Chapter XXV: Not Even Close
THE WHOLE ROOM IS SILENT FOR WHAT FEELS LIKE AN HOUR AS ROGER NICHOLS STANDS INSIDE THE ROOM.
"Here are the trespassers, Mr. Nichols. We discovered all of them snooping around the Tower," the guard on Roger's left states. "What would you like us to do to them?"
Expecting the worst, I rashly proclaim, "Wait! Mr. Nichols, I-"
"NO TALKING, you!" The other guard, who stands closest to me, shouts, "Or I'll-"
"Enough!" Roger firmly states, silencing the guard. "Let her speak."
His passivity gives me temporary relief, but all of a sudden, I don't have a single idea where to begin with a response. I decide to cut out most of the story as I begin to speak. "Mr. Nichols...I really don't feel like saying how or, why even...but, everyone else here and I have been worried about...something going on during the tournament. Not odd, or peculiar, really, but, more along the lines of dangerous. I came here to ask about the silver, metal boxes that are around this mountain peak." Not a sound from Roger, whose expression borders between indifference and concern. "And, your brother..." I stutter at this part, not entirely sure how to progress, "we think someone might have killed him."
I expect some sort of reply from Roger, but he says nothing. He seems to just stare back at me, as I stand in the middle of the circular room. The repeated silence is almost too much to bear when Zoe sneaks up behind me, grasps at my shoulders, and begins to talk next to my ear, although she talks so loudly it's on the opposite spectrum of whispering.
"Aww, I'm sure you can tell him all about the Rhodium cave, Roxanne," Zoe says. She then pushes me away to the leftmost point of the room as she accuses Roger. "Yeah, that's right; we KNOW!"
I dig my face into my hands in utter humiliation. What the hell does Zoe think she's doing? She's going to get us all killed!
"The jig is up, Nichols," Zoe continues, "We know ALL about your ulterior motive: to BLOW up Peak Three before the race and hoard all of the metal inside the cavern! And to think you would've gotten away with it, too..." Zoe turns around in a half-circle, taking a few steps toward the back of the room. "You, unfortunately, forgot to count on one thing," She spins back around, lifting her finger in accusation, "You didn't count on US discovering the Rhodium cavern ourselves, or the concealment of your weapons of mass destruction, or, in a most heinous crime, the murder of JACK NICHOLS!"
At this point, I'm completely embarrassed by Zoe's conduct, sharing the very same feeling with the rest of the snowboarders in the room, mainly Moby and Elise. It's very clear that Zoe has either been right on the mark, or been making a complete fool out of herself. Once she has finally ended her rant, my grandest hope is that Roger Nichols will spurn Zoe altogether, and tell the rest of us in a professional manner about what's REALLY going on on Peak Three. Roger, however, does something entirely different.
He begins to laugh.
Even as the two guards standing on either side of Roger remain still and noiseless, Roger's laughter advances from out loud and normal to certifiably frightening, laughing loudly for the duration of several seconds. At one moment, Zoe partly joins in with laughter, but immediately shuts herself up afterwards, unsure, like the rest of us snowboarders in the room, of how to react to Roger.
When he finally calms down enough to the point where his words are audible, Roger begins to speak. "Haha...oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Payne, but you're not even close."
If his abrupt laughter didn't intimidate or scare everyone else in the room, Roger's final phrase does. Not only do the words not make any sense, but Roger fails to defend himself from Zoe's wild accusations. Probably more disturbed than the rest of us, Zoe takes a step back away from Roger.
"Oh...I, I see," She uneasily replies, her eyes darting across the room, possibly looking for a way out. "WELL...in that case, you know, now that all of that's settled," She stands next to Viggo and Mac on the opposite side of the room, the furthest away from me, "I think I speak for everyone here when leaving is-"
"Leave?" Roger asks, his interruption more in the form of a statement, before motioning something to the guards.
It's at this point when the guards reach for the machine guns saddled onto their backs, raise the guns over their heads, and take aim at the the rest of us in the circular room. "Actually, none of you will be leaving this room. Ever."
