I hid behind the fallen pillar, not knowing what was going on. Everyone's faces looked solemn and they all had guns, even Cookie and Packard. Milo looked at them all in confusion as I kept out of sight.
"Hey guys. What's goin' on? What's…what's with all the guns? Guys?" he asked. They responded with silence, Mole even had a weird smile on his face, but not the usual one. This one looked evil…ish.
"I'm such an idiot." He said, hitting his fist on the ground. "This is just another treasure hunt for you-you're after the crystal!" he shouted, getting angrier.
"What?" I whispered to myself. "What's going on?"
"Oh," said Dad, pulling a piece of paper from his boot and grinning. "You mean this."
Milo looked shocked.
"The heart of Atlantis…"
"Yeah, about that I would have told you sooner but it was strictly on a need to know basis, and well, now you know. I had to be sure you were one of us."
'Dad what are you saying? What's he talking about?"
"Welcome to the club son." he said, holding out his hand to Milo in the water.
"I'm no mercenary." said Milo, disgusted. As he said that, Kida swam to the surface, only to be yanked up by her hair. Milo moved to help her, but guns were swiftly pointed at him. Kida grabbed a masked soldier's head and tossed him out in front of her, retreating from the water's banks. She kneed another in the stomach and used the butt of his gun to hit another soldier in the head before throwing him to the ground. It was quite a thing to see before she pulled a knife on him and Dad shot it out of her hand. I could feel my hair stand on end from the sound. Two soldiers grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to her feet.
"Mercenary? I prefer the term…Adventure capitalist. Besides, you're the one who got us here. You led us right to the treasure chest." He said, waving the paper in the air, Milo getting out of the water and moving to my father.
"You don't know what you're tampering with Rourke!"
"What's to know? It's big, it's shiny, it's gonna make us all rich."
"You think its some kind of diamond, I thought it was some kind of a battery, but we're both wrong! It's their life force. That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive! You take that away and they'll die!"
"Well that changes things. Helga, what do you think?"
"Knowing that…I'd double the price."
"I was thinking triple." he said so calmly.
I could only wonder what was happening to my father. He was acting greedy, obsessive and completely calm with killing an entire civilization out of money.
"Rourke! Don't-do this!!" He said, trying to make his point before Vinny blocked his way, gun in hand.
"Academics…Never want to get you're hands dirty. Think about it. If you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum, you'd be left with an empty building. We're just…providing a necessary service to the archaeological community."
"Not interested." Milo said surely.
"I gotta admit, I'm disappointed. You're an idealist just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor Milo. Don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing."
Milo kept a steady look of rejection on his face, not giving way to my father's remarks.
"I really hate it when negotiations go sour." Dad said, shaking his head and rubbing his temples. He snapped his fingers and a soldier threw Kida down, pointing a gun to her head. I drew in a quick breath and quickly covered my mouth. Milo's jaw dropped in horror and Dad held up the page, grinning. Milo's head fell in defeat, and he nodded. Dad got everyone rallied as he let Milo put his clothes on, and I knew I had to do something.
I ran as fast as I could from that place to the king's chambers, not knowing what I was going to do. I just knew I had to do something. I ran inside, panting, and closed the door behind me.
"What is the meaning of this?" the king shouted, his guards raising their spears.
"Your Majesty," I started, out of breath. "my father is planning something terrible! He will be here any minute!"
"What do you mean?"
"He's…He's gonna take your city's crystal. He has Kida and he's going to kill you all if you don-"
Before I could finish, the door exploded behind me and the crew was there with guns, and Helga had Kida hostage.
"Knock Knock." Said Vinny, bouncing a stick of dynamite in his hand. Cookie pointed a gun at the guards.
"Room service!"
The guards raised their spears again, ready to defend their king.
"Tell them to drop their weapons! Now!" Helga yelled, pushing a gun into Kida's side threateningly. The king glared at them but complied.
"Eph elmn nu-wah!" he shouted. They dropped their spears to the ground with rebellious looks on their faces.
"Spread out!" Helga yelled. "Search everywhere!"
"Dad, stop this!" I shouted, grabbing his arm and pleading.
"Angie, we're just doing our jobs. No reason to be upset."
"Like hell you are! I know what your doing. I heard every word of your little speech back at the lake."
His face grew stern, and in a flash, it turned
'I didn't want you to find out this way Angie, but-"
"What do you mean you didn't want me to find out? I didn't even want to come here! You made me come on this trip. And what shouldn't I find out? That every trip I've ever gone on with you, you were stealing and murdering? That even before that time came, Mom went without a husband and I went without a father because you were out doing such horrible things to innocent people for money!? That you couldn't even be there for her when she died because you were out playing mercenary?!" I yelled. I could feel my eyes brimming with tears. I wouldn't cry though. Not in front of him. Not then.
