SAME QUESTION! DO YOU KNOW which CITY the GATES family lives?! I can't remember and can't figure it out. THANKS!
Can you write National Treasure fanfiction and watch the news about the Democratic presidential nominee at the same time? (Should I even try?) Let's find out!
Oop, and yes, Totbrf, I have somewhat of a plan – an alarmingly flexible, rather skimpy one, though. I took your idea about Mysterious Asian Man and, well, at least ran with the topic…
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Riley
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I'd just asked Tomas what he wanted. I already knew what he want, he wanted me to be miserable, he wanted to shove me down the stairs, he wanted to take a fistful of my hair and twist it violently off of my scalp. He probably also wanted to get laid, but definitely not by me. I'd be willing to guess he wouldn't say no to an Oreo shake either.
"I want," he said, "for you to listen to that man while he tells us all what his organization is doing as we speak." Tomas shifted his eyes to the man standing to my left. I swiveled in my chair.
That man?
"Okay," I said, raising my hands in a 'hold up, time-out' gesture – I realized they were shaking so I quickly put them down on my lap - but I continued talking, despite a murderous glare from Tomas.
"You, Chinese Man, what the hell is your name?"
Yes, it was a pathetic attempt at stalling, but nobody else was doing anything. This would probably finally get my scalp ripped off by Tomas. Nothing struck, though, except his voice.
"Riley, just shuttup. Do what I-"
"My name," said the Chinese Man, interrupting Tomas very deliberately. Tomas didn't counter-interrupt, which was almost as shocking as the prospect of being about to learn the Chinese Man's name.
"Is Jianguo."
I stared at Jianguo. So did Tomas, and I'll bet Crandon and Ben were too. I can only speak for myself, but I was staring because everyone else was staring. The name Jianguo held no significance to me. Sure, it was a mysterious, semi-unpronounceable Chinese name. Those are always fun, especially when used as cheesy plot devices in fanfictions.
"You," said Tomas, with a touch of scorn in his voice. I swiveled back to look at Tomas. He wasn't looking at Jianguo with an Oh, you undercover sly weasel, I should have known it was you all along expression. It was more like I can't believe you.
"I can't believe you," he said. Man, I'd never seen Tomas so mad before, which isn't saying all that much. He didn't even look like a stereotypical mad evil person anymore. His rage, from what I could see, bubbled and spit above a burner fueled by some underlying reason. Apparently the name meant something to him.
As much as I liked drama, I wasn't quite in the mood for it at the moment, so I sat back and tried not to get hit in the crossfire. I pushed myself backward and rolled away from the controls a few feet.
"Get back to the controls," Tomas growled. "I don't know why you think you can suddenly pull a one-eighty," he was directing his voice back at Jianguo as I inched back to the screens. "But it has no play into this at all. Nothing is changed. Now tell me what the organization is doing."
"Don't kid yourself, Tomas," countered Jianguo. "You know what this means. Don't hide the meaning from yourself." Former-Chinese Man was sneering. My mouth opened before my mind could tell it not to.
"Wait, are you Tomas's father?" I asked Jianguo.
"Shut up!" yelled Tomas, and he kicked my chair hard – I went flying backward and toppled over onto the floor. I sat up and was relieved to see that, although Tomas had jumped to his feet, he wasn't going for me. He was going for Jianguo.
"This means nothing! You think you're returning to what, who you were thirty-five years ago? Who cares? I'm not stupid, I can tell your plans have changed without having to be reminded of your goddamn name and what it means again, don't bore me with your goddamn Chinese fairytales! I have the gun, that's all that matters! Do you want to live or not?"
By this time I had scooted backwards and was leaning against the wall next to Ben. He put a hand on my shoulder.
"You okay?" Tomas's head whipped around.
"Shut up! Everybody stop talking! The next person who talks dies!" His shout rang in my head, tightened my guts – I felt the chill of the freezer creeping into my core again at the sound of his raised voice. Jesus, but it was like I had a little frozen guitar string vibrating right under my sternum. I shrunk against Ben, hating myself for being so pathetic but not able to counter the sudden need to hide. I couldn't close my eyes, even though every second I kept them open was burning Tomas's enraged face and itchy finger on the trigger into my memory.
Ugh, now he was staring at me, a maniacal glint in his eyes.
"Oh man," I whispered, which was one way of putting the situation. I hadn't even done anything this time.
"Tomas," said Jianguo, and I got the distinct impression he was trying to rip Tomas's attention off of me. It worked. I think that may have been the only time in my life I'd have ever kissed another man, if I hadn't been paralyzed with fear.
