Dreams of power
Chapter 13:
They got outside of the building and hopped into the limo where Kaiba was impatiently waiting.
"Where the hell were you two?" Kaiba shifted in his seat, "I started to think you were scheming some evil plot."
"We were." Marik said, and then turned to the driver, "To the Backwoods Lodge, and step on it!"
The limo was soon in motion and flying down the street. Kaiba looked back at Marik, "What do you mean you were? What kind of evil plot?"
Malik sighed, "Marik promised Sanders that we would kidnap John Edwards."
"WHAT?!"
"I told you he'd be upset, Marik."
"..." Marik didn't say anything.
"Upset? I'm furious! Marik, you actually agreed to this insanity? What in hell's name is wrong with you two?!"
"Nothing's wrong with me. It's my dear yami, over there. I can't believe this..."
Marik sighed, "Clamp it, you two. I'm trying to think... this is going to take precision and diligence."
Kaiba rolled his eyes, "Then you're certainly screwed."
Marik ignored him, "Hmm. We should be in and out in under 15 minutes..."
"15 minutes?! Marik, if done right... this might take an hour at the least. What if he has guards all around his cabin?"
"You two are insane. No way am I getting my good name mixed up in a kidnapping scheme. Count me out."
"Fine," Marik said, "You can wait in the car."
"..."
Malik looked out the window, "We're getting into the woodsy part of the town..."
"Good, it means we're almost there." Marik hadn't exactly gotten a plan together, yet. He was piecing things together. He wasn't really anticipating anything like guards... after all, who would take bodyguards with them to a backwoods lodge?
The limo pulled up behind a tree, right next to cabins 13 and 14. Kaiba took in a deep breath, "Are ya sure about this, Marik? Once you do it, it can't be undone."
"Yeah, I know. We'll be okay... right, Malik?"
Malik was holding his knees close to his chest, "There's no place like home... there's no place like home..."
"Snap out of it, Malik!"
"I... I'm sorry. I'm just pretending for a quick second that I'm not doing this... Okay, I'm ready."
"Good. Here's the plan... we sneak over there and peek inside, to see if there actually are guards. If not, we go in and get him. Then bring him back here and throw him in the trunk."
"Take this." Kaiba handed a roll of duct tape to Marik.
"What's this for?"
"Before you bring him outside, wrap it around his eyes. So, if he manages to get away he won't have seen me."
"You big baby."
"I'm just being cautious. You should, too. Oh, and word to the wise... don't make too much noise capturing him. Remember, Kerry should be in the next cabin."
"Yeah..." Marik opened the car door on the other side, "Come on, Malik. We'd better do this now, before we get cold feet."
Malik followed his yami out into the woods, 'Too late for that.'
They looked back only once to see Kaiba waving, inside he was thinking, 'Those idiots.' although he continued waving merrily.
Marik led the way to where the trees stopped. There was a little clearing before the cabins appeared only 30 yards away. The bad thing was that where the clearing was, that's where the office was. The large glass window was facing towards the empty space. Although it was dark outside, the light from inside shone brightly. The people in the office would easily be able to see them if they ran across.
"What are we gonna do, Marik?"
"Lemme think..." he looked around, "Bingo."
"What?"
Marik went behind a tree and brought back a few medium sized branches with leaves still on them. "Here." He gave three to Malik.
"What am I supposed to do with these?"
"Cover yourself with them." Marik's branches were already on him, "Come on hurry up."
"Okay..." Malik draped the long branches over himself.
"You look wonderful, now let's go."
"But Marik-"
"Come on!" Marik got down on his hands and knees. "This is how we'll get over there."
Malik got down next to his yami and started to crawl just as he did. Slowly, they made progress careful not to let the light hit anything but the autumn colored leaves.
Finally they got past the clearing and into the shadow of cabin 13. They walked over to the window to try and see John inside. To their dismay, the shade was down. It was one of those thick wooly ones that looked like it'd just come off a sheep.
"Damn." Marik whispered. He looked up, then back at Malik. "I got an idea."
"What?"
He pointed to the roof, "We'll go down the chimney."
"Like Santa?"
"Sure, he's supposed to be here in a couple months anyway. Why not an early visit?"
"Okay, then let's do it."
Marik boosted Malik up onto the roof, and then his hikari helped lift him up as well. Marik walked over to the chimney edge and motioned for Malik to join him.
"Okay, I'll stick you down there and you can see what's inside."
"Stick me down there?!"
"Shh! Must you be so loud? We're over a chimney. He might be able to hear us. And yes, I'm going to put you down there. It's the only way. You can't hold me, so this is what we're going to do... like it or not."
"Well, I don't like it. What if I'm seen?"
"I'll pull you up. We've gone through this before, Malik. We did the same thing with Bush, remember?"
"And I almost got shot."
Marik sighed and grabbed his hikari, "I'm sorry to do this to you, but we're running out of time." He shoved him head first, down the square chimney and held onto his feet.
Malik's yelp of surprise was muffled as his head popped out the bottom of the chimney, lucky for him a fire wasn't going.
When he got a little used to seeing things upside down he looked around the room. John Edwards was in the living room, huddled over a desk doing something. It looked like he was drawing, but from the back Malik couldn't really tell. Plus the fact that he was upside down didn't help.
In a moment John Kerry walked in through a doorway. "You done yet?"
