We continue to walk through the group of massive stones and find Ella off by herself, sitting against a rock. When we approach, she looks up and says, ‘I keep trying to talk to Six again, but nothing happens. Maybe it never did happen.’
I kneel beside her and put my arm around her shoulders. ‘Legacies take time, Ella. I know when mine appeared for the first time, it was usually when I was upset or in danger. They come at a time when they are of the most use, when they might save us. My Legacy that allows me to breathe under water came as I almost drowned. Also, the teleporting may have affected you, so maybe it will take a while to work again.’ I give her shoulders a squeeze.
‘It’s true. The first time I teleported,’ Eight says, ‘my Cêpan was about to get run over by a taxi. I just appeared next to him, like that.’ He snaps his fingers. ‘It’s the only reason I was able to pull him out of the way.’
‘I miss Crayton so much, right now,’ Ella says. ‘He always helped me with this stuff. What if I’m never any help to the Garde? Sometimes, I wish I was never chosen by the Elders.’ Her voice trails off and she slumps down, looking absolutely dejected.
‘Ella.’ Eight takes a step forward. ‘Ella. Look at me. You can’t think that way. We are so happy you’re here. We need you. If you weren’t here, we would be looking for you. You are exactly where you should be. Right, Marina?’
‘Ella, do you remember what we used to say, back in the orphanage? We are a team. That means something important. We take care of each other.’ As I’m talking, I realize that my aversion to teleporting is selfish. The only hope we have of finding the others is by getting to New Mexico. The safest, fastest way to get there is by teleporting, even if it means landing in the wrong place a few more times. I will not allow my fear to endanger anyone. When one of us is weak, the rest of us need to be that much stronger. I give her shoulder another squeeze. ‘We will get to New Mexico, find Six, and we will continue to fight.’
Ella nods but remains quiet.
We all wander off, lost in our thoughts. I know I need some time to clear my head, to be as strong mentally as I feel physically, before we move on. This place is so peaceful, and it’s so quiet, that it’s the perfect setting in which to think. An hour or so later, I walk into the center of the circle to see Eight leaning down and picking a stone up before dropping it.
‘Eight! What do you think you’re doing?’ I yell, alarmed. ‘Do you remember where we are? This is a sacred, historic, ancient place! You can’t just kick rocks around! Put them back where they were!’
Before he even has a chance to return the stones, I use my telekinesis to do it myself. Stonehenge may not be my history, but it is someone’s, and that deserves more respect than Eight is showing right now. I want to leave this place exactly as we found it.
Eight looks up at me, surprised by my anger. ‘I’m looking for the Loralite stone. I know it’s half buried around here, under one of these stones, and we have to find it if we’re going to go anywhere,’ Eight says.
‘Well, just make sure you put them back exactly where you found them when you’re done looking,’ I grumble. ‘Stonehenge is one of the most famous places on Earth. Let’s not ruin it.’ I am tired of leaving destruction behind.
Eight makes a big show of peeking delicately under a rock and returning it gently to its place. ‘I would just like to say that Stonehenge is only here in the first place because of the Loric. Reynolds said we built it as a cemetery for those who died fighting on Earth.’
‘Really? This is a graveyard?’ Ella asks, walking up behind me and looking around curiously.
‘It was,’ Eight says, patting a large boulder. ‘For thousands of years, at least. And then humans started poking around, doing all that research they love so much. There is nothing like a quest to understand everything, even if there is nothing to know. Whatever. I will honor the placement of the rocks.’ He continues to move as if tiptoeing through a bed of tulips.
‘Let me help.’ I walk carefully among the stones, helping Eight look for the Loralite, floating several rocks inches above the ground before setting them back down exactly as they had been. As I move on to another group of stones I hear shouts in the distance. I lean around a stone to see two men in uniforms running towards the monument, flashlight beams bouncing in the darkness. Ella and I duck down behind the biggest, closest rock formation.
‘Shoot,’ I whisper. ‘Everybody hide.’
We can see the beams from their flashlights scan the ground, and whenever one gets close to us, we shift our position around another stone just in time.
‘I know I heard something out here. Kids’ voices,’ the smaller of the two guards says.
