The Ultimate Vengeance Part 6



	The Quests continued to watch the grim news coverage, and there

were even speculations that the Quests themselves were in league with

Rage.  They all sat in silence as they watched the newscasts, totally at a

loss for what to do next. 

	"Dad?" 

	"Yes, son?" 

	"What are we going to do?  We just can't sit here and let Rage

destroy the entire planet!" 

	"I know, son.  Our only hope is to finish the re-creation of

Questworld and to reclaim it from Surd and Rage permanently." 



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	"Mommy, what are we going to do?" asked Carla.  "What happened to

daddy?  Mommy, I'm scared." 

	"So am I, sweetie." said Abby.  "Zeke is changed.  I have watched

the news, and I have been listening to daddy's conversations the last two

days.  Carla, this is going to be hard for you to understand.  Your daddy

has become a bad man, and we can no longer trust him.  We have to get out

of here.  The only thing I can think of is to find someone who can help

us.  Surd and Daddy have talked a lot about a family called the Quests,

and a man among them that Surd and your daddy both know-- a man by the

name of Race Bannon.  I need to find a way into the computer system--

maybe I can find something out." 

	"But mommy, you don't know anything about computers." 

	"I know, honey.  I'm just going to have to find a way to learn." 

	Over the next few days, Abby started an acting job in which she

pretended to grow closer to Rage, while all the time staying close to the

computer system in an attempt to learn as much as she could, as quickly as

she could. 

	"Hello, dear." said Abby, coming up to Rage. 

	"Hello, love." 

	"What is happening here?" asked Abby. 

	"I'm glad to see you are taking an interest in things, Abby. 

Julia, could you show her some things about the system?" 

	Julia looked at Surd. 

	"Rage, Abby has seen quite a bit of the system in the last few

days.  I think she has seen enough." answered Surd. 

	"Are you saying you don't trust my wife?!" asked Rage angrily,

grabbing Surd by the collar. 

	"Not at all, Rage.  Not at all." 

	Surd looked down at Julia. 

	"Keep an eye on her." he whispered to her. 

	Over the next few days, suspicions of Abby's sincerity grew among

Surd's people, but Rage was too blind to see it.  This caused Surd and

Rage to become at odds over it. 

	"Rage, I am telling you-- she is lying to you!  She despises you,

and she is going to betray all of us!" exclaimed Surd to Rage when they

were alone. 

	"Surd, you are evoking my wrath." warned Rage.  "Abby would never

do that." 

	The argument continued and tension rose, and Abby sensed this. She

knew she had to act fast.  Late that night, Abby snuck into the computer

room.  She was totally intimidated by the equipment around her, but she

knew she had to contact someone soon-- for the sake of her daughter's

safety and for her own as well. 

	Abby fumbled her way into the internet, and came across the

webpage for Quest Enterprises.  Her only option was to send an email.  She

found the option to send mail to Benton Quest, which she did-- summarizing

the situation and begging the help of Race Bannon.  After it was sent,

she switched off the computer without proper exit, hoping that no logs of

her tampering were recorded.  Abby then went and packed what few things

she and Carla had, and left.  She hoped that Benton would be able to find

them before Surd and Rage did. 



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	The next morning, Hadji went to make the routine mail check

through an undetectable back door into the system.  It was there that he

found Abby's message. 

	"Dr. Quest?" 

	"Yes, Hadji?" 

	"I think you should see this." 

	"What is it? 

	"A letter from Abigail Rage." 

	"Abigail Rage?  My God!  Rage went back in time and saved them,

and now she is scared and wants our help!  Hadji-- we need to get in touch

with one of our contacts and have her brought here." 

	Hadji proceeded to get in touch with one of the pilots who took

food from the complex back to the mainland, and instructed him to

covertly recruit the help he needed to bring Abby Rage and her daughter

to the underground complex. 



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	"Jeremiah, there has been tampering in the system." 

	"What?  Find out who did it and of what nature.  Rage!" 

	Rage came into the room. 

	"Go find your wife!" 

	"Jeremiah, Abby sent mail to the Quests asking for help.  She said

she left, but gave no indication where." 

	Rage came back in tears. 

	"She is gone!" he cried. 

