Rebels

Ch. 17

Jack awoke to Lyla slightly lifting up his wounded leg. He lifted his head, ultimately confused by what she was doing. He cleared his throat, grabbing her attention. "Might I ask what you are doing?" Jack asked, propping himself up on his elbows.

Lyla continued to wrap a white gauze around his leg. "We never got around to wrapping your leg yesterday."

Jack frowned, remembering that Luca had been the one to shoot him yesterday. He looked to the couch, where Luca was still heavily asleep. "I'm assuming he will have to shoot me again today?"

Lyla finished wrapping up Jack's leg, then sighed. "Not today. We will alternate lessons. Today, we are going to go through the whole rundown of the technicalities, and of how you'll be communicating with Luca and I."

Jack was much more fond of this lesson. Though it was only day two of this and three more weeks still stood in his way of this training, he was somewhat more excited of this lesson. Yet, he hadn't thought of himself being alone in the castle. He would have thought Luca or Lyla would be going with him; at the very least Lyla, since Luca was supposedly the hacker. "Why won't you be going into the palace as well?"

Lyla seemed surprised by the question, but came with an answer. "I'll be telling you where to go. We only have one set of communicators, so Luca will be hacking while I'll be talking."

Luca stirred from the couch, catching Jack's attention. Still in a daze, Luca fumbled around for a bottle of rum. He found a bottle lying next to the couch, and without thinking he took a swig of it, immediately regretting it, for the bottles on the couch were aging. "Lyla, we have got to get some real food around here." He opened his eyes, finding both Jack and Lyla staring at him.

Lyla sighed and walked into the bedroom. After a short moment, she emerged, holding two brown paper bags. "I already ran out and got some." She sat the bags down on the dining room table, spilling out its contents. Jack and Luca both observed the contents, finding a few wrapped sandwiches along with a few bottles of water. Luca groaned, "Water is the best you could do, Lyla?"

Lyla grasped a water bottle and practically threw it at her brother, of whom attempted to catch it but failed, the water bottle itself falling to the ground. As soon as the bottle impacted the ground, water flew from its cap onto Luca's jeans. Luca stood, aggravated at her sister. "Why do you have to throw things at me?" He kicked the water bottle away. "Now look at me!"

Lyla only smiled, grabbing a sandwich for herself. She tossed one politely to Jack, who caught it and began to unwrap it. He sunk his teeth into the bread, already feeling energy course through his veins. "So, how do the communicators work?"

Lyla smiled, walking once again back into the bedroom. This time, she emerged with a laptop and her sandwich in one arm, while her other hand was crunched up into a fist. She set the contents onto the table, handing the laptop to Luca, who took it gladly, ignoring the water that had sunk into his clothes. From her fist, Lyla opened it, revealing two small round devices. She grabbed one and pressed it just inside her ear. She handed the other one to Jack and he followed the same motions as Lyla. Lyla then whispered so low that surely no one would be able to hear her, except for Jack, for he had the other set of communicators. Jack held a thumbs up, assuring Lyla that the communicators were working.

Luca was typing a code into the laptop, and suddenly the screen lit up with an image of what appeared to be a royal hall of the palace. He silently celebrated his victory of getting an inside view of the palace, then cleared his throat. "We're in." He said casually.

Lyla sighed, walking over to her brother and looking at the screen. Jack could not see the image, and this bothered him greatly. He slowly swung his legs over the side of the countertop, then carefully got down, being sure to place most of his weight on his good leg. He limped over to Luca, peering at the screen. The three of them waiting in silence, until an officer came from around the corner of the hallway. He was casually carrying his gun, seeming to be patrolling the palace halls. Lyla cleared her throat, "If you saw this guy in the palace, what would you do?" Lyla spoke, slightly causing Jack's communicator to create a high-pitched noise.

Jack tried to concentrate on the guard, who would occasionally stop every few steps, lean against the palace wall and look to his left and right before continuing. Jack also noted that the soldier would glance at least once or twice every few minutes up at the monitor. Jack began to speak, "He seems like he knows what he's doing." Jack stated. "The man also seems like he doesn't know what he's doing. Is he a new guy?"

Luca nodded, studying the man on the screen, who was leaning against the palace wall.

Jack continued, "I would lie to him. I mean, I would want to make as little of noise as possible, right? So, I would maybe tell him I was possibly a maintenance man, or that I was there to talk to the king about a proposal I had in mind. If all goes well, I won't even have to fight the man. I could possibly even take him with me, and when I get to an official, I could pretend I was a prisoner and that the officer was taking me to the king. T-"

"I am going to stop you there." Lyla interrupted, standing up straight. "It was a good plan, but I doubt you would think all of that up in a second when you are actually face to face with that man." She pointed to the screen at the guard, who had begun walking again, now out of the frame of the monitor.

"I have a better idea." Lyla said.

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Lyla had taken Jack and her brother to a pub in which was just down the street. At that time of day, it was practically filled with people. Luca had become skeptical of his sister, but nevertheless, he went along with her.

Lyla had directed the boys to sit at a table near the center of the room. They did, except she told Luca to continue standing. She then dismissed the waitress who had walked over to their table, and Lyla tapped her ear with the communicator. "We will know if you die or not if it goes quiet. Also, Luca can monitor your status through your communicator. So, do not lose it." Lyla began to leave, motioning for her brother to follow.

Jack became worried. He had one bad leg, and he did not know what was to come. "Lyla, where are you going?"

Neither Lyla nor Luca answered as they left the pub.