Chapter 16: Down the Rabbit Hole

Jo's POV: Three Years Earlier, New Zealand

"Say it," I said to Logan over the phone. "Just fucking say it. We all know he's sick, we have the information to prove it."

"I know." He sounded exhausted. "I know. And Kendall's still refusing to talk to me. He really thinks we hooked up."

"This is just stupid! How can one man cause so much strife and – and – "

"Discord?"

"Yeah, I guess. Whatever." I let out a frustrated breath. "Kendall's not returning my calls or texts or tweets either. I just wish he'd listen."

"Well, he won't be listening to me anytime soon," Logan sighed. "We're…um…going our separate ways."

"Going your separate ways? What does that mean?" I demanded.

"The band's breaking up. Scratch that. We did break up. I'm at the airport right now."

"What the hell happened?!"

"Griffin 'let slip' to them that I had applied for the med school in Minneapolis. That just started a whole new fight. And then…God, Jo…The things we said to each other…I didn't know I had it in me to be so nasty. I didn't know any of us did. It was pretty awful."

"So – so – " I licked my lips slowly, trying to wrap my head around all this. It just didn't feel real or…right. Big Time Rush had just reached the top. They couldn't go crumbling down now.

"So?" he prodded me.

"So, is this just a temporary breakup? Like a hiatus? Or is it – is it - ?" I couldn't even say the word. If I said it, then that meant that it was the truth, and that meant that Griffin had won.

However, Logan said it for me: "It's permanent. We're not getting back together. I can feel it."

"Oh…" I bit my lip, feeling a lump forming in my throat. "So – so – that's it? Just like that. You're throwing away almost four years of hard work over a stupid disagreement?"

"Jo." He sounded every bit as frustrated and angry as I felt. "It's not that simple. James is the only one who wanted to be in show business. He got that, he got what he wanted. But the rest of us had dreams. Kendall was going to play for the Minnesota Wild. I wanted to become a doctor. And Carlos – well, I think he's going to stay out here with James. I don't know what he's going to do, but Kendall and I are going back to Minnesota."

"What about Katie and Jenn?" I asked. I couldn't imagine what it was like for them anymore than I could imagine what it was like for Kendall, Logan, James, and Carlos.

"They flew back to Minnesota yesterday."

"Yesterday? When did you guys have the fight?" I cried.

Logan paused a little. "Two days ago…But we've been fighting up a storm lately."

"And I bet Griffin is, in some way, the instigator behind all of your arguments."

"Maybe a little…"

"Logan, you're so smart! How can you let this monster just destroy you guys? Destroy all that you've worked for?"

"The band wasn't ever supposed to last forever. Just for a few years, enough to launch James into stardom, and it did that."

"That's bullshit," I snarled. "You all love singing and dancing and music. This is something that you all wanted. And you're just letting a monster in an Armani suit pull the strings. You're puppets, that's all you are! And Griffin is the puppet master."

"Screw you!" Logan snarled right back.

"Goodbye!" I hung up and threw myself onto my bed in my hotel room in New Zealand. I couldn't believe it. Big Time Rush was over, all thanks to Griffin. He had ruined one of the best, most honest bands in the music industry. They had had so much to give and do and take, and now none of it was ever going to happen.

James' POV

12:20 AM

We watched as Carlos, Stephanie, Kelly, and Jenn headed off, in the direction of the Captain's office. I didn't know about the others, but my stomach was twisting and turning and churning. I had a bad feeling about this.

As if sensing my thoughts and emotions, Katie reached out and took my hand in hers. Her hand was just as small as it had been three years ago, and I was still amazed at how tiny and fragile her fingers looked, like they would break if I squeezed her hand too hard. But I knew they were just like the rest of her. Small, with the appearance of being delicate, but in reality, they were strong and tough, and could snap her enemies like twigs if need be. At least, that's what it seemed like to me. But I was glad, because I knew that meant that she had a better chance of surviving.

I pulled Katie against me and she leaned into me. Kendall narrowed his eyes, but the others all smiled a little. Jo reached out and squeezed Kendall's hand reassuringly, letting him know that everything was okay for the time being.

God, let's hope so.

We walked down to the lower level, treading carefully, in case there was a trick wire or a mine that we could set off. It'd be just our luck that we'd end up setting off a trick wire. It was so us.

"Okay. If I was a bomb, where would I be hiding out?" Kendall finally said, breaking us out of our worried thoughts.

"Somewhere where no one could find me?" Camille suggested helpfully.

"Probably in the very center of the ship," Logan put in.

"Like, in the ceiling or a wall or something?" Katie asked, brow furrowing as she chewed thoughtfully on her lip.

"Probably."

"Well, how would he get it in a ceiling or a wall?" Jo asked.

"Maybe he drilled a hole in one of them?" Kendall proposed. "Or maybe he built a wall around it? Like, maybe it was in a room, but now it's trapped in a wall?"

"Maybe…How much would the plaster slow the bomb down?" I asked Logan.

"Depends on the force of the bomb."

