Part III

Arthur stopped and turned around looking to Sabrina. She had stood up and was staring at Cal. Tears shone in her eyes. Arthur couldn’t help but notice they made her eyes sparkle in the moonlight.

Cal put his hands in his black overcoat. He shrugged nonchalantly. “Why not?” He strolled over to Sabrina, careful to stay out of Arthur’s grasp. He gently wiped a stray tear from her cheek and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“Love, I have no one in the world; no mother, no father, no brother, no sister. I am alone. As such, I get lonely. Since I am so lonesome, I feel that it is necessary for me to do something worthwhile with my power and money.” Cal sighed dramatically. “If only I had someone to love me who wasn’t out for my money. Someone who would love me for my height rather than in spite of it. Someone who would treat me as an equal, not as a master or an inferior. If I had someone to love, I wouldn’t need the power I crave. I would have someone to share my billions and billions of dollars with. I would lavish them with love and affection as well as whatever their heart desires; diamonds, rubies, emeralds as big as their fist.”

“Why you lying, cheating–“ Arthur muttered and reached for Cal.

“Arthur, stop.” Sabrina put her hand on his splinted leg. “Leave him alone. He’s just a spoiled little brat,” she explained.

Cal frowned. He obviously wasn’t used to having women reject him. “You could have been mine, Sabrina. Instead, you choose him! Again! A poor, muscle-brained idiot, who’s only goal in life is to live in a house instead of an outdated, molding apartment.” He shook his head, barely containing his rage. He headed towards the whirring helicopter. “You might want to move away from the car.” He reached the chopper and climbed in, waving gleefully.

“Why did he say that?” Sabrina asked. “What does he intend to do? Blow it up? A Ferrari? Is he crazy?”

Arthur had been watching the ascending helicopter. He saw Cal lean out the door, a M24 sniper rifle in his hand. “I think that’s exactly what he intends to do.”

Arthur grabbed Sabrina’s hand and pulled her up. They started running away as the Ferrari exploded behind them in a ball of fire. The blast pushed them to the ground.

“Next time, you will be in the car,” Cal yelled down at the couple before the ‘copter sped westward toward the far mountains.

Arthur stood up carefully. “You okay?” he asked Sabrina.

“No, I’m dead. This is my ghost you are speaking to,” She answered standing up too. She looked mournfully after Cal.

“Don’t waste your breath on that monster,” Arthur spat.

“I was thinking about all the people that are going to die! Not his… Greek god-like looks! Even if he does have exceptionally awesome hair, eyes to die for, enough money to buy a third world country, the sexiest boots known to man, a face that could be on the cover of a fashion magazine, abs that you could eat off of…” she trailed off still looking after the helicopter.

Arthur rolled his eyes Women…How does she know what his abs are like anyway? Time to change the subject. Remind her how evil he is. “What are we going to do about his plan? Tell the police?”

“No, everything in town is in shambles and the police won’t be able to spare anyone for a few days.” She sighed and turned towards Arthur. “We’ll have to go after him ourselves.”

Arthur stared open-mouthed at her. “What? Are you crazy?”

“Do you have to be extremely rude?” replied Sabrina. “You know I’m right. The popos will be too busy to listen to us.”

Arthur thought about it and had to agree. She’s right. Even if they weren’t busy, they probably still wouldn’t listen to us. Cal’s too much of a celebrity.

“Fine.” Arthur threw his arms up in the air. “How do you suggest we go about this ridiculous plan?”

“First, we need food and water. Then we should get tents and sleeping bags and stuff. We should get everything and anything we might need. Do you know where he lives, by the way?” She started walking towards Saddler.

“No, I don’t…Wait! Where are you going?”

“Well, we can’t really get that stuff out here, can we?” she replied mockingly gesturing at the suburban houses. Arthur shrugged and followed her.


They crouched behind some bushes on the outskirts of town. Their city was still in pandemonium. Sabrina peeked over the shrubbery and ran to another bush farther up. She turned around and motioned for Arthur to follow. He sighed and hobble-hopped his way over to her.

“Is there any way you could move faster?”

“Not all of us only got scratches and scrapes, Sabrina,” he replied, motioning at his splinted leg.

Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Come on, ya pansy.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to a burnt car. Arthur overbalanced on his good leg and grabbed at Sabrina. They tumbled on top of a large squishy blanket.

“Ow!” the blanket said and tried to remove them.

“Ow!” Arthur replied, as the blanket kicked his bruised ribs. Sabrina rolled off the blanket as Arthur was forcibly removed.

“Get off me!” a voice said from under the blanket. A man’s head, fuzzy from being under the blanket, glared angrily at them. “Excuse me, but why are you trying to molest and suffocate me?” the man asked irritably, glaring at Arthur.

