Chapter Three
It was as if they were mobilizing for war. A slow, seemingly endless wave of mechanized equipment and living beings moved as orderly and as swiftly as stealth allowed, along the path of the riverbank.
Platoons of armed SecuriMunks escorted the growing numbers of full troop transports and supply trucks that were flanked themselves, by column after column of marching P.A.C.'s, two abreast and armed for bear.
Personal transports and shuttles filled with eager and apprehensive MunkTechs and their supervisors, cruised alongside, before and after a single, armored command vehicle, its iron back made spiny with antennae, sensors and closed ports for military-augmented ThunderGun emplacements.
Far behind them, trundling in the wet, gravely path, were the quartet of MobileHolds, mammoth, tracked and boxy cargo transports that were carrying whatever was needed in serious bulk. And further back, now gliding away from the riverbank and back out to open waters, were the flotilla of barges that brought them all.
Inside the mobile command center, operators manned sensor stations, scanning everywhere they could for signs of detection or intrusion, although due to their position in the valley floor, that was becoming difficult. The interior command pod itself, rested in a gyroscopically stable cradle, its passengers spared every bump and jounce the driver couldn't avoid.
Arthur felt particularly lucky that The Roaming Eyes opted to take a personal shuttle rather than ride with him and his father. Glory and conquest, high finance, the fall of Humanity, the return of his people to their greatness...Jeanette. He had enough on his mind without the two of them wishing his destruction while they stared at him, plotting, as was their want.
"We're closing in on The Green Gate, sirs," the driver announced through the intercom amid the busy chatter of his co-workers. "ETA, ten minutes."
"Very good. Inform us when we've reached The Gate," Arthur said, holding his excitement to himself just barely.
Philip glanced up from his clipboard and watched his son fight the good fight to keep from smiling in triumph. Seeing him sitting on his chair, excited about it all and yet commanding as easily as breathing, gave him such a sense of nostalgia. He was no older than Arthur was when he was using his developing smarts and business savvy to help expand the I.T.O. the business world and the world in general knew as International Technological Operations.
It was the business end that flourished and fed the needed coffers and technological strength of the Iron Tree Organization, the true I.T.O. and soon-to-be true threat to the world's Humans, as well.
"Exciting, isn't it?" Phillip asked him quietly.
The question snapped the youth from his thoughts and he replied, "Am I that obvious?" Apparently, being too emotional now was becoming unbecoming a Field Executive and he didn't want his father to dote on him.
However, his father simply continued to beam softly at his boy. Moments that brought this on didn't come too often but when they did, Phillip would eagerly take advantage of them.
"Despite all of the setbacks you've encountered, "he said to him. "you've persevered and moved us closer to our goal, Arthur. I'm proud of you."
That declaration always moved Arthur. "Thank you, sir," he said in hushed pride. It seemed that, in the end, love, either familial or otherwise, felt better than business deals, high technology, or even global conquest.
He swiveled in his seat more to face him, saying," I suppose when you we're a Field Executive, Grandfather couldn't make it easy for you, either, hmm?"
Phillip nodded solemnly, but his air of pride hadn't changed. "When I was Field Exec., he told me once that during World War Two, when he was an F.E.,a Nazi Army engineer broke into one of our European Holds, Omicron, I think, and stole the plans to our ThunderGun design. So, we kept tabs on him during the war. It was decided then that if we waited and saw what he was going to do with the plans, eventually, we could not only eliminate the thief, but all of his contacts, too. Publicity for smashing a Nazi Think Tank would have made priceless PR."
Arthur, forgetting the moment of history he was about to enter, stood captivated by the tale. "What happened?"
"Well, it seemed the engineer was more enterprising than we thought. He didn't tell his supervisors about the theft and then arranged to be transferred to Hitler's Afrika Korps. It was a bit later when we found out why."
"ETA to The Green Gate, four minutes, sirs," the driver replied, unknowingly interrupting Phillip.
"Understood," Phillip said. Then he absently ruffled through his clipboard. He was teasing Arthur and wanted to see if he was really interested in the rest of the story.
"Well?" Arthur said with slight impatience. "What was he doing in Africa?"
With mock-absentmindedness, Phillip quickly stopped fiddling and resumed his tale, killing his grin with a measure of control. "Well, he had built a working model of our gun, but he hadn't been using it as a weapon. He had discovered from some source or another, that there was an undisclosed mountain range outside of both Allied and Axis territories that had veins choked with raw diamonds."
