1939

by ja of jakt

--xx--

Chapter 5 – Getting there is half the fun

Having never been to Borneo, Jon ran down the facts he had learned why he and Mim traveled to this hot, humid forsaken place. Not including Australia, Borneo was the third largest island in the world. It was about 280,000 square miles of rugged mountains, high plains, and some of the oldest rain forest in the world. It had been under British and Dutch rule since the nineteenth century, and Japan in the last few years now looked covetously toward this island and most of the others in the East Indies as a rich source of oil, rubber, and other raw materials needed to feed its burgeoning industrial might. Such a lust and desire for resources was surely setting up an inevitable conflict between the powers that be.

For Mim, at the present moment, her concern was not centered on the conditions between the countries nor the place itself. Right now it was a matter of completing their mission. With the aid of the map supplied to her by the War Department, Jon had already figured out that it had simply been cut from a recent issue of a "National Geographic" magazine, Mim found the main road that led to Tarakan.

Unfortunately the term "road" was being used very loosely here, as it was in fact nothing more than a well worn expanded jungle path. It was barely wide enough to allow two vehicles to pass and was so soft from the incessant rain that in some places there were ruts large enough for someone Mim’s size to lie down in them and be completely hidden.

Although the map said the town was only three kilometers, or roughly two or so miles, to the north, Mim and Jon spent the better part of the afternoon traversing the so-called road. It was especially hard for Jonathan because even though he was a strong individual, his physical endurance was not as good as Mim’s. As if the combination of lugging his heavy suitcase and slogging through the goo-like mud wasn't enough, he also found himself having a very hard time keeping his shoes on.

Though he had wisely traded his dress shoes during the overnight stay in the Philippines, he found the low cut boots he bartered for were not much of an improvement. It was as if the mud itself was trying to bond with the leather in his shoes. Every time he picked up his feet the mud would make a kind of slurping sound and the ensuing force trying to move forward would almost pull his foot out of the boot each time. Already he had sworn to himself that the first thing he would do, when the opportunity presented itself, would be to obtain a pair of high top boots much like those Mim had.

Despite her excellent physical condition Mim too was not really much better off than Jon and so after struggling through the thick slop for the better part of an hour she decided it was time for them to take a rest. They found a fallen tree by the side of the road that was reasonably dry enough to sit on and they wearily plopped down upon it. By now both of them were literally soaked clean through with perspiration. The heat, their hard labor, and the very humid air had caused them to look like they had just emerged from the ocean.

"How much farther is it?" Jon asked, still panting.

"About another mile, maybe two kilometers at the most," Mim said between her panting as well. She pulled a damp handkerchief out of her back pocket and ran it first over her forehead, then cheeks and finally down the back of her neck. "Damn, I'm gettin' too old for this, Jon."

"Well I certainly hope the government and Mr. Hughes appreciates what we--you are doing for them."

Mim stuck out her lower lip slightly and blew away the large mosquito trying to land on her nose. "You had it right the first time, Jon," she said. "It is we."

"It never gets this hot and humid in Middleton," he replied. He pulled out his long shirt tail and used it to wipe his brow then tucked it back in. He then looked longingly at the large puddles of water all around them and said, "Golly, Mim, I sure am thirsty."

"Me too," she said "But there's no way we can drink this water. Heaven only knows what we'd catch.”

Although there was an ample supply of water purification pills in their survival kit, Mim had forgotten a much more basic element: the canteen. ‘Damn it,’ she cursed herself, ‘you should have known better than that.’

As a summa cum laude graduate of the school of hard knocks, Miriam Possible was used to hunger and thirst too for that matter. Jonathan, on the other hand, had received no such education and Mim was now worried he might become discouraged.

It wasn't that Jonathan was soft or unreliable--far from it. It was just that he had not quite come to the realization yet that all education did not come from books or a classroom. Coming from the relatively sheltered life of academia, while even on the police force, Jon was a little behind on the practical side of his education of life.

