Previously: Twain revealed that he had set Digger up from the beginning and absconded with the bank robbery money and the magic cup. Before he could pursue Twain to stop his plan, Digger was arrested and taken back to Bayside to face trial for the bank robbery. And now…
After a couple of hours, the words on the screen began to blur together, so Twain closed the laptop and leaned his seat back the couple of inches it would go. He hated airplanes, being forced to sit for hours in a tiny cramped space. Which really sucked, because he loved the sensation of flying.Those bastards who could fly without the need for an airplane didn’t know how lucky they were.
But maybe soon, if he could figure out the secret, he would be one of them. Another seven hours in the air, and he would be in Shanghai. From there, he had to obtain transportation to Ulan Bator, and from there, he had to sneak back to the City of the Moon, the very place he’d been captured just a few weeks ago.
The story he had told Digger had been true, for the most part. He had gone to Mongolia searching for the cup he had happened across in searching some ancient documents on-line. Something about the description piqued his interest, and by doing some searching and cross-referencing, he had eventually arrived at a secret that had been lost for over a hundred years. Which he didn’t understand, because it was right there for anyone to see, if they would just open their eyes.
But that seemed to be his particular talent, aside from the clothes changing thing: an ability to make connections, to draw upon a dozen different sources, recognize a pattern, and synthesize a solution that no one else seemed able to recognize. Only in this case, he found that the cup he was seeking was gone. He made some inquiries accompanied by liberally greased palms, and while he was waiting, he stumbled upon an intriguing side-mystery to that of the cup: The City of the Moon.
[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]He hated airplanes, being forced to sit for hours in a tiny cramped space. Which really sucked, because he loved the sensation of flying…[/blockquote]Which was where he’d been captured and interrogated by the Cobalt Czar himself. The Czar was a little curious about how Twain had learned of the City of the Moon, because it was a heavily guarded secret. But he seemed more interested in Digger, because Digger’s exploits threatened to weaken his hold on absolute power. To hear him tell it, a secret society was forming, an underground religion, a Cult of Digger that if unchecked might lead someday to open rebellion.
It might have been pure paranoia, but the Czar obviously took  it seriously enough to ask about Digger and his weaknesses. And when Twain’s answers were unsatisfying, he had Twain thrown back into his cell to await execution.
Which was when Twain decided to escape. He had let himself be held prisoner for as long as he could stand, suffering the cramped cell and the nasty gruel he was forced to eat and the broken and rehealed limbs, in the hopes that he could find an answer to the riddle of the City of the Moon. He could sense the secret was huge; why else would the Czar guard it so zealously?
But execution tended to change one’s plans.
How did Twain escape? What is the secret that makes him so dangerous? Join us tomorrow for the next chapter of Run, Digger, Run!
To read from the beginning, click here…
Or to continue to the next episode, click here!
