Chapter 4
The Pirates War
The sea became smooth; the reddish sun started to show its face upon the horizon. The chopper flew into the air, breaking through the clouds.
Karl Wolff was touching his black rifle, staring at the pocket book he grabbed from the gas station while heading to the chopper, also fetched few potato chips along with it. Tyler was leaning against the wall, leaving the potato chips untouched, haunted by the memory of the burning city; people were squirreling around, shooting at the hideous creatures who were attacking them. He wandered whether the people at the school survived. It was pretty well guarded basement, with many soldiers to protect them. But Karl said it is unlikely and thought it was a most dangerous place you could be.
Tyler clutched the rifle Karl gave him; he couldn’t sleep well, afraid that he might have a nightmare. He was fumbling the rescue flare from a bag. The bag contained few survival kits which included compass, grenades, coil of wire, antibiotic cream, canned food, knife and bullets.
The pilot made a humming sound. His name is Toby, was a friend of Karl as he provided some of the trading route regarding cocaine. He was a junky, spending all his time in his room with cocaine. Still now, the white powder was in the dishes nearby the pilot seat. Tyler was frightened that the chopper will go down, but Karl didn’t seem to care.
Tyler heard lots of rumors concerning Karl, and they were all bad. When he was appointed as a professor in the school, the parents got mad and protested to the principal. But Karl managed to keep his position as he had many friends in the political arena. Many say he is a secret police, spy or assassin. Tyler’s family is safe however, because they were out of town when this thing happened. Although by this time, they were probably devastated at the news. Karl didn’t let him find his parents in nearby country, saying it is tedious and told him to shut up or he’ll throw him off the chopper. Tyler didn’t complain, at least his parents are alive; he will get a chance to visit them again. What made Tyler afraid and curious about Karl is the rumor that he was a cannibal. He wasn’t sure he works as the extra meat Karl is carrying.
He lolled back, completely drenched. Opened the bag of potato chips and crunched it. The salty, oily flavor spread in his mouth.
“Sir? Where are we going?” asked Tyler, munching potato chips.
“Some island where most of those things dwell,” said Karl, with a low tone.
“But sir, why?” asked Tyler.
“There is a man who owes us an explanation. We are going to look for the disappeared billionaire in the Basileus Republic few years back. He was saying to others that he was building some resort for his retirement plan,” said Karl.
“…”
“The name of the man is Ricky Guido. He drove the stockholder crazy when he sold all his estate at once,” said Karl. “Beloved by the journalists and conspiracy nut jobs, his face was all over the news.”
“Are you talking about that nut job!?” shouted Toby the pilot, sniffing. There was a white dust around his mouth, his lips quivered slightly.
“Yes, this happened in the same time when there was the raid in Simard Polchinski and his households,” muttered Karl. “Presumably it made Nina very upset.”
“Simard Polchinski, I’ve heard about him sir, Professor Randolph was talking about him.” said Tyler.
“Yeah, yeah, he created those monsters! I know it! He is the one!” Toby bellowed, slapping his thick leg.
“Yes, Randolph likes to brag about his contribution to other professors. I bet you watched him talking and talking about Alice’s Experiment and the so called breakthrough in science haven’t you? Randolph indeed plagiarized Simard’s idea after his; he was trying to get all the credit for himself regarding that technology. He knew that Simard position is very weak, as he was basically a prisoner under Veron. So he made a move to steal Simard’s database. I mean his eagerness to become an asshole is utterly amazing…” grumbled Karl.
“…” silenced Tyler, crunching more potato chips in his mouth, feeling a little thirst.
“We will soon be arriving in the island. I don’t know whether Nina survived the catastrophe. Even if she did, it is hard to predict whether her strategies will work in the wilderness. Nevertheless I do hope that she is alive right now,” muttered Karl, excited. “If anybody survived from the Cassandra, they will probably heading to the same direction as us.”
“We are expecting our park to be packed! All those pirates and slayers!” shouted Toby, laughing.
“Do you know what is going to happen if we meet, kid?” said Karl, his eyes dangerously beaming. Tyler shook his head.
“The kingship war,” grinned Karl, his eyes bulging out, tapping his black rifle. “The one who gets Ricky’s shelter will rule the others.”
Tyler felt a weird chill in his heart. Karl looked at him with such eyes filled with some sort of hope, which he didn’t know how to describe it. It wasn’t an ambition, nor greed or power. It dangerously glowed, made Tyler get a chill on his back.
Toby started humming the country song. He had many questions which he was reluctant to ask. But on the other hand, he was too curious not to ask; he stared at Karl for a while, who was looking at the magazine now, and opened his mouth.
“Professor Wolff?” said Tyler. Karl didn’t reply, continued to read the magazine. The pilot started humming, drizzled the cocaine in his mouth, savoring it. “Is it true, what people say about the murders in the abandoned barns?”
And there was a long stunned silence. Toby stopped humming; he surely got a good hearing. Karl glimpsed at Tyler.
“Partly,” grinned Karl.