That having been said, Mim also knew that she had never met anyone so dedicated, so earnest, so... sincere. On Jon’s first solo police assignment she had tried his sincerity by giving him every test she could possibly think of to get her story. Not once had he complained. True he did mess up sometimes but then again, who didn't. Mim was the first to admit she was not perfect herself.

She eyed her friend quietly sitting there picking bits of leaves out of his blond hair. With her best Scarlett O’Hara imitation she said, "I'll bet you've never been this dirty in your entire life have you, Sir?" She was not above teasing the man about his Southern roots and from time to time, called him Rhett Butler after the handsome gentleman in Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With the Wind." This invariably made Jon upset but, like the sweetheart he was, never too upset. Right now he was too fatigued to do much of anything except sweat.

She reached down into her shirt and pulled her brassiere away from her breasts. For a moment she pondered taking the darn thing off for it was beginning to chafe her. ‘Aww what the heck,’ she thought, ‘Why not?’ the teasing school girl in her coming out again. She started to undo a couple of shirt buttons when she heard the chugging of a badly tuned motor.

"What is that?" Jon asked anxiously.

Quickly buttoning her shirt back up, she answered, "It's our taxi, I hope."

A few minutes later an old three and a half metric ton cargo truck rounded the bend and came lumbering toward them. To avoid the ruts in the road the truck was constantly weaving from one side of the road to the other and Mim could hear the transmission grind when the driver, obviously not used to handling such a vehicle, missed a gear.

When the truck was near enough she slogged out into the road and began waving her arms. As the truck slid to a stop before her she saw two men sitting in the front. The driver waved her forward and, as quickly as she could, she made her way to the driver's side door

"Thanks, mister, for…" To her consternation she realized her benefactors were Japanese! ‘Holy Crap!’ she thought, ‘They're Japs!’

For a moment she tried to convince herself their presence here was just a coincidence but deep in her heart she knew better. Taken aback as she was, she did not bat an eye lash nor miss one beat “…stopping. My friend and I are bushed from walking this darn road."

"That's quite all right," said the driver in perfect English. "We are only too happy to be of assistance. May I ask what you are doing out here all alone?"

"My friend and I are botanists," she lied smoothly. "We're part of a group from the University of Maryland over here to study the flora indigenous to this particular region." With a typical girlish American laugh she added, "We got so wrapped up in our work we got separated from the others. Umm, are you going to Tarakan?"

"Yes, we are. Are you?"

"Yes."

"You and your friend are welcome to ride in the back," the driver stiffly said.

"Thanks." As Mim turned away and made her way back to Jon, she could feel their suspicious eyes boring into her back. With her back still to the truck she bent over and picked up the field pack. "Jon," she whispered loudly, "don't be scared but those two guys are Japs."

"Oy!"

“Shhh!” Mim admonished. "Try to act like everything's A’OK. Just calm down and act like you don't know who they are, understand?"

Jon gulped hard and looked at his friend. "Golly, Mim what are we going to do?"

"We're going to let the gentlemen give us a ride into Tarakan, what else?

"But..."

Mim loosened one of the pack flaps and ran her hand inside. With the deftness of a well practiced hand, she dug down into the pack until she found one of her .45 automatics. She laid it on top of the other items in the pack to allow for quick retrieval if she deemed it necessary. "Come on." Gathering up their bags, she walked toward the truck. "Now, Jon, I told them we're botanists from the University of Maryland so don't forget."

"I won't," said Jon. As they passed the truck it was all Jon could do not to gawk at the two men sitting inside.

Seeing no place for a foothold, Mim was forced to drop the truck's tailgate in order to gain entry to the back. The truck bed was covered by a large tarpaulin supported by steel rods. She set her bags down and pulled herself up into the truck bed and then extended her hand to Jon.

"Mind your head," she warned as she pulled her friend into the truck.