"Oh."

"But I'm guessing that the bomb would have plenty of power."

"Not, like, atom-bomb-power, though, right?" Camille asked nervously.

"No…I hope not…"

"We're not going to go like Hiroshima," I said firmly. "Besides, I'm pretty sure even Griffin couldn't get his hands on that kind of bomb."

"Let's hope not," Logan mumbled. "Because otherwise we're screwed. With a regular bomb we could just throw out into the ocean. With an atom bomb…We'd have to be pretty far away for us to come away unaffected."

The rest of us nodded grimly.

"So, what do we do? Begin tapping on walls?" Jo wanted to know. "Try to find a hollow space?"

"Not a bad idea," Logan nodded.

So, resigned to playing Nancy Drew, we began tapping our knuckles against every inch of wall we could reach. At one point, Jo remembered the ceiling, so Katie climbed up on my shoulders and began to check the ceiling over.

Nothing.

"Maybe we could get a little more centered," I suggested. "We're kind of at one side of the ship, and like Logan pointed out, a bomb that's supposed to blow up the entire ship would probably be in the middle."

There was a general consensus, and we headed back in the direction of the stairs. As we passed by the staircase, a sprig of light highlighted what appeared to be a crack in the floor.

It looked like a normal crack, except that it was long, at least two feet in length. Not exactly your normal crack.

I dropped Katie's hand and walked over to it. At one end, I could see that it met another crack that went in another direction, making an L – wait. It was all one crack – no, scratch that.

I dug my nails into the cracks and tugged up. An entire piece of floor came up. A trapdoor.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a secret door," I said as I straightened back up. "Now, who wants to go down the rabbit's hole?"

Everyone backed up.

"Your enthusiasm is overwhelming," I said sarcastically. "Seriously, don't fall all over yourselves like that, you're gonna make me think you want to go down there."

"Well, I'm not going down there without Logie," Camille whimpered, digging her nails into Logan's arm.

Logan looked slightly alarmed at Camille's proclamation. "I'm not going down there, period!" he yelped.

"Babies," Katie clucked. "I'll go down there with you," she said to me.

"Thank you."

"We will too," Jo said determinedly, tugging a reluctant-looking Kendall forward.

"I'm not going down there without flashlights," Logan spoke up. "It looks dark down there. And there might be spiders or alligators or stuff down there."

I stared at him. "Are you sure you're purpose is to be a doctor? Seriously, you'd make a good cheesy horror novelist."

He scowled at me. "Do you want to go down there without any light?"

"Not particularly."

"Case and point."

"Go get flashlights," Kendall told Logan. "We're going down the rabbit's hole."

Logan whimpered in fear, but he and Camille scurried away. They returned ten minutes later, armed with flashlights that I was guessing he had packed, along with extra batteries. They handed them out to each of us, and I shone my flashlight down into the entrance.

A rope ladder swung from hooks that seemed to have been hammered into the underside of the floor, an inch or so back from where the trapdoor would fall.

"I'll go down first," I volunteered. I stuck my flashlight between my teeth, and carefully lowered myself down into the hole. My foot landed on one of the rungs of the rope ladder, and I gripped the entrance tightly.

"Well? Can it support you?" Logan called to me.

"Yeah," I replied. "It seems pretty stable. I'm going down." I began to make my way down the ladder. The rungs were made of smoothed, polished wood with no splinters whatsoever, like a table. I was about halfway down the ladder when I realized that there was also no dust or rot on the rungs either, and from what I could see of the ropes, they were still pretty strong.

I bit my lip, realizing that this meant that someone had traipsed up and down this ladder recently…And now I was wondering if plunging into a mysterious hole was really a good idea. For all I knew, I could be heading straight for The Replacement's lair.

I'd had miserable luck lately.

With a jolt, my foot touched what felt like cement, and I cautiously lowered my other foot down. I had reached the ground.

I took the flashlight out of my mouth and shone it around. I could see a table with a computer perched on it, bookshelves, and a closet. I spotted a light switch on the nearest wall, and I hurried over to it, flicking it on. Fluorescent lights illuminated the room, and I could see book and papers on the desk.

"Come on down!" I called up to my friends.

I heard the rope ladder creak and it swung a bit as Kendall began climbing down. He joined me quickly.

"It's clear!" he called up to the others, before looking around, surveying the room. "Whoa. What is this place?"

"Beats the hell out of me."

"It looks kind of like an office."

I nodded. "The Replacement's office?"

"I bet that's exactly what it is. I mean, it's pretty well hidden too."

"Holy guacamole!" Camille cried as she landed on the ground beside us. "The Replacement's evil lair!"

"That's what it looks like," Kendall agreed. "Damn…can you imagine what must be on that computer alone?"

There was a long pause, and then we all raced over to it. Kendall hit the power button, booting it up. In the meantime, Katie had joined us.

"Jackpot!" she cried. "Yeah, baby, we've struck gold!"

Camille turned to me. "Is she like this in bed?"

