I was disappointed to see I did not get any reviews when I published Chapter II. Granted, I did get another follower (big thanks to them, although FanFiction won't let me post their name) and some more views, but other than that, nothing. I hope Chapter III is more fortunate! Please review, favorite, follow, anything that you'd like (preferably a review)!
Perhaps it's worthy to note that this is the first chapter to not feature characters in the show. Well, okay, they're referenced, but don't make an actual appearance in here, so I will post the disclaimer regardless:
I don't own Code Lyoko or any of its respective characters, they belong rightfully to MoonScoop.
Special disclaimer: This chapter is based on real events centering around the foundering of the MS Costa Concordia, facts of which I researched on many websites. I take no credit for any and all facts displayed here.
CHAPTER III
"I'll be there in a moment."
"Hurry up!"
"Be patient!"
Another mistake. Not that Andrew cared, anyway. If the red of his cheeks was any indication, he had built a tolerance to his cousin Colin's slaps.
This time, however, they never came. His cousin's more forgiving—albeit by a narrow margin—wife, Mary, whispered words of patience to Colin.
Andrew had finished unpacking the suitcase. He plucked the TV remote from the queen-size bed where Colin and Mary would sleep, walked over to the sofa bed where they were sitting, and gave it to Colin. He turned on the TV and started fiddling with the controls.
"Blast!" exclaimed Colin. "Everything's in Italian!"
"Why don't you put on the captions?" asked Andrew.
"Why don't you?" Colin replied.
He thinks it's more efficient for me to do it, the mindless brute, Andrew thought to himself as he figured out the controls of the remote. After a minute or so—complete with more calls of impatience by his cousin—he finally managed to get the TV to display English closed captioning. Andrew gave the remote back to Colin and got on to unpacking while they watched some Italian comedy show.
If he was like anyone else his age, Andrew would have liked the idea of going on a cruise. But having grown up with Colin and Mary, it was a nightmare to have to live in the same room with them for the next seven days. He was a very unlucky orphan. That thought of never knowing his parents but always knowing the abuse of his often drunk cousin saddened him every time he thought of them.
The only thing left of his parents that Andrew had in his possession was the prized jacket of his father that he was wearing, now that he was big enough to do so. It was black with a strange white symbol on it that Andrew had never seen before.
When he was younger, he had once asked his cousin how his parents died. "They were murdered," he had said. "Someone invaded their house and shot them while they were sleeping. This happened three days after they gave you to us. We realized it was for a reason and moved to Liverpool. The only reason we didn't leave you in an orphanage was because your father was my uncle, and I owed him a favor."
An orphanage would have been better. That was what Andrew thought to himself every time he reminded himself of the conversation.
He surveyed the stateroom that they would call home for the next seven days. Well, it wasn't as if I had enough privacy in my own room back home in Liverpool, much less freedom of speech. Any word of defiance was swiftly and brutally punished, which is why he kept silent when Colin and Mary agreed to not let him stay home alone out of distrust.
Still, like he had always done, Andrew tried to look at the bright side of the situation. There seems to be a lot to do on board, he thought. Like many cruise ships, Costa Concordia had her share of swimming pools, many restaurants and clubs, and even a theater. Up to this point, Colin and his wife had given no indication of anything that would deny Andrew the opportunity to experience some of this.
Ten minutes had passed before Andrew finished putting the belongings of him, Colin and Mary in the right places. He then decided to ask Colin if he could tour the ship.
He thought about it. "Fine, but come back by nine o'clock tonight," he said.
Andrew felt a rare surge of joy build up inside him. Freedom from his cousin, even if it meant only for a few hours! Still, Andrew gave off little more than a polite "thank you" to Colin, and then left the room.
He walked out into the corridor of Costa Concordia's sixth deck. The ship was huge, and there was indeed a lot to do. He had no idea where to start.
Andrew resolved to retrace his steps going to his room from the stairway. A little exploring would do someone like me good, he decided. He walked to the stairwell to find about half a dozen people standing about. One couple prepared to board one of the six nearby elevators. As the doors opened, Andrew joined them. "Mind if I follow?" he asked.
