“Who knows?” asked Stu Pot. He did think one good thing about the stony walls was that they were in great condition. Not one of them was cracked or spilling dust on the steps. He started to wonder how old this dungeon really was. Then he looked at Rustom who was stilling looking at his T.M.D. “How much further to go, Rustom?”
They reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Lukeson is in the far end cell of the dungeon.” Rustom continued to lead the way. “You can take those masks off now. The laughing gas will have stopped by now, I promise you.”
Stu Pot and Pedro took their masks off and gave a breathing test. The air seemed all fine.
Rustom noticed that Pedro was still exhaling. “Pedro, that’s enough.”
“I’ve learnt it’s better to exhale longer than inhale longer,” the young penguin said. “You know, for your mental health.”
“Aye, but not when you’re meant to focus on a mission, laddie,” Stu Pot told him.
The three reached the cell the T.M.D. took them to.
“Where are the keys?” Pedro asked.
“Don’t need them.” Rustom got a large sledgehammer out of his back.
“Oh, no!” cried Stu Pot. “Rustom, I don’t want to cause more trouble.”
“It’s too late to think about that now. We’ve come too far.”
“But, surely, all we need is –” The Scottish zebra just got nudged in the tummy with the wooden end of the sledgehammer.
Rustom lifted it from his left and mightily swung it into the door. It fell down. He, Stu Pot and Pedro went into the cell room and all they could see was a dark room with stony walls and a stony floor with a wooden plate of breadcrumbs and an empty wooden water jug. There was nothing like a human being in the room at all, not so much as a single hair.
“You said he was in here,” Stu Pot said to Rustom.
“He is,” protested the rhino, looking at his device. “And I know where exactly.” Then he got out a small metal gun with a plastic pipe coming out of his metal arm.
Stu Pot was about to ask Rustom what he was doing when he saw him squirt some sort of yellow liquid into the black shadow. As he stepped back, out of the shadow came a loud cry.
“Come out, Sergeant,” Rustom said. “It’s us, your soldiers.”
Stu Pot had a worrying thought. “What was that stuff you sprayed on him? It wasn’t anything dangerous, was it?”
“Hell, no,” Rustom said. “I just sprayed lemon juice on his face.”
“Lemon juice?” Stu Pot cried.
“It’s not like I pissed on him.”
“No, it’s just that he hates lemon.”
“Is he allergic to them?”
“No, he’s not, but we could get into –”
Out of the dark shadows popped out the face of Sergeant Lukeson. He angrily wiped the lemon juice off his face. “What the hell are you guys doing here? And who the hell squirted disgusting lemon juice onto my face?”
Stu Pot and Pedro pointed to Rustom to answer the second question.
“Just checking you’re not dead,” said the rhino. You’re welcome, by the way.
“We’ve come to rescue you, Sergeant,” Pedro said to Lukeson.
“And there’s a war going on the Earth below, sir,” said Stu Pot. “And Tugson and Skipton want nothing to do with it, so we were wondering what ideas you have.”
“Well, I’ve been trying to come up with some ideas, but all they’ve done is had me thrown in here,” said Lukeson. Then his mind brought up a sudden question. “How did you guys even get up here?”
“We don’t know,” replied Stu Pot. Then he told the sergeant everything from leaving Blackpool and fighting three dangerous colossal squids in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, then him, Rustom and Pedro waking up in chains in the clouds without knowing where Kathy, Mengy, Paula and Larissa were, sneaking into the Sky Capital and finally breaking into the prison to find Lukeson.
“How did you get up here, sir?” asked Stu Pot.
Shouting from the outside stopped Lukeson telling his story. Rustom’s back opened up and he started to reach in.
“No, Rustom,” said Lukeson. “Don’t.”
“I can take them down without –”
“Yes, I know you can,” said Lukeson. “But I don’t want to fight them.”
Rustom glared at him. “What? They’re coming to us fully armed and you just want to surrender?”
