Chapter 14: Motherly Love
"How far away is Blowhole's lair from here?" Gerald, the brown lemur that had joined the last minute plan change, asked.
"It'd be about twenty minutes if we went straight there," Sergeant responded through his heavy breathing as everyone jogged after him. "So it'll really depend on what the Hoboken RABs here have in mind."
The RABs quickly jogged toward what looked like a pile of rubble from where they stood. A sign had broken and was leaning up against a pile of bricks. It read "HOB K N ZO " with its missing letters.
Sergeant led them over the pile of rubble and they hurried toward a trash can. They ensured the area was clear, and Sergeant hopped up and pulled on a lamp that was on the wall. It bent to the side and the trash can slid out of the way, revealing a hole in the ground.
"Quickly!" Sergeant said, ushering everyone down into the hole.
After everyone was underground, Sergeant let go of the lamp and it slowly started rotating in the other direction. He hopped into the hole before the trash can completely closed it off again.
Everyone was waiting inside the dark hallway, which was a staircase that plunged deeper underground. The staircase was clearly created by chipping away stone and rock given how sharp and uneven it was.
"Let's move," Sergeant said, pushing ahead of the rest.
They followed down the staircase until they ended up at a door, which was made of wood. A small torch sat propped against the wall nearby, offering a soft yellow light. A panel slid across the top of the door, revealing nothing but a set of eyes.
"In the happy little land of Hoboken," the voice belonging to the eyes said.
"Where an unkind word is never spoken," Sergeant responded.
The password having been accepted, the eyes disappeared as the panel slid back, and the sounds of locks clicking out of place followed. The door opened and Sergeant stepped forward, giving the possum a hug.
"Hello, Ma."
— § —
Julien's heart pounded as he stood before Emperor Blowhole once again in the command center. He hadn't lied. He had told him what Sergeant's plan was to get SJ here.
"Where is my jet, Major?" Emperor Blowhole demanded through his teeth. He had nearly exploded when he discovered that his jet hadn't arrived on time. It was supposed to arrive two hours ago. Then Colonel Evans was found dead along with the aviary crew in Madagascar, which wasn't a coincidence.
"I swear to you, my liege," Julien insisted, "I told you what Sergeant told me. I do not know why the plans changed."
The Emperor studied his Major General closely. The diaboligizer had to have worked, especially since even Rico had turned evil.
"Can you contact Sergeant again?" Emperor Blowhole asked.
"I can try, my liege," Julien responded, "but we only communicate once a week. 2AM each Friday, Eastern Standard Time. If I try to contact him now, he is unlikely to answer."
First Lieutenant X stood nearby, listening to the pair. He had hoped that he could use one of the prisoners to get into the restricted 101st floor, but it seemed that that wasn't going to happen. At least, not yet.
"Boss," a lobster said from a computer, interrupting the Emperor's discussion.
"You know I hate being interrupted, Red One. This had better be important," Emperor Blowhole chided.
"The jet was found in an empty field in Hoboken," the lobster responded.
Emperor Blowhole narrowed his eyes. "The only place I can imagine they'd be going is the former Hoboken Zoo, but I've had that zoo searched countless times, and nothing has ever been found! There must be some other place they're hiding," he mused in frustration. "I'll need to send another team to search Hoboken again."
Lieutenant X straightened. "I volunteer, your majesty," he said quickly.
Emperor Blowhole smiled and looked over at him. "Of course, my trusted lieutenant. If there's anyone I trust to track down where those rebels went, it's you and your wonderful sense of smell. Yes, I approve this immediately. Go!"
Lieutenant X saluted and set off toward the doors, his footsteps quick and light. He knew exactly where to go, but he wouldn't tell them that.
"As for you, Major," the Emperor continued, "I'm keeping a close eye on you. If your services are further needed in tracking down the rebels, I will summon you. You are dismissed."
Julien saluted and turned on his heel, heading toward the door. He realized at that moment that he had to get back into the Emperor's good graces. He was not a traitor, he was loyal to the Emperor through and through.
As he passed through the door, he noticed the elevator doors close, First Lieutenant X standing inside.
Of course! he thought to himself. I could sneak after X, and when he finds the rebels, I'll knock him out and claim the finding for myself! It's perfect!
His decision made, he started toward the elevator with a devilish grin on his face.
— § —
"Have some freshly baked cookies, everyone," the possum called Ma offered. "And you all can call me Ma. Everybody does."
The RABs filed in and Ma shut the door behind them, clicking the eight locks back into place. Then she followed them to the mess hall, wiping her paws on her apron. There was more light here as there were old LED lights strung up to the ceiling. A network of tunnels cut through the ground. RABs moved about them, carrying about their duties, including beavers, moles, squirrels, and other small mammals.
"You've really outdone yourselves with these tunnel networks, Ma," Sergeant commended as he grabbed a cookie. He took a bite. "And I have very much missed your baking," he said between bites.
The other RABs eyed the cookies sitting on the table strangely. They had never seen cookies before.
"Go on, now," Sergeant said, "try them! They're delicious."
The RABs sat down at the table, each grabbing a cookie. They all smiled as they tried them for the first time, their sweetness almost startling. Sweets like these were never seen among slaves and lower ranking sols.
"So," Commander started, "what's all this then?"
Ma chuckled softly. "Well, I lived in this zoo for a bit a long time ago, long before the takeover happened. One of the residents, Lulu, told me about a crazy zookeeper they had once who created a dungeon-like area beneath the zoo. That's a long story for another day. When the attack started, me and some other critters from the park took refuge down here. We've been building it up ever since. Then Private found us, and, well, the rest is history."
"Ma," Sergeant complained, "I haven't been called Private in years."
Ma poked his shoulder. "Now, you'll always be my sweet little Private and you know it."