Kendall clapped his hands over his ears. "LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"Childish. We all know they're sleeping together."

"SHUT UP, CAMILLE!" Kendall hollered, hands still over his ears.

Katie walked over to me, watching the computer screen. "Think we can find something on it?"

"Let's hope so."

Jo joined us. "Come on down, Logie!"

I heard him grumbling about spiders, but a minute later he dismounted from the ladder. "Okay. Wow. This place…"

"We know," I said.

"Can you imagine the information we can get on The Replacement? He might even have recorded where he hid the bomb!"

The computer looked to be completely warmed up by now, so Logan sat down in the chair and began to click on stuff. However, the second he moved the mouse, the screen changed, showing that it was locked and needed a password.

We definitely should have seen that one coming.

"Okay, if I was The Replacement, what would my password be?" Camille said out loud.

"IAmEvil?" Jo suggested.

"Nah," Katie disagreed, "too obvious. It'd be something a little more subtle."

"Maybe his name?" I suggested.

"You mean the name he gave himself, or his real one?" Logan asked me.

"I don't know…Both?"

"That's all well and good, but what's his real name?"

"That's the question…"

"Well, I'm sure it'd have something to do with this cruise," Jo said.

Logan began to type in anything he could think of. But no matter how many variations he tried of IAmPsycho, nothing flew.

In the meantime, I mulled over what Jo had said about the password having something to do with the cruise. It felt like the answer was right there in front of me, so tantalizingly close that I could almost touch it.

The DLS-S Cruise…What could the password have to do with it…?

"Guys?" I spoke up. "What does DLS stand for?"

Everyone shrugged.

"I mean, we've never given it much thought…But…Our secrets have been coming out left and right on this cruise. Everything. All of our dirty laundry. All of our dirty little secrets. That's it! That's what DLS stands for! Dirty Little Secret! Logan, try it!"

He typed it in, and a moment later, we were back at the home screen.

"Success!" he chimed, and began to search through the computer.

We all stood back and watched, anxious but excited about what we could end up finding.

It took a little while, but eventually Logan managed to hack his way into a hidden file. His eyes widened as he scanned over it. I bent down to look at it and I gasped.

It was a profile of each and every one of us. The information was beautifully outlined and detailed. I probably didn't know as much about myself as The Replacement knew about me, and that was a scary thought.

"The information dates back to when we were seventeen," Logan murmured, looking through his profile. "At least, the main profile does. The history section goes up until we were sixteen. So, The Replacement must have targeted us five years ago. That's when he began gathering information on us."

"Five years ago?" Camille cried. "That's so creepy! I can't believe we never knew."

"I wonder if he was already in cahoots with Griffin," I said grimly. "I bet he was. Some of this is information that he would have never been able to find out unless he had a source very close to us."

"Unless he had cameras set up in the apartment," Katie pointed out. "He has the exact date that we…got together." She blushed a little.

"And it has the date of our last phone call," Jo added to Logan. "Look, dated two days after you guys split up."

He nodded. "Kind of makes me wonder if he was listening in on us."

"Most likely."

Logan got out of the profiles and got into a folder that was laden with pictures and videos. He clicked on a video and we all gaped at the screen. It was just Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and me walking across the Palmwoods parking lot, laughing and talking.

We got into the limo that Griffin had sent for us and the camera suddenly switched to the interior of the limo.

"Well, I guess he'd need to know everything about our lives," I commented. "Otherwise he wouldn't be able to do any of this."

Logan stopped the video and clicked on another one.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Kendall yelped.

Katie and I were in my bed back at the Palmwoods. I won't mention exactly what was going on, but you can guess the basic details.

Once Logan got over the shock of seeing Katie and me naked together, he closed out the video. "I'll try to find something that'll tell us where the bomb is," he said after a few seconds of stunned silence. He went back to searching through the hard drive of the computer.

We waited quietly for him to go through it. It was a good ten minutes later when he finally said, "Aha! I found a construction contract. An extra wall was built in the lobby, and a safe was installed in it."

"A safe was installed in a wall?" I repeated. "Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose a little bit?"

"The Replacement wasn't taking any chances," Logan said with grim satisfaction. "Now we just have to figure out how to demolish the wall."

"He built a wall around the safe…" Katie bit her lip. "He's really into secrecy, isn't he?"

"That's right, Miss Knight, I am."

We all looked up abruptly. Standing in front of us was a tall man. He was thin and dressed all in black, complete with a black mask covering his face. Hello, phantom of the opera.

Oh, and did I mention the gun he was holding?

A second man joined us, but he wasn't wearing a mask, and I recognized him at once: The man who had tried to turn us all into reality TV show stars, and then had secretly recorded us after Griffin had demolished his contract, only to get caught and stopped by Griffin and Kelly.

None other than Snake Timmons.

Raise your hand if you saw that coming! So, wow! A lot of stuff happened in this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! And if, you know, you have anything, anything at all, you want to say about the story, feel free to help cheer the review button up (it's lonely) and drop me a review. Neither of us would mind ;)