“We will never secure peace with the wingpeople if we fight, or worse, kill them,” said Lukeson. “And it’s going to be extra hard since you guys stole a jet pack, broke into this prison and tried to free me.”
Then suddenly the whole room was swarming with wingpeople. They aimed their rifles at the prisoner and the intruders. Lukeson held his hands up. Stu Pot and Pedro copied him.
“Rustom!” Lukeson whispered. “Put your hands up! That’s an order from me!”
Rustom sighed frustratingly and finally put his hands up.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Paula coughed when she was realised that it was splashed water that woke her up. She thought she was still dreaming when she saw that she was no longer underwater or trapped in the underwater cave. All she could see was red skies hiding behind the dark heavy clouds. She was glad to be alive yet puzzled to find herself in the small golden-painted inflatable river raft on the sea.
A mighty whack on her left made Paula realise that she definitely wasn’t dreaming. She saw it was an oar that hit her and it was rowing without a rower. So were the other seven oars! Yet unsurprised, she looked ahead to see an eye-closed Mengy sitting in a meditating position at the back of the raft. As the elephant was moving her arms up and down, so were the oars. Still without moving her head or opening her eyes, Mengy waved her trunk to Paula.
“Yes, I’m glad to see you alive too, Mengy,” said Paula. “But how did we get out of that awful place? Was it you?”
With her eyes still closed, Mengy shook her head.
“It was me,” said a male Maltese accent.
Paula turned around and saw a merman on the raft. He had the upper body of a male Malta native above a brown scaly tail.
“James Orlan!” cried Paula.
“And me as well,” said another Maltese accent.
Paula saw next to James was another merman with the upper body of a Malta native above a green scaly tail. “Chris Colonna! I’m really pleased to see you both. But how did you get us out of here? And with you guys leaving your king’s army and all?”
James explained that after he and Chris were banished for not supporting their mer-king to attack the land and being too loyal to Sergeant Lukeson, they disguised themselves as the mer-king’s bodyguards to spy on his plans to attack the land. They tried everything they could to warn Lukeson and G.C.A. about the attacks, but they couldn’t risk blowing up their cover. After they heard about Paula and Mengy, they felt that hope for the sea had returned, but they were shocked when they heard about their friends being arrested. After the mer-king and his new advisor sentenced their friends to drown, they immediately went in disguised as the executors.
“Executors?” Paula was confused. “Drowning us would have –”
“The mer-king didn’t think so,” James interrupted. “He wanted us to slit your throats the moment you went unconscious so you had no chance to avoiding death. So after he and his advisor left you to drown, just when you guys began to drift off, we sneaked in, freed you, took you onboard this raft and escaped.”
Then Paula noticed that her wings still had the manacles, but was not stuck together. She looked at Mengy who had her manacles on her hands as well. “But how did you guys do these?” she asked the mermen. “You know what Pavia said about the manacles being magical. Even Mengy couldn’t break free from them.”
“The manacles were magical,” said James. “But not the rocky wall they were stuck onto.”
“So we started chipping the wall with brick hammers as fast as we could to get you two free,” said Chris.
&
nbsp; Paula felt stupid that neither she nor Mengy thought of that. Then she reminded herself that they were the luckiest creatures in the world. They still had their two best mermen friends even when the entire Atlantic Ocean was now against them and the entire land. “Don’t get me wrong,” Paula said. “I cannot thank you guys enough for this, but I must ask why are you doing this? I mean, the mer-king has broken the truce with Lukeson and –”
“The mer-king is not himself,” said James.
“Isn’t he?” Chris asked.
“Of course not, Scale Head!” snapped James. Then he turned back to Paula. “You see, the last two months have been a rough ride since Lady Clam –”
“Who’s gorgeous,” Chris added.
“Yes, who’s gorgeous and she –” James glared at Chris. “Chris, she’s the ringleader behind every inch of this war.”
