The Secret Beneath The Waves

Chapter 19: The Grumbling Moose

**Picture of Tony at top of the page

Chapter Nineteen - The Grumbling Moose

"Where are we going?" Adri asked, as she struggled to follow Spencer through the crowd. The only reason she hadn't lost her yet was for Spencer's yellow scarf, which was like a beacon among the hoards of brown vested people. "The internet cafe" Spencer finally responded, as they stood in front of one of the most bizarre buildings Adri had laid eyes on.

Aside from the name, The Grumbling Moose, and the faded blue bricked exterior, the cafe was filled with bizarre people as well. A woman sat in the corner, with frizzy blue hair to match the exterior, and tortoise-shell glasses. An enormous golden retriever sat on her lap, somehow and she sipped a glass of yellow liquid. Adri shuddered to think about what exactly she was drinking. Another woman had sunglasses so big they covered most of her forehead and purple rhinestones on the edges. She had a large red scarf, which was torn in several places wrapped around her. On top of that, she was surrounded by three laptops, each one playing a different song at full blast. The cacophony sounded like several old guys wailing in a horrible harmony. She seemed to be knitting the world's largest sock, as it covered up most of her lap and pooled at the floor.

Adri and Spencer found a spot at one of the booths. Spencer was about to power on the computer, when Adri grabbed her arm. "Let me get this straight" she started. "You found the note saying not to search anything up, and so you are?" Spencer was silent for a moment, contemplating it before nodding. "They wouldn't have left us that note if there wasn't something important." Adri rolled her eyes, but let her search up everything related to the mutations.

Then, Spencer stopped suddenly, feeling someone watching her from behind. Turning around, she found a man watching her carefully. He had dreadlocks, dyed a bright green, and was typing on his own laptop, which was weird, considering they were at an internet cafe. He looked at her, then almost imperceptibly, shook his head. He then went back to looking at his laptop. "What if he's working for them?" Adri hissed. Spencer shrugged, "then that means that we're closer to figuring out if their still experimenting illegally." she gestured to the screen, which showed hundreds of images and articles, from news shows and bloggers, showing mutations that had washed up on shore. A family had taken a snorkeling trip on the island of Tahiti, and had found several baby sharks, with a fungus growing out of them. It had gone as far as to bays and lakes being entirely populated with the remains of these animals. Spencer could literally feel her face getting paler, as she scrolled through, but she forced herself to keep looking at the pictures, clicking through each one, Adri's horrified expression matching hers.

Spencer didn't know how long they had been sitting there, but when they got up to leave, the man was gone. As they got back up to the apartment, the smell of smoke swirled through the air, followed by a scream. The girls rushed up the stairs and into the boys apartment, to find the smoke alarm sounding mercilessly, and Oliver waving a cookie tray like a maniac, trying to get rid of the smoke. A few seconds later, Tony came running up the stairs with a fire extinguisher. About a minute later, the smoke had cleared. The smoke detector was still beeping, until Spencer stood on a chair and unplugged it from the ceiling. Oliver and Shawn stood by the oven, covered in the white foam from the fire extinguisher. Slowly, Shawn turned to Oliver. "I told you to watch the muffins for one minute."

"I did! I watched them the whole time. I just...couldn't work the oven." and with that Oliver hurriedly raced out of the apartment, screaming profanities. Shawn was hot on his heels. Spencer touched her head, her hand coming back coated with the substance from the extinguisher. Tony sighed, wiping some of the substance off of her forehead. "You guys got any batteries in your apartment?" Adri nodded, turning to grab them. Spencer crouched down, helping him wipe up the mess. "You know you could have just ordered food, right?" she asked. "Food's not that expensive and we're still getting paid over the break." Tony smiled, shaking his head. "Trust me, it was not my idea. And...about yesterday-"

"Got the batteries!" Adri sang, walking into the room, oblivious to the nervous tension in the air. She stepped onto one of the kitchen stools, standing up to switch out the batteries. Spencer shrugged, trying not to look relieved. She had never been more happy to call Adri her friend. But Tony would probably bring it up again before the week concluded. "As of tomorrow, we have five days left before our decision to stay or not to stay." she stated, Spencer nodding in response. "I think that I'll stay" she said, "Regardless of what your guys' decision will be. It's too much of a hassle to move away." There was a murmur of agreement from Adri, as she climbed off of the stool. "It's too much work to take a plane to Washington now. Besides, my brother's annoying anyways. He'd never let me hear the end of it." she grinned.

The door opened and slammed shut really quick, Oliver putting his back against the door. A second later he raced towards his room, closing the door behind him. Spencer heard the lock shut a moment later, and the sound of what seemed like furniture, being placed like a barricade on the other side. Shawn came racing in a minute later, took one look at the locked door, and walked off to his room.

"I'm gonna go on a walk" Spencer said, getting up from her crouch on the carpet. Adri rose too. "I need to buy a new toothbrush" and with that she walked out the door, Spencer following. The girls parted ways at the entrance to the building. Adri in search of Pete's, Spencer in search of her parents.