The Four - Chapter Four

Unfortunately, the children were too far ahead to hear about the finding—or losing, for that matter—of Milo’s spare shoe. They had just hit the sandy beach.

“Alright, we’re good to run,” Annette said. This time, no one protested. They all sprinted to the lighthouse. “The coordinates on my phone say we have to go just behind the lighthouse,” she announced. 

When they all arrived, the man who had told them to come there was waiting for them. He was with a young woman with bronze skin and two dutch braids.

“Welcome, children,” said the man. “I presume this means you were able to make it without too much trouble?”

“Define ‘too much’,” Calvin said dryly. “I think I’ve had enough trouble today to last me a lifetime.” 

The man chuckled. “That might be why trouble finds us and not the other way around. Nevertheless, you four need to get to safety.”

“I’ll say,” Annette added. “We should probably hurry up and do so, because we are being chased.”

“Very well then,” said the man. “Hop aboard.” He turned around facing the public beach parking lot, where the only vehicle there was a white, old, twelve passenger Ford E-350 van. 

“We’re getting in that?” Milo asked, his face twisted in an expression combining skepticism and nervousness. “Isn’t an old white van the universal sign of ‘stranger danger’?”

“I agree with you there,” Calvin said. “Logic dictates that this thing has a pretty good chance of breaking down on the side of the road.”

The woman with the braids shook her head. “This van here isn’t going to be breaking down anytime soon. It may be old, but it’s reliable and gets the job done. You might not believe this at first, but it can really get chilly in there when the A/C is turned on high enough. As for the ‘stranger danger’ part, we simply aren’t strangers.”

“Yes, you are,” said Milo.

“Milo, she’s the one who helped me earlier today,” Mona Lisa said. 

“We can trust them,” Annette said confidently.

“Well, if you say so,” Milo said. 

“Quickly, children. We are rather inclined to hurry,” the man said, unlocking the doors to the van. 

The children all filed in the back, while the lady got in the passenger seat and the man in the driver's seat. There were six seats for the children to choose from, for the back contained two benches. There was a spot for a third, but evidently, it had been removed, leaving more room for luggage in the rear. Calvin was the first to secure his spot. He deftly sat in the leftmost position on the bench in the back. Mona Lisa attempted to plop down next to him, but he held his arm out to block her. She sat with Annette on the front bench. Calvin finally admitted Milo onto his row, provided he sat in the rightmost spot rather than directly next to Calvin. The man stuck a set of keys into the keyhole, and the old vehicle roared to life.

“You had better buckle up, children. Things are about to get a little bumpy,” warned the woman. 

Milo double checked his seatbelt. “I’m all secure.”

“Alright,” Annette said. “We need to get acquainted. Could you two please tell us a bit more about this whole situation?”

“We’d be glad to,” replied the man. “First, I will tell you our names. You may call me Mr. Frederick, and this is my daughter, Layla.”

“Ooh, could you give us a fun fact about yourself?” Milo asked. 

Mr. Frederick chuckled. “Why not? I’ll start. Hmm, let’s see… Well, I’m rather fascinated by horology. In the event that you didn’t know what that was-”

“What is that?” Mona Lisa asked. 

“The scientific study of time and the art of making instruments to measure it,” Calvin said.

“That is correct,” said Mr. Frederick. “In particular, I especially enjoy repairing broken clocks.” 

“Alright,” Calvin interrupted. “Can we please just get to the point? For hours, we’ve been running for our lives with no idea what is going on. Can we finally have the facts?”

“The fun facts?” Milo joked. “I’d be glad to.”

“You know what facts I’m talking about,” said Calvin. 

“Yes, Calvin, we can give you the facts,” Mr. Frederick said, turning the A/C up a notch. “I do agree that it’s about time to, anyways. Now where should I start?” he asked.

“How about when they tried to kidnap us?” Mona Lisa suggested. 

