Aqua

by Jonathan Dakin

  Chapter Ten

  We sat quietly in the meeting room, an eerie silence almost suffocating us. The room was a large rectangle of stark white, with a television on one far wall and a large desk in the middle with conference chairs placed around it. On the other side was an aquarium, housing various tropical fish, which hummed ominously.

  Madzimoyo sat on a seat at the end of the table, next to the door and the fish tank, reading a book. He was always reading. I rolled my eyes. We couldn’t have been more different if we tried. Whereas I loved both playing and watching sports, particularly football, he wanted to ‘research’ things. If we had grown up in normal society, I was sure that he wouldn’t have any friends. He was a complete recluse: a weirdo who prized books and facts above all else. I was sure that it wasn’t what normal for people to behave this way, but then again, I didn’t know any better. I only went on what the people who worked here had told me about the ‘real world’, but I was sure that outside of the Aqua World, I would be seen as ‘normal’.

  Shasa paced around, near to Madzimoyo, rubbing her arms and then crossing and uncrossing them anxiously. She was starting to annoy me. Her frantic movements were incredibly irritating, and didn’t help to relieve the stress or tension from any of us.

  Visola and myself stood at the back of the room, leaning against the wall with our arms firmly crossed, defensively. The television, pinned onto the wall, was on our left, and just across from me on my right was a clock, which read 12:27. Its hand clicked with every second, and the pulsating noise was making me anxious. I inhaled deeply, letting the air fill my lungs. I was trying to get my heart to stop racing. I exhaled, but nothing seemed to change. I was still nervous. We were the bodyguards. We were the defenders. We were the Aqua Warriors. If anything bad happened today, we were ready for it. But we didn’t know what we were up against, and that’s what worried me…

  “Aren’t you excited?” Visola whispered. I didn’t know why she spoke in a hushed voice, it wasn’t like we were being monitored or watched.

  “I guess,” I answered honestly, and loudly.

  My booming voice cut through the awkward silence, and Shasa stopped moving and looked over at us. Her eyebrow raised, and she tilted her head to the side, pouting. That was her ‘look’ telling us to ‘behave’. I hated the fact that she was the Primus. She was terrible at making decisions, and she didn’t have the guts to do what was necessary. I knew that Team Aqua would be weaker because of her. If I were Primus, everyone would know that we were four Elementals not to be messed with, and the Inimicus wouldn’t even try to attack us. They would know that we were a truly untied, powerful force.

  My ears pricked up as I heard Babajide’s ‘formal’ voice moving towards the door. He always tried to act as though he was some sort of important delegate or something when we had visiting guests. I had always found Babajide putting on an act with other people strange and false, but he assured me that that was what people did in the ‘real world’, and that it was completely normal to ‘put on a front’ as he called it. Apparently, it was the ‘polite’ thing to do.

  Babajide’s voice was now right outside the door. My muscles tensed and my teeth gritted together. Any moment now we were going to stand face to face with agents of the Inimicus…

  The door handle turned and opened inward. Babajide’s bald head, which was swivelled around to face people still in the corridor, entered first.

  “And here they all are!” he announced in English, walking into the meeting room and turning to smile at us. His round shiny head smiled cheerfully and his squat pudgy body moved up and down under his pinstriped suit. He had dressed up for the occasion, clearly wanting to impress our visitors.

  Shasa, still standing, walked with Babajide over to the right corner of the room, where Madzimoyo still sat. Babajide snatched the book out of my brother’s hands and signalled for him to stand up straight. He then glared over at us, commanding us to do the same. Visola and myself stopped leaning against the wall, but I didn’t uncross my arms. I wanted to look as intimidating as possible.

  The first person through the doors was a man who looked like he was in his thirties, but had thick curly grey hair. He was tall and skinny, and had a smile painted onto his face like a clown from a circus. Another man, who was much older, shorter and brawnier, strolled in and gazed around the room suspiciously. He looked as though he had just walked out of an army barracks and was about to pull a gun out of his pocket.

  Then the three teenagers, who I assumed were the Ventus Trio, walked in one after another. The first was a very tall and very athletic looking boy. He was young, and had short brown hair and very pale white skin. He seemed nervous. He was right to be.

  Following him was an incredibly attractive girl. She was tall for a woman, probably the same height as Shasa, had long light brown hair, pale skin and a pretty face. Her body language suggested that she was confident and smart, and that meeting strangers didn’t seem to faze her at all.

  After her was another girl, who was smaller in height, but much more curvy. She also had long light brown hair, but hers wasn’t as nice as the first girl’s, and she looked much plainer in comparison. She smiled at Shasa and Madzimoyo, and then directed her warmth towards us at the back. But I knew it was all part of their plan to fool us into thinking that they were nice.

  Finally, the last person to enter the room was a light brown skinned man. He wasn’t black like us, as he looked like he was from somewhere in Asia. He was short but had huge arms, a thick chest and a bald head. His nose was flat to his face and he glared at everyone in the room as if he would rip our heads off if we even went near him. It seemed like our rivals had support, just in case anything happened to them. But they didn’t scare me: none of them did. I knew that Visola and I could handle all of them, simultaneously.

  “It’s time for introductions,” Babajide continued in English, a language that we understood quite well. It was much more complicated than our native languages, but luckily for us, Babajide had insisted that we learn it, and we spent many years practising it.

  “Team Aqua, please say hello to Team Ventus! They have come here all the way from England! Isn’t it nice to finally meet them?”

  The three youngsters waved at us all shyly, and said ‘hello’ in funny accents. Shasa and Madzimoyo nodded politely in response, but the two of us at the back failed to respond.

  Babajide smiled at the Ventus Trio, and then scowled at the four of us. “Is that really the best you can do? They just flew in from the capital on the helicopter to meet you!”

  “Perhaps it’s best if we make our own introductions?” Shasa asked in perfect English. “Why don’t you leave us all alone so that we can get to know one another?”

  Babajide grinned happily, as did I. This was the perfect opportunity to get to the truth, without any interference from their assistants or bodyguards.

  “That is an excellent idea,” Babajide replied, “I can show their companions around the base. I’m sure they would feel more comfortable once they see just how secure Aqua Island is…”

  The two muscular men were unmoved, but the strange looking man with the grey hair laughed awkwardly. He said something that I didn’t understand, and Babajide laughed politely. They then started to make their way out of the room. The military looking man whispered something to the boy, and they began a hushed conversation. It looked like they were arguing. The brown skinned man said nothing, but eyeballed me with insidious intent. It was as if he could read my mind, and knew what I had planned for his companions…

  Eventually, the army guy backed down; the boy had clearly won the argument. The big man looked furious, but quickly hid his feelings behind an emotionless façade, one that he kept on as he left the room. The brown skinned man slowly turned and left too, but his eye contact with me never broke until he had finally gone out of the room and closed the door behind him. The three teenagers stood there uncomfortably, not knowing what to do.

  Shasa
moved towards them, her arms outstretched. “Please, take a seat.”

  “Thank you,” they all replied politely, as they began to shuffle into the leather chairs on the left side of the desk, opposite Madzimoyo. Shasa sat down next to him, obscuring herself from my vision, and then called us over. We walked slowly over to the seats next to my brother, staring at them the entire time. The three of them were all smiles, and my impenetrable gaze didn’t seem to put them off.

  I sat down, as did Visola, and watched them eagerly. They were finally right where we wanted them to be. And there was no one here to save them.