The Disappearing Island

Bobby Lynn was a genius. An absolute genius, and an evil one at that. He had been set on a path to become the most feared and famed thief in history, just like his father was the most notorious criminal in the industry and his father before him, and his father’s father.

In 1911, his great grandfather orchestrated and organized the theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s little known (at the time) Mona Lisa from the Louve in Paris. The theft is the reason the painting had become so famous in the first place, and remained so, even in Bobby’s generation.

In the early 1920s, his grandfather, Max Fandom (nickname: Big Fan) at the age of 15 had been the co-owner of the Chicago Outfit with legendary gangster, Al Capone. Big Fan had even continued to expand the Chicago Outfit even after Al had gone to jail 7 years into the business, but no one outside of the criminal underworld new that. Now the Chicago Outfit was a global operation dealing in importing illegal goods of any kind into any country.

That had been because of Bobby’s father, Henry Lynn, better known as Colstov. He was the one who had transitioned the business after his dad had taken it global. That was until he had been ratted out. His father was incredibly careful. Only him had always known everything that was happening in the operation to make sure that no one had enough evidence for him to be prosecuted. Well, he was one out of two people who had known everything. His dad has, or did have, a best friend. Carl Bungledorph. They had been friends from the day each of them was born (which was the same day). They had run the new Chicago Outfit together and had made it even more successful than Big Fan’s gig. Until their falling out. Bungledorph had wanted to risk breaking a deal with their most trusted trade route supplier to make a deal with a new rising empire called the Harlem Smoke-shots, who dealt in supplying products, illegal or not. Colstov had shot the idea down, and that had ignited an argument with Bungledorph that got so bad, Colstov kicked him out of the business. At some point a few months later, Bungledorph had handed over Bobby’s dad in exchange for an immunity agreement with the government. Colstov had been tried and convicted, then sentenced to life imprisonment at the federal prison, leaving 3-year-old Bobby with his mom, Maureen Lynn.

Now, 15 years later, Bobby was 18 and determined to take back his father’s empire, now run by Bungledorph’s only daughter, Sofia Harlem (Queen Blade). The Smoke-shots and the Bungledorphs had allied themselves through marriage. When Sofia, born 5 years earlier than Bobby, reached the age of 21, she was married to the now leader of the Smoke-shots, Carmine Harlem (The Importer).

Thanks to the allegiance, the Chicago Outfit was even more powerful than before. Now they were 2nd only to the Disappearing Island, run by the least famous but most dangerous criminal in the history of criminals to ever exist. Scar. Rumor is he got the nickname for a scar that covers an entire half of his face and goes all the way down his back in a twisted design of an island. No one knows how he got it, or if it's even real, but they say that the scar is how the Disappearing Island was inspired.

There was another reason that his cooperation was called the Disappearing Island. It’s because he’s never been found. In the entire 90 years the Island has been in business, all anyone knows is that his base is somewhere on the water, and it never stays in the same place for long.

That’s why it had taken Bobby so long to find them. For four years, Bobby had been collecting every scrap of information he could on the Disappearing Island, on Scar. He’s found where it has been, what the location patterns are, even what Scar’s real name is. Sangar Metos, disappeared in 1931 and hasn’t been seen since. He found out that the Disappearing Island does business in everything from hijacking navy ships to drug trafficking, and most importantly illegal importing. That’s why Bobby wanted to find them. He was hoping that the Island could help him take back control of the Chicago Outfit.

Bobby wasn’t stupid. He knew that Scar was not going to help him if he just asked. Even though finding out where they were was something to be applauded, it wouldn’t be enough. That’s why Bobby had uncovered another thing about the Disappearing Island, something they wouldn’t want anyone to find out. 7 years ago, Scar died of a heart attack. It seemed strange that someone so powerful could die of something so common.

Now, Scar had left behind and heir. A man who already had his own business and was respected in the underworld, but his name isn't important, because he’s dead too. He died in a car crash, when he was rushing to his father's medical warehouse, where paramedics on Scar’s payroll were trying to get his heart to start beating again.