In those overwhelming few seconds, Roger unwittingly answers, 'Why yes, Zoe, you pretty much summed up the entire plan right there.' This means...everything that Zoe said was...true? But it still doesn't make sense...how was Zoe not even close?
Out of nowhere, Allegra begins to laugh. But it's not humorous laughter, it's laughter of absolute disbelief. "Alright...you, have GOT to be kidding me! After all of this time, this whole SSX tournament, is nothing but some...coverup? I REALLY hope that you don't expect me, Roger, to-"
"DON'T, make another sound!" Roger interrupts, his shout easily startling the rest of us. Retrieving his composure, Roger remarks, "Now, if...I may afford a moment..."
As he says this, Roger lifts his hand up to the bottom of his neck and starts to tug at his skin. This, of course, strikes me as a little odd. Why is he pulling at his face?
And that's when I realized: He's not trying to pull off his face...
He's pulling off a mask.
And sure enough, as Roger continues to pull at a piece of flesh near his chin, it starts to tear off, stretching the rest of his face, which now stands out as noticeably artificial. There's no question about it, this man's face is covered with a mask of Roger Nichols. But if this isn't Roger, then...it could be anyone! All at once, suspects bounce around in my head. Tedd Batty, Luther...even the tuxedo-ed man whom I encountered in my motel room, the person whom I talked to over room service in the Hidden Summit Resort, and...ASH MORRISON?
But when the mask is finally removed, I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed. The man who stands in front of us between the two armed guards is completely unrecognizable. I've never seen this man before in my life.
"WOW...that's...that's amazing," Zoe half-heartedly states, not knowing exactly what she was dealing with.
"Yeah, I don't get it either," Psymon comments, coupling with Zoe's confused reaction. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"Huh, how very odd," this person says, "It's rather amusing, really; in the past I've been told that I have an uncanny resemblance to...my brother."
THERE. The force of a million blows to the stomach squeeze the air out of my lungs as the truth knocks me off of my feet. "Oh, my god..." I shout, my words stalled by my inability to produce enough air to complete the sentence. "You're...you're JACK NICHOLS, AREN'T YOU?"
"Bingo, right you are," he exclaims. Everyone else, Kaori, Moby, Psymon, Allegra, Mac, Elise, Griff, and Viggo, share my appalled reaction.
"NO WAY, that's...impossible!" Griff yells, "You're supposed to be dead!"
Moby follows Griff's interjection. "Quite right, there. If it's not your body that's in that mansion, then who-" Moby immediately stops speaking, as the rest of us begin to understand the truth...
It's all too obvious whose body actually lies dead in Jack's mansion.
"No..." Zoe utters from the opposite side of the room, falling onto the concrete seating an digging her nails into the top of her head as she sits. "It's not...it's NOT RIGHT!"
What, is she mad that we're now fully in this dangerous mess or...frustrated that she was wrong? Zoe continues: "I mean, at least Tedd Batty and Roger had motives, even the old crab running the coffee place made more sense, but you..." She growls, darts back up from the wall ledge, and shoots her pointed finger at Jack. "YOU! Just, who the HELL are you anyways? You can't just, STROLL right in here and proclaim yourself the bad guy! What's YOUR beef with society?"
"I am very glad you asked that," Jack joyously states, but his tone is rather muted and ominous. "I'm sure none of you are extensively aware of my past career, am I right?"
"Maybe a little..." Viggo quietly remarks, "You were a safety inspector for amusement park rides, weren't you?"
"I didn't JUST inspect rides, Mr. Rolig...I CREATED them." Jack starts shuffle back and forth in the space between the two guards, machine guns still at the ready, as he elaborates. "Design, inspection, prduction...my high quality work in the entertainment industry became widely popular around the world. I guided manufacturing in the creation of most large scale roller coasters and other amusement park attractions. I even worked in design firms like S&S and TOGO, and collaborated with extensive projects with names such as Cedar Fair and Six Flags." He stopped shuffling about, his body facing the exit of this circular room. "I easily made tens of thousands off of my particular work, and I loved every second of it."
