All-Star Survivor: Hawaii Episode #8 Spy Games

Manakai Tribe (white): Alicia Calaway, John Carroll, Gretchen Cordy, Frank Garrison, Colleen Haskell, Rob Mariano, Vecepia Towery, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Tina Wesson

Click here to watch the All-Star Hawaii opening credits!

DAY 22

According to the United States Central Intelligence Agency, there are three main character traits you are looking for when you're recruiting a spy. There are three traits that a potential candidate must have above all else, if they're ever going to be effective in doing their job.

The three traits?

A potential spy must be bright, street smart, and aware of the ever-changing situation around them.

And even though Alicia Calaway only possessed two of these traits, Boston Rob still felt that, deep down, she was the one for the job.

Rob had been looking for a Keko spy for some time now, ever since the two tribes had merged and the game had turned individual. He had been looking for a member of Keko who could be used as a swing vote in a best-case scenario, and as a bit of Vecepia insurance in a worst-case scenario. But mainly he was just looking for someone who was so power hungry that they'd jump at the first offer they got.

And that's why he went to Alicia.

It was time to recruit the trump card that could win him this game.

It was just after midnight on the morning of day 22, and Rob Mariano was discussing what he wanted Alicia to do in the upcoming days. He hadn't quite gotten around to giving her a concrete offer, but he had promised her an important conversation and, so far, he had lived up to his word. Already, Rob had given her far more dirt than she had expected to hear.

"So you promise a Keko isn't going to go next?" Alicia asked, as she strolled along the coastline.

"I swear to God, no," Rob replied, honestly. "It was never in my plan to vote out a Keko next. And I'm bein' one hundred percent honest with you. There's no way a Keko goes next. You have my word."

Alicia frowned in the moonlight as she heard the promise come out of Rob's mouth. She knew she shouldn't be trusting him. After all, even though she didn't know him all that well, he was still Rob. He was still the Robfather. And she'd heard Kathy's warnings about the guy from the start.

"All I want from you is to be my eyes and ears," Rob reiterated. "I swear, that's all I want. I don't want you to turn on the Kekos. I don't want you to vote out your friends..."

"So you just want me to spy for you?" Alicia asked.

Rob just laughed, innocently.

"Well, spy's a little strong of a word..." he started.

"But that's what you want me to do, right?"

Rob turned and looked at Alicia. And he could see the distrust in her eyes. She didn't believe him. Even out here under the moonlight, it was easy to see.

"Look," he now explained, softly, "You guys are outnumbered, and both of us know it. If the Ahis wanted to decimate the Kekos, it wouldn't be hard. All I would have to do is snap my fingers, and you guys would be dead."

Alicia just nodded, a little half-smirk on her face. Well, yeah. Duh.

"But we're not gonna stick together," Rob continued. "I mean, I know it looks like we are, but we're not. Shit's about to go down. I can feel it. Something's comin'."

"And you need me to tip you off when it happens," Alicia nodded.

Now Rob just smiled.

She finally got it.

He didn't consider Alicia to be particularly intelligent, but it looked like-- without much prompting-- she'd finally caught on.

"So... then... who's going next?" she asked, curious. "I mean, if it's not a Keko..."

"Oh no," Rob smiled, coyly. "No names yet, okay?"

"Come on," Alicia laughed. "What, you don't trust me?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Rob laughed back at her, playfully. "But I promise, you'll know everything. I'll give you full disclosure when the plan's about to go down. And I swear to you, it's not gonna be a Keko. At no point will I ever ask you to turn on your friends."

Alicia just shrugged.

It wasn't the best deal in the world, but by this point, she had learned not to be picky.

After all, so long as she didn't have to backstab the Kekos, what harm really was there if you wanted to get in good with the boss?

^^






Even though it wasn't necessarily an alliance, Rob and Alicia had agreed to a casual sharing of information by the time they returned back to camp. Rob wanted Alicia to tip him off if he might be in any danger, and Alicia just wanted to be in good with the guy who was making most of the strategic decisions.

It wasn't the most solid partnership in the game, but it did happen to fit two important criteria: It made Rob feel safe. And it made Alicia feel safe.

And as far as Rob was concerned, that was just what he wanted.

You see, as the rest of the players slept inside Frank's newly constructed shelter, Rob Mariano sat outside on a log and thought about the hurdle he was currently facing. In fact, it happened to be the hurdle he had always been facing.

The Final Eight.

Rob Mariano had known for a long time that the final eight would be the point in the game where he'd be in the most tenuous position. After all, any strategist in his right mind would be able to see that. At the final eight Rob would be vulnerable to a tie. And that wouldn't be good.

Why was Rob so worried about a 4-4 tie?

Well for starters because there were two members on Ahi who hated him. Frank and Tina had made it clear a long time ago that they not only disliked Rob, they would probably go out of their way to prevent him from winning. Oh, they hadn't come right out and said this. But Rob knew it. The two of them would jump at the first chance they got to take him out of the game. It was perfectly obvious.

And, unfortunately, that chance was going to come in a couple of days.

So this was Rob's dilemma. How do you get around a 4-4 tie when you know that it's coming, and you know it's not going to end well? After all, there was no way his alliance was going to take a purple rock for him. There was no way that someone like Vecepia was going to take a rock for Rob, when she could just as easily puss out and live to fight another day. Expecting Vecepia to ever face a purple rock was simply out of the question.

"And do you think John would ever take a rock for me?" Rob had joked during an earlier interview. "Hell no! He'd be the very first one to bail. And I'd bet you money. He'd be outta there."

So this was the problem Rob could see down the road.

In six days, Tina and Frank were going to force a tie. They were going to team up with the two remaining Kekos, they were going to force a 4-4 tie, and Rob would be powerless to do anything to stop it. Because the minute that first tie came up, Vecepia would ditch Rob, and leave him for dead. And then John was going to do the same.

Rob could already picture the scenario very vividly, and it was pissing him off.

And so that's where the deal with Alicia had come in.

Was Rob expecting Alicia to turn on the Kekos and become a defector? Of course not. He knew he would be stupid to ask her to do that. And she would have been bullshitting him if she'd agreed to take part in such a short-sighted plan. All Rob wanted her to do was help him out of this tie. He wanted her help in breaking up the Frank and Tina pairing, before they ever had a chance to mess up this game.

"But why Alicia?" a producer had asked, when Rob had detailed this whole plan in an interview a couple of hours ago.

Rob just smiled whenever this question came up.

Why had he picked Alicia as his spy, instead of Gretchen or Kathy?

Well... honestly... who else could it be???

"I can't use Gretchen because she's useless," Rob had explained, laughing. "I mean, seriously. Do you think she'd ever go rat out her friends? Are you serious? She's a freaking pre-school teacher! She's ridiculous!"

"But what about Kathy?" asked the producer.

"Kathy's great," Rob shrugged. "But Kathy's Kathy."

"But isn't she a businesswoman?"

"Well yeah," Rob smiled. "But she's also pretty smart. And I don't like that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd be a little bit worried that she might figure things out."

The minute Rob gave this answer, he started to grin, slyly. And all of a sudden the producer knew what he was trying to imply.

Rob wasn't avoiding Kathy due to the fact she knew him too well. That was the obvious answer, but that's not what he was saying. Rob wasn't avoiding Kathy. He was choosing Alicia. He had selected Alicia as his beneficiary because he thought she was dumb.

"Oh great," sighed the producer, "You know, you're really digging a hole for yourself this season. Because that's twice now."

Rob just laughed.

"First you call Alicia a guy," asked the producer, "And now you call her an idiot? She's going to see this on TV and she's going to kill you!"

"Well what do you expect?" Rob laughed. "What, you want me to pick Kathy? She's too nosy! She'll figure it out."

"And that's your sole criteria?" asked the disgusted producer.

"Of course not," Rob quickly sobered up.

Then he went into his reasoning.

"There are three things you're looking for when you need an extra vote..." Rob explained, as he rattled off his little speech. It wasn't quite the CIA's criteria for spy selection, but it was remarkably close. "You want them to be desperate, you want them to be tough, and you want them to be smart."

He grinned.

"And even though Alicia's only got two out of three," he continued, "That still makes her a lot better than Kathy."

The producer simply sighed.

He didn't want to be anywhere near Alicia Calaway when she saw this on TV.

"Oh come on," Rob laughed. He saw the exasperated look on the producer's face and now he had to clarify. "You think I'm serious? I'm just tryin' to give you a sound byte."

"So then why Alicia?"

He knew that Rob had given this a lot of thought, and he wanted the truth.

"I picked Alicia because she's a badass," Rob explained, honestly. "I picked her because she wants to win, and because she has no power. And also because I knew she'd be greedy."

"Why?"

"Because you can see it in her eyes. She's not here for the experience. She's here for the win. In fact, she reminds me of Tammy. You offer a player like that a little bit of power, and they'll do what you want."

Now the producer smiled.

Finally, Rob was putting aside the "Boston Rob" character shit, and he was telling the truth.

"So you think she'll take the bait?" the producer had asked, concluding the interview.

"Of course she will," Rob shrugged. "She'll take the bait because she has to. She'll take my offer because there's no reason not to. For Alicia, it's a no-lose situation."

Rob had made that prediction a few short hours ago.

And of course he had been right.

With everything appearing to be locked and loaded, Rob now sighed contentedly and stood up from his log. After all, he was pleased with his results for the night. He had managed to get Mike Skupin out of the game, he had suckered Alicia into a meaningless pact, and that meant it had been a very productive day for the leader of Ahi. And that finally meant it was time for bed. Time to go join the rest of the tribe as they slept in the shelter. Rob hadn't noticed, but he had been sitting out here, thinking, alone in the dark, for more than an hour.

^^





The Manakai tribe arose from a good night's sleep around seven o'clock in the morning. Of course, this would have been late if Mike had still been here, as Mike was used to getting up at the crack of dawn. But Mike wasn't here. Mike had been voted out the night before. And it was a very nice treat to finally get a chance to sleep in.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever gotten up when it was actually bright out," joked Kathy, as she emerged, bleary-eyed, from the shelter. "Usually my alarm clock is whenever Mike kicks me in the head."

Gretchen, who was already sitting by the campfire with Frank, just laughed.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "I mean, I love Mike and all, but man that guy had an early schedule. I'm not gonna miss that at all."

Kathy walked over, pulled back her unruly hair with her white buff, and sat down. She wasn't much of a morning person, so she just sat here and listened.

Apparently she had interrupted Gretchen and Frank in the middle of a conversation.

"... Well I only teach part time," Gretchen was explaining, as she checked a boiling pot of water. "I mean, I know you guys call me a pre-school teacher but it's not a full time job. I only do it a couple of hours a week."

"So what do you do the rest of the week?" Frank asked.

"Well, you know," Gretchen shrugged. "Mom stuff. Running errands. You know, running around. I mean, you have little kids. I'm sure you know the drill."

Frank just sat there and nodded. Yes, indeed, he had two young daughters. He knew this world well.

"Hey but you should have seen the shirt my kids made me," Gretchen smiled. "I mean, the kids from school. They all signed a shirt and gave it to me last time I played. I wore it in Borneo."

Frank just chuckled, softly. Then he leaned over and showed her his necklace. It clearly said the words "Jocelyn" and "Sage" in childlike writing.

"Oh, that's sweet," cooed Gretchen, as she saw the gift Frank's daughters had given him before he left. As any mother of small children would be, she was visibly touched.

And while this conversation was touching and sweet and all, Kathy was now a little bit bored.

"Hey, Gretch, has anyone done a water run yet?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Gretchen shrugged. "I know that Vecepia and Tina went off to look for fruit. And John went out to look for shells. But if you're looking for something to do, then have at it. John's using this pot for breakfast, and then afterwards we're going to need some."

Kathy nodded.

As much as she enjoyed Frank and Gretchen's little bonding hour, it was time to get working.