"Okay. There are two plans. One is so top-secret even I don't know all the details. It has to do with the FDA, you're smart, you fill in the blanks. Second plan, the emergency plan, is more straightforward." He paused. Tomas gave a slight nod.
"October 1958, off the coast of Georgia, a US B-47 bomber collided with a Saberjet fighter. Both went down. The bomber was carrying a thermonuclear."
"A hydrogen bomb!" exclaimed Ben. Tomas shot him a look. Jianguo continued quickly.
"It's been missing from the government ever since. They've done dozens of sweeps for it on the ocean floor but they weren't quick enough. They think it's still down there. That's when the organization started – one of the founders found it right away and picked it up. It's at our base in northern Nevada."
"Where in northern Nevada?" asked Tomas.
"Does it matter?"
"Just… continue."
"The base has been there since we recovered the bomb. They started very small, and the first meeting place was in South Dakota." Tomas shifted impatiently. I imagined he didn't really care about the history of the organization. I could picture him thinking, yes, but where is the rum?
"They've since acquired… more bombs, both fission and thermonuclear."
"How many?"
"I don't know. At least three hydrogens. Dozens of fissions."
"So that's their plan? Blow up the planet?" Jianguo scoffed.
"That would be against everything the organization was working for, wouldn't it?"
"What are you talking about? They wanted to eradicate humans. The job would be done, quick and easy."
"Their main interest was to preserve the Earth."
"Well…" Tomas tripped on his words. He looked a bit confused for a moment, but then he just looked enraged. Jianguo countered before Tomas could attack again.
"You joined knowing that. I made sure you understood what we stood for."
"I don't care! Don't tell me why I joined! If that's what you people want to do, fine. But-"
"Using bombs is not what the organization wants to do."
"Look, you, first you reclaim your name, then you defend-"
"I am not defending, Tomas. But I know what you're thinking."
"What am I thinking?"
"You wanted to set the second plan into motion. You want immediate destruction."
"Yes, that is what I want, so what? That's what I'm going to do!"
"Think about it, Tomas, what have humans ever done that makes you want to kill them?" And this is about the time I fell over the edge and stopped understanding anything they were saying. I had been confused to begin with, but now it was like they were speaking a different language. And Tomas was getting more enraged by the second. Why had Jianguo asked that last question? Was he trying to draw something out?
"What do you want me to say, you traitor, I hate them because they're destroying the planet? Because I can't bear to see Mother Earth die like this? I couldn't care less about the Earth. It's just a big rock, for God's sake, I joined this organization because I hate humans. If the Earth needs to be destroyed to make way for a new age of no humans, fine."
"But why do you hate them?"
"Dammit, man, why do you care? Why the hell should I tell you?" He paused for a moment, in furious thought. "Why am I even arguing with you? This isn't what I asked you to do. Riley, get back up here." His gun pointed at me, so I started to get up.
"Riley has nothing to do with this. He can't help you," said Jianguo. "You think someone accustomed to high-tech will be able to figure this thing out? It's like asking a small-town vet to work on a whale." Oh ouch.
"Now you're just defending him. I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth unless it's telling Riley what to do to get me into the system."
"Actually," I said, joining the party, "Jianguo here isn't, in fact, just defending me. If you hadn't noticed, he did send me down to the freezer to spend some quality time with you. I'm not his favorite." Tomas whipped around to stare at me. I cringed. "Seriously, though, I have no idea how to work this thing. I couldn't even find the on switch." Way too late.
Tomas backhanded me across the face.
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Ben
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My stream of concentration was broken as Riley hit the ground. Tomas's attention wasn't diverted for long – Jianguo continued talking, about what I didn't notice. I crawled across the floor, flipped Riley over onto his back. His hand was on his face. I didn't ask him if he was ok, and he didn't say anything to me. We didn't want to attract Tomas's wrath again. I caught Riley's eyes with my own, mentally asking if he was alright. He simply shook his head in a never mind type of way. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, and then struggled to his knees.
"And now," Tomas was saying as I started listening again, "you're going to tell me that you were actually taking Ben and Riley in to the base camp in wherever-the-hell, Nebraska, right? So you could-"
"We were just trying to avoid you! I knew you were totally insane the day I brought Riley down to you! And thanks to that I did some re-thinking-"
"Oh, don't go into that. Riley-the-innocent gave you hope for humanity and now you want to become a saint and save the world from Tomas de Torquemada."
"Well-"
"Yes, that's what you were thinking, boo-hoo, whatever. SHUTTUP! I'm done arguing. I don't know what you're trying to accomplish by doing this, so far you've proved that you have no point." Jianguo opened his mouth again. "Do not talk, Chinese man. I can see you're not afraid of getting shot. What about your friends?"
