CHAPTER 10: THE SACRIFICE
Clover suddenly couldn't breathe. As soon as she shed that tear, her lungs began to burn and her throat felt as if it was being strangled. The muscles in her whole body felt as if they were going in and out in knots and that her whole body was beginning to feel numb—paralyzing her slowly from head to toe. There were loads of things going on inside her body she couldn't keep track of, but she knew one thing's for sure.
She had lost her battle with the Ice Queen virus. She was going down.
Then, almost as soon as it happened, the seizure stopped. Blood began to trickle out of the corner of her lips as she fell slowly towards the floor. A slight thud was heard and that was it. Clover remained lying there on her own small pool of blood without a single movement. Joe watched quietly for a few seconds at the unmoving Clover, ignoring Sam and Alex's frantic screams behind him, before closing her blue eyes and picking her up in his arms.
"I am a man of my word, Clover," Joe muttered as he reached over to the controls and pressed the defrosting button. Almost immediately, the biting cold ice around Sam and Alex melted and the clasps that held them together on the pole were opened automatically. Sam and Alex's suddenly loose body fell into the water and it took them quite an effort to climb out of the tank.
"How could you, Joe…? How could you?!" Sam hissed as tears started welling up in her green eyes. "You forced Clover to kill herself! You psychopath!"
"Clover's dead because of you!" Alex spat at Joe as well, already in the verge of crying. "You've already got her infected with the virus! She'd suffered long enough! What more do you want?!"
"It still aches to see my crush suffer like this," Joe said, cleaning the blood from the corner of Clover's lips, as if it was all just a normal matter for him. "And it does hurt to see her this way, but she must be taught a lesson. No one who hurts me will ever get away with murder."
"She never murdered you!" Sam exclaimed. "She never even touched a hair on you! She was right—you got so worked up just because of a stupid rejected prom night! You are the murderer, not her!!"
"Say whatever you want. I finally have her. That's all I need."
"Have her?" Alex asked. "What do you mean…"
"Step back! Don't come near us!" Joe stopped Alex and Sam, who were trying to get up and go towards him, at their tracks. "Just keep your distance!"
"You've already have your revenge," Sam said. "Clover's dead like you wanted. What more do you want from her?"
Joe didn't reply, but pressed a button on the control device of the freezer-like machine. The machine drained out the water inside the tank and folded itself up automatically. It moved out to one side of a corner and in its place came forth a cylinder glass tank. It seemed that everything in Joe's secret domain was automatic and powered by the push of a button. Typical home of a genius. Joe carried the lifeless Clover to the tank and placed her on a standing position in it. Sam and Alex watched in shock as Joe filled the tank with water with Clover in it. After pressing some buttons on the control attached to the tank, the water froze and Clover was soon seen standing frozen solid in an encasing of ice.
Sam forced her numb, weak body to get up and raced towards the tank. Joe did not stop her. He moved aside to let her come towards it. Alex followed suite, struggling to move after being too long in the ice. Sam yelled and pounded at the tank, trying to wake Clover up in vain. She was standing there—frozen, unmoving—in her icy tomb. Her eyes were closed softly, as if she was only in a deep sleep. With her Winter Prom Night dress on and her paling face, she really looked like an Ice Queen hibernating in her icy cold bed waiting for winter to arrive.
"You get her out! You get her out of there, you bastard!" Sam demanded.
"Can't do that. No one else will have her except me," Joe replied, his face as unconcerned as Clover did when she was having the virus. "She is mine, and mine alone. She will remain in there and with me forever."
"You are sick! You are so sick!" Alex said in fury, her tone full of hate. She moved towards Joe's work desk in the middle of the room and picked up a chair. She flung it with all her might at the tank, wanting to break it and free Clover from it, but unfortunately, the tank didn't even have a scratch.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Alex," Joe said as he stroked the tank. "This glass is very resistant, that means it's fire-proof, bullet-proof, crash-proof and everything in between. Nothing can break this thing. I made it myself."
"Why can't you just let her go? Why can't you just leave her alone? Why are you doing all this?" Sam asked as she fell onto her knees beside the tank. Joe picked up a remote control from his work desk and smirked.
"Because I love her."
With that, he pressed a button on the remote control and in came two hovering metallic seats. They scooped both Sam and Alex up and strapped them on tight, making their struggle futile. As Sam and Alex yelled their protests and demanded to be let go, Joe walked towards them calmly and smiled blissfully for the first time in his 4 years of grudge.
"I hope you've enjoyed your stay in my humble home. Now if you'll excuse me, Clover and I have a lot of catching up to do."
