That evening, Callie wasted no time in getting all the info she needed from her lover who was surprised and pleased by her and Feral's plans.
"Wow! That's awesome. I never knew he was even thinking about doing this ... it's just incredible. I mean getting a chance to build something like that and run it too ... I'm just blown away," Jake exclaimed, shaking his head in wonder.
Callie leaned close and kissed him soundly. "You deserve it love. After what Ulysses told me about what had happened to you so long ago, it's only fair you get your own back." She'd not told him that Feral had also planned on reinstating both him and Chance in the Enforcers. That was his surprise to spring on them but she was glad to pass on this bit of happiness to Jake at least.
"Yeah, it really kicks ass and I'm already benefitting from his other suggestion about selling my inventions. I've made a tidy sum that allows Chance and I more personal freedom. Oh, and just so you know, we are closing the garage by the end of the week. We don't need to waste time working in it any longer and, in just a few months, I'll have our debt to the Enforcers paid off," He said with pride, pleased at the progress he'd made in making them financially free.
"That's wonderful to hear, love, except for closing the garage. Who will work on my car then?"
He chuckled and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I will, of course. I'll be sure to keep it in tip top condition, promise."
"I'll hold you to it," she laughed back. "By the way, Ulysses also told me that you and Professor Hackle had collaborated on building new equipment and weapons for his Enforcers. I must say, the Professor has certainly unbent from his principles quite a bit of late."
"Not really. He just came to realize that more Kats would die for no good reason and the city would never have peace if the Enforcers weren't strong enough to do the job they were tasked to do. He objected more about his weapons being used for war but this is for crime fighting and killing isn't really supposed to be part of that when it can be helped. That sort of eased his views on violence enough to not feel guilty about helping. And he realized it certainly wasn't the Enforcers fault they've been saddled with outdated equipment. He felt that was unfair and cost too many Enforcer lives for no good reason except for Manx's and the city council's penny pinching. So he contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to help him develop and build what the Enforcers needed," Jake explained.
"Even if Chance hadn't mated with Feral, I still would have done it since I didn't like it when I was in the Enforcers either. Anyway, we came up with AI assisted jet, chopper, and tank. We've handed those over already and a few of the new weapons. I'm working on some other stuff myself that I'll be giving Feral later. I'm really glad Hackle and I got it done when we did when that strange crime wave hit. They helped in a big way since there was no way Chance and I could be everywhere. The new equipment ensured fewer lives were lost and less property damage occurred."
"So I heard and I'm well pleased with the results. And when the new training simulator is up and running, Ulysses' Enforcers should be able to begin to handle this new criminal element with greater effectiveness since it looks like this is only the start of something nasty."
Jake expression took on a look of worry mixed with anger. "Chance and I were just talking about that crime spree. It's really a bitch that we get the omegas under control or gone only to be replaced with the more lower level criminals. We both feel this new crime wave might be connected in some way to one of the three mob bosses but which one it is and what their motive might be, we have no clue."
"I think I might have a possible line on that...I find it a little coincidental the crime spree occurred just when rumors of a dark horse candidate running against Mayor Manx in the next election in October has been whispered about at city hall, don't you?" Callie asked.
"What? This is the first I've heard of something like that," Jake exclaimed.
She sighed, turning her head to look him in the eyes. "My small circle of confidants have told me there's been an unusual amount of back door conversations going on about replacing Mayor Manx with new blood. Also, I've noticed an increased scrutiny of me by spies from a few members of the city council that would be happy to see me replaced."
"Does sound like dirty politics and something a mob boss would be very interested in, if not the actual instigator of it. Does Feral know about this?" Jake asked, seeing the implications of such a scenario on the city's fragile peace.
Looking chagrined, Callie sighed and shook her head. "I forgot to mention it to him during our meeting today in the park. It only just occurs to me that despite his and I's efforts at secrecy, I may be under deeper scrutiny than I first thought. I know you've done a good job securing my office, but it's still not safe to discuss such sensitive subjects there. And I'm not sure my apartment is safe from spying either," She said, worriedly. "From now on Feral and I are going to have to be extremely circumspect about our meetings. Though it's not unusual for him to see me, suspicions would be raised if he came around too often, especially when the city seems more at peace than before."
"Hmm, for longer discussions, I strongly recommend you meet at their home. For shorter meetings during your work day, the park is still a viable place with the hangar at the yard as secondary," Jake said, thoughtfully. "As for your apartment, that will be my number one priority so you can safely work at home. I'll also insure there's layers of firewalls on your personal computer but make sure you don't save your work on there...use a disk instead."
She nodded, agreeing with most of his suggestions. "I don't think the hangar would be possible for either of us as a meeting place but we do need to find a safer one somewhere. I'll bounce it off Feral and see what he might have that will work."
"Good enough. With the garage closed and Chance no longer living there, I may be hunting new quarters for myself. Without having to work on cars, I can spend more time inventing and building in the hangar plus spending more time with you," he said, smirking. She blushed. "Anyway, with us not tied down at the garage, we could do some snooping of our own on the mob bosses to see which one is behind this new crime wave and possible election fixing," He added, in a more serious tone of voice.