The gun was aimed at me. My breath hitched in my throat. I'd had guns aimed at me before, but not by someone this angry. Jianguo shut his mouth.
"Riley," rumbled the madman, "Get back up here. And no wisecracks. I swear I'll shoot Ben." He sounded like he meant it. Riley made his way into the chair and lowered himself back down.
"Okay, you two. Riley, listen. You," he indicated Jianguo, "You're one of the few who can set off the indicators to launch the bombs, right?" Jianguo didn't say anything.
"Tell me or someone gets hurt." Meaning, tell me or Ben gets hurt.
"What are you talking about?"
"There are only a few in the organization that have the codes to get into the system and set off the missiles. You know the codes because you're high up enough. You've got that responsibility."
This was insane. Set off the missiles. Too much was happening. This was getting bigger and direr every second that passed. I hated it. I wondered if this would ever end, in a blast of heat and radiation or otherwise.
"What makes you think I'd tell you, even if I did know them?"
"Because," said Tomas, and his gun clicked in his hand. "I know you don't want to be responsible for Ben's death." I may have been past being nervous. I was now so sure that I was about to get shot and killed that I was almost at peace with it. Let it happen already. I give up.
Jianguo was staring at Tomas. Thinking, I'm sure, better one person than the whole planet. But he wasn't going to say that because then Tomas would shoot me for sure.
"Fine. Riley? Left screen, type in 'A73fY'."
Oh, what was he doing?
"Jianguo, don't tell him, it's not worth it."
"Shut up, Ben. You want to get shot?" asked Tomas. I glared. Riley typed. Both Jianguo and Riley were doing the wrong thing now. Was I relieved? They weren't getting me shot, but they were working to destroy the world.
Riley hit the last key and stared at the screen.
"What does that say?" asked Tomas, looking over Riley's shoulder. I stood up, trying to see what was going on. Green text was being displayed on the screen.
"Riley can't read it," said Jianguo. "I told you, he doesn't know how this system works. There's a code here."
"Great, a code. Alright, you tell him what to do, if you do anything funny, I'm going to kill Riley. You've shown me Riley's expendable."
"Riley, see the line that begins with 'TI-IR3AY'?"
"Yeah."
"Use the arrow keys above the monitor, select the line and hit enter."
"Wait, wait, wait," said Tomas, slapping Riley's hands off the keys. "Tell me what's going on before you tell him what to do." I detected the slightest hint of fear in Tomas's voice, which was understandable. Jianguo and Riley, standing on the same side of this conflict, were working with dangerous things that he didn't understand. Jianguo sighed.
"Okay, the first thing Riley entered, in code, meant 'Alert'."
"Alert, okay, what's this screen mean?"
"This screen asks you what kind of alert you're entering. I told him to select the code line for 'public knowledge – immediate action'."
"Wait," said Riley, "I thought-"
"Shut up, Riley," said Jianguo, cutting him off tiredly. He sounded resigned, as if he wanted to get this over with. But I was watching his eyes, and the way Riley received the look, and it seemed to me that something passed between them. Tomas was still staring at the screen.
"Okay, fine. Go." Riley entered. The next screen popped up.
CONFIRM THREAT IN ORGANIZATION SECURITY OR THREATENED ABUSE OF ORGANIZATION NETWORK – ENTER LOCATION:
There was a short silence as everyone stared at the screen. To my horror, Jianguo had a somewhat shocked expression on his face. Tomas read the message under his breath.
"Breach in organization security, threatened abuse of… what?" Well, something strange was going on. My muscles tensed.
Tomas straightened his gun arm and aimed it at Riley.
Jianguo and I both lunged at him.
BANG.
Casing hit the ground, my ears stopped working, my muscles froze.
Something black exploded at the end of Tomas's gun hand and Riley recoiled.
Ho dzang, two cheesy gunshot-cutoffs in one story? I should be hung for that.
Arg, this chapter was almost too confusing for me. It could have been executed better, I know. I hope to clarify everything in the next chapter, don't worry. (Or maybe you should worry. Heh heh bork.) If you'd like, please ask for any clarifications if you choose to review. I'm liable to forget to explain something because I probably won't remember everything that needs explaining. So, reminders are welcome.
All that stuff about stolen missiles – the first H-bomb they talk about, the beginning of that story is true, the US military actually did have a collision down there somewhere and they did loose track of the bomb they were carrying, which was thermonuclear, but I don't remember if they've found it yet. I'm sure they would have noticed if some random diver was swimming around near the wreck though.
Wow, this chapter doesn't make any sense! It makes sense to me, but I know what's going on I sometimes forget that you guys can't read my mind. I'm sorry! I'll make a point of clearing things up in the next one!