"Not at all," said the man, who turned out to be an American. "Where to?"
"Wherever you're going," Andrew replied, following them into the elevator. "I'm just exploring."
"We're heading to Deck Five," said the woman—also American—as the doors closed. "The Athens theater is there. There's a show going on tonight."
"Brilliant," Andrew responded. "I may see it."
"Great!" said the man as the doors opened. As they got off, Andrew looked to his left to see five other men boarding the adjacent elevator. As each of them walked past Andrew, one of the men looked at him, then turned away and joined who appeared to be his partners in the elevator.
Andrew suddenly had a queer feeling. Why had the man looked at him? Was it his jacket? He had no idea. I guess he was just interested in the design of the emblem like me, he thought. But the feeling refused to leave him, no matter how hard he tried to shake it off.
As Victor, accompanied by his men, boarded the elevator, the teenage boy who exited caught his eye.
"What is it, boss?" asked Gregory, noticing him looking back.
"I thought I saw something," answered Victor, shaking his head. Upon entering the elevator, he pressed the button to go up to Deck 11, the third highest passenger-accessible deck of the ship. Ivan then began to take out papers stapled into five separate but identical packets, each containing maps of Costa Concordia's decks, and handed four of the packets to each of his four partners, leaving the last to himself.
Turning to George and Gregory, Victor asked them, "Are we clear on where you'll be looking for her?"
"Decks Thirteen and Fourteen," acknowledged Gregory.
"Decks Eleven and Twelve," acknowledged George.
"Very good," Victor said confidently. The doors opened to Deck 11, which was as high as the elevator could go. Gregory and George got off and disappeared from sight. Victor pushed the button to go down to Deck 8.
"So, Ivan," asked Victor, "Anymore progress on the supercomputer?"
"We've narrowed it down further to about a dozen places within the suburbs of Paris," answered Ivan. "Mostly a lot of old industrial districts."
"Schaeffer is quite predictable," Victor commented. "Few places are more suitable to hide a uranium-powered supercomputer than the basement of an abandoned factory or something to that effect."
Ivan nodded in agreement. "That reminds me, when you think we should deploy the scouts?" he asked.
"Not yet," said Victor. "Narrow it down more as best you can."
"And then what?"
"Leave that to me," Victor said confidently as the elevator stopped at Deck 8.
"Seven, Eight, Nine," Ivan restated his designated decks as he exited.
"Very good," Victor said again as he hit another button, and the elevator began to descend four more decks.
"I'm assuming you're going to ask me how the project is going now," said Alec.
"Correct," Victor answered.
"It's about finished," said Alec. "But the problem remains on finding a suitable test subject."
"Well, nevermind that for now," said Victor. "Have you made the fail-safe?"
"That's one thing that still needs to be finished," Alec explained. "If the beta AI goes rogue and the kill command fails, we plan on installing a special barrier into the test computer to keep it from escaping into the network before we introduce the AI itself."
"You mean like a firewall?"
"In a sense, except that it's specially designed to contain the AI. Like a pen to contain an animal in a zoo. If it goes rogue, we can then try to dispose of it by any means possible without having to search for it on the network, where it could retaliate on us from."
"And if it were to retaliate on us from there—" began Victor.
"It would have a great pool of resources to do so," finished Alec. "Which is why I developed the 'reverse-firewall,' as I call it."
"Excellent," complimented Victor as the doors opened. Alec walked out of the elevator.
"Four, Five, Six," said Alec, following Ivan's example as he got off. Victor nodded and headed down to the lowest deck, to search on Decks 1, 2, and 3, the three lowest passenger-accessible decks on Costa Concordia.
You can hide all you want, Aelita, he thought, but we will find you eventually.
The show was getting ready to start. Andrew was trying to find a good seat, but most of them had been taken. It was very frustrating for him, but at the same time pleasing.
Why, if it's this packed, he thought, this should be pretty decent.
Finally, he found an empty seat next to a blonde woman, about in her mid-twenties.
"Excuse me," Andrew said to the woman, "is this seat taken?"
"No," answered the woman, with a distinctly French accent.
