The entire engine room reeked of smoke and gunpowder. Elsie and Fiona stood motionless and helpless as Mr. Rex Bowler threatened one of their best friend’s lives. Elsie gestured for everyone to stay calm. “Cuthbert,” she said. “That is your name, isn’t it? Cuthbert H. Bowler?”
Rex reacted as though he hadn’t heard it in a long time. “How did you know that?” he demanded.
“I found your file when we were at Epsilon Base. I know all about you; your time in the military, your wife…”
“You don’t know a thing about my wife!” he snapped.
“Regardless, I think I understand why you’re doing this, and although I hardly agree with it, all I ask is that Tilly and the rest of my friends come out of this situation alive.”
With a nod of his large head, Mr. Rex Bowler much agreed, and asked only that they let him take one of their dive suits. He had Tilly put help him put it on, and trembling under the barrel of the gun, she was happy to comply. But before Rex could finish and make his daring escape, Jack and Professor Goodwin stormed in, and Jack glared at him like a hawk. “Rex,” he announced. “Put the gun down, man, there’s no way out for you!”
Tilly, as Rex shifted his aim from her to Jack, decided to do something either incredibly brave or remarkably stupid. She bit his arm with all her might, sinking her little teeth into his muscly flesh, and as he yelled and she squirmed away, Jack charged forward like a lion and knocked the gun out of his hand. As this occurred, and Elsie realised that Jack was about to pick a fight with a man who was way out of his league, she yelled, “Jack! What are you doing? You’re injured, remember?”
Jack embraced the fight anyway. “Don’t worry little sister, I can handle this guy.” However Rex had already perceived that Jack was weak on one leg, and with a devastating blow he drove his boot into Jack’s calf and he collapsed to the ground. “I take that back,” he screamed. “Where’s Herschel?”
As if he had indeed been summoned from nothing, the brave young mercenary charged into the engine room and delivered a blow that the bounty hunter promptly countered. Because they were both warriors of exceptional skill, they fought with a certain precision that resembled some kind of brutal dance. Mr. Adams stepped when Mr. Bowler stepped – one countered when the other struck, and so on.
Mr. Bowler managed to drive his knee into Mr. Adams’ abdomen, delivering a devastating blow; but Herschel more or less walked it off and jumped back. He dodged Rex’s next strike and delivered a hit to the big man’s ribs, he then struck him to the back of the head so hard that he doubled over. Herschel’s next move was to throw Rex into the line of diving suits, and the bounty hunter crashed against the wall noisily. Elsie thought the fight might have then been over, however, like a wounded animal Rex pounced from where he lay, but Mr. Adams anticipated the attack and stepped aside before pushing Rex into the water chamber. There, he swung the door shut, locked it, and pressed the button on the wall.
Elsie gasped and raised her hand to her mouth. “Are you sure that is necessary?” she asked.
Professor Goodwin stepped forward and answered. “Absolutely.”
And so, they watched as the chamber slowly filled up with water, and Mr. Bowler desperately gulped for air, and then he was cast out into the dark depths of the sea, where Elsie assumed no one would ever see him again.
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