C.N. - chapter 73

The submarine rose out of the water. Its gray steel hood raised our inflatable raft right out of the ocean from below. A few meters away, Theo and Kyle, who was conscious now because he was squirming like a fish-out-of-water in his bounds, were sprawed too on the hood of the submarine.
This was a huge submarine we were on.
Normally a person can plunge into the Pacific Ocean for only a few minutes without freezing solid. When the person exits the water, the sooner they change out of their wet gear the less likely they will catch hypothermia. Theo and Kyle should get on some dry clothes as soon as possible, so I stood up to go over to them with an emergency blanket I found tucked under where I was sitting in the raft.
'Sit down boy, leave them there.' Mr. Kent ordered.
'If they don't dry themselves up they'll catch hypothermia, I know this because one winter I went ice fishing with my dad and a few of his buddies on the lake near where I live...' I didn't finish because Mr. Kent fired a shot into the air. And everyone including me ducked down.
'Shut up, you'll do as I say without questions, now sit down.'
A radio signal cracked to life. There was confusion for a moment, and then Mr. Kent took out a walkie-talkie out of his suit pocket.
'Did you just kill one of the hostages?' The voice in the walkie-talkie said. I recognized Mr. Dragon's voice because the volume in the speaker was surprisingly loud and high-definition.
'Uh no Dragon, that was a warning shot.'
'What have I told you about wasting your warning shots, you haven't got an extra magazine clip on you, am I correct?'
Mr. Kent patted himself down and replied, 'Uh no, I don't.'
'And there are more hostages with you than there are bullets in your gun to threaten all of them with, therefore if they had know earlier about your lack of sufficient ammunition, they could have overpowered you completely, couldn't they? As a matter of fact they can do so right now.'
Mr. Kent was speechless; he sputtered some things trying to come up with a reply, but failed.
'Damn,' Terry said, 'Knowing that we totally could have overpowered the old fart back in the flyasaurus, couldn't we, Terry?'
'Absolutely, Terry.' The other Terry nodded, 'And what more, we can do that right now, who's up to take a bullet or few for the team and maybe get killed? Anyone?'
'I am rather sorry to inform you, it is now too late for that.' Mr. Dragon's voice said. A hatch on the hood opened and two men dressed in military attires emerged first from the submarine, carrying automatic weapons, followed by Mr. Dragon himself, followed by two more men dressed and armed in the same way. The men trained their weapons at us. Mr. Dragon spoke as he approached our raft.
'I admire your dilligence in listening in on the coversation I was having with Virus here, I assume he had forgotten to put speaker volume on low, am I correct to say so, Virus?'
Virus! Mr. Kent's real name is Virus?
Mr. Kent, or Mr. Virus, I don't know which name to call him by, sputtered some more unintelligible things. I was under the impression that Mr. Dragon was ridiculing Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus quite harshly and enjoying doing it.  
Two more people exited the hatch, a man and a woman in orderly uniforms, and they approached Kyle and Theo with blankets.
Mr. Dragon turned to Laura and flashed a wan smile, 'Long time no see, Laura.'
Laura returned a smile which I couldn't decide whether it meant love or hate. 'Same to you, Clark, so we meet again.'
'I'm sorry I couldn't afford a better condition for this reunion, I hope you still understand me after all these years.'
'Don't worry yourself, I remember you like it all took place yesterday, you old scoundrel, at least you kept in shape.'
'So have you, my dear.' Mr. Dragon gave a gentlemanly bow. 'I'm still the same man when you left me, my dear.'
'Oh save your flourish, Clark, you can't fool me again with that old stuff.'
'Always for you, my dear Laura, always for you.' Mr. Dragon regarded Wolfgang next, 'Ah, my son! Our last separation was rather untimely, I did not even get to say goodbye.'
'Fuck you, dad.' Wolfgang spat. His stare seemed murderous, though the fire from his eyes had no visible effect on Mr. Dragon. Laura shushed him.
'Good! The boy still recognizes his own father. I had thought a bullet was too much for him to handle.' Mr. Dragon turned to me, surprisingly.
'Charlie, do you still have misgivings at me for having taken you hostage before our last parting?'
'I don't think I do, because I don't think you weren't really intending to shoot me in the head - maybe just knock me out, if the situation required it.'
'Well then I'm glad the trust between us is not broken.' Mr. Dragon shook my hand.
'What trust?' I heard Theo say and looked in her direction. She was wrapped in a blanket, staring murderously at Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus the same way Wolfgang was still staring at Mr. Dragon, 'Who exactly are you?' She said; the question was directed towards Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus.
Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus looked at her amusingly, 'I am Mr. Kent, as you know, or knew, more appropriately, and I am the Virus, tenth member of the United Terrorists. I have been planted in the North family since before you were born, Theo, I am a double agent - the grandmaster of double agents.'
'Now, now, Virus, I like like your introduction, but there's just a tiny detail I wish to correct,' Mr. Dragon said, putting a hand on Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus' shoulder, 'You're the eleventh, not the tenth, member of the U.T., Alligator is the tenth, and by the way, he's the T-Rex now.'
'That is incorrect, Dragon, I am the tenth member, Alligator-I mean, T-Rex, he's the eleventh.'
'That's not how I remembered it.'
'Well it's how I remembered it Dragon, do you want to bring this up with the others, because I'm right when I say this, I'm the tenth member of the U.T.!' Mr. Kent/Mr. Virus said indignantly.
Mr. Dragon waived him off dismissively with a hand and said, 'Enough of this standing around. Alright hostages, I have business with almost all of you, so let's get down to it. Welcome aboard.'
Escorted by the guards and Mr. Dragon, we entered the submarine.

