The New Betrayal
Daniel Ocean
//host Anderson Cooper appears on the TV screen of hundreds of thousands of homes across the world and in the colonies.//
"Welcome to the Mole. Thirteen players try to complete missions across Europe to gain money toward the pot. Money is gained as games are won, however, one amongst them is the Mole, a secret agent planted by the producers to foil the players. Up to one million dollars hinges on the question: Who is the Mole?
//nine pictures, one of each remaining contestant, pops up on the screen//
Heero, 19, Army soldier, Sapporo, Japan
Hilde, 18, Auto dealer, Munich, Germany
Trowa, 19, Circus performer, St. Petersburg, FL
Lucretzia, 24, Test driver, Tucson, AZ
Zechs, 25, Air Force Lieutenant, Pueblo, CO
Sally, 22, Police officer, Preventers colony
Duo, 19, Junk yard owner, L2 colony
Relena, 20, Doctor, Birmingham, England
Traize, 26, Appraiser, New York City, NY
//the map of Europe, the tour du jour of the game thus far, again appears in front of the screen at the beginning of the episode. It focuses on the players' new location, of Northern France, near Calais. And for the first time, there is a mini-preview: Relena in a bathtub floating in the river, pushing it along with an oar; and Traize falling out of an inner tube piloted by Hilde and Trowa.
//Meanwhile, though, we get some interviews.//
Heero: "I sort of suspect Duo. He wasn't on par in the last relay game, the Heeko game, and he couldn't beat Relena to the town in the very first game, even though he was strong enough to win the Triathlon thing."
Duo: "I think Relena's the Mole. She is smart, so she should be confident in the quizzes, but she fought so hard for that exemption there that she becomes suspicious in my eyes."
Trowa: "Zechs has been suspicious since the Running of the Tiny cars, and his sticking by Quatre right before he was eliminated makes him my best suspect."
Relena: "I've seen how Zechs has acted...strangely. And another big suspect of mine is Hilde. She's been acting as weirdly, if not more so. I'm sticking by her with the cover of the coalition to try to find out more."
Hilde: "Relena has acted suspiciously before, but the performance in the first game, and the Save Heeko game, both just take the cake."
Sally: "I think that the Relena/Hilde group is either knowing in who the Mole is, or one of them is the Mole. But I really, honestly don't know. I'm splitting my vote between them to buy some time for now."
Lucretzia: "Hilde's actions have been a little bit at a time-nothing too suspicious, but it's just enough to throw us off, just like a Mole. And Duo has been the same thing. I still remember the way he treated the Grape- Picking game."
Zechs: "I'm just trying to get people to think I am the Mole so they have worse scores than even I. I'm having big problems."
Traize: "Not sure. I thought at first it was Cathy, but then she left in the second round. I thought that Lucretzia's tweaking the girls in Karaoke was big, as was her losing big, apparently, in the Triathlon. That's...surprising."
//like last week, the players start their missions all collected in front of the hotel, eating, but instead of breakfast, the group is enjoying a simple lunch of fish and chips. There are ten seats at the large circular table, one being empty.
//Anderson Cooper quietly joins the group, dressed in rubber and fishing guard, and serves himself, as if there is nothing going on that is significant. Within a few moments, everyone is looking up and tittering.//
"Hello, everyone."
"Hi there." "Hello." "Nice outfit, Coop."
"If you guys would like to know why I am dressed in a way that I am, you guys should assemble right here this afternoon at two." Cooper picked up his plate and started to walk away. "We have theme games this round."
//interviews.//
Hilde: "When Cooper said that there was going to be theme games, and he was dressed in that fisherman's suit, I screamed on the inside. 'Noooooooo!' I can't do water too well."
//the next scene is a brief time-lapse thing, with the players running around in the hotel, followed by them going out to the hotel courtyard, with a blur-Cooper-joining them briefly, until all of them load into a van in front. They all apparently go off to the same location. The scene returns to normal, as the van pulls up to the river, near an assemblage of several forty-gallon white porcelain bathtubs, complete with faucets.//
Cooper, normally dressed, popped out of the driver's seat of the van. The nine players climb out the back one by one, and the look on their faces, when they see the bathtubs, is quite priceless. The host went between them and the tubs and addressed them in a cheerful manner.
"Players," he said, "welcome to the Bathtub Race." There was a pause for laughter and groans, the most impressive of the latter coming from Heero. "First of all, the group of you have to take a pair of polls. It isn't too major, no secret ballot is needed. First, who would you like most to see win the pot money and the game in the end, other than yourself?"
At first, the votes went in all directions, but after a few moments, many of the votes went Trowa's way. "Very well. This is still for all of you. Which amongst you do you think is not-not-the Mole?
This vote went a shade faster, with the majority of the votes settling for Sally. "Okay, that's fine. Now, in some Mole games, there is a vote like this to determine the main players of a game." //shot of Sally grimacing.// "This is sort of the same. They will have a major part of the game, but they will not going to be climbing into the bathtubs with the rest of you. The rest of you should pick a tub, now."
Duo jogged ahead of the rest of the group and claimed the first tub. He looked inside, then pulled back a little bit. "Uh," he said uneasily, "do we have to keep all of those rubber duckies in there?"
"Yes, that will be a part of the game." Once all of the players had gone off to claim their tub, he turned back to Trowa and Sally. "Now," he said, "you guys will be determining how the money shall be won. There is a total of $30,000 on the line, and you will be betting on who will be finishing where, like in a couple of previous games. You will put $15,000 on the winner, $10,000 on the second-place skipper, and $5000 on third. You have seven minutes to make your decisions."
//the shot first focuses on the two bettors, wrinkling their noses as their teammates try as well as they can to get into what are largely already occupied tubs. As they speak, their conversation becomes a VO with a montage of the players. The first to speak is Trowa.//
"Okay. Um, well...all right..."
//in getting into his, Traize displaces a dozen duckies.//
"You know what? I think we really got to pick the pilots if they are going to go out boating. The stream looks rather choppy."
