Smoking Power

Chapter 42

As stealthily as possible we all sneak from the room we were hiding in, to the room Clark's being held captive in. We line up, Charles and I on one side of the door and Declan and Clarence on the other side. Amber has already shape-shifted into her chickadee and is holding the bobby-pin in her beak behind my legs.

The plan is for Charles to go in first, try get Gareth to see what he's doing and get him to stop. Because the probability of Gareth actually listening is painfully low, Declan standing next to the door. As soon as we hear Charles's plan failing, Declan will sprint in and give a couple of well deserved punches to whoever will most likely be trying to kill him.

In this time, where they will be most distracted and surprised, the rest of us will slip in. Amber will go to Clark, Clarence will help out whoever needs help and I'll put up some fire barriers to block hogmers off. We all know that backup is going to be coming pretty quickly.

"I'm going in," Charles whispers while peaking his head into the half-open door. He looks at us all as if saying "this is it" before stepping into the confinements of Gareths stone walls. Whatever's about to happen from here-nobody's going to walk out the same as they walked in, for better or for worse, we're all about to be changed forever.

I carefully inch forward, trying not be seen but filling the space where Charles was before. When I'm satisfied of where I am, I press my ear against the wall to do some casual eavesdropping. "Charles well isn't this a surprise! I haven't seen you in a while buddy! How've you been keeping?" The calmness in Gareth's voice is well beyond disturbing.

Slowly Clark's screams fade out. At least Gareth has the decency to pause his torturing so he can have a "catch-up-chat" with Charles. With Clark no longer yelling, it's a fair bit easier to hear what's being said. "Gareth, you're quite right, it has been awhile since I last visited. I hear you got the lavapick. Congratulations! But why may I ask are you hitting this poor young lad?" I can tell Charles is talking about Clark. What interests me the most though, is that Gareth seems to think that he and Charles are still the best of buddies.

"Oh yeah, this here is Clark. You know, the guy Clarence felt sorry for? Yeah, well he so happens to be the controller. Unfortunately he's refusing to cooperate. I'm hoping to loosen him up a bit before getting the prisoners up here. Giving them a shot of pain will no doubt crack him. Actually you're just in time. I was about to call them up here now."

"You couldn't of just got him drunk? People never think clearly when they're drunk you know," Charles plays his role of being allies with Gareth, to perfection, "Maybe he's right, you know. About not using the lavapick for total denomination. Technically speaking, the people haven't done anything wrong. Isn't using this weapon of destruction just a little excessive?"

"What are you talking about?!" Uh-oh Gareth seems annoyed, angry and suspicious all at once, "Don't tell me you've gone soft now too? This is what we've worked so hard on for so long. The people in this world are monsters! Always rebelling! Always eager to be jumping into the next war! Always trying to scale to the top of the crazy politic pyramid! They're dumb, Charles!! Dumb! Stupid! Petty! They need to be taught discipline! Think of those fools at the Homestead, Charles! Running around like they owned the world! Like they're better then everyone else! I'm doing-no, we're-doing the world a favour!"

"If you truly believe that then you're a hypocrite! How can you not see that you're part of this world? How can you not see that you're the one who is rebelling against the world-our world-your home. You're the one who's the fool that thinks he is better than everyone else! I don't know what delusion you're operating under, but I do know one thing; you're not doing any world any favour. Sure our society might have a few cracks in it, but you're trying to blow it to smithereens and replace it with you're mistakes. How can you not see that nothing good will come of this?"