"Thank you," Andrew thanked the woman. After about thirty seconds, he realized it was going to be a few more minutes before the performance began. He decided to talk to the woman.
"What are they playing?" he asked her.
"Some dance and music performances," she replied. "But later tonight, a magician is supposed to come. Sometime after nine, I believe."
"I probably won't be able to see that, then," said Andrew disappointingly. "I'm supposed to be back in my room by that time."
"I'm sorry to hear that," said the woman.
At this point, Andrew was well aware of her French accent. "So, you're French?" he asked.
She nodded. "And you, British?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "I'm Andrew."
"Pleased to meet you," she said. Andrew held out his hand, and she shook it. "My name is Aelita."
"Pleased to meet you, too," Andrew responded.
"So, is this your first time cruising?" asked Aelita.
"Yes, it is," Andrew responded. "My cousin and his wife took me here with them."
"They're your guardians?"
"Yes. My parents are dead, as is my uncle, and a lot of my older family members."
"My sympathies," Aelita sympathized.
"It's all right," said Andrew. "So, same question, have you gone on a cruise before?"
"A few times," answered Aelita. "All of them on Costa Cruises, but this is my first time on the Concordia."
"I see," Andrew said, impressed, as the lights went out. Andrew leaned back in his seat as the show started.
Alec's eyes scanned the grandstands of the fourth deck level of Costa Concordia's Athens Theater. All those times in the past spent looking for Schaeffer's daughter, and it had been only a few times that he looked for anyone in an area as big as this one.
As Victor's second-in-command, Alec was the biggest supporter of the Black Ocean. It was through his financial aid that the group could prosper and be as widespread throughout the globe as it was. He and Victor had worked closely together since they attended a technical university together in Wales. From there, Schaeffer hired them both.
But many of Schaeffer's employees were known to disagree with him and his philosophies. As a result, many quit or were laid off. Among them was Victor and Alec, and since then they plotted against him; both for revenge and for their own benefit. So had others, however—and they often disagreed and competed with one another, sometimes viciously. In spite of conflicts with other groups who had plotted against Schaeffer, the Black Ocean had survived.
A chain of events had erupted when Schaeffer and his family disappeared in two separate events. Since then, many anti-Schaeffer groups had begun a technical arms race to duplicate his works. The Black Ocean had always been one step behind in this race, so, more recently, it had diverted more of its attention to finding the whereabouts of his possessions that it could greatly benefit from. One of these was Schaeffer's daughter, Aelita.
The Black Ocean had been searching for Aelita for over half a year, with no reasonable success. Despite this, Victor had urged them to keep looking, which was why he, Alec, and three others were on board the cruise ship Costa Concordia on the night of January 13, 2012.
Alec continued to scour the grandstands before the lights could dim and the show would start. Prior to the voyage, the Black Ocean's hacking team had acquired photographs of the woman who Victor believed was Aelita—blonde hair, and in her mid-twenties as Victor believed.
It hardly made it easier for Alec—there were many lookalikes. This isn't looking for a needle in a haystack, he thought, this is looking for one out of a thousand needles in a haystack!
As soon as he thought this, he happened to look up to the Deck 5 grandstands above him. It could have been another lookalike, but her face resembled that of the woman in the photographs. Could it be?
Alec watched the woman closely when a strangely familiar teenage boy walked up to the woman, and talked to her—presumably asking for the seat next to her, and then sitting in it. Where have I seen him before? Alec thought again.
Then it hit him. He's the one who exited the elevator when Victor assigned us! Was there a chance that he knew Aelita—that is, who they thought was Aelita? But Alec's attention then came to what the boy was wearing—a jacket with a vaguely familiar symbol, but while Alec was one to memorize faces, he wasn't one to memorize symbols, so he shrugged it off.
Alec urged himself to concentrate. He got out his smartphone and started to type out a message to Victor. He typed, 'May have found who we're looking for, going to investigate.' With that, Alec walked up the grandstands and exited the theater.
Going up to Deck 5, he arrived at the Athens theater's entrance to the deck where the woman was sitting. The door, however, was closed.