"Yeah. You think that this is something that Heero is going to be good at?"
//the camera zooms in on Duo, who turns to the camera and squeezes the many duckies in his hand.//
"That's a good pick to win. Zechs for second? I think he's really overdue to have a really great game."
"Sure."
//Hilde is buried up to her shoulders in yellow plastic.//
"Good God, the producers are losing their minds."
"Hmmm." Trowa paused in quiet contemplation. "Duo has been so good in so many games; you think we should put him into third?"
"Yeah, I guess so. If he does bad in this one, we can label him as a suspect, probably, right?"
"Uh-huh. Good when he's good and bad when he's bad."
//Lucretzia is doing little dance steps to 'Splish Splash' in her tub, and Heero is sitting on the rim of his, not yet trying to get into it, clearly embarrassed over the entire situation.//
"Is that it?"
"I think so. Get Anderson over here and tell him the picks."
//after a scene change...//
"All right players..." Anderson stood where all of the contestants, all of whom besides Heero were in their tubs, could best hear him. "We have some movers coming to get you into position. Sally and Trowa have made all of their picks, and it's fifteen thousand for the win, ten thousand for the second place and five thousand for third place. Good luck in getting where you need to be, and if the current knocks you out of your boat, then float on your back, feet-first." He began to walk away, then turned back to the contestants. "Oh, yeah: you all have one hundred duckies in each of your boats, which will be counted at the end. If by then you have fewer than fifty, then you automatically place behind anyone who has at least that many. Good luck!"
//the Ronin Warriors come out and drag them into the river, one by one, where Cy, the water warrior, keeps them in place until a rope from one back to the other can be hooked onto each boat. All players are wearing life vests, and Hilde has a camera in her lap. When all seven are in, the rope is cut, and the racers are off onto the course, which is a little over a half-mile in length.//
"Ahhhh!" Hilde and Relena took the early lead, with their low weights and good floating ability. The rapids were going at several miles an hour, and rocks made the river bounce up to a foot in the air. When Relena first hit one such rock, she hit a jarring stop, and staying on the rock, spinning wildly whilst spilling a dozen or so of her duckies. She was only released by Traize, who was heavy enough to not only knock her off, but also stay completely off of it. The other low-weight players were bouncing all around the river, and the high-weight players had the best attributes, bouncing less and keeping more of their ducks while keeping more duckies.
After fifty yards of rapids, which had followed a hundred yards of even river, the water calmed down again and went into a wide bend. The current took the players to the outside part of the turn, where the entire cast of "Mobile Suit Gundam" and "Gundam 0080" were waiting with water pistols and power water guns. They were all very good shots; one camera shot-from the inside of Hilde's boat-showed a seeming shower rain upon the captain.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Look out there"
//interviews//
Hilde: "All of them were very good shots. They were all from the One-Year War, when everyone was a soldier, and they showed off their skills on us, if we weren't cold enough before."
Duo: "By then I was last. And they could see I was last. It felt like I was in a cold downpour when I passed by them. I think Amuro Ray emptied his entire gallon-pistol on me."
As the end of the turn tapered off, the players had separated from their weight groups, going into the order of Traize, Zechs, Relena, Lucretzia, Hilde, Heero, and Duo bringing up the back.
The two Gundam boys, not at all happy at their standing, whipped out their oars and paddled furiously, passing Hilde and Lucretzia. Seeing the boys go by, they also went as fast as they could, and by the time the next round of raids struck, all of the players were near-even and faster than they had been the first time.
Heero, the first to hit a large rock, had the front of his pitch upward, spilling dozens of ducks-and almost him with them-backwards into the cold water. Traize, heavier than Heero, hit the rocks even harder, pitching less but almost cracking the bottom of his tub. The other layers all had the same experience, and the river soon grew thick with ducks. Hilde's cam showed a considerable amount of water in her tub, with maybe five or six dozen ducks remaining. It seemed to be floating low in the water, surrounded by other players' ducks. In fact, as she steered with the oar with her right hand, she was scooping up ducks beside her and putting them in her tub, one at a time.
After another hundred yards of rapids and five minutes into the race, the racers reached the final stretch, two hundred yards of clear water with some sprinklers on each bank. Duo lead, with Traize and Zechs behind. Behind were Lucretzia and Hilde, who was almost falling out of her tub. Relena and Heero were well behind, she having fallen out of her tub and floating with him, holding onto the side of his tub with him trying to pry her off. Because he was using his oar to do this, they floated off to the side of the stream and duped it out there.
The lighter racers again began to pick up speed, with their better floating ability. Fifty yards to go, it was a five-way traffic jam for first, not including dozens of Heero's ducks and Relena's empty tub.
In the end, Hilde went around all of the racers and crossed the finish line first, immediately followed by Zechs, then Traize, who beat out Lucretzia for third by just a half-length. Duo was fifth, a few seconds behind. Relena and Heero, too deeply beached, failed to finish, though Relena's rider-less bathtub did come in ahead of Duo.
//all of the competitors are lined up in front of Anderson, and everyone save Trowa and Sally are soaking wet.//
"That was a fairly good race, everyone. From where I was, it was quite entertaining. Did you like the rapids? Great how all of you were bouncing about the place. I saw Heero go, "whew!" and pitch all the way up...it was incredible.
"Anyway, you all finished in the order of Hilde, Zechs, and Traize. Trowa and Sally selected the order of...Heero, Zechs, and Traize. Therefore ten thousand dollars is added to the pot, making it $204,000. You all will now return to the hotel, dry off, and have the rest of the day off. Your next mission will be tomorrow afternoon."
//interviews//
Heero: "When Relena left her boat, she let herself be passed by Zechs before she latched onto me. I still had a shot to win. I think she may have been trying to keep money out of the pot, thinking that I'd be picked to finish in the top three. And I was."
Relena: "I was trying to remember to keep on my back and my feet forward. I figured that I couldn't teach Millardo without going onto my belly, so I waited to get the next person who passed."
