This chapter is slightly darker than the ones before.
"Can't you let me work in peace for five minutes? I told you I'm almost done, this is delicate work and I don't want it ruined."
Martin took a few steps back from Aviva, who was currently in the process of dismantling Chris' creature pod. He couldn't help but hover over her work, anxious to know what she found as soon as possible. The sooner they could find something that would point them in the right direction, the sooner they could figure out what was going on and find Chris. Rubbing his hands together anxiously, he turned to see what Jimmy was up to.
"Have you seen anything yet?" Martin asked, watching the green glow of trees through the flycam's night vision on the main screen.
"Nothing but a few birds so far," Jimmy commented, dipping the camera down into a small ravine. The pilot had volunteered to take the first shift for the controller in order to let Martin get some rest until his turn, although Martin already knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
Watching the screen for a few more moments, Martin resumed his pacing around the main room. They had only been back for a little over an hour, but it seemed like forever. It felt like he was doing nothing by waiting around, and he wanted to get back out there and keep looking for Chris and Fizz, and make sure the rest gorillas stayed safe. He already even had a list of almost a dozen creature powers with heightened sensory power to help in the search.
"You're starting to make me dizzy, MK," Koki commented, shaking her head when Martin passed by her chair again. "Why don't you sit down for a while?"
Martin opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Aviva. "He terminado!" she exclaimed, pulling out the creature pod that was hooked up to her invention kit. "Diagnostics are done! I just finished downloading the data."
Martin was instantly at her side, straining to see the computer screen and read what it said. "What is it? Did you find anything?" He asked.
"So far nothing much more than we already know," Aviva said, tilting the screen to let the crew get a better look. "The last call Chris made was to the Tortuga when we last talked to him. There's a few pictures of gorillas that he took afterwards, but that's it."
Martin's eyes scanned over each picture as Aviva shuffled through them, looking for any sort of clues that could be hiding in the background. But all he saw were gorillas and plants in the background, which only frustrated him more.
"The last thing Chris was looking at was the GPS radar for the tags," Aviva continued, pulling up the screenshot of the map. "The screen capture says this was open when his creature pod broke, which was the same spot as his last coordinates."
"I know he said something about the gorillas being missing," Martin commented. "But then why would Chris break his creature pod? It just doesn't make any sense, this isn't like him."
"There is one more thing I found." Aviva turned towards Martin and Koki, looking as if she was unsure if she should continue. "I'm not sure what it could mean, but... When I scanned the outside of the creature pod, I found part of a shoe print and fingerprints. Neither of them match any of us."
Martin paled when he heard that. His optimistic hope that Chris only got lost he was still clinging to was quickly eroding, and he did not like where it was going.
"So what's that mean?" Koki questioned, leaning closer towards the computer to get a better look. "Someone else had Chris' creature pod and stomped on it?"
"Could be. I just wished we had something more to go with, so unfortunately I still don't know what happened," Aviva admitted, placing the device into a plastic bag and zipping it up. "I found it buried in a pile of leaves three miles away, almost as if someone was trying to hide it. Worst case scenario, we could be dealing with the possibility that Chris might have been kidnapped. And whoever took him might be behind the rest of the gorillas going missing too."
If Chris was taken out of the area, they might never be able to find him. Please just be okay. Martin closed his eyes as he willed himself to calm down, worry tightening his stomach and making him feel sick. Something in the back of his mind was screaming that something was very wrong, and that his brother's life was very much in danger.
"-alright Martin?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Martin said, not even bothering to disguise the lie in his voice. The crew would only call him out for it if he tried anyway. "Just worried about Chris, that's all."
Aviva nodded in agreement, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know, Martin. We all are."
"I don't know about you guys, but I think this is getting pretty serious," Koki said, nodding towards the bagged creature pod. "After what we just found, I think we should contact the park rangers first thing in the morning and let them know. I'll give them the info of what we found so far. They might've seen something, and the more eyes helping, the better."
Chris stirred awake, jolts of pain shooting up his body as he shifted. He noticed, with dismay, he was still in the same position as before.
With the little give he had in the ropes still binding him to the chair, he tried to flex his stiff muscles and get the blood flowing back through them. His body ached almost clear down to the bone after being roughed up earlier, and the cold draft that blew through the building only made it worse. Goosebumps ran up his bare arms, making him shiver slightly.
