The Four - Chapter 5

Please read the previous chapters first.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

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The children were still shaken by the recent setback.

“Tell me, Milo,” Annette said, “what exactly did you store inside that shoe?”

“Hmm, let me see…” Milo mused. “Oh, no, my first aid kit! We might need it sometime!”

“What does it look like?” Annette asked. 

“Well, it has my name—Milo Thompson—embroidered on the cover as well as the words ‘First Aid’. Oh, not to mention my address. Oh dear, this is bad…”

“Oh, no…” Annette said. “Now they have a name, though it’s probable that they already did, since they went to all the trouble of kidnapping us.”

“But Milo wasn’t originally going to be kidnapped, it was me,” said Calvin. “He helped me and they got mad and added him to the list. It’s possible they don’t know his name.”

“Seems like they do, now,” Mona Lisa commented.

Mr. Frederick, who had apparently heard part of their conversation, intervened. “A regrettable turn of events, to be sure. However, dwelling on the past is a fruitless endeavor. The best course of action is to resume our efforts from this new vantage point.”

Annette sighed. “He’s right. We have to move on.”

“He may be, but our actions still have consequences," Layla said. “If they do have Milo’s name, they’ll run it through their databases and be on the lookout. Our timeline just got bumped up.”

“That isn’t good,” Milo said, with a concerned expression on his face. “I’m so sorry, everyone, I don’t know what I was thinking…”

“You were thinking the same thing the rest of us were,” Annette reasoned. “You were trying to slip away from our chasers. We were all in a hurry; it could have happened to any of us.”

Ding! A loud notification suddenly rang out throughout the van. The source of the noise was the gas gauge, which had just moved to E.

“Mr, Frederick,” said Layla, “We need to get gas right away. I don’t want another instance of running out of gas on the side of the road.”

“Alright, Layla. Tell you what, if you see a gas station, let me know, and I’ll gladly pull over. But if you ask my opinion, I’d wager that we can get there on the fumes.”

Layla rolled her eyes. “Last time you said that, we ended up stranded on the side of the road.” They were currently driving through a rural area that was around forty-five minutes outside Sterling Harbor and the coast. There were no gas stations in sight, so Layla pulled out her phone and attempted to locate a nearby one.

“Mr. Frederick, would you mind telling us where there is?” Annette asked. 

“Gladly,” Mr. Frederick said. “We’re heading to my home. It’s not a pristine place, but it’ll do to keep you hidden from Dr. Glass’s men for a while.”

“How long are we going to have to stay away?” Milo asked. “My parents are going to be worried.”

“That depends,” Layla said, not looking up from her screen. “We’ll see how much Dr. Glass still wants to find you, but at least for a few days. Aha!” she said, placing her phone on the dashboard so Mr. Frederick could see it. “Follow these directions to get to the gas station.”

“Say, Mona Lisa,” Calvin suddenly piped up, still wrapped in his duck blanket, a sheepish look on his face, “how exactly did you hack into my phone? Did you actually manage to figure out my expertly crafted password?”

Mona Lisa grinned. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask,” she said. “No, I didn’t waste time trying to guess your impossible password. I just did a Bluetooth injection.”

“What’s that?” Milo asked.

“Basically, Calvin’s phone thought my laptop was a wireless keyboard, so I just ‘typed’ my way in there. Cal, you really should've turned your Bluetooth off.”

“Don’t call me that,” replied Calvin crossly. 

“Still shocked that I could hack into your phone?” Mona Lisa asked. “I know, it’s impressive. But really, next time, maybe spend less time on your 20-character password and more time clicking ‘Update’ on your software notifications.”

Calvin said nothing. His face turned a shade of scarlet and he slightly pulled up the duck blanket in an attempt to conceal it.

Mona Lisa smirked and she kept pressing. “Really, I could just feel my way into getting in there. It was pretty easy.”

“Feel?” Calvin asked. “It’s always you and your feelings. Don’t you realize? Feelings don’t make up reality; facts do. Therefore, they are untrustworthy.”

Mona Lisa snickered. “Oh, is that so? Because that blush coming from you, Genius, is very telling.”

Calvin was about to deliver a cross comment, but Mr. Frederick beat him to it. “That may be so, Calvin,” he calmly said. “You are correct in saying feelings don’t make up reality, but that isn’t the whole picture. No, feelings don’t build reality, but they reflect reality. Feelings are reactions to the facts, similar to how smoke can alert you of a fire. You may find that they can be more ‘trustworthy’ than you think.”

Calvin pondered this with a new sense of respect. 

“Well,” said Layla, “the only smoke I’m worried about is the lack of exhaust if we don’t get gas soon. Mr. Frederick, we’re almost there. You need to turn right in half a mile.”

Mr. Frederick thanked her and soon, the whole crew was making a bumpy curve into a gas station parking lot. Layla headed inside the station to use the restroom, while Mr. Frederick pumped the gas.

“Quick,” hissed Annette with a shiver. “This is our chance. Mona Lisa, switch the dial to the setting ‘Rear Control.’ While you’re at it, you might as well turn down the front air, too, or you could turn the temperature down, but just a little. We don’t want them getting suspicious.”

Mona Lisa happily complied. By the time Layla and Mr. Frederick were back inside the van, the children were feeling much relieved. Calvin had gladly shed his blanket, regaining some of his dignity.