Duo: "We should of thrown in Sally AND Trowa AND Cooper for staying dry. That water was coooooold. And it was a cold, overcast, unpleasant day...kind of...not fun for something like this. The Mole has to be in Jamaica or something next time around."
//that night, at the dinner table.//
"Well." All were sitting indoors at what looked to be a couple of counters, eating placidly until Duo spoke up. "If we win the next game and that's one of forty or so thousand dollars, then were up to about a quarter of a million, instead of the hundred and some-odd we had up until today. It's really starting to look pretty good."
Heero snorted. "Is that what you care about there, Duo? Money?"
"Don't you want to win?"
"Not necessarily for the money. As long as I get what I would have gotten at my job I'm fine."
"You are not at all motivated by the fact that you could win five or six hundred thousand dollars by the end of this? C'mon. Anyone would like to have that much money given to them. Right?"
No one responded, not wanting to really side with both, even if all had one decision or the other.
//interview with Sally//
"Duo is making much too big of a deal over the money from winning. I want to win some money, too, sure but we are all guaranteed at least a little bit of money. A little bit more, now, since we all are going to be in the top nine. He's being a little too secular."
//shot of Duo and Heero going off in opposite directions in obvious disgust, with a VO of Zechs//
"Those two must be kept away if possible. Heero doesn't seem to b all that forgiving. I'm not all that forgiving, myself. And if I'm him, I start sabotaging Duo left and right whether or not I'm the Mole."
//the next day. The players are in the field once again, at another creek- possibly the same one, but if that were true, far away from the site of the first game. Here, the water ran deeper, wider, and with an even swifter current. Three large inner-tubes await the players, as do nine foam rings. When all assemble before these object, knowing what's going to happen, Cooper explains the details.//
"Welcome, players, to the Gathering Boat Journey. In this game, all of you will break into three groups of three, get onto one of the large inner tubes, and then gather some of the objects hanging from the cords stretched above the river." //shot of these cords, which have objects like plastic rings, rubber chickens, and little pyramids.// "There are twenty cords total, each with a pyramid, two chickens, three rings and five foam balls. There is a point value to the objects. One foam ball is twenty-five points, a ring is fifty, a chicken is one hundred, and a pyramid is two hundred fifty. The team with the most points at the end of the race earns exemptions for each team member that stays in until the end. Also, if the teams combine to score at least six thousand points, then $25,000 is added to the pot." Cooper gestured to the inner tubes. "Pick your teams now, you have sixty seconds."
Heero and Relena congealed into a pair, soon to be joined by Duo. Zechs and Noin did the same, and Sally joined her coalition-mate, leaving Zechs, Trowa, and Hilde as the final group.
"Very good," said Cooper. "Now, all of you must don life-rings or life- vests, and then pick one of the inner tubes. All are the same, except for the number." (For ease of identification, the three tubes have large, black numbers on their otherwise yellow sides.) "Get into position, you'll be towed out into the water."
//all of the inner tubes is hanging by a rope, like the way the tubs were in the previous game. VO by Cooper.//
"All of the layers are fighting for an exemption, but there is an amount of group money that can be won with the exemption. With the game's format, will the players work together to add to the pot, or for themselves to try to get the exemption?"
//the players are released, and slowly go off into the water.//
Relena get up standing, and Heero and Duo sat on opposite ends of the inner tube to balance out the weight. Duo, in the back, also tried to steer. Traize, Hilde, and Trowa all sat up in their tube, and the OZ tube saw everyone taking turns at each position. As they went through the first round of objects, Traize got a pyramid, and each of the other two teams were able to collect the chickens.
The river was so swift, it became to do any maneuvering to bump another team out of position for a big point gain. During the next four strings, the R-D-H group gets a pyramid and two rings, the OZ group gets two chickens, and the polyglot group got a pyramid, a chicken, and a foam ball. After a quarter of the course, the polyglot group has 500 points, the other two 450 apiece, thereby, slightly behind the pace to get to six thousand.
At the sixth line, the camera focused on Relena grabbing a pyramid when there was a sudden yelp from off the screen. The camera shifts just fast enough to see Hilde fall into the water.
//Hilde: "I was trying to reach over for the chicken, but it was about two inches out of my grasp...I leaned too far off to the side and slipped from my perch. It was lucky we didn't all fall in."//
Hilde floated with the current for a little bit, until she saw the OZ boat and decided to hitch a ride along, a la Sally. Zechs, however, bops her with the oar to knock her off; she goes off to the side and beaches.
All the players, especially the polyglot group, are more careful in their balance. However, each group got one pyramid over lines six, seven, and eight. R-D-H also got a chicken and foam ball, OZ the same, and polyglot a chicken. The score stayed close-polyglot had 850, with R-D-H and OZ just 25 behind. Zechs, trying to push OZ ahead, got far too greedy and fell victim to gravity, the second team to take the plunge. Slightly ahead, the other two teams had a collision, and Traize, hanging off the edge, also fell into the water, leaving only Trowa in the inner tube. With all the splashing about-especially by Traize, trying to throw off the other teams for Trowa-no one had any points for lines nine and ten.
//personal interviews//
Traize: "I don't know why the three of them knocked me in. Maybe it was accidental. I hope so. Seven are better than six to get the money for this game."
Zechs: "The game got too close too early. Everyone was striving too much to get the exemption and people tumbled in. If one team was winning by a blowout, then we could have had a shot at the money."
Lucretzia and Sally got a pyramid for their group; the others each got a foam ball. The twelfth line saw all three groups get rings. No one was too busy bumping into each other-the river abruptly narrowed and all three teams smashed into each other-on the thirteenth line. Next, both the OZ group and the R-D-H group were in position to go up and get the pyramid. Neither team backed down, and the third collision of the race occurred. Relena took a tumble in and the OZ group flew off to the side.
Trowa got a chicken that time, and a pyramid the next, as each other team got a chicken on the fourteenth line, as the points race tightened. On the next line, OZ was the only team to get anything, a ring. After a wide turn, the racers approached the final five lines, which were slightly higher and dispersed their goods over a wider area.
