Hey everyone! Now before I get started I must apologize for the short chapter, (at least it felt short to me) as you know, a ton of stuff has been going on recently with tests & other tedious work. Not that it’s hard or anything, so long as I study, I’ve got it in the bag. Anyways some serious stuff has been going on in my life recently, hence my short comings and goings through the forums.
Another thing I wanted to get by is the fact that in all honesty, I’ve only written a few stories in my entire life. In fact, writing is actually one of my weak points, as I often suffer from writers block or whatever you call it. So that’s enough of my ramblings, now onto the story.
P.S. This is about the time the story REALLY starts, you know when everything starts to fall into place. Just thought I should let you know.
Chapter 9: Absolutely Nothing
Ivan pushed the door open, Jack following directly behind him, knife in hand. He swung the flintlock to the left side of the building, and Jack did the same on the other side. After their eyes scanned the room completely, nobody was to be seen. In the center of the hut was completely open space, except for a few papers and such.
“He’s gotta be here somewhere.” Ivan said, searching the area. “There’s no way he can stay hidden now.”
Inside the little building, there were two tables, one on each side. On the opposite end of the shack laid a large cabinet, for some reason completely empty. In fact, almost everything was empty. The drawers, the buckets, and even the tables had nothing important on it other than empty rum bottles. Jack headed towards the last cabinet, in hope of finding the stealthy guest.
“Well, he’s not hiding in the drawers,” Jack said once he made sure all the compartments were thoroughly checked. “My best bet is there’s a trap door or something.” He said, causing both him and Ivan to look straight into the ground. Nothing strange, other than a few rotten floorboards. “No trap doors, no other methods of escape, he’s… vanished…”
“But… how? That’s not possible… I’m sure he escaped inside here, he’s… gone.” Ivan said, shocked. “Now what?”
“Now, we return to our former occupation.” Jack said, almost ignoring what had just happened.
“What? You’re really going to just… pretend this never happened?”
Jack walked out of the small house and closed the door behind him. “Listen, for all we know, the man that we just saw could’ve evaded us altogether, chances are he’s hiding somewhere close by.”
“But, where could he have gone?”
“This is not the time to go searching for someone who may or may not be hostile. Now stop waving a loaded gun around like it’s nobody’s business.” Jack said, prompting Ivan to put away the flintlock.
After a few minutes, the two returned to the spot in which they previously did their dirty work. But when they returned, they were met with a startling discovery.
“Are you sure you put it down in this spot?” Jack asked.
“I’m sure of it… look, you can even still see some blood on the ground.” Ivan answered, causing the two to become uncomfortably worried.
“This is not good, now we’ve lost our most important asset.” Jack said once he was sure the supplies were nowhere to be seen. “Alright, now what do we do?” He asked. “Some bloke’s run off with our stuff, and I still don’t know how they were able to take everything down to the last sponge. That means there’s only one solution.” He said with a grin on his face.
“And what’s that?”
“This is no longer a game of hide-and-seek. Now, it’s a hunt.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“I lead them away from the target successfully; Roald should be back any minute now.” A man said, trying to catch his breath while he let out his information. “By the looks of it, we’ll have them ready within a fortnight.”
“Good, I see we’re making progress,” Another mysterious man said. “You’ll receive your payment once Roald gets back with the objective.”
“But sir,” The first man said. “How’s he gonna return, I’m sure they’re looking for him right now, that is, if he’s succeeded.”
“
If he’s succeeded? My my, you don’t seem to have much faith in the boy, after all, he is looking for much larger opportunities than playing second fiddle to someone who can barely keep his tracks covered.” The mysterious man said. “By the way, how did you do this time?”
“It’s completely inconspicuous; I doubt they’ll find it in time.”
“Good, now what about those EITC crates? What was the big deal about those in the first place?”
“Beats me, for all I know they could be what he’s looking fo- oh great, navy alert.” The second man said, ending their conversation in order to evade the navy’s ever watchful eye.
~~~~~~~~
Port Royal: Outer docks
“Now I’m sure you’ve all got the idea, but since the information we have is a bit old, we’ll have to deal with being a normal patrol run. So before you all forget, let me refresh you with the situation: Today would be the normal day for one of our merchant vessels to be taking a sweet little stroll through the waters on the way to Del Fuego to restock on the supplies. However, due to recent occurrences, we’ll instead be taking this vessel on that same route, in hopes of finding whoever’s responsible. You all know the orders, and for those that are on the landing party, you’ll each meet me in my office for your briefing, is that clear?” A high ranking official asked to a group of on looking naval and mixed EITC personnel.