Once they were safely in they pulled the tailgate back up, Mim put the pin back into the latch, and yelled to the driver they were ready. The driver popped the clutch and the truck lurched violently forward. As it did poor Jon received a painful bump on the head when he banged it against one of the steel rods. It hurt like heck but he stubbornly refused to rub. ‘I'm going to be tough,’ he told himself, ‘like Mim.’ He looked at her staring intently down the road from whence they came and wondered what was going on in that brain of hers. ‘Yahweh only knows,’ he allowed.

He had come to admire her so much. The fiery auburn haired writer in so many ways represented the kind of woman he had always respected and wanted to be with. She was tough, smart, and aggressive--okay maybe a little too aggressive but then again she had to have been to have made such an impact in a field dominated by men and for what life had thrown at her. More than those points though she knew how to get what she wanted. No matter how hard things got for Miriam Possible, Jon knew one indomitable truth about her: anything was possible when she was involved.

Of course many saw her as a pushy, abrasive, demanding, and a downright temperamental witch but Jon knew they were only seeing a small part of her. Only he had been able to peel back that veneer of ferocity and see the vulnerable woman that was truly in her. He knew that Mim did not come as advertised.

He saw her as someone, for whatever reason, reluctant to get close to people. He often wondered if Mim had ever had a boyfriend, but he had never worked up the nerve, let alone the courage to ask her. He watched Mim close her emerald eyes and very casually trail a finger across her lips. ‘Miriam Possible,’ he thought wistfully, ‘I wish I were your boyfriend.’

--xx--

Although he had his eyes locked forward in diligent concentration as he drove down the pitiful road, Fuchida Hiro could sense his companion intently watching him. Coming upon yet another rut, he down shifted from second to first gear and, without taking his eyes off the road, said, "Something troubles you, Fukushima. What is it?"

"You know very well what it is," replied Minoro Fukushima. "Why did you pick up those two Americans?"

Hiro chuckled and said, "Calm down, they are just a couple of tree hugging Americans. They are no threat to us."

"Any American is a potential threat to us," retorted Fukushima. "Besides, I don't believe they are botanists."

Hiro smiled in amusement at his partner's cynicism. "Oh no? And what do you think they are? Spies?" He snapped his fingers as if a revelation had just come to him. "I know, they are the advance vanguard of some kind of secret military force maybe commanded by Roosevelt himself!"

Fukushima was not amused. "Make jokes if you will, Hiro, but remember this. All the jokes in the world won't amuse Admiral Yamamoto if we do not come back with the necklace."

"I am fully aware of our mission," said Hiro, now deadly serious. "Or have you forgotten it was I who discovered the necklace was in the possession of the American named Gant?"

"No, I have not," said Fukushima. "And I praise you for your excellent labors , especially on the brakes of the archaeologist's automobile. That was truly a work of art."

In Miri, Hiro and Fukushima had learned that one of the men they had been warned about, an American named Joseph Gant, had beaten them to the punch and somehow obtained the ancient Jewels in the Jade Rainbow. They learned he had paid five thousand American dollars for it and hurriedly left town.

After a frantic search they learned the name of the go-between that had arranged the sale and that night Hiro and Fukushima had paid him a little visit. To Fukushima's disappointment the man's threshold of pain was not very high and he had told all after only a little torture before they killed him. The two men also learned that Gant was working out of Tarakan. The go-between also revealed that a man named Ross was supposed to have met Gant in Miri to authenticate the necklace but had missed the navy officer by just a few hours.

After making arrangements to eliminate Ross, which was quite successful, they started out after Gant. But the murder of Gant's ally had delayed the two men's journey to Tarakan. Though they did not yet know where to find him, they were confident he had not left the island. Every Japanese agent had studied their potential enemies and therefore knew Gant by sight and were under strict orders not to allow their quarry to leave the island alive.

"You are most kind," said Hiro. "And do not worry, we will find Gant and the necklace soon enough.

--xx--

"Mim?"

"Yes."

"Do you think those men are somehow wrapped up in all this?" Jon asked.

