Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

EDJ watched the monitors with a vile grin. “Oh, the suspense is killing me!” He laughed, inching his face closer to the screen. “Come on, my pets! Attack already!” 

As the sharks circled Hanna, a door at the bottom of the tank opened and chunks of meat were shoved into the enclosure. The sharks instantly stopped swimming around Hanna and turned to the food. They rushed toward their new prize and tore through the food, thrashing furiously as they tore into it. Hanna yelped at first until she looked down and realized what was happening. Seemingly pulled out of her frozen stupor, she started swimming for the ladder again at a renewed pace. EDJ collapsed back into his seat in stunned silence, a blank stare on his face as he processed the events playing out in front of him. The techs in the room glanced at each other nervously, but dared not make a sound. EDJ slammed a fist on the arm of his chair. “CODY!”

“Eoin, sir,” an assistant with a clipboard answered, quickly stepping up to him. “You fired Cody. I’m the backup.” 

“Oh, right,” EDJ muttered absently, eyes still locked on the screens. “Bring me the idiot that feeds the sharks.”

“Right away, sir,” Eoin said with a slight bow before leaving the room. 

EDJ rested his chin in his palm, thumb hooking under the chain around his neck again. He narrowed his eyes at the screens. 

“Hah! Once again, your devious plan has been foiled!” Hanna’s voice said over the intercom system. 

EDJ smirked as he pressed a button on the control panel. “One phase of it utterly failed, yes, but my overall plan is still going swimmingly.” 

“Ugh, you’re even bad at making lame jokes,” Hanna answered, still swimming to the ladder while the sharks were distracted. “Overall plan, huh? So every second I waste listening to your idiotic babbling is working to your advantage.” 

EDJ tilted his head sideways curiously as he pressed the intercom button again. “I suppose only time will tell with that one.” 

“That was terrible!” Hanna commented, shaking her head. 

A tall woman wearing khaki coveralls approached EDJ, Eoin trailing behind her. “You wanted to see me, sir?” she asked. 

EDJ turned around in his seat. “Sarah, yes.” EDJ smiled politely and his voice held a falsely pleasant tone. “Can you tell me why you choose now of all times to perform your duties as shark caretaker?”

Sarah blinked at him in confusion. “It’s Monday, sir,” she answered. “The sharks are fed every Monday.” 

Already? EDJ thought. It was a Tuesday when this whole project started…wasn’t it? Where did the time go? His polite smile and tone did not waver. “I thought you said tiger sharks were aggressive and attack everything that moves.”

“They do,” Sarah said, still confused. 

“How do you explain this then?” EDJ’s smile finally dropped as he vaguely gestured to the screens. 

Sarah inspected the screens for a moment before turning to answer him. She pointed to one of the fatter sharks on screen. “Well, if you’d let me target feed them like I suggested in the first place, you wouldn’t have the competitive overeating proble-”

“Not that!” EDJ interrupted, pointing to a different screen of Hanna reaching the ladder and starting to climb out of the tank. “THAT! Why didn’t they attack her?”

“Oh, I didn-” Sarah shifted uncomfortably, not realizing anyone was even in the tank up to this point. She gave EDJ a weird look. “T-these are sand tiger sharks, sir. Not tiger sharks. They are more docile in nature and don’t attack unless provoked.” 

EDJ slumped back into his chair, rubbing his forehead. Pet sharks. I bought pet sharks. “Remind me again why I picked them?” he groaned. 

“You said they looked cooler,” Sarah answered. “Are… are you going to fire me, sir?” she asked. 

EDJ sighed before answering. “No. Not immediately, anyway.” He glanced at her in annoyance. “You’re the only aquarist willing to work here.” He waved her off. “Go. Get out of here before I change my mind and have you flung from the catapult.” 

“T-thank you, sir.” Sarah bowed and left in a hurry. 

All this talk of food is making me hungry. EDJ turned to Eoin. “What’s on today’s menu?” 

The assistant checked his notes. “Spaghetti.” 

“Again?” EDJ made a sour face. “I need to have another word with the head chef.” 

“He said he already emailed you the list of fresh produce he keeps running out of,” Eoin reported, flipping through the pages on his clipboard.

“Add it to the purchase order,” EDJ grumbled with a dismissive wave of his hand. 

“Sir,” one of the techs in the room turned to EDJ. “There’s a call for you on line one.”

“Now?!” EDJ asked, already annoyed. “I’ll take it later.” 

“It’s the Organization, sir,” the tech insisted. 

Crap. I don’t have time to deal with them right now. “I’ll take it in my office,” EDJ said, standing up from his chair. He gave the screens one more suspicious look before heading into a separate room and closing the door behind him. While he preferred to keep all his business in the master control room, where command of the entire castle was within reach at the press of a button, sometimes one has to have a separate room for private conversations. EDJ took a moment to stretch and compose himself before answering the call. The screen in the little office came to life, displaying a single letter A, the only indication that someone was on the other end of the call at all. 

“Hello!” EDJ answered with a large smile and the most courteous disposition he could muster. “And how may I serve the World Committee of Evil today?” 

“Your shipment is late, Z,” the screen answered in a robotic voice, the caller no doubt using a voice changer.

“A couple more days,” EDJ said. “That’s all I need. You’ll have your product as well as the new addition to the team.” 

“You opted for Plan B then?” the robotic voice asked. 

“Plan B to you, maybe,” EDJ said with a frown. “Plan B was always my Plan A. I’m a professional, remember? I have a reputation to uphold.” 

The voice on the other end was silent for a moment. “Two more days. Do not forget what you owe us.” EDJ straightened while the voice continued. “Remember who it was who decided to sponsor your little project on Everest. We gave. We can take away.”

EDJ gave a polite smile again and spoke in a lighthearted manner. “Don't worry, I haven’t forgotten. Just make sure your envoys are waiting in the right spot this time.” He held up an index finger. “There's only one smuggler tunnel that leads all the way up here and I can't be blamed if your guys are waiting at the wrong location.” 

“Two days,” the voice repeated before the call ended and the screen went dark. 

EDJ let out a long breath and turned away from the screen. Good riddance. Owe them, what a joke. Not like I built my castle from the ground up with my bare hands or anything. EDJ’s hands clenched into tight fists. My castle. My home. Let them try to take it from me.

EDJ exited the room and stopped by one of the technician stations. He leaned over the tech’s shoulder to check on their progress. “How’s it going?” 

“Ah, f-fine, sir,” the tech answered with a gulp. The tech zoomed out of the screen they were working on to show the overall progress. “We’ve trimmed it up quite a bit and had to add some after effects lightning, but the timing should go well with the score. At this point, we’re only waiting for the fin-...” 

The tech continued talking, but EDJ had already stood up and walked back to his command chair. He sat down heavily and watched the screens. Hanna was drying off in front of an industrial fan on the other side of the tank. Down to the wire on this one. EDJ repositioned the camera drone in front of Hanna and pressed the intercom button. “Tell me, hero, have you figured out the greater purpose here yet?” EDJ asked with a smug grin.