^^

So Kathy went off on her water run.

Which was unfortunate.

Because as she would later find out, she had missed all the excitement around camp by a matter of minutes.

"We need to talk."

Gretchen had mouthed these words to Kathy almost the second she had returned to Manakai. And even though half the tribe was milling around camp, just sitting and talking, Gretchen had a look on her face like this just couldn't wait. She looked particularly insistent that they had to talk now.

"Now?" Kathy mouthed back, as she put down a pair of heavy water buckets near the fire.

Gretchen simply opened her eyes and nodded.

Now.

It looked like an emergency Keko summit was about to commence.

"So what's up?" asked Kathy, once Gretchen had stolen away from camp and met her down by the beach. There were no prying eyes down here. There were no listening ears. At least, none that would consider a chat between the two outnumbered Kekos particularly suspicious.

"Big news," Gretchen said, matter-of-factly. "Frank wants out."

"Out? Out of what?"

"Out of everything. Out of Ahi. He just told me!"

Kathy just stood there and whistled through her teeth. Now this was an interesting little piece of news. Was Frank Garrison about to pull the old end-run against his former allies on Ahi? Was he about to give the underdog Kekos the slightest bit of hope? Now? At the very point in the game when it looked to be over?

"So wait," Kathy said, as she closed her eyes and tried to wrap her mind around this. "Start from the beginning. Tell me what he said. I need to know everything."

"Well first off we were talking about our families," Gretchen said. "In fact, you probably heard most of that."

Kathy nodded.

"... and then we had to stop for a while because Rob walked by."

Kathy just snorted.

Man, Rob really had these people Pavloved into shape around here, didn't he? All the guy had to do was walk in the general direction of an Ahi, and they'd immediately clam up. He could even do it to Frank! As much as Kathy found Rob's whole little shtick tiresome, she had to admit that, deep down, she was a little impressed.

"So Rob walks by," Gretchen explained, "And then Frank turns to me, and he shakes his head. And he says, 'I can't stand him.'"

Kathy looked up, alarmed. That was it?? That was Gretchen's big news?? That Frank didn't like Rob?!

"Gretchen," she moaned, "Please tell me there's more to this story than that. Please, for the sake of all things holy, tell me there's more than just..."

Gretchen just smiled.

And Kathy was relieved.

"So Frank says that he doesn't like Rob," Gretchen continued. "And I just sort of lowered my voice and said, 'Well you know, most of us don't like Rob either. In fact most of us like you a hell of a lot more than we like him.'"

Kathy was surprised. Gretchen? Doing some strategic coercing?

Since when?

"The bottom line," Gretchen concluded, "Is that Frank likes us too, and would rather see one of us win than a player like Rob. He said that there's no way he loses to player like Rob, because that's unacceptable."

"And...?"

Kathy looked expectant.

"...And he said he's going to go talk to Tina, and they're going to make this thing happen."

"Yes!"

Kathy wanted to jump up and down and scream out loud. But she couldn't. At least not yet. In Survivor you learned really fast not to count your chickens before they're hatched.

But still, that was all but a promise from Frank Garrison. A man who didn't lie. Frank didn't bullshit. He didn't play mindgames. And this was very good news.

"Do you think Frank will be able to sway Tina?" Kathy asked, breathlessly. "Honestly? I mean, seriously, scale from one to ten, how sure did he sound?"

Gretchen thought over the question for a moment, but she never had a chance to respond.

Because here came the third of the Keko women, who was here for the chat.

"So, ladies, do I hear news of a comeback?" Alicia smiled broadly, as she sauntered over and joined their little summit.

Kathy looked surprised.

"Oh don't worry, I already told her," Gretchen waved her hand, dismissively. "She was the first person I told because she was sitting right there."

Alicia just smiled and nodded. She'd already been fully debriefed.

"So what do you think?" Kathy turned to Alicia and asked. "Where do you think we stand on this? Do you think there's a chance?"

Alicia just turned and looked back towards camp.

Could Frank sway Tina? It was hard to say. Anything was possible. Although she supposed the better question she really should be asking was, "Should I now report this to Rob?"

"Well, if you wanted my gut reaction..." Alicia said, as she turned around to face them, "I would say not to get your hopes up. Because I don't think it will be nearly that easy."

"But Frank doesn't lie..." Kathy started.

"Hey, you asked for my opinion," Alicia shrugged.

She hated to be the bearer of bad news. She really did. But "Alicia Calaway" and "brutal honesty" sort of went hand-in-hand. That's just how it was.

"In my personal opinion," Alicia reiterated, "Yes Frank is serious. But no Frank doesn't control those types of decisions. So even if he really wants to come over and join us, I don't think he'll make it. I don't think it's his call."

"Jeez, way to throw a wet blanket over things," Kathy scoffed at her.

"Well, have you ever known me to lie?" Alicia looked amused. "At any point, in the entire time you've known me, have I ever said anything you thought was a lie?"

Kathy simply shook her head, because Alicia was right. Alicia was Keko's own version of Frank Garrison. She was their cold, hard rationalist. If you asked her a question, and you didn't like her answer, it's because she was probably the only one who would have told you the truth. Whether you liked it or not.

"Well I don't care if that's your opinion," Kathy laughed, "Can I just be the first one to say I hope that you're wrong?"

"Hey, I'd love to be wrong too."

But she wasn't.

Alicia knew that Frank had pretty much a zero percent chance of ever swaying Tina to do anything. Tina was just too savvy. She'd just sway him right back.

And that meant that Alicia's only viable option was to report this to Rob.

^^







So Alicia went and told Boston Rob. She told Rob that Frank was making plans to come over to Keko. She'd been there to confirm it.

And that meant that Boston Rob's first spy mission for Alicia had been a success.

At the moment, Rob was currently returning from a tree mail hike with Colleen, as the two friends had retrieved news of this afternoon's reward challenge. Rob was carrying the tree mail in his left hand, and he talked as he walked, as he planned their next move.

"So you've been in good with Tina, right?"

"Yeah," Colleen nodded. "She trusts me. She knows she shouldn't, but she trusts me."

"Good," smiled Rob.

Colleen hated when he smiled like that. It was creepy. It usually meant that he wanted her to carry out some elaborate lie, and he thought this was fun.

"Well we're just about to the point in the game where it will all pay off," Rob muttered quietly, almost as if to himself.

"Pay off?" Colleen looked over at him.

"Yeah."

Rob didn't elaborate.

"Well I hope you don't make me choose between you and Tina," Colleen added, after a moment's hesitation. "Because I don't want to do that. I can't do it. I promised her she wasn't in any danger, and I'm not gonna lie."

"She's not in any danger."

Colleen sighed, relieved.

But... still... the unspoken question remained.

Just who was in danger? And just what was the plan?

"All I wanna tell you right now," Rob said, cryptically, "Is that shit's about to go down. And it's gonna be big."

Colleen nodded. She knew better than to ask for details, because she knew none would come. Rob didn't like to elaborate.

"All you need to do for now," Rob continued, "Is just stick to Tina. And I mean stick to her. Stick on her ass. Just do whatever you have to do to get her to stay."

Colleen nodded. She had been doing that. As much as she hated the idea, she was officially playing both sides.

"Well, just don't backstab her, okay?" Colleen now looked up and asked, imploringly. "I mean, I know I don't ask much. Just... don't take out Tina after all that I've promised. I would feel horrible."

"Well she's gotta go eventually," Rob shrugged.

"I know. I'm not dumb. Just not... next. Okay?"

Colleen looked up at him.

And Rob looked down and he promised.

As long as Colleen could procure her loyalty, Tina was safe from the vote.

^^

The first individual reward challenge came just before dinner. It involved throwing spears at targets, it also involved a bit of creative strategy, and John Carroll couldn't help but laugh when he saw what the producers were trying to do to them.

"Check it out, we're chopping coconuts," he snorted to Vecepia, once he realized what kind of challenge the powers-that-be were going to spring on them today.

"What?"

"Check it out," John laughed. He turned and nodded at the rows of pineapples that had all nine players' names written on them. "Ten bucks says we're trying to knock those things down, and ten bucks says they're trying to make us reveal the pecking order. They're trying to get us to sabotage ourselves."

John just grinned at her, sheepishly. After all, he would know. He'd fallen for this trick once before.

"Well don't worry, baby," Vecepia cooed reassuringly, under her breath. "The people who are in control know how it's gonna do down." She looked over and smiled at him. "Aint no way a challenge is gonna dictate the order around here."

"Damn right," said John, confidently, under his breath.

Luckily they were in the back of the tribe and no one had heard.

"... Your challenge today," Jeff was explaining, "Is to use one of these spears to knock down your opponents' pineapples..."

Sure enough, John was right.

It was a coconut chopping challenge.

Pick off your opponents too blatantly, and you risk tipping your hand.

"Each person has three pineapples hanging from that tree," Jeff continued, as he pointed out towards the end of the shooting range. "If one of them is hit with a spear, it gets taken out of play. Last person with at least one pineapple hanging wins reward." He smiled. "Want to know what you're playing for?"

The players nodded. Of course they did.

"The winner of this challenge gets a very simple reward," said Jeff, "But it happens to be a very valuable one. In fact, right now it's sitting in my hip pocket."

He reached into his pocket...

... and pulled out a phone.

Tina, in the front of the line, let out an audible gasp.

"The winner of today's challenge," explained Jeff, "Will win a one hour phone call home. Thanks to Nokia, and our satellite service, you will be able to call anywhere in the world, and talk to your loved ones for up to one hour. And I think that you will all agree that at this point in the game, that's an important reward."

Tina, who was practically bawling already, just lowered her head and started praying. Next to her, Frank patted her on the shoulder and nodded his head. Behind them, John exchanged a series of elaborate hand signals with his partner, Vecepia.

"Are you guys ready to play?" smiled Jeff.






^^





Minutes later, the Manakais lined up on the edge of the sand, as they faced a hanging series of labeled pineapples a little more than one hundred feet away. Each player held a spear in their hand, they poised in concentration, and they waited for Jeff to announce that round one was ready to go.

"Survivors, ready!"

Nine spears were cocked.

"Aim!"

Nine people were ready.

"Throw!!!!"

Just like that, nine spears were launched.

And... just like that... one player lost two of her three pineapples, which hardly seemed fair.

"You guys!"

That was a laughing cry of protest from Kathy, who had lost two-thirds of her targets in the opening salvo. Rob had taken out one, and Frank had taken out the another. After one round, Kathy had only one pineapple remaining, and she didn't look pleased.

"You ready for some revenge, Kathy?" Jeff asked, teasingly, as the players lined up for their second throw.

"Let's do it, man," Kathy said, only half-jokingly.

But all it took was one throw from Rob, and she was out of the game.

THWACK!

Kathy was gone.

THWACK! THWACK!

Alicia took two hits.

The Kekos were being systematically eliminated, and they weren't the least bit surprised.

"I'm not gonna forget this, Mariano," Kathy taunted, laughingly, as she walked over to sit on the loser's bench. But it's not like there was much she could do about it. She'd been through a coconut chop before, and she knew how it felt. If you went in as the minority in a challenge like this, you might as well not even show up.

"Don't worry," Alicia called over to her. "I'm sure I'll be joining you soon."

And she was.

THWACK!

Alicia was eliminated by Frank.

"Well at least the good thing is that I know I'm not going home next," Alicia joked, bitterly, as she walked over to sit next to Kathy. "Because we allll know that Kathy's going home next. The Ahis just told us."

She sat down, dejectedly.

Gretchen was coming to join them next, and Alicia was pissed.

"Okay, Manakais, next round," said Jeff, as he held his right arm up in the air. He waited a second for the seven players to spread out and find their favorite spot. Then he dropped his hand and unleashed a volley of spears into the air.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

Gretchen took one of those hits, of course, but surprisingly, two of them were for an Ahi. Two of Boston Rob's pineapples now had a spear jutting from them. And Gretchen wasn't the only player who saw this and nearly did a double-take.