“Ah, yes, it all begins with a man named Dr. Edison Glass. You may recognize his name, as he is the founder of two corporations: The Looking Glass Academy—a prestigious school that provides wealthy children with education—and the Glass House—a seemingly harmless company that provides counseling to businesses and agencies. He is an intelligent man, yet is so easily lured by longings for wealth, power, and control. Of course, we don’t know the full extent to what he’s plotting, but have come across unfortunate files which give us a deeper grasp of his accumulating plan. What we know for sure, however, is that Dr. Glass’s workers have been capturing an alarming number of children in the past year—an average of four per month. We recently were able to intercept a connection between the missing children that Dr. Glass took and children of famous people or impacting political figures. They look quite similar. I believe Dr. Glass is targeting the children he abducts based on their appearance.”

“Wait,” said Calvin. “Are you implying that he intends to replace the famous children with the ones he kidnaps?”

“I’m afraid so, that’s our most promising conclusion,” Mr. Frederick replied.

“But how would he get them to agree with him?” Milo asked. “If I were successfully kidnapped, I wouldn’t just do what he says.” 

“With enough pressure, you would,” said Calvin. “But what I don’t understand is how the rest of the world doesn’t find out about this trickery. If he just replaces people, everyone’s bound to notice. There’s not much of a chance that the kidnapped child, however much they may be bribed, could actually act exactly like the person they were intended to replace.”

“It’s the Looking Glass Academy,” realized Annette. “He trains them to be like the famous children there.”

Mr. Frederick raised his eyebrows. “Oh? What makes you think that?”

“For one thing,” Annette said. “You told us that Dr. Glass was obsessed with power and control. Running a school doesn’t seem to align well with his goals. Yes, it’s true that he can technically ‘control’ lights out limits and rules for the students, but it doesn’t grant him real control, or real power. He must have some other reason for having the school. It could be to teach the children he takes to act like the famous children.”

Mr. Frederick gave an approving nod. “That is also the conclusion I reached.”

“Wait, but where does the Glass House come in?” Annette asked. “You know, the other organization he runs. I feel like it’s important.”

“Another acute observation, Annette,” said Mr. Frederick. “What do you children think?”

“The Glass House…” Calvin muttered. “I feel like I’ve read about it in the newspaper.”

“You read the newspaper?” Mona Lisa asked, appalled. “Who does that anymore?”

Calvin ignored her and continued. “I remember that it’s a massive non-profit entity that basically sponsors the city.”

Milo scrunched up his face in confusion. “What?”

“Calvin means that the Glass House provides lots of money for the city and proposes laws to supposedly help it,” Annette explained. 

“You are both correct,” Mr. Frederick said. “Not only that, but they also manufacture tech and supplies for the city.”

“Oh, I get it,” Annette said. “The Glass House is the perfect backup for this whole kidnapping plot: it’s in an excellent position to provide funding and manufacture tools for it under the radar.”

“Exactly,” said Layla.

“But why does he even want to do this in the first place?” asked Milo, with a troubled expression. “He replaces children, and then what? What does he gain from that? The possibility of going to jail?”

“So he can twist laws and influence people into giving him control,” Calvin said without hesitation, having apparently already thought this over.

“Well, shouldn’t we just contact the police?” Milo asked. “If there’s a major conspiracy, they’re the ones to call.”

“That is quite true Milo, in most cases,” said Mr. Frederick. “But unfortunately, Dr. Glass is a figure who is publicly favored, as he provided so much for the city. He even sponsored the police department, so their view of him is rather biased.”

“What Mr. Frederick is trying to say, children, is that the police adore Dr. Glass so much that they will ignore any charges put against him,” said Layla.

“Well, that sucks,” Mona Lisa said. “That Dr. Glass guy sure is tricky. But wouldn’t it be much easier for him to just replace the adults themselves? It would be far simpler to change laws and influence everyone if they replaced the people actually doing that stuff: the adults. Not their kids.”

“A good question, Mona Lisa,” Mr. Frederick said. “And the answer, I believe, is that children are often overlooked. Imagine that someone important, perhaps the president—though I indeed do hope Dr. Glass won’t target his family—went missing or was acting strange. It would make headlines, and the public would be in an uproar. But the president’s children? They are concealed within the shadows, yet witness countless important happenings, remaining capable of altering the course of events. I believe this was Dr. Glass’s line of thinking.”