Moby scratches the back of his head, "So...what went wrong there? Doesn't seem like something's awry."
"Not something, SOMEONE," Jack retorts, twisting back around to face us. "Apparently, some idiot's child thought it would be a splendid idea during a coaster ride, a ride that I rightfully and accurately inspected, to wriggle out of his harness and JUMP out of the train, decapitating himself in the process." His voice, shifting from singsongy to serious, morphs into resentment. "Fingers were pointed, and I received the axe in the back!" Fists clenched, he looks like he's about to sprint over and punch one of us in the jaw, but his face falters with remorse. "My years of dedication meant nothing, my respectable reputation immediately shattered. I was no longer hired for amusement park work after the incident. Within a couple years, I would be broke, left with nothing of the millions I strived for."
He turns back around, as if he were to leave the room. But from the corner of where I stand, I see his face light up; almost as if he remembered something important. With his hand in the air, he looks back at us. "However, a peculiar event happened to me: what must have been several months ago, I decided to hike up this very mountain peak and ski part of the way down, half-hoping that some unfortunate accident would quickly take my life. In contrast, I fell into a deep cavern within the peak, and beheld the treasure within: millions upon millions of dollar's worth of exceedingly rare Rhodium metal. I was ecstatic; no more would I suffer the possibility of losing my possessions, and possibly even buying my way back into the entertainment industry."
A delightful grin stretched across his lips, Jack now resembles nothing like the nemesis from a mere minute ago. One question from Allegra, however, easily breaks his countenance. "But, then what? What happened after that and caused all of THIS to take place?" She forcefully asks.
Anger fills across Jack's face. "I...TRUSTED him!" He states, although the force behind his words makes it sound like he's quietly yelling. "After discovering the Rhodium deposit, in my most BLATANT ignorance...I told my brother, Roger, about the cavern. I knew I wouldn't have the funds for a private and quiet excavation of the mountain's resources, and one granted by the government here or other outside influence would cost me too much and leave me with too little. I admit, it was my grandest folly to date. Within days I discovered that the region was to be prospected by a private investor." Once again, his voice becomes filled with fury. "I should have known he was going to want to take the metal for himself!"
"Yeesh, how selfish," Griff comments, "And...he wasn't worried about what you would think?"
"He hadn't a clue that I had found out," Jack says, his voice calm again. "So here I was, stuck with the possibility of attaining nothing of the royalties from this metal deposit, and still being broke. I was stuck...until I discovered something," Jack quietly chuckles, but I'm able to hear it between his sentences. "A past prospector of the region was none other than Tedd Batty, 7 years ago. It turns out that this very mountain range, where the SSX Tournament Spectacular has taken place, was Tedd's first choice of where he wanted to construct BIG Mountain for the third SSX tour. His investment fell through, so he had Triple Peak take place elsewhere."
It appears that Jack is going to continue, but Elise interrupts. "Look, Jack, if I wanted the history lesson, I would have asked," she states, irritated. "Is there a point to this rant?"
Jack smiles, although is facial expression registers as menacing to me. "Why of course there is, Ms. Riggs; in fact, it's at this point where I begin to formulate the plan that's transpiring this very moment!" He turns to the right, walking back and forth between the guards as before. "I was so confident of this plan, that I immediately set it into motion: that night I called Tedd, informing him that I was Roger Nichols, and that I was interested in my company sponsoring a snowboarding tournament in this region. Tedd was...surprisingly enthusiastic about the idea, so much that he gave me the superior position throughout the endeavor, provided that I would run the tournament if he were to take leave."
"But..." I try and carefully utter, but my thoughts get the best of me and I say, "you still had Roger in the way," I point out at him, "so you killed him, didn't you?"
"Ugh, you make it sound like my actions were totally uncalled for," Jack flatly states, halting his saunter between the guards for a second to look at me, "But yes, soon after my encounter with Tedd Batty over the phone I invited Roger over for the night. Unaware of my acknowledgement of his betrayal, he might have thought I just wanted to ask him about his luck in finding an excavation team, he promptly accepted my offer. I beckoned him to relax at one point, and simply poisoned his drink."
