usual," Alex replied. "Clover confirmed to us that Johannesburg was behind all this. We were thinking of going to his house to arrest him and get him to create an antidote for her before she expires."
"That's what I've suspected," Jerry replied. "But I'm afraid it is not possible now."
"Why not?" Sam asked, surprised.
"We have already conducted a search at Johannesburg's house and we have found nothing. We've checked high and low, every nook and cranny, including his lab at the basement, yet we found no one. But somehow we've located his journal and guess what, girls?"
"What?" Sam and Alex asked simultaneously.
"The perpetrator who broke into the secret lab and stole the hush-hush anti-depression medicine was actually no other than Johannesburg himself. He has been planning this revenge all along and he had went through a long distance just to do that. There are tons of research books about criminals and how their way of breaking into houses undetected and also lists of codes and access info and his calculations on how to break them. He even has tons of paperwork in his lab showing his experiments on altering the anti-depression medicine. The science department are analyzing it as we speak.
"He also had a personal diary in his room writing all kinds of mean things about Clover and how he was going to get back at her. There is also a receipt and some invoices of payments he got from your friend Mandy, which confirmed Mandy's story. He had spared no expense to get his figures and plans right."
"Sounds like this is someone who is very bad in rejections," Sam muttered darkly, feeling as if she was going to stab Johannesburg in the head for making Clover's life so miserable. Alex nodded in agreement.
"My guess, girls," Jerry continued, "that he could be somewhere cold, maybe Poland. There are a few entries in his journals suggesting that he had to keep these virus entities really cold and the only temperature fit for that criteria would be at Poland. And the fact that he had some souvenirs brought back from that country."
"Alright, Poland it is then," Sam said. "Better get our gear ready, because if Johannesburg spared no expense in trying to kill Clover, then we'll do just the same to capture him."
"Already coming your way, girls," Jerry replied. "Your ride will be at Beverly Hills Park. You'll have to hurry."
"Isn't that a little bit inconspicuous, Jer?" Alex asked, worried that it might blow their spy cover.
"No time to think about that now. Thanks, Jer," Sam said as she turned off Alex's Com-powder. In a thrice, they were running towards Beverly Hills Park and sure enough, there was their TINY TIM flown by one of the WOOHPS crew with civilians staring at it in awe. The crew let down a ladder for them to climb in.
"Thanks, pal. You're a great help," Alex thanked the pilot as soon as they were in the TINY TIM and miles above air. He gave her a thumbs-up.
"Anything for the girls to keep this world safe," he replied. "You girls can take it from here now."
So saying, he turned on the auto-pilot system and ejected himself from the floor of TINY TIM. As the girls watched in awe, the seat the pilot was on immediately materialized itself into a small jet and flew off at an opposite direction. Alex giggled with glee.
"WOOHPS sure have some cool toys nowadays."
"Yeah, but we'll put that aside from now. Let's get into our spy suits and head for Poland." Sam said as she headed for the dressing room compartment.
Soon, after setting the coordinates to Poland on the auto-pilot system, Sam and Alex went to check on what gadgets Jerry has prepared for them as TINY TIM could be seen flying through the air towards their destination to save their friend.
"Brr~! This is colder than Clover's icy stare!"
Sam and Alex have finally reached Poland and the first thing that greeted their arrival was the ice-cold wind that bit through their bones almost immediately.
"Yeah, it really is freezing up here," Sam agreed. "It's almost as cold as the North Pole itself. But there's no turning back now. We have to find Johannesburg before he could think up other viruses to kill Clover."
Alex nodded and, taking a deep (but cold) breath, walked with Sam side by side as they started hiking up a pretty steep hill. Sam took out one of the gadgets that looked like a typical hair comb Jerry prepared for them and lifted it high above her head. The gadget gave out a series of beeps as soon as she turned it on.
"What gadget is that?" Alex asked. "I didn't get to hear all the instruction from the software Jerry left about our gadgets."
"This is a Micro-Tracker Comb," Sam replied. "Every lab needs a computer and every computer has its own frequency. This comb is very sensitive towards possible computer waves and can pick it up in no time. You wouldn't expect a genius like Johannesburg not to have a computer in his lab now, would you?"
"Well, no. Unless he's such a genius that he might not need one."
"Anyway, if he so happens to have one--which I'm sure he does--we'll be able to track down the frequency of the computer waves and then we'll be able to have a clue about his whereabouts."
"Jerry never fails to surprise us with his latest toys."
With the guide of the beeping comb, Sam and Alex continued their way up the hill, hoping that they could find Johannesburg's hideout in time. The wind was blowing mercilessly hard at them and the snow was falling heavily upon them, making their walk even more difficult.
"What's with all this snow and wind? It's not even winter in Beverly Hills!" Alex shouted, trying to outdo the howling wind.
"It the high ground!" Sam yelled back. "The higher we get, the closer we are to the sky and the easier we are exposed to all this snow storm! We gotta keep going! We got a criminal to catch!"
