Chapter 230

230 The Island

“Whoa, whoa-wait... wait,” I said, trying to process what just occurred. “Why would he want to hide that from anyone in the YMPA?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not sure if it’s a good thing,” Greg said, sighing with worry. “What should we do?”

“I don’t-” I stuttered, unsure of what to even say next. “Maybe... I don’t know.” But then Greg looked up with these pleading and hopeless eyes.

“Maybe we ask Fulton himself? He might have more information,” he said. I sighed. That was the only thing we could probably do in this case. He has answers which I desperately need-desperately need.

How is my father not himself in this case?

“Might as well,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do that.”

***

It was the end of school, meaning it was time for me to get transported to the YMPA for our mission. I’m scared about it, because I never have been much of a camera guy.

Never been much of anything to be honest.

.....

As I walked out, I saw Greg walk towards my side. “You know what to do?” I asked him, and he nodded before walking off. Instantly, a portal swept me off my feet, and I landed inside of the room immediately. That’s new. The others entered, as Malachi began to stretch.

“Alright, we need to make this quick,” Mr. Drails said, putting a hand on Malachi’s shoulder and then turning to us, “We’re going to take off in five minutes.”

Tisiah walked over to me. “You ready to control some cameras?” he said with an excited smile, which made me feel a little bit better.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I replied back, but then added, “I hope I don’t mess this up.”

“I hope so as well,” Tisiah responded, which I was a bit startled from the straightforward answer, as if he already knew that I was going to do a poor job with it. Mr. Drails looked at the two of us, then suddenly pointed to the door behind his office.

Excitement was pumping inside quickly. What was behind that door?

“Ooh, I wonder what’s behind here?” Tisiah said, rushing and barging through the door.

“Wait...” I said before seeing two screens right by one another on the ceiling. The walls were white, including the ceiling, and the floor was black. “Alright,” I said, seeing two headphones on these keyboards, which made me feel like I was at a concert.

“The best part,” Mr. Drails said as he walked up next to Tisiah, who had his eyes fixed on the screens on the ceiling. “You guys put those on, and we’ll get everyone in there. The numbers represent the camera angles in every part of the building, including the exterior.” He pointed at the screen where there were several numbers, all written in different colors and styles. “Each number means a camera angle.”

“Alright,” I said, as Mr. Drails exited and closed the door. “I’m stressed now.”

Tisiah chuckled, as he walked over to the mixer and began to put on his headphones. “We’ve got this, man.”

I sighed and put on mine as well before saying, “Yeah... let’s just hope we don’t screw this up.”

“Just follow my lead, okay?” Tisiah ordered, and I quickly nodded, letting the hands of this situation give upon him, as he did what he knew best-which was control all these cameras-and all my attention went to him. “Alright, you guys in the island?” Tisiah asked. “We’re watching you through the security cameras.”

“Yeah,” Malachi responded, with his voice echoing through the microphone attached to the camera above him.

“Good,” Tisiah responded, as if he was happy that they could hear him. I would be too, if I was in this situation, because they wouldn’t be able to see me at all. “Where are you guys. I need to find the right camera,” Tisiah said, clicking the numbers.

“The roof.”

“How are you guys on the roof?” I asked, confusion and wonder racing through my mind, as Tisiah walked over to the screen where there were two numbers next to each other with a camera right above it-that must be them. He clicked a few buttons and then continued to click and click before turning his head and saying into his mic, “Okay, we’re looking for you now.”

Soon enough, we stopped on a view of the roof. The three of them were on there, which it was hard to tell who being the weird bird’s-eye view we were seeing them at.

“Okay, we’re in place,” Tisiah said with excitement. “Hey, where’s Marcello’s men?”

“Marcello-I don’t know...” Nikki said, looking around from what I can assume from my view, which was a lot of empty space. “They were supposed to be here a minute ago.”

“Oh shoot,” Tisiah said. “Uhh, Connor-check all the other floors through the security cameras and find them.” I nodded, as I began to look at the numbers on the keyboard, clicking on each one in a matter of seconds. “How long does it take for these cameras to scan?” I asked out loud.

“Oh shoot, oh shoot,” Tisiah responded with frustration. “We gotta hurry.”

