the overhead lighting. Gesturing towards the only object in the hangar, he announced, "Behold Falcon Wing, the world's first stealth aircraft."

"You're kiddin', right, Khanny?" Baloo said in disbelief. "It looks like an ordinary cargo plane to me."

It did, in fact, resemble all of Shere Khan's cargo planes, from the maroon and taupe paint to the encircled 'SK' on the doors.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order."

At an almost imperceptible nod from his employer, Owen scrambled up a set of roll-away stairs to the plane's cockpit. There, he donned a set of goggles that made his eyes look abnormally large. His finger hovered over a large red button on the control panel for a breathtaking moment.

Then he pressed the button, causing Falcon Wing to disappear completely. Only Owen remained, sitting suspended in midair.

"Whoa, baby!" Baloo cried.

"To use the vernacular." Satisfied that the bourgeois Baloo believed him, the multi-billionaire commanded, "That will do, Owen."

The yes-man nodded and pushed the red button a second time, causing the plane to reappear.

"And now you see my dilemma," Khan said; Owen hurried over to his side like a well-trained dog. "My scientists have as of yet failed to design a way to make the pilot invisible. That's where you come in, Baloo. Any questions?"

"How am I supposed to fly it if I can't see the controls?"

"With these special goggles you will be able to see the controls, even in stealth mode." He gestured to the bulky goggles that Owen held.

The instant that Baloo put on the goggles they became invisible. He sounded a little nonplused when he said, "Lemme get this straight. All you want me to do is take Falcon Wing for a test flight?"

Khan took a key ring from his inner jacket pocket. He swung the keys back and forth in front of him in a mesmerizing arc. "Not exactly. Do you know where Wulff's Wunderbar Root Beer is made?"

"Yeah, in the Really Black Forest of Hounsland."

"Correct. I want you to eliminate them."

"Ya mean..." Baloo gulped, "kill 'em? B...b...b...b...!"

"No...I simply want you to obtain their secret formula by any means necessary and bring it to me."

"Now wait a prop-spinnin' minute!" Baloo angrily ripped off the goggles and shoved them back at Owen. "I may be a pilot non-see-est, but I ain't no sneak thief."

Shere Khan casually studied a claw. "A pity. I suppose then that I should inform my scientists to halt work on the antidote to the invisibility formula."

"That's blackmail!"

"Do we have a deal? Wulff's Wunderbar root beer formula in exchange for the antidote?"

Baloo hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the keys and the goggles. "Deal."

"Any more questions?"

As Baloo donned the goggles, he replied, "Nah. I think we...I mean, I can handle it from here."

"Excellent. Avoid detection at all costs, including maintaining radio silence. One never knows who could be listening in."

"Mum's the word." Baloo climbed into the cockpit, and, after giving the controls a quick once-over, started up the twin engines. As he taxied Falcon Wing out of the hangar, he waved to Khan, forgetting that he was invisible.

A moment later, Falcon Wing was in the air, soaring above the dense cloud cover. Stars streaked by the windows, their brightness rivaled only by the plane's headlights.

However, it wasn't the only aircraft in the area. Don Karnage and his band of air pirates were patrolling the shipping lanes in hopes of catching a tired cargo pilot unawares.

From the cockpit of his single-man CT-37, Mad Dog whined into his microphone, "Captain, we've been flying around all night. I'm sleepy."

"Und I'm thirsty," Dumptruck added.

Over the roar of his tri-wing plane's engine, Karnage shouted into his microphone, "You're both dopey!"

"Can ve get our root beer floats now, Captain?" Dumptruck asked hopefully.

"How many times do I have to tell you imbeciles? You can be having the tasty treats only after you seize a big, fat cargo plane." In response to Gibber's mumbling, Karnage snapped, "No, you cannot have any of my sprinkles!"

Seeing Falcon Wing approaching, Mad Dog exclaimed happily, "Here comes a cargo plane!"

"Do all of those nasty things that you do so well, men," Karnage commanded. He let go a burst of gunfire, peppering Falcon Wing's hull. "Hijack that hefty haul!"

Yelling ferociously, the pirates pulled into formation around Falcon Wing, encircling it.

Clang went Mad Dog's grappling hook as it snagged the cargo plane's starboard wing. There was another clang followed closely by a third clang as Dumptruck secured his grappling hook around the other wing and Gibber snagged the tail.