He looked angry and sad at the same time, but decided to push his anger onto Milo, grabbing him by the shirt and shoving Milo's journal in his face.
"You're not applying yourself son, there's gotta be something else!'
"Well there isn't." he shouted, shoving the journal away. "It just says, 'The heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of our king.'"
"Well maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks." He said, throwing Milo to the ground and approaching the king, along with two masked soldiers with guns.
"How 'bout it chief? Where's the crystal chamber?" he said, chewing on a wooden match.
"You will destroy yourselves!" he warned, clutching his staff to stand up.
"Maybe I'm not being clear…"
Swiftly, he punched him as hard as he could, the king falling to the ground in pain. I covered my mouth with hands to stifle the gasp that came out, my eyes wide. Kida tried to pull away to help her father, but Helga would have none of that. Kida got really, really angry.
"Mo-hee guay no co nic!!"
"Rourke, this was not part of the plan." Sweet said, kneeling low next to the king who was breathing heavily.
"Plans change Doc. Now I suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary."
He sat down on the king's throne, knocking over a bowl with his foot, waving his gun in the air, the journal in hand.
"Well as usual, diplomacy has failed us." he said, grinning. "Now I'm going to count to ten and you're going to tell me where the crystal is." He said, the soldiers holding the king up.
"One…" He cocked his gun. Everyone's eyes went wide.
"Dad!" I couldn't get any closer due to the soldiers blocking me off.
"Two…Nine…T-"
He stopped for some reason, not that I wasn't grateful that he did, and looked at the journal, pausing for a moment.
"The heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of our king…"
He sprung up from the throne, grinning.
"This is it!" he shouted, tossing the journal to Milo. "We're in!"
"Rourke, for the last time, you gotta listen to me." Said Milo, following Dad to the water. "You don't have the slightest idea of what this power is capable of."
"True, but I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out." Helga said smugly, holding onto Kida with one hand and pointing a gun with the other.
I could only watch as Dad climbed onto a platform higher in the water. It bubbled and started to lower down, the water around it spilling in.
"Hurry. Get on." He said roughly, pulling Milo on by his shirt, Helga pulling Kida on as well. They went out of sight, and all I could do was stand there, watching everything go down in front of me.
I didn't want to talk to any of them, to find out how they could possibly do all of this and not seem to have any regret on their conscience. The only one who had shown any of that was Sweet. I moved back to the king, crouching down to his level. Sweet looked at me with remorse and concern, moving back to the king.
"I'm sorry sir…"
The king turned his head slowly, breathing heavily, and moved his gnarled, wrinkled hands to me. I held onto his hand as he closed his eyes. He reminded me of what I thought my father was; a proud man who defended his friends and family no matter the costs…I now know that I was wrong.
"You…are not g-…guilty of your f-father's crimes…He is misled…Either my people…and my daughter will pay for his wrongs…or he will suffer…the g-…greatest loss of all…"
He passed out, his grip on my trembling hand loosening. I sat next to him, never wanting to get off my knees…
The platform rose up after a while, and something had happened to Kida. At least…I thought it was her. She was glowing and her skin was shining over like a star would. I couldn't stop staring. Neither could anyone else. She looked otherworldly as she stepped slowly along the ground. Helga was no longer holding onto her, but by my guess, she couldn't. Kida reminded me of a tiny flame in the dark. You wanted to get close, but if you did, you'd get burned. One thing was for sure. They had gone down there to find the crystal, and they'd found it.
Everyone followed her out of the chambers. I didn't want to leave the kings side, but I still felt connected to the situation at hand, no matter how badly I didn't want to be. Kida walked right into a steel prison that had yet to be built. The walls were assembled around her as she just stood there. It was like she was just going along with all of this, for some reason. Maybe it was for the good of everyone, but it was hard to see a good to anything to any of this. The glass froze over, and so did the girl inside it.
Audrey screwed on the door, receiving a guilt-filled glare from Milo. She looked away, stubborn. I stood beside him, not knowing how all of this would end. Mole cranked a pulley that lifted Kida's frozen prison onto the truck bed.
"Sergeant, keep those people back!" a soldier yelled.
"You heard him, stand back!" Two gun-wielding soldiers pushed Milo, the Atlantian people and I away from the truck bed.
