The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 30: Inside Lion's Den

July 2, 2014. Wednesday.

"Do you take me for a fool?!" shouted Chester, the apostle of evil. The rings on his ears jingled as he swiftly turned from one of his followers to another. "Do you believe them? Do you believe the words of these infidels?"

The black mass scattered around the warehouse murmured, "They might be right...what if... well...the end of the world..." Some of them were louder than others. The louder ones came to an agreement. "Yes, yes we do believe them."

The sound of Chester's palm hitting his face shut all the murmurs up. Walking in circles in between the two intruders and his followers, he explained, "An evil cult does not simply go and save the world. We are no charity organization. We do not help the world because," he paused.

"The world is terrible! The world is a sad place!" shouted a chorus of trembling voices.

Chester glanced at George and said, "Infidel, there is truth in your words. We could continue using the world to spread our influence, to get more premium members and thrive. How 'bout we don't help you and you save it for us?"

George spoke up, "What if we fail?" Seeing his words did not persuade Chester, he added, "Doesn't it drive you mad knowing that there is someone more evil than you? To become the most evil group of them all, you need to remove the terrorists I mentioned from the first place."

"More evil than us?" Madness flashed on Chester's face. In slow motion, he wiggled his head like a snake, eyes wide and spooky. Staring at George, he murmured, "Do you even imagine the proportions of our world domination plans? Have you read our unholy book? What do you know about us, infidel?" He came closer and grabbed George by the shirt to stare into the eyes for a long moment. Then he slammed George's face with the back of his hand and put his hands on George's hips to stare some more.

What the hell, George thought and after they stopped talking with their eyes, he said, "Doesn't matter what I know, what matters is that someone is trying to explode the planet while you are roleplaying."

Now the madness in Chester's face gained a flavor of anger, he shouted at George, "Ha, ha, ha-ha! You ask for help, yet you troll us! Take them to prison!"

The black sea engulfed them and the two heroes were swept away. Once again, they found themselves above the forest of arms. Only this time George had no time to enjoy it because he was thrown into the cell faster than he could relax.

"Well, well, well," George said, lying on the ground, addressing Sally, who had already got to her feet on the neighboring cell. "That conversation felt a bit awkward."

They were in a dark humid place. The air was filled with wet moisture carrying a smell of mold. Two lines of cells on the opposite sides of a long corridor stretched as far as the eyes could see. And the eyes could not see far because there was a severe absence of light, the only source of which were a few holes in the ceiling far away.

Sally violently shook the door bars of her cell. She said, "I bet I could slam it open."

"No need to slam anything, Sally. All we need to do is wait. The situation is going to fix itself, you'll see."

"How can you be so calm?" Sally shook the bars once again.

"He put a note into the front pocket of my shorts as he grabbed me."

"What does it say?"

"Don't know. It's a bit too dark to read in here. But that's a good sign. Isn't it?"

"Arrrrgh!!" Sally jumped up and down and screeched, then slammed into the bars with a shoulder. Only after five minutes of George's persuasion to calm down she listened and stopped.