T.N - Chapter 86

The gunshot rang out, echoing off the walls, and my heart dropped.

There was silence as the Wolf slowly lowered his gun, and all I wanted to do was to say something, to check to see if Charlie was ok, to cuss out the Wolf, to yell at myself for not doing anything.

But it felt like all of the air had been punched out of me.

Charlie stood there, one hand pressed against his shoulder, the other in a tight fist at his side to stem the pain. He lifted his hand and looked down, and I could see the blood staining his palm before he started pressing against the wound again. He didn’t move or speak, just stood there, and slowly met the Wolf’s gaze.

I had heard stories about the Wolf during my eavesdropping sessions at the Justice League. A human trafficker who preferred to get his hands dirty and do his own work. It made him very efficient, and very effective with a gun.

Which meant that shooting Charlie was just a warning shot.

The Wolf took a couple of steps towards Charlie, his finger still ghosting over the trigger. He tilted his head and glanced at the bullet wound.

“Not bad, kid,” the Wolf smirked. “Most people would’ve at least cringed, if not fainted.”

“It’s not my first time getting shot,” Charlie replied, to which the Wolf barked out a laugh.

“Hell, I can’t tell if you’re acting tough or if you’re really serious.”

“Why would I lie about something like that?”

“Why would you indeed?”

There was a small lull in the conversation, where they both just observed each other, both with genuine curiousity in their eyes.

“Have you ever seen Pulp Fiction? Because you really do look like Harvey Keitel’s character from there,” Charlie said.

“Well, how about when you take a closer look at me?”

The Wolf was about to take another step forward when suddenly there was a grinding that shuddered through the floor. Everyone pitched to the side with the sudden stop in momentum. Charlie stumbled backwards to regain his balance, and Dennis grabbed onto this uninjured arm, pulling him back towards us.

“Seems like we’ve arrived,” said the Wolf, placing the gun back in a holster at his hip. With a wave of his hand, the armed men encircled us, trapping us in a tight clump. “We’ll talk later.”

He turned around and walked out of the mess hall, and we were escorted through the winding hallways. I wriggled my way around Heathcliff and reached out to tug on Dennis’s sleeve. He pulled me towards him, and I was finally close enough to Charlie to talk to him.

Charlie had visibly blanched, whether from the shock or the blood loss, but otherwise he looked fine. His hand was still compressing the wound, and his knuckles were white from the grip.

“How are you doing?” I asked quietly.

“It hurts like I remember, but I’m fine,” he shrugged.

“You really were shot before?” asked Dennis.

“Yep, when I was a lot younger. A long story shot, I decided to take a walk in the woods when my family was out hunting, and I’d forgotten wearing a hat with antlers wasn’t the best idea.”

“Where were you shot?” Dennis asked. “Your leg or something?”

“Actually, on my other shoulder here,” Charlie gestured with his head. “It’s almost in the exact spot as this one.”

“Well, now you’ll have a matching scar and a hell of a story,” grinned Dennis, trying to lighten up the mood. He reached out to lightly punch Charlie on the shoulder before quickly rethinking his actions and pulling his hand back.

“It won’t just be a scar if we don’t bandage it up soon,” I remarked. I pulled at the hem of my shirt and ripped a fairly even strip from the bottom. Reaching over, I gently removed Charlie’s hand before wrapping the bandage tightly around the wound.

We reached the ladder that lead to the outer hatch. The Wolf climbed up first, and then we were ushered up, guns trained at us at every move. Charlie had some trouble, only able to use one arm to haul himself up, but Dennis was able to reach down and help haul him up.

The glittering water and the white sand was a glaring pull away from the dark walls of the submarine, and I had to blink several times before I could see properly. Down the gangway was an island that seemed straight off of a postcard. There was a beach of fine white sand that extended a few meters before abruptly shifting into a densely populated jungle.

It was picturesque, except for the large, black structure that sat at the edge where sand met trees, and the very disgruntled, bruised man standing on the beach, looking up at us.

“Well, well, better not keep the boss waiting,” the Wolf said, and he sauntered down the gangway. The rest of us had no choice but to follow him.