I looked at them all, hoping this was all a mistake. I wanted to look at their faces and feel the same happy feeling I did when we were all having fun. I looked to Audrey. She pouted her lips in a stubborn way, not changing her mind. In a time like this, I even looked to Mole. I couldn't place his reaction. It was sad, but he kept on doing his job. Lastly, I looked to Vinny. For only a moment, he looked back at me with strange eyes before I lost the courage I'd felt and looked away, holding myself in a self-conscious way.
"So, I guess this is how it ends, huh?" Milo started, walking and talking to the teammates we had called friends. "Fine, you win. You're wiping out an entire civilization, but hey. You'll be rich. Congratulations Audrey. I guess you and your dad will be able to open up that second garage after all." Audrey responded with a slammed door and climbing into the truck in an angry fashion.
"And Vinny, you could start a whole chain of flower shops! I'm sure your family's gonna be very proud." Vinny, who had been tying Kida's holding chamber to the truck looked at us with sad eyes, then turned away.
"But that's what it's all about. Money." Cookie and Packard looked out from the truck, ashamed.
"Get off your soapbox Thatch." Dad said, walking towards Milo. I backed up a step and tried to keep my ground. "You've read Darwin. It's called natural selection. We're just helping it along." He poked Milo in the chest, making Milo fume with anger.
"Commander! We're ready." Helga yelled off the truck.
"Yeah, give me a minute. I know I'm forgetting something. The cargo, the crystal, crew-Ohhhh yeah."
Dads spun around and punched Milo in the face, sending him to the ground, a picture spilling from his bag and his glasses flying off his face. Many of the Atlantians gasped. I did too, crouching down to Milo to help him. Dad caught Milo's glasses in the air and started to walk back to him and me.
"Look at it this way son." he said stepping on the picture frame and shattering the glass. Milo tried to reach for them but he was too late. Dad started again, cleaning Milo's glasses.
"You're the man that discovered Atlantis and now you're apart of the exhibit." He tossed Milo's glasses back to him and Milo caught them, wiping the blood from his lip. Milo moved some of the glass and carefully pulled the picture from the shattered frame. He looked at it sadly. The crew looked back, somewhat concerned.
"C'mon Angie, it's time to go."
"…No."
He looked back, I guess to see if I was kidding, like it was funny in some way.
"Angie, we're leaving."
"I'm not going with you. You're doing a terrible thing…and I don't want to be apart of it any more. If I'd known what you were doing earlier I would've never done anything to help you! You may be my Dad but…well…you're crazy and greedy and evil and I 'm ashamed to be called your daughter!"
He was silent. He just stood there. If he had been the man I thought he was an hour ago, maybe I'd feel guilty. I'd feel horrible and ashamed and maybe…just maybe, feel the heartbreak I had just delivered. Now, I just felt angry…and lonelier than ever. He stormed off to the trucks, not stopping to look back at me.
"Let's move people." he yelled to everyone. I moved to Milo again, trying to shield my gaze from my father. He looked up at me strangely, kind of like the face I felt I had on inside. Happy that I'd done the right thing, but sad knowing I just lost the only family I have left to an evil he could never overcome…himself.
"That was an order, not a suggestion! Let's go!" Helga yelled. It was silent for a second, but it was broken by the sound of a car door being kicked open. Audrey hopped out and huffed back towards us, helping me help Milo off the ground. I was cheerful again, hoping that the others would make the same choice. For a reason I couldn't place, my eyes were drawn to Vinny, hoping he would come as well. I gave him a pleading look, not wanting worst to come to worst. Two of my friends were beside me, and I hoped Vinny would be too. He and Audrey were my best friends on this trip, and I never wanted to lose that. Vinny stepped over and put his arm around Milo's neck. Before I could form a smile, His arm was around mine as well. Mole and Cookie came back, not much before Mole stood by me and I hugged him. Don't read too much into that, the little guy deserved a hug. If he did anything else, I'd hurt him. I'd hurt him good. Packard put out her cigarette, along with her stubbornness, and exited the truck.
"Ah-you can't be serious." Dad said, looking back for the first time.
"This is wrong and you know it!!" Audrey shouted. Everyone standing with the Atlantians and Milo agreed, but I couldn't stop looking at my father, hoping he would change his mind. He had done enough damage, but it could be fixed. I know it could.
"We're this close to our biggest payday ever and you pick now of all times to grow a conscious?"
"We donna lotta tings we're not proud of." He said, counting them on his fingers. "Robbing graved, eh-plundering tombs, double parking-but, nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt but…nobody we knew-"
"I think it's okay to stop there Vinny. You made your point." I whispered.
"Well if that's the way you want it fine-More for me!"
He started to drive off. I kept thinking…'Stop…please…stop Dad…', but I just watched him go.