Chapter 10: ACTION! (Part 1)

A/N Part 1 Ah! 5 months? Is it worth the wait? Let's see:

Mr. Calvin has seen the event from his balcony through his binoculars. He saw the car fall from the mountain, crash and burst down into flames as it hit the bottom of the cliff. "And there she goes." The first part of his plan was complete. He entered back into the apartment with a satisfied grin.

What he didn't know was that at the top of the mountain were Jacq's friends, looking at the flames at the bottom as they stood between the broken rail guards at the curve of the road. Tintin kneeled in defeat. "I'm… I'm too late," said Tintin. Detective Lockhart put his hand over Tintin.

"No…" said Captain Haddock also in a state of shock. He had remembered a young girl who was happy with the person she was, no matter what others said. The Captain began to regret ever calling her "odd" or "peculiar". He remembered how much of a fast-talker she was, and how excited she'd get when talking about film or whenever she was passionate.

Tintin was thinking back to those moments as well. He remembered how he and the Captain mistook her for a princess a long time ago, and thinking back to how young, beautiful and talented she was. How sweet and kind she was. Jacq had so much ahead of her… she could have been a movie star or a successful movie director… but it would never happen.

Jacq was dead.

Tintin broke down into tears. He immediately forgot about his pain with his scratched palms and knees. No other pain could be worse than losing someone you loved. Soon, the Captain began to cry.

The flames of the fire slowly began to light out, and the smoke began to clear away. It was now dark.

Snowy howled…

…

...

...

Then Snowy heard something.

"Hello?"

Snowy looked down where the sound came from. If only the smoke and fire didn't block any other smells, he would be able to smell something at the bottom.

Snowy began to bark!

"Snowy?" said Tintin, look at his dog. "What's the matter?"

"Hello? Is that you, Snowy?"

Tintin and Haddock looked at each other. They then went over Snowy to see what he was barking at.

"Are the others with you?"

They recognized that voice! It was a bit dark to make-out, but they could see the shadow of a young girl hanging on a vine.

IT WAS JACQ! SHE'S ALIVE!

"GREAT SNAKES! JACQ!" exclaimed Tintin! His heart was beating with excitement and relief! It must have been a miracle! Somehow Jacq managed to survive that fall!

"OVER HERE!" shouted Jacq at the bottom of the rope. "Hey, can you give me a hand? A rope would be nice too."

The men began to cheer that Jacq was alive and well!

"You better hurry, 'cause I think the vine's gonna break!" Then she noticed what they were doing. "Are you guys dancing?"

Xxx

After Detective Lockhart quickly managed to get his car, and pull out some rope from his trunk, they carefully lowered Tintin to the bottom of the cliff where Jacq was. They had tied up the other side of the rope to the car, and they had covered up the lights of the car with a blanket so as not to be noticed by anyone else from afar.

"Here," said Tintin tying a rope around her waist. As he reached his arm out for Jacq, she heard the vine about to break. CRACK!

Jacq instinctively leapt towards Tintin. She hung her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Luckily the vine didn't break, and Jacq was safe in Tintin's arms. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I think so," said Jacq holding her breath. She looked down at the debris at the bottom, still with a bit of smoke.

"Don't worry," Tintin assured. "Just hang onto me." Jacq hugged him and put herself against his chest. Tintin began to blush.

"PULL US UP!" said Tintin. Lockhart slowly drove the car and pulled them upwards. After reaching the top, Jacq lied down on the ground, finally able to catch her breath! Good thing she wasn't dead, she thought to herself.

"Hey… I told you I could handle on my own," she said to Tintin as she lied on the floor. She then said to the others jokingly, "Oh yeah, I think Mr. Calvin was behind all this, but I could be wrong." She laughed. Tintin was kneeling, this time happy to see her cheerful face again.

"Wait!" said the Captain standing above her. "But I don't understand! Those men! Tintin said that… I thought they gave you some drugs to put you to sleep!"

"That's correct," she said with a smile.

"But… how did you-?

"I never drank it!"

The men said at the same time, "… What?"

"Yeah, I just pretended to take a sip of the wine, and then I collapsed pretending I was already asleep. They didn't even notice. They were just like 'Oh, I didn't know it worked so fast!' But I was able to outsmart them. Either that, or they were pretty stupid. Anyway…"

"Are you sure you want to lie down there, Las?" asked the Captain.

Jacq realized that she was still lying on her back. "Yeah, it's not really comfortable here." They helped her up, Lockhart took out the rope of his car, as well as the blanket which covered up the car lights. As he did this, Jacq explained how she managed to survive.

Jacq continued, "So anyway, before I entered his house, I noticed a note which warned me not to trust Mr. Calvin. I'm assuming it's yours, Detective. The note was to warn me that I was in danger. Right?"

"WOW! You ARE a clever girl!" said Detective Lockhart.

