Chapter 10
The next morning, the gang rose at ten till twelve, smothered their fire, said a quick prayer for a continued safe journey and gave thanks to God for protecting them through the night. Afterwards, they gathered their things and headed back to the plane. "Thank God you guys are okay." Agent Lance said. "Yeah, thank God. I was scared there for a while, but the big man upstairs got us through it just fine." Brittany said. Agent Lance nodded. "So, did you get the clue from Simon?" "Yeah, and we've already figured it out." Alvin said. "Great. Where are we headed?" "Australia. As close to Ayer's rock as possible, preferably." "Got it. Go buckle up. I'll get the plane ready." The gang headed in and buckled up. Soon enough, Agent Lance had the plane taxiing down the run way. "Hang on, Theo. We're going to save you." Simon said. "Just sit tight, baby bro." Alvin said. The plane took off and headed for Australia. Hours later, they landed and ran to the nearest car depot. A strange thing happened in the car depot. The longer the two chipettes listened to an Australian speak, the more they talked in the accent. "Heh. Seems you can take the girls out of Australia, but you can't take the Australia out of the girls. Their inner Australians are waking up.' Alvin joked. 'It sure looks that way." Simon agreed. Suddenly, Brittany came up to them. 'Sterns got the car. He's getting it gassed up right now. Are you ready to go?" She asked, in a now very thick accent. "Uh, Britt?" Alvin asked. "Hmm?" "Your accent?" "Oh, yeah. That's weird, huh? I can't stop talking like this, and yet, I don't remember having an accent when I was last here, when I was little. What's going on?" "Well, like Alvin already said, perhaps your inner Australian is waking up. It's been dormant all these years, but exposure to the atmospheric conditions of Australia woke it back up." "Hmm, well, I guess no matter how much I love the states and how much I act like a Cali-girl, I'm still an aussie at heart, huh?" "Britt, babe, I'm telling you, it's no act. There's no doubt you're a Cali-girl." Alvin said. "But, my accent.." "Let's just say you're a California girl, with an Australian heart." "Okay. I like that actually. He-he…Uh, hey, where did Jeanette go?" "She's over there by the maps." Simon pointed out. "Oh, I see her. She's probably looking for maps on the outback. Not a bad idea. Hey, Jean. Let me help!" Brittany ran off to help Jeanette search for maps. "Hey, Alvin?" Simon asked. "Yeah?" "Can I ask you something?" "Sure." "Why did you take the time to talk to Brittany just now?" "Why? Cause she's my girl, man. What more reason do I need? I mean, if it'd been Jeanette instead of Brittany, wouldn't you have taken time to talk to her?" "Well, yes, but, honestly, I was expecting you to take off towards the car, regardless of how much gas it had in the tank, the minute Brittany said that Sterns had the car." "I see. Well, to be honest, Sy, I did have another reason." "What was it?" "It was for Brittany's sake." "Her sake?" "Yeah, her sake. See, Sy, I don't know if you heard everything she said but, Britt didn't just tell me she loved me and become my girlfriend last night. Before all that, she told me how scared she was. She had this freaked out look on her face. I'd never seen her with that kind of look on her face before. And, I never want to see it again. I don't want to see that look on any girl ever again, but especially not Britt. So, anything I can do, to distract her from any worries she might still have, to keep her from sliding into another full blown meltdown, I'll do it." "And you decided that before she confessed to you, right?" "Yeah." "Well then what you were doing was using distraction to provide positive reinforcement. That's a sign of a good leader. Your shaping up to be a pretty good leader, Alvin." "Well, thanks for saying that, Sy. But, all of this, everything I've been doing up until now, has been because I thought it was the right thing to do. I'm not trying to be any kind of leader. If anything, I'm just trying to be the guy who pieces our lives back together and gets us back to some kind of normalcy. That's all." "…Wow." "What?" "Um, who are you and what have you done with my brother Alvin?" "What are you talking about, Sy?" "I'm sorry. It's just that, I never thought I'd ever hear something that sounded so mature from you. I mean, you've kind of always been a little bit childish. You have to admit that." "Yeah, I guess I do. But, right now, there's no place for that kind of thing, right? No room for the old Alvin. I guess, along the way, I've had to become a whole new Alvin, to be able to pull this off. A wiser Alvin. A stronger Alvin. I've had to become a better me, because the situation demands it. Because my friends and family need it." "Wow, Alvin. That's more insight from you in under a minute than I thought I'd ever see during an entire life time." 'Yeah, whatever." Just then, Sterns came in to tell everyone that car was ready to go. "Okay. Let's rock!" Brittany shouted. They quickly loaded into the car and headed into the outback. "Okay, if I'm following this map right then, if we just keep going this way, then we should reach Uluru in no time flat." Jeanette said, her Australian accent now very thick. "Alright." Sterns said from the front seat. Alvin watched all the plants and trees fly by the window. "This place would be so cool to explore." He said out loud. "Another thing we have to put on the list." Brittany said, over hearing him. "Yeah." "But, first things first, we have to go on a date when this is all over. Okay, Alvy?" "Fine by me, Britt. And you can pick the place." "Great. Thanks, Alvin." She said, while sliding across the seat. She slid right up to Alvin and laid her head on his shoulder. "For a girl that was unsure of her feelings until yesterday, she's playing the girlfriend role awfully well." Jeanette thought as she watched this. The crew eventually arrived at the rock. "Okay. Theo's around here somewhere. Fan out and find him." Alvin commanded. The group did as told and it ended up the team of Miss miller and Vinny who found Theodore. "We found him!" They called. The others came running. "Hang on, Theo. We're gonna get you out of here. Just let me untie this." Alvin said, as he began to get to work on Theodore's restraints. Meanwhile, at the Interpol headquarters of California. "Miss Buxley, can you please call up Agent Jackson and then come in here?" Jamal asked over his intercom. "Of course, sir." Miss Buxley called back. She called up Agent Jackson came in and together, he and Miss Buxley entered into Jamal's office. Unfortunately, Miss Buxley didn't close the door all the way. As Jamal revealed that he was ready to begin tracking down the suspected leak, a certain man happened to be walking past the office and overheard. "Uh-oh!" He immediately ran to the bathroom and pulled out a small black phone and called up his boss, Samuel Vorstein. "They're on to me. Do something!" "Okay, just sit tight. I have an idea." Sam called up another of his subordinates, who happened to be posted in a very specific place in Australia. "Our mole's about to be blown out of his hole. Implement the plan." The man grabbed a bundle of strings by his foot and pulled on them. Suddenly, a series of clicks could be heard and numerous small darts came flying out of a bush, at the munks. None of the crew saw it coming and they were all struck down. "It's done, sir. Now what?" "Do they have any transceivers on them?" "Yes sir." "Then pick one up and tell whoever picks up exactly what I tell you." The man did as told and Lance, who picked up the transmission, relayed the message to Jamal. "Wait, what happened?"