‘Okay. Well, where are they?’ the other guard asks, looking around. There is a distinct note of disbelief in his voice.
Both men are silent for a moment. I peek around the stone to see the larger guard looking around, annoyed by the lack of evidence of intruders. Then something catches his eye, but I can’t see what it is. I’m worried. What could he have found? ‘Bill? Come over here and look at this. Where do you think these came from?’
‘Huh. Don’t know. They sure weren’t there earlier,’ the other says.
I nearly jump out of my skin when Eight materializes next to me. ‘They found our Chests,’ he whispers. ‘I’ll just toss the guards into the pasture, okay? We need to find the Loralite, so we can get the hell out of here, and that’s not going to happen until those guys leave. And I am not letting them leave with our Chests.’ His voice is grim.
I’m about to say no when my brain begins to buzz. After a brief echo of static I hear Ella’s voice in my head: I can distract them while you find the Loralite. I look over at her in shock, eyes wide.
Ella squeezes my hand and whispers, ‘I can distract them –’
‘I already heard you,’ I interrupt. ‘Ella, I heard you in my head!’
She smiles widely. ‘I thought it worked this time. Wow! I did it!’ she whispers excitedly.
‘Hey, you two, keep it down,’ Eight whispers. ‘Do we have a plan?’
‘I have an idea,’ Ella responds. Shrinking herself into a six year-old, she runs wide, out past the outer circle of the stones, then walks back towards the men. She puts on her best little girl voice as she calls out, ‘Daddy? Where are you?’
‘Hello?’ One of the guards calls back. ‘Who’s out there?’
Eight teleports away while I watch Ella. She is standing still, shielding her eyes from their flashlights. She’s quite the actress. She sounds legitimately lost and worried. ‘I’m looking for my daddy. Have you seen him?’
‘What in the world are you doing out here, little girl? Where are your parents? Do you know what time it is?’
As they approach her, Ella starts to sob, stopping the men in their tracks. ‘Now, now, just calm down, no need for tears,’ the larger one says in a soothing tone.
Ella turns up the waterworks and says, louder now, ‘Don’t touch me!’
‘Hey, hey, nobody’s touching you,’ the other says in alarm. They are looking at each other, both confused and at a loss as to what to do with her.
‘Psst, Marina,’ Eight whispers. He’s behind me with a Chest under each arm. ‘We have to find the Loralite. Now! She can’t hold their attention forever!’
We run into the center of Stonehenge. Eight and I start checking under every rock we can find, as quickly as we can. There are only a few left to check when we hear the men coming back towards us, Ella in tow, still sniffling.
‘Okay, I think it’s time for another distraction,’ Eight says, disappearing again. He reappears by the outer circle of stones, plants his hands on an upright slab, and pushes hard. All I can do is watch in horror, frozen to the spot. The huge stone wobbles and then slowly tips backwards, then the horizontal slab on top falls too, and that’s when Eight starts yelling, ‘Help! Help! The stones are falling over! Stonehenge is falling down!’ I will kill him. I clench my fists at my side, which is when I realize I still
have a small rock in my hand. I lean down and carefully, pointlessly, return it to its spot.
The guards break into a sprint towards Eight’s voice, and when their flashlights catch the falling stones, they scream in panic. The smaller guard runs to get in between two vertical stones, but it’s too late. They connect and collectively tip to the right. The horizontal slab that was over them lands on the ground with a thud. My mouth falls open as the stones tip, one by one, going over like dominos.
‘Code Black! Code Black!’ the large guard screams into his walkie-talkie, then tosses it to the ground. He wraps his arms around one of the massive vertical stones remaining upright, trying with all his might to stop it from going over with the others. But it’s pointless. The massive stones keep falling.
Eight appears back by me and tips over two small stones, and suddenly a faint blue glow lights up his legs. ‘I found it! Over here!’ he whispers excitedly. I’m relieved to hear he’s found the Loralite, but I’m too focused on the demolition of Stonehenge to be excited. I can’t believe he did this. I’m furious. Ella runs past me as I dart under one of the few slabs still in place and use my telekinesis to slow down the boulders in motion.