"In a moment... this takes time."
"Well, you'd better hurry. I've got another press conference tomorrow." He sat down in a lazy boy chair. He was quiet for another minute, "Are you done yet?"
"In a minute!"
"Don't shout! Someone might be close by."
"..."
"Do you need more paint?"
"No, I'm okay." He twirled the chair around to face Kerry, "What do you think?"
He leaned forward and smiled, "Wonderful."
Malik squinted so he could see what Edwards was holding. It was rather small and looked like a key-chain. Malik tried to place where he'd seen it before, when it finally came to him he held his hands over his mouth, 'Whoa.'
Purple and heart shaped, the counterfeit Purple Heart award hung in Edwards' hand. He walked over to a key rack on the wall next to the chimney and hung it there so the paint would dry.
Kerry looked over at all four of the fake ornaments, "Excellent, now I have four. I'll win the election for sure! America can't resist a war hero."
"You sure that we're not pushing it, John? I mean, really. Four Purple Hearts is kind of a lot."
"Don't you worry. This race is in the bag. I mean, Bush is out of the picture. Who else is there to stand in our way?"
"What about that Marik kid?"
"Him? Oh please, the very idea of him beating us is preposterous. Sure, he's good looking... but does he have four Purple Hearts? I think not." He threw his head back and laughed viciously.
Malik bit his lip, 'Ooh, this is too good. Not only are Kerry and Edwards crooks, but now I don't feel bad about kidnapping him. I gotta tell Marik!' He wiggled his legs around, trying to send the message to his yami that he was ready to come up.
Marik got the message and yanked Malik up onto the roof. "I was getting tired of holding you up. What took so long?"
"Oh, Marik it was so cool."
"What?"
"You know those 3 Purple Heart things that Kerry has, right? Well, him and John Edwards just made a 4th one."
"You can make those?"
"Well yeah. But you're not supposed to. They're not real."
"Sweet. So now we have ammo if we get caught."
Malik nodded.
"Well, this isn't exactly over. We have to go down there."
"Yeah."
Marik looked over onto the side of the roof, someone was exiting the cabin. It was Kerry; he was going back to his own. Once he shut the door behind him, Marik grabbed his hikari's hand and headed over to the edge of the chimney. "Ready to go?"
Malik nodded listlessly.
"Then let's go." Marik jumped down the chimney with Malik right behind him. Marik's boots hit the ground with a thud; he had to move a little to give Malik the space he needed to land.
He crawled onto the wooden floor and stood up, "Where is he?"
Malik soon stood behind him, "I dunno. Maybe he's with Kerry."
"No, I saw him go by himself. Maybe he's in the kitchen or something."
"Only one way to find out." Malik cautiously walked towards an open door. He peeked over the corner, it was the kitchen, but no one was in there. Malik looked back at Marik and shook his head.
Marik looked at the only other door there was beside the door to the outside. He headed over there and gingerly pushed the door open. John was coming out in a bathrobe just as Marik had opened it, "AAHH!"
Malik jumped from surprise, "Get him, Marik!"
John tried to get away but Marik grabbed his arm and swung him the other way. Since John's feet were wet he slid across the hard wood floor and fell flat on his face. Writhing in pain, John sat up and held his nose. "Oh my god! I think it's broken!"
"Hey, be quiet!" Malik grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him to the ground, "Someone is gonna hear you if you don't shut up."
Marik took the duct tape from his pocket and wrapped it around John's whole face. He left a little room for the nose, it was already damaged enough.
John struggled and flailed around, mumbling something through the tape. Marik threw him over his shoulder, "We've got him."
Malik nodded with approval. "Easier than I thought."
Just then the back door burst open, "Freeze!" it was John Kerry. He was holding a gun in his hand, although he was shaking with fear, he had the upper hand. If Marik or Malik tried to reach for their millennium rods, he'd probably blast them to kingdom come.
"Marik," Malik whispered, "This isn't good."
"I know, I know..." he whispered back.
"Drop that future vice president!" Kerry shouted, still shaking.
Marik kept Edwards over his shoulder, "Hmm." He sighed and smiled. "How pathetic."
"What'd you say?!" Kerry twisted his mouth.
"Marik!" Malik looked at him in awe. "What are you doing?!"
Marik strutted towards Kerry.
"I'm warning you!" he bit his lip, "One more step and I'll blow your head off!"
"With what?" Marik grabbed the gun from him, "A little piece of plastic?"
Kerry backed up to where he was out of the door. "Uh..."
"You mean it was a fake gun?" Malik asked.
He threw the plastic toy on the floor, "Yup. Let's go!" he ran towards the clearing, it didn't matter now if the office saw them. They were almost home free.
Malik ran towards the door, when he was almost out he doubled back and got the four Purple Hearts off of the key hook. Then followed his yami to the woods. When he caught up with him he was throwing Edwards in the back of the trunk. He quickly shut it and opened the car door, "Come on, Malik!"
Malik jumped into the car next to Kaiba and shut the door behind him. Kaiba looked from teen to teen, "Well, what happened?!"
"He's probably calling the cops." Marik said to Malik.
"Right, let's go." Malik turned to the driver, "Come on! Get us out of here!"
He stepped on the gas and the limo sped down the cobble stone road, towards the exit gate of the Backwoods Lodge.