Serialization of "Quedly Dake and His Quest to Conquer the Globe" — Chapter 14 of 25
From Book 3 of the Trilogy “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders”
“So when do we leave?” Ooga asked. The big ape (Gorilla, actually) was champing at the bit to get going. As were all of us.
“We need to make our plans first,” Albert said. “Does everyone want to go? It’s completely voluntary, of course.”
Everyone was “all in”: Myself, Rovette, and our four pups; Stripes and Marmalade; Chumbawumba and Tubthumper; Ooga; Chapawee and Ravelle X; Drako; Jowls Behemoth; Ocero Puddleby; Rory; Yukyuk; Yookie; Rinky; Falcona; even Terri (who was usually less of a joiner and a little less sociable than most of us); plus Albert and Alexis, of course. That made two dozen of us in all.
We only had the one eVTOL aircraft this time (since Dake had stolen the Arodnap), and so all the large animals were going to have to be “punified” with the Compressor/Decompressor so that we could all fit into the Androcles. Albert and Alexis would not be shrunk (Albert had to remain his normal size in order to operate the Androcles, and Alexis was already small), neither would the pups, Marmalade the kitten, Drako the Bearded Dragon, Yookie the Koala Bear, Rinky the Duckbilled Platypus, or Falcona the Falcon need to be compressed.
The rest were shrunken down (temporarily, of course) to a mere fraction of their natural size.
“The next question is, when should we ‘cut Dake off at the pass’?” Albert asked. “When he starts manipulating people so that he can become the Secretary General of the U.N., or even before that, when he unfairly maneuvers matters to become the U.S. President?”
“Or even earlier, say when he sold the Cardamom in the Middle Ages?” Ravelle X suggested.
“I don’t see why we would do it then,” Albert said. “That was a victimless crime, if it was a crime at all.”
“But we know what he was planning: to make enough money to set himself up as an evil dictator,” I countered.
“Yes, but still...I don’t know...” Albert wavered.
“Actually, we would be justified preventing him from stealing the Arodnap in the first place—we could catch him red-handed, stop him, and exile him right then,” Chumbawumba said.
“Exile him for trying to steal the Arodnap? I don’t know if the punishment would fit the crime; eternal exile is pretty harsh for an attempted theft...” Albert mused.
Alexis spoke up after considering all the angles and perspectives. “I think we should let Dake go all the way until just before he nukes the 12 Holdout countries,” was her opinion.
“Why wait until the very last moment?” Rory wanted to know. “Dake had already caused a lot of problems before that.”
“Here’s why,” Alexis answered. “It will be the most dramatic. If we stopped Dake before then, there might still be some people who wouldn’t be convinced that he was all that bad. I don’t mean to embarrass you, Albert, but remember, even you didn’t really perceive just how bad Dake was until very late in the game.”
“That makes sense, Alexis,” I said. She was the wisest of us all. When Alexis first joined our group, I was admittedly more than a little jealous of her (because of her special friendship with Albert), but I’m at the point now where I simply accept that she is the smartest, and the one who usually has the best ideas.
I did have something to add, though, to bolster her reasoning: “By waiting until Dake really shows his cards and demonstrates who he truthfully is (not how he presents himself through his lies and puff pieces), the record of what he did and tried to do will be indelibly recorded in history. It will be a cautionary tale for all time to come.”
We all looked around at each other, and it was plain to see that everyone was on board with this idea. Well, we weren’t literally on board yet (the Androcles, that is), but we would be soon.
“So it’s off to 2029 New York City, U.N. Building,” Albert concluded. “How soon can you all be ready to leave?”
The previous chapter can be found here.
The next chapter can be found here.
Book 1 of Taterskin & The Eco Defenders, “Wonders Never Cease,” can be found here.
Book 2 of Taterskin & The Eco Defenders, “Tell It To Future Generations,” can be found here.
Book 3 of Taterskin & The Eco Defenders, “Quedly Dake and His Quest to Conquer the Globe,” can be found here.