“Wow, that’s actually really smart,” Calvin admitted, with a tone of respect in his voice.

“Yes, I did tell you he was intelligent, did I not?” Mr. Frederick said. “Just because he is doing immoral things means in no way that he is lacking in the department of knowledge. Children, you must always remember that there is a profound difference between knowledge and wisdom. If Dr. Glass was wise, he would not be detaining children to achieve his selfish goals.”

The children nodded in agreement and a short period of silence fell over the van, due to everyone processing all the day’s events and Mr. Frederick’s wise words.

Finally, Milo had another question. “You know back when we were at the Fisher’s Footpath Bridge? Well, Mona Lisa mentioned that Layla told her there would be five children on the bridge, but there were only four? Why is this?”

Mr. Frederick mulled this over. “This is a good point to bring up, Milo. Do all you children know who Agatha Pendleton is?”

“Yes,” they all answered in unison.

Agatha Pendleton was the daughter of Chad Pendleton, the mayor of Sterling Harbor. She was a fairly nice girl with a bit of a mischievous streak who the children have seen multiple times around school, though she was a bit older than they were. 

“Believe it or not, she was actually the fifth child you were supposed to meet on the bridge,” explained Mr. Frederick. “While Calvin, Annette, and Mona Lisa were on the Prism List—you will remember that Milo’s association with this whole debacle happened by accident—Agatha was on the Shatter List.”

“What is the ‘Shatter List’?” Mona Lisa asked.

“And the Prism List,” Annette added.

“Mr. Frederick, I don’t believe you told them about the three lists,” Layla said.

“You are correct, Layla,” Mr. Frederick admitted. “I did neglect to mention that, now didn’t I?”

 “We have discovered three lists that we were able to trace the origins to be from Dr. Glass: the Prism List, the Shatter List, and the Crystal list,” Layla explained. “They all have names of children, and sometimes additional information such as their address or school. We believe the Prism List contains those Dr. Glass intends to use as replacements, while the Shatter List targets those marked for removal.”

“What about the Crystal list?” asked Calvin. “I don’t remember another group of children.”

“That is where the children who attend the Looking Glass Academy come in,” said Layla. “The children from wealthy families that Dr. Glass wants to attract attention to the Academy. We don’t believe they necessarily have anything to do with the replacing plot, but they’re whisked into this whole maelstrom nevertheless.”

“Thank you for your explanation, Layla,” said Mr. Frederick. “As I was saying, Agatha was the only one of you on the Shatter List—the only one of you meant to be replaced. We attempted to caution her against this looming threat, and convey her to the bridge with you children, but I suspect our efforts were belated, for she was nowhere to be found.”

“They took her?” Milo asked. “And replaced her?”

“That is our most reliable conclusion, yes,” Layla said. “However, it still is possible that she was somewhere unbeknownst to us and remains untouched.”

“Have they replaced anyone else yet?” Annette asked. 

“Not that we know of, no,” Mr. Frederick replied. “Though, according to the Shatter List, she was the first trial; if their strategy succeeded with Agatha and Mayor Pendleton, they would move on to bigger targets, though Chad Pendleton is already quite an impacting political figure.”

The children all nodded, for everyone in Sterling Harbor knew that. The Mayor was substantial—so much so that half the time he wasn’t in Sterling Harbor at all, due to important conferences located in bigger cities across America.

“Having said that, I believe we should move to a lighter course of conversation. There’s been enough dark news for the time being,” Mr. Frederick decided.

Though the children still had many questions, they were relieved when he said this, as they were very weary from their rather long day. 

