The Disposition of the Night

[Mr. Skiperdoo]

Chapter 20: Compulsive

I’m back! Well not for a while, but I’m kinda sorta in a way back somewhat. But nonetheless, I’ve been writing this chapter for sooooooooo long and I don’t even remember where I got half of these ideas. If you’re new or something, then welcome. And let me say WOW you’re late. Anyways, if you forgot about this story just like I did, then enjoy! By the way, it gets pretty weird… just warning you.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Great…” The man threw his papers down and drew his sword. “I’m going to have to ask you to back away Stealth, you know how ugly things can get when Dahl starts talking.”

Stealthy threw Dahl to the floor and pinned him down with his foot. “Just tell me where Reynard’s headed and this will be over before you know it.”

“Reynard! You want to know where Reynard is?” The man laughed as he walked towards his struggling comrade. “I don’t know where is at the moment, but I can tell he will be drinking rum on a beach watching the Caribbean implode on itself by tomorrow.”

“Implode on itself? What do you mean by that?” Stealthy asked, loosening his aggression but still keeping Dahl on the floor.

The man laughed once more as he paced in front of Stealthy. “The EITC has already shut down all activity; in fact, they’re issuing more precise orders as we speak. The balance of control has shifted into the eyes of the EITC, now they’re more paranoid than ever. With Reynard causing chaos throughout the Caribbean, they’re forced to make sure he’s unable to operate. Doing this means they have to take extreme steps, all while Reynard’s actually sitting back and watching.”

“Enough of this!” Stealthy yelled as he kicked Dahl off the ground. “Where can I find Reynard?”

“Oh Stealthy Stealthy…” The man said, readying his sword. “Don’t you know that Reynard finds you?”

At that moment, Stealthy snapped. He flew towards the man with his newfound dagger drawn. The man reacted and stepped out of the way; however, Stealthy was able to react as well. He whipped around just in time to dodge an attack from Dahl. Stealthy ducked down to let Dahl fall onto his back. After this, Stealthy sprang up and Dahl found himself lying on the ground.

“I see your skills are just about as rusty as your blade.” The man said, lunging after Stealthy.

“You should throw away the blade,” Stealthy said right before disarming him with a quick swipe. “it gives you more balance.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Ivan and Mikhail walked along the dockway. The fog had cleared up a little, but it still wasn’t by any means very visible.

“So, are you sure about this? I mean commandeering the ship?” Ivan asked, nervous about the procedure.

“Yes yes, I’ve done this many times before. Three people could sail a small ship like this. All we have to do is make sure nobody else decides to sail it.”

“So what’s the plan? We sneak onboard and tell them that we’re here to shine the sails?”

“ No no no, that would be way too conspicuous. Instead, we need to find a way for Stealthy to come onboard just as we leave port, but without drawing attention.”

Ivan looked over towards the building where Stealthy broke off from them. It was tall, circular and and made of stone, perfect for trying to hide something in. Apparently Stealthy knew exactly where to look, which made Ivan a bit suspicious but he knew deep down he wouldn’t dare plan anything.

“There’s the navy ship.” Mikhail said, pointing towards a small frigate ready to launch. “We better get to it fast.” He continued, sprinting towards the dock.

“Hey wait up!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Lieutenant Cabe fought his way through another EITC scoundrel, throwing him aside, he pursued deeper into the ship. “They’re keeping him on one of the lower decks, I’m sure of it.” He said as he grabbed another one of the EITC daggers from a man’s coat.

Corporal Lowe still looked puzzled. Even though he understood what they had to do, he still didn’t understand what this was all about, why the EITC was acting so strange. “Right, I bet they won’t be too happy to see us barge in on them while they’re making sure the prisoners are nice and snug.” He said with a smile.

Corporal Lowe enjoyed every chance he got to bypass red tape or overlook the rules. He thirsted for a spirit of adventure that many times was not offered by the endless hours of standing still in ceremonies.

“Here, the brig should be down here.” Lieutenant Cabe remarked.

“How do you know that?”

“I read the sign that said ‘brig’.”


Corporal Lowe rolled his eyes.

The door creaked open and Corporal Lowe peeked inside. Dark and murky as expected.

The two stepped inside, thankfully there was no one waiting for them other than Commodore Bishop himself, who was lying with his back against the cell wall.

“Commodore!” The Luitenent yelled. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of there.” He said as he began searching for keys.

“About time!” Commodore Bishop exclaimed. “I was beginning to think you’ve forgotten about me.”

