Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

-Longyearbyen, Svalbard; May 6th, 2009-

Lui yawned as he stepped into the lobby. He wasn’t sure if they had missed the restaurant’s breakfast hours or not. He was having trouble keeping track of what time it was. Without his phone, he couldn’t text Hanna to see if she was up yet. Technically, DJ still had his phone and could have texted for him, but Lui figured it could wait. Especially if Hanna was still asleep. Lui meandered over to a vending machine and browsed the snack options. DJ was at the front desk talking to the clerk. Lui pressed a few buttons on the vending machine and waited as it churned. 

DJ walked up to him with a frown. “They’re gone.”

“What? Who?” Lui grabbed the packet of fruit snacks from the machine and stuffed it in a pocket. DJ held out a folded piece of paper between two fingers. Lui took it and opened the note. 

“Lui, I’m going after EDJ. Go home. I’ll see you when it’s over. Hanna.” Lui’s shoulders sank. “She left?” He looked up at DJ with wide eyes, disappointment in his voice. “But… but we agreed we’d go together…” 

“I know,” DJ said, rubbing a hand over his face and neck. “The pilot’s gone too, essentially stranding us here. Probably so we wouldn’t follow.” 

“We have to go after her,” Lui said with determination, folding the note and sticking it in his pocket. 

DJ stood in thought for a moment before responding. “We should go back to Iceland.” 

“What?!” Lui exclaimed. “She needs our help! We can’t abandon her!”

DJ gave him a confused look. “I never said anything about abandoning her. I just said we should go to Iceland first.” Seeing Lui’s puzzled face, DJ continued. “How much help are we going to be if we spend all that time rushing after her just to show up unarmed and half rested? We go back to Iceland, get our stuff, then go straight to Everest from there. She already has a head start regardless.” Lui looked away and sighed before nodding in agreement. DJ put a hand on Lui’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Do you think she can hold out against Iul till we get there?” 

Lui nodded again. “She’s more than capable of fighting her battles alone,” Lui answered. “The hard part is getting her to realize she doesn’t have to.” 

DJ grinned. “That’s what I thought.” He patted Lui’s shoulder. “In all seriousness, I don’t think Iul would stand a chance. Hanna knows an idiot when she sees one.” 

Lui blinked at him, suddenly concerned. “She does?” 

DJ chuckled as he walked back to the front desk, planning to ask for ride options to the airport. 

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-Mysterious castle; Mount Everest; May 9th, 2009-

Hanna stared down at the origami napkin swan in her gloved hand. She exhaled and put it into a pocket, switching her attention to the green blinking light on the tracking device. The dot jumped all over the screen, just as it did back at the North Pole. “A lot of help that is,” Hanna muttered, turning off the device and tucking the object away. She looked up at the magnificent castle in front of her. Large stone walls, narrow windows, tall towers, blocky parapets, even catapults, it was all there. A proper castle at the top of the world. It felt like something straight out of a video game or a fairytale. Something so grand and spectacular that the mind cannot fully comprehend the scale until it’s physically sitting in front of you. The wind swept snow across the dark stones and swirled at Hanna’s feet. The castle was impressive. It was extravagant. It was unsettling. From what Hanna could observe from the outside, the castle was too well-kept to be abandoned. At the same time, she did not meet any guards outside. At the very least, she knew EDJ was inside, but she did not know what other challenges to anticipate. Not that she could have known. Hanna wasn’t sure which was more unnerving, the fact that she didn’t see or hear anyone else around or the fact that the large doors stood wide open. Hanna cautiously trudged through the knee-deep snow with her sword drawn, ready to strike at anything that moved. She was oblivious to the hidden cameras and all the eyes watching her. EDJ smiled from the comfort of his control room, watching the screens. “Like a moth to the flame,” EDJ said in a low voice. He pressed a button on the control panel, activating the PA system. 

“Welcome, hero,” EDJ’s voice boomed across the snow laden mountain top. The voice was so loud, Hanna stopped and covered her ears. “Have you rescued your pesky friends yet?” EDj asked. 