How long have I been here? There were no windows to estimate the time based on the sun, the only light source being a low lamp that hung from above. Between the aches, his thirst, and the bruises forming on the parts of him that he could see, Chris estimated it had to have been at least a day.
Jumping at a loud scraping sound breaking the silence, Chris looked over to the side to see his captors pulling open the door to his 'room'. They looked just as unhappy as before, causing Chris to reflexively clench his fists in apprehension.
"Are you ready to talk now, Mr. Kratt?" Hector asked. "And I hope you make this quick, I have buyers already in line back in Serbia that I need to meet with. I promised them a quick delivery."
So that's why they were taking the animals. Chris had assumed they had to be some kind of animal traffickers when he had seen the stacks of cages, but actually hearing what their intentions were sealed the deal. Suddenly he wanted to smack himself upside the head; he practically walked himself here and handed over his research for them to use.
"You can't sell wild animals," Chris said, his temper growing. Despite his fear of what they were going to do to him, he felt angry. The animals were helpless, even more trapped than he was. "These are their homes, their natural habitat. You can't just take them away from that."
Both of them stepped up closer to him, causing Chris to immediately tense, but luckily they didn't hit him like before.
"Your concern is touching, but stupid, Mr. Kratt," Hector said. It grated on Chris' nerves the way he talked with him as if they were friends. "If I were you I'd be more worried about yourself. So let's make this nice and easy, why don't we talk about who you're working with, hmm?"
"I'm not working for anyone," Chris repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. What else could he tell them to make them believe him? He couldn't bring up the crew, Chris knew that would put them in danger as well, and he would do everything in his power to make sure his friends and family stayed safe.
They undid the ropes binding him to the chair, although they left the ones on his wrists and ankles. The large of the two grabbed Chris roughly by the arm, pulling him up out of the chair and dragged him towards a large bucket on the table in front of him that was filled with water.
"We'll start off easy for you," Hector said, gripping the hair on the back of his head. Chris winced at the tight feeling, gazing at his reflection in the water when they pushed him towards the bucket. He looked as awful as he felt, his face exhausted and full of bruises. "You know a lot for someone who claims he's not spying. How did you find out about us?"
"I don't know anything about you!" Chris said as he eyed the water nervously. It seemed innocuous enough, but these men were capable of anything. "I was just researching the gorillas."
Immediately after speaking, Chris' head was roughly shoved into the water. It was freezing, the sudden shock of the cold numbing his mind, and the salinity keeping it from icing over made his eyes and the cuts on his face sting. He struggled against the hands holding him in place in order to get out of their grasp and pull his head back up so he could breathe, but they continued to force him down.
Just when he thought his lungs would burst, they yanked his head out of the water.
"Who are you working for?" Tomas yelled, straining Chris' neck up to look him in the eye.
Struggling to catch his breath, Chris gasped for air. "I don't-"
Chris was cut off when they pushed his head back into the water again. Surprised by the sudden motion, he accidentally inhaled, causing his lungs to immediately reject the water as he coughed. The freezing salty water made his chest burn as he struggled to hold his breath. By the time he was starting to feel dizzy and thought for sure he was going to faint, Hector pulled him back out.
It repeated several more times. Each time Chris was able to get a gasp of air, he was pushed back under water. They asked him every time they pulled him up for information, but Chris could barely breathe, let alone provide answers he did not even have. His knees were weak and shaky as his body wanted to collapse, but his captors kept him standing up.
Frigid water dripped from his head down to soak the rest of his thin undershirt, causing Chris to shiver from the cold. Both his body and mind felt overwhelmed as he sputtered, trying to cough out the water that was in his mouth, nose, and lungs. "I-I told you, I don't know," Chris answered, his words unsteady.
"You're fucking lying," Tomas hissed, grabbing Chris by the front of his shirt and pulling him towards himself. From what Chris could see from between his water logged bangs, he looked pissed. "You were on some sort of phone, talking to someone about some kind of villain stealing gorillas. You knew about our whole operation, and you're working with someone to shut us down. So who is it?"
"I'm not working for a-anyone," Chris said between coughs, still trying to recover from his treatment earlier.
Tomas and Hector exchanged a look before they each grabbed one of Chris' arms, dragging him back to the chair he was sitting in before. Chris struggled to process what was going on as they pushed him down, his thoughts still sluggish from being dunked in the freezing water.
