War for Genius

12.- Phase two begins

Hello everyone, here's the new chapter for this week! In this chapter there are mentioned some things that will be important in the future, so you can keep an eye on it and try to realize what are those things 😉.

As always, I'd like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn't be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you're amazing!

Welp, I'll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it!

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Beaks arrived early the next day at the place where Huey was locked. The parrot assumed that fifteen days was more than enough to go ahead with his plan's next phase, for which he had made several preparations for. The Waddle's CEO got out of the car and entered the building. Once inside, he moved from room to room, preparing everything he needed.

While doing these preparations, the parrot ran into Graves, who quickly demanded explanations from Beaks as to why he hadn't contacted him in so many days. But in his defense, Beaks couldn't risk the police intercepting any contact between the them.

Beaks supposed that eventually he'd be considered a suspect of Huey's disappearance, what the parrot did not expect was to be scrutinized so early. Or that the police would know it was a hawk who, by chance of life, they assumed was Falcon Graves, didn't make things easier.

Naturally, that's all Beaks told Graves when he demanded explanations. Once cleared up... everything, and having finally finished all the preparations, Beaks ordered the hawk to stay out of sight while he dealt with Huey.

The parrot then headed towards the dark room in which the older triplet was enclosed. When he got there, he stopped in front of the door. He hadn't seen that boy for fifteen days. He could only hope that Graves had done a good job taking care of him.

After taking a deep breath, Beaks inserted the key into the lock and slowly turned it. When he finished, he opened the door completely, letting light from the outside flood the space. With a brief inspection, he soon discovered who he wanted to see.

Huey was curled up in a corner, hugging his legs and hiding his face between his knees, he seemed truly miserable and completely hopeless. The Waddle's CEO watched him carefully. He was much thinner than the last time he saw him. Graves really did a great job feeding him just enough to keep him alive. He also saw that he was dirty, quite actually, and several feathers on his body were disheveled and discolored.

Yes, it was obvious that the boy hadn't left the place in all that time. And the fact that Huey didn't move now that the door was completely open meant that he knew he couldn't get out of there, even if he had free passage. Graves really had done a magnificent job. The boy dressed in red was ready for the next phase.

Going deeper into the room, Beaks cleared his throat and called the duck:

"Hi Huey."

The boy's head snapped up when he heard his voice. Rising immediately, the Waddle's CEO saw that Huey was looking at him in terror, and his face was stained with obvious traces of tears. The boy must have spent hours and hours crying. Oh, how much complacency Mark felt at the obvious fear in the child's eyes, but now he couldn't show his satisfaction. No, he had to get the boy to believe that he really wanted to help him, so, gently, he said:

"Huey, calm down."

The boy dressed in red shook his head and slowly backed away until his back hit the back wall. His eyes filled with tears and in a slightly husky and scared voice he whispered: