Surprise! An update!
Enjoy.
To my reviewers:
Shadir: lol! Your comment made me laugh :D
Daxo: I'll try not to vanish like that again. Here, have some action!
Badkidoh: Update is here
Halfhuman123: Yeah, progress is slow, but they're getting there. More progress today in fact ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own, I don't claim to own, so just let Wuya enjoy her party, k?
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Chapter 8 – The French are Classics
As it was, the orchestra was playing a waltz. Jack led her to the center of the floor where other couples were already dancing. Looking around Kimiko was glad to see Chase and Wuya were not among them. She didn't think her sanity could survive that.
Jack brought her attention back to him by gently taking and placing her left hand on his shoulder. He took hold of her right and began the dance.
This can be said about the waltz. It never gets old. Even Kimiko in her dislike of formal parties couldn't find anything to complain about. Especially when your partner knew what he was doing. And Jack danced it like a pro. They glided across the floor, their feet barely touching the polished surface.
Kimiko looked up into Jack's face. He was watching her with a peculiar expression. He was smiling, but not in his goofy way, or in his charming/dazzling way. It felt…warm somehow, and the look in his eyes made her feel a danger she'd never before associated with Jack Spicer. Kimiko became increasingly aware of his hand engulfing hers.
"So what's the plan?" she asked, hoping her voice didn't sound as breathless as she felt. Seeing his eyebrows shoot up, she added hurriedly "Exploring the castle I mean"
"Well, we'll wait for the official tour to start, and once we get anywhere near the vicinity of the basement we'll discretely peel off" he explained, his voice soft.
Kimiko tilted her head back, giving him a better view of her face "And then what? Not to worry you or anything, but I can't exactly move stealthily in this" she said, looking down at her dress "I can barely move at all"
Jack smiled wider "You move just fine" he murmured, pulling her a little closer, his voice sent a thrill down her spine. Then more seriously added "Why do you think I brought your suit with us?"
"Won't that be a little conspicuous? Peeling off from the group, rushing to the car, then running back in carrying a suspicious black box? Or with a complete dress-over?" she asked.
"It would" he agreed, nodding "But you see, I got allot of work done today. This includes giving garcon from the parking lot, and a pal of his, a generous amount of money, to smuggle a little package inside the castle, for me"
Kimiko stared in disbelief "And they agreed to this? Just like that? With all the bombing attempts, that have been happening lately?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders "He wasn't an overly imaginative thinker, that boy. As far as he's concerned, a box is a box"
"What if someone else found it?" she asked
He shook his head, making a few strands of hair fall over his eyes "Not likely. I had one of my new generation devices on it. A cloaking device to be precise"
Kimiko gawked at him "Jack, that's…I'm really impressed" again, she added privately. She noticed the worried look that crossed his face "What's wrong?"
Jack looked down with horror "It's just that…well a notion just occurred to me. I'm not sure how I'll find it, what with it being practically invisible and all" he said nervously.
Kimiko's face dissolved in disbelief, then anger "What? Are you serious? And this didn't occur to you before?! Ugh! That is so like you… you…You're laughing! Why are you laughing?" she demanded
"I'm joking babe" he said chuckling "It has a tracker on it and everything" he gave her hand an apologetic squeeze.
"You're hateful" she gritted, glaring at him.
"And you are absolutely adorable, when you glare with murder in your eyes like that" he said, meaning to tease her. It might have come out a little more honest than he'd intended.
Kimiko however, brushed this off with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes.
As the dance came to an end, Jack wondered whether he was more disappointed or relieved.
After a few more dances, which Kimiko refused to take part of, a gentleman in a sharp black suit commanded their attention "Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for has now arrived. We shall now be taking the tour of this great edifice, that once housed King Francois I" his voice boomed in French.
"Finally!" Kimiko exclaimed "About time"
"Down to the second" Jack muttered, eyes on the large clock. His words were drowned out as the clock struck midnight.
Taking advantage of the loud noise it made, he leaned in to whisper in Kimiko's ear "Kim, when we leave, I need you to pick up your suit. It's in a small backpack, you can sling it over your shoulders" he said urgently.
"I thought you said it was a box! And why me?" she hissed back.
"You can't very well carry a box that size around and hope it doesn't get noticed. With a backpack, I need only wrap an arm around your shoulders, and it will be completely obscured" Jack explained quickly.
"What? No! I don't-" she started angrily.
"It's in the shadow of that pillar. We'll pass right by it, pretend like you've dropped something and grope around for it" he said cutting off her protest.
She'd have liked to resume her protest, but the clock had fallen silent and they were forced to pull apart.
Kimiko seethed internally. Jack! That lech! What was the point anyway? Wasn't the thing supposed to be invisible? Still she complied, and as the guests were led out of the ballroom and down a passage, she pretended to loose a contact lens. Crouching next to the pillar she groped in the dark, until her hand closed on it.
Carefully concealing the bag behind her voluminous skit, she straightened up, pretending to replace her contact.
Looking down at her hand, she realized why Jack felt there was need for further concealment. It was not invisible. It looked like a magnifying lens shaped like a backpack. It copied the surrounding space, but distorted it slightly.
With care, she slipped it on. Jack, ever the attentive guy, wrapped a hand around her, pulling her close to him. Kimiko glared at him, but didn't protest. They filled out with the rest of the group.
"All should be well, as long as the evil duo keep their distance" Jack assured her in an undertone.
"Too bad about Madame Langfort" Kimiko sighed. She felt Jack stiffen in alarm.
"Oh no! Where- Madame Langfort!" his tortured look turned instantly into a welcoming smile.
"I do hope I am not… intruding" the woman said, giving a disapproving look to the way Jack's arm was draped over Kimiko's shoulders.
Kimiko realized that most of that disapproval was aimed at her. As if she'd volunteered for it.
"You? Never! Kimiko and I were just enjoying the tour" Jack smiled, glassily.
"it iz marvelous, iz it not? King Francois I was a true patron of the arts" she said clasping her bejeweled hands together. The action was accompanied by the clinking of two dozen bracelets.
She watched Jack with a speculative look, wondering whether she should take possession of his free hand. Jack possibly sensing this intent began shrinking in on himself.
Stifling a laugh, and taking pity on the poor man, also recognizing the merit of getting rid of the amorous old woman, Kimiko grabbed hold of Jack's free hand and exclaimed in excitement "Oh Jack, would you have a look at that? Isn't it amazing!" she turned large adoring eyes on him.
Startled, but ready to do anything that might rid him of Madame Langfort, he clasped at Kimiko's hand like a drowning man clutches a life preserver "Yes! " he agree fervently "That is an excellent example of a… of a stone structure. Expertly crafted." He concluded lamely.
Kimiko, forced a laugh "Oh you!" she said affectionately "Do be serious!"
Jack could only laugh weakly. He knew she wasn't being serious, but she needn't look like that convincing. He gulped.
This little show, despite it's little lapses, seemed to have the desired effect on the Madame. "If you will please excuse me, I need to join my huzband, he muzt be quite worried" she declared stiffly and walked away looking affronted.
After she'd gone, Kimiko dropped Jack's hand and blinked away the look of adoration from her face "Married is she?" she asked coyly.
Jack refused to rise to the bait.
Kimiko found she had to agree with the old woman on one account. The castle was truly marvelous. They had used authentic torches to light up the corridors; this created a wonderful archaic atmosphere. The thrill of it made goosebumps stand up on her skin.
"And if we were to walk through this archway, we would reach a flight of stairs that leads to the basements, or as it were, the dungeons" the guide chuckled.
Both Jack and Kimiko became very attentive all of a sudden.
"Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many of you gathered here tonight, we cannot pursue this path" he paused to hear the collective groan that never followed "Due to it being restricted on account of some structural instabilities" he added quickly, to fill the awkward silence. The man was pretty new to this, it would seem, or he had never worked with a crowd quite like this. Kimiko felt a little sorry for him.
"So let us be on our way. Now this passage…" the man went on, but Jack and Kimiko were no longer paying attention. They lagged behind as inconspicuously as possible, and disappeared into the dark archway.
"Well that was easy. Hand" Kimiko said shrugging her shoulders to dislodge Jack's arm.
"Sorry" he said, retrieving the offending limb "I see they didn't bother to light this place up" he remarked, running his hand over a wall "But look! A torch!" he exclaimed happily.
Kimiko rolled her eyes "For God's sake…take it! And let's go!" she snapped. The man clearly had the attention span of a four year old.
They slowly made their way through the dark, keeping to the wall to prevent any accidents, until they found the staircase that would take them to the basement. "We should get some light" Kimiko suggested.
"If you please?" Jack said thrusting the torch in her face.
Kimiko pushed his hand to a safe distance before igniting it "Happy?" her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Very" Jack declared happily, ignoring her poisonous tone. Then, because her displeasure was beginning to express itself in the form of the torch's worryingly increasing flame, he fished out a small flashlight from his jacket "Here, you can have this"
It was only the knowledge that a flailing, screaming man, covered in flames, running about the castle, might attract attention, that prevented Jack's spontaneous combustion.
She took a couple of calming breaths before grabbing the flashlight. She gave Jack a rough shove towards the stairs "Hurry up before someone comes and sees us" she hissed.
"Jeesh, no need to get so brutal" Jack complained, making his way down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Kimiko who had to take them at a more sedate pace fervently wished he would trip and land on his rear.
"Okay" she said reaching the landing "Now be a good boy and take your torch and turn around"
"Sure" Jack said, and torch in hand began exploring the other way.
Kimiko cast one more look over her shoulder before slipping out of the dress. It pooled down around her ankles. She gave it a mournful look. Judging by the clouds of dust rising, it was probably beyond salvation.
She donned both leather jacket and pants. As expected they fit perfectly. She flexed her arms and legs experimentally. It allowed comfortable movement, satisfied, she bundled the dress in the backpack, picked up the light and went to join Jack.
"There you are. Let me get a proper look at you" he said turning around. Reluctantly Kimiko spread out her arms for inspection "Oh yeah. I rule."
"And so modest too" Kimiko muttered in exasperation "Go on, stop ogling and make yourself useful" Kimiko said, waving him away.
Jack huffed "I have, take a look" he said gesturing with the torch.
"Where?" she said, scanning the wall he indicated.
"Right…here!" Jack said getting down to his haunches, to point at a brick.
Kimiko followed suit, squinting. Her eyes widened in surprise. There was something engraved on the brick, a stylized salamander with a crown above it's head, around it in a circle she could make out some writing.
"Is that Latin?" she asked, trying to make out the faded text.
"Nutrisco et Extinguo" Jack said, from the vicinity of her ear "It translates to 'I nourish and extinguish' it's Francis I's motto"
"Great, that's bound to be important. What does it do?" she asked turning to look at Jack as the expert in such matters.
"Er" he said expertly.
"Jack?" Kimiko pressed.
"Well, I'm guessing it's a trigger of some kind" he improvised. An idea occurred to him "I'll scan the walls for any indication of a secret room or passage"
Reaching inside his shirt pocket, he pulled out what looked like a small golden disk. He tossed it in the air like one would a coin. It spun in mid air before splitting into pieces, reassembling itself as it fell. It reached the floor looking like a small golden ball. Kimiko watched with interest as it revolved slowly, emitting little beeping noises.
When it stopped, Jack picked it up, cradling it in his palm. From a needle point sized opening, in what Kimiko assumed was its top, it projected a hologram in the air. The image didn't make much sense to Kimiko, but Jack seemed to understand.