"Sorry! One of those was mine," admitted Colleen, sheepishly. She turned and looked at Rob, apologetically. "I was aiming for another one and I missed."

Rob just shrugged and nodded.

Meh, no big problem.

But it was the second spear that had hit his pineapple that he couldn't ignore.

"Frank, was that you?" asked Jeff, curiously. But he hadn't had to. Of course that was Frank's spear. They all had color-coded handles and, even from here, they could see that one was blue.

"Slipped," was all that Frank could say.

He added nothing.

And Rob had already deduced that Frank had hit him on purpose.

"Next round," Jeff announced.

THWACK!

There went Rob, out of the game. Gretchen had nailed his final pineapple with pinpoint accuracy.

THWACK! THWACK!

There went one of John's and one of Vecepia's. Rather than fall prey to the nastiest challenge in Survivor history, they had finally decided to just take one other's pineapples out, in an attempt to avoid any fallout. Yes, it was a bit of a copout, but at least John was learning.

"Boston Rob, out of the game," smiled Jeff, as the amused Ahi leader walked over and joined Kathy and Alicia on the loser bench. Rob had a smile on his face, but it wasn't a particularly angry one. He just stared at Frank, amused, as he twirled his white buff around and around in his hand.

With Rob out of the game, that left just six players remaining.

And they were soon down to four, with the demise of John and Vecepia.

"John and Vee, taking each other out at the same time," smiled Jeff. He watched as the two Ahi allies walked over and sat on the loser's bench. Then he turned and faced the final four players with spears in their hands.

"Okay guys, you ready?"

Tina nodded that they were.

"Ready... fire!"

THWACK!

There went one of Frank's.

THWACK! THWACK!

There went two of Tina's.

Colleen was now the only player left who hadn't been hit.

"Let's go, Gretchen!" Kathy now cheered from the sidelines, once she realized that the last remaining Keko was still left in the game. Because how was that even possible? How had the Ahis been such assassins with Alicia and Kathy, but left Gretchen alone?

"Go, Gretchen!" cheered Alicia.

Gretchen just looked over and smiled at her.

Oh well, if the Ahis had somehow forgotten about her, they were sure to know now.

"Survivors, ready to fire..." announced Jeff.

Four spears went up.

And that's when Gretchen's dreams of winning took a serious hit.

THWACK!

Frank buried a spear right through the center of her second pineapple. In fact, it was such a clean hit it nearly cut it in half.

THWACK!

Gretchen's spear hit Tina's final pineapple. Tina was now out of the game. But Gretchen could only gasp out loud at the sight of Frank's accuracy. She had never imagined you could bisect a target that cleanly from this far away.

Impressed, Gretchen turned and exchanged a look with Frank Garrison. He just let out a little smile and shrugged imperceptibly. And she knew she'd been had. The guy's a trained marksman!, she thought to herself.

And just like that... THWACK!

With his next throw, Frank knocked out her final pineapple and Gretchen was out of the game.

Frank Garrison, who had been so embarrassed by his lousy showing in the archery challenge back in Africa, had gone into this challenge intending to dispel a couple of myths about him. The first myth was that he couldn't hit a target, and the second myth was that, well, he couldn't hit a target.

Frank knew he was going to win this challenge, because he was a hunter, and this was simply his sport.

THWACK!

There went Colleen's first pineapple.

THWACK!

There were Colleen's second pineapple.

Colleen Haskell could only watch in silent helplessness as Frank single-handedly took her out of the game.

THWACK!

"Frank!" announced Jeff, "Wins reward!"

As the rest of the tribe applauded politely, Frank Garrison smiled underneath his dark glasses. Because he hadn't just won that challenge, he had dominated. He had dispelled all those old Africa myths. He had won the first reward challenge in style, and he would get to call home. He was about to talk to his wife and two beautiful daughters. And even for a notorious stick in the mud like Frank, the smile on his face was impossible to miss.

"For the rest of you," shrugged Jeff, "I got nothing. I'm sorry."

They understood.

The rest of them would go back to camp empty-handed, while Frank got a chance to recharge.








DAY 23







Alicia Calaway was only three questions into her daily morning interview. And already, she was starting to get a little annoyed at where the producers were trying to push go.

"I'm not betraying anybody," she reiterated for the second time. And she glared at the man who had asked her. "I haven't turned on Keko for a second, that's complete bullshit!"

The producer just looked at her, incredulously.

Was she really that obtuse that she didn't see the implications of what she was doing?

"When I talked with Rob, I made one promise, and one promise only," Alicia now explained slowly, as if talking to a small child. "I said, I'll watch your back if you watch mine. I said that I'd warn him if I heard he was in danger."

"Which you did," pointed out the producer.

"Your fucking-A right I did!" Alicia retorted. "And I mean... Jesus... how is that treason? How am I turning on my alliance?"

"I never said you were," defended the producer.

"Well you certainly implied it," Alicia shot a look at him.

This interview had gotten off to a rocky start, and now she was getting defensive.

"Okay, let's go back to the beginning," the producer soothed, as he put on the most disarming smile he could muster. It was awfully hard to interview Alicia once she went into damage-control mode. The minute she thought you were accusing her, she'd go right into flight or fight. And with Alicia, that meant she'd usually fight.

"Fine," she said flatly. "Back to me and Rob."

"And try to answer these like you're giving a confessional, okay?" the producer reminded her. "Try not to sound like you're answering questions."

Alicia just nodded, impatiently. Yes, she knew you weren't supposed to sound like you were answering questions. No shit, Sherlock. She wasn't a rookie.

"So take me back to your chat with Rob..." the producer treaded, cautiously. After all, he didn't want to prod her into defensive mode again. He'd already gone too far, too fast the first time around, and look where it went.

"Rob and I made a deal," Alicia explained, emotionlessly. "We made a deal that I'd warn him if he was in danger, and he'd warn me if I was in danger. And that's as far as we wanted to go."

"Why?"

"Because we don't really trust one another," Alicia shrugged. "He doesn't trust me to keep a deal, and I sure as hell don't trust him to keep a deal. So we just made a tentative... warning system... just to see where it went."

"And would you call that an alliance?"

The question hung in the air for a good thirty seconds as Alicia just sat there and stared at the sand. And the producer just looked over at the cameraman and held his breath.

Uh oh.

Were they inviting fireworks again?

Was this just going to be one of those difficult days for the guys in the production crew?

"No. I am not in an alliance with Boston Rob," Alicia said defiantly, as she now looked up.

The producer opened his mouth to ask her to explain, but he didn't have to. She was already explaining.

"... My deal with Rob was that I was his warning sign. But I didn't promise him protection. I never said I wouldn't vote for him. I never shook his fucking hand..."

"... yes, but..."

"If Rob wants to know if he's in danger," Alicia continued, "I will walk up to him and I will say yes Rob, you are in danger. Or I will say no, Rob, you are not in any danger. I will do it honestly. I will do it ethically. And I will do it to the best of my ability." She glared at the producer. "And do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm an honest player. If Alicia Calaway gives you her word on something, she's going to keep it. If I sit here and say, Gretchen, I will not vote for you, then I'm not going to vote for her. That's the way I've always approached Survivor, and I'm not gonna change."

"So you're just trying to prove to Rob that you will stick by your word," deduced the producer.

"Bingo," Alicia smiled.

At long last, Captain Dipshit finally got it.

"What I'm doing isn't treason," Alicia explained. "I'm not turning on anybody. I'm not betraying anybody. I'm just proving my loyalty. I'm going to a guy who's got an awful lot of power around here, and I'm saying, hey you can trust me. Because when push comes to shove, and the Ahis turn on each other, I want him to know that."

"So you don't seem to think the Ahis are going to fall right away."

"Hell, no. Why would they?"

For some reason Alicia couldn't understand, Kathy and Gretchen both seemed to be convinced that Boston Rob and the Ahis were going to fall apart any day now. In fact they were so sure of it that it was routinely talked about as fact. Around camp, all day long, all you ever heard was "When Ahi falls apart..." or "When Tina decides to turn on Rob..." Alicia heard this conversation every day, and she thought it was crap.

"Ahi isn't going to fall apart," she laughed. "Seriously. I mean, I know we've got a couple of pie in the sky optimists on this tribe, but my God, we can't all be preschool teachers out here. We can't all sit around and play with crayons and Play-doh. We have to be realistic. Some of us have to start planning for the inevitable."

"So you think Keko is going down?"

"Keko is going down," Alicia shrugged. "But not because of anything I'm doing. Rob will be able to pick us off whether I help him or not. He'll do it because he doesn't show pity, and because he knows what he's doing. He'll do it because he's a much better player than people give him credit for, and he's controlling this game."

"So would you vote him out if you ever had a chance?"

Alicia surprised him by hearing this and laughing out loud.

"Would I? Of course! I'd be first in line!"

She laughed again.

"You forget. Rob might be sneaky. And he might have gone out of his way not to make me an offer. But two can play at that game. I can word things vaguely too." She smiled. "I don't trust that asshole for a second. The only thing I ever promised was that I'd tell him the truth."

"And you think that will work out for you?" came the final question.

"Hey, it might, or it might not," Alicia shrugged. "If it doesn't, at least I tried something. At least I can say I didn't just sit there and do nothing."

At that, the producer wrapped up the interview. He was going to have to have Alicia reword some of these answers to sound more like a confessional, but for the most part he was pretty satisfied. After all, the big question had now been answered. No, Alicia didn't consider this treason at all. She felt that she was using Boston Rob, not the other way around. She wanted him to see her as a potential ally down the road, when the game began to get ugly.

Of course, most of the production team still thought she was delusional. But sadly, they weren't allowed to imply that. If Alicia was going to fuck up the game for everybody, they were powerless to stop her.

"Hey, by the way..." smiled the producer, once the camera had been shut off and it was just him and Alicia. This was off the record. This was something he just wanted to know.

"Shoot."

"If you don't consider this treason, then what do you call what you did to Frank?" The producer just smiled, innocently. "I mean, he sounded like he wanted to come over to Keko, and you went and told Rob. And you wouldn't call that sabotage?"

"Bah," Alicia just smiled. "That wasn't betrayal. That was chess. I didn't ruin anything that would have happened. I just bought the Kekos some more time."

The producer shrugged.

Whether Alicia was actually on to something with this whole "Prove herself to Rob" angle, it was clear that she had made up her mind. She was going to ruin any chance the Kekos would ever have, and that meant that Kathy and Gretchen, and possibly Alicia, were officially screwed.

^^

At this point in the game, it was clear that Alicia Calaway was skating a very thin line of betrayal, treason, and semantics. She was walking a tightrope over a murky gray area, and the powers that be were sure that, at some point, she was going to fall.

Of course, Alicia didn't see it that way.

According to her, what she was doing was little more than ballsy "anything to win" strategy. She didn't have the slightest problem with what she was doing, and would defend it all day. Because in her personal opinion, so long she never made a move against the Kekos, she wasn't crossing the line. So long as the target were pushed onto someone like Frank, she could continue the dance.

In any case, Alicia was entering a very dangerous world of playing both sides, even if she wouldn't admit it.

Which was more than you could say for Colleen, who was simply over her head.

Colleen Haskell, the onetime Sweetheart of Borneo, was currently locked into a lifelong pact of allegiance to two players in the game whom she liked very much. She was attached at the hip to her good friend Rob, and she was attached at the hip to her good friend, Tina. She had managed to plead allegiance to two players who were mortal enemies.

It wasn't a situation Colleen had intended to happen, but unfortunately it had.

