Book 7 - The Crimson Storm - Chapter 7: To Tail a Target

The Crimson Storm

Chapter 7

To Tail a Target

         Playing it cool, we ignore them.  Though, it is probably not needed because they are ignoring everyone else.  Because we do not have our disguises on but our normal clothing on -my golden brown attire, Annabeth’s though still black yet looks more Berserkian, and Heather’s and Johann’s normal clothes- we should not be recognized.  Johann, on the other hand, may be, yet going back to a trader’s reputation:  They are not noticed until one needs something.  After that, most do not remember who they are let alone their name.

         But the tavern keeper looks up and sees them coming, “Hey!”  He gruffly says.  “We don’t like your kind here.”

         The lead mercenary replies rather cordially, “We won’t cause any trouble.  Just here for a drink and we’ll be on our way.”

         They continue their way up to the counter.  I very slightly wave to Annabeth to come with me.  Taking my cup with me, I go to the corner of the counter on my right to ask the keeper for a refill of milk; Annabeth does the same with her drink.  The keeper does so and the mercenaries do not even flinch at Annabeth and me coming up.  They probably do not even notice us and hopefully not even recognize us.  Though I may look like I am only drinking my milk and talking to Annabeth, I am listening in on their conversation.  Oddly enough, the keeper goes back over to the, starts to wipe some of his cups and glasses, but participates in the conversation with the mercenaries.  The keeper is also trying to do something to make it look like he is working.

         The mercenary that came in first asks the keeper, “Is the deal still on?”

         The keeper answers in a low tone, “Yes.  I see you are down one.”
         “Yeah,” the mercenary replies.  “After finishing a side job for some extra gold, one guy decided to pick a fight with someone while leaving himself open to a flankfromand arrow to the back.  He died yesterday from his wounds.”

         Annabeth and I instantly looked at each other and we both are mortified.  We were looking down at our drinks, but at the mention of that… We just were not expecting that.  I widen my eyes a bit and tilt my head to the left as if to say, “Well that happened.”

         Continuing to listening in, the keeper comments, “That’s too bad.  But it doesn’t change anything.  The plan goes on.  Oswald won’t know what hit him.”

         That statement perks Annabeth and myself up.  Annabeth began to have a look of excitement.  Her left hand is on the counter, I cover it with my right and look at her, saying with my eyes, “Calm down for right now.”

         Annabeth does calm down and we hear the rest, the keeper adds, “Oswald will be on an island north of here.”

         “We know,” the mercenary states.  He then slips out a knife and runs his left hand across the blade, “The old man won’t know what hit him.”

         The keeper slams his hand down on the mercenary’s right hand, and very sternly whispers to him, “Don’t mess this up like you did the last time.  We’ve waited too long for this.  Tracking him all these years… Going through trying take advantage of his supposed death only to have some wimpy kid think he’s all high and mighty taking credit for something we had a hand in.”

         Annabeth and I look at each other.  Her look is one of someone putting too many noodles in the pot and it is boiling over; emotion and information overflow.

         The keeper then started to yell at him, “I have had enough of your kind.  Drawing that dagger on me for overpricing you.  I tell you my prices are the lowest around.  Either have your friends get you out of here or your friends will drag you out of here.”

         The keeper proceeds to grab for his hammer.  The mercenaries make themselves scarce and leave the building before anything else could happen.  The keeper comes from around the counter and runs them out.

         I tell Annabeth, now that he is out of ear shot, “That was a not so subtle but clever way to get them out and draw attention away from the fact that they were talking to each other.”

         “Jarl they-,” Annabeth starts but I stop her before she could get all worked up.  “I know.  But we still do not know where Oswald is.  We have to follow these goons to see where your father is.  And yes, that means letting them go through with their plan.  The danger is there, but is there not always some element of it?  As long as we do this right, we will be sure to be within striking distance to defend Oswald when the time comes.  But we must be patient.”

         Annabeth began to get worked up but she takes a deep breath, “Alright…  Let’s get Heather and trail these guys.”

         As we turned around, the vikings playing a game in the corner started standing up and shouting at each other.  Basically, someone supposedly “cheated” as that was the only key word I could make out.

         Going back over to Heather and Johann, we relay the information that we found out.

         “We must follow them right away,” Heather reacts the same as when Annabeth found out.

         “But Miss Heather,” counters Johann.  “What about the meeting with my contact tonight.”

         Heather answers, “To chase down as many leads as Annabeth and I have and nearly all of them comeback empty, any lead regardless of promise I have to track down.  Annabeth and I both have to track them down.  As long as the island isn’t too far away, we will have plenty of time to come back and meet your contact, Johann.”

         “Alright,” Johann said a bit unsure of the plan.  “There are some undesirables here and is a place I would much rather not be, though I do business here and business is business.”

         “Johann,” I stop him before he could continue on.  “Just come with us.  If nothing else, you can stay with our dragons if have to go in on foot.”

         He nods in approval, but the look he has of having to stay with the dragons told me he may just want to stay here.  But, he exits with us and mounts on behind Heather on Windshear.  One thing about where are dragons are, I notice Deadly Nadder tracks.  Thinking about what Annabeth said about that girl possibly being a dragon rider, made me realize that I did not see the girl when we all left the tavern just now.  She must have left either right before or right after the mercenaries did.  While more and more vikings are riding dragons, in the grand scheme of things, there is still a very small portion of all vikings having a dragon to ride let alone just having a dragon.

         Getting a dragon’s eye view, unrelated pun intended, we spot the mercenaries and their ship; the same one they used the other day.  It has a very distinct though simplistic symbol on the mast:  Two swords pointing down and crossing each other with what looks to be a shield in the background.