"So, he was using the ThunderGun as a portable drill," Arthur figured.
"Yes. Before we caught up with him, he had amassed an impressive and hidden cache of uncut stones. When we told him to surrender, he caused a cave-in that we thought had killed him. Years later, I discovered that he had escaped through an air shaft he made earlier.
Since he operated alone for profit, he wasn't much of a threat to us. He was rich and kept quiet about the gun and us. Made quite a name for himself in the Underworld as a jewelry fence and smuggler after the war. Furstein was his name. Karl, I think."
Arthur was about to ask about that when the intercom spoke again.
"Sirs, we've arrived."
"Signal the column to stop and take entry positions near the aperture," Phillip commanded. He regarded Arthur. "Ready to make history, Arthur?"
"Sir," the boy said with unabashed confidence, "I was born for this moment."
A disheveled Theodore watched the massive procession moving past him from the relative safety of the cluster of shrubs he finally came to rest behind. He tried to still his ragged breathing and physical exertion from the headlong tumble he took from the ridge far above and thanked his lucky stars, shakily, that the slope was more diagonal then vertical, otherwise the tumble would have been a full-blown, unsurvivable plummet.
He had encountered his fair share of SecuriMunks in Italy and wasn't too eager to meet them a second time. However, he was grateful for all of the tracked and wheeled heavy vehicles' noise masking whatever sounds he thought he might have been making.
Despite his caution, his eyes scanned around every truck, transport and trooper for something. Something that made him fall through the underbrush and rough terrain to retrieve. Judging from where he saw it fall, it would have been close by.
The procession was begin to thin out and the bulk of its rear guard was moving through its orderly paces around the few transports that trundled behind the rest. Theodore crouched lower among the branches when he saw some of the SecuriMunks look in his and the shrubbery's direction.
The instinct of "Fight or Flight" crept up his spine when one of the troopers began walking towards his position, a hand reaching for his belt that was adorned with, among other things, a ThunderGun.
Theodore gauged the situation grimly. The line of troopers and equipment were almost gone, moving away beyond a bend several yards distant, and he hoped to wait them all out until they left in their entirety. Now he'd have to run and escape somehow, though he knew with that many troopers remaining, even as they began to depart, he would easily have been captured or worse. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best time to go after the bracelet, after all.
Another few feet and the approaching SecuriMunk would be able to make out Theodore through the bushes. Unconsciously, he balled up his fists to either prepare for a doomed run or an even dubious fight.
Five feet...
Four feet...
"Just got the call from up ahead," said one of the farthest SecuriMunks to the one heading for Theodore, who stopped momentarily. "We've gotta move out."
"In a minute," he said. "I've gotta go."
Theodore tensed inwardly and in a silent panic, he didn't know what would have been worse, getting caught or getting soaked. He gritted his teeth and regretfully made his decision, adrenaline flowing.
"Hey, you can do that later," his partner admonished him, worryingly. "They just ordered the rest of us to catch up with Rear Guard and the detail. They're already assembled at the site. C'mon."
Then he started walking up the graveled path to rejoin the others, saying, as he departed, "I hope they don't dock your pay."
With that, the other SecuriMunk stopped short of the bushes and for the space of a thought, debated between momentary relief and monetary relief. With his partner gone, himself alone and the sound of wheeled machinery beckoning him from the distance, he quickly decided that he could hold it in.
Trying not to think about the river behind him, he heeled about and, with a trot, followed his partner around the bend.
With his heart and head thundering from the close call, Theodore collapsed on the cool, stony ground, shaking as violently as the bushes.
"Where's the bracelet?" he asked himself, shakily.
Keeping his eyes on the now deserted path along the river, he cautiously stood up from behind the shrubbery. A bright flash in the water's edge made him stand on alert.
Watching the bend for anything to happen, Theodore moved with as much grace and speed as his nerves could allow towards the river bank. When he reached the edge, he breathed a sigh of gratitude upon seeing the bracelet gently being nudged along the bank by the swift current, too heavy to be swept into the deeper flow of the water.
He scooped it up and put it in his pocket. Then froze like ice when his shoulder was gripped by a strong, heavy, massive hand that yanked him backwards with incredible ease.
Out of reflex, Theodore reached for his shoulder and felt thick, hairless fingers hold him like a vice, but his fearful glance to their owner changed into relief when he saw the towering, raven-haired man standing grimly over him.