So saying, he pressed another button on the remote control and Sam and Alex immediately disappeared into thin air, only to reappear again in the cold foot of the mountain where they just climbed up to. They were still in a daze when they saw far, far away at a distance huge white, billowing smoke. It grew more and more, and thicker and thicker until something came in view from it. They saw that it was a jet plane, but it was no jet plane they have ever seen before. Not even WOOHPS could build such a jet plane so hi-tech in structure and built like that. Even I myself, the writer, cannot explain it. Evidently, it was the best creation this genius Joe ever made. It zoomed real fast towards south before Sam and Alex even got out of their daze.
"Quick!" Sam exclaimed, breaking herself free from the straps of the weird craft and getting on her feet. "We have to go after that jet plane! He's taking Clover away!"
Suddenly, when they were all mentally charged up and ready to go, Sam and Alex went weak all over and fell onto the icy snow. The bitter cold of the snowy ground seriously bit through their bones. That's when they realized that they were reduced to their underclothes. They were still too numb to realize that they have been soaked in that freezer-like tank for a very, very long time with only their bra and underwear on and nothing else. Their bodies that were warm before after being out of the tank for quite some time were immersed back into the cold and they were experiencing irregular body temperature change. No matter how they tried, they just couldn't get back on their feet. Their whole bodies were getting a mild frostbite and they couldn't do anything about it. They cried bitterly as they watched helplessly at the jet plane that was moving further and further away from them.
Somehow, they began to deeply understand how Clover felt like when she was having her seizures.
Without warning, they felt a few pairs of hands on them. In the midst of confusion, they thrashed and screamed and yelled, demanding to be let go, thinking that they were under attack. Soon they heard voices soothing and reassuring that they weren't enemies and were here to help. When they looked up to see to whom the voices belonged to, the first thing that caught their eyes were the logo of WOOHPS on the right side of the strangers outfits. As their mind clear, they saw that they were surrounded by members of WOOHPS, two of them bringing a rug each to wrap Sam and Alex' cold bodies. The rest of the team was on another TINY TIM and they were bringing down stretchers for them. Jerry came in front of the team.
"Girls, are you alright?" Jerry asked as he urged his men to hurry up with the stretcher.
"Cl...Clover...She's...She's with Joe..." Alex breathed, choking in her tears.
"Joe?"
"Johannesburg," Sam explained, wrapping the rug tighter around herself. "He's got her. He's got Clover and he's headed south..."
Jerry nodded and got into the TINY TIM. He ordered the pilot to chase the jet plane Joe was on. He turned on a few buttons on the controls of the craft and a beeping sound could be heard and a beeping light could be seen on the screen. He had never told anyone, not even the girls, this scheme, but he had someone secretly sneaking into Clover's home about a few days after Clover claimed her resignation from WOOHPS. The agent crept into Clover's closet while she was sleeping and turned the Com-powder back on and made a few adjustments to it. Jerry had ordered him to put in a tracking device into the Com-powder's mainframe and keep it under silent mode. He was careful not to accidentally call Clover during Sam and Alex's missions (he almost did, 'coz he was so used to it) yet deep down inside him, as soon as she left WOOHPS, he was worried that something bad might happen to her, which prompted him to modify the Com-powder. This was also the reason how he was able to locate the girls in this cold, snowy plains. Only that he got there a little too late.
Not this time. He was going to get Clover and save Clover once and for all. He thought he had lost his previous spy girls 7 years ago and it took him quite a long time and effort to start employing new spies. Now one of his favourite spies has been taken away again and never will he let her slip away from him again. He urged the pilot to fly faster, fearing the worst.
Soon, Joe's advanced jet plane could be seen. Jerry clenched his fists and said, "Try and get beside his craft. I'm going in."
The pilot nodded and tried to accelerate TINY TIM to the plane. But no matter how fast he went, Joe's plane was faster. It was as if Joe knew he was tailing him and had switched the engine to uber fast. He was often about a few feet away from him.
"Sir, I can't seem to fly this craft any faster," the pilot said in a slight panic. "He is going faster than TINY TIM and I'm already accelerated it to the max."
"Never mind. Just try and go as fast as you can. I'll figure out a way to get in."
He went to the back of TINY TIM and ransacked one of the cabinets. He dragged out a jetpack backpack and put it on. He grabbed an Expandable Cable Belt and made a dash for the emergency exit door of TINY TIM. He dragged the door open, feeling the chilly wind blowing at his face mercilessly. He aimed the Expandable Cable Belt at the jet plane's wing and shot the cable and it stuck fast onto the wing. Many experiences in spy missions before becoming the head of WOOHPS gave Jerry this advantage. He then activated the jetpack backpack and jumped off TINY TIM, holding onto belt tight as he let himself be taken away from the craft.