At that point, the air conditioning in the van had become quite chilly, but the children were being polite and refraining from mentioning it, all with their arms hugged tight to their bodies in hopes of keeping a little warmth. Each of the children had a little air conditioning vent that could be slid open or closed poised above their spot. Each one was shut, but that didn’t keep all of the air detained. Mr. Frederick and Layla seemed not to care about the drop in temperature; if anything, they relished it, their vents open wide. Annette had noticed there was a small air conditioning control for the rear of the car, but when she reached up to turn it off, it did nothing. She realized this was because the main air conditioning controls on the dashboard were set to Full A/C, rather than another option being ‘Rear Control.’ That one must be to activate the control in the back, she thought. There was no way to subtly turn the notch without Mr. Frederick or Layla noticing, leaving the children to suffer in the cold. 

Milo shivered, reaching into his backpack and rooted around for a sweater. He pulled one on and looked a bit relieved.

Annette saw movement coming from the other side of her bench, where Mona Lisa was sitting. She realized Mona Lisa was preparing to lunge forwards to switch off the air conditioning. “Mona, don’t,” Annette whispered.

“Why not? It’s freezing,” Mona Lisa reasoned.

Milo had heard this, and he leaned up to join the conversation. “That would be rude,” he said. “Mr. Frederick and Layla have been so nice to us.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change the A/C controls,” said Mona Lisa.

“Here, just take this blanket,” Milo said, reaching down into his stuffed backpack. 

“Yeah, if we can figure out a way to turn the switch without being noticed, we can,” added Annette.

Mona Lisa happily accepted the blanket.

“Calvin, you want one, too?” Milo asked.

“A blanket?” inquired Calvin.

“Yeah,” Milo said, holding up a blue blankie printed with a pattern of miniature rubber duckies.

“Uh…” Calvin hesitated, eying the blanket. On one hand, it was freezing, on the other hand, there were the duckies.

“Oh, come on, Detective Dorito,” Mona Lisa teased. “You aren’t scared of a little blankie, are you? Or is it the duckies that make you tremble?”

“I am not trembling,” retorted Calvin.

“Oh, yeah? Prove it.”

“Prove that I’m not trembling? Just look at me,” Calvin said, exasperated.

“No, prove that you aren’t scared—or should I say embarrassed? Take the blankie, Cal.”

Calvin’s face turned slightly red, and he angrily said, “Fine. I’ll take the blanket. How scared do I look now, Mona Lisa?” He snatched the blanket and awkwardly wrapped it around his body. 

Mona Lisa snickered. “Scared? No, I think silly would describe you better.”

Calvin scowled and ignored Mona Lisa for a while. 

“Say, Milo, what all have you got in your bag?” Mona Lisa asked. “I’d love to see.”

She peered down into Milo’s rotund bag and said, “Good grief, how many things do you have in there?”

Milo decided to show her some of the contents. “On the side pocket, there’s pens and paper, as well as other tools for writing things, just in case. In this pocket, there’s food: granola bars, nuts, popcorn bags, crackers, you name it. And this main pocket is where most things are, you see, your blanket, Calvin’s blanket, and the sweater I’m wearing would be on this side, and over here is where I keep a flashlight, here’s a whistle, a calculator, plastic forks, and tissues. Oh, and here’s the spare set of sneakers I keep in the bottom. I stuff them with other things to save room, too. See, here’s the left one, lemme see if I can find the other…” He kept rummaging around in his bag, but still couldn’t find it, so he finally decided to dump the entire bag’s contents in the narrow seat between him and Calvin. 

“Hey, what on earth are you doing?” asked a very annoyed Calvin, who apparently had forgotten about the embarrassment of wearing a duckie blanket for a moment.

“Just trying to find my other shoe…”

“It’s on your foot,” Calvin pointed out.

“No, I keep a spare set of sneakers in my backpack, but I can’t seem to find the right one,” Milo explained. “There, that’s all. I don’t see it, do you? It looks just like the one Mona Lisa’s holding.”

“Not even one secret pocket?” said Mona Lisa, examining the shoe. “You really have to get higher quality shoes, Milo.”

“Wait,” Annette said, disguising a shiver. “Wasn’t that the shoe you were looking for the tracking bugs in back at the boulder?”

“Yes,” answered Milo.“Oh, no, I think I might have left the shoe there! Which means-”

“The kidnappers would have found it,” Annette said, with a grave look.