OZ was able to get a chicken on the next line, as R-D-H got the pyramid and Trowa nothing. Everyone got foam balls the next line after that, but at that point, Trowa's boat was rocking dangerously. He simply sat and let himself cross the finish line, not going for any more items.
Each remaining group got chickens from the eighteenth line. The final two lines, from there, were just a few feet apart, right after each other, and both teams had settled into a few feet of each other, with the river again narrowing and speeding up.
Sally got up in her boat, wobbling, as did Heero. Under the water, though, was a trough that neither team could see, accelerating the boats forward. Sally, shorter than Heero, was able to duck down under the cords, but Heero got caught, from the armpits up. His feet were still in the boat, so both her and Duo found themselves caught in the current for a moment until Heero dropped down into the inner tube, stunned.
"Looks painful."
"Yeah..."
Sally and crossed the finish line a few seconds behind Trowa, another few seconds head of Heero and Duo. The four ejected were already on land near the finish line. Lucretzia peered into her team's bin and said, "IU do think this'll be enough."
"Ought to be. Better be."
//as each bin in each inner tube is unloaded, the point totals are shown in subtitles: polyglot, 1300 points, OZ, 1500 points, and R-D-H, 1400 points. For staying in the OZ tube the whole time, Sally and Lucretzia get exemptions; with a total of 4200 points, the team failed to get the $25,000.
//personal interviews//
Relena: "Now, when Traize fell out of his tube, and started to throw water at us...was that just because he was helping his teammate for the mission, or because he didn't want anyone to get anything?"
Sally: "That last lines was incredible. I've never seen anyone hung up like Heero. He used to be the Perfect Soldier; what's happened to him? Has his brain been sucked out by aliens from Planet Twinkie? Very uncharacteristic of him."
Duo: "That was not fun, those last lines. We were just a chicken behind the girls. If he could only duck, Heero could've gotten us exemptions. He should be able to do that-I've seen a whole lot more from him. So why couldn't he; or, why didn't he?"
Trowa: "I didn't know how close I was when I gave up. I could have won with a pyramid. And, I was in the lead, so I would've had the first opportunity to get them. I'm not pleased with myself."
Hilde: "Trowa could have gotten the exemption for himself, but he decided not to risk it when it wouldn't have cost him anything. Did he do that because he knew he wouldn't need an exemption?"
//the execution dinner. All of the players are at two tables in a creepy, ivy-overgrown, dark courtyard.//
"Wow." Duo looked in all directions, both impressed and a little uneasy. "They really make these places worthy of Walt Disney, don't they?"
"I don't care." Sally, safe for this round, was finishing up fairly nonchalantly. "Anything beats the graveyard he had that execution in."
//the test. Heero is on, "Did the Mole participate in the Bathtub Race?"//
Heero: "Some of the choices by Sally and Trowa were strange in the light of the final results. Of course no one has had any experience handicapping bathtub races, but it is still vaguely suspicious."
//Trowa is answering, "Did the Mole lose their tub during the race?" A shot of Relena falling from the bathtub is shown as Trowa's thinking is given in a VO.//
"Relena was light enough to float high enough to go pretty fast. Did she fall and try to lose the group money? And then she pulled Heero away from the race when he was picked as the favorite. She's been suspicious the whole race and now her actions make her seem like the Mole more and more."
//Hilde is answering, "Which tube was the Mole in for the Gathering race?"//
Hilde: "I really think that Trowa was thinking that we could have enough to earn money for the pot. And obviously, if he's the Mole, he wouldn't need an exemption, would he?"
//Relena is on the final question: "Who is the Mole?"//
Relena: "Zechs has been suspicious, Hilde has been suspicious, but this round Heero took the cake. He had a couple of seconds to get out of the way of a non-moving rope, and he-the Perfect Soldier!-just couldn't do it."
//the execution. Cooper stands before all of the players, with the computer set up with the score results.//
"Tonight, I welcome you to the fifth execution that you face as a group. Seven of you are eligible to leave tonight; Lucretzia and Sally have exemptions. I will type in your name into the computer, if the screen flashes green you're fine, but if it flashes red, you've become the Mole's newest victim. We will start with Zechs."
Cooper typed in Zechs's name into the computer, and entered it in. After a moment, the screen flashed green.
"Duo." Duo chewed on his braid as he watched his name being entered into his computer. When it paused for a second, he started biting down harder, but it flashed green, and he tilted his head back, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Trowa." He looked calmly as Cooper put in his name next, even through the wait for processing. After a moment, however, the screen flashed red.
The Gundam pilot just nodded. "Very well." He shook with Duo, Heero, and then Cooper, and got a blind-side hug from a tearful Relena. He picked u his bags and walked calmly to the waiting limo, where Cooper opened the door for him and sent him off.
Relena: "God, it was terrible to see Trowa leave. It was..."(starts to tear up again)..."I don't know how, but twice as bad as losing Quatre."
Heero: "Trowa is one of calmness and honor, and does the Gundams proud. He shall be missed as a player."
Sally: "Well, he had to say goodbye to his friend just a few days ago, and now he's gone as well. I think it could've affected him a little bit more than he let show."
Trowa: "I thought I had answered the questions perfectly fine the last quiz. But that is the funny thing about the game. You could be answering the questions for what you think was a perfect score and still go out."
//Trowa is driven off into the night.//
You, too, can take the ten question quiz. See how your Mole-finding skills stack up:
Did the Mole participate in the Bathtub Race?
Was the Mole able to finish the race? (Y, N, Did Not Participate)
Did the Mole lose their tub during the race?
Where did the Mole finish during the race? (1-5, Did Not Finish, Did Not Participate)
Did the Mole win money during the Bathtub race?
Which tube was the Mole in during the Gathering Race?
Did the Mole spill out of their tube during the race?
Did the Mole earn an exemption during the race?
What was the total number of points won by the Mole's team during the Gathering race? (1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700)
Who is the Mole?
