The Fourth Baudelaire

THE ERSATZ ELEVATOR: part 2

"What?" Jerome asked entering the living room.
"It can't be" Esmé said entering too.
"Did I hear you right?" Jerome asked they Baudelaires worried when he was already by their side.
"How did he get pass the door person? "How did he slip through the citywide manhunt?" Esmé asked no one in particular. "Where is he? She asked Violet.
"He's right here!" Violet burst out signaling the man in front of them.
"It is true, please, what the babushka is saying." Count Olaf spoke in a fake foreign accent. "Count Olaf, please, is right here." He said opening a poster he was holding.
Esmé screamed when the poster opened up to be one of the "wanted" posters that were sponsored by Mulctuary Money Management, but then she gave a sigh of relief when the foreign impostor explain he was Gunther, a famous auctioneer from a nation he described as far away; that was along with Esmé holding the In Auction. This poster he held was one of the objects for certain auction and that it was signed by Count Olaf himself.
The Baudelaires as Mrs Squalor expressed when they arrived, weren't wearing In clothes, so they were walked by Jerome to their room where their pinstriped suits where waiting for them.
"I can't believe Count Olaf found us so quickly." Klaus told his sister while he untied the knot in his tie.
"At least that means the Quagmires are near." Violet reassured him.
As they changed they discussed their theories and decided that while the twins and Sunny distracted the adults, Violet would have time to check the apartment, as we know Count Of said the Quagmires were in arms reach.
So as Klaus, Camille and Sunny went over to Esmé, who was tricked by Klaus into showing them the whole apartment. We have seen that Esmé is full of vanity, so when Klaus told him that doing a tour of the penthouse wouldn't take long as he was guessing "it only had two to three rooms" she burst laughing and she couldn't contain herself to make a long and specific tour of the whole penthouse, from dining rooms to bowling alleys to her most valuable objects rooms, and as she said Klaus' eyes would turn black because it had 71 rooms, except that is physiologically impossible. In the meantime Violet herself was using a system she thought while her hair was tied up in a ribbon and made her way through the whole apartment without trace of the Quagmire triplets.
She met up with her siblings again at the end of the tour, when they asked her multiple questions.
"How was the tour?" Camille asked Violet obviously talking in code and actually asking if she had found the Quagmires.
"It was thorough." Violet answered still in code.
"And?" Klaus asked hopeful, but Violet just shook her head.
"Guys, I think Esmé's involved." Camille whispered.
"Why do you think that?" Klaus asked worried.
"Because I can see through someone that's acting and through someone that is not, and she is acting most of the time." Camille continued whispering.
"I guess we'll have to be more careful about everything we do, and keep an eye on her." Violet whispered.
"I guess we're back where we started." Klaus said sadly and disappointed.
"Don't be silly darling we started in the dining room." Esmé said eavesdropping the children's conversation. "Speaking about dining, I'm so hungry I could chew off you're arm." She said talking to Jerome. "Let's go somewhere fancy, somewhere in, Of course. The Daily Punctilio says there's a place so in and it's just half a block away, we'll take the one block long limousine."
If you've ever encounter a wanted criminal, that I hope you have not, but if you have, you should already know that you did by mistake and that this criminal is certainly hiding and you're lucky it didn't see you because if he or she would have maybe your story would be as unfortunate as the lives of the Baudelaires, so if you recall, Count Olaf was a wanted criminal, that of course had to look a way to get out of 667 Dark Avenue without being notice, and as you may know too certain volunteers where waiting for their opportunity to search the building in hopes of finding the Quagmires, after they saw Count Olaf in his stupid disguise, they took heir chance, but that's another story.
As the story of the Baudelaires goes on, they found themselves in a pigsty, murky and revulsive place, that was certainly another part of the act made up by Count Olaf seeing that in the place were expecting them all of his associates: the white faced women, the person of undefined gender, the tall bald man and the hook-handed man.
"Welcome to Herring Houdini!" The hook-handed man welcomed them.
"Where we didn't prepare a table five minutes ago after receiving a fast call." The white-faced women said in unison which I must say was what you will define as creepy.
"Welcome to Herring Houdini, vodka martini?" The bald man with long nose asked.
"Vodka martini?" Esmé asked taken-aback.
