Codes, Cars, and Gators

   (When we last left Fred, he was in a bit of a pickle at the PEANUT HQ)

   “Stop!”
   A man came running out of somewhere waving his arms and yelling.  It took a while, but eventually he got everyone to stop what they were doing.  At which point he came over to Fred and Anthony and glared at them.
   “Why did you do that?” he asked.
   Fred coughed. “Uh, do what?”
   The man snorted. “Give the pass code, of course.”
   “What pass code?” Anthony asked.
   The man’s glare was turning to a stare of disbelief. “Have the two of you had a recent case of amnesia?  The pass code that starts the launch of nuclear warheads to all the major cities in the US, of course.  What else?”
   Fred thought for a while. “Ooohhh.  You mean ‘the British are—“
   The man clapped his hand over Fred’s mouth. “Are you insane?  We don’t want to take out America.  Yet.”
   Fred rolled his eyes. “Why would you?  They’re doing that just fine on their own.”
   “Exactly.”  The man looked at Fred, then Anthony. “So what are you two doing here?”
   Fred opened his mouth to answer, then shut it.  Then opened it again. “I forgot.”
   The man frowned. “You really have had a case of amnesia.”
   Anthony nodded. “He probably has.”
   “What about you?” the man asked.
   Anthony shrugged. “I never remember anything anyway.”
   The man sighed and shook his head. “They’re letting in all kinds these days.”
   Fred leaned forward. “What was that?”
   The man waved him away. “Nothing.  Now get out of here, you two.  There’s nothing for you to do here.”
   “But we just got here,” Anthony protested.
   “And now you’re going to leave,” the man said firmly.
   Fred and Anthony grumbled, but the man looked like he was about to get mad, so they left.  When they were back outside, Fred looked at Anthony and Anthony looked at Fred.
   “What do we do now?” Anthony asked.
   Fred shrugged.  “I ain’t got a clue.”
   The ever present black car drew up beside them without a sound.  The door opened.
   “Inside," a voice said
   They obediently entered.  As expected, inside they found John waiting for them.
   “How’d we do?” Fred asked.
   “Not bad,” John replied. “But not too good either,” he added.
   “Well what’d you expect?”
   John bobbed his head a bit. “Just about what happened.”
   “Why did you send us then?”  Anthony asked. “We just went in, and got kicked out.”
   John held up his hand. “Yes, and in the process you found out one of their secret codes.  Quite by accident, but you still discovered it.”
   “So what?”
   “So now we may be able to use that information to assist in our efforts to crack the rest of their code.”
   “How long have you been working on that?”
   John coughed. “For…a few years.”
   Fred snorted.  Anthony laughed.
   “Hey!” Anthony suddenly yelled, making Fred and John jump. “Do we get Alexander now?”
   “I suppose so,” John replied. “Although I can’t imagine what you’ll do with him.”
   “Are you kidding?” Fred grinned. “With that alligator, we can take over the world.”
   John raised his eyebrow. “He’s just an alligator.  You know that, right?”
   Anthony laughed. “Just an alligator.  Hear that, Fred?”
   Fred chuckled. “Sure do.”
   The car came to a stop and the door opened.
   “This is your stop, chaps,” John said.
   They hopped out, but Fred put a hand out to stop the door from shutting.
   “Where’s Alexander?”
   In answer, the trunk opened and the alligator jumped out.  Fred grinned and shut the door with a slam.  The car drove off as silently as it had come.
   “What are we going to do now?” Anthony asked.
   Fred bent down and patted Alexander on the head. “Dunno.  The possibilities are endless.”

   To be continued…