“What? How do you mean?” Even though she was very bright, Paula knew she couldn’t know and understand everything. She was glad that Rustom wasn’t there to tell her that.
“Ever since she joined the king’s service,” James continued, “she has done nothing but made the Atlantic Ocean a worse hell than all the years humans’ damage has ever done.”
“But we’re not saying we can tolerate any more rubbish from –”
“Chris, put a sunken chest in it!” James snapped.
“But we don’t have a sunken chest on board,” said Chris.
“One more word out of you,” said James, “and you’ll be the humans’ catch of the day!” Then he sighed at Chris’s annoyingly simple-minded personality and smiled again at Paula.
The penguin smiled back and chuckled a little. Out of all the allies Global Creature Alliance had made with the non-human world, Chris and James were her favourites. Their bickering always made her laugh, which was one of the few very things ever did in her life. She admired them the minute she and her Squad J friends along with Lukeson discovered them in the Pacific Ocean two years ago. They first met when G.C.A. were trying to rescue some sea serpents from the Maltese human army. They offered their help to lure the serpents away while G.C.A. distracted the human army, making the mission so successful. A day later, the two mermen introduced G.C.A. to the whole world of merfolk. As a token of their gratitude for their service, Lukeson offered to make peace with the ocean creatures. As long as G.C.A. would help to protect the oceans and their marine life, the sea creatures would provide them knowledge of the oceans and military support for their battles in return. And each side had proved to be very useful until the new advisor joined the mer-king’s service. Right now, Paula, Mengy and the mermen were all hoping Lukeson could clean this mess up if he was still alive.
James cleared his throat. “Lady Clam was the one who murdered the mer-king’s daughters in cold blood, poisoned his mind to make him believe it was the work of mankind and convinced him to launch the missiles on the land countries.”
“And how are you guys coping with being deserters?” asked Paula.
“You’re not deserters if you’re loyal to the people who you believe that do the right things,” said Chris. “So says James.”
“That’s why we’re still loyal to Lukeson,” said James.
“What about the other mer-kingdoms from the other oceans?” Paula asked.
Neither merman knew, but James wouldn’t be surprised if Lady Clam persuaded Mer-King Coralbeard to launch an attack on the other mer-kingdoms, though he still couldn’t understand why she would want him to do that.
“How did you find out about Lady Clam?” asked Paula.
“Well, we thought she was a dick since her first day of work,” said James.
“Merfolk, female and male, don’t have a –”
“Chris, you’re discussing private business in front of a lady!” snapped James. Then he faced Paula again. “The point is we never liked this advisor as much as the previous one who helped Lukeson made peace with the mer-king. Then between you guys being imprisoned and sentenced to drown, we were off duty and secretly followed her to the surface. I even video recorded it on this mer-phone to show it to you as proof of what we’ve seen.”
He chucked a small blue mer-phone in the shape and style of iPhone to Paula. On the screen, she saw Lady Clam on a rock with another mermaid with black hair, a light blue scaly tail and a strapless black bikini top. She couldn’t see them properly because the mermaids were under a dark night sky with no moon. She pressed the play button and the video started.
“The plan is working,” said Lady Clam. “The world is at war and Squad J is defeated.”
“Defeated?” said the mermaid.
“I have the magic elephant and the technical-reliant penguin. They will drown soon, thanks to those magical manacles I secure them in myself. My friend and I will pick up the penguin and my former student. And you have the final four, including their leader, in your skies.”
“Well, those four will soon be taken care of,” said the mermaid. “It won’t be long until the rest of G.C.A. and humans are a thing of the past. Then the world will be a much better place and nothing will ruin my ruling.”
“Ace!” the advisor cried happily.
“You know, I did have my doubts about you before you killed your predecessor and took his place,” said the mermaid. “But I’m glad you proved me wrong.”
“I like giving surprises,” chuckled Lady Clam.