         We proceed to follow the ships to the south, actually.  I thought for sure they would go north, but I do not know.  Not much is said while we follow the mercenaries, but we do discuss the importance of tailing a person of interest.

         I explain, “Follow someone from the back of a dragon is pretty simple.  Be out of eye sight and at an angle that vikings don’t normally look for… Up.  But not directly up, but at an angle either forward or backward from your target.  Depending on the surroundings, you could be down low.  Seeing how we are over open water, flying at a high altitude is the best way to follow and not be seen.”

         Annabeth informs, “But to follow someone on foot can get complicated depending several factors.”

         Heather adds, “Such as your surroundings again.  Are you in a crowd?  Then you can follow close to your target as to mainly not lose them.  If there aren’t many people but there are buildings around, then you can use cover and follow all the while making sure they don’t spot you.  If they were to turn their head, either duck behind something or immediately start talking with someone nearby or do something as you are just part of the background.  Though, ducking behind something may be suspicious especially if they happened to catch a glimpse of you.  The better thing to do would be to blend in with the area so that the target does not know what to look for.  There are other facts that just depend on who you are following, what your goal is, and what the situation of the surroundings are.”

         The trip actually takes about five hours.  We stop right above the island, but several hundred feet in the air.  Granted, we were flying only at a fast glide as to not get ahead of the ships; using our spy glasses to spot them, we are able to keep tabs on them.  But we are nearly halfway back to Berk at this juncture.  According to my knowledge of where we are, we should be directly east of Dragon Island; only about an hour’s normal flight away.

         While the surrounding waters around Berk extending for several hours by ship in a complete circle around the isle has no major islands to note on the map, there are several mini islands and sea stacks scattered throughout this area.  From what I can gather, it depends on the water level of the ocean not to mention the formation of mountain ranges under the water due to volcanic activity.

         With my studies of learning everything there is about Thunderdrums, I can across something interesting.  These mini islands pop-up seemingly randomly where there were no islands before.  Investigating underwater with Fredrick with the help of Garth’s underwater saddle, while using my free time between mysteries, I found many small volcanos littering the area between Mystery’s Edge, Dragon’s Edge, and Berk.  Based on this, I would have to assume that it is like this for the whole archipelago.  What also supports this is that on many major islands of the archipelago there are major volcanos, dormant or active, on the islands.  The volcano sometimes is the majority of the island, for example Shadow Mountain.  When the volcanos erupt underwater, the lava will build up upon itself and if it reaches the surface of the water the lava will create a mini island.  Given time, these mini islands can grow from the same or neighboring volcanos.  With even more time, vegetation will start to grow and some wildlife will claim it as home.  These islands are mainly hope to ocean or flight animals as the more established islands had land animals brought to them to breed.  Just in my life time, I have seen a few islands grow like this.  Asking my dad, throughout his travels across this whole region past the edges of the archipelago to the far east, he has seen the formation of islands and coastlines grow.  It is amazing to think about how nature can do things even in a relatively short amount of time.  On the other hand, to us, this time is many, many years, but just in one life time, naturally occurring events can change the landscape drastically.

         Alright, as much as I am thinking about this right now, I am waiting for Annabeth and Heather to decide how they want to do this.  My mind wandered onto the subject of volcanos and was not really paying attention to what they were discussing.  This is their mission however, I am merely here to support and help kick some butt if we have time.

         While talking with her sister, Heather’s face changes from thoughtful to worried, “I was just thinking.  This plan is great and all, but it took us several hours to follow these mercenaries out here.  Johann and I still need to get back and to the Northern Markets in time to see his contact.  Though we have dragons, it will still take probably three hours to get back up there.  Taking that into consideration as well as it being fall and the sun setting sooner, Johann and I have at best one hour to help you guys.”

         Disappointed, yet totally in agreement, Annabeth says, “Then you can help us for this one hour and then be on your way back to see about Johann’s lead.  Both are just as important, but the unknown of where these goons were going didn’t help.”

         “Then it’s settled,” Heather pronounces.

         I raise my hand and Annabeth acknowledges me, I ask, “What’s the plan again?  I was really paying attention there for a few seconds as I was thinking about volcanos.  I think my brain realizes I am awake right now, but still thinks I should just be getting up.”

         “Sure,” Annabeth nods her head at my excuse, but smiles at my attempted save for not listening.  “Alright.  The plan will be:  Fly to the west a quarter mile, dive to the sea level, and then come up to the island from the south seeing how the mercenaries landed on the north side and are staying on that side.  The island looks to be about one-hundred and fifty yards or so in diameter, so plenty of space to work with to sneak up on them.  The island’s forest will also cover our approach to, so long as no one is looking for someone coming from the south.  They seem to be expecting my father from the north, so all their attention is to the north.  Once we are on the island and able to get within earshot, we will reassess the situation and react accordingly.  As to not slow us down or hinder us if we are spotted, Johann has agreed to stay with the dragons and keep them out of sight in case the mercenaries have any patrols.  I spotted a cave on the southeastern part of the island.  It is on the shore with no entrance possible other than going through the water.  Should be a safe enough place for Johann and the dragons to hide.  Because we need to let the mercenaries think their plan is going off without a hitch, we need to be unseen until it is time to take them out.”

         “Awesome plan,” I reply.  I then rhetorically and sarcastically add before deciding to fly off to the west with Fredrick, “That was exactly what I thought you two decided on.  Mah brain was just slow to interpret what you were saying until you just said it now.”

         Annabeth and Heather both roll their eyes and shake their heads.

         They both at the exact same time as I leave, simple remark, “Boys.”