It was a quarter past six in the morning when the emergency siren blasted from tower control.  Bumble Humblestone was already up and hard at work digging out the treads on a stack of dirty spare tires when he saw the distress flare fired from the cockpit of Ace’s High.  His fur stood on end.

Fibblejibbits!  That plane is going to crash he thought, then jumped off the tires, grabbed his gear and started running.

“Chief!  Stop sniffing!  We’re in trouble!” he yelled as the plane roared overhead.  Chief burst out of the nearby bushes and squatted down for Bumble to climb up his leg and grab a hold of his collar.  “Ready?” Chief shouted.  His tiny friend nodded and they took off in hot pursuit.

From their view under the plane, they could see the left landing gear hadn’t lowered and she’d have to make an emergency landing on one wheel.

“That plane is going to crash…” said Chief.

“That’s just what I was thinking.” 

“But my Person is in there…”

“If anyone can get her down in one piece, it’s him – now hurry!”

The plane raced down the runway and they followed as fast as they could.  The right wheel inched down…closer…and closer…until it touched down.

“Here we go!” Bumble yelled.

The single landing gear creaked and groaned under the full weight of the plane.  After a few seconds, the gear snapped, and Ace’s High crashed down hard.   

Sparks flew in all directions as the plane screamed down the runway, out of control.  It careened off course into the mud, which splattered everywhere.  Bumble frowned and shook his head as a big glob hit him right in the face and dribbled down into his jumpsuit.  

“AAARRRG!”

He hated getting dirty and Chief knew it.

“Bullseye!  Right in the teeth!”

“Not funny!”

After a few more yards (and a lot more mud), the plane finally slid to a complete stop, and then, all was quiet.

Bumble began wiping the mud off his face.  “All’s well that lands well…”

“But they crashed.”

“Mmm-hmmm.”  Bumble reached around his collar and flicked more mud to the ground.  

The cargo door opened and out jumped Captain Davenport.  Smiling from ear to ear, he gave the thumbs-up signal that everything was okay.  Chief barked happily, seeing that his Person was safe.  Next out was the co-pilot, Eugene “Crash” McCormick.  He leaned against the door, wiped his forehead with a shaking hand and drank a deep, grateful glug of water from his canteen.  Last was Victor Wiesnewski, the navigator and radio operator, who stumbled out in relief and collapsed into the mud with a splash.  Davenport and Crash each grabbed an arm, picked him up and started walking him towards tower control.

Happy as he was that the men were safe, Bumble looked at Ace’s High with a lump in his throat.  To him, there had now been too many accidents at Station 102 for them to all really be accidents, and the timing of this morning’s crash could not have been worse.  Later tonight, he and all the rest of the mice had to report to the Monthly Meeting.  The Leak and Puddle Patrol, Nuts and Bolts Retrieval and Tire Tread Task Force units were all going to be lectured by Inspector Baxter, the Head Mouse, who always went out of his way to find something, anything wrong with their work.  All of this made Bumble very nervous.  He had a nose for trouble, and it was tingling.  And unfortunately for him, his nose was almost always right.

Chief sniffed around the outside of the wreck while Bumble got a better look at the damage.  What a mess!  The landing gear was crushed under the belly.  The propeller blades were badly bent and the engines looked cracked.  Chief gave the cargo door a nudge with his nose, and they jumped inside.

Bumble looked up the length of the main cargo hold and felt even smaller than usual.  “I feel like I’ve been swallowed by a whale!” he squeaked.  His tiny voice echoed in the massive empty space.

They made their way up to the cockpit.  Bumble jumped onto the control pedestal to get a better look at all of the levers, dials, switches and buttons spread across the instrument panel.  He found what he was looking for right away. 

The Landing Gear Dial and the Hydraulic System Dial were both down to zero.  Bumble guessed that somewhere a hose must have split or burst, and as a result, the pressurized hydraulic liquid didn’t get to the left (port) side landing gear as it should have.  Without hydraulic fluid, the landing gear didn’t lower, and the plane crashed.  Bumble scratched his chin.

 “Hmmm.  Very interesting,” he said.  “Okay Chief, we’re done up here.”    

Chief carried Bumble out of Ace’s High and down to the grass, much to his relief.

“Well Chief, this crash may not have been an accident.” he said confidently.  “There’s one more thing we need to check to be 100% sure.” 

“But my Person saved the plane!”

“Well, that may be true, but I think someone around here is up to no good.  Someone who knows how to be up to no good is up to no good.  And that is not good.  There’s a mole at Station 102, so we need to be very careful.”

“I resent that!” came a voice.

Out of the ground popped Mortimer.  Mortimer was a mole, and a fussy and difficult one at that.

