"STOP! RIGHT HERE!" The car full of misfits stopped abruptly in the middle of a rice field just outside of town. The group got down and prepared the compasses.
The group's compass was slowly starting to malfunction, and as Margareth and Captain Jack led the pack, they could sense the tension growing.
The CIA had been told about Sabastian's feelings coming back, but they ignored it. They knew work was also going on in Thailand, but they refused to believe there was anything serious going on again in Lakewood. All of these kids, however, knew something was off once again in their town.
"Hey, V, how are you feeling back there?" Miles turns his head and asks quietly while Captain Jack takes one last check at his weapon, a shotgun, the same one he shot the Witch last time.
"Are we close yet?" Simon asked while keeping his eyes fixed on the dark road ahead.
"I don't know, I think it's getting closer, I just don't know which direction," Miles said.
"If Sebastian's calculations are correct, it's East of here," Adeline said, staring at a map. Simon grabbed the map from her and stopped in his tracks.
"Someone give me a marker. Now." Miles scurried in his backpack and found a pen among the 5 pounds of food in his bag. He began circling places around the town and measuring with his fingers.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ellis asks, scratching his head in confusion.
Simon gasped and laughed. "Look! It's gotten stronger! Every portal is approximately the same distance from each other on all sides of town! The newly opened one would have to be about 6 km ahead, right in the town's rainwater ditch!"
Captain Jack clapped his hands together and rolled his eyes. "Thank god we have a destination now."
"It's close. Real close." Miles said, pointing at the compass that was going crazy. Captain Jack and Margareth looked at each other. The feeling between these two is getting stronger day by day.
"Don't you kids move from here. Radio us every five minutes. Do not leave the car, and if you notice anything out of the ordinary, call us immediately." The group nodded and got in the car. A long night was ahead of them.
Captain Jack and Margareth walked for seemingly forever before finally finding other people. Tall guys in black suits, wearing earbuds, talking to each other, they are definitely CIA agents, but what are they doing here in the Thai secret base?
"What are they saying?" Margaret whispered. There's something about Target "K001" on the loose. I'm not sure."
Margareth is astounded; she had no idea Captain Jack spoke Thai. " You speak Thai, since when," She asks,
"I've been the best in my class since my military academy, so they sent me to Thailand to finish my military degree for four years." Captain Jack responds with a solemn tone of voice and his gaze fixed on the traitors.
They started to get closer as the guards turned their backs to talk to a man decorated in a military uniform.
"He said something about the portal expanding for them," Capt Jack murmured.
Margareth worked to try and make out the access code on the door as they went inside. "1227! The code is 1227!"
They moved in by the door and held out fake cards to scan. They had become prepared enough, with fake government-issued cards from a Captain Jack black market friend and a complete army uniform. The code and cards worked, and as they entered, Margareth almost screamed.
Standing only a hundred meters from her was the man who used to be her ally, Special Agent Malcolm. She felt her heart drop to her stomach as Captain Jack shushed her to be quiet and act like a man.
They proceeded past Special Agent Malcolm when someone called out to Captain Jack in Thai. He responded with an assertive salute and led Margaret to follow the man. They walked to the back, and the man handed Captain Jack the access card.
"Good luck." He said it in Khmer with a heavy accent.
"What did he say?!" Margaret pleaded as he started to head towards the door. "He asked if I was assigned to see the portal; I replied yes."
"Why in the hell did he say good luck to you in Khmer!" Margaret asks again. He looked back at her and responded simply, "We shall see."
The door opened and revealed what everyone had dreaded. The Nether Temple was larger than ever, even larger than Ta Phrom Temple back in Siem Reap, with the Red Portal open right at the front gate of the temple, and it was growing rapidly. It was about the size of an industrial building now. The witch was in there as well, closer to the Thai side.
"Oh, my god. It's open in two locations," Margareth whispered.
"They want to use the witch to open the Nether gateway and use the creature in it as a weapon. They're trying to control it, but they've failed several times." Captain Jack tells his companion, who is still staring in awe.
Then Master Sovan and Special Agent Malcolm enter the room, which is made of steel and bulletproof glass, forming a shield. Together they said, "Let the ceremony begin."
On the Thai side, there was a lot of commotion. General Prayut rushed to push open the glass barrier, allowing the creature to be closer than ever. The man stood along the sidelines, ready with guns and bombs. Then a single chair was wheeled out alone. Behind a thin glass barrier, a kid with short hair and a sack over her head came into view, and the base went silent.
The Witch, who was still hurting from Liny's burns, reached out close to the kids.
The kid's hood was taken off to reveal her identity. It was a much younger and frailer-looking Alice. She was alive, after all, and was being used as a research toy to test the monster's intelligence and memory abilities.
Margareth almost fainted when she saw Alice on the observation screens. She wanted to scream and explode, but she would be caught and killed. Everyone watched intently as the witch blasted its power against Alice's power barrier, cracking it a little more with each blow. "It seems to recall her," Special Agent Malcolm said with a smirk.
Margaret was standing only 20 feet away from Alice, and her tension was greater than ever before.
BACK TO THE KIDS
"Hey, that's kinda weird," Ellis said, staring out the window.
"Isn't that the car that's always parked in Liny's driveway?" The group immediately turned to see a black Chevy speeding up and stopping in a clearing. A bulky man, Liny's bodyguard, jumped out and started running towards the base.
