Chapter Ten

Hilltop, Mya, and Nick were surprised - to say the least - when they found me sitting on a now squirming Captain Moto in an attempt to keep him from wriggling away.

"What is this?" Hilltop exclaimed. Mya ran over to check the bonds, in the process nearly knocking me on my butt. After a second she looked up at me in surprise.

"Where did you learn to make knots like this?! This is similar to the type of knot we use to tie up elephants!"

"I'm part of the Burmese army back home," I said, shrugging. 'We learn how to make knots like this so we could tie up our prisoners if the need arose. It's rather effective."Nick shot up and stared at me.

"But you're fifteen," he said in confusion. "I don't remember the army letting in people as young as us since, well, a very long time ago." I grimaced, remembering all my father's speeches about the new recruiting age.

"The age has been changed through necessity; you can join the army when you're fourteen years old. You might not be sent out until you're seventeen, but you can join at age fourteen. I've been training for a year now," I said. I wasn't sure if I agreed with my dad about the recruiting age being wrong. I loved being in the army, serving my country and making Father proud. On the other hand, many soldiers had died before they even got a chance to grow up.

"How can a boy prepare himself to die when he hasn't yet had a chance to live?" Hilltop said sagely. I just shrugged, grimacing uncomfortably.

"That's just the way things are. You can't change them any more than you can change the past."

"But you being here.... doesn't that change things?" Mya asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing dramatic has changed, so far as I can tell. What happened yesterday didn't change, nor did anything else as far as I can tell." I glanced down at Captain Moto. He glared at me, his eyes blazing. "Well, one thing so far is different."

"What?" Hilltop asked. I gave him a small, wicked smile.

"Captain Moto the 'fearless' was just hog-tied by a fifteen year old army recruit from the future."

"That is one thing," Hilltop agreed, smiling. I felt my mouth spread into a grin, before I let my face become serious again.

"Moto! Do you know where in the Labor Camp Nick's father, Jackson Freestone, is being held captive?" I barked at Captain Moto. I knelt before him, and took the gag out of his mouth. He immediately bit my hand. I swore colorfully and smacked him. He glared at me, a red mark appearing under his left eye.

"I don't have to tell you anything!" he hissed. Nick, whose head had shot up at the mention of his father, stalked forward angrily and sank down to Captain Moto's level.

"You'll tell us," he whispered in a scarily calm voice. "Or we'll call for Hannibal and burry you under a few of your precious tiger skins. Let's see if he'll let you live a second time." I had never seen Nick like this; it scared me. I know threatening people is the most sure fire way of getting people like Moto to do what you want, besides money and power of course, but Nick sounded like he'd actually do it.

"Or," Mya said, looking at me. Her eyes showed her worry. She'd notice the same thing as I had in Nick. Hilltop was shifting nervously, not liking what was going on and avoiding Nick's eyes. "Or," Mya said again. "We could just dump you in the river. I hear the piranhas are swarming in this area, growing bigger and more flesh-hungry on the dead bodies you've been dumping in the water. Whereas Hannibal would make it quick, the piranhas bite and dart away. And there are other creatures lured by the smell of blood. It would be the death of a thousand little bites"

I almost snorted, which would have given her ploy away. There were no Piranhas here! But as I watched the Captain sweat - and not figuratively either - I realized he didn't know that. The piranha is native to the rivers of South America, and doesn't normally attack live humans anyways, but their reputation was clearly putting a little respect into the Captain.

"Yeah, one bit me a week ago when I went swimming. See? Nasty bite, those piranhas have," I said, gesturing to a row of deep scratches on my leg I had gotten a week ago. I had been swimming, that was true, but I slashed my leg on a rather pointy rock. James had teased me about being bitten by a fish that thought I was tasty. I was using what he said to my advantage now.

Captain Moto's eyes bulged, and his breathing became shallow. But he still had the nerve (or courage, but it wasn't helping us so I won't say that) to say, "I won't tell you!"

"Fine," Mya said, shrugging. She motioned for me to begin dragging him to the edge of the island.

"Nick, give Sarae a hand lifting Moto here, please." Nick grinned, catching on to what we were doing. Captain Moto was worth more alive than dead, what with all he knew. I think he realized that, but Nick's grin was vicious, and probably looked deadly from Captain Moto's point of view. We picked him up and carried him down to the river bed.

"All together now! One.... two...." Nick said.

"All right all right, I will tell you!" Captain Moto cried out. His eyes were incredibly wide and his face was clammy and slightly green.

"The camp is a day's travel north! Don't throw me in river! I beg you, do not! What do you want; I'll give you money and freedom from capture, anything!"

"I want my father." Nick said dangerously. When everything boiled down, Captain Moto was really just a pathetic man that tried to prove to himself that he was important by terrorizing other living things. It was disgusting. We dropped him on the ground and sat down.

"A day's travel," Nick breathed. "So close!"

"Hilltop!" I called. "What are we going to do with Captain Moto?" Hilltop put a hand to his mouth and pursed his lips.

"We'll have to take him," he said finally. "We have no choice."

"This is going to be fun," Mya said under her breath, grabbing Captain Moto and hauling him back to our campsite and the elephants.

"Why doesn't someone just kill me now before we have to go through this torture?" Nick sighed.

"Here," I said, shoving the gag back into Captain Moto's mouth. "Problem solved."