Now, of course, Colleen Haskell wasn't a stupid woman. Oh, she might come off that way to some of the more hardcore players, like Rob, or some of the more game-savvy players, like Alicia. The two of them would have referred to Colleen as a strategic simpleton. As would a lot of the All-Stars. But deep down, Colleen was no idiot. The worst you could say about her was that she was a little naive. She had come into this game expecting that she had known how to play, and had been proven horribly wrong. Day after day, the game of Survivor continued to smack her around.

"I. Do. Not. Understand. This game. Okay?" Colleen had reiterated in almost every single one of her interviews over the past two weeks. "I don't get it. I don't want to get it. I'm never going to get it. And I was an idiot to think that I would."

What was Colleen referring to when she said this?

Well she was rebutting her hopelessly naive final words back in Borneo, of course. Last time around, Colleen had promised that "Next time, I'll win it all." She had made a cocky little promise.

And these days, she regretted that line with a passion.

It wasn't that Colleen actively hated Survivor. Far from it. She happened to think the whole thing was an interesting idea. The problem was that, until Hawaii, she had never realized it was over her head. All of it. Every single minute of the past 23 days had been like a smack in the face.

Especially now, when she realized she had chosen a dangerously naive path of peril, and now she was screwed.

"The problem with my plan," she would explain to producers, "Is that I was an idiot. I sort of drifted along, thinking everybody would get along, that we would all be friends. I always figured that if I made connections to as many people as I could, I'd be in good with whoever took over."

The producers would just laugh when she said things like this. Because this was typical Colleen ponies-and-rainbows strategy. It was the mind of a child. Greg Buis used to mock her mercilessly for this type of thinking during their time back in Borneo.

"Hey, what did I know?" Colleen laughed back, defensively, as she did whenever the producers would laugh at her. "I've never watched this stupid show. How was I supposed to know how it works? All I know is that you're supposed to get in an alliance. So that's what I did."

"And what was your plan after that?"

"Um..."

Colleen looked sheepish.

Because beyond hooking up with an alliance, she hadn't had the slightest game plan. And how could she? How on earth could you plan for when your friends starting using you as a pawn? That wasn't something you could prepare for. They hadn't done that in Borneo. This wasn't the game she knew. This game-- indeed the whole concept of "All-Stars"-- was completely ridiculous!

All Colleen knew was that now she had wandered into a briar patch, and now she was screwed.

But she was also smart enough to defend her honor if you called her a patsy.

"I'm not a victim," she would protest, every time the topic came up. "I knew what I was doing. I mean, I know I'm not super game-savvy, but it's not like I was forced to start playing both sides. No one told me to pull a Kelly Wiglesworth. I did it on my own. Rob didn't put a gun to my head."

She frowned.

"I know I've chosen this path for myself. And I know it's my fault."

So this was Colleen's mindset as she sat down with Frank and Tina on the morning of day 23. Colleen knew she was screwed. She knew that no good could come out of this whole conversation. After all, its entire reason for being-- the entire reason she was here-- was to make sure that Tina would stay loyal to the Ahis. Rob had told her to promise anything in the world to Tina, and keep her from teaming with Keko.

No matter what.

"... Well if we do this," Tina replied softly, once Colleen had made her alliance pitch, "I just want some reassurance from you. I mean, I do trust you and all. You know that. But if we decide to stay with Ahi, I just want to know there's a reason."

"There is," Colleen nodded.

"And would that be...something like a final three offer?"

Tina quickly looked around, to make sure nobody was within earshot. And nobody was. It was just Colleen, Frank, and Tina, alone in the woods.

"Well I know final three would be good for the two of you and all..." Colleen smiled, slyly.

Tina laughed.

"... But I'd be a lot more comfortable if we could make it a final four."

"With who? Rob?" Tina looked concerned.

"No, John."

Colleen smiled. John Carroll was the one person in her alliance who she felt she could trust. If this really were a true alliance, that's who she would pick.

"I know you guys don't like Rob," she explained. "And I don't really want to be around him that much more anyway. So Rob's out. And you know I don't have any connection to Vee. So if you wanted to make this a final four deal, I'd want to pick John."

Tina nodded. Of course Colleen wouldn't have any ties to Vecepia. What on Earth could the two of them possibly have in common?

"Well, I don't have any problem with that deal," Frank nodded, as he thought over the details. "If Rob's out, I'm up for it. There's nothing keeping me in Ahi anyway. Count me in."

Frank had already made up his mind. After all, Tina had no interest in joining the Kekos-- she never had. And Frank knew that. But this deal sounded like nectar from heaven, it would free them from Rob, and-- best of all-- there was no way Colleen was hardcore enough to be making it up.

"Look, Colleen, I don't want to regret this," said Tina, as she shook her head one last time.

Something about this deal was niggling...

There was just something about Colleen's affect that was throwing her off...

"I told you," Colleen said, "Rob and I are not going to the end together. I don't want to be there with him. I never have! He just thinks I'm just his little lap dog."

"And you're not?"

Colleen just smiled.

"No way!" she grinned. "I've been the one playing him!"

And she looked happy.

Because this time, for the first time all game, Colleen actually meant it.

^^






Yes, it was true.

Colleen had officially taken her first baby steps of independence from Grandmaster Rob.

She was breaking her chains.

But it wasn't going to last, because she was about to get fucked.

It was just after lunchtime on day 23 when Rob finally sidled up to his second-in-command, Vecepia, and floated a name. It was just one little name. In fact it was barely five letters. But this word was about to send shockwaves through a few players' strategies, which of course was what Rob had intended.

"Frank."

Vecepia heard Rob's suggestion and she turned around and shot him a look.

Frank?

Rob and Vee were sitting here around the firepit, surrounded by four other players, eating their lunch. And Rob had decided that this was the optimal time to switch up the plans. He wanted to do it here, in the middle of everyone, and very discretely. Because this way, Vecepia would have no chance to argue without freaking everyone out.

So Rob locked eyes with Vecepia and he caught her attention. Then he shifted his eyes over towards Frank. And then shifted over towards Gretchen. And even though he hadn't said more than one word, Vecepia knew what he was implying. Rob had caught Frank planning to defect, and he was cutting him off.

Vecepia looked over at Rob and just cocked her head, curiously.

Are you sure?

Rob nodded. He didn't need to say a word. He'd done this before. Like identical twins, he had played charades so often with Vecepia, they both knew how to talk.

Of course, Frank Garrison, who was sitting here eating his rice, was completely unaware that his fate was being discussed at the moment. He was simply eating his lunch and chatting with Kathy. He had no idea that fate was about to deal him a cruel blow. He had no idea that his hours-old alliance with Colleen and Tina was about to be crushed.

"What about Tina?" Vecepia now mouthed to Rob.

Rob just shook his head, quickly.

He then flashed Vecepia an "okay" sign with his fingers.

That meant that Tina was under control, because Colleen had snaked her.





^^

Rob and Vecepia never had a chance to follow-up on this conversation. But that wasn't such a big problem. After all, discussion wasn't mandatory. The two of them often communicated through signs and gestures when playing Survivor. The two of them were just that much in-tune. Rob knew what Vecepia's motives were, and Vecepia knew what Rob's motives were.

And that meant that Vecepia understood what Rob was trying to do, because she knew him so well.

"He's worried about a tie at the next vote," she explained to John, once she had cornered him behind the Manakai shelter. She then went on to give a quick rundown of what Rob was probably thinking. Rob was worried about Frank and Tina forcing a tie at the final eight, because that wouldn't end well. A tie at the final eight would clearly be the Robfather's last stand..

So Vecepia knew he was being proactive. And being careful. By eliminating Tina's last option.

"Tina won't force a tie without Frank," Vecepia explained. "I know her. If Frank's out of the picture, she'll stick with Colleen. That's all she can do.

"And we're sure that Tina's in with Colleen?"

Vecepia just shot him an exasperated look. Of course she was. Who else would Tina be in with? How could that partnership fail?

"Well I don't have a problem dumping Frank," John shrugged. "I mean, I like the guy and all, but it doesn't really affect my plans if he meets with an accident. And if makes Tina turn against Rob that much faster, just give me the pen."

Vecepia nodded.

If there was one thing that she could be sure of, it's that Tina was gonna be pissed.

"You know though," John pointed out, "If I were Rob, I'd be more worried about Tina than Frank. I mean, yeah, Frank took out his pineapples and all. But Tina can do a lot more damage if you leave her around. What's Frank gonna do? Shoot somebody? Stab somebody with his deer antlers?"

But Vecepia disagreed.

If Rob was determined to get around that 4-4 tie, she knew exactly what he was trying to do.

"I think Rob's been planning this all along," she cautiously deduced, "In fact, I don't think this is spontaneous in the slightest. I know he wants people to think that, but I don't think it's true."

Vee paused to think it out in her head.

"So Rob takes out Frank tomorrow..." she thought out loud.

"... And Tina flips out," John added.

Vecepia nodded.

"But Rob's controlled that because he has Colleen taking care of it," she continued. "He has Colleen cut a deal with Tina beforehand, and now Tina's under control. She's promised to stick with Colleen after the vote, and she will, because it's still her best option."

John nodded.

Rob had found a clever way to get around the 4-4 tie. The little shit. He had neutralized Tina and any Tina revenge, all thanks to Colleen.

"So the question is," Vecepia finally asked, "Can this hurt us?"

That was the big question.

Could they go along with the Frank plan, and not walk into a trap?

Of course neither of them had any idea about Rob's super secret partnership with Alicia. That much of Rob's plan would have been a surprise to both of them. Even Vecepia. The idea of Rob bringing over an ace in the hole as a tiebreaker hadn't crossed the mind of his Survivor twin for even a second.

"So how's your relationship with Colleen?" Vecepia now asked, quickly. "You guys still good?"

"Yeah," John nodded.

"Do you think you could ever get her to pick you over Rob?"

John shrugged. He didn't think it would be that hard. After all, he had always felt like it was destined that he and Colleen were going to end up together. It just felt like it was going to happen. And even though the two of them weren't allied now, he knew that could change.

"I've never thought that Colleen would let Rob control her all the way to the end," he finally said. "Because that's not her. That's not Colleen. Sooner or later, she's gonna get sick of him. Because how couldn't she? The guy is an idiot."

"So do you think we can gamble on her?"

That was the implied question behind everything they were debating right now. Could they rely on Colleen? Would Colleen be able to sway Tina? And would Colleen be able to dump Rob down the road when it counted? Those were the two biggest questions in the game at the moment.

Because if the answer was "no" to either one of them, it was time to switch plans.






^^






Vecepia and John had wanted a little more time to think over this latest twist in the game. After all, this was a fairly major decision. Voting out Frank Garrison was going to have a big impact on the rest of the game, and they wanted to discuss this.

Was this move in their best interest?

Or would it only benefit Rob?

They wished they had more time to debate this, but that would just have to wait.

"Hey guys," said Kathy, as she poked her head around the shelter, "Rumor has it we have a challenge tonight."

John and Vee immediately clammed up.

"I'm going to get tree mail," Kathy added, "Anyone want to come with me?"

Of course, John certainly had no intentions to go on a hike at the moment. Not even with his good friend, Kathy. After all, that had been his strategy for days now. He had specifically been trying to stay away from the Kekos, and away from discussions. Ever since the tribes had merged, he had been taking a page out of the book of Vecepia, and staying out of the drama.

So John was a no-go. He would just stay here and start up their dinner.

And that's when Vecepia surprised everyone by saying she'd go.

"Yeah, I'll come with you," smiled Vecepia, which shocked the hell out everybody, including the camera crew.

Kathy and Vecepia? Alone in the woods?

Since when was that a good idea?

"You sure?" asked Kathy, dubiously.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," smiled Vecepia. "I could use a walk today. Let's go."

Kathy shot a quick glance at John. What the hell was going on here? Vecepia hadn't spoken more than five words to her since the day of the merge.

But Vee had already started walking, and Kathy had to run to catch up.