Daniel Ocean
//host Anderson Cooper appears on the TV screen of hundreds of thousands of homes across the world and in the colonies.//
"Welcome to the Mole. Thirteen players try to complete missions across Europe to gain money toward the pot. Money is gained as games are won, however, one amongst them is the Mole, a secret agent planted by the producers to foil the players. Up to one million dollars hinges on the question: Who is the Mole?
//nine pictures, one of each remaining contestant, pops up on the screen//
Heero, 19, Army soldier, Sapporo, Japan
Hilde, 18, Auto dealer, Munich, Germany
Trowa, 19, Circus performer, St. Petersburg, FL
Lucretzia, 24, Test driver, Tucson, AZ
Zechs, 25, Air Force Lieutenant, Pueblo, CO
Sally, 22, Police officer, Preventers colony
Duo, 19, Junk yard owner, L2 colony
Relena, 20, Doctor, Birmingham, England
Traize, 26, Appraiser, New York City, NY
//the map of Europe, the tour du jour of the game thus far, again appears in front of the screen at the beginning of the episode. It focuses on the players' new location, of Northern France, near Calais. And for the first time, there is a mini-preview: Relena in a bathtub floating in the river, pushing it along with an oar; and Traize falling out of an inner tube piloted by Hilde and Trowa.
//Meanwhile, though, we get some interviews.//
Heero: "I sort of suspect Duo. He wasn't on par in the last relay game, the Heeko game, and he couldn't beat Relena to the town in the very first game, even though he was strong enough to win the Triathlon thing."
Duo: "I think Relena's the Mole. She is smart, so she should be confident in the quizzes, but she fought so hard for that exemption there that she becomes suspicious in my eyes."
Trowa: "Zechs has been suspicious since the Running of the Tiny cars, and his sticking by Quatre right before he was eliminated makes him my best suspect."
Relena: "I've seen how Zechs has acted...strangely. And another big suspect of mine is Hilde. She's been acting as weirdly, if not more so. I'm sticking by her with the cover of the coalition to try to find out more."
Hilde: "Relena has acted suspiciously before, but the performance in the first game, and the Save Heeko game, both just take the cake."
Sally: "I think that the Relena/Hilde group is either knowing in who the Mole is, or one of them is the Mole. But I really, honestly don't know. I'm splitting my vote between them to buy some time for now."
Lucretzia: "Hilde's actions have been a little bit at a time-nothing too suspicious, but it's just enough to throw us off, just like a Mole. And Duo has been the same thing. I still remember the way he treated the Grape- Picking game."
Zechs: "I'm just trying to get people to think I am the Mole so they have worse scores than even I. I'm having big problems."
Traize: "Not sure. I thought at first it was Cathy, but then she left in the second round. I thought that Lucretzia's tweaking the girls in Karaoke was big, as was her losing big, apparently, in the Triathlon. That's...surprising."
//like last week, the players start their missions all collected in front of the hotel, eating, but instead of breakfast, the group is enjoying a simple lunch of fish and chips. There are ten seats at the large circular table, one being empty.
//Anderson Cooper quietly joins the group, dressed in rubber and fishing guard, and serves himself, as if there is nothing going on that is significant. Within a few moments, everyone is looking up and tittering.//
"Hello, everyone."
"Hi there." "Hello." "Nice outfit, Coop."
"If you guys would like to know why I am dressed in a way that I am, you guys should assemble right here this afternoon at two." Cooper picked up his plate and started to walk away. "We have theme games this round."
//interviews.//
Hilde: "When Cooper said that there was going to be theme games, and he was dressed in that fisherman's suit, I screamed on the inside. 'Noooooooo!' I can't do water too well."
//the next scene is a brief time-lapse thing, with the players running around in the hotel, followed by them going out to the hotel courtyard, with a blur-Cooper-joining them briefly, until all of them load into a van in front. They all apparently go off to the same location. The scene returns to normal, as the van pulls up to the river, near an assemblage of several forty-gallon white porcelain bathtubs, complete with faucets.//
Cooper, normally dressed, popped out of the driver's seat of the van. The nine players climb out the back one by one, and the look on their faces, when they see the bathtubs, is quite priceless. The host went between them and the tubs and addressed them in a cheerful manner.
"Players," he said, "welcome to the Bathtub Race." There was a pause for laughter and groans, the most impressive of the latter coming from Heero. "First of all, the group of you have to take a pair of polls. It isn't too major, no secret ballot is needed. First, who would you like most to see win the pot money and the game in the end, other than yourself?"
At first, the votes went in all directions, but after a few moments, many of the votes went Trowa's way. "Very well. This is still for all of you. Which amongst you do you think is not-not-the Mole?
This vote went a shade faster, with the majority of the votes settling for Sally. "Okay, that's fine. Now, in some Mole games, there is a vote like this to determine the main players of a game." //shot of Sally grimacing.// "This is sort of the same. They will have a major part of the game, but they will not going to be climbing into the bathtubs with the rest of you. The rest of you should pick a tub, now."
Duo jogged ahead of the rest of the group and claimed the first tub. He looked inside, then pulled back a little bit. "Uh," he said uneasily, "do we have to keep all of those rubber duckies in there?"
"Yes, that will be a part of the game." Once all of the players had gone off to claim their tub, he turned back to Trowa and Sally. "Now," he said, "you guys will be determining how the money shall be won. There is a total of $30,000 on the line, and you will be betting on who will be finishing where, like in a couple of previous games. You will put $15,000 on the winner, $10,000 on the second-place skipper, and $5000 on third. You have seven minutes to make your decisions."
//the shot first focuses on the two bettors, wrinkling their noses as their teammates try as well as they can to get into what are largely already occupied tubs. As they speak, their conversation becomes a VO with a montage of the players. The first to speak is Trowa.//
"Okay. Um, well...all right..."
//in getting into his, Traize displaces a dozen duckies.//
"You know what? I think we really got to pick the pilots if they are going to go out boating. The stream looks rather choppy."