"I wouldn't bet those two doctorates of yours against it if I were you," she advised.

"Mim?"

"Whaaat?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For bringing me along."

Mim crawled across the bed of the heaving truck and sat down beside her best friend.

"We're a team remember?"

Jonathan looked deeply into Mim's emerald eyes and said, "Remember taking me along on that story in the Rocky Mountains. It was that one time when I almost got you…" His voice trailed off. That was the time he almost lost her for good.

"Almost got me what?"

Jon lowered his head. “This time might be different. Mim, I might get you killed here."

Mim looked at him oddly. "Now just how do you figure that? Jon, I know that you can be a klutz sometimes but you’re always there for me when I need you. Everytime when things are going bad, and it looks like we’re not going to pull through, you…"

Jon put a finger to her lips. "I don't know. Maybe you should have brought somebody along who was, you know, more capable."

Mim's eyes hardened and she set her jaw. She then took the last three fingers of his hand into her own and began to squeeze them very hard. Although he was much stronger than her and could have easily broken her grip, he just sat there blinking.

"Now you listen to me and listen good," she hissed. "This is the last time I'm ever going to tell you this. There is nobody, repeat nobody, that I would even think of undertaking a thing like this with but you, understand? So cut that crap out. You are the only person in the world I trust." She smiled faintly and added, "Besides you do all right, Jonathan Stoppable. And you’re a great distraction too"

‘Heavens! He’s so good,’ thought Mim. The warmth she felt engulf her was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Jon was such a great person. Basically timid and shy, there was nevertheless a stubborn bulldog streak and loyalty in him that wouldn’t quit. And she had somehow come to adore that combination. As she sat there looking into his eyes she came to the realization that it might be now or never. She reached up and gently touched Jon’s sweat soaked face.

As she did Jon saw the same look in her eyes that he had seen back in that Los Angeles hotel room. Again, he felt his heart start to pound. Mim moved closer and Jon's breath began to quicken. For him too, it was now or never.

"Mim?"

"What?” she asked in almost a whisper.

"Have you ever had a...” Jon paused for a heartbeat to try to pull in air, but even so the last word came out in a high pitched tone, “boyfriend?”

Mim responded with a faint smile and gently covered his lips with her own: but the heartbeat before they touched she heard his soft almost breathless “Golly.”

For a moment Mim found Jon to be reluctant and didn’t respond to her, making her fearful she might have misread the man after all. For a millisecond she panicked as she wondered if she had not just made a terrible mistake. But suddenly, to her ecstatic relief, she felt Jon's lips respond and they enjoyed their first wonderful, lingering, and very belated, kiss. Although she wanted to so very badly, Mim decided not to let her tongue probe for its counterpart. No this first, sweet, simple kiss was enough.

In Jon’s head his mind was taken to new heights as the kiss started taking him on a sensual journey that left him near breathless. He was counting the seconds while Mim’s lips pressed gently against his and everytime he thought about it the butterflies kicked and he felt like they would burst forth from his stomach. He finally realized he had to do something or he would totally explode so he decided to relax and let his senses take over.

And takeover they did.

He didn’t try to analyze it or think about exactly how to do it in return because the first kiss was always a try out; according to what he had read on the subject. But right now he was experiencing how their lips both fit together. And Wow, did they fit. It was sweet, romantic, and almost overpowering. The entire situation left him floating on a cloud. Through the sheer magic of that simple kiss, it made him realize that Miriam Possible was taking him serious.

For an exquisite moment both of them completely forgot they were in a foreign land riding in the back of a filthy truck that happened to be driven by men who were in all probability their enemies. The situation bordered on the ludicrous. All those quiet times they had been alone together before and they picked this moment to finally express the love both had for each other and had tried to keep to themselves!

Then again perhaps it was that very element of danger that had, at last, served to break down those walls of resistance…finally the fence that they had put up so very long ago was broken. The wild mustang had finally, at last, escaped and was running free.