^^

While it was true that Vecepia and Kathy were not the best of friends, for obvious reasons, deep down Kathy had always felt bad that their relationship had reached such an icy state. After all, Vecepia wasn't a bad person. She never had been.

She just happened to have a red flag against her character that Kathy couldn't forget.

"... My problem is that I just know I can't trust you," Kathy was currently explaining, as the two women hiked through the trees, side by side. "I mean, how can I? We were both there. We both know what happened."

"But it was never personal," Vecepia calmly explained.

"Well I know it wasn't personal to you," Kathy rebutted. "But it sure as hell was personal to me. Vee, you wrecked me!"

"I know," Vecepia nodded her head, empathetically. "And I said I was sorry."

"No you don't know," Kathy said. Then she stopped walking. "Do you know how bad I was when I left that game, Vee? I was ruined. I was completely, and utterly, destroyed. The producers were worried about me."

Vecepia just stopped and lowered her head.

Deep down, she didn't want to get into this.

"So you're telling me you wouldn't have done the same thing I did?" Vee asked, calmly.

"No! Vee, I never could have done that to anybody. I couldn't have done that to Rob!"

"Well maybe that's just where you and I differ as players," Vecepia looked over and shrugged. "Maybe you're just a little more ethical than me. Maybe I can be swayed a little bit more when I see a chance for the win."

Kathy just stared at her, hard.

"Didn't you feel the slightest bit guilty?" Kathy now asked, with tears in her eyes.

"Of course I did..."

"No, I don't mean that forgiveness crap," Kathy asked, cutting her off. "I don't mean with God. I mean with you. Spare me the prayers. I just want to know if you, as a person, as Vecepia, ever felt the slightest bit bad about what you did to me. Did you ever stay up for one second afterwards, and feel my pain? Did you even try?"

Vecepia didn't say a word. She just slowly nodded her head, and stared at the ground. She'd felt bad. Oh yes she had. She didn't like to imply it, but even Vecepia-- the coolest customer around-- was known to be human.

And with that simple nodding of the head, one of the coldest freezes in the history of Survivor had officially been broken.

Kathy and Vecepia were still not quite friends, but at least now they were talking.

"You really were a bitch," Kathy laughed, still through slightly teary eyes. "You know that, don't you? You ruined our season. That ending was terrible."

Vecepia just laughed.

"Hey, what did you want?" she retorted. "To lose to Neleh? How was that better?"

"I didn't say that!" joked Kathy. "I was kind of hoping for... you know... Kathy to win. She was my favorite. I think she was everybody's favorite. She was the underdog."

"Nah," teased Vecepia, "Kathy was great, but she wasn't a Sarah."

"Oh, gawd. Sarah."

HAW HAW HAW.

And so they hiked.

Two women who really had been staying away from one another, but who had now officially broken the ice.

And that made Vecepia happy.

You see, she didn't yet know that Rob had an super-secret unexpected trump card in Alicia. That part of the puzzle had managed to elude her radar, and would have surprised her. But even if she had known, she wouldn't have panicked. Because it wouldn't have mattered.

After all, Vecepia was now on her way to having a surprise ace-in-the-hole of her own.





^^





The big day 23 immunity challenge was to be held just before dusk off Manakai Beach. Their tree mail had directed them to come down here right after dinner, and that's where the nine remaining players were now lined up, as Jeff went over the rules.

"Tonight's challenge," explained their host, "Is a bit of a scavenger hunt. And you're going to be doing it underwater."

A few players moaned.

Swimming was not the strongest suit for most of this tribe.

"Basically you're going to dive down, and you're going to look for an object," explained Jeff. "If I say blue shell, you're going to look for a blue shell. If I say green rock, you're going to look for a green rock."

The players nodded.

"But in each round," continued Jeff, "There aren't going to be enough objects for all of you. One or two of you are going to come back empty-handed. And if that happens, you're out of the challenge."

He smiled.

"We keep going until one player is left standing, and that person's our winner."

Simple rules.

Simple contest.

And Rob smiled, because there was no way Frank Garrison was winning immunity.





^^





Ten minutes later, the nine members of Manakai were lined up on a wooden plank that sat atop the water. There was about twenty feet of open ocean underneath them, and down there somewhere sat eight objects that would have to be found.

"First round!" announced Jeff, from behind them on a platform. "You're looking for conch shells!" He held one up as an example. "There are eight of them down there, for nine people. And if you're the player to come back to the platform without one, you're out of the challenge."

He paused.

"Survivors, ready!"

They tensed.

"Go!!!!!"

Nine people dove into the water.

And after about fifteen seconds of scrambling, the first one came back.

SPLASH!

"Kathy has a shell!" announced Jeff.

SPLASH!

"Tina has a shell!"

SPLASH!

"Boston Rob has a shell!"

The rest of the players surfaced, in order, and then it was done.

"Who doesn't have a shell?" asked Jeff, curiously, as he peered off into the mob.

And then he saw her.

Vecepia was already swimming aimlessly, headed back to the shore.

With round one in the books, and Vecepia having been eliminated, Jeff waited for the players to get back on their platform. He waited for them to get back in place, then he announced their next task.

"There are six green rocks down there," he said, as he held up a sample to show them. "Six rocks for eight people. That means that two of you are getting eliminated this round, so you better be quick."

The players nodded.

"Round two!" announced Jeff. "Green rocks!"

The players tensed.

"Survivors ready.... Go!!!!"

SPLASH!

Eight people went into the water.

And Jeff counted them off individually as they quickly came back.

"Colleen has a rock!"

"Tina has a rock!"

"Boston Rob has a rock!"

"John has a rock!"

Jeff waited for the last two players to surface, and then they came, one after the other.

First came Kathy.

And then came Gretchen.

Alicia Calaway and the vulnerable Frank Garrison had both been eliminated.

"Okay, Manakais, you're down to six," smiled Jeff, as the remaining players came back and lined up on their suddenly-much-bigger platform. He watched as the players strategically lined up into place. Then he announced the next object they'd be finding.

"There are five yellow shells down there," he announced. He held up a sample for them to see. "Everybody got it?"

The players nodded.

They had it.

"Five shells for six people. One person will be eliminated this round."

And with that, he sent them into the water.

SPLASH!

Six people went in.

Five people came out.

Gretchen Cordy was the only one empty-handed.

"Sorry, Gretchen!" called Tina, as she was the one who had taken Gretchen's shell from right under her nose. But Gretchen didn't mind. She simply shrugged and swam back to shore. Can't win 'em all.

And now there were five.

"Okay guys," smiled Jeff, once the five remaining Manakais were ready to go. "This round is going to be intense. Because there are only three of these down there, and I want you to find them."

He held up a small golden coin.

"What is it?" asked Kathy.

"It's a pirate doubloon," announced Jeff. "And they aren't very big."

Tina simply whistled from the wooden platform. Kathy just laughed and shook her head. They were supposed to fight over something that small? In an area this large?? This round was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Those things were dirty and tiny!

"Survivors, ready!"

The five players tensed.

"There are only three doubloons down there!" yelled Jeff.

He paused for dramatic effect.

"Survivors... Go!!!!"

SPLASH! went five people.

Then five people came up.

They were all empty-handed.

"Nobody has a coin??" Jeff asked, incredulously.

One by one, the players ducked their heads under water and started looking around. Some, like Kathy and John, went down and poked around in the rocks.

And that's when Kathy found the first coin.

SPLASH!

"Kathy moves on!"

SPLASH!

"Tina moves on!"

And then a very surprising third splash came from tiny Colleen.

"Colleen finds the third coin! We have an all-women final three!"

Boston Rob and John came swimming sheepishly to the surface, as they had just been bested by the much smaller women. But it didn't matter. After all, neither one of them were going to go home tonight. Especially Rob. So long as Frank was going to be vulnerable-- and he was-- Rob was perfectly fine.

With the two last men out of the contest, the three women lined up on the platform, ready to go.

With Tina, who swam competitively in college, being the natural favorite.

"There are two shark's teeth down there," said Jeff, as he held up one as an example. "Two shark's teeth, for three people. Everybody got it?"

All three women nodded.

"Survivors ready..."

Jeff paused.

"... GO!!!"

Kathy went in.

Tina went in.

Colleen went in.

And the players back on shore waited breathlessly to see which one would come up.

"A lot could be at stake tonight," narrated Jeff, as he watched the ocean for signs of anyone coming up. He only saw two tiny trails of bubbles. He couldn't tell where Kathy was swimming. "Someone's going home tonight. Will it be one of these three?" He paused. "How safe do they feel?" Another pause. "How much do they want this immunity?"

And then the first person was back.

SPLASH!

It was Tina.

"Tina's moving on to the finals!"

And here came the second splash.

"And she'll be joined by Colleen!"

Kathy, who had put up an impressive showing, was now out of the challenge.

With the immunity challenge down to just two people, Jeff waited for Tina and Colleen to swim back and take their places atop the wooden platform. Because this was now the final round. It was going to be womano-a-womano, as Tina, and her good friend Colleen, squared off for an immunity that neither one needed.

"You guys set?"

Both women nodded.

So Jeff held up a small bluish-green object and told them to study it.

"This is a marble."

"Jeff, we can't find that!" Tina protested.

"One of you will," Jeff shrugged.

And with that, he told them to get ready, because it was time to go fishing.

"Final round!" he announced. "Tina and Colleen! First one back with the marble wins immunity!"

He paused, and watched as the two women poised to dive into the water.

"Survivors, ready!!!!"

Both Colleen and Tina stared at the water, intently, through their wet hair.

"Go!!!!!!"

In went Tina.

In went Colleen.

And everyone was surprised when Colleen Haskell came back with the prize.

"Colleen!" announced Jeff, "Wins individual immunity!"

"Oh my God!" screamed an clearly-shocked Colleen. Then she swam back to the platform and handed over the marble. This was the first immunity necklace she had ever won in her life, and she couldn't believe it. How had she won that challenge? How had she beaten an amateur swimming champ like Tina in a water challenge? Who would have predicted it?

"Nice job, Colleen!" cheered John, from back on the beach.

"Way to go!" applauded Vecepia.

Colleen beamed with pride as Jeff walked over and placed the flowery lei around her neck in the water.

Of course, she didn't really need it.

But... still... it was awfully exciting to win something, when you were a girl who didn't win much.

DAY 24

Day twenty-four began as one of the happiest days of Colleen Haskell's young life.

After all, over the past twenty-four hours, she had managed to acquire three things she had never had before in her Survivor experience: immunity, security, and power. Over the span of one day, she had lucked into the three things that had always eluded her, and now she was feeling fantastic. And that meant that today was the first time in two seasons of Survivor that she practically bounded out of bed to greet the new morning.

"Mornin', sleepyhead," said Gretchen, as a bleary-eyed Colleen stumbled out of the shelter and sat down on a log next to the campfire.

This was odd. Colleen usually wasn't one of the first players up in the morning. And Gretchen would know.

The fact that Colleen had woken up beforeanyone was fairly amazing.

"You're up mighty early today," smiled Gretchen, as she stirred a pot of rice that was cooking over their fire. "What, did someone roll over and kick you in the head?"

Colleen just looked over and squinted at her with one eye still closed. She never had had much of a morning eye. Her left eye couldn't handle the morning sun without a warm-up period. And Gretchen remembered laughing at this little Colleen quirk all the way back in Borneo.

"I dunno," Colleen murmured, from behind one squinted eye. "I just felt like waking up early today. I don't know why."

"Probably because you're not going home tonight."

Colleen just squinted and shrugged.

Could be.

"Well the rice should be ready in about ten minutes," Gretchen said, as she leaned down and tested the consistency with the end of a stick. "I can't promise you coffee, but at least you can get something warm in your stomach."

"Mmmmmm, coffee," Colleen moaned, dreamily.

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up. It's cold, and rice is all we've got."