"Excellent. There is an opening" he told her "That wall" he pointed at the wall containing the marked brick "Only problem now is how to get it to open up"
"Take your time" Kimiko said, mollified slightly. Whether Jack knew what to do , or not, he sure knew how to improvise.
He tried pushing, pulling, tapping, with no result. He felt around the rest of the wall for anything that would give. At last, he sat on the dusty cold floor and stared intently at it. "Burn and extinguish" he muttered to himself.
"Hello!" he cried, and in one fluid motion, that startled Kimiko, he stood up straight "Kim, baby, could you come here for a sec?" he said, without turning.
Cautiously she approached "Okay?"
He turned his head to smile at her "Flame that brick for me will you?" he gestured to it with his hand.
Kimiko did so. She frowned in concentration, focusing her energies into one point. The brick turned orange with the heat.
"Now stop" Jack commanded.
Once the fire stopped, the brick began to return to its original grey. The markings on it did not. They continued to glow bright orange in the gloom.
"And now Open Sesame" Jack said, grinning widely. With his foot he pushed the brick, it slipped in effortlessly.
Two seconds of silence followed, before the whole place began to vibrate. A horrible grating sound echoed off the walls, so loud the two had to cover their ears.
Dust and small pieces of stone and mortar rained down on them, covering their heads and shoulders in a fine sheet of grey. The wall was dragging itself away to reveal a narrow passage.
At last, the noise mercifully stopped.
"You think anyone noticed that?" Jack asked, brushing the dust out of his hair.
"What you mean the earth shaking, accompanied by a sound like a mountain caving in on itself, during a bombing, with a freeway car crash happening near by, caused by a rampaging T-rex, roaring it's head off? What do you think?" she shrieked as quietly as she could.
"Eheh… I wouldn't put it quite like that…er, we should hurry on then!" Jack said nervously.
"Yeah" Kimiko agreed, casting a look back the way they had arrived "Sliding walls" she muttered.
"Just like the old days" Jack agreed, regaining some of his cheer.
The tunnel turned out to be quite long and bendy, but thankfully it didn't fork out. They stopped as they encountered another archway, beyond it lay another tunnel.
"Something about this screams Caution-Death-Ahead to me, do you get that as well?" Jack asked casually.
Kimiko looked down the dark corridor, it wasn't very different from the one they had just traversed, but there was something extremely ominous about it "Yep" she said shortly "Use that robot of yours to scan for traps or whatever" she suggested.
Jack plucked out the little robot from his pocket "I would, but you see…it's run out of battery" he said, sounding embarrassed.
Kimiko stared at him in disbelief. It was amazing how this man could go from sheer brilliancy to utter idiocy in the span of five minutes. Every five minutes.
That look was all Jack needed to start thinking about a new course of action "Okay, maybe this could help" he said, and tossed the little spherical robot down the corridor.
They both held their breaths as the sphere rolled. It came to a stop midway down the length of the passage. They stared at it.
After a few seconds of staring, Jack cleared his throat "Should we follo-?" he never got to finish his sentence.
The cobble the robot had landed on, sank about an inch into the floor. Arrows flew out from both walls as well as from the floor and the ceiling, embedding themselves in every surface, including Jack's robot.
Silence followed. It was broken by little whimpering noises from Jack "My Scan-bot!" he cried aghast. He breathed deeply a few times, composing himself "French, huh? Classics" Jack said, his voice sounding a little to high pitched to be normal "Suggestions?"
"Care to lend a few more robots to the cause?" Kimiko asked tentatively.
Jack looked mortally wounded at her suggestion "That's like asking me to send my own children to their deaths!" he cried.
"Fine then" she snapped "You go then, take one for the team!"
"For a Fire Dragon, you're awfully cold babe" He told her sadly.
Kimiko was about to give a biting retort, when she stopped suddenly. She realized, her flipping out, was not particularly helpful. Sure a rain of arrows is enough to make anyone a little edgy, but she should know better. "Sorry" she muttered instead.