"Yeah. You think that this is something that Heero is going to be good at?"
//the camera zooms in on Duo, who turns to the camera and squeezes the many duckies in his hand.//
"That's a good pick to win. Zechs for second? I think he's really overdue to have a really great game."
"Sure."
//Hilde is buried up to her shoulders in yellow plastic.//
"Good God, the producers are losing their minds."
"Hmmm." Trowa paused in quiet contemplation. "Duo has been so good in so many games; you think we should put him into third?"
"Yeah, I guess so. If he does bad in this one, we can label him as a suspect, probably, right?"
"Uh-huh. Good when he's good and bad when he's bad."
//Lucretzia is doing little dance steps to 'Splish Splash' in her tub, and Heero is sitting on the rim of his, not yet trying to get into it, clearly embarrassed over the entire situation.//
"Is that it?"
"I think so. Get Anderson over here and tell him the picks."
//after a scene change...//
"All right players..." Anderson stood where all of the contestants, all of whom besides Heero were in their tubs, could best hear him. "We have some movers coming to get you into position. Sally and Trowa have made all of their picks, and it's fifteen thousand for the win, ten thousand for the second place and five thousand for third place. Good luck in getting where you need to be, and if the current knocks you out of your boat, then float on your back, feet-first." He began to walk away, then turned back to the contestants. "Oh, yeah: you all have one hundred duckies in each of your boats, which will be counted at the end. If by then you have fewer than fifty, then you automatically place behind anyone who has at least that many. Good luck!"
//the Ronin Warriors come out and drag them into the river, one by one, where Cy, the water warrior, keeps them in place until a rope from one back to the other can be hooked onto each boat. All players are wearing life vests, and Hilde has a camera in her lap. When all seven are in, the rope is cut, and the racers are off onto the course, which is a little over a half-mile in length.//
"Ahhhh!" Hilde and Relena took the early lead, with their low weights and good floating ability. The rapids were going at several miles an hour, and rocks made the river bounce up to a foot in the air. When Relena first hit one such rock, she hit a jarring stop, and staying on the rock, spinning wildly whilst spilling a dozen or so of her duckies. She was only released by Traize, who was heavy enough to not only knock her off, but also stay completely off of it. The other low-weight players were bouncing all around the river, and the high-weight players had the best attributes, bouncing less and keeping more of their ducks while keeping more duckies.
After fifty yards of rapids, which had followed a hundred yards of even river, the water calmed down again and went into a wide bend. The current took the players to the outside part of the turn, where the entire cast of "Mobile Suit Gundam" and "Gundam 0080" were waiting with water pistols and power water guns. They were all very good shots; one camera shot-from the inside of Hilde's boat-showed a seeming shower rain upon the captain.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Look out there"
//interviews//
Hilde: "All of them were very good shots. They were all from the One-Year War, when everyone was a soldier, and they showed off their skills on us, if we weren't cold enough before."
Duo: "By then I was last. And they could see I was last. It felt like I was in a cold downpour when I passed by them. I think Amuro Ray emptied his entire gallon-pistol on me."
As the end of the turn tapered off, the players had separated from their weight groups, going into the order of Traize, Zechs, Relena, Lucretzia, Hilde, Heero, and Duo bringing up the back.
The two Gundam boys, not at all happy at their standing, whipped out their oars and paddled furiously, passing Hilde and Lucretzia. Seeing the boys go by, they also went as fast as they could, and by the time the next round of raids struck, all of the players were near-even and faster than they had been the first time.
Heero, the first to hit a large rock, had the front of his pitch upward, spilling dozens of ducks-and almost him with them-backwards into the cold water. Traize, heavier than Heero, hit the rocks even harder, pitching less but almost cracking the bottom of his tub. The other layers all had the same experience, and the river soon grew thick with ducks. Hilde's cam showed a considerable amount of water in her tub, with maybe five or six dozen ducks remaining. It seemed to be floating low in the water, surrounded by other players' ducks. In fact, as she steered with the oar with her right hand, she was scooping up ducks beside her and putting them in her tub, one at a time.
After another hundred yards of rapids and five minutes into the race, the racers reached the final stretch, two hundred yards of clear water with some sprinklers on each bank. Duo lead, with Traize and Zechs behind. Behind were Lucretzia and Hilde, who was almost falling out of her tub. Relena and Heero were well behind, she having fallen out of her tub and floating with him, holding onto the side of his tub with him trying to pry her off. Because he was using his oar to do this, they floated off to the side of the stream and duped it out there.
The lighter racers again began to pick up speed, with their better floating ability. Fifty yards to go, it was a five-way traffic jam for first, not including dozens of Heero's ducks and Relena's empty tub.
In the end, Hilde went around all of the racers and crossed the finish line first, immediately followed by Zechs, then Traize, who beat out Lucretzia for third by just a half-length. Duo was fifth, a few seconds behind. Relena and Heero, too deeply beached, failed to finish, though Relena's rider-less bathtub did come in ahead of Duo.
//all of the competitors are lined up in front of Anderson, and everyone save Trowa and Sally are soaking wet.//
"That was a fairly good race, everyone. From where I was, it was quite entertaining. Did you like the rapids? Great how all of you were bouncing about the place. I saw Heero go, "whew!" and pitch all the way up...it was incredible.
"Anyway, you all finished in the order of Hilde, Zechs, and Traize. Trowa and Sally selected the order of...Heero, Zechs, and Traize. Therefore ten thousand dollars is added to the pot, making it $204,000. You all will now return to the hotel, dry off, and have the rest of the day off. Your next mission will be tomorrow afternoon."
//interviews//
Heero: "When Relena left her boat, she let herself be passed by Zechs before she latched onto me. I still had a shot to win. I think she may have been trying to keep money out of the pot, thinking that I'd be picked to finish in the top three. And I was."
Relena: "I was trying to remember to keep on my back and my feet forward. I figured that I couldn't teach Millardo without going onto my belly, so I waited to get the next person who passed."