"Sounds fantastic," Zoe, who has been surprisingly quiet, exclaims from her seat. "But, did you REALLY have to leave his rotting corpse inside the mansion? Not only is that absolutely disgusting, but oddly sloppy, especially for someone trying to pull off a scheme like this."
Jack stops walking about and waves his hand at Zoe in dismissal. "Oh, you simply must allow me to finish, Ms. Payne. As I was saying, after I murdered my brother, I donned the complex disguise that I had been wearing," he holds up the flesh-like mask in his other hand. "Thankfully, I had extensive knowledge about Roger's business life - keys, phone numbers, employees, mostly things he told and gave me himself in case of an emergency. After a bit of practice, I seamlessly became the C.E.O. of E.o.N. for the short time that I would be there. It only took one short business meeting to convince the rest of the E.o.N. company to make the dream of the SSX Tournament Spectacular a reality. Roger's prior pioneering in alternative energy sources gave the added support for the showcasing of the public event.
"I've actually done quite little in labor terms; Tedd provided almost everything for the tournament: the race track layouts, the crowds, outside entertainment, and even all of you," he gestures to us snowboarders in the room, "including the other 30 riders who had been previously terminated from the event. My role in this tournament has been strictly to maintain control, as I have for the past two days up here in the Peak Three Control Tower."
"But what about the bombs, or explosives, or whatever!" Allegra shouts, noticeably impatient at this point. "Are those real?"
"Why of course they are, Ms. Sauvagess. All across the Peak Three mountainside, hundreds of rounds of intricately placed high-end explosives have been removed from the special metal boxes and buried beneath the ground, as to fully unearth the top of the mountain and deem it easier for an excavation of the Rhodium cavern." Jack's menacing grin returns, and I cringe. Even so far into his revealing story, Jack's confession of the contents of the boxes confirm my worst fears. "Soon, I will take my leave of this Tower. The bombs shall detonate a while afterwards, taking place several hours before the 7:00 pm start time for the Peak Three Extraordinaire."
Oh yeah, I forgot...the Peak Three Extraordinaire event is scheduled for an evening start time, so that by the time us competitors were to reach Jupiter City, it would be nightfall, providing a magnificent race through the artificial lights of the city.
Well, not that it mattered anymore.
Jack keeps going on, "Following the explosions, I would return as myself, Jack Nichols, in the wake of a horrific scene. Since I am the lead inspector for the tournament, courtesy of my, er, brother," He chuckles for a short moment, noting the irony of hiring himself for the job, "I would hold a private investigation, which would determine the death of Roger at the site of the Tower, as I haul away the Rhodium packed inside the now-accessible cavern. Tedd's unfortunate snowboarding empire would immediately fall into absolute disrepair, and I would walk away, with millions from the Rhodium in-hand, scot-free."
"And if something were to go wrong?" Griff randomly interjects.
"In the unlikely event, Mr. Simmons, of a fatal flaw revealing itself before this point in the plan, I would have simply let the tournament run it's course without detonating the explosives. After the event, I would then resign as C.E.O. of E.o.N. and live out the rest of my life as Roger Nichols. My mansion is too obscure to be of interest to anyone, so the murder of the true Roger Nichols would never come to light."
I think back for a moment, and quickly utter, "Wait a minute...if you were able to become Roger Nichols so easily, who didn't you just ditch the tournament idea, stay as the head of E.o.N., and excavate the metal like Roger had planned?"
"Because I couldn't run an energy company forever!" Jack shouts, "There were too many complications; passwords I didn't know, procedures I had never learned, I'm astonished myself that I've made it this far without anyone noticing." He turns back around to face the exit. "I'll admit, my plan was vastly overcomplicated from the start, but...none of that matters now." He twists back to face us. "I've passed the point of safe return, and I haven't made a single mistake as of late."