"Mrs and Mr Squalor we cant eat here." Camille told the Squalors.
"Child, please, shut up, please, undo let the adults decide." Gunther said with his accent.
"I don't like to say anything... I always leave my wife decide." Jerome said between his teeth swiftly.
"Are we living in garbage?" Esmé asked getting out of her shock but still flabbergasted about the question and the walked out of the place, Jerome and the grinning Baudelaires behind her.
The group then arrived to a cafe, with a theme that if you don't like fish, you would definitely don't like, salmon.
They arrived at Cafe Salmonella, where the Baudelaires found someone that was trying to help them for the third time, my good friend Larry, your waiter. He explained in code that he and his colleagues from a secret organization known as V.F.D were now trying to rescue the Quagmires from the 667, Dark Avenue, and that they needed to go through a 46 course, so that Olaf was out of the building long enough.
But an unfortunate visit of Mr. Poe and his wife gave Olaf the opportunity to promote Herring Houdini and place it as an IN place on The Daily Punctilio, which then led to indigestions from many people and a musical number performed but the one and only Gunther, that is not more than Count Olaf.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Baudelaires discovered or at least suspected that the Quagmires were hidden inside the second elevator in the penthouse, which as Klaus explained was ersatz, something that meant it didn't have any mechanisms but it was just an empty dark tunnel.
Violet with a basket of rutabagas, Spain's largest handkerchief and a collection of long rubber bands, invented a kind of hot air ballon which allowed her and Klaus to go down the ersatz elevator, while Camille and Sunny stayed on top for two reasons. First, to send whatever they could need to rescue the Quagmires; second, to create a distraction in case Gunther, Esmé and Jerome showed up. So now as the Baudelaires themselves got divided, this story will get divided with them and first we'll see what Violet and Klaus found, and what Camille and Sunny had to do.
Now we are looking at how Violet and Klaus are descending through the ersatz elevator, hoping that at the bottom they will find their beloved Quagmires, as they got nearer to the bottom they realized that their theory wasn't just a theory but the Quagmires actually were down there closed in a dirty cage.
"You found us!" Duncan said excited when both Baudelaires landed at the bottom.
"Of course we did! We never stopped looking for you" Violet said locking eyes with Duncan and then briskly looking at Isadora that was busy half hugging Klaus through the cage.
"We are going to get you out of here." Klaus stated determinately.
"We know you will." Isadora reassured him. "Where are Sunny and Camille? Did Count Olaf captures them?" She asked worriedly.
"No, they're fine, but they'll create a distraction in case Count Olaf shows up, and if we need something we'll try to scream so they can send it down here" Violet informed them.
"Yes, and we know Mrs Squalor is working with him so Camille will keep her distracted in case she looks for us."
"That's a bummer! But at least we found the book!" Duncan told them remembering. "We took a lot of notes." He said emphasizing the 'a lot'.
"Yes, everything is connected, your parents, our parents and Quigley, the fires." Isadora continued.
"That's great guys." Klaus said while Violet was trying to pick the lock in the cage.
"Violet, are you ok there?" Duncan asked seeing that Violet was battling with the lock.
"Klaus, you have the other part of the spyglass?" Isadora asked.
"Yes, of course!" Klaus answered taking it out of his pocket and interlocking it with Isadora's part.
"We read that it can produce heat, maybe you can melt the lock?" Duncan said unsure.
"It's worth a try!" Violet answered.
And as the Quagmires and two of the Baudelaire orphans tried to get the first ones out of the muddy cage, the two youngest Baudelaires were doing their part too. After a little while of the descending Camille and Sunny, saw out of the window two people and then heard them call for Duncan and Isadora.
"Miss Caliban? Is that you?" Camille asked.
"Camille? Camille Baudelaire?" Olivia replied.
"Yes it's me and Sunny." She answered running to where she and the other man were entering the penthouse by the window.
Camille hugged Miss Caliban and asked the man what was his name, it was Jacques Snicket, Yes the same that stood up to Carmelita Spats for Larry.
Camille informed them about their plan and Jacques said that she was very smart at noticing about Esmé, and confirmed she was right. She used to be in V.F.D. but then something happened and he said he'll explained it when all of the children are together. Jacques decided to go down and help them getting the Quagmires while Olivia stayed with the girls.