Duo: "We should of thrown in Sally AND Trowa AND Cooper for staying dry. That water was coooooold. And it was a cold, overcast, unpleasant day...kind of...not fun for something like this. The Mole has to be in Jamaica or something next time around."
//that night, at the dinner table.//
"Well." All were sitting indoors at what looked to be a couple of counters, eating placidly until Duo spoke up. "If we win the next game and that's one of forty or so thousand dollars, then were up to about a quarter of a million, instead of the hundred and some-odd we had up until today. It's really starting to look pretty good."
Heero snorted. "Is that what you care about there, Duo? Money?"
"Don't you want to win?"
"Not necessarily for the money. As long as I get what I would have gotten at my job I'm fine."
"You are not at all motivated by the fact that you could win five or six hundred thousand dollars by the end of this? C'mon. Anyone would like to have that much money given to them. Right?"
No one responded, not wanting to really side with both, even if all had one decision or the other.
//interview with Sally//
"Duo is making much too big of a deal over the money from winning. I want to win some money, too, sure but we are all guaranteed at least a little bit of money. A little bit more, now, since we all are going to be in the top nine. He's being a little too secular."
//shot of Duo and Heero going off in opposite directions in obvious disgust, with a VO of Zechs//
"Those two must be kept away if possible. Heero doesn't seem to b all that forgiving. I'm not all that forgiving, myself. And if I'm him, I start sabotaging Duo left and right whether or not I'm the Mole."
//the next day. The players are in the field once again, at another creek- possibly the same one, but if that were true, far away from the site of the first game. Here, the water ran deeper, wider, and with an even swifter current. Three large inner-tubes await the players, as do nine foam rings. When all assemble before these object, knowing what's going to happen, Cooper explains the details.//
"Welcome, players, to the Gathering Boat Journey. In this game, all of you will break into three groups of three, get onto one of the large inner tubes, and then gather some of the objects hanging from the cords stretched above the river." //shot of these cords, which have objects like plastic rings, rubber chickens, and little pyramids.// "There are twenty cords total, each with a pyramid, two chickens, three rings and five foam balls. There is a point value to the objects. One foam ball is twenty-five points, a ring is fifty, a chicken is one hundred, and a pyramid is two hundred fifty. The team with the most points at the end of the race earns exemptions for each team member that stays in until the end. Also, if the teams combine to score at least six thousand points, then $25,000 is added to the pot." Cooper gestured to the inner tubes. "Pick your teams now, you have sixty seconds."
Heero and Relena congealed into a pair, soon to be joined by Duo. Zechs and Noin did the same, and Sally joined her coalition-mate, leaving Zechs, Trowa, and Hilde as the final group.
"Very good," said Cooper. "Now, all of you must don life-rings or life- vests, and then pick one of the inner tubes. All are the same, except for the number." (For ease of identification, the three tubes have large, black numbers on their otherwise yellow sides.) "Get into position, you'll be towed out into the water."
//all of the inner tubes is hanging by a rope, like the way the tubs were in the previous game. VO by Cooper.//
"All of the layers are fighting for an exemption, but there is an amount of group money that can be won with the exemption. With the game's format, will the players work together to add to the pot, or for themselves to try to get the exemption?"
//the players are released, and slowly go off into the water.//
Relena get up standing, and Heero and Duo sat on opposite ends of the inner tube to balance out the weight. Duo, in the back, also tried to steer. Traize, Hilde, and Trowa all sat up in their tube, and the OZ tube saw everyone taking turns at each position. As they went through the first round of objects, Traize got a pyramid, and each of the other two teams were able to collect the chickens.
The river was so swift, it became to do any maneuvering to bump another team out of position for a big point gain. During the next four strings, the R-D-H group gets a pyramid and two rings, the OZ group gets two chickens, and the polyglot group got a pyramid, a chicken, and a foam ball. After a quarter of the course, the polyglot group has 500 points, the other two 450 apiece, thereby, slightly behind the pace to get to six thousand.
At the sixth line, the camera focused on Relena grabbing a pyramid when there was a sudden yelp from off the screen. The camera shifts just fast enough to see Hilde fall into the water.
//Hilde: "I was trying to reach over for the chicken, but it was about two inches out of my grasp...I leaned too far off to the side and slipped from my perch. It was lucky we didn't all fall in."//
Hilde floated with the current for a little bit, until she saw the OZ boat and decided to hitch a ride along, a la Sally. Zechs, however, bops her with the oar to knock her off; she goes off to the side and beaches.
All the players, especially the polyglot group, are more careful in their balance. However, each group got one pyramid over lines six, seven, and eight. R-D-H also got a chicken and foam ball, OZ the same, and polyglot a chicken. The score stayed close-polyglot had 850, with R-D-H and OZ just 25 behind. Zechs, trying to push OZ ahead, got far too greedy and fell victim to gravity, the second team to take the plunge. Slightly ahead, the other two teams had a collision, and Traize, hanging off the edge, also fell into the water, leaving only Trowa in the inner tube. With all the splashing about-especially by Traize, trying to throw off the other teams for Trowa-no one had any points for lines nine and ten.
//personal interviews//
Traize: "I don't know why the three of them knocked me in. Maybe it was accidental. I hope so. Seven are better than six to get the money for this game."
Zechs: "The game got too close too early. Everyone was striving too much to get the exemption and people tumbled in. If one team was winning by a blowout, then we could have had a shot at the money."
Lucretzia and Sally got a pyramid for their group; the others each got a foam ball. The twelfth line saw all three groups get rings. No one was too busy bumping into each other-the river abruptly narrowed and all three teams smashed into each other-on the thirteenth line. Next, both the OZ group and the R-D-H group were in position to go up and get the pyramid. Neither team backed down, and the third collision of the race occurred. Relena took a tumble in and the OZ group flew off to the side.
Trowa got a chicken that time, and a pyramid the next, as each other team got a chicken on the fourteenth line, as the points race tightened. On the next line, OZ was the only team to get anything, a ring. After a wide turn, the racers approached the final five lines, which were slightly higher and dispersed their goods over a wider area.