	Surd grabbed Rage by the throat. 

	"You have brought trouble down upon us!  She may well be our

undoing!"  With that, Surd threw Rage to the ground. 

	"Why, Abby?  Why..." 



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	Abby managed to keep on the move without being detected.  She

found her way to some distant family that Rage did not know about, and she

found a place to stay among them in the mountainous regions of New York. 

	Hadji worked hard to track down likely places that Abby would go. 

There were not many likely places, but one of the places found was her

great aunt in the Adirondacks.  Hadji sent people to check all the places,

putting special emphasis on the Adirondacks since they were so remote. 

	A few mornings later, there was a knock on the door of Zelda

Collins, Abby's great aunt on her mother's side.  Abby was reluctant to

answer the door. 

	"Who is it?" she asked softly. 

	"I represent the help of which you asked-- of Benton Quest and

Race Bannon." said the voice. 

	Abby opened the door to Raymond Steele, Benton's chief pilot. 

Raymond quickly explained the situation, and he took Abby and Carla with

him back to the underground complex.  The windows on board the plane were

darkened so they could not see where they were going, and saw nothing but

the insides of the plane until they safely disembarked underground.  Race

met them as they got off the plane. 

	"Abby Rage, I presume.  I'm Race Bannon." 

	"Thank you so much for your help!  We had no other place to turn!"

exclaimed Abby. 

	"I'll take you to the lab where Dr. Quest is working.  He and his

assistant Hadji are the main ones trying to get us out of this mess, as it

almost totally revolves around Questworld." 

	Jessie came up with Benny just then. 

	"Mrs. Rage, if you like, we can take Carla inside and get her

settled." suggested Jessie. 

	"Please, call me Abby.  And you are?" 

	"Jessie Bannon Quest." 

	"Nice to meet you.  Yes, by all means, please take Carla and get

her settled.  Thanks a lot." 

	"No problem.  This way, Carla." 

	Jessie took the children back to the house, and Race took into the

lab. 

	"Dr. Quest, I believe we are finished." replied Hadji. 

	"Ok, Hadji-- please take a seat and a console, and we will find

out shortly." 

	"Questworld logon: Subject: Hadji Singh.  Going hot." 

	Just then, Hadji was pulled into a new and enhanced version of

Questworld, and both he and Benton knew they had succeeded.  It was then

that Race came in with Abby. 

	"Is it finished?" asked Race. 

	"Just now."  Benton looked at Abby.  "Mrs. Rage?" 

	"Abby, please." 

	"I am Benton Quest, and this is my assistant, Hadji Singh." 

	"Nice to meet you." 

	"No, nice to meet you!  You are the help we have needed for a long

time.  With your inside information, we will be able to set things right,

and be able to continue on with our lives." 

	Benton directed everyone out of the lab and back to the main

house. 

	Once back to the house, Abby sat down with everyone and told them

her story, including how she had to pretend to get close to Rage in order

to be able to learn what she needed in order to escape.  She also

explained how Rage's sentimentality started to cause problems both

between him and Surd, and problems for their plans all together.  She also

told them how Surd had planned to get the Quests out of hiding, and then

doing away with them permanently. 

	"This information you brought to us is invaluable, " replied

Benton. "No doubt your escape totally messed their plans up, and gave us a badly

needed break.  Now that Questworld is re-created, we should be able to

regain control of the original, and go from there.  Race, anything

newsworthy?" 

	"The riots are country-wide, and are worse than ever.  Benton,

what do we do?  Do we go back in time and undo Rage's and Surd's damage?" 

	"It's not that simple.  If we did that, Rage would never have

rescued his family, and we would be denying them their existence.  Since

they are here among us, we cannot do that.  What we must do is take over

Questworld, and destroy the technology Rage stole.  We must also

imprison Rage and Surd, and find a way to clear our name, as well as a

way, if possible, to stop the fighting." 

	"When do we start?" asked Hadji. 

	"No time like the present." answered Benton. 



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	"Jeremiah!" screamed Julia. 

	"Yes, Julia?" 

	"Someone is connecting to Questworld!" 

	"What?!  How..." 

	"It seems someone is gaining access through a parallel Questworld

system." 

