Chapters Fifty-Three and Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Three: In Which A Plan Fails
 
    What? Flake thought, pausing.  Run?
 
    He’s heading back to the lab!  Hurry!  Run!  Rose screamed in his head.
 
    “Everyone!  Rose says that You-Know-Who is heading back to the lab!” Flake exclaimed.

 
    “Fine!  Hurry up!”  Advisor Blaze was already holding an unconscious Flint, freed from the chair.
 
    “Snow’s free now!  We should get going with him!” Jack pointed to Advisor Blaze, who was already running out of the room.
 
    “Windy isn’t free yet, though!”  Flake said.  “Advisor North, get Snow and leave.”  He did so.
 
    Flake could hear footsteps coming.  “Hurry!”  He rushed over to help Chief Alya and Chief Oak free Windy.
 
    He’s getting close to the lab!  I can’t hold him back!  Are you safe yet? Rose asked.
 
    “Guys.  We need to go NOW or we’re dead meat!” Jack exclaimed.
 
    “We can’t just leave Windy!” Chief Alya said shrilly.
 
    Chief Oak stood.  “The boy is right.  We must leave immediately.”  He quickly ran out of the room, faster than Flake thought he could.
 
    Jack looked wildly from the door to Flake.  “He’s coming.  I-I have to go.”  He rushed out of the room, nearly knocking down another table.
 
    Flake turned to the one other person left in the room.  “Chief Alya!  We need to leave, we-”
 
    “NO!” she screamed, which made Flake wince.  And that’s when the door slid open.  Standing in the doorway was a man holding a frazzled Rose by the arm.
 
    Rose looked at him, threw her invisibility cloak, and mouthed, GO!  Flake grabbed the cloak, put it on him, and ran out of there as fast as he could.  He didn’t look back to see whether Chief Alya made it out.  He didn’t think so.
 
    At last he arrived, gasping, at Room 28.  The whole group was still there, eyes all on him.
 
    “Wha-what happened to Chief Alya and Windy?” Jack asked in a small voice.  Flake said nothing.
 
Chapter Fifty-Four: In Which Rose Gets A Question
 
    Rose was more confused than ever before.  This man he had never met, an absolute stranger, knew who she was.  And even worse, he kidnapped people.  She had no idea what to think.  Was Jack telling the truth?  Rose knew that Jack wasn’t the kind of person to lie, and said what he thought was the truth, but she had a really hard time believing it.
 
    When she appeared out of the invisibility cloak, he staggered back, in shock.  He had quickly regained his senses, however, and asked her how she made her way back.  Rose didn’t say anything, but before she knew it, he was dragging her back to the lab.
 
    And now there she was, standing in the messed-up laboratory, watching Chief Alya attempt to free her daughter.  Rose tried her best to twist away but she couldn’t.  At least Flake got out safely.  That way, if the long distance telepathy actually did work, (Rose wasn’t sure if it did), then she could still communicate to him about what was going on.
 
    “Hello,” the man said.
 
    Chief Alya stood up.  She stared at the man warily and stood between him and Windy.  “You aren’t touching her, you beast,” she snarled.
 
    The man frowned and went out of the room, and the door slid shut behind him.  He put the numbers 734 in the combination, pressed the red button, and walked away, dragging a helpless Rose with him.
 
    He dragged her into a nice looking office room with chairs and a desk.  An interrogation room?  He sat down on a swivel chair and turned to face her.  “So you came back,” he said tonelessly.
 
    Rose sat down on the chair in front of him and didn’t say anything.  She debated running out of the room then and there, but then she decided it wasn’t worth the risk.  He would certainly catch her, and besides, then she wouldn’t have any chance of saving Windy and Chief Alya.  She would just have to brave it out here, apparently.
 
    “I suppose you don’t remember anything?” he continued.  Rose didn’t answer, staring at the ground.
 
    “You could leave now, if you want.  I won’t stop you,” he said.  Rose finally looked up, disbelievingly.  He smiled, amused.  “No, really, I have no intentions of keeping you here.  Leave.”
 
    Rose hesitated.  This was too easy.  Much too easy.  This man wasn’t letting her go out of kindness, so what was the reason?
 
    “I can tell you’re itching to say something.  Go.  Write.”  He pointed to the pad of paper and pencil on the table.  Rose looked warily at it, then picked it up.
 
    I won’t leave until you tell me everything I need to know, she wrote.  The man looked amused once again.  “So what do you wish to know?” he asked.  Rose bit her lip, thinking.  What did she want to know?  There were a lot of things, but most she didn’t think the man would answer.  But it couldn’t hurt to ask, could it?
 
    Why did you kidnap them? she wrote.  It was one of the most straightforward questions she could ask.
 
    “So that’s what you want to know?  Out of everything you could ask?  You only get one question.  Use it wisely.”
 
    How can I trust anything you say? she wrote.
 
    “Because it will be the truth,” he said airily.
 
    She hesitated for a moment.  One question.  Not nearly enough to find out everything she wanted to know, or everything everyone else wanted to know.  And how would she prove whether he was lying or not?  Did it matter?

​     Finally, she wrote something down.
 
    Who are you?