Now the empire was run by his 2nd in line, Koreena Metos (Scar). The thing about her was that no one knew she existed. Her mother was Scar’s former mistress, Josephene Tolber. Josephene hid the child from Scar for two years until one day, he dropped in for an unexpected visit and found Josephene standing there, a baby girl wrapped in her arms. The next day, the police found her body in a lake, with a hole in her head and a baby blanket gripped in her hands, but no baby to be found.

Koreena had kept the Island running, flourishing even, since her father’s death, but if anyone found out that the Island was being run by a girl who didn’t exist, they would descend like sharks.

Now all Bobby had to do was get to the Island. That’s the reason he was on a leaking rowboat in the middle of the Baltic Sea, getting ready to dive into a shipwreck surrounded by angel sharks circling the wreckage.

The Island wasn’t here, but the final step to finding it was. He dived into the water that was least populated with the Makos and made his way down to a hole in the ship. It seemed as if he swam for years, but finally he made it to the servant's deck. This ship had sunk 76 years ago when the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff and 10,000 people (about the seating capacity of Cameron basketball stadium at Duke University) would sink to the bottom of the sea, trying to escape the Nazis.

This was a known maritime disaster, but what people didn’t know was that one of the servants was smuggling diamonds in his personal belongings chest for Scar. Bobby searched the servants quarters for two hours before he finally found the chest. He opened the container and sifted through the diamonds to find the only one colored yellow. He pocketed the diamond, closed the chest and swam back up to his boat.

At 3:00 pm the next day, he got back to the small apartment building in New York that he shared with his mom and their dog WhipCream. Once he was able to jam his rusty keys into the lock and open the door, he dashed up to his room and ripped open the duffel where he had hid the diamond. He turned off all the lights and pulled his UV flashlight out of a drawer. He knew that The Island was somewhere in the Artic Ocean at the moment, but he didn’t know exactly where. That’s what the diamond was for. The little yellow stone wasn’t actually a stone at all. It was next generation technology that let the people who made the Disappearing Island work know where it is, and lucky for Bobby, they were water proof, even in 1945.

When the UV rays hit the diamond, it projected an image onto his bedroom wall. Latitude:77.88915, Longitude: -149.92618. That’s where The Island was. Bobby turned on the lights and sat on his bed. He did it. He found Disappearing Island. Now he was one step closer to taking back the Chicago Outfit.

All of a sudden, Bobby noticed it was quiet. He checked his watch, it was 3:15 in the afternoon. His mom should be running around the kitchen trying to make sure that Bobby won't go hungry even though there are plenty of leftovers that they could just heat up in the microwave. Something was wrong. Bobby took the gun out from the holster in the back of his jeans. He went down the stairs and checked every inch of the house. It wasn’t hard, the apartment was small and there were few hiding places. All of a sudden, he heard a creak from behind him. He turned around and fired but the gun just made a clicking noise. No ammo. He had forgotten to refill it in his excitement to find the coordinates for the Island. Bobby looked up into the ugly face of his advisory. The man had a spotty complexion, bald patches in his hair and rotten, yellow teeth, the same shade of the diamond. The fact that he was scowling didn’t help either. The man raised his own gun and clocked Bobby on the head with the butt of it.

When Bobby came to, his head was throbbing. It was also in a sack. It stayed that way, both throbbing and in a sack for so long that Bobby had lost track of time. The only way he could tell time was from the temperature, but something told him that wouldn’t work either. It was way too cold to be a summer night in New York, let alone day. Where were they going? Who were the people who kidnapped him? Why did they kidnap him?

After another hour in the sack, Bobby got his answer. Hands lifted him up and shoved him out of a door. Then he heard a voice “Take that thing off his head.” All of a sudden, the world was full of ice and snow. He looked at the woman standing in front of him. She had honey brown skin, hazel eyes, and long dark hair that stopped at her elbows. She also looked absolutely delighted to meet him, for some reason. Where was he? “Hello Bobby, my name is Koreen, but I think you know that already.” she said, barely holding in a smile.

“Oh.” was all he could say. He was on Disappearing Island.

TO BE CONTINUED........