"Excuse me," Alec said to a nearby attendant. The attendant looked up. "Can I get in?" Alec asked the attendant.
"Sorry, sir," answered the attendant with an Italian accent, "but the show is starting. We can't let anyone in."
"I see." Alec walked away, disappointed. He began to type a second message to Victor to tell him that he could not investigate, and resolved to wait out the end of the show. Suddenly, his smartphone beeped.
An e-mail, he thought as he opened his e-mail tab. He found an e-mail, marked with a dot to signify that it was unread. It was from the hacking team back at headquarters in Scotland.
The e-mail was entitled, 'Update on identity of Costa Concordia suspect.' Tapping the e-mail, Alec began reading it aloud, like he preferred to read things.
"'To Mr. Griffon, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Chichkanov: We have made a discovery in the identity of the suspect you are looking for on board the Costa Concordia. We have found her personal files which you see screenshots and copies of now.'"
Alec scrolled down through the e-mail and continued, "'It is with deep regret that we inform you that Aelita Schaeffer is not on board the Costa Concordia with you tonight, nor will she be. We send our sympathies for your failure, and bid you a good evening.'"
Alec was suddenly filled with a mixture of deep disappointment, anger, frustration—and fear. Alec knew very well that Victor was not one to take failure lightly. And as he tried again and again on something without success, he grew more and more irritable and easy to anger. The search for Aelita was a prime example.
With a gulp, Alec began typing out a second message to Victor that read, 'Did you get the e-mail?'
Five minutes passed. By then, Alec had repositioned himself outside the Berlin Grand Bar, also on Deck 5. Then Victor replied, 'Meet me in my stateroom on Deck 2. All of you have gotten this message and are coming. You have fifteen minutes.'
By this time, Alec was feeling very worried about the rage he would meet from his partner. Oh, he had experienced it before, but it was never pretty, and neither was the aftermath.
Taking a deep breath out of anxiety, Alec walked to the elevators.
"That was a very neat performance," Andrew said to Aelita as they exited the Athens theater.
"It was," Aelita agreed.
Andrew looked at his watch. It read 9:00 PM. "Fine, but come back by nine o'clock tonight," Colin's voice echoed in his head. Oh, no, Andrew thought to himself.
"I need to go now," Andrew announced. "Good night!"
"Good night!" called Aelita as Andrew hurriedly walked to the stairs.
Andrew ran up to Deck 6 and to his stateroom. He knocked on the door and was let in by Mary, who stared at him, looking agitated. Andrew only stared back at her, blankly.
He looked to see Colin sitting on the bed, holding an empty brandy bottle in his hand, looking very dazed.
"I thought...I told you...to come back by nine!" Colin yelled at Andrew, pointing at him with the end of the empty bottle as he stood up from his bed, his legs quivering.
Fear erupted inside Andrew. His cousin was drunk. Andrew backed away as slowly as Colin advanced on him. After a few steps, Mary grabbed him. Andrew caught whiff of Mary's breath, which showed that she, too, had ingested some alcohol.
Colin charged to beat him, the bottle raised high over his head. Andrew bit Mary's hand in the instinct that it was his only chance of escape. He then dove to the ground as Colin's bottle came down and hit Mary in the stomach. As Mary recovered from both the bite and the blow, Andrew scrambled behind Mary and to his feet as Colin pushed his wife out of the way and chased Andrew out of the stateroom.
Andrew flung the door open as fast as he could, and stepped out. Colin's hand reached for Andrew, but Andrew slammed it between the door and the edge of the doorway. Colin jerked his hand back and howled in pain as Andrew shut the door and ran off as fast as he could down the corridor, his head continuously whipping left and right, looking for some kind of refuge.
His eyes fell on a door marked as 'Emergency Stairs.' Andrew opened the door, entered, and started to travel down the stairwell.
"You all have no idea how angry I am."
In reality, Ivan and Alec knew exactly how angry Victor was. This was his sixth attempt to find Aelita, and this was his sixth failure to do so. True to Alec's prediction, Victor was angrier than he was in his last failure meeting.
"I've been trying to find that girl for many months now," he ranted, "and every time, she turns out to be someone completely different!