They found the keys and immediately let the Commodore out of his cell. “Are you okay sir? Can you walk?” Corporal Lowe asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. Fortunately they didn’t rough me up any more than I could handle.”

“Do you know what’s going on? Why they’re doing this?”

“Yes, I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.” Bishop said with a grave face.

“What do you mean?” Lieutenant Cabe asked.

“The intervention of the Order.”

“The… Order?”

“Yes, as far as I know, the Order a secret group of mercenaries in charge of monitoring and maintaining the balance of power between the navy and rogue factions. Until now, the Order has been able to prevent the Caribbean from becoming a horridly unstable place until now; they’ve even stopped a few wars from occurring. Recently, they gave me an order to terminate a man by the name of Marcus Reynard.”

“Hold on, they gave you and order?” Corporal Lowe asked with a shocked expression.

“That’s right. The Order has demanded of me on numerous occasions. All their requests are anonymous, and they is absolutely no way to track them down. The Order controls almost everything that goes through the ranks; issues of assassination, letters of marquee, they even decide who gets promoted. Only a few people even know about the Order’s existence, as they prefer to stay completely secret, hiding in the shadows of fear.”

“They can do all that and still stay hidden? Impossible! It doesn’t make sense.” Lieutenant Cabe responded.

“Well, believe it. The EITC is worried that the balance of power is being diverged from their direction now that Reynard’s disrupted the balance. They’re afraid that their position is shifting from dominant to dominated. To counter this, they’ve set up an extensive control arrangement to make sure Reynard is unable to gain an edge on them and their ships. Also, the EITC knows of the Order’s existence, and plans to silence everyone who either knows about them or is after Reynard.”

Lieutenant Cabe shook his head in utter disbelief. “So the EITC obtaining more control means that they’re offsetting the balance?”

“Exactly. The Order’s abilities to control and maintain the balance have been hindered by the EITC’s activities. The only way for them to stop is if they know for certain that Reynard is dead. And what Reynard wants is beyond me, but the way I see it they’re starting a three way fight nobody wants to engage.”

The three navy men stood awkwardly next to each other. None of them knew what could possibly top that.

Corporal Lowe raised the Commodore’s arm up onto his shoulder. “And I’m guessing they’re still holding the others somewhere else?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t get the chance to see them being taken away.”

“Well then, let’s hope we get that chance.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Throw away this blade?” the man said as he gave the agile pirate a close run for his money as the steel weapon almost gave him a haircut. “I found this one off of a king in northern Africa, It’s not something that you can find at the local blacksmith.”

Stealthy narrowly dodged the subsequent swipe from the man’s fist. “Then I’ll be sure to add it to my lovely collection!” he said with a countering spin which ended in a direct liaison with his hand and the man’s face.

“Augh!” The man yelled as he was stunned at the strange move. Before he could turn around, Stealthy had grabbed the man in a tight chokehold, knife in hand.

“Now… where were we?”

The man growled and snarled as he struggled to get out of the lock, but a nearby blade mitigated his efforts. “R- Reynard?”

“No I mean the king’s hound, OF COURSE I MEAN REYNARD!”

The man struggled to decide loyalty over betrayal. He’d never really been known as a coward, and he’d never been deemed especially untrustworthy, but having someone like Stealthy holding you at knifepoint can change a man’s mind.

“The Fox’s Run! The- *cough* Fox’s Run Island… it’s his failsafe escape route.”

‘Fox’s island? That must be the place he talked about whenever he feared somebody was onto him.’ Stealthy thought. “Where’s Fox’s Run?” He asked the strained man.

“Its… only Reynard’s navigators really know, it’s a bit of a secret.”

Stealthy threw the man to the ground with force; not knocking him out, but still giving him a good thud.

“I bet one of the navigators on the second ship has maps to the location.” Stealthy said as he walked towards the wall and pulled the man’s knife from the wall along with the hat that went with it. He examined the carved skull at the base of the handle along with some feathers which most likely defied logic a few good times by staying wrapped around.

“It’s a nice weapon, don’t get me wrong. But its belongs in a display case instead of a ship.” He said as he walked over his downed enemy who was moaning due to his aches and pains. “By the way, who are you going to work for once Reynard’s out of the picture?”

The man looked up at Stealthy and spit at him in disrespect. “Fool! Even if you do find Reynard, you’ll never get to him. His crew is armed to the teeth, and ready to hold the island. Even if you bring a couple squadrons you’ll have a difficult time taking down just the surface of his defense. No matter how fast and how hard you’ll try, your hopelessly outnumbered, outgunned, and underprepared. If you somehow manage to find him, you won’t have enough supplies to stay there for a fort night. There’s nothing you have that Reynard won’t.”