Colleen and Gretchen sat and chit-chatted for a while, just happily talking about whatever it was that people talk about when they're not talking about strategy. After all, even though the two of them were friends, Gretchen had learned by now it was best not to go there. With Colleen, the quickest way to get her to clam up was to start to ask questions.

"Hey there, immunity killer," said Kathy, as she walked past and ruffled Colleen's hair. "You're up early."

Kathy was apparently up, and now so was Frank. And both of them looked stunned that Colleen was sitting here so early, and enjoying the morning.

"Hey, I got an idea," said Kathy, as she sat down next to Colleen. "How about the four of us, final four alliance? What do you say? First four people up, and we go to the end?"

She looked around excitedly, but of course she was only kidding. Kathy just knew how fun it was to tease Colleen, since she wouldn't talk strategy.

"Um... how about not," Colleen replied.

"Oh, come onnnnn," Kathy needled her. "Final four, baby. We're all here! It'd be easy!"

Colleen just whistled innocently and looked at the sky.

And Kathy woke up most of the rest of the tribe with one of her exaggerated laughs.

So that was how most of the morning went for our hero, Colleen. No, she still wasn't a morning person. But at least she was trying. She was trying because she was genuinely excited to greet the new morning. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she had thrown off the reigns of oppression, she was having a good time, and she was excited to play.

And as Colleen sat here, smiling and joking around with her tribe, she couldn't help but laugh when she thought about how ironic it was. Because Rob had no idea. Rob had no idea that the little monster he had created was now controlling the game.

Colleen still had no idea how to play Survivor. In fact she wasn't sure she even wanted to know how to play Survivor. All she knew was that she now had an alliance Rob couldn't do anything about. She felt guilty as hell that she'd had to play him like this, but essentially that's what she had done. She had tricked him. She was about to pull the wool over the eyes of the Robfather, and you just had to laugh.

So that was how Colleen greeted the morning of day twenty-four.

She greeted it with a squint, with a bit of confidence, and with a laugh.

All three of which would be squashed, eviscerated, and obliterated by the end of the day.





^^

Why was day twenty-four about to turn into one of the single worst days of Colleen Haskell's life?

Well because of the Robfather, of course.

The player who she was so eager to outsmart was about to cut her little alliance plan off at the knees.

Upon awakening, the first thing that Rob did this morning was to call Alicia behind a cluster of trees. After all, Rob had a new mission for his little ace in the hole. And it happened to be a very important one. Because the days of planning spy missions and plotting espionage were over.

The spy games had been a test, and Alicia had passed. She had passed with flying colors. And that meant that Rob could now escalate their little arrangement to deal with something important.

"I want to know if you'd be willing to vote with us tonight," Rob explained, slowly.

Alicia just smirked softly to herself and looked at the ground.

"Can I ask why?" she asked, coyly.

"No, you may not."

Alicia just laughed.

Classic Rob.

Just do what I say, and when I say it, but I can't tell you why.

"Well, you know, this wasn't really part of our deal, Rob," Alicia looked over at him, playfully, almost flirtatiously. "I mean, as far as I remember, our pact was that I'd warn you, and you'd warn me. But at no time did we ever promise that we'd..."

"Well I'm asking you now."

Rob just stared at her, ominously. And suddenly she realized he wasn't just trying to be a wise guy here. Rob really was making a legitimate offer. He was trying to persuade her the only way he knew how-- through threats and implication.

"Am I to understand that if I don't vote with you," smiled Alicia, "Then things will go badly for me?"

"I'm not saying that."

Oh, but he was.

Rob didn't have to say it explicitly to get the message across. A refusal to go along with this suggestion would not be forgotten.

"Well I'm not voting for a Keko tonight," Alicia said, stubbornly. "I mean, you can strong-arm me all you want, but I already told you I'm not doin' it."

"I didn't say you were voting for a Keko tonight."

Okay... now that got Alicia's attention. By this point, now her interest was a little bit piqued.

"Not a Keko?" she asked. "Then who?"

"No names. Not yet."

"Come on," she protested. "If you're gonna ask me to vote with you, at least tell me a name." She smiled at him again, coyly. "Why, don't you trust me? Haven't I earned that? Didn't I prove myself?" She paused, thinking. "It's Frank, isn't it?"

"I said no names," Rob said. And now he smiled. "All I can tell you is that it won't be a Keko. And if you agree to vote with us, I'll owe you a favor."

Alicia couldn't help it. She laughed. She loved Rob, but she couldn't take this Godfather shit seriously. She just couldn't.

"Rob," she joked, "You are so full of shit. I mean, my God. You're ridiculous."

Rob just smiled and shrugged, casually.

She could laugh at him all she wanted, but the offer still stood.

"Fine," Alicia finally smiled, once she had figured out he was being serious. Okay, she would play his silly little Mafia game. She'd humor the guy for as long as he wanted. But she would only do it her way, and on her terms. Because even though she was logical and a realist, she was also Alicia.

"So what do you want from me?" she asked, coyly.

"At Tribal Council, I'm going to hold up a number. Either one, two, or three fingers. And that's the person I want you to vote for."

"What? You didn't think cue cards were cheesy enough?"

Rob just glared at her.

And over objections from her inner Alicia, she decided to be serious.

"So who's number one?" she asked.

"You'll find out later."

"Come on!"

But Rob wasn't budging.

There was no way he was giving her enough information to run back and screw him.

"So you hold up the number of the person who's going," Alicia nodded, only half-seriously, "And I vote for them. I got it. Anything else?"

"Yeah, and I don't want anybody else from Keko to know about this."

Alicia couldn't help it. She had to laugh again.

Yes Rob, I'm going to go tell all my girlfriends about it, 'Cause they'll all think it's funny.

"I'm serious," Rob said ominously. "If you tell one person about this, the deal is off. And we never speak again."

"We don't even have a deal!"

"Not yet," smiled Rob. "But anything's possible."

Alicia just threw up her hands in frustration.

"All I will say," Rob added slowly, with a hint of threat underneath his words, "Is that it would be good if you did this. It would be very... good... for you if you played by the rules."

"Good?" Alicia repeated, mockingly.

"Good," Rob smiled.

Then he patted her on the back, like a friend.

And with that, Alicia's "arrangement" with Boston Rob had now reached a new level.

^^




As the rest of the tribe spent the morning in their usual pre-vote "let's get this over with" Tribal Council doldrums, Alicia Calaway now found herself in a situation she had never encountered.

She had now been offered some sort of a deal, but no information.

She had been offered the most open-ended deal in the history of Survivor, and it was so weird, she didn't know how to react.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she turned and asked the cameraman, as she walked by herself along the beach. Alicia knew she wasn't supposed to talk to the camera crew, but she couldn't help it. That whole exchange had been so bizarre, and so unprecedented, that it was blowing her mind.

"That was, without a doubt, the stupidest fucking conversation I have ever had in my life," she continued. "I mean, my God. That was ridiculous! That was like talking to a twelve-year-old!"

Even though Alicia was probably the most street-smart player in the history of the game, and often bragged that she could see bullshit walking down the street from a mile away, at the moment... she literally had no clue how she was supposed to react. She was nearly speechless about what had just happened-- which didn't often happen-- and it was freaking her out.

Had Rob's offer been just more Robfather bullshit?

Had that just been a test?

Or was he being serious, and extending an offer?

Even someone who claimed to have "seen it all", like cynical Alicia, couldn't figure this out.

"If he wanted to make an offer, why couldn't he just say it," Alicia complained to the camera. "You know, like a normal person? Why couldn't he say, 'Hey, Alicia, if you want to make an alliance, here's what we do.' Do this, and we go to the final two."

Ugh.

She hated stupidity in all its forms, and this was driving her mad.

"But no," she continued, "Rob doesn't talk like that. Rob doesn't talk like a normal person. He says 'Hey baby, if you do this for me, I'll owe you a favor. But I can't tell you what it is, or why I want you to do it. I just want you to know that there may be a vague reward if you jump through this hoop.' Clean your room, and you might get some ice cream."

She just sighed, helplessly.

"Seriously, does anybody talk like that? Do actual humans talk like that? Are we in a fucking gangster movie? Am I in hell?"

The crux of it all was that Alicia was pretty sure there had been an actual offer in there. Somewhere in there, Rob had been serious.

But right now, all she knew was that an Ahi was going to be leaving tonight, and she didn't know who.

And so Alicia walked.

In a perfect world, she would have loved to run back to Keko and report everything that just happened. Oh, she would have loved that. She would have loved to run back to Kathy and Gretchen and tell them this news. After all, Rob had basically just given her the ammo to rally the troops. He had given her the opening the Kekos had needed to form a counter-attack, just because he was stupid. And Alicia thought it could work.

But at the same time... she also happened to be a little bit wary of this particular plan of attack.

Why?

Well, because what if Rob had a second spy back at camp?

After all, if Rob had made this offer to Alicia, he certainly could have made the exact same offer to Kathy. He easily could have gone to any other Keko and said, "Hey, you warn me of danger, and I'll warn you." Because that was something that definitely seemed possible when you were dealing with Rob. This whole thing could just be one big elaborate trap to test Alicia's greediness, and see if she'd bite.

Right now, the only thing Alicia knew for sure was that the Kekos were safe tonight, and an Ahi-- probably Frank-- was going home. And that Rob was going to ask her to vote along with him by flashing some ridiculous signal. Those were the only two things in this whole scenario that were guaranteed fact.

And that meant that everything else, from Rob's threats, to his implied promises, to his ridiculous Godfather shit, was little more than the deluded fantasies of a kid who liked to play dress-up. It was all just ridiculous bullshit. And in the no-nonsense mind of Alicia Calaway, that crap was pointless, it made things sound stupid, and she just wished he'd stop.

"This sucks," she complained.

Alicia wished she could say something more profound about this whole situation. But after about half an hour of thinking, she found it was hopeless. It just sucked. That's all that it did. There was no way to dress it up any prettier than the fact that this blew.

She could either run back to Keko and tell them that she knew nothing, but that they weren't going home. Or she could put on her little clown hat and dance around whenever Rob said, for some vague hint of security. Either way she had the potential of looking like an idiot in the long run, and it was pissing her off.

Sighing, Alicia finally finished her walk and returned back to camp.

She wasn't happy about the position Rob had put her in, but she would learn to accept it.

After all, didn't you sometimes have to put aside pride just to get to the end?

^^

As the hour of the fateful vote came closer and closer, a few of the Manakais started doing whatever they could to make last-minute strategic negotiations. After all, this was going to be a very important Tribal Council tonight, and all of them knew it. Every single player here knew that the minute you start voting off jury members, each decision you make starts to become that much more important.

The first player to start solidifying his votes, of course, was Rob.

Without question, Rob Mariano was easily the most detail-oriented strategist left in the game. He didn't like to leave anything to chance. When Rob needed something to happen, he made it happen. He micro-managed. He cut last-minute deals. He lined up his chess pieces.

Which was exactly what he was doing right now, in the last few critical hours.

"So Tina's in the bag?" he asked, as he sidled up to Colleen next to the shelter.

"Yeah," Colleen nodded. "No problem."

"She won't switch?"

Colleen shook her head, honestly, and she smiled.

Because not only would Tina not switch, she would also be in prime position to help Colleen take down Rob in the next couple days. It was perfect. So yes, Colleen thought, Tina is in the bag. Just like you asked. The only problem is that you, Mister Big Master Strategist, haven't realized what you've managed to teach me.

"Good, 'cause we need Tina," Rob murmured. "This is the big one. Tonight, a lot of shit's goin' down. And if Tina runs to Keko, we're dead."

"Why would Tina want to...?"

But Rob cut her off.

Colleen was still on a need-to-know basis. She always had been. She'd get the details later.

Why?

Well mainly because she was still far too careless when she talked to her friends. Colleen was way too candid when she talked to people like Gretchen, or Tina. She had loose lips. Rob didn't like it, he didn't trust it, and that was exactly why she would get the details when she needed them, and not a moment before.

