Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Indiana Matt and the Isle of the Serpent ❯ Chapter 2

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

PART 2

CHAPTER 3

"Hey."

"Hey." Matt tried to blink away the sleepiness from his eyes as Tai walked over to him and sat on his desk.

"It's 2 AM. What are you doing up?"

Matt smiled tiredly and held up the diary. "I might ask you the same thing."

"I found those sea maps you wanted," said Tai, indicating the three rolled-up sheets of paper he had under his arm. He picked one and unrolled it.

Matt looked at the map, then the diary, then back at the map, then back at the diary, then at Tai.

"Tai?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't do this much longer. I'm going to go to bed. You need a ride home?"

"Er...if you don't mind."

"Great. Let's go." Matt flicked off the light and walked out, absentmindedly putting his beat-up leather coat on over his tweed jacket. He was about to shut the door when he remembered that he had left the diary on his desk. "Almost forgot this," he said, pocketing the small book.

A pair of green eyes followed the two men out, their owner hidden in the darkened university halls. He cursed under his breath, noting with displeasure the small book tucked safely into Matt's jacket pocket.

Nevertheless, he crept over to Matt's office, pulling out a lockpick, and in seconds gained entry into the office. Quickly he deposited the contents of the small satchel he was wearing into the top drawer of Matt's desk. The wriggling mass gave an angry hiss as the drawer closed.

"I do hope this will get the point across to you, Dr. Ishida."

The man padded out of the office, taking great care to relock the door, before stealing out of the building, right past the sleeping guard.

* * *

"Morning, Tai."

Tai smiled and walked over to Matt's waiting Duesenberg sedan. The sleek black car was one that no simple college archeology professor could afford - of course, Indiana Matt Ishida was hardly a simple college archeology professor, mused Tai as he and his high heels clicked into the passenger's seat.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" asked Tai.

"Well...actually, more of the same as yesterday. Study the diary and maps." Matt grinned. "I bribed Koushiro into teaching my class for the next two months."

Tai chuckled. "I bet he was thrilled."

"Let's just say the prospect of all of my unused sick days was just too tempting."

Matt eased the sedan out into the busy streets of Tokyo, and within a few minutes they were at the University.

"I think that tomorrow we'll go down to Dad's base camp and have a look around to see if we can find any clues. Then we can start to pinpoint the location of this island." Matt walked around to Tai's side and opened the door for him, continuing to talk. "I'm hoping by this time we have at least some clue as to who would have captured him."

"What if we don't?" asked Tai.

"Then we start looking for the Staff, and get kidnapped ourselves."

"Something tells me that that plan's not going to be very good for my health."

Matt winked as he unlocked the door to his office. "Come on, now, where's your sense of adventure?"

"I think I left it in the car, along with my purse," said Tai. "I'll be right back."

Matt watched Tai go, then sat at his desk and took out his father's diary, thumbing through it. He opened the top drawer of his desk and picked out a pencil, underlining a passage that he had marked the night before. While doing so, the pencil tip broke, and Matt glared at it, slamming shut his desk drawer rather irritably.

"Stupid university...can't afford pencils that work properly." He was going to get another one when Tai walked in. "Find it?"

"Yeah," he said. He then cocked his head to one side. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Listen."

They could both hear a faint hissing sound and an ominous rattle coming from somewhere in the room.

"Bet it's the heater," offered Matt.

"Bet you're right. Let's get to work, then."

"Okay, let me just get a new pencil."

Matt opened the drawer, stuck his hand in it, and recoiled instantly as he felt something that was decidedly alive in there. In an instant he leaped out of his chair and backed up against the wall, his eyes widened in fear.

Slithering onto his desk was a two-foot long rattlesnake. That alone was enough to make Matt shrink back from it; the fact that it was a species known for its potent venom made matters even worse.

"Tai!" whispered Matt urgently, as if raising his voice would make it attack him. Tai looked at the snake and took a cautious step back from the desk.

"How did that get in here?"

"More importantly," said Matt, blanching, "how are we going to get it out?"

Tai thought for a moment...

"Matt, listen. Snakes use their sense of smell more than anything, right?"

Matt shuddered. "Whatever you say."

"So," said Tai, producing a small vial of perfume from his purse, "I spray it in the face with this, it can't sense us by smell anymore, and we can sneak up behind it and bag it."

"We? You mean, I have to get near it? I hate snakes!"

"Just this once. It can't hurt you...just kind of tip it into the wastebasket or something! Ready...on three...one...two...three!"

Tai gave the creature a quick blast of fine French perfume and dodged out of range before the enraged snake could get off a bite. Matt edged forward and half-heartedly batted the snake towards the garbage can, but instead it flew off the desk and slithered out into the hall.