Whatever it was, when Mim finally forced herself to pull away several minutes later she felt as if some great weight had been lifted from her heart. ‘So this is what it's like,’ she thought.

"It's none of your business Jon."

"Huh?" Jon's brain was shrouded in a blissful fog and he could not seem to think straight.

"You asked me if I've ever had a boyfriend," Mim reminded him, "and I said it's none of your business."

"Oh, yeah."

Mim pecked him lightly on the lips and then gave him a very mischievous look. "Jonathan Stoppable, you don’t have any idea what you're getting yourself into."

Suddenly a disturbing thought came to her, and she turned to took at the front of the truck. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the window into the back of the truck was shrouded with part of the heavy tarpaulin that covered them. She turned back to face Jon and whispered, "Jon, there's something I think you should know."

‘Oh no,’ thought Jonathan, ‘here it comes. She's going to say this was a mistake. She's going to say it was just one of those moments of passion people sometimes have when their placed in dangerous situations.’ ‘Yahweh, Mim,’ he silently pleaded ‘Please don't break my heart. Not after...’

He managed to work up the courage to ask "What's that?" outloud.

"Now that you know how I feel about you," Mim said tenderly. "I just want you to know that I've been crazy about you for a long time. I just... I just didn't know how to say it or even if I should say it, you know? Jon, are you sorry?"

This time it was Jon's turn to squeeze hand. "Miriam Possible, I love you.”

To him it felt so good to at last be able to say that aloud. He ached so badly to give himself to this woman right now, but of course that was impossible.

"We sure picked a fine time for this, didn't we Jon? Of course you know this is going to have to wait don't you? We've got a job to do here."

"I know," he answered. He then grinned at her and said, "I waited this long, I guess I can wait a little longer. But once this mess is over you and I are going to have some making up to do."

Mim smiled at him as she reached up and once again gently cupped his cheek in her hand. “I know” she told him, but to herself she added, ‘and I think both of us will enjoy it very much.’

Later the truck slowed to a stop on the graveled street and as soon as it came to rest, Mim and Jon spilled out of the back. "Get our stuff out while I lose these guys." Jon obliged and Mim made her way to the front of the truck. "Thanks again, mister," she said. "My friend and I can wing it from here."

The crafty Fukushima replied by asking "Are you sure we cannot take you... somewhere?" What he really wanted was to ascertain who they would be in contact with.

But Mim was not fooled. ‘You sly dog,’ she thought, ‘Sorry boys, the fish aren’t biting today.’ "Umm, no," she said aloud. "Jonathan and I will be just fine right here."

Fukushima shrugged and said, "Very well. Let us precede, Hiro."

Hiro again popped the clutch too quickly and this time he killed the engine. Mim heard him mutter something in Japanese and though she didn't speak the language, she could tell by the tone of his voice he wasn't praying for divine guidance. She pretended not to hear and went back to rejoin Jon. Unfortunately for Jon when Hiro restarted the truck a huge cloud of blue smoke belched out of the tail pipe. The truck roared away leaving a coughing Jon enshrouded in a lingering blue haze.

Mim could not help but laugh. "Wow, Jon, I guess I should have asked Burns for a gas mask too huh?”

--xx--

Kim Possible Characters © the Walt Disney Company, USA

Thank you, Thomas Linquist, screaming phoenix, whitem, JCS1966, loveandwar007, Comet Moon, Mr. Wizard, Cajunbear73, Captain IT, Katsumara, and Shockwave88 for reviewing the last Chapter. Appreciate your comments, thoughts and questions. They’ll all get answers as the story continues. I’m glad you like the story thus far.

A/N: Every two days, plus or minus a day, from October 31st through November 15th a new Chapter will be posted as this story is complete. There are ten chapters in all. It is currently in various stages of beta and boy are they “Rockin’” on this one. Thanks you two.

For you the readers and reviewers I hope you liked it. Leave a review if you did. Thank you.

ja