T.N - Chapter 72

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I could barely comprehend the sight of Kent holding John hostage, never mind focus on his demands. His mouth moved, but all I could hear was a roaring silence as thoughts flittered through my head. Kent...he’s betraying us? It couldn’t be...

I felt someone tug at my hand, pulling me towards the back of the truck where Graham was. I stumbled along and noticed that everyone, except for the two at the cockpit, was all piled in the back. “I’m sorry,” breathed Wolfgang into my ear as he squeezed my hand.

“What are you say—“

“I already said, no talking,” said Kent, cutting me off. He gently pushed the muzzle of the gun right against John’s head.

“This is just a clever trick, a way for us to focus on solving the problem instead of bickering by providing extra crisis! Like we’re going to crash in a few moments and we couldn’t figure anything out and so this was your way of helping, right?” I knew I was babbling, but I didn’t care. “You couldn’t possibly betray us, you’re Kent, you’re like family, you helped us so many times, you—“

A gunshot ran through the air, and I winced as I heard the shattering of glass. John was shaking, and clutching what was left of his right earlobe. Blood trickled through his fingers, running down his arm, and started dripping onto the floor.

Kent shot John. Kent shot John. Kent betrayed us. Kent betrayed us!

“If you would be so kind, Mr. Gable, please silence her before she becomes a hazard to John’s safety,” said Kent. “I’m afraid she’s close to hysterics, which makes delivery to the boss a little bit more difficult.” Wolfgang let go, only to clamp a hand over my mouth and wrap his other arm around me in a restraining embrace. I hadn’t realized until then that I was hyperventilating, and that tears were running down my face.

“Now then, Graham, I do assume that you’re finished preparations for landing?” asked Kent. “Otherwise, I’m not certain if we will be able to get out alive.”

“Done,” replied Graham. “Though quite respectfully, we won’t be able to open the back door with the vehicle’s systems down...”

“That is of no consequence at the moment,” replied Kent. He ushered John towards the pilot’s seat. “Now then, I’m going to turn the manual system on, meaning that you’ll be able to land us and the doors will be able to open.” He turned towards us. “If any of you try anything, and I do sincerely mean anything, I will blow John’s head off.” He pointed the gun back at John’s head and smiled.

The Terries growled, but didn’t move forward. I could feel Wolfgang tense up and pull me in even closer. Laura, calmly and coolly, said, “We understand.”

Kent pulled a small hard drive out of his shirt pocket and plugged it into a port on the dashboard. He then quietly pressed a few buttons, and the lights on the dashboard came back on. “That should do it,” he said, sounding satisfied. “Now John, if you could do the honour of landing us.” He glanced at his watch, “I hope to be on the water’s surface in one minute. I’d hate to be late.”

John’s ear was still bleeding, but he stopped compressing it in order to take control of the wheel. The nose of the vehicle started to dive down even more rapidly than before, and I could see the glittering blue Pacific Ocean coming closer and closer...

John suddenly pulled up, and the vehicle jolted and bucked as it met the water’s surface. He pressed one of the lit buttons on the dashboard, and the back door of the truck swung open. Water started rushing in at an alarming rate.

Graham quickly pulled a cord on the life raft, and as it expanded, he pushed it onto the water. Kent, escorting John, climbed in first, followed by everyone else. Heathcliff was hesitant, but as Wolfgang walked past with me in tow, he grabbed Heathcliff’s arm and hauled him in. The raft started floating away from the quickly sinking truck when I noticed someone was missing.

“Where’s Kyle?” I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

“Still inside,” said Kent. “He already fulfilled his role to me and the boss, he’s just deadweight now.” He smiled. “He made a good proxy villain.”

Kyle was only a proxy. Kyle was innocent. And he was going to die.

I wrenched myself out of Wolfgang’s grip, and before Kent or any of the others could do anything, I whipped off my glasses and dove into the water.

It was so numbingly cold that my breath was nearly taken away. Without my glasses, everything was blurry, and the salt water stung my eyes. I made my way towards the dark shadow that was the truck. I swam into the truck, and found Kyle still strapped in. Despite my fingers going numb, I managed to fumble with the seatbelts and free him. His limbs were still bound, but I was running out of breath. I grabbed Kyle around the waist and started to kick upwards towards the surface. Oxygen deprived, black spots started dancing in front of my eyes, and I could feel my mind turning fuzzy. I held onto Kyle even more tightly, refusing to let him sink. The black spots had multiplied until I could only see a tiny splotch of the daylight above, but even that was disappearing. The surface was so far away...the thought occurred to me that perhaps I wasn’t going to make it.

Suddenly, I felt a solid surface push up from underneath me, lifting me up to the surface. As soon we reached air, I gasped for air, filling my lungs with oxygen again. My mind cleared, and that’s when I noticed that the solid surface, the one I was pushed up to safety by, was a huge submarine.

Super long chapter to make up for the fact I was back for more than a week and hadn't posted anything...hope you enjoyed villainous Kent as much as I did!

Notice from K

Hello!

Hope you've been having a great summer, and have been checking up on this blog for new chapters! Speaking of summer and new chapters, I'm heading out to Vancouver until the 13th, so I probably won't have any time to post a new chapter (which leaves you, the reader, on a little bit of a cliffhanger). However, as soon as I get back, I'll be as busy as I can writing Chapter 72!
In the time that I'm not around, check out Zone 1, G's other blog, and this interesting (and hilarious) podcast I've been addicted to for awhile.

See you in 12 days!

-K