Not a chapter
In the next few chapters I will be cutting back and forth between several scenes since people are still separated. Things may or may not be happening at exactly the same time. You might want to take the opportunity to cut this book back and forth a few times with a sharp saw, and find something less awful to read.
Chapter 5
The phrase "feeling the bottom drop out from under you" refers to the shock one experiences from a sudden, unexpected change that makes everything different, as if the floor of your apartment had been converted into a trap-door. It happened to the Baudelaires when they were told that their parents had died in a terrible fire. It happened to me once when a villain converted the floor of my apartment into a trap-door. And it had happened to Klaus and Fiona when Captain Widdershins suddenly pronounced them married.
Klaus and Fiona woke up together after their wedding night. They smiled at each other, but then a sad look crossed Klaus' face.
"What is it, Klaus?" asked Fiona.
"I'm still worried about Violet and Sunny," Klaus said.
"We have to hope they made it," said Fiona. "Violet's a good swimmer. Remember how well she swam against the current on our way out of the Gorgonian Grotto."
"But Sunny..." said Klaus. He was thinking that Sunny had never learned to swim. She was carried inside a diving helmet on that mission.
"There's still a chance. Maybe they stayed together and Violet helped Sunny."
"I have another reason to worry," said Klaus.
He got the waterproof envelope from his concierge uniform pocket and showed her the doily message.
"There's a device in the sugar bowl that can send messages from the future," he said. "Like this one. It says that one of us will die on October 19th, today."
"Maybe the message is false," said Fiona. "Anyway, there's nothing more we can do now but hope. Come on, let's get up and I'll show you around the ship."
The concierge suit was ruined, so Fiona found Klaus some old jeans and a shirt of hers that fit him. They walked around the deck (the weather had cleared up completely), and then down into the hold.
"Stepfather sleeps in this room on the right, and Phil's on the left," said Fiona. "This room... we're using it for a brig right now."
"A brig?" asked Klaus.
"We captured Kit yesterday," said Fiona. "Stepfather sent her a message to meet him. She came water-skiing behind a rubber raft with an outboard motor. When she saw what was up, she tried to water-ski away, but we caught her."
"Why did you capture her?" asked Klaus.
"To bring her to justice. We learned from Fernald that she's responsible for the loss of his hands," said Fiona.
"You're going to take her to the authorities?" asked Klaus.
"We'll do our own justice, but we'll have to wait until her child is born," said Fiona grimly.
"You can't take the law into your own hands!" said Klaus in dismay.
"We have a representative of the law on our side. Fernald's girlfriend just happens to be a High Court Justice," said Fiona.
Klaus felt the bottom drop out from under him again.
That same morning, the Duchess and I woke up together with splitting headaches and our arms tied behind our backs (after having been knocked out by the villainous counterfeiter Jarvis Simon).
In the clear sky above us we could see the floating shape of the self-sustaining hot-air mobile home in which Duncan, Isadora, and Hector had escaped from the vile village of V.F.D. but which they had been unable to land since. It looked damaged, with rips all over the balloon fabric.
In the still water in front of us we could see the surfaced shape of the Carmelita, the octopus-shaped submarine that Fernald and Fiona had stolen from Count Olaf.
"Here we are, folks," said Jarvis breezily. "This is where I was taking you all along."
"You're a member of the unquiet side of the V.F.D. after all?" the Duchess asked.
"I'm an ordinary, everyday crook," said Jarvis. "I work for who pays best."
A hatch opened in the top of the Carmelita and Fernald pulled himself out with his hook-hands.
"Hi Jarvis," said Fernald. "Good work capturing those two. Where are the Baudelaires?"
"Washed overboard in the storm," said Jarvis.
"Fiona won't be happy about Klaus, but it's just as well," said Fernald. "Those brats always managed to mess up Olaf's plans and I wouldn't want the same thing happening to me."
"How's it going with the blimp attack?" asked Jarvis, pointing up at the hot-air mobile home.
"Pretty good," said Fernald. "I had to stop overnight because the eagles couldn't fly in the storm. I'm hoping to be done before Fiona and Widdershins get here."
"How did you end up with the eagles?" I asked Fernald.
"I don't see why I should answer your questions, Snicket," said Fernald. "Come on, Jarvis, let's put them in the brig until my darling Scylla gets here. There are a lot of V.F.D. secrets we can get out of them."
That name was enough to answer my first question. Scylla Charybdis was the real name of the woman with hair and no beard. I knew from my research in the Baudelaire case that she had taken Fernald off Mount Fraught in an eagle-borne net along with other captives. She must have won him to her side. When he returned to Olaf, he was secretly working for her.
As they marched us to the brig, Fernald and Jarvis continued to talk.
"What's taking so long to bring down the blimp, boss?" Jarvis asked. "You've been at it for two days."
Fernald cuffed Jarvis with the back of his right hook. "Don't criticize me. I put up with enough of that from Olaf. The eagles could have ripped it to shreds, but I've got to bring it down gently. There are secrets in the books Hector took from his library in the village... secrets we've got to have."
"You mean about the Isle of Forbidden Fruit and the F.F.P.?" asked Jarvis.
"Not in front of them!" said Fernald angrily.
They said nothing more until they had us locked in the brig.