Title: Pet Tricks
Cover: Tony Salmons
Script: Martha Thomases
Art: Tony Salmons
Colors: Christie Scheele
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor: Larry Hama
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover Price: $0.75
Cover Date: August 1986
Release Date: April 1986
Synopsis: Dakota trades her signature black leather pants for a short black cocktail dress and heads with her brother Ricky to dinner at the
Rainbow Room to meet her father and a man who claims to be her husband. While
walking through Rockefeller Center, Dakota is narrowly missed by a bolt from a
crossbow fired by an assailant from a nearby rooftop. Unable to locate the
source of the attack, Dakota and Rick continue to the restaurant where they
meet their father and his former colleague from the CIA, Major George C. Cooper.
Major Cooper has written a book about his time at the CIA
and he is apparently embroiled in some sort of danger, so he wants to hire
Dakota as his bodyguard. Dakota gets into an argument with her father over the
potential assignment and the ruse by which she was lured to dinner,
but a handsome man named Timas interrupts and asks Dakota to dance. He whisks
her away to the dance floor, where they engage in light banter, but Dakota is
clearly suspicious of this perfect stranger with perfect timing who happens to
know her name.
Back at the dinner table, Major Cooper starts to panic when
he realizes that he cannot get in contact with his security detail. He randomly
breaks out a deck of cards and starts playing poker with Ricky, deliberately
racking up a steep loss of $200 and offering his solid gold fountain pen as
collateral until he can reach his bank to get cash. Ricky takes the pen and heads for home,
passing a pair of serious looking thugs that are flanking the door. Having
returned from the dance floor with Timas, Dakota tells Major Cooper that she’ll
take his case. She also accuses Timas of being responsible for the crossbow
attack...
Dakota, her father and Major Cooper leave the Rainbow Room
and are attacked by the thugs that were watching them in the restaurant. Dakota
fights them off and the thugs escape in a waiting limousine. The next day, Dakota is supposed to accompany
Major Cooper on a series of interviews to promote his book, but his car is
blown up by a bomb. Elsewhere, one of
the thugs spots Ricky with Major Cooper’s gold pen and starts to follow the
boy. Riding the subway to his next
interview, Major Cooper reveals to Dakota that the villains are after him because
he has an experimental nerve gas that he stole from the CIA in order to prevent
his superior from selling it to terrorists.
Major Cooper tells Dakota that the nerve gas is hidden in
the pen that he gave to Ricky, which means that the boy is in danger! Apparently nonplussed by the risk to her brother,
Dakota continues to escort Major Cooper on his interview circuit, cutting
through Central Park where she is once again attacked by Timas. Threatening her with a knife, he tries to
warn her off the case, but the assassin is too infatuated with Dakota to do her
any harm. At the offices of Rycom, we
learn that Cleo Vanderlip is involved in the plot and aware that Timas and his
Russian employers are wasting their time chasing Major Cooper because they know
Ricky has the pen.
Cleo dispatches a 16 year-old model named Daisy to find
Ricky and bring him to their headquarters, saying that this assignment
represents a chance for the girl to prove herself to their secret organization. Daisy has no trouble finding
Ricky or ensorceling him and the unlikely pair are soon on their way to Paris
on the Concorde. Later in the day,
Dakota and Major Cooper are attacked once more by Timas, who is intent on crushing them with a monster truck. Dakota
deftly avoids near death and races through Rockefeller Center in her convertible,
turning away from a barrier at the last minute and causing Timas to crash and
nearly perish.
The next morning, Major Cooper stops by Dakota’s offices to
collect his pen from Ricky and they learn that the boy never came home the
previous night. Dakota is furious with Major Cooper and her father for placing
Ricky in danger. The issue ends with
Ricky and Daisy touring Paris and visiting the Eiffel tower. Blissfully ignorant of the danger he’s in,
Ricky couldn't be happier to be by Daisy’s side in the City of Lights. Will Dakota
find Ricky? Will He want to be
found? Will the pen write underwater? You won’t be able to live with yourself
if you miss the next issue! To be
continued in Active Tense!
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