The larger guard slams his back against a stone that’s next in line to tip, and the other guard joins him. I wrap my mind around their stone and hold it steady. When it’s hit with another falling boulder, I don’t let it tip. The guards slide away from the stone and fall to the grass, shocked by their sudden show of strength. Next I reverse the domino effect so the fallen boulders push each other back up, and I stabilize them in their original positions. Then, using what little strength I have left, I slowly lift the horizontal slabs off the ground and set them back on top of the boulders.
The guards watch all this, mouths agape, too stunned to respond to the crackling, concerned voices squawking from their walkie-talkies.
‘Marina,’ Ella whispers. ‘Hey. Marina, we need to go. Now. Come on.’
I walk backwards towards the center of the monument, relieved and able to leave, now that I’ve managed to put everything back together.
I stalk over to Eight and yank my Chest from him. Still furious and unable to look at him, I grab hold of his hand. Ella carries Eight’s Chest while clinging to his other hand. We stand, joined together, over the blue Loralite. The last thing I hear before the darkness comes is the larger guard – defeated and ready to be done with this particular adventure – responding into his retrieved walkie-talkie, ‘False alarm.’
24.
I hide behind a row of lockers in a long dark hallway while I turn visible. The pain from using my Legacies is so intense I curl myself up into a ball, pressing the two batons into my ribs to get some relief. I push my sweaty head against the cool cement wall and try to catch my breath, hoping the pain will subside quickly. I’ve been going up and down hallways, but I worry I’m just running in circles. So far, I’ve found an empty hangar and a lot of electronically locked doors. I know from when Sam and John were caught by the police before that our telekinesis doesn’t work with electricity. I think about John and Sam, Marina and the others. I hope they’re okay; or, at least, in less pain than I am. I picture John and Sam waiting for me at our rendezvous point. We were supposed to meet there in a few days. What will they think when I’m not there? I am so frustrated – and scared – I feel breathless. I know this kind of thinking isn’t helpful, so I try to refocus my attention on how to get the hell out of here.
Almost on cue, an alarm sounds. The bleating overhead feels relentless as soon as it begins. I know what this means and I know I need to get it together. Fast. Everyone is looking for me. Armed soldiers zip down the long hallways in small open vehicles. Each time one passes, I’m tempted to pluck the men out, hop in, and take off. But I’m sure I wouldn’t get very far and I’d give up the one advantage I have right now. They don’t know where I am.
I’ve stopped trying to communicate with Ella. Clearly, I was just delusional. I’m on my own. I need to stop talking to myself and find something to blast through a door and get out of here. I think I’m underground. I just wish I knew how deep.
The lights go on in the hallway. As I discovered earlier, I know this means the motion-sensors have been triggered. A moment later, I hear a vehicle coming my way. I clench my stomach, turn invisible, and get the anticipated wrench of pain. Tears silently flowing down my face from the agony, I press myself up against a wall and watch the cart crawl towards me carrying three soldiers. As it passes in front of me, I hit the driver in the face with one of the batons. Man, do head wounds bleed a lot. Nose, mouth, forehead, all gushing geysers. His (seemingly) spontaneous injury causes him to slam his foot on the gas pedal and veer straight into a wall. The driver is out cold and the other two soldiers spill onto the cement floor. They take in the driver’s face and see absolutely nothing around that might have caused it, and grab for their walkietalkies. But I’m expecting this, and I’ve stepped into position to slam the closest man’s head into the hood of the vehicle and kick his legs out from underneath him. The third soldier starts over to see what happened, and I slam his head down too. Then I grab one of their badges and run.
I need to figure out where to go from here and I need to do it fast. I can’t stay invisible too much longer.
I use the swiped badge to get past an electronically locked door and find myself in a hallway completely different from the others I’ve seen so far. I have to stop the pain, so I turn visible and immediately feel relief. I look around and try to figure out where I am. The hall is wider than the others, with a high ceiling that’s domed and carved out of sandstone. Two thick yellow pipes crawl along the ceiling, flanked by drooping electrical lines. I come to a turn in the hallway and peek around the corner. I don’t see anyone, so I flatten my back against the wall and ease around the corner. I’m facing a red door with a sign that reads: DANGER . AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. SHUTTLE ONE .