"Yeah, but please make sure they don't explode on anyone's faces."

"But I do make sure. I let them know beforehand. It's written on the note."

"… Ok, whatever. So I entered the house, noticing that there were some sort of bodyguards behind me…"

They all entered the car and the drove back to the city, with Snowy sitting on her lap. Tintin noticed that Jacq was cold, so he lent her his blue sweater for her to wear. "Thanks Tintin. So I stuck to my guns, because I didn't know what he was up to, even when I couldn't read anything off him. He brought me to the living room, we talked about his film, and then he offered me some wine. Something I always learned in every spy thriller was to never drink anything offered to me by a bad guy. So I checked a cup and I noticed a pill at the bottom dissolving into the cup! I couldn't tell if it was poison or a sleeping pill, but I pretended to take a sip, collapsed on the couch, and pretended to fall asleep. I heard his voice."

Jacq repeated the way she heard Mr. Calvin speak: "'Oh… did the sleeping pill work that fast?' I was right! He had spiked my drink! It took him some time to see if I was really asleep, but I did my best to stay as still as possible, and in the end he was finally convinced. He then said 'Gentlemen! Take her to the car!'"

"'But Boss,'" she said in a gruff man's voice, "'I thought you wanted her for your film.'"

"'I did too. I really considered putting her into the film if she said yes to my proposal. But then I remembered how she suspects me too much, especially with her hanging around with Tintin. Perhaps she only accepted my offer to get close to my plans. I had my men take care of Tintin and his friends. It's time to take care of Jacq now.'"

She went back to her normal speaking voice. "I didn't want to believe that you guys were dead. But if you were in trouble, I would've made my way to you as soon as I got the chance. So they took me to the car to try and make it seem like an accident."

Jacq was finishing her story as they entered the city, and Snowy had fallen asleep on her lap, even though he wanted to hear the rest of story. She continued, "The tricky part was to get out of a moving vehicle. I may be a terrible driver, but I at least knew how to open a car door. I had to jump out, but because I almost slipped, the car almost took me down! Luckily I grabbed onto the vine in the right second!"

"Why didn't you press the breaks?" asked Tintin.

"I DID! But that didn't work, because the car was driving too fast by that point. Also, I was panicking a bit, so I didn't think straight and I didn't react quickly enough. It was really scary!"

"I can only imagine," thought Tintin. Tintin grinned. He then began to notice Jacq was feeling tired. Probably exhausted from today's excitement, so he allowed her to sleep. Haddock turned his head to the two, relieved that Jacq was alright. He had also noticed the way Tintin was looking at her. There was more than just relief in his expression.

After they arrived at their hotel, Tintin decided to allow Jacq to sleep in his bed while he talked to the others about how they were going to expose Mr. Calvin to everyone. Even with Jacq, she couldn't prove that Mr. Calvin tried to kill her. And the men who attacked them would probably keep their mouths shut.

Tintin opened the car for Jacq to get out, but he noticed that she was asleep already. She looked so peaceful. Normally he'd imagine her wide awake and ready to face the world, but with what she's been through tonight, she's better off resting now. He carefully moved Snowy away to the other side so that he could lift her up. "Sorry, Snowy." Snowy woke up and saw Tintin lift Jacq out of the car in a cradle carry.

Snowy thought in a bit of jealousy, "Oh, so she's allowed to sleep, but not me?"

Haddock opened the door for Tintin to bring her to the bed. He gently put her in bed, and tucked her in. As he stared at her, he gave her a kiss in the forehead. "Glad you're safe." He left to turn off the lights of the room. But then he heard her speak. "Hey…" Tintin looked at Jacq from the other side of the room. Jacq said in a sleepy voice, "Looks like luck did come in handy…" she closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

Tintin smiled and thought to himself, "… It wasn't luck. It was all you."

Xxx

"Well, Tintin," said Detective Lockhart, "It's a good thing that your friend Jacq is alright. I've seen how she's helped out in the studio, and I've been very impressed with how she's been helping you solve the case. It would have been a real shame if she had really gone."

"I'm really glad too," said Tintin, as they sat in the empty lobby late at night, with a dimly lit lamp over them. Snowy sat down on the other sofa, trying to sleep again. "But enough of that," Tintin continued. "We already know that Mr. Calvin tried to kill Jacq, and he's the one responsible for the attacks on Vermont. Detective, I'm sure you found some other details about Mr. Calvin. Even if we arrest Calvin, we can't prove that he's involved with a mafia. Any other details on him or at least on the Fist Mafia?"

Detective Lockhart pulled out the poker chips he had in his pocket and left it on the table. "Well, we're not sure it's the Fist Mafia anymore, now with the fake evidence on the poker chips. My guess is that another mafia group, or some other gangsters of some sort, planted that fake evidence. From what you told me, my guess is that they needed someone to find just ONE poker chip. They probably wanted to get in for the other poker chips before anyone discovered more of them, but because of all the paparazzi they couldn't get in."

