"Thank you, Paolo. We will continue from here," Kwame said gratefully, as the Planeteers crowded together in front of a dark alley. They had tracked down Plunder, but had needed the Italian's help to find the location.
"Are you sure? I want to help-" Paolo began, looking around worriedly at the deserted streets.
"No, Paolo. We cannot put you in danger," Kwame said firmly.
Paolo turned to Linka, but she shook her head slightly.
"Kwame is right," she said softly. "We must do this alone." She wanted to say more to assuage his fears but the other Planeteers had already begun to make their way down the alley. With a small wave towards Paolo she followed them.
Linka had only walked a few steps before she realised that something was wrong. The whole place was eerily quiet, and even though it was late at night, she thought she should have been able to see her fellow Planeteers ahead of her, but pitch blackness was all she encountered. It was though all light had been extinguished from her surroundings. She turned around to where Paolo had been standing but the Italian was gone. Before she could call out, a heavy metal object hit the side of her head and she crumbled to the ground.
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A horrible pain throbbed in her head, as a blinding light pierced through her eyelids. Linka could hear a voice calling her name repeatedly, urgently, but it seemed to be coming from far away…
Slowly coming to, she forced her eyes open groggily. From what she could make out through her fuzzy eyesight, she was on the floor of what looked like a warehouse with bright fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling. She made to stand up but found that her arms were bound to a metal fixture behind her. From somewhere beside her the voice continued to call her name. She turned her head in its direction.
"Linka! Thank God you're awake!" The voice was familiar, but she could not place it. Finally, the haze in front of her eyes began to clear and the face formed clearly. It was Paolo, arms and legs also tied. She looked around quickly, heart suddenly pounding. If Paolo was here, where was everyone else? Linka began to struggle against the ropes tying her back.
"I've tried, it's no use. We're stuck," Paolo told her wearily.
"The others! Where are-?" Linka began breathlessly.
"I don't know about the others, but Wheeler's right there," Paolo said, jutting his chin out towards a stack of plastic chairs. Linka had missed it before due to her blurred vision, but now she saw Wheeler lying on the floor against them, unconscious, wrists and ankles tied up. Her heart jumped when she saw a thin line of blood trickling from his nose. She wanted more than anything to free herself and run to him but Paolo was right: they were tied up securely. And even if she had been able to manipulate her hands, she could feel that her ring was missing. Linka felt a crushing sense of desperation. Every time she had been in danger Wheeler had been there to rescue her, but now he appeared to be just as helpless as her, if not worse off.
She heard a groan and to her relief saw that Wheeler was beginning to stir.
"Wheeler!" she cried gratefully.
"Ow! Turn the volume down!" he mumbled, raising his head slightly.
"Oh, Yankee!" Linka half-laughed, half-sobbed.
"What the hell happened?!" Wheeler asked, struggling to his knees, in spite of his bonds.
"We were ambushed," Paolo replied. "I was walking back home when-"
He was interrupted as a door at the far end of the room was flung open and a short, stocky man appeared.
"Argos Bleak!" Wheeler spat, as the figure made its way towards them. "Plunder still sends you to do his dirty work, huh? I'd have thought you'd have moved up after all these years!"
"Shut it, ecobrat!" Looten Plunder's henchman barked. He reached Wheeler and Linka gasped sharply as he kicked the American in the stomach.
"Leave him alone!" she yelled. Bleak turned to her and laughed evilly.
"Or else what, darling?" he snarled, moving towards her menacingly. Up close, Linka could see her and Wheeler's rings glittering on his fingers.
"If you touch her, I swear on my life I'll-" Wheeler began angrily.
"Don't you dare touch her-" Paolo said, simultaneously.
Bleak stopped and looked from Paolo to Wheeler, then at Linka. He laughed again.
"Well, isn't this quite the dilemma? Now, I don't know which one of you torture first," he said, with relish.
"T-torture ?" Linka's voice faltered.
"Well, as you can see we didn't quite manage to capture all of you. And I don't suppose you're going to give up the information on the whereabouts of the others willingly, are you?" Bleak sneered.
"We don't know anything!" Paolo said quickly.
"How could we?" Wheeler continued angrily. "You knocked us out, genius!"
Linka wanted to warn him to stop provoking Bleak with his sharp tongue, but she had to admire his bravery. Not even being tied up and bleeding from a head wound seemed to be able to crush his spirit.
"That's enough from you!" Bleak snarled. "Now, let's see…" He examined each of them carefully, trying to detect any signs of weaknesses on their faces.
Linka willed Wheeler to remain silent and avoid provoking Bleak. She glanced at Paolo out of the corner of her eye, hoping he too would keep quiet, but this turned out to be a mistake, for Bleak followed her eyes and a sinister smile spread over his face.
"Oh, too bad," he taunted Wheeler. "Looks like it's him she cares more about, so he gets to go first. We'll have a confession in no time at all…." He moved towards Paolo, a horrible glint in his eye.
"NO!" Wheeler shouted, struggling against the ropes tying him back. "NO! Take me instead!"
"Wheeler, what are you doing!" Linka and Paolo hissed together.
Wheeler turned to face her and held her gaze, his eyes burning with some unreadable emotion. "Linka, I won't let you watch him suffer," he told her softly. "Now, come on you dumb piece of crap! Are you man enough to take me or what?" he shouted at Argos.
"No, Wheeler!" Linka choked back a sob, as Bleak, enraged, headed towards the American, who was hurling a torrent of abuse at him, and began to kick him furiously.
She struggled against her bonds, and out of the corner of her eye could see Paolo doing the same, but it was no use. For what seemed like an eternity, she watched Bleak aim kick after kick at Wheeler's stomach and ribs, feeling as though every hit was a direct blow to herself. Tears spilled out from her eyes and trickled down her face, as Bleak's foot connected with Wheeler's face, causing blood to spurt from his forehead and flow down his face. Linka heard herself, heard Paolo, begging Bleak to stop, trying to convince him they had no information but the blows continued to rain down on Wheeler.
"WATER!" a voice cried out suddenly, shattering the unbearable scene before them. From somewhere above Linka a pipe ruptured and a burst of water knocked Bleak off his feet.
"EARTH," another voice bellowed, and the ground shook beneath them. As Bleak struggled to his feet, a crater formed behind him. Another pipe split and the water flow knocked him back into the gaping hole.
Linka sobbed with relief as Kwame, Gi and Ma-Ti ran towards them, and began to untie them. As soon as she was free she rushed over to Wheeler, at whose side Ma-Ti knelt, trying to use his power of heart to soothe his pain.
"Linka, what-" the young Planeteer began. But she ignored him, dropping to her knees beside Wheeler. At the sight of his bruised and bloodied face her heart constricted painfully. Words caught in her throat as the rest of the group crowded around her, concern for Wheeler etched on their faces.
"Wheeler, I-" Paolo began quietly. Linka glanced at him and saw that his face, too, was streaked with tears.
"Nah, don't say anything, man," Wheeler said faintly. "I would do anything for my friends." He grinned weakly but his eyes, as his gaze flitted to Linka, were deeply serious. For one brief moment she felt strangely light-hearted as she looked into his eyes, some veiled emotion flitting briefly across her heart. She had no time to ponder over it, though, as Kwame urged them to leave before any more of Looten Plunder's cohorts arrived.