"Can't we use our jetpack backpack or something?!"
"No, we can't." Sam disagreed. "The wind is too strong. We'll be blown off like paper. We have to go on foot."
"Now I know how it felt when the Fellowship of the Ring went up that mountain towards Moria!" Alex groaned.
Our spies continued to hike the steep hill, forcing their way through the wild, hectic snow storm. As they tried to make their strenuous way to the top, they heard a distant rumbling which sounded like it came from above.
"What was that?" Alex exclaimed.
"I don't know," Sam replied, looking up. "But I'm not hanging around to find out. Let's just keep going!"
They weren't kept in the dark for long. No sooner Sam said that than a series of snow clumps came falling down. When they looked up again, they saw a huge mound of snow sliding and falling down towards their direction. It was a sign all hikers and mountain climbers feared most.
"Avalanche!!" Alex exclaimed as she took to her heels. Sam followed suite. Immediately they activated their jetpack backpacks, disregarding the fact that Sam had said they would be blown off by the strong wind like paper. Somehow they activated it too late, 'coz when they were about to take off, the avalanche has already reached them and enveloped them like a huge, ice-cold blanket, swallowing them up whole…
The cold wind continued to blow, howling like a mad wolf on the loose. The avalanche had finally stopped rolling and the hill was quite calm once more. At the foot of the hill, there laid two girls dressed in green and yellow leather outfits. One was a fair redhead and one was a tan brunette. They both lay unconscious under what seemed like half a tonne of snow, seemingly dead. They were all alone in the freezing land of Poland where there wasn't any civilization within miles and no one nearby to help them before they freeze to death in their cold, snowy grave.
Moments later, footsteps were heard coming closer towards them.
Clover was tossing and turning in her bed. Somehow she just couldn't sleep. There was something bothering her but she couldn't pinpoint what it was. She always had that itching feeling inside her gut whenever something bad is going on and that feeling was coming to her right now.
She sat up and walked towards the verandah. She stared at the moon and began to think back what Sam and Alex had said to her. She did remember slightly about a guy with red hair and dashing green eyes asking her out for the Winter Prom Night and she did remember hearing from her friends in Georgia High that he was a genius and the youngest student of the entire school. She remembered feeling pretty proud because a lot of girls wanted to ask him out for the Winter Prom Night and yet he chose her. Then she remembered seeing that cute transfer student from Hawaii and couldn't help asking him to the prom night. She could still remember the hurt look on Johannesburg's face as she told him that she wouldn't be going with him after all but she was too engrossed with the Hawaiian guy to notice.
Leaving WOOHPS was really a painful thing for her but she had to do it. The night after that near-death experience, she had been thinking long and hard about the possibilities of burdening Jerry and her best friends if she continued to stay in WOOHPS and continue to have these seizures. She had an idea that there could be someone out to get her using the Ice Queen virus and she didn't want to put Sam and Alex at risk. She was afraid that if she continued to stay, she could've involuntarily involve Sam and Alex in danger and she sure didn't want anything bad to happen to them. The whole week when she was hospitalized in WOOHPS medical centre, she had trained secretly in the middle of the night in front of a mirror to keep her expression as cold as possible and trained herself not to react to anything around her. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, but she had to do it. Evidently, she had succeeded, judging by the way she was able to fight Sam away with her spy skills and not feeling sorry about it although she really wanted to.
Come to think of it, she secretly believed that she deserved all this punishment. She had no idea that she could hurt someone so deeply with her appalling flirtatious ways. She had no idea her action could lead to this mess. She seemed to forget that there are some people who are really bad grudge-holders and can really ruin your life if they want to. If she were able to turn back time, she would've just stuck to Johannesburg in the first place.
While she was contemplating everything that had happened, she suddenly heard a ringing from her Com-powder. Though her face didn't show, she was slightly surprised. She remembered turning it off and stuffed in her closet ever since she left WOOHPS. She walked up to her closet and ransacked the whole place to look for the Com-powder. She finally found it and answered the call. There was a message on the screen with a picture attachment to it. It read:
Hello, Clover. Glad to hear from you again after such a long time. You do remember me, don't you? The guy you stood up a few years ago? Well, let's rekindle our relationship a little, shall we? Go to Beverly HillsAirport and you will see a private jet plane waiting for you. It will take you to the outskirts of the nice chilly Poland, as chilly as your heart is. There you will see a snow jet ski. Take the jet ski and go west. Meet me at the first cabin you'll see and we'll talk about old times.
From your old flame Johannesburg
P/S: Oh, BTW, you have to hurry or your best friends will have to become ice popsicles.
Clover pressed a key to open the attachment and saw Sam and Alex tied together on a pole. The lower half of their bodies were dunked into a tank of ice water that was connected to a freezer-like machine. Their blue faces were evident that they weren't doing too good.
Finally, after staring at the picture for about 2 minutes, she reached into her closet for her red spy suits and her jetpack backpack and was soon up in the air towards Beverly Hills Airport.
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