The Zombie Train The Transport Corp

Chapter 19: After Party Problems

As we stepped down, Jonathan came to meet us.
"Guess you weren't fast enough eh?"
He was boasting, I could tell he did something. I went back to the engine, running my fingers along the brake pipe, something just didn't add up. Why had the emergency brakes come on? Until I felt a bump. I looked under, there was a little device connected to the emergency brake cord. It looked remote-controlled.
"Hey, Powell?" He came over. "Look at this."
"What?"
"Do you know what this is?"
"No."
"Me neither, let's call Nino Jose."
A few minutes later, Nino arrived in a track car.
"Nino Jose, can you come over and see what this is?"
He stooped down, looking at the device. "This looks like it'll stop the train when it's triggered."
"Powell! Do you know what this means? The brake pressure drop! It wasn't an accident!"
"If it is RC, we have to find the control."
We were called over to the celebration, Momma and Daddy were there to congratulate the winners. Dai was coming on a slower train. We were sat down for a buffet, chicken, tri-tip, all assortment of fruits and veggies. As Jonathan raised his arm to greedily gobble a chicken leg, a tiny device slipped out of his shirt sleeve. Powell was sitting across, his jaw dropped.
"It was you!"
Jonathan's face went red, Powell stood up.
"How dare you cheat! You sabotaged my engine! You tried to derail us you ba%#erd!"
Now it was go time.
"Powell just calm down..."
"He fricken tried to make us lose, not just me but you too! He tried to kill the both of us..."
"And I'll deal with him. Now, that little thing that fell on the table, is that an RC controller?" I pointed to the black box.
Vana picked it up, inspected it, "Yup, it's a remote control."
Powell flew across the table, knocking food and paper plates onto the ground. He grabbed Jonathan by the collar. "You sneaky ba%#erd. I ought to kill you." He threw him down, staring at me. "Well? You gonna do something?"
"The both of you! 'Act like children." I turned to Powell, "You need to control your anger, otherwise, I'll have you sorting boxes until your hands bleed!" Turning to Jonathan, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Cheating in one of, if not the last, train race in American history! You! Just made the history books, and history isn't happy. Both of you need to calm yourselves down."
Powell swiped across his plate, storming away. I looked back to Jonathan, "I'll let you stay an engineer, but I will have an armed guard with you at all times when you drive. I've had enough of this madness."
"This is unfair! I nev-"
"What you did was unfair! You hurt me!" I showed him the clotted cuts and bruises. "You nearly derailed a train carrying over excess of eighty people! If I wasn't such a bad manager, I would fire you right now!" I looked down. "But... we need you. But trust me, one more slip up and you're gone! Doesn't matter what favor you have! Do you understand me?"
His face went white, "Yes sir."
"Now. Go apologize to Powell, it's him you have to please."
He walked away, tail between his legs. What I didn't know, that a plan was set in motion in his head. He had had enough of this embarrassment. He was gonna do something terrible, all he needed now was a time and place.