"Look, the less you know, the better," he explained. "Because if this goes sour tonight, and you knew about it, you're dead."

Colleen just stood there and nodded.

Whatever.

As far as she knew, it was still going to be Kathy tonight, and she couldn't care less.





^^





So Rob's first chess piece was in place.

Colleen.

She knew just enough details about what was about to go down, but not enough to warn Tina. Because even though he thought he could trust her, he couldn't be sure.

And with Colleen in place, Rob now moved on to chess piece number two, Vecepia.

After all, if Vee had any major arguments against voting for Frank tonight, they might have to abort.

"I don't have any problems with it," she shrugged, non-committally.

"You sure?" Rob was concerned.

"Nah," Vee shook her head.

After all, they'd already discussed the dangers of a 4-4 tie down the road. And how Tina and Frank would flip in a heartbeat. Because Vecepia knew how bad this scenario would be for her as well. She knew that if a tie happened, she would easily be in as much danger as Rob, or anyone else.

After all, if Rob won immunity, who would probably get hit?

Well there was only one answer to that, her name was Vecepia, and she was second-in-command.

"Don't sweat it tonight," Rob now smiled, cryptically. "I mean, I know it sounds risky but we got some insurance. Just in case things go sour I got some backups in place."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, let's just say there may be some Kekos who are willing to help."

Okay, now Vecepia was interested..

Wait a minute, so Rob had now recruited some Kekos?

Why was this the first time she was hearing of this??

"Who?" she turned and asked him, concerned.

"Doesn't matter," Rob shrugged. "All that matters is that the votes are there."

"How many?"

"Enough to make this a sure thing."

Damnit, Rob.

And with that tempting little bit of gossip having been dropped, Rob bid Vecepia adieu and headed off. He already knew he had her vote. After all, Vecepia was as scared of a 4-4 tie as much as he was. And now that he had informed her that Frank was going pretty much anyway, either with or without her help, she would know that the choice was now out of her hands. She simply had no other option.

And for Vecepia, this was a little disheartening.

For the second time in as many votes, Rod hadn't even needed to convince her... yet he'd done it with force.





^^





So Colleen was in place.

And so was Vecepia.

And after a very quick chat in the woods, so was John.

Rob now had four solid votes lined up for tonight, and that was good. Because whether Alicia decided to help them or not, Frank was virtually cooked.

So Rob relaxed.

After all, it was hard work running a Survivor tribe. And it was even harder work putting together an alliance. There was a lot of stress involved in this game, and a lot of people didn't even realize it. You had to constantly stay on your toes, and plan for things down the road, and it could mess with your head.

So Rob spent the next few hours just relaxing by the campfire.

While the rest of the tribe scrambled in panic mode around him, and cut last minute deals, he just sat there, and stared at the fire, and relaxed with his thoughts.

After all... wise is the man who stays calm in the eye of a hurricane, is he not?

And you had to be calm when you relied on a do-nothing (John), a know-nothing (Colleen), and a parasite (Vecepia) to help win you the game.





^^





Even though Rob was secure in the knowledge that Frank was about to meet an unfortunate end tonight, one of the things he wasn't aware of was about to cause headaches for everyone involved.

Because, you see, Rob wasn't quite aware of all the variables he was playing with.

He thought he was.

He had certainly tried to know, and control, them all.

But there was one tiny detail his alliance had neglected to mention. Just one teensy tiny little detail. Rob wasn't aware of it. Rob had never been told about it. And if he had, he might have changed up his plan.

"I assume Colleen has already talked to you about us working together," Tina said to John, as she had him cornered down by the beach.

Um... what?

John hadn't talked strategy with Colleen in nearly two weeks. He had been too nervous to, especially around Rob. Because Rob had been watching. So what was this that Tina was now saying about some sort of alliance?

"Colleen came up to Frank and me yesterday," Tina explained, carefully. "She said she was going to set it up so the two of us could work with the two of you after tonight." She paused to scan John's face for any sign of recognition. "Does any of this ring any bell with you? A four way alliance with you, me, Frank, and Colleen?"

John's face just remained blank.

This was the first time he'd ever heard any mention of a counter-alliance.

"Well yeah," he stammered, awkwardly. After all, John was no dummy. If someone comes up and asks if they have an alliance with you, you nod your head. You learn that very fast. Like they say in Ghostbusters, if someone asks you if you're a god, you always say "yes."

"Colleen's been trying to make a break from Rob for a long time," John continued, as he tried to piece together whatever info he could about what he knew about Colleen. "And I said I'd be willing to help. I said I'd do whatever she wanted to help take down Rob."

He assumed that was what Colleen had told Tina.

And he hoped he was right.

"So you don't have a problem with taking out Rob after tonight?"

"Shit, no," John laughed. "Why would anyone?"

He laughed, but deep down he had a very bad feeling Tina had already figured it out.





^^





"We've got trouble."

John had pulled Vecepia aside as the tribe was getting ready to hike to Tribal Council. He pulled her aside because there was some very valuable information she now needed to know.

"Colleen didn't make a final two deal," John explained, "She made a final four deal."

"What?"

"She was supposed to just rope in Tina. But she got greedy. And she did something dumb."

Vecepia, amazed, just stared at the ground in disbelief.

If John was telling her correctly, was she to understand that Colleen had actually roped in both Tina and Frank? The very same Frank who was about to be voted out of the game? The man whose bond with Tina was so strong that, if Tina had assumed he'd be around tomorrow, in about three hours she was in for a shock?

"How did you find that out?" she asked.

"Tina told me."

"And you believe her?"

John shrugged. "Wouldn't you?"

Vecepia just sucked in a thin breath of air and thought over the ramifications of what was about to happen. Because Colleen clearly hadn't told Rob that Frank was any part of her deal. And Rob clearly hadn't told Colleen that Frank was to be the target tonight.

And it was almost comical when you actually thought about it.

Rob's carefully contrived plan of spy games had been put together so intricately, and so mysteriously, that his number one assassin had somehow missed the one piece of information she had needed to know.

"I did what I could to get out of it," John explained. "I told Tina that yes I was part of the deal. But I also pointed out that it was Colleen's idea-- that she had instigated it. I pushed myself as far away from Colleen as I could, because I didn't want to get blamed."

Vecepia nodded.

Good.

Damage control was good.

Step one, push all the blame onto Colleen, and cut her loose because now she was officially dead weight.

"Man, this plan is gonna blow up like a rocket," John now laughed, somewhat admiringly. After all, if he had ever wanted to see Rob go down in flames, this was the day. All Vecepia and he had to do was step away and leave Rob swimming alone, and he'd never survive.

"Has Rob ever figured out that he's an idiot?" John asked. "I mean, seriously. Has he ever figured that out? That he's clinically a moron?"

Vecepia remained lost in thought.

She was ignoring him.

"Boston Rob strategy is like the world's worst cherry bomb," John now giggled, gleefully. "Light the fuse, stand back, and run the fuck away. Just head for the hills."

But Vecepia didn't hear this because she had figured out a solution.

Voila.

Just like that, she had figured out how to make lemonade out of this particular pile of lemons.

"I'm going to warn Tina," she smiled.

"What?"

"Think about it," Vecepia grinned. "If Tina's not expecting Frank to get voted out tonight, what's going to happen? She's gonna be pissed. Right?"

John nodded.

"But if one of us warns her first," Vecepia continued, "She won't be surprised."

Now Vecepia had it.

It was all crystal clear in her head.

By warning Tina, she could turn Tina's anger towards Rob and Colleen, which would be a powerful move. Because Tina would then realize she still had two friends on Ahi, and would stick to their side. They wouldn't get blamed. And that meant that Tina would have no reason to force a 4-4 tie at the next vote. Because she would quickly realize that sticking with Vecepia would now be her best-- and only reasonable-- option.

"Rob never should have sent Colleen," Vecepia whispered, angrily, as she strapped on her backpack. "He should have sent someone who knew what they were doing. Because now I'm gonna have to go salvage this plan and save everyone's butt."

John just wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Meh, fuck Rob.

It was a stupid plan anyway.

Always had been.

All John cared about now was distancing himself as far away from Rob, and his lapdog Colleen, as he possibly could.

^^






As the Manakais hiked towards what promised to be the most explosive Tribal Council in All-Star Survivor, Alicia Calaway found herself in the very awkward position of not knowing what to do next.

Because she knew that Kathy wasn't going tonight.

Kathy wasn't going anywhere.

Kathy was perfectly safe, but she was saying her goodbyes, and it was getting a little bit weird.

"You know I tried everything," said Kathy, as she hiked along the dirt trail with her torch in her hand. "God knows, you guys, I did everything I could. But what could we do? We were doomed."

Alicia, who was hiking about two steps behind Gretchen and Kathy, had been listening to Kathy's litany of woe for nearly twenty minutes now, and it was driving her mad. Because Kathy was doing everything short of making a last will and testament, and there was no need to do that at all.

"YOU AREN'T GOING HOME TONIGHT!" Alicia wanted to scream.

But she couldn't. Oh God, she wanted to. She wanted to cheer up her friend Kathy, and put a smile on her face. But she couldn't. Because Alicia was too worried about what the consequences would be if she ruined Rob's Tribal Council surprise, and mucked up his plans.

"... I probably could have worked a little harder on Frank," Kathy was now rambling. "I mean, I probably could have pushed him a little harder. But he wasn't going to budge."

"You did everything you could," Gretchen reassured her.

"Yeah but there's always that 'if'..."

Oh man.

Alicia continued to walk with her head down, saying nothing.

This was torturous.

She'd had no idea what guilt really felt like until this moment, when she said nothing, and did nothing to tip off her friends.

"I'm such a loser," Kathy now moaned. "I mean, if you guys want to vote for me tonight, go right ahead. We all know I'm going anyway, so what's the point? It won't hurt my feelings. Just write down my name. It'll buy you some time."

"I promised I'd never vote for you," Gretchen reassured.

"Me either," Alicia muttered, indistinctly.

"We go down together," Gretchen added. "That was the deal."

And that line was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back.

Fuck you, Rob!, Alicia suddenly thought to herself.

God damnit she was sick of all this spy game shit. All this sneaking around. All this holding on to pertinent information. All this split loyalty. What was the point?

Alicia knew that Kathy was perfectly safe, and she wanted to tell her.

"Kathy, do we know for sure that it's even you tonight?" Alicia suddenly piped up.

Gretchen just shot her a curious look.

Um... hadn't Colleen tipped them off that was it going to be Kathy? Just like Colleen had tipped them off about Mike just three days before? Was Alicia implying that Colleen Haskell, their number one informant, could actually be wrong? Or worse, was she calling Colleen a liar?

"Hey, I don't know anything," Alicia shrugged, carefully. After all, she didn't want to tip her hand too obviously. She still wanted to leave the tiniest little crack open for a deal with Rob, just in case of emergency.

But still, Alicia wanted to float the idea that Colleen might actually be lying.

Just to give them some hope.

^^

In the end, Alicia never said a thing to Kathy.

Not a peep.

Because she had finally deduced that nothing she did was going to make an iota of difference in the vote tonight, and she wanted to be safe.

You see, as much as she wanted to blow Rob right out of the water, and reveal his plan to everybody, Alicia had finally figured out that the risks of such a plan would outweigh any potential reward. After all, how much did she know, really? She didn't know who the Ahis were going to backstab tonight. She only knew that a backstabbing was coming. But as for the details as to who, by whom, and why... she had been left in the dark.

Alicia had a pretty good idea it was going to be Frank. After all, how could it not be? Rob and Frank didn't get along, Rob had caught Frank red-handed plotting with the Kekos... all the pieces were there.

But still, Alicia didn't know this to be 100% fact.

And even if she did, she didn't think she had the power, not to mention the influence, to prevent the inevitable.