“They should be on the way,” I said, as I clicked around through the cameras on the bottom floor, moving to the ones on the second floor. But suddenly, as I switched back to the roof camera, I saw a portal open up. Three men with spy gear piled out of the hole, as they began to groan.

“What kind of transportation is that?” one of them complained in a gruff voice, as the other two laughed at him. “This isn’t working,” one of them complained. “Something must have gone wrong,” another one added with a sigh.

“Well, I guess they’re here,” Nikki said through the headphones.

“Good, good,” I said with a sigh of relief, before saying into the mic, “Okay guys, we’re watching you now.”

“Don’t worry,” Malachi responded from his view. “We’ll make sure we can see everything that goes down here.”

“Yeah, I know,” Nikki responded, and I could tell by her voice that she was nervous about this. “Alright, anyways-head through the door, make sure no ones sees you,” Tisiah said, looking around. He looked at me. “In these sort of things, you need to be specific and short,” he said to me, as if this was a lesson, which was weird considering this was a mission. “We’re heading to the elevator shaft,” Tisiah said to everyone as if he was reading off of a cue card. “Once we get down there we need to go through the emergency exit doors and meet up in the lobby.”

“Wait-what?” Nikki said with a bit of confusion as she looked at him with her eyes widened. “But that’s like-the longest way.”

“There are too many guards in the shorter way, which is well-the elevator,” Tisiah said with a winced smile, as if it hurt him to say this. “It’s easier and safer.”

“I agree,” I said before quickly adding, “But you can’t be too safe.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” one of Marcello’s men asked, clearly upset by my comment.

“Nothing,” I responded quickly. “It’s just-we don’t want to get caught.”

“Connor’s right,” Tisiah said, agreeing with me.

“So how’s that being too safe?” the man asked again, as September smacked her head in frustration, and I could tell she wanted to kill him.

“Just go,” I said, as I clicked away at the buttons, looking through all the cameras for them. I looked ahead, seeing three guards that were at the end of the corridor, talking and laughing.

“I don’t get you guys,” one of them said. “You know that you shouldn’t be doing this?”

“What do you care?” another one responded in an angry tone. “We’re just trying to survive here.”

“You’re risking your life,” the third man said. “Don’t you know that you shouldn’t be doing this?”

“We’re already dead,” one of the men said in response.

“What are they talking about?” I muttered in confusion, rubbing my cheek, as I looked through the camera in front of the three guards. They were at the end of the hallway and I could hear their voices from here. “I don’t know, but we need to neutralize them,” September said. “Nikki, on my left.”

“Got it,” Nikki said, before whispering, “It’s so easy when you’re used to it, right? We can do this.”

“...okay,” September said, confused and annoyed at this point, as she raised her wand and nodded. It was so weird seeing them on the island, while me and Tisiah were back at the YMPA-looking at cameras. September and Nikki slowly approached the three guards slowly, and surely, barely making a sound. They stopped in front of the three guards, who were now facing them.

“What’s wrong?” the first guard asked. “What do you two want?”

September swung her wand immediately-without any question, which made it a surprise when the guard ducked the incoming swing-before he took a few steps back, getting his wand out. Without no time left to spare, he swung hard which caused a loud clash once it hit September’s own weapon.

They swung and blocked each other’s hits, but not gaining any sort of ground, they looked to be at a stalemate. I quickly looked at the camera in front of them, seeing that they were still facing each other. But all of a sudden, September dodged three attacks that swept her way.

Now the finishing move was on the block.

She swung hard towards his jaw, but he blocked it with his own. His arm moved in an instant, before he jumped forward and started his next attack. September quickly took her wand back and aimed it at him, firing a spell at him that sent him flying backwards into the wall.

“Ay, y’all good?!” I shouted, feeling the intensity of the fight, as I watched the screen in front of me. “I’m sure y’all are good!” I repeated over and over again. I had no idea if they were good or not because I wasn’t there, but I knew it looked like they were good.

September didn’t stop there either; she ran at the other two guards who were now trying to figure out what happened to their friend-or at least I assumed it was a friend-and then kicked the guard who had been fighting her in the face and then threw another fireball into his face from behind him. Then she ran back into the hallway with Nikki in tow as if nothing happened.

“Alright, let’s go,” she said.