	"Well, shut it down!" 

	"I can't..." 

	"Log me on!  I'm going in." 



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	"Dr. Quest-- Surd has logged onto Questworld." 

	"Race, you and Jonny go in.  I'll stand by.  Hadji, while Surd is

occupied, regain access to Rachel, download her, and delete her from the

remote system.  After that, upload the virus we engineered, and that

should do away with their access." 

	"Questworld logon:  Subjects Jonny Quest and Race Bannon.  Going

hot." 

	"So, we meet again, Bannon!" sneered virtual Surd as Jonny and

Race materialized before him. 

	"So we do, Surd!  However, we are going to put some wrinkles in

your plans!  We have Abby, and she told us everything you had planned!" 

	Just then, Surd accessed some weaponry. 

	"A minor setback, Bannon.  As for now, I will finish you off in my

own way." 

	"Activate hoverboards and laser gatling guns!" shouted Jonny, as

the desired apparatus appeared before them, and the battle was on as they

sped through cities and desert landscapes, playing cat and mouse-- both

for the purpose of diversion, and a battle for survival. 



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	"Hadji, trace the original Questworld signal, and send the

coordinates straight to Commander Bennet via scrambled satellite link.

Encode a message explaining what is happening and attach it, and send it

through the undetectable link.  Authorities should already be on the trail

after the first message we went after Abby told us where they were, but

this will serve as confirmation." 



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	Not that much time had passed since authorities had received their

anonymous task, and the local authorities had Surd's hideout under

surveillance.  Once Commander Bennet's orders came thorough, the FBI

became involved, and reached the site with amazing speed. 

	"Jeremiah!  Someone is downloading Rachel... and uploading..." 

	"Uploading?" screamed Surd between battle blows. 

	"Bannon, I must leave for now, but we will meet again!" screamed

virtual Surd.  "Julia, log me out!" 

	Surd was pulled out of Questworld right as the system totally

self-destructed. 

	"And this is your idea of vengeance?" asked Rage. 

	"None of this would've happened if you would have controlled your

emotions over your traitor wife!" screamed Surd. 

	Just then, the authorities busted in and arrested them, and

confiscated all the anti-matter devices.



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	"We did it!" screamed Jonny as he and Race returned to the real

world. 

	"Dr. Quest, a message is attempting to penetrate Quest

Enterprise's systems." replied Hadji. 

	"Tap in and bring it through." 

	"Good job, Dr. Quest.  Somehow I knew you could not have done all

that of which you were accused.  As of now, all charges have been dropped,

and a news bulletin will be broadcast to that effect.  One other thing--

when our men took Surd and Rage into custody, a number of small devices

were confiscated..." 

	"Anti-matter bombs, Commander." interjected Race. 

	"What you must do," started Benton, "is to get them all into space

and detonate them.  There is no other way.  And commander?" 

	"Yes, Dr. Quest?" 

	"Thank you." 

	"No-- thank you." 

	As promised, the Quests were cleared, and were able to return to

Maine.  The family assisted Abby and Carla with housing and employment,

thus giving them a start on a new life.  The antimatter bombs were

detonated in space, and the threat of worldwide destruction was over. 

	

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	"Benton, even though the charges against you were dropped and

the anti-matter technology destroyed, Surd and Rage still did a lot of

damage that we couldn't undo." replied Race. 

	"If you are referring to the riots and revolts, that is a problem

the government created for themselves.  It is unfortunate that this

happened, but any enlightened individual would know it was just a matter

of time.  The global threat is over, but the fighting continues. And my

guess is it will continue until either one side gives up, or the

government negotiates change.  This was not started by us, therefore, it

is not our place to finish it." 

	Even though the outside world was in torment, things were quiet

and returning to normal at the Quest compound.  Hadji and Miana, even

through the action at the complex, managed to work things out, and Miana

moved back into her and Hadji's room.  The Quests made new friends in

Abby and Carla, as Benton saw to Abby getting a good job in Quest

Enterprises taking over Miana's position working under Jessie.  They also

moved into a quiet, safe home away from any areas of rioting.  The Quests

had thus overcome the greatest challenge over posed to them, as they

successfully thwarted Surd and Rage's "ultimate vengeance".