“I- What?”

Sabrina smirked. “We were trying to sneak back into the city when we fell onto your blanket. And, um, you… apparently.”

“Sneak back in? Why on this used-to-be-green earth would you try and get back into this hell hole?” the man said getting out from under the blanket. His clothes, a satin button-up light green shirt and black slacks, would have given the illusion of a wealthy man if they had not been full of holes and covered in grime. He ran a hand through his platinum blond hair, tousling it even more. He rolled his brown eyes heavenward.

“We’re gathering supplies to go after the guy who caused this madness,” Sabrina answered.

She left out a few adjectives there… murdering, evil, manipulative…

“Cal Hardwick,” the man said with an air of finality.

“How did you know?” Arthur asked, astounded.

“What other devil spawn could have caused this?” the man answered.

“So, you’re well acquainted,” Arthur said brightly and flinched when Sabrina smacked him.

“Oh yes.” The man locked his jaw and stood up. Sabrina and Arthur followed his progression towards the sky.

“Whoa, how tall are you?”

“Six feet ten and a half.”

“What is your name and what basketball team do you play for?” Arthur asked.

“James Tacitus and I’m a reporter… was a reporter.”

Sabrina tugged on James’s pant leg. “Sit before someone spots your giant gangly tallness.”

James sat down without protest. The trio cowered closer to the car as some looters ran past, their arms full of junk.

“What happened? Why aren’t you a reporter anymore,” Sabrina asked once they were alone again.

“I have Cal to thank for that.” James crossed his legs at the ankles.

“Why? What did he do?” Sabrina pried.

“I’d rather not talked about it, if it’s all the same to you,” James said uncomfortably.

“He probably did something to poor James, then had him fired to keep him quiet,” Arthur replied noticing James’s discomfort.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t he pay him more money to keep him quiet, not get him fired?” Sabrina reasoned.

“I don’t think he wants to talk about it, Sabrina,” argued Arthur. Drop it, please? We already know that Cal is malicious, we don’t need details.

“Um, people, whatever your names are, I am sitting right here,” James said.

Arthur and Sabrina glared at each other.

“Ooo, frosty! Now, my dear, before I tell you my story, I want to know your names, so I’ll know who to kill when I finish.”

Sabrina smiled. “Sabrina Pepper, Arthur Galba.”

James repeated their names kissing Sabrina’s hand, making her giggle and Arthur burn with jealousy. “Nice to meet you both.” James leaned toward Sabrina. “He your boyfriend?” She laughed and shook her head. Oh burn! Death! Stab to the Heart! James smiled at Arthur. Don’t even think about stealing her, gigantic tall person!

“Your story?” Arthur tried to inject politeness into his voice.

“I was a reporter for the Daily Star. Top reporter actually. My boss, Richard Summers, sent me on assignment to interview Cal about his new project for the military a few months ago. It went so well, I was invited back to interview him about his life in general. I was like his media correspondent, the only one he would actually talk to.” James swelled with pride and then looked at his hands, blushing. “Unfortunately, I interpreted some of his actions and words into things they weren’t and he had me thrown out of his house and fired from my job.”

Arthur nodded and sat back against the car.

Sabrina frowned. “What did you do? That story didn’t tell me anything!”

“Sabrina, he told you what you wanted to know, now drop it.”

“No, Arthur. I want to know what I – we are up against so I need to know everything.”

Arthur opened his mouth to argue when James set his hand on Arthur’s leg.

“No, she’s right. You need to know.”

Arthur frowned as he thought he felt a gentle massaging motion for a second on his thigh. Sabrina looked as if she would have tapped her foot, had she been standing.

James sighed, clasping his hands. “We were in his library. I was interviewing him about a small African town he had donated fresh water wells to, when he sat back and stretched, his arm going behind me. I turned to look at him. ‘Well, Mr. Hardwick, we are done here,” I said. He patted my shoulder giving it a little rub and said, ‘I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other soon.’ I took that as a sign that he… uh… he…” James blushed a violent red and looked down. “Needless to say, Cal Hardwick is not gay. I was promptly thrown from the mansion and forbidden to come back.”

Arthur squirmed and scooted slightly away from James.

“You’re gay?” Sabrina asked.

“No. I just like to put the moves on billionaires with too much power at their disposal for fun!” James grinned and before giving Sabrina a you’re-an-idiot look. Arthur couldn’t help, but think that she had walked right into that one.

“You don’t have to be so sarcastic about it.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Sarcasm is just one more service I offer.”

While still squirmy about being near a gay man who had just massaged his leg, Arthur had an idea. “So, you have been to Cal’s house outside of Saddler?”

“No, his red Porsche in back of the Daily Star building were where we had our midnight rendezvous. Were you people not listening to my story?”