When they arrived back at the lab, Lance immediately escorted Mr. Blue to the security office, a room loaded with video monitors, cameras, and experimental equipment.
Lance was proud of the Ecnal Grizzly; Mr. Wellbay had drawn up most of the droids, but Lance had designed and built the grizzly all by himself.
“Have a seat, Cobweb. Let me show you how awesome my Ecnal Grizzly really is,” he said, switching on the monitor. “Nothing could make me happier than to see little Einstein in it’s mouth right now...”
However, when the monitor warmed up and came on, the expected live view from the grizzly’s eyes, had turned to scrambled fuzz on the screen. “What is happening here?” Lance snarled. After several failed attempts at restoring the picture, he gritted his teeth and turned towards Mr. Blue.
“I take it you were recording the movements of the Ecnal Grizzly,” said Mr. Blue. “Why don’t you simply rewind, so we can follow the events leading up to the disconnection.”
Lance wanted to do just that — but not with Cobweb around. He knew that Treen Alee had done something to the grizzly and didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of watching it unfold.
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what Lance did; he sat there with the boss and watched as Treen Alee and Russell Wellbay spraypainted the eyes of the expensive creature. His perspective splattered, Lance sprang off the desk as the picture went blank. He charged up to the flat screen, ripped it from the wall, then smashed it on the floor.
“That’s right, you should be angry. You’re allowing a teenage girl make a complete joke out of us!” shouted Mr. Blue.
“Listen, Cobweb,” he said pointing, “I don’t need your criticism!” I’m going out there to find her myself!”
“Good. Maybe you can do a better job than your ferocious bear!”
Tsara didn’t bother knocking. She could hear them shouting through the door. She walked inside, looking ready to deliver more bad news.
“Sorry to interrupt, but the Ecnal Grizzly is — ”
“We know about the paint!” Lance snapped. “What paint?” asked Tsara.
“The paint that Treen Alee has doused my grizzly with.”
“Did you bring the grizzly back for repair?” asked Mr. Blue.
“Repair? The Ecnal grizzly has been destroyed. Somehow, it blew up; we found scattered pieces of it not far from here.”
“It’s little Einstein! She blew it up!”
“Are the other Ecnals still searching for her?”
“Yes sir,” replied Tsara.
“Order them to shoot to kill. I’ve had enough of this,” said Mr. Blue.
The Alees were speechless when the doors slid apart and Ariel was shoved inside. Sheridon stumbled in next and the doors quickly shut again.
Regina was so happy to see Ariel that she leaped from the couch and nearly tackled him. She found out fast about his banged up body when he groaned during her tight squeeze.
After Sheridon’s introduction, everyone moved to the bar, where Edwin popped the top on another $64,000 bottle of wine. The Alees knew that Treen was in danger, but were happy to hear that she was alive and making it difficult for Mr. Blue to carry on with his scheme. “We can’t bust that door in,” said Sheridon, sipping the wine, “So I say we get them droids to come in here, beat em’ down, then take off.”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day,” said Edwin, hurling the cork across the room.
“We’d better wait”, said Ariel. We know that Jazz is out there planning something and if we rush we could make things worse.”
Everyone agreed.