"Yeah, except for ONE," Mac dramatically states, quite simply out of nowhere, "Letting Luther run that Rock Shop near that abandoned hologram room! That sack of lubber taught Roxanne everything about the caverns!"
Jack squints at Mac, but it's my heart that bursting out of my chest. Why did I have to be put on the spot?
In my utmost misfortune, Jack's head turns to me. "Yes...early in the preliminary steps of starting the tournament, it did haunt me in the back of my mind that having Luther Dwayne-Grady, a newly trained rock specialist, so close to my hidden site." His countenance turns frightening once more as his eyes dart through mine. "Luther, however, had proven to be the LEAST of my worries. Isn't that right, Ms. Schultz?" He backs away from me, but he doesn't stop. "Like when YOU, Roxanne, broke into the cavern itself, and discovered its desirable contents?" He shifts his gaze at Zoe. "Or maybe when you and your klutzy friend Payne here knocked over a fireworks nozzle, revealing that metallic box in the snow, one that was erroneously placed a day early?"
Zoe ignores the threat, spouting, "KLUTZY?"
Jack is fully enraged now, spinning around to face Moby and Psymon. "And finally, in your pathetic little group's most FLAGRANT and SHAMELESS disregard for respect, you two BUFFOONS went as far as BREAKING INTO my mansion when no answer came to you at the door!" Stunned silence from everyone in the room. "Yeah, you'd all be amazed by what hidden cameras can pick up."
"And what, MURDER isn't any LESS respectful?" Moby loudly declares.
"OH, SHUT UP!" Jack hollers, his voice booming throughout the circular room and only dissipating out the single exit.
Despite everyone else's mixed feelings of fear, guilt, and uncertainty, I cannot help but feel puzzled. I had also gone down with Moby and Psymon to the mansion, but Jack didn't say anything to me. Why isn't he shouting at ME for that?
Teary-eyed, Kaori softly pleads, "Oh, please, Nichols-san, let us go. I mean, you don't plan to...KILL us, do you? We swear we won't tell anyone about anything!"
"Sorry, Ms. Nishidake," Jack says, his speech a little more subdued, "but a couple of broken promises are all that's needed to shut down everything I've worked SO HARD for. No...I've come too far to lose everything!"
"Now, HOLD ON A MINUTE," Viggo proclaims, "does this mean that there's no SSX race today?"
"Um, YES," Jack follows up, the irritation in his words matching the rest of ours as everyone else stares in contempt towards Viggo. There's no doubt to the fact that Viggo hasn't been paying attention to a single word that Jack has been saying this whole time.
"This is way messed up, Jack," Elise says, her hands clenched into tight fists.
"Well, life's messed up. Deal with it. It's exactly what I was told when I lost my esteemed status in the amusement park industry, and now, I get to pass the good luck onto all of you." Jack turns around to face the exit again, but this time, instead of standing still, he starts to walk out of the room. "I apologize to you all, but this is where I must take my leave." He faces back at us, standing on the opposite side of the doorway, as the two guards, constantly aiming their machine guns at us, follow him near the doorway. "And now, to bestow upon you snowboarders with a promise that I can keep: NONE of you will EVER make it off of this mountain alive."
In that single phrase, the terrible shaking that I had suffered the night before came back, not as strong as before, but much more thorough, trapping me in a standstill. There's something in Jack's words that...come off as too certain to me. Like even if the impossible were to happen, that no matter what would occur, I wasn't going to survive, nonetheless.
"Oh," Jack adds as his face is about to disappear from the side of the doorway, while the guards prepare to shut the massive solid metal door that blocks the only exit out of the room. "One, final thing." As the guards begin to shift the door from it's position outside of the circular room on its powerful hinges, Jack, looking back into our room, utters a sentence in the coldest, most chilling voice possible:
"Congratulations on making it to the top ten in the SSX Tournament Spectacular."
Jack says no more, but the two guards burst into laughter as the final inches between the doorway and the thick, metal door diminish.
The massive sound of the door locking shut seals our fate.
END CHAPTER