As we got closer to the Dragon, I could see the full extent of what must’ve been a very nasty fight in the control room. His jacket and pants had cut and tears, some with small bloodstains. Bruises were starting to form along his knuckles and his right eye. His bottom lip was cut, and the corner of his scowl was starting to swell up. There was a smear of blood leading from the bottom of his nose to his cheek where he had hastily wiped at a bleeding nose.

To my relief, Grandfather was nowhere in sight, and from the looks of the Dragon’s dour mood, he had escaped.

It seemed like the Wolf had picked up on it too. “You let the old man get away?”

“It wasn’t a matter of ‘letting,’ Mr. Wolf,” the Dragon growled.

“Whoa there,” the Wolf said, holding his hands up. “You still have these ones, and they’re not getting away any time soon.” As if to emphasize his point, the men around us shifted to reveal our cluster, their guns slightly raised in warning.

The Dragon nodded grudgingly. “I knew you’d get the job done.”

“Great, that’s settled then,” the Wolf clapped his hands together. “Now onto the more important part of this transaction.”

The Dragon grimaced. “You’ll get your payment soon enough.”

“With the bonus?”

In reply, he got another glare. “You’ll get even more if you help track down Damien North. Until we wrap this business up, you won’t be getting anything.”

“This wasn’t part of our deal.”

“It is now.”

The Wolf took a moment to think, and then he beckoned over a couple of the closest armed men. He whispered a few things to them, pausing to wait for their nods.

As the Wolf was doing that, the Dragon shifted his attention to us. It was a quick go-over, as if he was appraising goods he had just receiving. When his gaze finally reached Charlie and he noticed the makeshift bandage, his scowl deepened.

“Mr. Wolf, I thought I said to capture them, not shoot them.”

The Wolf startled out of his conversation, and straightened up to face the Dragon. “Oh, come on,” he protested, “I tried to not kill anybody. And that’s not my modus operandi.”

“You tried?”

“Give me a break here, Mr. Dragon.” The Wolf’s easygoing smile dipped briefly into a glower before lifting back up. “You brought me onto this job knowing what I’m like. In fact, you chose me because I work this way.”

“I would’ve appreciated it if you had been more civil with my son’s friends, we’re not animals here.”

“Well shit, that’s ironic considering our pseudonyms are all animals, thanks to your suggestion.”

“Are you questioning my choices?”

The Wolf laughed. “Is that even a question?” His smile dropped from his face completely. “I’ve been questioning your choices for a while.”

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get an immediate response, the Wolf continued. “You’re getting soft, my friend. You’re letting emotions and all that get in the way of our best interests here.”

“Our best interest?”

“In case you’ve completely forgotten, you originally brought us together cause we’re a group with common interests. We needed you, but you also needed us.”

“What is your point, Mr. Wolf?”

“You’re prioritizing your interests now, and that’s not how this business is going to work.”

“And?”

There was a pause as the Dragon had straightened himself up, trying to impose a threat with his presence. The Wolf rubbed his hands in careful thought as he calculated the risks of speaking his mind. His hand grazed his gun in the holster, and he matched his posture to the Dragon’s.

The Wolf smirked. “I think it’s about high time you retire for good, Mr. Dragon.”

Without hesitation, the Dragon’s hand shot out and grabbed the front of the Wolf’s shirt, hauling him forward until their faces were only a few inches away from each other.

“How fucking dare you,” the Dragon hissed. “After all I’ve done for you. You were insignificant before I found you, before I helped you.”

“I’m in your debt, but you’re in mine too,” the Wolf retorted. “In fact, I think you’re more indebted to me than anyone else. Remember the situation in Malaysia? And in Ecuador? Guess who covered your ass?”

Silence. The Wolf placed his hand on his gun, slowly easing his hand onto the handle.

“Face it, you’re becoming irrelevant. You’re weighing the group down, you have no right to call yourself a leader. And I think I could be the one to fill your shoes.”

The armed men were silently glancing at each other, their guns wavering as their concentration dropped from us to the quarrel. They shifted uneasily, not sure whether they should be taking sides, intervening, or staying out of it.