Matt shuddered involuntarily and closed his eyes, trying to shake the image from his mind. "I bet I'm going to regret that later." He grimaced as he heard screams from down the hallway.

"At least it's out of here," mused Tai philosophically. Matt nodded in agreement and they set back to their task.

* * *

Two days went by before Matt and Tai finished their study of the little book. They, like Masaharu, had come to the conclusion that the location of the Staff of the Feathered Serpent was on an island somewhere off the Brazilian coast.

~~~

CHAPTER 4

Airport, Rio de Janiero, Brazil

The tropical air assaulted them the moment they stepped out onto the gangway. It was hot, moist, and almost thick enough you could cut it with a knife. Tai's hair wilted almost immediately, the moisture drawn to it and hanging on, much like tiny fangirls. He frowned and put on his ancient pair of goggles to at least keep it out of his face.

"Feels like someone's been ironing," he commented.

Inside the airport wasn't much better. The atmosphere was aggravated by the customs agents who insisted on searching every piece of luggage carried by Matt and Tai, almost confiscating Matt's dangerous-looking machete until a long and heated argument with the professor and his ladyfriend convinced them otherwise.

After several failed attempts to hail a cab outside the airport, Matt and Tai decided to walk the half-mile to the bus depot, where they found that they had just missed the bus to the Japanese embassy. They sat and waited for an hour before the next bus left, Tai catnapping on Matt's shoulder.

"Now boarding bus 23 to downtown Rio, the embassy, the dockside, and the airport," said the loudspeaker voice (in Portuguese, of course), and Matt nudged Tai gently into wakefulness.

"Come on, sleepyhead, we're leaving."

* * *

A short while later they were met at the embassy by a small, dark-haired man with jade green eyes that were constantly shifting. He greeted them with a peculiar accent, almost a dry, sibilant rasp.

"Hello, gentlemen. I trust you are the famed Dr. Ishida," he bowed. He then took Tai's hand and kissed it, "and you must be his lovely secretary." Tai blushed and curtsied, and Matt smiled. "My name is Iori Hida," the man continued, "and I am an attaché to the ambassador. I have been directed to extend the greetings of the ambassador and to aid you in whatever way necessary to find your father."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Hida," said Matt. "I think we'll be relaxing for a day before we do anything interesting. Would it be possible to have a boat prepared for us tomorrow?"

"Very well," fawned Iori, "I'll take care of the matter personally." He disappeared rapidly, retreating into the palace-like embassy. Matt and Tai deposited their luggage in their rooms and then wandered around the expansive site for an hour or two before tiredness got the better of them.

Fortunately for them, the embassy's rooms came equipped with large bathtubs, and the pair of them decided to take a bubble bath together and discuss their plan for the next day.

Tai sunk neck-deep in the suds, letting out a deep sigh as he wafted a dollop of bubbles in Matt's direction.

"So," he purred, "what's the boat for?"

"Tomorrow we go to Dad's base camp," replied Matt. "He had the location written down in his diary. I hope that we'll be able to find at least some clue as to where he is."

"And if we don't?"

Matt pondered, playing with a small mountain of foam. "Then...we get ourselves kidnapped."

Tai sat up. "How do we do that?"

"We do what Dad was doing - look for the Staff of the Feathered Serpent."

Tai frowned and dunked his head underwater. "And I thought getting held up by six armed men was bad enough. Remind me why I stick around you?"

Matt smiled, slid over and began working a handful of shampoo into Tai's glut of hair, massaging the chestnut brown strands gently. "Maybe later. Right now, just relax, and I'll take care of losing sleep tonight."

Tai sighed pleasurably and leaned back against Matt. "Whatever you say. You're the doctor, after all."

* * *

At the same time, two people were meeting at the embassy's gates - one, the man, short and shifty, the woman, tall and thin, who radiated a sense of unnatural patience around her.

"Dr. Ishida is here, but he keeps the diary on his person at all times. They wish to have a boat ready for them tomorrow to help them in their search for the staff," rasped the man.

"Then we will let them go," replied the other. "Allow them to find the island. Allow them to find the former location of the Staff. Perhaps then they will be...suitably convinced that it would be wise to abandon their search for the staff."

"And what of Masaharu?"

"He will make a valuable addition to the brotherhood, once properly 'converted.'"

The man bowed. "As you wish."

"Do not fail, Iori. The Staff must be protected until the Feathered Serpent is ready to be released."

"As you wish."

"Go now, and remember your duty."

And with that, the tall woman was gone, vanished into the dank night air like a snake.

~~~