Shaking his head, he scowled angrily. "Though these gang attacks aren't as ruinous as Dark Kat, Dr. Viper, or the other omegas would be, their goal to disrupt the election and push their own corrupt selection onto the people will have the same effect."
"And they are only just getting started. By the time the election arrives, we may see a serious assault being launched against the city for the purpose of making Manx and Feral look really bad so that whoever this supposed dark horse is can ride in and take over in the ballot box without half trying," she agreed, a yawn catching her by surprise. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize ... it is kind of late. How about I give you a nice massage to relax you and something more to thank you for helping us out, hmm?" Jake rumbled deep in his chest. He stood up and reached down to pull her to her feet, walking them both toward her bedroom.
"Hmm, I like the sound of that," she purred.
"I thought you would."
Jake's massage was heavenly and so was the short but intense bout of love play. Her SWAT Kat lover was just as inventive in the bedroom as he was on his drawing board.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
The next day, Callie was kept busy taking care of the myriad of projects she was in control of as well as doing the work the lazy mayor was supposed to do.
The secret project she and Feral were working on, she kept strictly locked up at home not daring to bring it to work for any reason. Taking Jake's advice, she had him tell Feral through Chance, that they needed to meet and would do so at their home but only after Feral had gotten the rest of the information they needed. He was to send word back through Jake when that would occur. She would wait until that meeting was over before setting up ones with Hackle and Young.
Before parting from her lover that morning, Jake had made another good suggestion.
"I think I need to drop by your office, pretending to be a building inspector, so I can tweak my security systems again, scan it for any new bugs and any other new devices that might have been added and deactivate them."
"If you feel the need. Thank you. However, don't take out all the bugs. When you find one, show me how to turn it off and on," Callie said.
"Why?"
"So I can spill some deliberately misleading information to keep my enemies off balance."
"Ah, an excellent idea. You're very devious, you know that?" Jake grinned, giving her a hug. "I think after lunch would be a good time to visit, okay?"
"Perfect."
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
It was rather like working in a fish bowl, she mused later that morning as she drank her fourth cup of coffee. She had no idea just how many little spy devices were watching her every conversation. There really shouldn't be any at all with Jake's security system in place but one could never tell in the game of surveillance so she was glad he wanted to recheck his system.
As usual, Manx had done the bare minimum of work before leaving with his golf bag for the links. The fool was completely unworried about the election. Certain his minions would work tirelessly to insure he was reelected and that he still had the support of high society... which he didn't.
The arrogant and overly self-confident tom thought his only contribution to his reelection that was needed was the glad-handing of prospective voters and kissing of kittens as well as attending campaign parties. Rumors of a dark horse he ignored as hopeless wishful thinking by malcontents, not taking it seriously at all.
As she'd told Jake, every election year, someone tried to oust Manx without success but those had been honest candidates. This time around, the fact this new candidate was being kept a closely guarded secret, made alarm bells go off within her. And she couldn't figure out how they intended on getting votes when their candidate remained in the shadows.
Even if they somehow managed to remove Manx before the election, she would be Mayor temporarily until the actual elections. So what were they up to? Or were they going to take her out too? A chill ran up her spine. She might be just being overly paranoid but she couldn't shake the idea she might be right.
If she and Feral managed to uncover the plot they suspected was going on, it would mean the possible collapse of the present city government. It would take months to ferret out all the criminals that might be threaded throughout the system then find honest ones to take their place. What a nightmare.
Being an election year, the chaos would be worse as Manx was thrown out of office for allowing such a corrupting influence to sink their claws into the government in the first place and, if she didn't play her cards right, she'd be sent out with him. No, the only solution here was for her to run for office as well and insure she was shown as the one who cleaned up Megakat City.
She'd never wanted the spotlight, but she couldn't leave the city in the lurch when the fallout happened.
Her only problem was she had only a small circle of trusted people on her side. She had to drum up a much larger support base and investors quick if she was to win. Her head began to throb from the immensity of the task before her. Those trusted few were already trying hard to keep abreast of all the whisperings going on behind her back and relaying it to her to add to the ammunition she was collecting. She had no doubt many secret meetings were going on and more would happen the closer it got to October.
It was becoming painfully obvious that whoever was masterminding this knew who her spies were and were successfully keeping them in the dark because her people hadn't been able to find out any hard facts about this dark horse.
What was in her favor were two things: one, no one would be prepared for her to throw her hat into the ring, and two, the latest polls had clearly demonstrated how high the number of dissatisfied Katizens there were out there that absolutely loathed Manx's performance as mayor these last four years. They made it clear they were tired of him and felt his performance was lackluster at best of late. If they only knew how little he truly did for them, they'd be furious, she thought.
Well if she was truly serious about running for mayor, her platform was already decided ...Clean Up Megakat City Government.
