Chapter 4 of Book the 12th
Now that the captives were alone together in the back of the jet, the Baudelaires looked around for anything they could use as a tool. There was nothing. The airplane seats were bolted down, and the floor was clear of any loose objects.
Violet wanted to take the opportunity to ask the Captain a few questions.
"Captain, is..." Violet began.
"Sssh!" said Sunny. She indicated with a jerk of her head the corner of the room. Up in the corner, a video camera and directional microphone was aimed at them.
Violet stopped, frustrated. If only there was a way... Then she remembered the time she kissed Quigley on a ledge of the slippery slope. Quigley had told her about waiting three days inside a snowman for them to respond to the coded message in 'Zombies in the Snow'. He had explained the Sebald code to her. It started with ringing a bell, then skipped ten words of padding between each real word of message. Did the Captain know the code?
"Captain, did you ever see 'Zombies in the Snow'?" she asked.
Klaus and Sunny looked at her strangely, but it seemed a harmless topic so they didn't interrupt.
"Aye, I've seen movies of that sort" said Captain Widdershins, with a wink.
"I remember the village elders were always ringing a bell.
Is
it not interesting that one looked a little bit like
Fernald
and another looked like Fiona will in a few years?
A
terrible zombie in one scene even looked like that awful
traitor
Count Olaf, don't you think so Captain Widdershins, or not?" Violet asked carefully.
"Aye," said the Captain.
While Violet was asking more coded questions like "Is this the evil you mentioned?" ("Aye") and "Did you suspect the Justice?" ("No"), the camera seemed to be aimed at her.
Sunny took the opportunity to crawl beneath the seats and start biting open the coverings of the cushions. She chewed out pieces of seat-cushion foam and passed them to Klaus.
"Floatation," she whispered. Sunny and Klaus stuffed the pocket of the Herman Melville diving suit he was still wearing.
The plane flight didn't take long. When it felt like they were starting to land, Violet said "I guess the bell is ringing and recess is over." That ended the code.
Jerome Squalor opened the door. "Everybody out. This is the Gulag Archipelago, our air/sea base."
The captive stepped out onto a bleak, rocky surface surrounded by the sea. Dozens of other islands, all equally bleak, stretched out in a line with this one on either side.
Justice Strauss produced a whistle and blew a series of eerie, high-pitched notes. There was a loud gurgle and up from the depths came a creature the children had never imagined in their nightmares. An enormous bloodshot eye glared at them from the edge of a blackened, pitted shell the size of a house. Thick, slimy tentacles reached from beside the eye and seemed to go on for a mile. It smelled like something dead.
"It's bio-engineered," said Justice Strauss. "The V.F.D. are not the only ones with advanced technology."
"Calimari," Sunny said.
"A giant chambered nautilus," said Klaus.
"We'd have called it 'The Nautilus'," said Jerome, "but the name was taken. Since it looks like a question mark as it swims, we call it 'The Interrogator'."
"It's wonderful for destroying enemy ships," said the Justice. "It's absolutely intractable. That means it's stubborn and it never gives up squeezing until its enemies are crushed."
The two waiter-thugs opened a hatch carved into the shell. The captives were forced inside. It was roomy and dry, but it still had an uncanny fishlike stench. There was a room with blinking lights and control panels to one side, but the captives were pushed down a dark passage in the other direction.
"I think you were up to mischief on the plane, maybe talking in code" said Strauss. "So I'm going to put you into the special Holding Cell."
It was certainly a Holding Cell. The instant they were inside, bio-engineered tentacles seized them and pulled them against the wall. Tentacles even covered their mouths, preventing them from talking.
As the bio-engineered creature/vessel dove beneath the waves, the Baudelaires felt a helpless horror worse than any they had experienced before. They were truly in the belly of the beast.
Now that the captives were alone together in the back of the jet, the Baudelaires looked around for anything they could use as a tool. There was nothing. The airplane seats were bolted down, and the floor was clear of any loose objects.
Violet wanted to take the opportunity to ask the Captain a few questions.
"Captain, is..." Violet began.
"Sssh!" said Sunny. She indicated with a jerk of her head the corner of the room. Up in the corner, a video camera and directional microphone was aimed at them.
Violet stopped, frustrated. If only there was a way... Then she remembered the time she kissed Quigley on a ledge of the slippery slope. Quigley had told her about waiting three days inside a snowman for them to respond to the coded message in 'Zombies in the Snow'. He had explained the Sebald code to her. It started with ringing a bell, then skipped ten words of padding between each real word of message. Did the Captain know the code?
"Captain, did you ever see 'Zombies in the Snow'?" she asked.
Klaus and Sunny looked at her strangely, but it seemed a harmless topic so they didn't interrupt.
"Aye, I've seen movies of that sort" said Captain Widdershins, with a wink.
"I remember the village elders were always ringing a bell.
Is
it not interesting that one looked a little bit like
Fernald
and another looked like Fiona will in a few years?
A
terrible zombie in one scene even looked like that awful
traitor
Count Olaf, don't you think so Captain Widdershins, or not?" Violet asked carefully.
"Aye," said the Captain.
While Violet was asking more coded questions like "Is this the evil you mentioned?" ("Aye") and "Did you suspect the Justice?" ("No"), the camera seemed to be aimed at her.
Sunny took the opportunity to crawl beneath the seats and start biting open the coverings of the cushions. She chewed out pieces of seat-cushion foam and passed them to Klaus.
"Floatation," she whispered. Sunny and Klaus stuffed the pocket of the Herman Melville diving suit he was still wearing.
The plane flight didn't take long. When it felt like they were starting to land, Violet said "I guess the bell is ringing and recess is over." That ended the code.
Jerome Squalor opened the door. "Everybody out. This is the Gulag Archipelago, our air/sea base."
The captive stepped out onto a bleak, rocky surface surrounded by the sea. Dozens of other islands, all equally bleak, stretched out in a line with this one on either side.
Justice Strauss produced a whistle and blew a series of eerie, high-pitched notes. There was a loud gurgle and up from the depths came a creature the children had never imagined in their nightmares. An enormous bloodshot eye glared at them from the edge of a blackened, pitted shell the size of a house. Thick, slimy tentacles reached from beside the eye and seemed to go on for a mile. It smelled like something dead.
"It's bio-engineered," said Justice Strauss. "The V.F.D. are not the only ones with advanced technology."
"Calimari," Sunny said.
"A giant chambered nautilus," said Klaus.
"We'd have called it 'The Nautilus'," said Jerome, "but the name was taken. Since it looks like a question mark as it swims, we call it 'The Interrogator'."
"It's wonderful for destroying enemy ships," said the Justice. "It's absolutely intractable. That means it's stubborn and it never gives up squeezing until its enemies are crushed."
The two waiter-thugs opened a hatch carved into the shell. The captives were forced inside. It was roomy and dry, but it still had an uncanny fishlike stench. There was a room with blinking lights and control panels to one side, but the captives were pushed down a dark passage in the other direction.
"I think you were up to mischief on the plane, maybe talking in code" said Strauss. "So I'm going to put you into the special Holding Cell."
It was certainly a Holding Cell. The instant they were inside, bio-engineered tentacles seized them and pulled them against the wall. Tentacles even covered their mouths, preventing them from talking.
As the bio-engineered creature/vessel dove beneath the waves, the Baudelaires felt a helpless horror worse than any they had experienced before. They were truly in the belly of the beast.