It was evening by the time Sul Sul and Penelope finally arrived at the home of their SIA tech guru.
Penelope desperately hoped this new lead would be worth the journey all the way out to Pleasantview.
“This looks fancy,” remarked Sul Sul.
“Yeah. Welcome to Goth Manor.”
“So, who exactly is this guy?” asked Sul Sul.
“The best intelligence agent we’ve got. Admittedly he’s not our… usual kind of contractor…but if there’s information to be found in the digi-verse, he’s our man.”
“Let’s get into it then! Shall we?”
Sul Sul motioned to the door.
The heavy iron doors swung open on their approach, and a young lady ushered them in.
She seemed a tad frazzled.
“Hi…” began Penelope.
“Close the door. Quickly! I saw you dawdling outside. Are you here about earlier? Look, as I already told the police, that maid had it coming…”
Sul Sul shot Penelope a questioning look.
“No, Mrs Goth. We’re SIA, we…”
The woman suddenly became disinterested.
“Y’know, I’m not Mrs Goth anymore. Not since Morty died. I’m just Dina again. Dina with two kids, a big old house and… oh, hello, who are you?”
Dina’s gaze had rested upon Sul Sul, and with it her face softened.
Sul Sul smiled awkwardly. He daren’t risk enraging Penelope again.
“So, about our agent…”
Dina scoffed.
“He’s in the drawing room with the other kid. Honestly I don’t see why you lot need to employ minors. He surely ought to be studying. Not that I care… I’m not his mother.”
Dina gave a wry smile, and without another word left them standing alone in the hall.
“Did I just hear her say minor?” Sul Sul asked.
“Well, yes… but as I told you, he’s the best in the business. Now c’mon.”
Sul Sul opted not to press it any further & followed Penelope’s lead.
“Lobster! Lobster! C’mon, Gunther… just say it’s a plumbobbin’ Lobster!”
Alexander was about to toss the flash cards on the floor when he heard two sets of footsteps enter the room.
“Mr Goth! So good to see you again. Sorry we took so long. We came all the way from Tartosa.”
Alexander jumped up at once.
“Agent Fuzz! And you must be the man himself, Sul Sul.”
“Yes, here he is. You good? School’s okay?”
“Of course. I’ve had a perfect GPA since age 4. That isn’t about to change now. I’ve already received offers from 16 colleges to start in the fall.”
“That’s… great!”
“Yes, but we aren’t here to discuss my MANY achievements. Sorry I couldn’t divulge this lead over the phone. I have reason to believe both our devices have been bugged… I had to be safe. Let’s head up to the Cave.”
Sul Sul raised his eyebrows. The… what?
“So, welcome to the Cave,” said Alex.
He’d taken them to the top floor of Goth Manor, into a darkened room lined with computer screens & devices.
Sul Sul glanced around, noticing the messy bed in the corner & the teen paraphernalia lining the wall.
“It’s nice,” he said.
“Nice?!” replied Alex. “Do you know how much state of the art equipment I have in this room? I could hack the Llamacorn Servers from here in SECONDS!”
“What Sul Sul meant to say is this place is incredible, Alex,” said Penelope, shooting Sul Sul a look.
“Yes… incredible!”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s get into this.”
Sul Sul & Penelope leaned forward.
“The army said they held no record of activity in or around Tartosa. I accepted that, but as time went on it made less and less sense. A soldier doesn’t just wash ashore for no good reason.”
“I then found my way into a highly classified military database, one I’d not even heard of before. It was mostly encrypted, but I was able to identify one thing of interest. A mission. It kept mentioning 3 things: Tartosa, Island, Black Llama.”
“Black Llama!” Penelope shrieked.
Alex nodded.
“A codename. For the band of elite soldiers involved in only the most secretive of missions.”
A brief silence fell upon the room.
“Why didn’t the military share this with us when you asked?” asked Sul Sul. “If I’m one of theirs, why haven’t they come to find me?”
“Few within even the military know of these special operations. Plus, I found something else in the mission notes… references to rogue SIA agents.”
Penelope gasped. “What the Plumbob. They think we have dirty agents?!”
Alex sighed. “It explains why they withhold info from us.”
Sul Sul’s head was spinning. This was a lot to take in.
“I guess something went wrong with the mission you were on, then,” added Penelope. “Someone out there thought they’d taken care of you… but you survived.”
Sul Sul stroked the scar on his head. It all seemed to make sense.
Penelope clapped her hands & looked first to Alex. “Keep digging, kid.”
“What? No! This is dangerous! I’m in a world of trouble if I’m caught in these files… I have college offers!”
Ignoring his pleas, she turned next to Sul Sul.
“It’s back to Tartosa for us. I’ve got a plan.”
Sul Sul and Penelope bid goodbye to Alexander and made their exit from Goth Manor. They were both tired, and still absorbing everything they had learnt.
It was perhaps for this reason that they failed to notice that they were not alone.
In fact, they were being watched.
As they reached the end of the driveway, the sounds of a speeding vehicle suddenly reverberated through the night.
A black car screeched into view & came speeding right up to where they stood.
For a moment nothing happened, and then the car began emptying of menacing looking men.
Penelope faced Sul Sul, her face betraying fear for the first time.
“RUN, SUL SUL!! We’ll find each other in Tartosa. GO!”
He had no time to think. He followed command & fled.
But he wasn’t alone.
Footsteps hitting the wet ground behind him assured him he was being pursued.
Sul Sul was chased for more than a mile before he finally lost his pursuer.
He traipsed now through the heavy rain.
Cold, wet and exhausted.
Whatever military thing he’d been involved in before he’d lost his memory had clearly left a lot of people still wanting him dead.
Sul Sul desperately tried to contact Penelope but couldn’t get through. Neither Daisy or Agent Fizz picked up either.
He even tried Nancy, but to no avail.
For the first time since he had awoken on that beach to Daisy’s warm smile & curious face, he felt entirely alone.