"You'll talk soon enough, Mr. Kratt," Tomas said casually, untying the ropes that held his wrists together. "You seemed like a smart man, I thought you would have made it easy for yourself and we would be able to avoid this." Chris tried to struggle and escape with the newly freed hands, pushing at Tomas as he attempted to jump out of the chair, but Hector quickly stood up and held his wrists still as they were tied to the arms of the chair.
Confused, Chris wondered what they were up to until Tomas grabbed his pinky finger and started twisting. He tried to block out the pain and breathe through it when his first finger was broken, flinching at the audible snap the bone made, although his resolve quickly dropped when they continued on to the left. New white hot pain flared up his hand as the next one broke, joining his already throbbing broken finger. Squeezing his eyes shut, Chris threw his head back as he let out a scream of pain, fighting against the restraints to get away as they kept going.
"Stop it!" He screamed. "I don't know! I told you I don't know!"
What didn't he know? His mind was blinded with pain, all consuming as it blocked out anything else. Breaking one finger was bad enough, but breaking them one by one was agonizing. This torture made the first one seem like it was nothing, making him almost wish he was going through that ordeal again.
They were saying something to him, but he was too overcome with the throbbing running up his arm to process what they were saying.
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know..." Chris repeated the words like a mantra, trying to breathe through the pain he couldn't escape from.
They must have been asking more questions and didn't like his response; Chris suddenly felt the uncomfortable twist and then sharp pain of his thumb being broken. He let out another scream, unable to control the tears now running down his face. His hand was jostled as his body shook from the intensity and stress of his torture, sending sharp jolts of agony up the nerves of his arm.
"Well?"
Chris could only shake his head, too overwhelmed from the pain to speak.
"Your so called bravery will get you no where, Mr. Kratt," Tomas said, stepping back almost like he was viewing his handiwork. "I'd love to stay and chat some more, but this conversation is a little one sided. Maybe some time alone to think about smart choices will help.
"In the meantime, we have a business matter to work out. Our buyer is waiting, and he is a very busy man."
"N-No, you can't take them," Chris forced out as he watched the two men approach the cages. The animals backed away in fear, several letting out warning calls as the pair banged on their cages to silence them. "You're taking them away from their homes!"
His captors, of course, ignored him. Chris watched in horror as the baby gorilla his brother had named Fluff was placed in a crate; he could hear its whimpering cries of fear as it was taken away. Fluff's mom, as if she could sense what was going on, cried out in distress as well.
Hearing the door slide shut after they left, Chris hung his head low with guilt, crying quietly. What a failure. He couldn't save the gorillas and he couldn't warn his brother and the crew, who no doubt by now had to be worried and looking for him. It wouldn't be long until his captors found out about them as well, despite his best efforts to keep quiet about them. They could be walking straight into danger and it was all because of him.
It was hours past midnight when Martin found himself sitting up in the atrium of the Tortuga, sipping on a now cold hot chocolate and watching the rain fall on the glass. Normally he loved falling asleep to the sound of rain at night, but now it was only keeping him up.
Was Chris out in this mess? The rain was heavy and cold up in the mountains, and had drenched Martin when he was out earlier in the peregrine falcon suit searching for his brother from a higher vantage point. Wherever he was, Martin only hoped Chris at least found shelter for the night. This kind of weather could cause an illness without the proper gear, which he was sure Chris didn't have.
Martin shifted the broken green creature pod in his hand, his thumb running over the several cracks on the screen and outside. Had Chris tried to contact one of them before going missing? Why was he missing in the first place?
The rest of the crew wouldn't let him leave the Tortuga, much to his chagrin, saying they were worried about his safety as well. So what? If Chris was in trouble, Martin wouldn't even think twice about putting his own life in danger if it meant his brother was safe. But he had already tried to sneak out once before, and Aviva wasn't happy about that when she caught him halfway out the door.
Hopping down from the upper level, Martin dumped out what was left of his drink before taking over the controls for the flycam from Aviva for his turn.
"You okay, Martin?" She asked, giving the elder Kratt one last lingering look of concern as she handed over the controller. "I can keep going if you want."
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Martin said, waving off her concern as he forced a smile on his face."Go get some sleep, it's late. I can handle this."
Giving him one last look, she nodded before turning and walking away. Martin adjusted the camera to continue forward through the woods, frowning at the continued lack of any sign of Chris as he wished he could be out there looking.
Please just be okay.