First, she needed to demonstrate her new working relationship with Feral by announcing their joint efforts at halting the new crime wave with the building and opening of the new training system for the Enforcers with the plus factor of not having to use city funds to do it with. Secondly, cleaning out all the criminals she was almost certain had taken over the government. Third, demonstrating how more efficient and effective the Enforcers were with the new training, new equipment, and new weapons at their disposal. And, fourth, promising Commander Feral would remain as Chief Enforcer which many in the public sector seemed to want.
To make it all work, she needed a strong deputy mayor, campaign manager, and above all, a personal assistant. The last was always denied her by the Mayor and city council who felt they couldn't fund the position. Well phooey on that! If she had to pay an assistant from her own pocket, she'd do it. Enough of this trying to handle it all on her own. She knew her limitations.
Sighing, she made a note to herself to speak with the three males in her life and ask them what they thought of her running. Her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of her lover. He nodded at her, but didn't approach, putting a finger to his mouth to order her silent as he stood in the doorway and waved a device around the room.
Frowning, he finally stepped into her office, his device pointing to the left corner just inside and up toward the ceiling. He leaped with ease and silence to land on top of a filing cabinet beneath the area he was focused on.
She watched as he reached up and disengaged something she could barely make out.
With it firmly in his fingers, Jake leaped to the floor. Still without speaking, he laid the item in his fingers on top of Callie's desk then went to the window where a huge green plant grew out of a large red pot. Fishing around, he came up with yet another tiny device. He scanned around the office one more time before relaxing. He picked up the other device on the desk and compared it to the one from the plant.
He studied them for a long moment then calmly crushed one of them and did something to the other. Still not saying anything, he went to the door and closed it. The pass through door to the Mayor's office was already shut. He returned to her desk and sighed.
"Okay, only two new ones in here and they've not found mine. Whoever they are, they're not on my level. They only placed two devices so they must feel confident that you're not important enough to monitor heavily," Jake said soberly.
"So that confirms I'm under surveillance but am not considered a real threat to their plans...yet," she summarized. "That's actually a good thing but we don't know when that could all change." She went and sat, heavily into her chair. She wasn't about to tell Jake yet her plans, wanting to wait until all of them were together.
"Afraid so, love. Look, I'll slip in here tonight and tighten my security. I'll have some that's damn near impossible to find and others that will clearly show you're under surveillance."
She frowned at him in confusion. "Why would you want to do that?"
He grinned wolfishly. "Because it will keep them guessing and wondering who else is trying to muscle in on their action. Keeps them occupied and less attention on you...at least that's my hope."
"Oh, good idea."
"I'll give you a detector that will let you know if you have any new devices around. Let me know and I'll deal with them. Here let me show you how to turn this little one on and off before I put it back in the corner..." He came closer and showed her the tiny switch. She nodded her understanding and he moved away and climbed the file cabinet again to place the bug back in place.
"What about the one you crushed?" She asked, concern.
"I'm hoping they expect someone would find that one easily enough so they won't care...I certainly wouldn't." He jumped down and came back to stand near her desk again. "Anyway, I suggest you get into the habit of using the detector I give you, every single time you leave your office for more than thirty minutes, okay?"
She nodded grimly. "Thank you, love. Makes me glad I've got you on my side. I've been running through my mind who might be the criminal replacements within our staff and other positions of importance and I have a few names for Ulysses to check but I know I've probably not scratched the surface of how many there are so the ones we don't find will continue to do their master's bidding to make sure their dark horse is elected."
Jake eyes went from warm to very cold. She shivered but didn't' feel sorry for anyone her lover ran to ground. "We'll just have to weed them out one by one, Callie. Chance and I will do some private digging of our own now that we have time. On my way out, I'll sweep your car for devices but I want you to bring it by the garage so I can put a few security touches of my own on it. Your apartment will get done today as well."
She nodded, rose to her feet and went to him to be hugged and kissed.
"We'll keep you safe, love, promise," He murmured in her ear.
She pushed him back a little so she could look him in the face. "Don't forget, Jake, you've been training me to protect myself. I think it's time I go through the danger room, don't you?"
Jake sighed but agreed, reluctantly. "Yeah, I think you're ready but be prepared to be really tired." He released her after giving her a final kiss then slipped out of her office.
Returning to her desk, she sat down and leaned back, raising her arms over her head to relieve the tension in her back. She winced a bit, her muscles were still a bit sore from her last run through the obstacle course the past weekend. She wasn't certain she was ready for the danger room but time was obviously running out. Ulysses was already proficient at the danger room and could keep up with his mate easily when they went through it every weekend.
Staring at the ceiling she mused, what a world changing year this has been for us all. Feral mating Chance and I and Jake being lovers ...who would have thought it, not her that's for sure. And Manx totally oblivious to it all especially the new friendly understanding between city hall and the Enforcers and the easing of tensions between them and the SWAT Kats. What an ass!
Lowering her arms, she smiled a little. Hope we can keep this ball of good luck rolling...we soo need it to keep ahead of the storm coming at us.