Stealthy placed his tri-corn hat back on his head. “On the contrary, we have me.” He said in the coolest sounding voice he could inflect.

“Reynard doesn’t care, he’s ready to throw the Caribbean into complete chaos! He’s learning the location of the Order as we speak!”

Stealthy slowly turned back to the injured man. “The Order? What Order?”

“Not the Brethren court or anything, but nonetheless, they’re pretty influential when it comes to government issues.”

Stealthy shook his head as he turned away. The man kept speaking to him but he didn’t listen. His job now was to commandeer that boat.

~~~~~~~~~~

“See that one?” Howard asked.

“Yeah…” Jack answered.

“That’s the one we’re taking.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” Howard approached the five foot tall rock obscuring the dockside guard’s view. He motioned for Jack to follow. “We need to sneak onto here if we’re to find Reynard.”

Jack caught up with Howard before peeking out. “But what if-” His words were interrupted by fighting. But it wasn’t navy soldiers fighting Reynard’s lackeys, but it was instead indistinguishable figures throwing them to the ground with ease. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Howard asked.

“We’re not alone.” Jack said as he ran from the cover of the rock.

“Jack wai-” Howard closed his mouth once he realized it was an invitation for guards to be alerted. He felt like he was once again a young man trying to get Ivan to stay in one place, instead of a tired old mercenary following in the lone and empty footsteps of his brother.

Jack neared the ship and was thrilled to see that there wasn’t anyone to stop him. Whoever had taken these guards down had done it with precision and care. But the bad part was that someone else was trying to take over the ship, and Jack needed to take it before they did. Instinctively, he ran up to the top deck, expecting to find a couple of EITC agents, but instead, all he found was a couple of unconscious bodies lying flat on the ground.

“Strange,” Howard said as he stepped into the ship. “someone did the job for us.”

The two heard a scuffle in the lower decks. Immediately, they ran through the broken door and charged to see what was happening. They saw a couple of coats as they slipped into another room. Howard nodded as he took out his awesome looking yet somewhat impractical triple barreled pistol. Jack put his back up against the wall near the room as he shuffled closer to the door. A couple of thumps, and the fighting was over. Now was Jack’s chance.

He dashed around the corner to find a man standing above a body. The man didn’t have enough time to turn around and Jack found himself with the upper hand as he attempted to tackle him to the ground. The man didn’t go down without a struggle however, Jack knew that he had his number of fights in his day.

Jack threw the man up against the wall, and with the forward motion, he was able to push him back onto the opposite side against the wall, this time on his back. To finish it off, Jack threw the man to the ground in the third and final change of direction face first. It was too dark to see if the man was truly defeated, so Jack moved closer to the ground just to make sure.

But before he could go through, he saw a knife in front of his neck.

“Don’t move.”

The man holding the knife was met with an equally shocking surprise. A triple barreled gun up against his temples.

“Don’t move.”

But Howard was met with his own surprise. A sword that’s point ended at his chin was now threatinging him as well.

“Don’t move.”

Howard turned his eyes to see who had managed to do this.

“Ivan?” Howard said as Ivan lowered his sword.

“Uncle?” Ivan said as Howard lowered his gun.

“Uncle?” Stealthy wondered as he released his knife from Jack’s neck.

“Ivan?” Jack said as he moved away from the lying man’s back to run towards Ivan.

“Ouch.” Mikhail said as he tried to remember what gave him such a headache.

~~~~~~~~~~
Been a while yep. Want to end this one day… don’t know when…

[Mr. Skiperdoo]

Hey,

Hopefully you're reading this, but if you're not, then try harder. I've gone through many changes in my life since I halted this story, and I sometimes wonder if there is truly anyone out there who enjoys reading it. The story is somewhat a gift to you all, and a sort of held-back expression of myself. My writing has much improved during the course of this... madness, it would be interesting to try and return to it now as so much time has gone by. So... I guess what I'm trying to say is, if anyone really wants me to continue, please please tell me, so that I can gain some confidence to move on and finish it; however, if nobody cares about it anymore, then it would be perfectly fine for me to simply forget it and move on.

If there is anyone out there who would like to see more, please tell me.

Thanks,
~Skippy

[Captain Gas]

Hi, Skip! I really think you should continue. Sorry I haven't replied, I've been inactive. I've been reading and it's getting interesting. Ye don't want to leave the people who enjoy reading the story hanging, do ye? :P