I try using my telekinesis to open the door, pushing through the pain, but another electric lock keeps it shut. I’m about to try the badge again when I hear footsteps coming fast in my direction. I turn invisible again, but it makes my stomach churn so violently I fall to the floor. I can’t survive another round of this, no way. Around the corner someone yells, ‘I think I hear something this way!’
From the ground, barely able to stay invisible, I grab a guard by the ankle as he runs by. He goes facedown onto the floor, giving me enough time to swipe my stolen badge through the electronic lock. The door pops open and I slip inside.
I’m on a grated metal platform, high above three sets of train tracks that disappear down a circular tunnel. A three-car tram, plastered with several different symbols of the U.S. government, sits empty on the set of tracks closest to the platform. Outside the door behind me, I hear the guard I disabled yelling to a group of men who have just arrived on the scene. I stumble down a narrow set of stairs and jump inside the open doors of the tram, pulling down on the first lever I see.
My head snaps back as the tram takes off like a rocket. The circular tunnel blurs with red lights and long dark shadows, and twice I zip under grated platforms like the one where I entered without slowing down. The tracks suddenly dip and curve to the right, and then I’m rolling high over a long canal filled with water. I’m hoping this will shoot me out into the desert. Instead, the tram slows down and stops below another platform. There must be points at which there are automatic stops. The doors open and I jog up the stairs. I’ve let myself turn visible again and appreciate how pain-free my stomach is, knowing it won’t stay that way for too much longer. I’m going to need my Legacies to get out of here.
I take a deep breath and carefully try the door at the top of the stairs. It’s unlocked. Slowly, I open it just a crack to peek and see what is on the other side. My eyes have barely focused when the door is slammed open, clipping my shoulder painfully. I’m now face to face with a guard with a familiar weapon hanging from his shoulder – a Mogadorian cannon. As soon as the guard
reaches for it the cannon buzzes to life with a spark of lights. But before he can press the trigger, I dive at him and we crash into a stone wall. The guard rushes forward and tries to grab me by wrapping his thick arms around my waist. Instead, I move just out of his reach and tackle his legs, pulling them out from under him. His skull makes a horrible cracking sound when it hits the ground. I cringe, but I can’t stop to think about it. I quickly shove his body just through the door into the tunnel and close it. I grab his cannon and bolt.
I look around to get my bearings. There are enormous, smooth columns holding up the ceiling of the winding tunnel, and I weave in and out of them, keeping an ear out for more guards. My mind is racing, sorting through what I’ve seen, trying to piece it together. First on the list, why did that soldier have a Mogadorian cannon? Did he get it from a captured Mog? Or are the Mogs supplying the government with their weapons? The tunnel forks and I slow, trying to decide which way to go. I see nothing to help me choose, so I think of the last time I encountered a fork in a road. It was in the Himalayas, the one that surprised Commander Sharma. I go left.
The first door I spot on the left is all glass. Through it I can see scientists in white coats and masks moving around what look like large gardens brimming with tall green plants. Hundreds of powerful bright lights hang low over them from the ceiling.
A red-haired woman in a dark suit enters through another door and walks over to one of the guys in a white coat at the front of the room. Her right arm is in a sling and she has bandages on her cheek. She watches the scientist pour a vial of liquid over a section of the closest garden. I am stunned to see the plants instantly grow several feet taller and their tips split open. White vines spread in every direction, creating a thick canopy over their heads. The scientist writes something on his clipboard, and then looks up to talk to the woman. I don’t have time to duck out of the way and we make eye contact through the glass door. I slowly raise the Mog cannon at him and shake my head. I have to hope he considers himself a noncombatant and wants to stay out of the action. No such luck. I watch him slip his hand into his pocket. Damn. He’s triggering something. There’s a noise over my head and a thick sheet of metal nearly hits me as it falls in front of the glass door, protecting it. Alarms sound and I know the whole area is going into lockdown. I can’t get captured. I brace myself for the pain about to take over my body and make myself invisible.
[Lorien Legacies 03.0] The Rise of Nine Page 19
