ASOUE: The Very Final Danger

The Plan

"How soon will Olaf notice that we are missing?" Isadora asked.

The two Quagmire triplets, the Baudelaire siblings, Olivia Caliban, and Jaques Snicket were sitting together at Jaques's dining room table. A half-eaten dinner lay before them.

"It won't likely be until tomorrow morning, when he goes to collect the Quagmires for the auction," Jaques answered.

"Wait. Did they serve you meals?" Olivia inquired.

"Just one a day, and that was usually for lunch. We had just eaten when you lot arrived," Duncan answered.

"So we have until morning to figure out. . . what?" Violet realized she didn't know what the plan was now that she and her siblings had escaped from Count Olaf, along with the Quagmires.

"Will the V.F.D. be able to capture Olaf and his terrible acting troupe?" Klaus asked.

"Doonok?" Sunny wondered, which probably meant, and where will we live afterwards?

"To answer your question, Violet, we need to figure out a plan to apprehend Count Olaf and end his horrid schemes once and for all. To answer your question, Klaus, I most certainly hope we will be able to succeed. To answer your question, Sunny, I am not sure where you will live when this is all over."

"Mak!" Sunny exclaimed which probably meant, Jaques understood what I meant, so we should live with him.

"I'm afraid I would be unable to give you the proper care, Baudelaires. As Olivia mentioned earlier, I am often away from home as a taxi driver or on a mission for V.F.D."

The Baudelaires thought about this. They would have liked to live with Jaques, but hopefully they would find another suitable guardian. Mostly, it was just nice to be able to talk about V.F.D. and begin to learn some of its secrets at the moment.

"So you two aren't-" Duncan began.

"Duncan!" Isadora cut him off.

"I for one, would like to hear what your brother had to say," Jaques said, one of his eyebrows creeping up to his forehead as it often did.

"Oh- no- I just was wondering if you two were a couple," Duncan blurted. "Sorry, nosy journalist instincts. You don't have to answer that."

"Ugh. At least he has some idea of privacy," Isadora groaned.

Jaques looked at Olivia. He had not lowered his eyebrow yet, so it almost looked as if he was asking her a question.

"It's hardly the time to be thinking about romantic couples, Duncan," she said. "We have much more pressing matters at hand."

Or rather, Olivia Caliban was not interested in thinking about anything of the sort right now.

Jaques lowered his eyebrow and the discussion continued.

By the time the group had laid out a solid plan for the capture of Count Olaf and contacted all the necessary agents, the day was done.

The children had all fallen asleep on the sofa soon after they moved their discussion to the living room. Olivia opted to stay with them. Only Jaques made the short trek upstairs to find more comfortable lodgings.

"Good night Quagmires. Good night Baudelaires. Good night Olivia Caliban," he said, stopping in the doorway.

The huddle of bodies on the couches only snored in response, and Jaques smirked.