Call Me Ishmael

Chapter 25

Author's note: When parallel parking, begin by lining up your passenger side's front door with the rear door of the vehicle to the front, then cut your wheels toward the vehicle you intend to hit. "Call Me Ishmael" is available at Smashwords, B&N, and Amazon!

I slid the door back, and was not surprised to see a tunnel leading down inside the rock.  At first, I thought it led only to a small room.  A year earlier, I had locked myself out of my house, and to make sure it never happened again, I bought a small, fake rock.  It was made of hard plastic and opened up to conceal a key inside.  I hid my house key in it and carefully positioned the rock near a sidewalk; studying the effect to be sure it was clear to me and hidden to everyone else.  I came home a few nights later, patted my pockets, and realized I had lost my keys.  I found the rock and flipped it over.  It was at that moment that I realized there was a lock on the bottom, and the key to it was on my lost ring.  The rock still worked though; I tossed it through a window and crawled inside.

This rock was large enough for all four of us to get inside, and we did so.  It was a little snug.

"Watch, it Niles," Splice snarled.  "Don't touch the tail."

"Sorry about that, Splice old thing.  It was in my face is all, and I suppose I took a liberty.  Dash it all, you can't expect a chap to be a proper gentleman at all times, especially with a tail in one's face.  It's hardly fair to expect, you know."

Splice snarled, but then, I thought I caught a smile tugging at her lips.

The room had smooth walls, and the floor was smooth as well.  It was difficult to look around, really, because the room was so full of us.  As I did so, the trapdoor closed and locked with quiet snick. 

"Well, we're in here for good," I said.  "Does anyone have a light?"  The darkness pressed on us, and without finding a way out, or deeper in, there would soon be no oxygen for a match. 

Niles responded by flicking a lighter.  "Although I quit smoking some weeks ago, I still carry the lighter and all that poppycock.  Good thing, now, what?"

"Yes, but could you move it just a bit away from my arm?  It's getting pretty warm."

Niles apologized and moved the lighter down.  "I say, here's a switch of some sort.  Dare I throw it, do you think/"

The air was already getting far too stale for my taste.  "I say yes," I said.  "What are the odds it's a bomb?"

"Fairly good," Finnie said.  Her voice was grim.  "And who wants to blow up?  Not me, but we're going to suffocate anyway.  Flick it.

Niles flicked the switch. 

The floor collapsed beneath us.  Well, dissolved is a better word.  One moment it was there, and the next, it was gone.  It did not retract into the walls, or open like a trap.  It faded and was gone, and we tumbled into the darkness.  It was a quick, short, drop; just enough to knock the breath out of me.  I opened my eyes, which I had squeezed shut on the way down, and looked around.  We were in a much larger chamber, better yet, it was well-lit and ventilated.  Against one wall was a large bank of computer monitor screens, anywhere from three to five feet across.  The keyboards were likewise large, with hundreds of keys; trackballs and joystick-type devices jutted out from what were obviously control panels.  Splice cooed and headed for the nearest one.

Some of the screens were blank, but others were  receiving feeds from video sources hidden in the jungle.  One of the screens flashed by, and the sideways house was clearly visible.  The picture flipped, and what looked like a dirigible moored to a giant tree appeared.  I squinted a bit, and realized it was the tiger balm tree Finnie had pointed out.  I glanced at her, but she was not looking at the screens.  Her attention was on the long, weapon-filled cases covering the opposite wall.