There was a flicker of movement as Laura raised her hand ever so slightly. She waited a second, then snapped her fingers.

C.N. - chapter 85

Have you ever wondered how well a banjo and a dubstep synthesizer go together? Well, Graham had connected his iPod playlist to the intercom system on Mr. Dragon’s submarine, and the music coming out of the speakers had exactly that: a banjo and a dubstep synthesizer.

‘Aww, this is disgusting!’ A henchman shouted, covering his ears. I noticed for the first time that all the henchmen wore nametags on their uniform. This particular henchman’s tag said ‘Gus’.

‘Make it stop!’ Yelled another henchman whose nametag displayed ‘Pete’.

Similar complaints issued from the mouths of Mr. Dragon’s other henchmen in the hall. There were clangs on the floor as henchmen who had been holding kitchen gadgets dropped what they were holding in shock and bewilderment. Everyone had stood up.

Laura’s henchmen, on the other hand, were enjoying what was coming out of the speakers so much they hopped onto the counters and began tap dancing (I think it was tap dancing).

Then the lyrics came on. The singer sounds to be rapping…with an exaggerated Midwestern accent. I couldn’t exactly comprehend much of the lyrics, though I caught a few lines about haystacks, shotguns, and the verse ‘Imma milk the cash like I milk my cow’, whatever that meant.

‘This is just wrong,’ the henchman with nametag ‘Bob’ said, ‘it’s like eating live shrimp with cheese dip!’

‘With blue cheese dip,’ added a henchman bearing the nametag ‘Ed’, sticking out his tongue in disgust.

‘Yeah, you would know.’ Countered Eric, who was rapping along with the song.

Theo turned to Laura with a puzzled look on her face, ‘what is this music?’

It seemed Laura had had the question put to her before. ‘Well, my henchmen-‘ Laura began. Michael interrupted her.

‘Ahem, colleagues, you mean.’ He said.

‘Right,’ Laura continued, ‘my colleagues all possess a rather alternative taste in music. What you’re hearing is a relatively unknown fusion genre combining gangsta rap and country music.’

‘It’s called craptry.’ John added.

‘Not exactly my cup of tea, but I don’t mettle in the kind of music my colleagues listen to.’ Laura said.

‘WHAT?’ Half of Mr. Dragon’s henchmen in the room gasped incredulously.

‘Makes sense, it sounds like crap.’ Henchman Gus said.

‘Who said that?!’ Graham spun around angrily, ‘which one of you cretins said that?! Who dares to insult my tastes in art?! Speak up, I’ll fight you!’

Several henchmen including Gus, Pete, Bob and Ed stepped forward, as if accepting Graham’s challenge.

At this point I noticed that Mr. Virus (who had been knocked out by a saucepan to the back of the head a few minutes ago and was lying unconscious on the floor up to now) had regained unconsciousness and was rising up from the floor. He was holding a fruit knife by the blade tip, his arm arched back like a circus knife thrower about to perform a stunt. The arm was aimed at Graham, who was nearest to where he lay.

‘Mr. Virus is awake!’ I shouted to Graham.

Mr. Virus threw the knife and Graham ducked sideways off the table. The remote in his hand flew in the other direction. Wolfgang quickly threw another saucepan at Mr. Virus, which hit him squarely in the forehead, knocking him out cold a second time.

Henchman Bob dived for the remote, as did John. They collided midair and knocked it on a different path through the air. Henchman Ed leaped up to catch the remote, but a rolling pin thrown by Eric smacked into his groin mid-leap and he fell back down, doubled over in pain. Michael ran forward to intercept the remote from landing in Henchman Pete’s outstretched hand, but Henchman Gus fly-tackled him sideways and they both crashed onto the floor. Terry tripped Henchman Pete, was tripped by another henchman called ‘Marv’ (according to his nametag), and Henchman Marv was tripped by the other Terry, who in turn stepped on a bar of soap and fell flat on his bottom. The remote landed in Laura’s hand.

‘Turn that infernal music off, we beg you!’ Mr. Dragon’s henchmen cried.

‘Alright boys, I think we’ve had enough digressions for now.’ She promptly and calmly switched the music off.

