Arrivederci 🔪

IX

At three ten a.m, the plane landed at the John F. Kennedy Airport. Once the coast was clear, Fred punched the back door open and the siblings jumped out.

"Now, our destination is Central Park, we are required to get there promptly," Prudence explained to Fred.

-"We'll need to get a cab again. Same plan as in Detroit?"

-"Let's go with that,"

Half an hour later, Prudence and Fred arrived at Central Park. "What the hell are we supposed to be doing here?!" Fred began to get frustrated.

-"I'm not exactly sure. I was instructed to walk around with you and figure out the rest. Oh, right! I was told that a billionaire is supposed to be here, waiting for us. I assume he'll help us, but what can a billionaire do?"

Right after Prudence stated her sentence, an opulent man in a suit walked up to them. "I hear you need help figuring out something,"

Fred shrugged. "Are you sure you know what kind of assistance we need?"

-"Obviously. You're on your way to Naples, trying to save it from freezing,"

Fred: "What's your name?"

The strange man took off his sunglasses and struck a pose. "Ledger Spade, sir. And you two are Fred and Prudence Cardwells, am I correct?"

Fred nodded. "How are you going to help us?"

Ledger pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Several minutes later a fancy black cab arrived. The three got into the cab and it drove away from Central Park. "I am an agent of a secret service called ISD, or International Spade Delivery. I am able to communicate and collaborate with dead people. Titus has already contacted me and told me about you, Prudence, that you went on a mission to rescue your Italian brother from getting frozen by Riel-ne. What I'm here for is to help you and Fred get to Italy and prepare you two for the battle with Riel-ne,"

Once the cab got to the Brooklyn Bridge, it halted. The driver pressed a Bluetooth button in his cell phone and an orator rose from the ground. "I love you," the driver whispered, and the speaker dissented. "That's the secret code to get into our campus," Ledger explained to Prudence and Fred. "However you won't need to memorize it because you'll just be here once and never return,"

Suddenly out of nowhere, in the air, a garage door opened. "How could this happen?! There is no garage door here!" gasped Prudence. "Shh! Please be tactful," whispered Ledger, "nobody must know or be surprised about this secret door. If people will find out, I won't be left alone for a single day. Those god damn journalists will surrender me with interviews and cameras, and people might steal my ideas. I don't want that to happen. I like my life the way it is at the moment,"

The cab entered the secret door and halted. "You may now clear the cab," said the driver.

Fred and Prudence got out. "Rule number one: every living thing on the grounds of ISD must follow my instructions. Is this clear?"

"Indeed," replied Fred, "what do you want us to do?"

"Follow me please," instructed Ledger and led the Cardwell siblings to two white doors. "Rule number two," he began as he pressed a button on the wall, "You must be prudent, diligent, and structurize something if you've never seen it before,"

After Ledger's first instruction, a bell rang and the doors opened. "Please enter here," the siblings walked in followed by Ledger. "Now I'm taking you to the room where you'll be prepared for your trip. I have four and a half days to train you,"

The elevator halted and the doors opened. Ledger led Fred and Prudence to a wall with weapons hanging all over it. "These aren't any ordinary weapons," whispered Fred, shaking his head. "Nope. These are weapons of the future. These are laser guns, swords, and some rare flamethrowers. Riel-ne's body is covered with ice, and what you'll need to do is unfreeze the ice because he cannot live without it. Once you unfreeze a spot on his body, stab it with the laser sword,"

While Ledger was giving instructions to Fred and Prudence, breaking news broke out in Naples. "Ultime notizie!" (Breaking news!) began the TV host, "an unknown species have been discovered underground by miners. The miner that told us the news, and from his words he was the only person that survived. He escaped and saw the monster shoot ice from his mouth, and kill every other worker in the mine..."

The TV host didn't even have a chance to finish when something behemoth assented from the ground. The TV host ran off screaming as the unknown creature squeaked like a parrot, only fifty times louder.

Vincenzo and Giulia witnessed the whole thing. "We have to evacuate!" gasped Vincenzo, jumping off the couch. "We can't. I don't have a car, and even if I did we wouldn't be able to get out because all roads are busy," replied Giulia.

Vincenzo: "Get train tickets!!"

Giulia: "They're all sold out,"

Vincenzo began to panic. "There must be some way out!! Get a taxi! Plane tickets! Just get out of town by foot after all! We can't die!"

Giulia: "I don't have enough money for two plane tickets. We have nowhere to go; my parents are dead, my sister and I haven't contacted each other since she left us at the age of eighteen, I don't have any friends anywhere..."

Vincenzo: "At least we'll survive! We can get out of town, wait until this is all over, then come back,"

Giulia: "Trust me, it isn't as easy as you think. We don't have a roof to stay under. And when we run out of money, we will just die from hunger. It's extremely difficult to find a job here in Italy. It's not like America,"