OZ was able to get a chicken on the next line, as R-D-H got the pyramid and Trowa nothing. Everyone got foam balls the next line after that, but at that point, Trowa's boat was rocking dangerously. He simply sat and let himself cross the finish line, not going for any more items.
Each remaining group got chickens from the eighteenth line. The final two lines, from there, were just a few feet apart, right after each other, and both teams had settled into a few feet of each other, with the river again narrowing and speeding up.
Sally got up in her boat, wobbling, as did Heero. Under the water, though, was a trough that neither team could see, accelerating the boats forward. Sally, shorter than Heero, was able to duck down under the cords, but Heero got caught, from the armpits up. His feet were still in the boat, so both her and Duo found themselves caught in the current for a moment until Heero dropped down into the inner tube, stunned.
"Looks painful."
"Yeah..."
Sally and crossed the finish line a few seconds behind Trowa, another few seconds head of Heero and Duo. The four ejected were already on land near the finish line. Lucretzia peered into her team's bin and said, "IU do think this'll be enough."
"Ought to be. Better be."
//as each bin in each inner tube is unloaded, the point totals are shown in subtitles: polyglot, 1300 points, OZ, 1500 points, and R-D-H, 1400 points. For staying in the OZ tube the whole time, Sally and Lucretzia get exemptions; with a total of 4200 points, the team failed to get the $25,000.
//personal interviews//
Relena: "Now, when Traize fell out of his tube, and started to throw water at us...was that just because he was helping his teammate for the mission, or because he didn't want anyone to get anything?"
Sally: "That last lines was incredible. I've never seen anyone hung up like Heero. He used to be the Perfect Soldier; what's happened to him? Has his brain been sucked out by aliens from Planet Twinkie? Very uncharacteristic of him."
Duo: "That was not fun, those last lines. We were just a chicken behind the girls. If he could only duck, Heero could've gotten us exemptions. He should be able to do that-I've seen a whole lot more from him. So why couldn't he; or, why didn't he?"
Trowa: "I didn't know how close I was when I gave up. I could have won with a pyramid. And, I was in the lead, so I would've had the first opportunity to get them. I'm not pleased with myself."
Hilde: "Trowa could have gotten the exemption for himself, but he decided not to risk it when it wouldn't have cost him anything. Did he do that because he knew he wouldn't need an exemption?"
//the execution dinner. All of the players are at two tables in a creepy, ivy-overgrown, dark courtyard.//
"Wow." Duo looked in all directions, both impressed and a little uneasy. "They really make these places worthy of Walt Disney, don't they?"
"I don't care." Sally, safe for this round, was finishing up fairly nonchalantly. "Anything beats the graveyard he had that execution in."
//the test. Heero is on, "Did the Mole participate in the Bathtub Race?"//
Heero: "Some of the choices by Sally and Trowa were strange in the light of the final results. Of course no one has had any experience handicapping bathtub races, but it is still vaguely suspicious."
//Trowa is answering, "Did the Mole lose their tub during the race?" A shot of Relena falling from the bathtub is shown as Trowa's thinking is given in a VO.//
"Relena was light enough to float high enough to go pretty fast. Did she fall and try to lose the group money? And then she pulled Heero away from the race when he was picked as the favorite. She's been suspicious the whole race and now her actions make her seem like the Mole more and more."
//Hilde is answering, "Which tube was the Mole in for the Gathering race?"//
Hilde: "I really think that Trowa was thinking that we could have enough to earn money for the pot. And obviously, if he's the Mole, he wouldn't need an exemption, would he?"
//Relena is on the final question: "Who is the Mole?"//
Relena: "Zechs has been suspicious, Hilde has been suspicious, but this round Heero took the cake. He had a couple of seconds to get out of the way of a non-moving rope, and he-the Perfect Soldier!-just couldn't do it."
//the execution. Cooper stands before all of the players, with the computer set up with the score results.//
"Tonight, I welcome you to the fifth execution that you face as a group. Seven of you are eligible to leave tonight; Lucretzia and Sally have exemptions. I will type in your name into the computer, if the screen flashes green you're fine, but if it flashes red, you've become the Mole's newest victim. We will start with Zechs."
Cooper typed in Zechs's name into the computer, and entered it in. After a moment, the screen flashed green.
"Duo." Duo chewed on his braid as he watched his name being entered into his computer. When it paused for a second, he started biting down harder, but it flashed green, and he tilted his head back, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Trowa." He looked calmly as Cooper put in his name next, even through the wait for processing. After a moment, however, the screen flashed red.
The Gundam pilot just nodded. "Very well." He shook with Duo, Heero, and then Cooper, and got a blind-side hug from a tearful Relena. He picked u his bags and walked calmly to the waiting limo, where Cooper opened the door for him and sent him off.
Relena: "God, it was terrible to see Trowa leave. It was..."(starts to tear up again)..."I don't know how, but twice as bad as losing Quatre."
Heero: "Trowa is one of calmness and honor, and does the Gundams proud. He shall be missed as a player."
Sally: "Well, he had to say goodbye to his friend just a few days ago, and now he's gone as well. I think it could've affected him a little bit more than he let show."
Trowa: "I thought I had answered the questions perfectly fine the last quiz. But that is the funny thing about the game. You could be answering the questions for what you think was a perfect score and still go out."
//Trowa is driven off into the night.//
You, too, can take the ten question quiz. See how your Mole-finding skills stack up:
Did the Mole participate in the Bathtub Race?
Was the Mole able to finish the race? (Y, N, Did Not Participate)
Did the Mole lose their tub during the race?
Where did the Mole finish during the race? (1-5, Did Not Finish, Did Not Participate)
Did the Mole win money during the Bathtub race?
Which tube was the Mole in during the Gathering Race?
Did the Mole spill out of their tube during the race?
Did the Mole earn an exemption during the race?
What was the total number of points won by the Mole's team during the Gathering race? (1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700)
Who is the Mole?