“Funny,” Layla commented, raising an eyebrow at the children. “I could have sworn the A/C was turned on to the cold setting, not the warmest one.”

The children sheepishly smiled, and Annette shot Mona Lisa a look, slightly shaking her head. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mona Lisa said, which applied to both Layla and Annette.

A few minutes later, Mr. Frederick turned down a twisty gravel path. The children peered out of their windows and could see a few buildings in the distance. The biggest one appeared to be a white historic farmhouse that was quite wide and two stories tall, with many large, attention catching windows. There was another, slightly smaller, wooden building painted in red with white trim about half an acre from the farmhouse, which Annette identified to be a barn. It was rather run down and aged, though it was in some way, still quite charming. 

“Woah,” commented Mona Lisa. “You never told us that you had a cove like that, Mr. Frederick.”

Mr. Frederick’s eyes twinkled. “You never asked.”

The van turned along the road, and the children could see the rear of the property. There was a small, rocky, cove that met the sea, surrounded by forests and small cliffs.

“Sweet!” Mona Lisa said. “That lagoon is perfect for exploring!”

“To call it a lagoon may be a bit of a reach, but yes, it is quite nice,” Layla said.

The van rumbled down the last stretch of the road and parked on a gravel patch beside the farmhouse. The first one out of the car was Mona Lisa, which was a bit surprising—although it didn’t shock the rest of the children by that point—because she had been sitting on the farthest side from the door, where Annette was closer. By then, it was the beginning of the afternoon, and everyone was hungry.

“Can we eat?” Mona Lisa asked. 

“Certianly,” replied Mr. Frederick. “We will once we get into the house.”

The group filed up a small set of stairs to access an elegant wraparound porch, and Layla unlocked the front door. Everyone headed inside. The first sight that met them was a long hallway with a staircase built against one of the walls. Mr. Frederick led everyone into the first door to the left, which was revealed to be a dining room. Before they entered though, Mona Lisa decided to investigate the room parallel to the dining room. It had very fancy french doors that were shut, so Mona Lisa curiously began to crack them open. 

“What are you doing?” Layla sharply asked, her eyebrows raised. “Snooping around? I'm afraid that’s not allowed.”

Mona Lisa paled and quickly shut the door, hurrying to meet the rest of the group in the dining room.

The meal was sandwiches. Mr. Frederick had brought in slices of bread, many cheeses and meats for choosing, and condiments such as mayonnaise and mustard, and put them on the table for a buffet style meal.

Calvin constructed a meticulous sandwich consisting of precisely one slice of cheddar cheese, two pieces of ham, one slice of mozzarella cheese, three pickles, seven leaves of lettuce, and an even coating of mayonnaise.

“Geez, Cal, still down to business when it comes to lunch? What, do you count every atom in your cheese?” Mona Lisa teased. As for her, she had experimented with a new sandwich combination containing cheddar cheese and turkey. But the real surprise was the outside of the sandwich. She had combined mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and relish together to make a paste, spreading it across the outside of the sandwich. Calvin gagged when he saw it.

Milo’s sandwich was a simple one, made of cheddar and salami.

Annette’s had a piece of turkey, followed by a slice of provolone, then a thin layer of mustard for zest, a leaf of lettuce, with a sprinkle of pepper as a last touch.

The group sat around the table, munching. 

“So, what are we gonna do now, Mr. Frederick?” Mona Lisa asked, wiping off her sauce covered hands with a napkin. “Sneak into Dr. Glass’s base and foil his plan?”

“Mona Lisa, I get that you want to help. I really do,” Mr. Frederick said. “But this is a complicated mission that children should not be burdened with. So I’m afraid you’ll have to leave it to us.”

Milo looked a bit relieved. 

Mona Lisa, however, did not. “Aww, but Mr. Frederick, I wouldn’t get caught! I’d be perfect for the job!”

“You heard the man,” Layla said. “This mission is for adults only.”

Mona Lisa frowned. “But-”

“No buts,” Layla said. “No means no.”

“Wait,” Anette said. “Mr. Frederick, earlier you told us that children often go unnoticed but are very capable. Wouldn’t that be the case with us, too?” 

“Perhaps,” Mr. Frederick said. “However, it is still quite dangerous, and I am not willing to risk it. Layla, how about you showing the children to the barn? If they get tired of that, I could be talked into letting them head out to the island on our kayaks.”

Mona Lisa’s eyes lit up, the unfairness forgotten for the time being. “A barn? Kayaks? Count me in!”

Layla pointed to the barn out of the window, and soon the children were filing out the door. 

“Last one there’s a rotten egg,” Mona Lisa called to the others and started to sprint in that direction. The other children shook their heads and continued walking. 

“Aww, they have chickens!” Milo cried, pointing at a nearby hen house. 

“I also noticed cows and horses in a field over there,” Annette said, nodding in the opposite direction.

By the time Milo, Annette, and Calvin reached the barn, Mona Lisa was nowhere to be seen. The children searched the area for her—in the barn were two round hay bales located in the corner, an odd assortment of tools lined against the wall, and a pile of lumber waiting to be used—but it seemed that she had simply vanished.

“Mona Lisa!” Milo called. “Where are you?” 

No reply came. 

Calvin groaned. “Here we go again.”