‘Aww fiddlesticks!’ Laura’s henchmen sighed in unison.

‘Take that, you tasteless bumholes!’ Mr. Dragon’s henchmen shouted in triumph.

‘Who you calling bumholes?’ Graham yelled back, ‘I’ll fight all of you!’

Laura’s henchmen and Mr. Dragon’s henchmen all got to their feet and began throwing insults at each other, as well as criticizing each other’s musical tastes (from what I gather, Mr. Dragon’s henchmen were either fans of country or gangsta rap, but not a combination of both).

Laura touched my shoulder, ‘while our former ally Mr. Kent is still unconscious, I should go tie him up, seeing that these musically passionate colleagues of mine will be occupied for quite a while on their present undertaking. Look after your friends and my son for me, won’t you, Charlie?’

I nodded, and she went to tie Mr. Virus up.

Dennis suddenly brightened up. He nudged Theo, and said, ‘You know, with all this excitement I almost forgot one thing.’

‘What’s that?’ Theo asked.

‘It’s your birthday. Happy birthday, my dear sister.’

‘Why yes it is!’ Heathcliff exclaimed, ‘Happy birthday my dear Theodora, here, um…I have to get you a birthday present!’ He took off searching for one.

Theo looked confused, then surprised, then even more surprised. She opened her mouth, but words did not come out of it for some time. Finally she said, ‘well that doesn’t surprise me, I’ve forgotten about my own birthday.’

‘That’s why I’m here to remind you.’ Dennis said with a smile.

‘You’re here for more than that, to me, Dennis.’ Theo smiled back.

‘What about me?’ Wolfgang cut in, ‘what am I here for to you?’

Theo didn’t say anything, but just turned to him and gave him an enigmatic smile.

‘Step aside, I know what I’m here for,’ Heathcliff declared, having found a present. Striding up to Theo, he presented her with a massive ribbon flower, the kind used on a cake box. ‘I couldn’t find any real flowers in this place, my darling.’

Theo raised her eyebrow at Heathcliff. ‘Have you ever missed an opportunity to attempt to propose to me?’

Before Heathcliff could give his answer, the intercom blared to life. However, the remote was still with Laura, so the system must have been overridden by another controller.

‘By god, what was that infernal music on the speakers just now?’ I recognized Mr. Dragon’s voice on the speakers. ‘Somebody better answer me this instant!’ For a moment everyone froze.

The argument between the two groups of henchmen stopped. Henchman Bob took out a walkie-talkie and said into it, ‘It was your ex-wife’s men, they hacked into the speaker system and put that awful stuff on air.’

‘Well where are the prisoners? Where are they now?’ Mr. Dragon barked.

‘Um, everyone’s here sir, in the mess hall.’

‘Everyone?’

“Yes sir.’

There was a loud crash through the speakers, followed by shouts and cursing. Then a different voice appeared.

‘Theo, are you alright?’

Theo snatched the walkie-talkie from Henchman Bob and talked urgently into it, ‘Grandfather! I’m alright. Are you alright?’

‘I’m alright, just fighting it out with my arch nemesis here. Bring reinforcements to the control room-’

There was another crash, and the speakers died.

Theo turned to Henchman Bob, and said, ‘show me to the control room.’

‘Hold your horses little lady,’ said a voice I had never heard before, ‘nobody’s going anywhere.’

Everyone turned to look at the source of that voice. At the other end of the mess hall, a door had opened and a man in a pitch-black suit who looks exactly like Harvey Keitel entered, followed by a line of men in black military uniform, carrying automatics. The men aimed their guns at us.

Seeing that everyone else was wide-eyed and seemed to know the identity of this person, and further seeing that they all seemed too stupefied to reveal that information to me, I decided to find out for myself, once again.

‘Are you Harvey Keitel?’ I asked the man.

‘No,’ the man replied, seemingly amused, ‘I’m the Wolf.’

And then he did the strangest, most incomprehensible thing. He raised a pistol and shot me right in the shoulder blade. 

T.N - Chapter 84

I don’t know what I expected, but it was definitely not this. Which, on second thought, it’s a bit of a ridiculous thing to not expect this, considering nothing should surprise me anymore. 

