Saving the National Neopian Bank: Part Eight

      "Why don't we give the pirates the deactivation sequence and let them stop them when they arrive there?" Rex asked.

      "Who trusts pirates? These are Sloth's own verbal codes, we can't go around handing them out like peppermint candy," Ylana said. "We need to get another boat."

      "So we're going to charter another ship?" Rex asked.

      "Yeah, sure why not, let's go ahead and charter another ship. And while we're at it, let's go and arrange to have tea and biscuits before we leave! It's not like there's a ship leaving with Dr. Sloth's most deadliest robots who are now going to obey the every whim of some random neopets!" Ylana snarled angrily. She enjoyed the moment to yell because it took her mind off other things. She threw a Ylana's Blaster she had kept to Rex.

      The Ylana's Blaster, a weapon that she had designed herself. Extremely powerful, but rarely lethal; after all, she was a mercenary, not an assassin. And when a job did call for use of deadly force, well, then, she could use some other weapon.

      "That boat looks good," Ylana said, pointing to a nice Shenkuuvian ship docked near them. It wasn't too big so gaining control of it by force wouldn't be too hard, and she had some experience working with Shenkuuvian ships.

      "Roger that, captain," Rex said. They both stormed onto the ship.

      The crew there didn't even know what hit them.

      * * * *

      Mr. Roberts made his way to the small run down shack that those two called a home. He had to admit that those two were really poor. Of course, he had know that they certainly weren't rich, but he still hadn't been expecting it to be like that.

      He knocked on the door gently- he wasn't sure about how stable the house was. No one opened it. After five minutes, he decided to give up. He wanted to look around and ask someone if they knew where they had went, but there was no one near to be found.

      They're not here, he realized and could only hope that Ylana would have better luck finding them. He got back onto his carriage and realized that there was little he could do. He sent Ylana a message telling her that he couldn't find them.

      He then decided to visit the Food Shop in Neopia Central. He was feeling hungry, and stressed, and as almost everyone knows, when Skeiths get stressed they also get hungry.

      Normally, he was trying to stay on a diet and would have ordered a salad, but today's circumstances were different. He told the waiter to bring him a double deluxe cheeseburger. No, make it two double deluxe cheeseburgers, he told him.

      As he was busy munching on his food, he began thinking about everything. He hoped Ylana had succeeded, but also hoped that Don and Hamond were alright. After all, both of them were good neopets, and he didn't want anything to happen to them because of his mistake.

      He checked the device Ylana had given him, but there were no messages from her. Strange. But anyway, for now he decided to return to his office.

      He was surprised to find that the Mayor was there of all people. He could only surmise that something had gone terribly wrong.

      "What happened?" Mr. Roberts asked.

      "What happened? Your mercenary Ylana Skyfire just attacked a Shenkuuvian ship! Why did that happen when we gave you a charter to use the boats?" the Mayor asked.

      Mr. Roberts explained what had happened.

      "I guess those two must have already left, and she, ah, felt that it was necessary to take extreme measures to catch up to them," Mr. Roberts said. "But believe me, I didn't know anything about this."

      "What does it matter who knew and who didn't know? The fact is that someone attacked a Shenkuuvian ship, in other words, a ship from a foreign land. You do realize that Shenkuu alone comprises over twenty percent of our exports and imports?" the Mayor said. "Now what are we supposed to tell them?"

      "Quite simply that a fugitive attacked them and we're trying our best to capture her," Mr. Roberts said. "Once the job is done, Ylana is going to leave anyway, so as long as they don't know that she is affiliated with us, it shouldn't matter." It wasn't that Mr. Roberts didn't feel sorry for the crew members, it was just that he knew that it was more important that this plan go on without any difficulties.

      "We better hope so. Are there any other difficulties that you'd like to inform me of?" the Mayor asked.

      "No," Mr. Roberts said.

      "Well then, I'd like for you to keep me up to date about these things, fine?" the Mayor asked.

      "Fine," Mr. Roberts said.

      * * * *

      Hamond and Don were trying to adjust with things on the ship. The robots mainly just stood there while they tried out different commands. They attempted getting more information, but what happened was that usually the robots would either say that it was classified information or give information that was so general that it was completely useless.

      Both of them began getting hungry, so they went and checked out what the ship had. Most of it was space station food that neither of them had ever seen before and they certainly weren't brave enough to try. Instead, they went with the Neocola drinks since they seemed to be the safest to drink.

      "So, what are we going to do when we get to Krawk Island?" Hamond asked.

      "I don't know, this whole thing isn't making much sense. And the robots aren't telling us anything more either," Don said.

      Both of them spent the rest of the time bouncing off random commands at the robots and hoping that something would happen, and they were almost about to give up when they finally succeeded at doing something.

      "Core processor, is there a way to contact Mr. Roberts?" Don asked.

      "Affirmative. I have the identification number of a G-3145N communication device that is currently recorded as being owned by one Mr. Roberts," the core processor said.

      "Can you call him?" Hamond asked.

      "Indeed, my systems would allow me to send a communication ionized probe towards the location within around three seconds," the core processor replied.

      "Okay, do it," Don said.

      The core processor made a beeping sound and then started ringing. After ten seconds it stopped, and the video panel came out of its stomach again. It showed a picture of Mr. Roberts.

      "Hamond! Don!" he cried out. "What in Fyora's name has happened to you? I've been worried like crazy!"

      "Well, we went to the bank in the morning like you had asked us to," Hamond said. "But then we were handing these papers, and we weren't sure what to do and we ended up here and it all just mainly snowballed."

      "Terribly sorry, boys," Mr. Roberts said. "I had forgotten to tell you two that the bank was going to be closed the next day! The paper was actually supposed to go to Ylana Skyfire and one of her subordinates."

      "You mean the mercenary? But why?" Don asked.

      Mr. Roberts nervously adjusted his tie. "I'm afraid that that's really classified information, boys, but I suppose since you've already found out, I might as well..." he trailed off. "Wait a moment, have either of you two told anyone about all of this besides me?"

      "No," Hamond said.

      "Good, good. You see, boys, this was supposed to be a secret mission, so of course I would like that you not tell anyone about this," Mr. Roberts said. "But I suppose I will have to fill both of you in on this. You see, we've been planning to move off of Krawk Island for quite some time now, but the pirates have kidnapped some of our employees and are demanding exorbitant ransoms for their safety. We, of course, have paid all of them but they still refuse to give them back. As a last effort, we had decided that we had no choice but to resort to force, so we decided to employ the services of a mercenary well-renowned for getting the job done. However, it went wrong, as both of you can clearly see. Anyway, how are things on the ship?"

      "Oh," Don said. "And things on the ship are okay. These robots are there but they seem to have programmed themselves to listen to us and they're driving this ship towards Krawk Island right now."

      "In that case, why don't you turn the ship around?" Mr. Roberts asked.

      "We can't; for some reason only Ylana can order them to do that," Hamond said.

      "Oh dear," Mr. Roberts said. "Then this really does pose a problem for all of us. But anyway of course, Ylana has already left for Krawk Island on a stolen vessel. What happened was that she saw that both of you had left and pirated another ship to follow you. I suppose turning around wouldn't have helped either."

      "Yeah, but there's something else that we learned," Hamond said. "There was one mission file from you, but there was also something from someone else."

      "Core processor, can you send him the video file of the second mission?" Don asked.

      "Affirmative," the core processor said and whirred. "File sent."

      Donny and Hamond saw as Mr. Robert's face paled as he played the video file.

To be continued...