Never As It Seems

The Non-Attack

"So, I'm thinking - my plan here is that we go to the army base - the human one, obviously. Then we shut everything down before the Fuzzy Guys get there. Turn everything off and get everyone out of there long before it all happens. That way no one will get hurt and the joke will be on the Fuzzy Guys, which is always great. Then, somehow, before the attack was supposed to happen we go to the Fuzzy Guy army base and get them to think there's something happening there, and they're all ready for attack, blah blah blah. The Fuzzy Guys go there with their guns and the machine tanks that they probably have and all their little soldiers and they find out there's nothing. Now, while that's all happening, we go to the Fuzzy Guy army base and we do the same exact thing we did with the other one. Hopefully they’ll all be gone by then, ha ha. So the Fuzzy Guys go back, discover there's nothing there either, and are left to ponder this instead of planning for a war. Then there's no attacks, no deaths, no prisons full of innocent people. Did I get everything?"

Rick and Annmarie gaped at him. 

"Did you think that all up just now?" said Annmarie. 

"Sure did," said Flames. 

"That's genius," said Rick. "Whoa. I knew you weren't completely useless."

He snorted. "Gee, thanks."

"No, but that really is good. Isn't it good, Annmarie?"

"I couldn't have thought of it," she said with a nod. 

Flames shook his head. "I don't know. There are a lot of flaws to it. Say the Fuzzy Guys see through all this. What then?"

"They're pretty stupid, they won't notice something's up," said Rick. He tapped his fingers on the back of Flames’ chair. "They'll notice something's wrong, obviously, but they won't think to blame it on us. They'll think it's technical difficulties or something. 'Cause they're so self-centered, you know, they always think it's something wrong with the way the organization works. Dumb as heck."

"Okay. What if the guys in the army base won't cooperate?"

"They will."

"You sure?"

He nodded grimly. "Yeah. They're not stupid, unlike the other group I just mentioned. And they'll listen to me."

"What makes you say that?" said Annmarie.

"Well, I mentioned to you before, I look like Adam, and they trust him a whole lot there. He did something beneficial for them once, I guess, and now he's a voice of reason. I'm not questioning it. Anyway, it’ll be fine. So are we for this plan, or does anyone else have a brilliant idea that just struck them?"

"I thought you said mine was brilliant," said Flames, crossing his arms. 

"I said it was genius, actually."

"Same difference. Are we really doing this thing, then?"

"You have to turn off the computer first."

He looked over at it. "Oh, right."

-

After they had shut down the computer, made sure everything remained spotless, and checked with the girl to make sure they were good to go, they headed back to the hospitality center.

"I don't know about you two," said Annmarie as they walked through the doors, "but I could really use some sleep. All this investigation and freaking out over people dying and every confusing thing that happened today - it's tiring, isn't it?"

"It doesn't get any better," said Rick.

"I didn't think it would. Which one is ours, again?"

"Third down on the right, over there by the wall." He pointed vaguely to a spot on the right side of the congregation of bunk beds. "Not sure which one you want."