Neiko's Five Land Adventure (Neiko Adventure Saga Book #1)

Chapter 13

Two weeks passed, and she graduated from high school; nothing else strange happened. There were no more visits from the silent watcher. Neiko hadn't heard from anyone about the secret investigation. "I haven't heard anything from Xartna in two weeks. I'll ask him and see if he found anything," Neiko mused. Neiko dialed the numbers and waited for three rings, nothing. "Luckily my parents aren't home," Neiko thought out loud, then the phone rang the fourth time, and Xartna picked up.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hey, pal, what's up? Haven't heard from you in two weeks. Are you leaving me out in the cold?" Neiko asked, teasing.

"Hello, Neiko, how are you? Has anything else happened?"

"Oh, yeah. Two weeks ago when Jessica came over—oh you won't believe this—Ramses' eyes glowed in the dark, and I had the creepy feeling that someone was in my room watching me, but there was no one there."

"My goodness! Do you think a Crackedskull might have been in the room with y'all?"

"No, it didn't feel like a Crackedskull at all. It was so—different, and I had chills like crazy, and check this out—every time I said Ramses or anything about him, the feeling got worse."

"My, my. Raven came up with a good one, didn't he? I think he did that to scare you and throw us off. I wouldn't worry too much about that."

"You're probably right. Have you found any dirt on Raven or the Grand High Mohican?"

"Nope, not a shred of evidence to help your case. We have searched everywhere, but now I believe we have to call it quits for the time being. If we find something, we'll let you know, alright?"

"Yeah sure..." as soon as she said that, she saw a Crackedskull messenger crossing her yard! "Well, Xartna, I've got a prowler in my yard; call ya right back, bye!"

Neiko hung up and ran to the corner of her room and grabbed her fighting stick. She sprinted to the back door and looked out of the window. The Crackedskull was directly in her range and only one hundred yards away. She opened the back door and shouted "Hey, you!"

The Crackedskull spun around with surprise, and fear gripped him when he saw Neiko charging at him with lightning speed. He turned to run, but she hit him with a flying tackle, sending him crashing to the ground. Neiko got up and stood ready, and the Crackedskull got up and stared at her angrily.

"You meddling Indian! I'll cut you to pieces for messing with me! No one messes with Dingeye and gets away with it!" he snapped as he pulled out his dagger.

"Ooooh, give me your best shot, loser!" Neiko challenged.

Dingeye lunged at her, but Neiko sidestepped, spun around and hit him in the back of the head with her stick. He landed on the ground facedown, got up with grass and dirt in his mouth. He spat the grit out. Before he had time to strike again, Neiko hit him in the hand and sent the dagger flying, and Dingeye yelled with pain. He turned and dove for it. Just before he could reach it, Neiko kicked it out of reach. Dingeye tackled Neiko and sent her crashing to the ground. They wrestled in a tangle of arms and legs, but Neiko managed to get her right arm free and she dealt him a hard punch in the eye, sending him toppling backward. Neiko got up quickly and kicked him in the chin; Dingeye landed hard on his back.

Seeing he was outmatched, he retreated the way he came. Neiko looked around and picked up her stick and his dagger. "Thanks for the souvenir," she said as she slipped the dagger in her pocket, but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. In the spot where Dingeye fell, there lay an envelope. Neiko picked it up and examined it finding the Crackedskull insignia. "Hmm, I wonder who this is to, and he was heading toward the Grand High's house," Neiko mused. Neiko opened the envelope and unfolded the paper inside.

Francesco,

I wish to schedule a meeting as soon as possible to work on phase two of the plan. I want to commend you on your great performance at the meeting, and the outstanding work of keeping all of our information safe from those meddling Indians. Write me as soon as possible on when you wish to meet with me.

Sincerely,

Raven

"Aha! I just hit pay dirt. So there is a plot against me, and I just found who the traitor is—it's addressed to the GHM! So that means one thing—he's the traitor! Well, I'll call Xartna back now," Neiko mused.

Neiko walked into her room and pressed redial; Xartna immediately picked up the phone.

"Neiko, thank goodness you called. Well, what about that prowler?"

"Oh, it was nothing, um, it was just one of my neighbors, I didn't recognize him at first," she said covering up what she found out.

"Oh, that's good. I'm glad it wasn't a big emergency."

"Sorry to break it up, but gotta go."

"Well, okay, call me if you find anything about your case or if anything else strange happens, and I'll keep you posted. Hope to see you soon, Neiko, bye."

Neiko hung up and put the phone back under the bed, and thought about everything she just found out. Busted! Neiko thought gleefully. "Well, now I know what Raven meant about the 'performance at the meeting,' but I wonder what 'phase two' is. I have to handle this myself, and I want the pleasure myself especially after all the rotten things he's done to me. I wonder what else he's hiding and why does he hate the Seven Tribes so much? But now I know why he wants me out of the way. I can't mention anything about this letter to anybody because he will say I wrote it to frame him and to get my revenge. Well, I'd like to get a little revenge. I want to do something rotten to him, and at the same time stir up something so that the Tribes will be alerted; that rules out practical jokes— but I wonder what would happen if Raven got mad at him? That's it! I'll write a letter to Raven with my personal touch of insults—which I have wanted to do for a long time—and put Francesco's name on it!"

Neiko went to her computer and typed a letter that read:

Raven,

Didn't you know that your mom was the big fat hen that lays rotten eggs? Of course that's what you hatched out of and you're afraid to admit it! You won't fight the Seven Tribes since they can smell you coming because of your foul stench, and you are just an overgrown yellow-bellied stuffed turkey! You are so stupid that you thought Salmonella was the name of your next-door neighbor, and your type of company because they are bacteria like you. As for the meeting, I wouldn't be caught dead in that dump you live in, so go choke on a chicken bone and die, you big fat ugly toad! Thanks for the compliments because you know that I'm smarter than a pinhead like you! Oh, by the way, tell your overgrown pothead son to cut off the Mary Jane and go suck on the rotten egg he hatched out of after he kisses a dead dog. I think you're feather-brained phase two is a stupid idea, and I can't believe I listened to two stupid retards like you! So good riddance you loonies!

Sincerely,

Francesco

P.S. Go to Jenny Craig and lose a million pounds, birdbrain!!!

Neiko looked at her handiwork and giggled. "Boy, he'll be in so much trouble when Raven sees this."

Neiko looked at the clock, 5:00 p.m. "My parents will be home in two hours. I have plenty of time to pull off the delivery. Now all I gotta do is print this out, call Raven, and put this in Francesco's mailbox for the messenger. Oh boy, this will be fun! Good thing I know Raven's number, and he doesn't have a caller ID." Neiko pulled out the phone and dialed the numbers to Raven's fortress.