“Of course there’s a mole at the base!  You’re looking at him!  Me!” he thumped his thumb against his chest.

“Hi Mortimer…” Bumble and Chief sighed together.  This could take some time.  Once Mortimer started talking, minutes felt like hours, and the only way to end it was to agree with him and let him finish, no matter what he said.

“We of course meant ‘mole’ in the deep-undercover-secret-agent-sense you understand, not the biological-mammal sense…” Bumble said delicately, but Mortimer wasn’t listening.

“All these accidents at the base – they’re not my fault.  Might be a mole doing it, but not this mole.  No way!  And why do they say ‘mole’ anyway?  It’s narrow-minded – and borderline discrimination – if you ask me!” 

Bumble had an idea.  Mortimer could actually be of help.

“Listen Mort.  We need a favor.  Need you to do some digging.”  He pointed at the right (starboard) wing.  “Can you dig under that engine, take a peek at the wheel well?  What we’re looking for -”

“I’m on it!  Be right back!” interrupted Mortimer.  He disappeared into his hole and started digging.  Chief was amazed, and Bumble smiled.

“Sometimes, all anyone needs is a job to do and they perk right up.  Mortimer will tell us if the hydraulic connector rings are in place.  My guess is no.”

“How do you know so much about airplanes?” asked Chief.

“I think I’ve read every safety and repair manual we’ve got here, cover to cover.  Some more than once.  I’ve been dreaming about flying my whole life.”

“Then why are you just working on tires?”  The question stopped Bumble cold.  He sighed. 

“Long story.  Or maybe it’s a short one.  I don’t know.  It’s me.  I give up too easily, always have.  Whatever my dreams of doing something important might have been, here I am, on the ground, just working on tires, and that’s that.  End of story.”  He sighed again.

 Chief looked his friend square in the eye.

“You know, all anyone needs is a little adventure now and then and they perk right up,” said Chief.  “You said it yourself.  If it applies to others, it has to apply to you too.”  

Bumble smiled.  Good old Chief.

“Thanks Pal.  You’re right.  I guess it can’t rain every day, can it?”

“But it’s not raining.”

“It’s only a figure of speech.”

Just then Mortimer popped back up.  “Who said anything about rain?  It’s dry as a bone today!  Anyway, I got under the wheel well just like you said.  Horrible mess.”  Bumble snapped out of it.

“Did you see anything?  Like a connector ring?  Were the hydraulic hoses intact?  Were there any -” Mortimer interrupted again.

“Hey, hey, hold on.  Like I said, it’s a mess.  I’m no mechanic.  You want to take a look?  Follow me!”  Back into the hole he went.  Bumble gulped.  Chief smiled.

“Your adventure begins…” 

Bumble took a deep breath and jumped in.  Up ahead, Mortimer stopped to pull a slithery earthworm out of the tunnel wall.

“Want some?  They’re really tasty.”   

“No thanks.”

“Your loss.”  Mortimer slurped the earthworm up like one giant string of spaghetti.  “Mmmmmm.”  Then he burped.  Then he farted right in Bumble’s face.  It was awful.  They pressed on, and after what seemed like a very long time, they finally got to the end.

“Here we are.”

They climbed up out of the tunnel and found themselves dead center in the wheel well.  And Mortimer was right; things were a mess.  The main hinge was twisted like a corkscrew.  The struts were broken, and frayed wires dangled from above.  Oil that was supposed to be in the hydraulic hoses was dripping everywhere.  Then Bumble saw something that confirmed his worst fear: the main connector ring was missing from the interior wall.  It had been intentionally removed.  Unscrewed.  Without the ring, vibrations during the course of the flight worked the hydraulic hoses loose from each other.  Precious oil needed to operate the landing gear for a safe landing had poured out.  Bumble shook his head.

He signaled to Mortimer that he was ready to go.  This time Bumble went into the tunnel first in case Mortimer farted again.  Good thing he did.  He heard a few on the way back.

Climbing out of the hole and into the open air, Bumble was visibly relieved.  He patted the dirt off of his jumpsuit as Mortimer popped his head up out of the hole and Chief sat down.

“Well…I’m afraid it’s sabotage.  The hydraulic hose connector ring has been removed.” said Bumble.  “We find that ring, we find our saboteur.”

“Sabotage!  At our base?  Unacceptable.  Completely unacceptable.” said Mortimer.

“Completely.  Unacceptable.” repeated Chief.

All three shared a worried look.  The reality of their situation was beginning to sink in.  In the distance, a repair team was walking towards Ace’s High to inspect the damage.  Mortimer grumbled and took off underground.  Bumble saddled up on Chief and they left the wreck.  Further investigation would have to wait.  It was time to get back to work.