"Well good luck tonight," Alicia smiled to Kathy, as the two women walked inside the bamboo archway of the Tribal Council set. Kathy looked over and shrugged, helplessly. After all, she'd heard Alicia's vague hints of a surprise tonight, but she'd pretty much written them off as the dreams of an optimist. And Kathy was far too realistic a player to get her hopes up and pin her dreams on a miracle.

So Kathy sat down.

And let out a big sigh.

And Alicia, feeling guilty, took her seat on the wooden bench directly behind her.

Once she had taken her seat, and the rest of the players started filing in, Alicia glanced over to right, as far as she could, and she saw the man calling the shots. The Robfather. There he was. Rob was casually trying to make eye contact, without anyone noticing.

And then his eyes locked on Alicia's.

"You still in?" he asked through a shrug.

Alicia nodded.

Of course.

She was in.

So long as a Keko wasn't going home tonight, she would prove her trustworthiness by doing what he asked, and not saying a word.





^^





So Tribal Council began.

It wasn't your traditional Tribal Council, being that only three people here knew that Frank Garrison was going to be leaving tonight. But that was exactly the way Rob preferred it. He liked the secrecy. He liked to control all the variables.

And once Jeff launched into his first question, Rob knew it was now officially too late for anyone to mess up his plans.

Jeff asked Colleen a question about winning immunity...

And with that... Rob finally locked eyes with Alicia, and delivered the signal. He held three fingers against his leg. And three fingers meant Frank.

She knew it!

Alicia caught Rob's signal and smirked softly, in recognition. And then, mainly out of her own dark sense of humor, she thought it would be fun to play a little game with his head.

"Jeff," Alicia piped up, "I have something I wanted to say."

Rob froze.

"I just wanted to say," Alicia smiled, "That I thought it was pretty cool that Colleen won immunity yesterday. Because she never wins anything. And I thought it was amazing how she beat so many really good swimmers. That was awesome. I was really impressed."

Alicia could almost hear Rob's sigh of relief from way over here.

But she knew better than to look him in eye, because she'd probably start laughing.

Once Alicia had played her little prank-- which he did have to admit was pretty good-- Rob managed to pull himself off the ceiling and calm down. Because with Alicia in the bag, that meant that Rob now had four votes lined up against Frank. Which was good. With four votes in the bag, all he needed was one more.

It was time to signal Colleen.

And next came the moment that Colleen Haskell would never forget for as long as she lived.

^^

Three fingers went down.

The signal was Frank.

And Colleen wanted to scream the F-word as loud as she could.

No!!!!!!!!!

Since when was Frank the target tonight? She'd been told it was Kathy! This was the first time Colleen had ever been told of a change, and it was going to ruin everything!

"We need Frank!" Colleen tried to mouth to Rob.

But Rob couldn't hear.

He was too far away.

"WE. NEED. FRANK!"

Rob just shook his head and flashed down three fingers once again.

Not Kathy.

Frank.

Whatever Colleen was planning was not important, because the vote was for Frank.

Panicked, Colleen just lowered her head and closed her eyes. Because she knew what was this was going to mean. If Frank went home tonight, it was going to mess up everything. And she wasn't exaggerating about this.

Everything.

If Frank went home tonight, that meant that Colleen's alliance with Tina was officially off. As in dead. As in, Tina will never trust me again because I've lied to her face. Tina took a chance with me, she took a gamble I was telling the truth, and now she's gonna be pissed.

Colleen just shook her head, as if in pain, and started moaning.

Because if that wasn't bad enough, now she had also officially lied to the Kekos. Colleen Haskell, the sweetheart of sweethearts, had just tipped Gretchen off that the wrong person was going to be leaving tonight. And that could have messed up their plans.

Just what on Earth did Rob think he was doing by changing the vote?!?

Angrily, Colleen looked up. And tried to lock eyes with Rob. And was suddenly distracted when Jeff hit her with a question right out of the blue.

"Colleen, how do you decide to cast your vote tonight?"

"What?"

She blinked her eyes. She hadn't been ready for that. Whositsaidwhat?

"You are aware that you're voting somebody out tonight," Jeff asked, with a smirk on his face. "Right? Are you still here with the rest of us?"

Colleen shook her head and she blushed.

Great, and on top of that, now she was going to look like she was an idiot on national TV.

"My vote will probably go to the person who doesn't fit in," was her lame answer.

Colleen desperately hoped there wasn't a follow-up question. And luckily, there wasn't. And that meant that when Jeff moved on, she could turn her anger towards Rob and protest this change.

But Rob had already prepared for this. He had been well aware that Colleen was probably going to balk. When they locked eyes he simply pointed to Vecepia. Then to John. And then to Colleen. And held up four fingers.

In other words, the decision has already been made, so just go with the plan.

"That's only four votes!" Colleen mouthed, angrily.

But Rob simply shook his head, and he smiled.

And Colleen realized with a pit in her stomach that there was at least a fifth vote for Frank tonight. There were five, and maybe even six. Rob had covered all his bases, he had swayed at least one of the Kekos, and now her hand had been forced. She had underestimated him. Rob was very good. And now he'd escaped from her trap.

"Shit!" she now hissed, under her breath, in a very un-Colleenlike manner. Because now she was screwed. No matter what she did in the next half hour, no matter what name she wrote down on that parchment, she was toast. Either she defied Rob and pointlessly voted for Kathy, or she pissed off Tina and everyone on Keko, and showed she had lied.

Colleen Haskell had no way to get past this vote with a semblance of honor.

And right now, she would have preferred to just crawl in a hole.

"Fine," she mouthed to Rob, angrily.

She would do it.

She would vote for Frank

This game would officially never be fun again, but at this point she really didn't have much of a choice.





^^





Jeff's little Q&A session stretched on for nearly an hour, as the players sat here and answered his mindless questions as best as they could.

And then, finally, as the moment of the big vote drew closer, Jeff ended Tribal Council with a very curious question, which he posed to Vecepia.

"Vee, let's say I'm the person who's voted out tonight."

"Mmm-hmm," Vecepia nodded.

"Well what would you say if I asked why you guys picked me? What would you say was the reason?"

Vecepia paused to think over the question for a moment.

"If you asked me that question," she answered, carefully, "I would say it was because your fate was being used as a bargaining chip for a much bigger purpose."

Jeff nodded.

"What about you, Gretchen?" he turned and asked.

"Well if you asked me why you left," Gretchen replied, "I would say it's because you were in the minority. You're out of the game because you started on Keko."

"So you consider this to be Keko's last stand tonight?" asked Jeff.

"Oh, most definitely. I don't think anybody's under any illusion that it could be anything different."

"Well what about you, Frank?" Jeff pushed the question along. "Is the vote going to be that easy tonight? Is it just Keko against Ahi? How would you answer that?"

"I would simply tell the individual leaving that we had nothing against them," Frank responded, very matter-of-factly. "They didn't do anything wrong. It was a simply a case that their number came up. They were a name on a page."

And that's when Alicia's hand shot up in the air.

She had something she wanted to add.

"Yes, Alicia?" asked Jeff.

For the second time tonight, Rob's heart stopped.

"I'd definitely have something to say to tonight's bootee," Alicia smiled, innocently.

She inserted a very deliberate pause in her answer, and then her eyes shot over to meet Rob's.

They locked gazes.

And now he knew she meant business.

You don't want to do that, he whispered in his head, as he shook his head very slowly, as if sending a signal. Because she needed to know that he meant business as well. If she so much as made a peep to warn Frank and Tina, he was going to kill her.

But he needn't have worried. Alicia wasn't planning on burning any bridges tonight. She had just wanted to see Rob sweat. Again.

She did it just to show that she could.

"If tonight's bootee asked me why they went home," Alicia said, turning her focus back towards Jeff, "I would tell them, honestly, that it had been inevitable. There was no way it wasn't going to happen, and they couldn't have stopped it."

There.

Alicia had said her piece.

Frank Garrison was going home, and Alicia had stayed quiet, because Rob had covered his bases.

"And with that," smiled Jeff, "Let's get to the vote. Kathy, you're up..."

^^






As Kathy walked up to the voting confessional to cast the first ballot, Rob simply turned and shot Alicia a look.

Don't outsmart yourself, it said. You're not that clever. Don't try to get cute.

Alicia just shrugged, innocently.

And with Rob distracted, that was the exact moment that Vecepia decided to undercut Rob's entire plan with Tina, and ruin it for good.

Vecepia simply nudged Tina with the side of her knee.

And gave her a warning.

"It's Frank."

Tina, who had been staring at the floor, lost in thought, suddenly whipped her head around and locked eyes with Vecepia.

"What?" she whispered.

"I'm sorry," Vee confessed, "It's Frank. Check it out."

She motioned with her thumb towards Rob and Alicia, who were clearly passing some sort of signals to one other. It was obvious. And then Vee cocked another thumb towards Colleen. After all, Colleen had been a major part of the deception, and Tina needed to know. Vee was selling her out.

"Don't worry. You couldn't have stopped it," Vee whispered, reassuringly.

Tina Wesson, who up until thirty seconds ago had been quite comfortable in her plans to take over this game, was suddenly filled with rage. How dare they! And with Colleen, too? How despicable!

"Just vote for Kathy tonight," Vee now whispered, discretely. "Keep it on the down low. Just don't do anything unusual. You've still got a chance."

Tina, who was too shocked to be able to put together a sentence, let alone a last-minute counter-strategy, simply nodded her head.

If Vecepia truly was telling the truth, revenge would just have to wait.





^^





Frank Garrison never did have any idea that he was going home tonight.

But that's exactly what was about to happen, as Jeff Probst brought back the urn and prepared to count votes.

"The person voted out tonight will be asked to leave the Tribal Council area immediately," explained the host, as he turned and looked over to face them.

He reached into the urn.

And pulled out a vote.

And with that, Frank's fate was determined.

"Frank."

There was Colleen's vote, however reluctant.

"Frank."

There was Alicia's vote.

"Frank."

There was John's vote.

"Frank."

And finally, out came the killer, from Vecepia.

Kathy and Rob had each received a pair of meaningless votes, and Frank Garrison had received all the rest.

Rob's plan to get out of a 4-4 tie had officially worked like a charm.

"Frank," said Jeff, solemnly, "That's four votes. That's enough. Please bring me your torch."

Frank Garrison, ever the emotionless soldier, said nothing. He just stood up, reached for his torch, and accepted his fate. He didn't even look that upset. The snuffer came down, his flame was extinguished, and the soldier was gone.

"Bye, Frank," said a shell-shocked Tina Wesson.

She was the only one to say anything.

Frank just made one small turn, he shot her a wave, and then he was out of the game.

The Manakais had just received their first blindsided juror.

"Well," smiled Jeff, once the shock from tonight's vote had started to subside. "I take it from the look on your faces that a lot of you weren't expecting tonight's outcome. In fact, I think it's safe to say that a lot of you never saw this vote coming at all."

Shocked?

Hell, some of the players here were flabbergasted.

Right now, Kathy felt like her jaw was probably touching the floor.

"Well it just goes to show you," said Jeff, "That there's no reason to give up in this game. Even if you think you might be eliminated, you could be perfectly safe. You could still live to fight another day, so don't write yourself off."

"Shyeah," mumbled a clearly-astonished Kathy.

A few people laughed.

"And who knows?" Jeff continued, "Maybe tonight's vote has shown that we don't have two distinct tribes anymore. Maybe you guys truly are living as one. And maybe this game might be a lot more wide open than some of you might like to believe."

He shrugged.

"All I know is that you now have your first juror, and I don't think he'll be thrilled."

With that, Jeff excused the remaining eight players from Tribal Council.

He excused them out of the lodge, out of the drama, and back into the game.

Back to a fate that Colleen Haskell was already dreading.

Because she could see the look in Tina's eyes.

And Miss Tina looked pissed.

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