"I keep telling myself that I'll find her eventually, yet my complete excuses for workers have failed me every single time! I'm getting sick of it!"
Out of breath, Victor paused for a moment and looked at his watch. Then, to Alec and Ivan, he said, "Do either of you two know where those foolish twins are?"
"They should have been here by now," said Ivan.
Victor's temper only worsened. "Well, did it ever occur to you that they aren't here?!"
Alec and Ivan kept silent, on the principle that they shouldn't add fuel to the fire—that is, make Victor even more angry by answering to him.
Victor wiped the sweat off from his brow. "It's hot in here. Let's move outside."
"Where to?" asked Alec.
"The emergency staircase across the hall," answered Victor. With that, the three left the room and entered the emergency stairwell.
Andrew continued down the stairs, hoping to hide somewhere within the unexplored lower decks of Costa Concordia. That was when he heard it.
A door opened from the lower levels, and then shut. He expected footsteps to be pounding on the stairs, but they never came. Instead, a man with a British accent began to speak, or, rather, yell.
"As I was saying, I am getting sick of your failures!" the man yelled.
Andrew crept down the stairs. It seemed that they were directly below the landing he was on now.
"If we're going to make any progress at all now, we must shift our attention to finding that supercomputer!"
Now Andrew had touched down on the next landing. They were in sight now—the man was yelling at two other men.
"This is my sixth failed attempt to find her! If we're going to find Aelita now, we need to find Schaeffer's supercomputer first!"
"Aelita?" Andrew blurted out loud. Immediately he covered his mouth, but it was too late. The three men looked up to see him.
"What are you doing?" asked the man who had been yelling.
"I was just...uh..." Andrew stammered, trying to think of an excuse for his presence.
"You were just what?" asked one of the other men, with a Russian accent. The three men began to walk up the stairs towards him.
"I heard you talk," Andrew attempted to explain. "I came down to listen."
"Victor," said the third man, also with a British accent. "Look at what he's wearing."
The man who had been yelling—Victor—took a look at Andrew's jacket, and he looked at it with great interest before turning his attention back to Andrew.
"You said, 'Aelita,'" said Victor, continuing to advance up the stairs towards Andrew. "Do you know who we're talking about?" he asked.
"The nice lady in the theater?" Andrew asked back, slowly walking backwards up the stairs. "That's the only one I know."
"Not that one," said the Russian man. "We're not looking for her."
The third man spoke up. "I don't recall you telling us your name."
"Why should I tell you?"
"No worries," said Victor. "You've already heard enough, anyway."
"Yes, I have," Andrew replied. "And I'll just be going."
Andrew turned to run up the stairs, but two pairs of arms grabbed him before he could do so. Colin and Mary! They had caught up to him! Or...had they? The arms that had grabbed him were thicker, more powerful, more muscular.
"Go?" asked Victor. "But you've only just met Gregory and George."
Andrew tried to cry out for help, but a thick hand covered his mouth with a firm, vice-like grip.
"Time for a proper introduction," said Victor. "I'm Victor, but you probably know that already." Gesturing to the Russian man, he continued, "This is Ivan, and this—" he turned to the third man, "—is Alec. Now, will you be a good boy and tell us your name now?"
The hand remained clasped over Andrew's mouth.
"No?" said Victor disappointingly. "Oh, well. We'll know it soon enough. Good night."
With that, a cloth came over Andrew's face. He took a breath out of it and tried to yell for help, but before he could, everything went dark as he fainted.
Ladies and gentlemen, my longest chapter so far! I'm not too impressed with how it turned out, considering I was working on a deadline for most of it, but it's arguably my best chapter yet. If this ends up like Chapter II and doesn't get any reviews, however, I'm going to be highly disappointed. So for the love of all things nice, please review! I don't even care whether you go soft on me or not. (I'm sure, though, that the majority of you people will be kind and considerate, and I greatly appreciate that.)
Since you probably aren't as keen on ships as I am, you've probably not heard of Costa Concordia. You can look it up, and that will probably jog your memory. Alternatively, you can find out in Chapter IV by hitting 'next.'