Then her friend looked to the sky to see the sun starting to crop up. “I have to go now to get ready for the final four’s trial and persuade my father to have them beheaded. I’ll call you when that has happened.” Then she took a vial of a green liquid of some sort and gulped it down her throat. A green light flashed over her and when it vanished she was a human with light blue jean trousers covering her legs, a green tank top over her chest and giant crow wings on her back. Then she waved goodbye to Lady Clam and flew up in the air. Then the advisor took a sample of vial of green liquid herself. Despite the sunrise, it was still too dark for Paula to make out what was happening to her on the screen, but what she could make out was that she was standing up on human legs. Then the video was over.
So, she’s a sorceress? Paula had her share of unsolvable puzzles since joining G.C.A., but this one was the biggest Rubik’s cube compared to them all.
* * *
No one could make any sense out of this Lady Clam mystery. Paula knew the drowning penguin and elephant were herself and Mengy, but she was afraid if the others Lady Clam and her friend were talking about were the rest of Squad J. She wanted to go and find their friends, but she didn’t have the resources to find out about them or the time that the sadistic sorceress gave her and her friends she was with now. Then she thought and decided that the one thing she could do in the present was to track down Lady Clam or whatever her name truly was and stop her before her war got more out of hand than it was now.
“Do you guys know where Lady Clam is now?” Paula asked.
“No one’s seen or heard from her since she sorted out your death sentences,” James told her.
“Do you guys have any idea what that flying creature was?” asked Paula.
“I thought G.C.A. was supposed to track down these creatures, study them and support them,” said Chris.
“Yes, but even we don’t know everything going on in the world every second.” She was getting stressed because the mystery was rattling her brains out and she was not much of a talker and never liked having very long conversations.
“Not even Lukeson knows them?” asked James.
“I really don’t know, James,” Paula said. “We haven’t seen Lukeson for eight days. He left Blackpool without letting anyone including Skipton and Tugson know where he’s gone to.”
“Could he be a suspect in this war?” asked Chris.
“I don’t think so,” said Paula. “Well, it is a possibility, but it’s not one I would gamble on. If only I had his private details, I would be able to solve this easier and quicker.”
“When you say private deta
ils,” said Chris, “do you mean like if he has lung cancer or if he has hair on his –”
James smacked him on the head. “You know what she means.”
An elephant trunk tapped her shoulder. “What is it, Mengy?”
Her demon friend rubbed her hands together and something appeared in her hands when she opened them up.
“A storybook?” cried Chris.
“No,” Paula chuckled. “It’s a file.” She took it from Mengy and looked at the front. ‘Lukeson’s classified files’ was the first page. She turned back to the elephant. “Did you steal this from his office?”
Mengy shook her head.
“Did you just make a copy without even knowing what information could be in it?”
The elephant gave her a nod.
Paula started flipping through the pages of Lukeson’s files. It started at the very beginning of Global Creature Alliance to Akins’ failed invasion in Egypt. The information seemed very accurately even if Mengy didn’t produce the copy perfectly. She saw the Creature Spotting section. She flipped through the mutated animals affected by the Great Mutation Storm to the mermaids to the wingpeople.
Wingpeople? She began to read the section.
“What does it say about the wingpeople?” asked Chris.
“Lukeson says that these are people with giant wings on their back. They live in high in the skies and are the most un-noticeable creatures seen by humans. But he also says Princess Louise has told him about how wingpeople live and what they are capable off. She is also worried about her older sister who is very anxious to take the Sky Throne.” Paula closed the copy up. “I believe Lady Clam’s mermaid friend was really a wingwoman.”
“But who the hell is Princess Louise?” James asked. “And what has she to do with that mermaid-turned-wingwoman?”
“Maybe that mermaid that turned into a wingwoman was the princess’s roughish sister,” said Chris. “That’s my best guess.”
“You might be right,” said Paula. “And if you are, we need to stop them. The only question is: how to do it?”
Then James saw some things in the penguin’s left trouser pocket. “What are those green pieces?”
The Cult of Kishpu Page 20