After being met with the usual uproar of a response, the man quietly nodded and then retreated back into his room at the back of the ship, ready to receive the men for their briefing.
“Ah, this must be Mr. Hood.” He said, noticing the first person to enter the quarters.
“The one and on… yes it’s me, Howard McKenzie Hood.”
“Excellent, I’ve been expecting you Mr. Hood.”
“Oh, well I guess my reputation precedes me.” Howard said with a proud look on his face.
“Alright now, let’s get down to business.” The officer said, handing Howard a document. “You see this?” He asked. “This is a document stolen from us by Marcus Reynard, a highly dangerous pirate. We believe it contains the information we need in order to confront Reynard head on.”
“And, that’s a good thing?”
“Why of course.” The officer replied. “Even for a pirate vessel as dangerous as Reynard’s, we’ll be able to hold up on our own against them no matter how dangerous it may seem.”
“So you’re plan is to pretend to be a merchant vessel in order for Reynard to attack us, and then at the opportune moment, turn on them with our own guns?”
“Precisely Mr. Hood; I can tell you’re much more observant than you’re nephew.” The officer said, smiling at Howard in the weirdest way. “Now run along, you’re dismissed. Just make sure that if we arrive at Padres without any Reynard in sight, to look for him on land.”
Howard turned back and headed towards the door to the officer’s quarters. “Whatever you say, Commodore Bishop.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Where do you suggest we start?” Ivan asked, hoping for a solid answer.
“I suggest we go back to the shack, in order to look for some clues as to where they may have gone.” Jack replied, feeling over-confidant in himself.
“They? How come are you so sure it’s “they”? Ivan asked.
“Well think about it. We chased him away from the coat, meanwhile his buddy came from behind us and took the coat without us noticing. Once they man we were chasing bought him some time, he was able to make off with the supplies unnoticed.”
“You really thought this out did you?”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“Anyways, we’ll do nothing good standing around here,” Ivan said, getting up and walking towards the direction of the shack. “Best to get started before it gets too late, we don’t want to lose our chance to find Reynard.”
Jack looked at Ivan with an unsure face. “Ivan, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.” He said, showing some of the first signs of insecurity Ivan had seen him make ever since he first saw him.
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“Well, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that guy we saw, the one that was apparently by Marcus’s thugs…”
“Go on.”
“Well, I’d just like to remind you what we’re getting into, this isn’t a game, this is dangerous work, and I’m afraid if something goes wrong, we may not get out alive.” Jack said, nearing the old shack. “So we better be getting serious, and be on our best guard, even if it may seem like we’re doing nothing, I just need to make sure everything’s going as planned.”
Ivan stopped at the entrance to the small building. For some reason, he knew Jack was right, this mission was possibly the most dangerous thing he’d ever done, and for some reason, he was perfectly fine with it, like he was simply meant to do it. “I know what you mean Jack,” He said. “But… I’m sure if we stick together we can get through this.” He said, putting what little security the two had up a notch.
The two slowly opened the door, worried that someone may be ready to attack at just the right moment.
Nothing, it was expected.
But at the same time, it was hoped to be otherwise.
Maybe not.
“Anything strange?” Jack asked, shifting through the papers.
“Not much, although some of these people have the worst penmanship.” Ivan said with a smile, but somehow Jack didn’t seem pleased.
“Agh, that’s not what we need. We need information, and we need it now!” Jack said.
“Ok ok, you don’t have to be so lou…” Ivan said, but was cut off once he started looking straight towards the ground.
“What’s the matter with you? Have you suddenly become attracted to the floor in an unhealthy way?”
“No just… look.” Ivan said, a large grin making its way onto his face as he pointed towards some large muddy shoeprints on the floor. “That’s definitely not ours, since we didn’t get our shoes that muddy.”
“No, you’re right, it can’t be ours. That means that someone did retreat into this building!” Jack said, as he looked to where the footprints lead. “Looks like he took a small stroll to the shelf with all the rum and then…” He stopped once the footprints disappeared in front of the large empty cabinet at the back of the room. “That little-
“What? What’s wrong?” Ivan asked, almost completely clueless as to what Jack meant.
“Here, help me push this, will you?” Jack asked, with Ivan immediately answering in physical exertion.
Jack and Ivan pushed the cabinet to the side of the room, and behind it lay a large opening in the wall. Next to the opening was what appeared to be an unlit torch, just waiting for someone to use it.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Ivan said, staring down the endless black hole before him. “I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Ivan you coming?” Jack asked as he was about to leave the hut.
“Coming where? We just discovered how our culprit escaped. Why give up now?”
“Give up? No no no, I need you to help me get it to the fire.”
~~~~~~~~~~
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