Captain Haddock came back from the bathroom. He added, "How Calculus was able to find all of the poker chips, that still bugs me… ah no, we forgot about Calculus again."

"Don't worry, Captain," said Tintin. "I called Tulio just recently, and he said that he'd allow Professor Calculus to see some experiments with cinematic effects, so the Professor would be arriving late."

"I see," said Haddock. He sat down on the chair next to Tintin.

Lockhart continued, "As I said before, I was called in about the investigation. They gave me this note about the investigation:"

Tintin took the piece of paper and read:

"Detective Lockhart,

You are in charge of a new mission. There has been a claim the Fist Mafia has been acting out again, as we've received a letter from an anonymous sender. He confessed to us that there's been a threat against the people in Vermont Studios, and that their lives could be in danger. While we didn't—"

BOOM!

Snowy woke up from the loud noise. Tintin and Haddock coughed as their faces were covered in grey smoke. When the smoke cleared up, their faces were covered in black dust.

"Oh, I'm sorry! The message was supposed to explode AFTER you finished reading it. Here, I have a copy." He said giving them another piece of paper. "And don't worry, that one doesn't explode."

Haddock thought, "Then why didn't you give us that one?"

Tintin and Haddock cleaned their faces with a handkerchief and Tintin continued to read:

"While we didn't take immediate action, it's until he mentioned that he was formerly part of the Fist Mafia, and included a piece of evidence with the letter proving that he was telling the truth. We need you to not only discover who sent the letter and why, but also to discover if there are strange occurrences in Vermont Studios. If you don't find any change in the film studio in about one month, then please return. Send us reports on your findings.

This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds."

Even though Lockhart said this message wouldn't explode, Haddock kept wondering how a piece of paper could possibly work that way. He took the paper and observed it carefully to try and see how it worked.

"That's when I found out about the actors disappearing and about Mr. Maroon's former past. I knew there was a link somehow," said Lockhart.

"Just out of curiosity," asked Tintin, "What was this piece of evidence that he included?"

"It was this," Lockhart pulled out another item from his coat. Snowy thought, "How many things does he have inside his coat?" Tintin looked at the item he placed on the table. It was a playing card with a symbol on it. A symbol of The Pyramid, and yet around the front was a thick black stamp of a logo of a fist. "There could only be one stamp like that," said Lockhart. Tintin picked it up and turned the card around. Someone had written with a thick black pen: "YOU CONTINUE WITH THIS FILMMAKING THING OF YOURS, AND WE'LL DESTROY VERMONT."

"I don't understand. Who could have done this? And why?" asked Tintin.

"I was wondering it myself," said Lockhart. "The First Mafia used to be involved in making deals over money, drugs and weapons exchanges with other mafias. They were a powerful criminal organisation. We, as in my friends and I, managed to capture most of the members, and we caught Montana, which stopped most of the organised crime around the State. But somehow Montana managed to escape and he disappeared."

Tintin pondered about it, "I think I know what might have happened, Detective."

"You do?"

"Yes. But I need some time to figure it out. Tomorrow we have to… hang on." Tintin realised, "Now that I remember, Mr. Maroon can't see us. Especially Jacq. We were supposed to be dead to him."

"I remember," said Haddock.

"We can't be recognised or else. Captain, we'll have to wear some disguises. Especially Jacq. She will have to dress up too."

The Captain then said, "My guess is Jacqueline could dress up as a Tapping Sister in the meantime. She'd look nice as a blonde."

"Not a bad idea", said Tintin imagining Jacq as a blonde. He'd prefer her with the big brown hair she has right now, but blonde would make her look like her mother. "Well, Detective, we'll see you tomorrow and—"

BOOM!

The men jumped. There it was again with the grey smoke, except it covered Haddock's face, whose face was once again covered in black.

"That's strange. That wasn't supposed to do that," said Lockhart.

"Cough! Cough! No kidding..." said Haddock.

A/N Part 2 A little rushed, but because I managed to finish university (applying to a Masters Degree next), I gave myself time to finish the next chapter!

What do you think of this chapter? Like the mystery? Relieved to find out that Jacq's alive? Did someone really think that I was really gonna kill-off Jacq? COME ON! It's JACQ! Firstly, I LOVE Tintin and Jacq together! Secondly, Jacq is AWESOME!

Please read and review! I LOVE reading your responses, and that'd help me a lot!

In other news, I am also doing a new blog where I review independent and international films for a new film discover platform called FilmDoo. If you have a twitter account, please be sure to follow me on twitter for movie reviews, new Tintin chapters, and more! Follow me on Dani_the_muggle.

Thank you for your support! :D