Hanna uncovered her ears and looked around, unsure of where the sound was coming from. “I have indeed rescued my beloved friends,” Hanna shouted into the wind, tightening the grip on her sword. “They’re in a place even you, with your foul talons, can never reach! As promised, I’m here to bring you in!” Hanna looked around, still on high alert. Still no sign of life. “Show yourself, coward!” she shouted. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” EDJ’s voice asked. “I went to a lot of trouble designing and building this castle. It’s only right you get the full tour.” He watched her inch toward the open doors. Amazing how easily sheep will show up to the slaughter if you leave the front gate open, he thought. “It’s been so long since my last guest,” EDJ continued speaking through the PA system. “They didn’t make it very far. Perhaps you’ll fare better?” 

Hanna stared up at the castle with narrow eyes. Was she impressed by the scale? Yes. Did she care? No. She had one mission and one mission only: track down EDJ and bring him in. Perhaps not before he got the beat down he so richly deserved. Hanna entered the castle and the large doors slammed shut behind her. Torches lit up along the walls, illuminating not one path from the door, but three. A path to the left, the right, and down the middle. Hanna frowned. Her gut told her to take the middle path, but she glanced down the other two paths with hesitancy. The longer she stood where she was in indecision, the warmer she felt. The area was quickly acclimating to whatever the internal temperature was set to without the doors open. There was something else, a strange smell Hanna couldn’t place. Dank and fishy? You need to move. Now, Hanna thought. She slowly walked forward down the center path. Hanna suddenly dropped three feet before she caught herself with her wings. Looking down, she realized a section of the floor had dropped out from under her. Part of the floor landed with a splash at the bottom. Hanna flew up out of the hole and back on to the solid part of the hallway, heart almost skipping with the scare. Hanna leaned over, trying to see what fate she had narrowly avoided. She pulled a flashlight off her belt and shone it into the hole. She could see water rippling between quite a few logs. The smell was stronger and the air rising up was thick and humid. She could barely make out brightly colored bits of fabric floating in the water. Looking around for something to throw, Hanna resorted to creating an ice cube and dropping it down the hole. It landed in the water with a splish. One of the logs rolled and snapped at the place the ice cube landed with a row of sharp teeth. It was then Hanna realized the logs were actually crocodiles. Or alligators. Hanna never bothered learning the difference between the two. The fabrics she saw were probably all that was left of climbers that had ventured too far in the wrong direction. Hanna looked down the hallway in front of her with a grimace. “A maze with trap floors that lead to hungry crocodiles. Typical,” Hanna muttered, standing up and walking back to the closed front door. “Pick a direction and follow it to the end,” Hanna whispered to herself as she put the flashlight away. Deciding to try a new path, Hanna placed her empty left hand against the wall and pressed on. The metal walls met the ceiling, making it impossible to get an aerial view of the maze. She met a few dead ends, but she kept her hand against the wall and kept following it. The floor dropped out from under her two more times before Hanna decided to skip walking altogether and fly through the maze. 

“Clever girl,” EDJ’s voice echoed through the halls. 

Hanna’s eyes narrowed as she smirked. “Mighty big castle you have here, EDJ. Got something to prove?” 

“Nothing of the sort. I simply have very high living standards,” EDJ answered, pressing a few buttons on the panel in front of him and switching screens. “Nothing wrong with wanting a little of the good life.” 

“Uh-huh, I can see that,” Hanna responded. “Shame you didn’t feel the same about your Original’s apartment before you destroyed it.” 

“I did him a favor,” the disembodied voice said as Hanna continued down the maze path. “But let’s not talk about him. I’m far more interested in you.” 

“What’s so interesting about me?” Hanna asked, venom in her voice. 

“I had my doubts about you after our initial phone conversation,” EDJ answered. “Your priorities seemed… scattered, to say the least. Are you sure you’re even cut out for this kind of work?” 

“Gotta make a living somehow,” Hanna muttered, flying around another dead end. 

“Dying isn’t much of a living, but what would I know?” EDJ’s voice laughed. 

“I saved the world, didn’t I?” Hanna demanded, temper rising. 

“You saved your friends,” the voice answered. “The world was an unfortunate bonus.” 

“We can argue about that all you want once you’re behind bars,” Hanna said. “What were you planning to do after that flood anyway? If it was world domination, you would have killed everything worth ruling.”

“King of the world is a lonely role, but one I would gladly play.” EDJ shrugged. “All I seek is the path to glory.” 

What a whack job. Hanna frowned. “I’m no expert, but I don’t think ending the world was the solution.” 

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” the voice answered cheerily.