But there’s something about seeing full-grown adults, many of them very deadly trained mercenaries or similarly gifted people, having a food fight that defied all of the logic I still held onto. I didn’t even have to look over at Dennis and Charlie to know that they thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. 

With a quiet thunk, I rested my head on the door. Maybe taking a moment to process everything will help me accept whatever happened. 

Of course, that moment was quickly taken away when the door started to ease open. I scrambled back, but the door continued to slip open on greased hinges. I had to hand it to the Dragon, he took good care of his submarine. 

I stood frozen as I watched the door open, not sure whether to dart forward and close it. I started to creep towards it, my hand outstretched, reaching for the handle.

“Theo, watch it,” said Dennis, pulling on my arm. “You’re going to get caught in the crossfire-“

As if to punctuate his thought, something goes flying over his head and hits the wall with a resounding splat. A tomato paints the previously pristine white wall, slowly sliding down in a trail of slightly morbid red. 

“Well we can’t just leave the door open either, obviously,” I said. 

Both Dennis and I startled back as a pair of glass measuring cups are thrown between us, crashing into a million pieces on the ground. 

“Why do all of these things seem to be aimed towards me?” Dennis asked. 

“I’m sure they don’t have time to actually be focusing their throws out here, they have enough on their hands in there.”

“I guess henchmen have some really bad aim,” Charlie remarked.

“One more thing to add to the list of why henchmen employed by evil people are bad at their jobs,” Dennis conceded. He mimed writing it down on an imaginary list. 

“Take that!” yelled somebody from inside, which sounded suspiciously like Heathcliff. 

“Dennis,” both Charlie and I warned, just as he looked up and was hit square in the face by a pie. It was one of those creamy ones, and it slowly slid off his face as he stood there, mimed invisible pen in the middle of the air. It couldn’t have caused much damage, except maybe to his ego. 

After a moment, he lifted his hand to gently wipe his eyes off, his mouth closing from the surprised ‘O’ to a grimace. 

Dennis sighed. “Ok, that’s it.” He rolled up his sleeves, bunching them up around his elbows. “I’m going in.”

“Wait, what?” Before I could protest anymore, Dennis (quite literally) threw himself into the fight. He picked up what looked to be a broken loaf of bread and a plate and started throwing them wildly at the other side of the room. 

I looked over at Charlie, and he shrugged at me. 

“We’re already in this deep…” I sighed. We took a few cautious steps into the room.

As we hovered by the doorway, I looked around to see what the room layout was like. Thankfully, it looked like the room was divided fairly neatly in half by a countertop, in which Laura and the others have taken the half to the right, and the henchmen the left. 

I picked out Wolfgang and Heathcliff from the others, paired together. Their shoulders were almost touching as they were jostled about by Laura’s men, who were putting in some excessive moves. 

Something glinted in the air from the other side of the room. One of the henchmen was holding what looked like very menacing dinner knives, and he slowly aimed them at Wolfgang and Heathcliff. 

Without another thought, I ran towards them. “Watch it!” I shouted, and they both turned towards me right as I ran and tackled them to the ground. 

We tumbled down and across the room, a tangle of legs, and arms and, “Ouch, watch your chin!” We landed in a heap right behind the counter, safe from any form of projectiles.

It took a moment for all of us to catch our breaths. My head thud against one of the cabinet doors in relief. 

“Theo, you’re safe!” exclaimed Heathcliff and Wolfgang at the same time, and they both hugged me. I melted into it a bit.

“I’m sorry for earlier,” I muttered.

“No, we’re sorry,” they both said. I laughed a little bit at how synchronized they sounded. I brushed them off, and they reluctantly let go.

“Not really a time for sentimental stuff right now, is it?” I smiled. 

“Yeah, but we didn’t exactly part on the greatest note,” said Wolfgang.

“We were worried sick!” added Heathcliff. 

“Well, you guys found Laura and her men, so I think we’re ok,” I said. 

“Did you manage to find your grandfather?” asked Heathcliff.

I shook my head. “I kind of got lost, but I found Charlie and Dennis, if you haven’t noticed them yet.”