"You're lucky Eleanor was right about where you were and there was a trail that I could drive to get us here," David growled as he looked around, checking for signs of SecuriMunks." How did you get down here?"
"Sorry, Dave," Theodore said sheepishly. He couldn't tell him about the bracelet, couldn't tell him about his doubts or his conflict with Eleanor. He didn't know why, but everything in him screamed that his father just wouldn't understand. "I was going for a walk when I, uh, slipped and fell down here. I was going to come back, but those Chipmunk soldiers for I.T.O. showed up and I had to hide."
"I.T.O.?" gasped Simon and Jeanette together as they came from where the van was parked, a few yards away, overhearing Theodore.
"They're here?" Simon asked with ill-disguised trepidation and concern. "Where, Theodore?"
Theodore gestured to the ruts and tracks of their soldiers and vehicles, telling them all more than he could at the moment.
"They must be around that bend, guys," said Jeanette after looking at the fresh trail. She automatically glanced over to Simon. He had been acting a little tense since Venice and she noticed that, wordlessly. She knew after all they went through with the organization, both together and with their respective families, he wouldn't just walk away without knowing what they were doing. That would be the most prudent in terms of gathering information before coming up with a strategy on what to do next. So why did she keep feeling the tendrils of some darker reason to it all?
Then, without any more preamble, Simon trotted away from the group, keeping close to the wall of the outcropping that partially hid whatever was beyond the bend. David, in a bound, bolted from his place near Theodore, catching up with his son.
"Where are you going? Get back with the others, Simon," he told him, keeping his voice low but commanding. This wasn't like Simon.
Simon favored his father a momentary look before inching his way along the wall towards the edge. "We have to know what they're up to, Dave. If we go to the authorities now, they'll get away. You know what they're capable of."
"That's right, I do. That's why I want you back here, right now."
David reached over to grab hold of Simon, but Simon noticed the motion and bolted further forwards towards the edge of the outcropping, terrifying everyone with the possibility of detection.
Simon leaned his face as far around the corner as he dared and was struck from a wholly unexpected sight. He turned back to David and the others.
"Theodore, there's no one there," he said sourly.
"They were here, Simon," Theodore shot back. "You can see the tracks, can't you?"
Simon was taken aback with that. They obviously were there. He chastised himself internally for being so emotional about I.T.O. to the point of near-suicide. He rubbed his eyes to banish both the tension and the embarrassment.
"You're right, Theodore. I'm sorry. "Then he looked to his father. "I'm sorry, Dave. I guess I lost my head for a moment."
"We'll talk about it later, Simon," said David. Jeanette with more than enough convincing, wasn't too surprised by Simon's rashness now. It was suspect. More than simply wanting to help stop them.
David risked a peek at what Simon saw to satisfy a moment's curiosity. Other than the tracks on the ground that grooved the winding path, there was no sign of The Iron Tree Organization. But if they were there, and they were planning something major against Humans, and they could do something to stop them...
"Stay here, Simon," he told him, stepping out from the shelter of the hiding spot. "I'll check up ahead to see if they're still here. If they are, we're getting out of here and telling King Rudi what's going on."
"Yes, Dave," said Simon, quite worried for him, now.
The instant David left, the rest began to file around Simon.
"Where's David going?" Miss Miller asked in a whisper.
"He said he going to check to see if they're still here." Simon explained as he watched David head towards the safety of a boulder settled against the wall of the valley slope up ahead. He reached it in a few moves. "If he sees them, we'll all go to the king and tell him the news."
David had ventured farther ahead than he wanted initially. Looking back, he couldn't see the others too well due to distance, but as long as he wasn't spotted, he kept moving forwards quietly.
The wide tracks led up to something interesting up ahead. Taking a cautious course along the wall of the valley, he came close to it, finally. An immense cavern mouth, thirty-five feet or so wide, yawned from the side of the valley. And in it were the sounds of machinery and engines echoing softly in the depths.
He crept to the edge and looked in after he was certain of no guards. The tracks went into the cave but the darkness just inside it made its direction and distance impossible to determine without going further in.
Still, this was just what he needed to convince himself and the others to tell King Rudi now. There was no sense in interrupting his friend's day with something like this if it wasn't substantiated, at least.
David edged back out and then turned to walk quickly back, when a shove in his back made him stop cold. He slowly turned his head around to see a uniformed Chipmunk male holding a high-tech, bi-barreled pistol against the lumbar region of his back.