"All is forgiven" Jack said magnanimously "I think we should search for pebbles" he said looking around. His face fell slightly "This place is in incredible shape. Damn it" he said running a hand over the annoyingly intact surface.
"We could track back, there were allot of fallen stones back in the dungeon" Kimiko suggested.
Jack shook his head "Not such a good idea. Allot of time and we might just run into someone" He started pacing then, back and forth, waving his hands in agitation.
"Oh bloody, bloody hell! Confound it all!" he cried at last, stopping in mid pace and tossing his arms out. Still cursing, he joined Kimiko standing next to the archway. From various pockets he produced several golden disks. He eyed them mournfully, before tossing them in the air.
Kimiko's jaw dropped open "You had more of them?" she said staring at the small golden robots "Why not just scan the place then and be done with?" she asked, frustrated with the man.
He shook his head sadly "Can't. These aren't Scan-bots. They're a Spy-bot, a Tracker-bot, two Nets, a Shield-bot and a GPS."
"Oh, alright then" and then, feeling sorry for Jack, she patted his hand "I'm sorry"
Jack nodded, sniffling slightly "So the first bot landed on that cobble. Notice anything unusual about it?" he pushed on bravely.
Kimiko looked at it hard "Nothing I can see, it looks like an ordinary cobble stone"
Jack nodded "That's good, because I can spot a few that have markings on them" that said, he rolled one of the toward a marked stone. He missed. A sound like a wounded elephant filled the air and part of the floor collapsed.
Jack winced "I'll bet you anything there's spikes at the bottom of that" he said weakly.
Another bot. It was the Spy one. Another miss. Some mechanism rumbled from inside the walls, and from two apparently innocent cracks in the wall, descended a pair of vicious looking axes, swinging from chains. Jack heaved a sigh of relief, until he noticed the axes were swinging lower and lower until "Ah. I was rather fond of that one"
Another toss. And this time it hit the mark. Jack let out a triumphant, if muted "Yes! Third time's the charm!"
They waited then. Nothing happened. They waited some more. Still nothing.
"I think it should be safe to step on the marked cobbles" Jack said. They waited again "Right"
Kimiko's eyes searched the floor for the nearest safe step. "Jack, I hope you're better at jumping than you are at aiming, because the first stone is a little far off" she cautioned.
"Eh. I wouldn't say no to the Monkey Staff right now, but I think I'll manage" he said with a shrug.
"Be careful, they're pretty narrow" Kimiko said before jumping. She landed safely. Not wasting time, her eyes scoured the floor for markings. There. She leapt. She repeated the process until she was halfway across.
Looking over her shoulder she saw Jack give her a nod before taking his first jump. He landed perfectly. Kimiko smiled with relief. She continued her own series of jumps, stopping again only twenty feet away from what she hoped was the exit to this death trap.
Jack, having successfully maneuvered the impromptu hole in the floor (which did in fact have spikes at the bottom) was now only three cobbles away from Kimiko. He paused as well. He ran the back of his hand over his forehead, wiping at the sweat "Huh…this isn't so hard"
From the moment he said it, Kimiko knew something was going to go wrong. Right on time, one robot, possibly dislodged by all the jumps, tumbled out of one of Jack's pockets.
Kimiko watched it roll through the air, on its way to greet an unmarked cobble. She followed its progress with rising dread, when Jack's hand swooped down and caught it, inches away from impact.
Kimiko released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Jack gave her a thumbs up.
Except he'd bent over, and it wasn't one robot that touched the floor. A handful of spheres cascaded from the pocket of his jacket.
Jack and Kimiko were rooted to their respective spots as the little robots rolled around on the floor. A collective intake of air. The cobbles sank.
"Shit" Jack remarked.
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Read&Review guys, Read&Review.
Is that a cliffhanger I see there? gasp
What great peril awaits our two heroes!? Sorry, you'll just have to wait for that.