Charlie had snuck his way besides Laura, and they seemed to be exchanging a few words with her while also dodging a couple of the food projectiles that had come their way. Dennis was next to John, and their faces of intense concentration sent a shiver down my spine. I noted to myself to never mess with Dennis when it came to food fights, if it ever came down to it.

“Good that you found them,” said Wolfgang, “but it would’ve been better if your plan had worked out.”

I shrugged “It’s for the better. Plus, if I wasn’t here, I think you guys would’ve been in trouble.” I pointed up at the two knives I had seen the henchman holding, now embedded into the wall. 

Wolfgang blanched a bit. “I had forgotten that there were actual things that could hurt you in a kitchen.”

“You should probably note that down for next time.” We all nodded in agreement.

I turned to face the counter on my knees, and slowly peeked my head out over the countertop. A couple of fruits came whipping past my face, and I quickly sat down. 

“Looks like we’re stuck here for a bit,” I sighed. I looked at the two of them. “While we’re here, care to tell me how this all started?” 

They looked at each other, trying to figure out silently who was going to start the story.

“Well, after you ran off, we started looking for Laura and the others,” started Heathcliff.

“We ended up running into a bunch of henchmen, who started chasing us until we ended up here in the mess hall,” added Wolfgang.

“We found Laura and the others here, and they were being guarded by the other henchmen and….Mr. Kent? Virus?” Heathcliff paused. “I don’t know what to call him.”

We all kind of shrugged. Even I didn’t know exactly what to call him anymore.

“Anyways,” started Wolfgang again, “they were very ready to use the tasers on us, and they had them out when we accidentally knocked these drums of water over.” He pointed over to the side of the room, where several large metal containers were lying on the floor. 

“So obviously, they don’t want to electrocute themselves,” Heathcliff continued.

“Thanks to that, Laura and her men were able to overpower the guards and duck over to this side of the room.”

“But we didn’t have any usable weapons on us, and neither did they.”

“So we kind of just…picked up the closest thing we had.”

“Which was supposed to be their lunch.”

“And started a food fight.”

“It escalated pretty rapidly.”

“Kent, Virus, whatever, ended up getting molten marshmallows dumped on him.”

“What?” I interrupted. “Why would there be that much molten marshmallow on a submarine?”

“We don’t know either,” shrugged Heathcliff.

“It was pretty effective though,” laughed Wolfgang.

I took a moment to process the rapid-fire bombardment of information, and then sighed. “Well, I’m glad we got that cleared up.”

There was some loud whooping noises, and we all jumped in surprise. I looked over to see Graham holding up a remote of some kind. The Terries looked like they had just made some sort of score, and were high fiveing each other. 

“Hit it, Graham!” they yelled. 

Graham dramatically hit a button on the remote, and the intercom crackled to life, blaring out very very loud music. 

“What is that?” yelled Wolfgang over the music.

“I think that was some form of interference, hacking into the intercom!” I yelled back.

“No, I mean the music!”

And truth be told, I had no idea. But whatever it was, it stopped the fighting completely.

C.N. - Chapter 83

I'm posting for G here after he wrote this.

Wow we've been gone for awhile (I think I say this every time we go on an unplanned hiatus, which is more times than I'd prefer)... Hope you enjoy this!

“Well,” Dennis stopped in his tracks, “the hatch to the main deck, right where we left it.” He pointed to the circular door in the ceiling.

“Do you hear anything coming through from up there?” Theo whispered.

Dennis climbed up a few rungs of the iron ladder directly beneath the hatch and pressed his ear as close to the metal as possible. “Nothing,” he whispered back.

“What if the Dragon’s henchmen are waiting right on the other side?” Theo whispered more urgently.

“HELLO? MR. DRAGON’S HENCHMEN? ARE YOU WAITING ON THE OTHER SIDE READY TO AMBUSH US?” Dennis yelled at the hatch. His voice bounced off the ceiling and reverberated up and down the hallway for a few meters before disappearing.

“Dennis! Are you crazy? What did you do that for?” Theo hissed as she dragged him down from the ladder and cupped her hand over his mouth.