He continued to be suspended on air, flying forward as he 'hitched a ride' using Joe's jet plane wing. The jetpack backpack was able to keep his body steady from being to thrown back from the jet plane. When he decided that he had enough sky-gliding for one day, he pressed the button on the belt and the cable began to pull itself back to the belt, taking him with it. With one nimble move, Jerry jumped onto the wing and held on for his dear life before inching his way slowly towards the emergency door. He pulled and tugged at the door but it just won't budge. He finally resolved to use the Laser Lipstick and burn his way into the jet plane. Thankfully, the door was no match for the laser and jerry was bale to burn the lock down and barge into the jet plane.
Jerry didn't bother to use stealth anymore—since he had already made a racket by trashing the door. He took out his stun gun and headed straight towards the front. There, he saw Joe still sitting on his seat calmly, flying the jet plane as if there was nothing interesting going on. Jerry aimed his gun at Joe and pulled the safety pin.
"Stay right there, Johannesburg. You are under arrest."
"Please, sir, call me Joe," Joe replied as he switched the jet plane to auto-pilot mode and turned around calmly with his hands raised.
"You are under arrest, Joe. Surrender now and you might get a lighter sentence."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, sir. Clover and I have a lot of things to catch up. We haven't been together for about 4 years now, please be considerate."
"Where is Clover?" Jerry demanded as he came closer towards Joe, his eyes shifting around to look for Clover's whereabouts.
"She's just right here," Joe said as he pressed a button from one of his controls among dozens of controls that ran this plane. Jerry turned around when he heard the sound of a sliding door. He soon saw Clover encased in her icy tomb fitted inside a cabinet just a few feet behind Jerry. Jerry stared at her wide-eyed for a few seconds or so. She looked so pale, so sickeningly pale, so...dead...
Suddenly, Jerry heard another click from behind. He turned around and saw that Joe had removed his jacket and revealed a set of grenades taped onto his shirt. He had a ring around his left middle finger attaching loads of strings that were all tied to the safety pins of the grenades. He also had another remote control held in his right hand. Jerry was quite taken aback at upon this sight.
"Don't do anything stupid, Joe. It's not worth it."
"Oh, it is worth every second, sir," Joe hissed maliciously, his face a suicidal look. "I can't let you arrest me and take my Clover away from me. I can't let you do that. Clover and I are meant to be together. She just couldn't see it. I was just trying to knock some sense into her."
"By getting her infected with the virus you created and killing her? That doesn't seem like a very gentleman thing to do."
"So I enhanced the effects of the anti-depressant medicine and make it very sensitive to emotions, big deal. Cavemen use clubs to hit cavewomen and make them fall in love with them. I'm considered much gentler than that. It wasn't easy to get her to come to me, but I've finally succeeded. We're gonna get married at Russia where my great-great-great grandfather used to live and that'll give us plenty of time to rekindle the old flame."
"That's very nice, Joe, but there are many ways to rekindle old flames, not like this. Now, put down whatever you're holding right now and..."
"Don't come any closer!" Joe warned as he tightened the grip of the strings around the safety pins and held the remote control higher. "I've rigged the cylinder with another bomb and once I press this button on the control, Clover and I will go sky-high, along with you!"
"Calm down, Joe! You don't wanna do this!"
"Oh yes, I do! I'm not going to let you tear me and Clover apart! I'm going down with her and no one's stopping me! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"
With that, Joe got ready to pull the strings and pressed the button on the remote. Jerry quickly fired a shot at him with his stun gun. The impact sent him hitting the controls and accidentally pressing the descend button. Without warning, the jet plane was sent plummeting down like a cannon ball from above. Joe was hit unconscious and Jerry was left alone to fend and handle the controls only Joe knew about. Seeing that trying to maneuver the craft was futile, he decided to save whoever was on board. He tried to break the cylinder Clover was in but it was as tough as Joe had said. He fumbled with the controls on the cylinder and, out of dumb luck, was able to melt the ice that encased Clover and open the cylinder. He quickly tucked Clover under one arm and Joe under another and made a dash out of the emergency door. With much effort, he activated the jetpack backpack and jumped...
The sea rescue department and the members of WOOHPS surrounded the jet plane that had crashed into the Pacific Sea. The speed of the jet plane had actually taken them far away from Poland and across the sea. They were all gathered around the smoking jet plane, trying to bring down the fire and keep any oil from overflowing into the sea. Jerry was on a WOOHPS rescue boat handcuffing the still unconscious Joe after removing all the grenades from his body.
"What are the other spies’ conditions?" Jerry asked one of the men on the boat.
"Agent Sam and Alex are warm and well, sir." the man replied. "The medics have stabilized their body temperature and cured whatever ailment they have contracted during their capture at Poland. They are now in the WOOHPS sick bay."
"Good," Jerry nodded. "You know what to do with this criminal. Right now, we must get back to WOOHPS A.S.A.P. She needs to be incubated—and fast."
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