Smoking Power

Chapter 39

Amber sniffles before stepping back and ending our hug. We both laugh at our softness quietly while wiping our wet eyes. "Okay, we should probably figure out how to get Clark back now," I say while inspecting my soggy shoulder from Amber.

"Oi! What about my hug, huh? I missed you too." Declan childishly walks over to Amber and gives a huge bear hug. Amber and I both quietly laugh at his stupidity.

"Alright guys, did you two manage to get the floor layout for this floor? Or where Clark's being held captive?" Charles asks Clarence and Amber after we've all finished welcoming them back into the world of the living, although they never actually left it.

"Well we checked the air vents to see if we could get in that way but when I say they were too small, I literally mean they were tiny," Amber points up into the corner of the room. I follow the direction of her outstretched finger and see a hole no bigger then the size of my head. "So we had to get Alfred to make a digital map usin' the security files and few buildin' plans that he was able to hack into."

"Great, so do you know where everyone is?" I ask them both, referring to Clark, Gareth and the swarms of hogmers that are buzzing around this place somewhere.

Clarence nods at me, "We're ninety percent sure that Clark is in one of the back rooms with Gareth. The majority of the hogmers are still in the power room after Clinton and Chelsea's diversion. They haven't been found yet but they're making noises and moving stuff around before they have the chance to spot them which is keeping them pretty distracted. As far as we know Marco's down on one of the lower levels, leading a group of hogmers in their search for Clinton and Chelsea. We're also pretty sure that they haven't noticed you missing yet which is a good thing but it's only a matter of time before they do."

"Okay, that means we should go to get Clark now before they do realise," I look over at Declan in surprise. That's got to be one of the smartest things I've ever heard before. "Wait a second, how come Clark doesn't just use the lavapick on the hogmers and stop this all?" Declan says confusedly as an after thought.

"Clark's pretty shaken up by Clarence's death and Declan being shot, so he's not really in the head space to have someone else die and with Gareth threatening to kill you or Micky at his first wrong move, Clark isn't taking any chances. On the security tape, he's just sitting in the chair not doing anything."

"So what's the security actually like in there? We just gonna sneak in, grab Clark and waltz back out or are we going to up the anti on our spy skills?" I ask while staring at the final door until we're actually in the top floor. As far as things go, I'd classify the room we're currently in as the foyer.

"The normal hogmer levels for this floor has been scattered a little from team B, Clinton and Chelsea, but security's still tight. The remaining guards are on edge. They know that there's intruders in the building and that chances are they're looking for Clark, Declan or you. They're a bit jumpy but are ready to go into battle mode. This means that everyone's abnormally suspicious, so any noises such as one of you tripping or something will be investigated, pronto. But yeah you're kinda right, Micky, you just need to get to Clark without being seen and then get him and the lavapick out. It's simple enough but it's hard to say exactly what to do now 'cause we don't know what they're going to do." Alfred says so casually he sounds like he's talking about the weather.

Next to me, Declan snorts, "'you just need to get Clark without being seen and then get the lavapick out, it's simple enough',"Declan mimics. "Simple enough?! Have you gone completely bonkers?!?! We're about to steal away Gareth's favourite possession! Seeing how he hasn't got the best anger management control, I doubt that it's going to be simple enough!!!" The volume of his voice increases after each word.