He could feel a low hum come from the lensed double muzzles and a tingle of a charge slipping from the barrels and playing along his spine like a ghost.
"Lost, Human?" the SecuriMunk asked smugly, keeping his weapon pressed to the small of David's back.
Simon snapped his head back with a start. "They caught him! There must have been a patrol he didn't see."
Amidst the quietly panicked commotion that soon ensued, Theodore was stricken silent. His bracelet, his reason for coming down there, was going to kill David. His indirect actions would take his father away from him, a father he actually knew. A distraction could save him and despite his every screaming thought not to do it, he soon found himself turning to the edge of the outcropping and walking away from it before anyone took notice.
Struggling to clear his mind of hesitation, Theodore amicably stepped out away from the protection of the outcropping. His face, a tight mask of friendly naiveté and ignorance.
For everyone who was behind him, they though he couldn't have been more foolhardy, and in their panic, were about to reach out and snatch him back to the safety of the rocky corner, when they themselves were snatched up into a fast and massive bear hug by Miss Miller.
"Quiet!" Beatrice hissed close to their heads. "Or we'll all get caught." They fearfully complied and in a hush, listened to what was to transpire.
Both Chipmunk captor and Human captive watched with equal levels of incredulity as Theodore tried to saunter up to them, both focusing on the SecuriMunk's presence and trying to ignore David's internal melange of personal fear,anger and worry for his son, that bubbled to the surface of his face.
"H-Hi...how are you?" Theodore asked the trooper from a few feet away with the biggest grin he could manage under the circumstances.
"Who are you?" the SecuiMunk squeaked gruffly, still guarding David. "What are you doing here? Are you with this guy?"
Theodore looked convincingly puzzled, as if the question came completely out of Left Field for him. Then he snapped into Happy Mode again.
"Oh, well, my folks were camping in the valley and, uh, anyway, we heard this noise that sounded like a Monster Truck show going on, so I told my cousin, I said, 'Cousin, I'll betcha it's a Monster Truck show,' and she said to me, 'Betcha there isn't.' So I-"
"Quiet!" the trooper ordered to him. "Come over here. I'm covering the both of you, so no tricks."
David watched Theodore walk solemnly towards him and wondered even more solemnly if his son really thought that this scheme could honestly work against his guard. At least it didn't seem like the trooper would shoot them dead just yet, but it wasn't much of a reprieve, either.
Theodore finally came alongside David. but he was still facing in the direction of the SecuriMunk, hands, David noticed, clasped behind his back. What was Theodore planning?
"Turn around and face front," said the SecuriMunk, and as Theodore did so, his captor noticed where his hands were. "What's behind your back, boy?"
Theodore shifted around to face the trooper with a sheepish grin while still keeping his back and hands from him. "Uh, I wish I could show you, sir, but you see,I found this not too far from here and I was hoping to keep it a secret, y,know?"
"Show me your hands, now," the SecuriMunk ordered again, pointing the pistol at Theodore momentarily. A moment that cost him.
By the time the SecuriMunk realized the full-blown error he had made in taking his weapon off of an opponent roughly two and a half times bigger and a great deal stronger than him, his ThunderGun was ripped from his hand, his body effortlessly lifted up and his breath and consciousness driven from him as he was slammed full force against the nearby rocky wall.
"Thanks, Dave," Theodore said to him relievedly while masking his shock. David was never a violent man, but seeing him make short work of the other Chipmunk was both awesome and unnervingly quick. For a split second, Theodore felt the closeness of their two species widen and the normally moribund and instinctual fear of any large predator, snap to life. Not so much because David's opponent was a fellow Chipmunk, but because it swiftly brought home the fact that Humans were, as a species, very, very powerful.
David sighed shakily as he stood by the prone soldier. "Don't ever do that again, Theodore, even if I'm in trouble. There's no sense for the both of us getting caught," he admonished.
"Yes, Dave."
To lighten the mood, David went over to his son and gave him an admiring hug. "How did you come up with that, anyway? That was pretty brave of you."
Theodore's eyes lit proudly. "Well, I didn't want you to get hurt, Dave. I guess I didn't think about the danger."
"Well, don't do that again, "said David with more understanding. "I don't want you to get hurt, either. I don't want to lose you."
