The Sinister Simeon, Part 2.

A live, athletic shape fell from the night sky as silently as a passing cloud,

landing on the rooftop with barely a whisper of sound.

The flying squirrel froze in a low crouch for a moment,

waiting for any sign that her approach had been observed.

Finding none,

she straightened out her arms and made an almost imperceptible gesture with her hands. The gliding membranes which had been holding her aloft in the cold night air moments earlier took their cue

and retracted into her costume without a sound. She held her position for another instant,

and then lifted her hand to her face,

speaking into a small ring she wore outside of her gauntlet, with a flat face adorned with a pattern of hypnotic red circles. Squirrel the panda, she spoke quickly and quietly. No action down here.

Agreed, came the reply, and she realized with the start the voice did not come from her radio ring,

but from a short distance away on the same dilapidated rooftop.

She turned to discover her partner walking silently over the broken shingles toward her,

and it made her momentarily furious.

"'How are you already here?' she fumed.

"'I literally flew over.'

He smiled and said nothing, but it was clearly not displeased by the reaction.

"'So that's what I get,' she sniffed.

"'Two can play that game.

Riddle me this.

How come we heard about the monkey liberating the baboons from the zoo

before we heard a whisper from the sanitarium that he was even out of his cage.

...