Dennis removed Theo’s hand from her mouth and said, “Well, Charlie and I had a conversation earlier while we were trying to look for you where we deduced that henchmen employed by evil villains are generally not very intelligent. So I was hoping that they’d fall for me asking them whether they’re behind there waiting to ambush us and tell us themselves.”

Theo slapped her forehead in exasperation and incredulity. “Words cannot express my feelings towards you two right now.” She said. 

We were silent for a few moments. All around us there was silence save the perpetual humming of machinery.

“So, judging from the silence, I see two clear possibilities,” Dennis broke the silence, “either there are no henchmen on the other side of the hatch, or there are henchmen on the other side of the hatch but didn’t fall for my trick, which would make them exceptionally intelligent henchmen, don’t you think, Charlie?”

“In any James Bond movie the henchmen would surely have fallen for that trick.” I concurred.

“Indeed, my bet is on the first possibility.” Dennis concluded.

“Really, guys?” Theo raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t see why not,” I said, “but just on the safe side, why don’t you try again? If there are indeed henchmen on the other side of the hatch, and they didn’t fall for your trick on the first try, maybe they will fall for it this time out of frustration that we’re taking too long to walk into their trap.”

Before Theo could clasp her hand over Dennis’ mouth again, he yelled at the top of his lungs, “HELLO? MR. DRAGON’S HENCHMEN? ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE NOT WAITING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS HATCH WITH THE INTENT TO AMBUSH US?”

I laid my hand on Theo’s before she could stop Dennis from yelling further, “Trust me, I think this time it’s going to work.” Theo looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement, disbelief and awe, a look I’m beginning to realize that I get a lot from her.

Dennis continued, “I’M SPEAKING HONESTLY HERE FOR MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS WITH ME, WE’VE HAD ENOUGH SURPRISES IN THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS AND WE’D REALLY APPRECIATE IT, IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE WAITING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS HATCH WITH THE INTENT TO AMBUSH US, THAT YOU DECLARE YOUR PRESENCE SO WE DON’T BE SURPRISED WHEN WE GO THROUGH AND BUMP INTO YOU GOOD FOLKS.”

Just like last time, Dennis’ voice traveled a short distance up and down the corridor and disappeared.

“Wait a minute,” Theo grabbed both our arms, “why is there no echo?”

“What echo?” Dennis asked, puzzled.

“This corridor is extremely long, we should hear a very sustained echo whenever we make any noise,” Theo said. She stamped her foot. A low rumbling crept along the metal floor of the corridor and disappeared abruptly after a few seconds.

“You’re right,” I said, “The sound is being suppressed.”

“That’s it!” Theo exclaimed, “This must be some sort of stealth technology at work, just like the one on Laura’s hovercraft.”

“You mean on the flyasaurus?” Dennis added.

“That’s why everything’s been so silent around us. Someone must have activated stealth mode on the interior of the submarine.” Theo continued.

“Stealth mode.” Dennis and I echoed at Theo’s brilliant realization.

We pressed close together, listening to the silence.

“Well, now’s a good time as ever, let’s go through.” Dennis swiftly mounted the ladder, twisted the circular latch, and pushed upwards before anyone can object.

White light spilled onto us. I squinted. Dennis climbed up first, helped Theo through, and then me. There were no henchmen waiting to ambush us after all, we had entered through the floor of another deserted corridor, this one bathed in bright light. It looked like the interior of the Starship Enterprise, white and porcelain. 

On the side of the corridor right in front of us was a pressurized door with a porthole fixed at eye-level. Creeping up to the glass, we peeked through, Theo on the left, Dennis in the middle and me on the right.

Theo’s jaw dropped wide open. Dennis looked like he was seeing the most beautiful thing he had ever encountered in his life. We gazed through the porthole at the sight on the other side of the glass. Laura, Wolfgang, Heathcliff, Laura’s henchmen, some of Mr. Dragon’s Henchmen, even Mr. Virus (covered from head to toe in what seems to be a buttery, creamy substance), they were all there. It was total chaos, kitchen utensils, pots and pans, chef’s hats, food and people were flying everywhere.

With delight, I exclaimed, “It’s a food fight!”