His son gave a self-conscious smile. "Okay, Dave." Then he looked past the Human to the now noticed cave. "Did you find anything?"
David was on the verge of answering when he looked past Theodore to see the others running from the outcropping towards them.
"Theodore!", Eleanor shouted, throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him hard. Thinking she was so close to losing him before any sort of resolution could be made together, she thought, 'Nuts to our problems.' "I thought you-"Then she realized where she was and who were around her. Face reddening through her fair fur, she struggled to get her composure back, while Theodore unsuccessfully tried to look unaffected by her emotions, his heart hammering now for Eleanor than because of the close call with the SecuriMunk.
"Not bad, Theodore," Alvin crowed, slapping his brother's back so hard, Theodore almost lost his balance. "That was pretty gutsy. We thought you'd buy it with Dave."
"Yeah," Theodore said shakily.
Then the sound of boots made him and everyone around him hold his or her breath, as a platoon of SecuriMunks came rushing out of the cave mouth, weapons drawn and expressions unpleasant. David quickly realized that they probably were hiding near the entrance and were watching the two of them since the fight. When the rest of the group joined him and Theodore, they made their move.
They were promptly searched and herded into the cool, dark maw of the cave, hands behind their heads. It took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the low-light, but as they silently passed among the stalactites and stalagmites that toothed the interior, they could see and hear the blocky near-silhouettes of idling vehicles and the footsteps of more SecuriMunks becoming alert to the captives' presence up ahead.
The chamber they entered spanned before them like a natural cathedral. One the size of four city blocks. As the two families began to notice the soft, pervasive green glow that bathed everything in the area along with them and all of I.T.O., they also noticed something else. Something that, to the Humans, was impressive, but to the six Chipmunks, was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Surrounding them all, situated in north, south, east and western positions in the chamber, were titanic statues of four Chipmunks in elaborate dress. At their bases were bold, obvious inscriptions done in a style of cuneiform and they all were captured gesturing towards the next curio in the cavern.
In what could be deemed the center of the chamber's immensity, stood two massive, crystalline columns, their smooth sides adorned with intricate icons and more of the alien cuneiform. They were forked midway, giving them a double-tined appearance and from their depths, an ethereal green glow flowed out from their translucent cores.
Like the tuning forks they resembled, they resonated as they glowed, in a low frequency that struck chords in the bones of every living thing in the area.
A platoon of SecuriMunks marched past the waiting trucks and other troops and technicians, towards the one-hundred foot expanse between the forks. MunkTechs monitored every function they could find from the columns while those that weren't, were recording and translating the glyphs on the forks' shafts.
Amidst the sounds of study, preparation and general activity, all who weren't too busy to see, watched the air shimmer where the group of armed Chipmunks stepped in between the columns. As their mass passed the threshold, the forks glowed in a deeper hue of green and the tonal hum they made, rose in register.
Soon the last trooper disappeared into the warp, looking as though she had walked through a barrier of calm water, leaving ripples of distortion from her body's wake.
At a steady pace, vehicles and bodies began to move into the forks' threshold and, in similar fashion, vanished from sight.
"Sonic keys, probably," Jeanette wondered aloud. "Theoretical dimensional egress?"
"Could be," said Simon before they both were ordered silent.
Though there was still more of I.T.O. to move in, someone gave the order to stop the column's movement in favor of the prisoners. In heightening degrees of personal terror, both families were herded towards the forks by their guards, who then took guard positions around them when they all reached the threshold.
Their vanguard went through silently, allowing Theodore and Eleanor the luxury of seeing the bodies get swallowed by the warp, leaving nothing behind but disturbed air lightly moving across their faces. Then the troopers to the rear and sides of the families goaded them forward by gunpoint.
Theodore instinctively looked over to Eleanor, his fear, evident. He always acknowledged, respected and secretly was even attracted to her pluck and confidence. Her presence calmed him more than he knew, since he couldn't be certain whether these other Chipmunks were actually going somewhere or committing mass suicide and were taking them with them.
She glanced back to him, her eyes betraying her own apprehension, and she reached out to hold his hand. Not for his comfort, the flash of sudden insight told him, but for her own. Eleanor wordlessly sought his strength, needed his stability.
At that moment, his insecurity fled and worth filled him to the brim and somewhere in his being, he wanted her to know, if this was the end, that he still felt for her. He held her hand more firmly and she could feel his understanding through the contact. He gave as confident a smile as he could manage. Then he stepped through.