Falcon Wing was trapped, tethered securely between the CT-37s. Baloo knew that in another moment, the pirates would scale down their ropes and force their way inside.

"Time to find out what this baby can do," Baloo murmured. "Now ya see me."

He pressed the big, red button on the control panel, causing Falcon Wing to completely disappear from sight. Gone was the plane, its headlights, and even its shadow. The only evidence that it was there was the steady hum of its engines.

"Now ya don't," the big bear concluded with a grin.

"Hey, vere'd it go?" Dumptruck said, bewildered.

Before the pirates had time to wonder where their quarry had gone, Baloo yanked the control stick sharply to the left, sending Falcon Wing into a barrel roll. Consequently, the three CT-37s that were attached to it were sent spinning out of sight, taking their fearless leader with them.

"Ha! Ha! That sure put the 'sneak' in sneak-attack, right, Li'l Britches?"

From the co-pilot's seat came Kit's astonished voice: "How'd you know?"

Baloo chuckled. "These fancy specs can make more than just Falcon Wing's controls visible." He grabbed an extra pair of goggles dangling from a hook above his head and slung them over his young navigator's eyes. "See what I mean?"

As Kit adjusted the straps around his ears, he could see clear black and white versions of everything that had previously been invisible to him. However, everything that was visible was still in living color. "Wow...!" the boy exclaimed softly, wiggling his fingers in front of his face. "Buzz and his scientists are really onto something."

"Just hope they figger out a way to undo this snafu."

"Yeah," Kit frowned. "If only you didn't have to steal the Wulff's Wunderbar root beer formula to make it possible. Are you really going to do it?"

Ruefully, Baloo said, "Don't look like I have much of a choice, partner."

Meanwhile...
Khan's Limo

As his limousine sped towards Cape Suzette, its headlights cutting across the dark desert, Shere Khan was listening to Baloo's and Kit's conversation. Into his car phone, he dictated, "Mrs. Snarly, raise the price of my root beer five cents a bottle. And tell Buzz and his team to start working on a second antidote to the invisibility formula."

Higher for Hire
The Next Morning

The Rebecca who walked into her office was normally bright-eyed and smiling as cheerfully as the morning sunshine. But this morning was different. The bearess who trudged into the office this morning had bloodshot eyes coupled with an expression as angry as the storm clouds outside. She'd been awake most of the night wondering what to do about her invisible pilot, besides strangling him.

Her black expression darkened when she read the note that had been left on her desk.

Becky,

Gone today. Wurking for Sheer Khan. Cant tell u watt it is cuz I dunno.

Baloo

"Working for Shere Khan? Ha!" she scoffed, crumpling up the note. "Goofing off is more like it. I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Rebecca picked up the phone and dialed. "When I catch that fat, lazy bear, I'll fire him so fast that it'll take him a week to..."

"Hey, Becky baby," Louie said on the other end of the phone connection, chuckling a little at her tirade. "What's the haps?"

"Don't you 'Becky baby' me. You just tell that good-for-nothing pilot of mine to get off whatever barstool he's sitting on and get back here pronto!"

"Sorry, but no can do."

"Why not?" she demanded crossly.

"He ain't here, dear."

Rebecca blinked, incredulous. She had been so sure that Baloo was at Louie's nightclub, because he seemed to run there every chance that he could. Feeling slightly deflated, she said, "He's not?"

"Nope." The orangutan's voice took on a more intimate tone: "Is there anything I can do for ya, Sugar Cubes?"

"Sorry, but I don't have time to find out." Quickly, she slammed the receiver down.

"Not at Louie's? Then he must be..." Rebecca rose from her desk and flung open the kitchen door, shouting, "Ah-ha!"

But the kitchen was silent and definitely empty.

"Not at Louie's. Not eating. He must be sleeping."

Rebecca hurried upstairs to Baloo's and Kit's bedroom. The door was open, so she walked in, grimacing at the crumbs crunching beneath her feet. "Up and at 'em, Baloo!"

There was no answer from the neatly-made beds nor the empty root beer bottle on the night stand.

"Not at Louie's, not eating, and not sleeping. Fishing! He's got to be fishing. Trying to catch that Ol' Fishy or whatever."

Rebecca stormed out of Higher for Hire and sped down to the end of the dock, near where the Sea Duck was moored. To her disappointment, there didn't appear to be anyone fishing.

In fact, the only person

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