Sergeant sighed softly. "I've missed you, Ma."
"How have you never been found?" SJ piped up.
Ma studied him, as if seeing him for the first time.
"Yes," Sergeant said softly, reading her mind, "that's Skipper's son. Almost unbelievable isn't it?"
Ma smiled a sad smile. "I actually thought it was Skipper for a moment."
An awkward silence passed before Ma finally answered the question.
"Edie is our genius here. She's really done much of the leading on creating this place. She told us that GPRs can't penetrate clay soil, so our ceilings are coated in it. We've never been caught," Ma explained.
Commander wiped the cookie crumbs from his mouth. "So, what's the big plan?"
Sergeant took a deep inhale and let it out slowly. "All right, it's time I come clean with you all," he started.
The RABs leaned forward in anticipation as Sergeant took a seat with Ma at the end of the long table. Some Hoboken RABs on the other side of the room stopped and tuned in while others carried on about their duties.
"The reason we had to change plans on how to get here is because . . . the other one never would've worked," Sergeant admitted.
Bloom nodded. "We already know that. You said your man on the inside – Julien – couldn't be trusted anymore because of Blowhard's machine."
Sergeant nodded. "Yes, but that's not the whole story. If we would have gone, we'd all have been killed."
SJ shook his head. "I don't think I'm following. I mean, I imagine something bad would happen if Julien didn't help us escape as planned, but how do you seem so sure you know what would've happened?"
Sergeant met each of the RABs eyes slowly. "In order for you to understand, I have to tell you a story from long ago, long before Blowhole took power.
"Many years ago, my teammate, Kowalski, created something. He was an inventor, though his inventions were hit and miss. Some exploded or didn't work. Others worked but something went wrong. One in particular was the chronotron. It was a time machine.
"A lot of it is a long story, but essentially, two other Kowalskis came from the future and argued over whether or not the present Kowalski should invent it. They weren't supposed to let the present Kowalski see them, but he did. It caused a rip in the space-time continuum. Rico miraculously corrected the problem by throwing the chronotron into the rip, which caused it to close. We thought that was the last we'd ever hear of it, since Kowalski understood the dangers of time travel further.
"But, somehow and some way, Dr. Blowhole must have gotten a hold of the chronotron, or perhaps just the blueprints for it. How, I'm not sure. But that's how he's always remained one step ahead of us. He's been using the chronotron for his own selfish interests."
Upon Sergeant finishing his explanation, a silence had fallen over the group as they took everything in.
"So," Sergeant continued, breaking the silence, "this brings me to how I know the plan was going to fail. SJ told me."
SJ blinked. "What do you mean? I never told you that."
Sergeant shook his head. "No, you didn't. But a future version of you did. You told me that another inside man, one I had never even been told was an inside man, broke you out of your holding cell and had you investigate what was on Blowhole's secret 101st floor. That's where you found the chronotron, discovered what it was, and came back to warn me before we all walked straight to our deaths."
Commander held up his paws and frowned. "Okay, if that's true, where is the 'future SJ' now?"
Sergeant shrugged. "He leapt back through the rip that he came through. I don't know where he went after that."
"He stopped existing," a Brooklyn accent said from behind.
A squirrel came forward and sat down at the table with the RABs. "I'm Edie. I'm the brains of this outfit," she said, gesturing to the network of tunnels around them. "Your future SJ would have leapt back into an unknown future. Since he went back in time and warned you what would happen, the future he came from ceased to exist. So when he returned through the rip, he would have poofed from existence."
The other RABs nodded, though most were still confused. Time travel caused a lot of confusion.
Bloom finally spoke again. "So, we know how he's beaten us, but we don't know how to beat him."
"That's where you're wrong," Ma said with a smile. "We have our man on the inside. Nice fella, goes by X."
"X?" SJ said with a doubtful expression.
"Eh," Sergeant responded, "his mother never told him his real name. Said it was classified or something."
The RABs exchanged confused glances, but didn't question it.
"How do we know we can trust him?" the other RAB that had joined them from Madagascar called Kwame, an aye-aye lemur, asked.
Sergeant turned to Ma. "Well, I was hoping Ma could enlighten us. I've never found myself under the impression that X could be trusted."
"Well," Ma started with a smile, "X has a very . . . interesting sense of smell. He found our hiding place with his nose alone. But he didn't turn us in. He eventually slipped us a burner phone. We've been using it to communicate. He didn't like you all before the Rising, but he hates all of this even more. He wants it all to end as much as the rest of us."
"How do you know he isn't just using you?" Commander asked.
Ma smiled warmly. "Your Ma is an excellent judge of character, Commander. Besides, we've worked with him for years and have never had problems."
Sergeant nodded. "And he would've broken SJ out of his cell to investigate the 101st floor, after all, if we had gone through with our initial plan. Doesn't sound to me like the actions of someone that's truly on Blowhole's side. Why didn't you ever tell me you had an inside man?"
"He wanted to keep it as low profile as possible. Need-to-know basis," Ma explained.
Commander leaned on the table. "So what's the plan then?"
Sergeant smiled. "Well, the way I see it, if we can get X to bring a few of us to the 101st floor so we can use the chronotron ourselves, we can finally beat Blowhole at his own game."
"Where would we go?" Bloom asked. "Er – when would we go, rather?"
Sergeant stood and everyone leaned forward again, anticipating his response. "Oh, we're going back. Way back."
SJ's beak fell open. "You don't mean –"
"Yes," Sergeant interrupted. "We're going back to stop Dr. Blowhole from taking over the world before it ever happens."
— § —
Quote: "Every day the clock resets. Your wins don't matter. Your failures don't matter. Don't stress on what was, fight for what could be." ~Sean Higgins