"Oh, my god. It is. It even has the same Sihanoukville Beach bumper sticker."
V started to make her way out of the car but was stopped by her brother. "We told them you wouldn't leave. And so you are not moving."
"C'mon, man, it's right there; it's close, and we will come back right away. They just want to peek in the car." Michael said, wanting to see what the car was all about.
"FINE! 5 minutes! GO!" Jackson said angrily. Miles, Ellis, and Adeline stayed behind in the car and watched the others run out to it. "Oh fuck! It's locked!" V said while trying to pry the door open.
"Well yeah, it's a top Thai agent guy; I'm pretty sure he knows how to lock his doors." The locks were impossible to pick as well, and because it was a new model, they didn't want any alarms to go off.
"Just peek in the windows," Michael said, and the group began to do so. There were lots of files in the backseats that no one could make out, but one thing stood out. Under the passenger seat, V spotted something shocking. Liny's bracelet. She knew it was hers because V had asked to borrow it for an outfit. They needed to radio Sebastian as soon as possible.
"Sebastian! Sebastian! Is everything okay, Sabastian? Please respond!" She waited for a response and then heard Liny's voice. "Uh, hey, V, we're fine! Sebastian just went to the bathroom."
"Where is Sebastian? "We want to talk to him, now?" There was some static over the radio, and Sebastian's voice could be heard:
"V? I'm fine! We're playing Kla Klok, it's so fun!" V took a deep breath and turned off the radio.
"Why'd you do that so suddenly? We're supposed to be quiet!" Micheal asked. "No reason.
I just got worried." V responded. Liny appears to be off from the start, but something in V's mind told her not to tell the group about Liny's bracelet; she was afraid that if she did, the group would hate her and become suspicious of her.
THE NETHER REALM - LAKEWOOD'S PORTAL
Alice was wheeled out of the area and put in handcuffs by the rogue CIA agent. They put the shield up again, and the witch fell to the floor in weakness and exhaustion. When Master Sovan began to clap at the success of the experiment, the witch rose up again. It started to fly towards the Thai base at mighty speed and slammed itself against the power barrier created by Master Sovans himself. The barrier began to crack, which caused a scream and a bunch of alarms to go off across the base.
The Thai agents started to prepare themselves with guns as the witch continued to hit the barrier, almost breaking it. The room started to shake, and Captain Jack grabbed Margaret by the arm to lead her out.
"WE NEED TO GO!" Margareth was still in a trance from the emotional stress of seeing Alice, but she continued to run after Captain Jack back to the car. They ran all the way back to the car and met the kids by Liny's agent's car.
"WE NEED TO GO NOW!" Everyone ran back as the Thai agents started to run out behind them. They sped away, and the thought of why Liny's agent's car was parked there was erased from their minds.
Liny stood above Sabastian's sleeping body at 3 a.m. V had never come back, and the radio had gone silent after she called to ask about him. Liny knew her agents were ready to take Sabastian and drive him to the base, yet something was bothering her.
Liny grabbed his wrist for seemingly the 10th time tonight, observing the three-dot scar he has on his wrist. She looked at it, connecting her pain to his. It evoked an unexplainable emotion. Something that just couldn't bring her to drug Sabastian and lead him to his death.
She thought about her new friends, how they would react to Sebastian's death, and how V would be broken for years. And even worse, they would find out who she really is, and she would lose her new friends and go back to Thailand.
But it depended on her family. Her mother and brother, back in Thailand, were locked away with Alice and they wouldn't be let out unless she acted to Master Sovan's standards.
What would her father want her to do? Is her father looking down on her from heaven, hell, or wherever the afterlife is?
Liny put her hand right above Sabastian's head, trying to enchant him. She touched it with his skin, causing him to slightly move his leg, but not waking him.
As Liny was ready to enchant him, her bracelet string fell right on his nose. She contemplated everything as she gazed peacefully at him as he slept.
"3" "2" "1"
"I'm sorry, Sabastian"
BACK AT THE KIDS
"Whatever it is, just hurry the fuck up, Ellis!" Liny propped her head up as she heard V's voice over the static radio. It was mumbled and low, almost as if they turned it on by accident.
"Did you see how many Thai agents came out of that place?! The Witch had to have gotten so much stronger again!" Ellis said over the radio that it sounded like he was sitting on it.
"Yeah, we need to get to V's house and discuss everything now. Let's not tell Sabastian though, I don't want to worry him." The radio buzzed again and was turned off. They had radioed Liny by accident.
"Shit, why can't I enchant him?" Liny whispers in anger, it seems like she can't get into Sabastian's head, so that means no enchantment to knock him out completely, so that means back to old-school spy stuff then.
She began to make her way outside to get the nitrous oxide gas from her agent, but when she looked outside, he was gone. A note was placed at the front door.
"ARANYA". There's been an emergency. If you can't make the boy unconscious, don't waste time. Come to the base immediately. Leave him behind if you have to."
Liny goes back to Sabastian and writes a note saying she is going to go grab breakfast and leave the house in a hurry, sprinting all the way to the base.
Finally, once it's in view, a car almost hits her. The lights flashed in her eyes, and she sprinted across, but it was all a blur. One thing stood out, though: a bright redhead sitting in the passenger's seat. Shit.
Liny ducks behind a bush as the car resumes its motion, hoping they don't recognize her.