"Hey, Virg?"
"Hmm?"
Sigh. "You're painting, aren't you?"
Long pause. "Huh? Did you say something, Scott?"
Another sigh. "Never mind."
"Okay…wait, what? Hello? Did someone try calling me?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Thunderbird Five to Thunderbird Four."
"Thunderbird Four here. What's up, Johnny?"
"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm going to say, kiddo."
"Me? Pretend?"
"Yeah, you. I want an explanation, and I want it now."
"What, about my course deviation? Aren't I allowed to take the scenic route every once in a while? And besides, I've got some time to kill before Virg can pick me up."
"Well, I suppose that's true. But what are you doing back at the danger zone?"
"John, that cruise ship was damaged because the sea bed in here doesn't match what the charts say. In water this shallow, that's a real problem. I'm trying to figure out what happened."
"Hmm…seismic activity, maybe?"
"Unlikely around here…hey, wait a minute, what's that?"
"What's what? I don't see anything on my scanners. Gordon?"
"Uh, okay, so I've figured it out – there's a sub down here, tampering with the sea bed, probably so that they can run ships aground and then loot them. Yikes! That was close!"
"Gordon? What's going on?"
"These guys have torpedoes!"
"Well, get out of there!"
"I'm working on it…oof!"
"Gordon? Gordon! Are you okay? Gordon, come in!"
"Relax, Johnny, I'm fine – I just got caught in the shock wave from an exploding torpedo. I should be out of range now. I'm heading back to the pod…can you call the authorities and give them a heads up on this sub?"
"Will do. And Gordon?"
"Yeah?"
"No more course deviations today, okay?"
"Spoilsport."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hey, Gordon?"
"Yeah, Alan?"
"What does it mean if the speedboat's motor sounds like this?"
Gordon listened to the loud knocking sound. "It means you should use a different boat."
"Um, okay…that won't work."
"Why?"
"I'm about fifty miles east of the island."
Gordon sighed. "Well, in that case, that sound means, 'There go Gordon's plans for the rest of the afternoon.'"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Alan, is there anyone in that building?"
"I'm in here. Do I count?"
"No."
"Then no, there is no one in this building, which I have to say puts me into a bit of an existential crisis."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Scott woke up slowly; something was different enough in the rhythm of the island's nighttime sounds to pull him out of a deep sleep. There were plenty of noisy things in the jungle, but since when had they had…howler monkeys?
He rolled out of bed and padded across the carpet, but the sounds got softer the closer he got to his window. Confused, he followed the noise to his bedside table. Disbelievingly, he reached for his watch and held it up to his ear. Sure enough, the foreign sounds were being piped through the tiny radio.
He almost spoke into the watch, but stopped himself just in time as an idea occurred to him – this prank could work both ways. Smirking, he stepped over to his music player. Picking the loudest song he could think of, he cranked the volume all the way up, held the watch close to the speaker, and hit "Play."
It was a little hard to tell over the volume of the music, but he was pretty sure he heard a startled yelp and a crash at the other end of the line. He let the music play for a few seconds, then shut it off.
"Just a little lullaby to help you sleep, Gords," he said cheerfully into the watch.
"Yeah, thanks," was the muttered response. "I feel much sleepier already."
"Good night!"
"Hmph!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hey, Virg?"
"Hmm?"
"Still painting, huh?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"Then I guess you won't mind if I eat that piece of chocolate cake you were saving, huh?"
"Uh…yeah, sure…"
"Great! Thanks, Virg! Talk to you later!"
"Okay, Scott…hey, wait! Chocolate cake? Scott!"
