Pixels And Poltergeists: An Unveiled Academy Novel (Penny and Boots Book 3)

by Amy Hopkins

  “You don’t think we’re a little close?” Penny asked him. “This is supposed to be a stealth mission.”

  “Best place to hide is in plain sight,” Cisco told her. “Don’t worry. I’ll put some distance between us when they go.”

  Ahead, the van’s brake lights glowed, then dimmed as it pulled out into the traffic beside them. Cisco waited for a few cars to pass, then did the same.

  “Don’t lose them.” Despite her concerns that they were too close just moments ago, Penny couldn’t help feeling a flare of worry that they would lose their mark. If they did, it would be seven whole days before they’d have another chance.

  Cisco nodded, carefully turning into a side lane after the van. He let another car pass at the next corner, but two more peeled away at an intersection, leaving only a garbage truck between the two students and their quarry.

  The van picked up speed while the truck lagged behind on the small incline. Then, brake lights glowed as the truck came to a sensible halt at a traffic light that had just turned yellow.

  “Shit!” Penny cursed their bad luck. “They’re turning. We’re going to lose them!”

  Cisco shook his head and waited patiently for the light to turn green. As soon as it did, he took off, zooming into the turning lane beside them. He wove through traffic, taking a left, then a hard right.

  Penny’s head spun but she clung tight to Cisco, trusting him to find his way through the narrow streets and heavy traffic.

  “Ha!” The bike stopped abruptly at a red light, and Cisco tapped the side mirror. Penny craned her head over his shoulder to look. The van was behind them, yellow indicator flashing steadily on the left.

  Cisco took the corner and the van followed. When it took a second turn, this time without the telltale signal, he almost missed it. “I think they’ve seen us,” he called over the engine. “Time for a costume change.”

  He swung the bike around and onto the sidewalk. He kicked out the stand and tore off his helmet and jacket. “The street they took comes around this way. If we run through the park, we should be able to catch them.”

  Penny shed her black jacket to reveal a hot pink crop and grabbed one of the skateboards off the bike. She shook out her hair to complete the transformation. To a casual passerby, the two helmeted, black-clad bikers had no resemblance to the brightly dressed skateboarders who sprinted through the tiny green space in the middle of Portland.

  “Let’s go!” On the other side of the park, Penny threw her board down and jumped on, crouching low to keep her balance. The van slipped into a side street ahead. She reached into a pocket and depressed the small remote to bring the board—a high-tech electric version capable of matching the traffic around them—up to full speed. Penny gave mental thanks to Mack, who had not only provided the skateboards but spent the morning making sure Penny and Cisco could use them capably.

  Penny dodged a cluster of pedestrians, taking a driveway onto the road before racing across it. She flicked the end of the board up, skidding to a halt as Cisco caught up. “That way!” she called. The van was directly ahead, trundling toward an industrial estate. “We’re not gonna have a lot of cover down there.”

  “You think?” Cisco pointed at a group of five teenagers flipping boards outside an abandoned building. One tossed a ball of wadded paper at the van as it passed and it bounced off, rolling into the gutter. “We’ll be fine.”

  “Sure.” Penny eyed the group. All wore dirty black jeans and monochrome t-shirts. “We’ll totally blend in.”

  Tugging her vibrant top down self-consciously, she kicked off again using foot power to propel the skateboard down the broken pavement. The van slowed, and without indicating this time it turned into a gated driveway. Outside, one of two armed guards barked orders into a radio.

  Penny casually rode past, watching the slow metal panel pull back. The guards ignored her, focusing instead on the vehicle. She pretended to stumble and trip off the front of the skateboard, and slowly dusted herself off when she’d recovered her footing.

  The building loomed over the worn and dusty factories and warehouses around it, standing tall and sharp-edged with expansive mirrored windows cladding the exterior. The compound was surrounded by concrete walls that obfuscated the lower floors, except for Penny’s glimpse as the van rolled through the gate.

  Penny stepped back on her board and cruised past, her need for secrecy overriding her desire for a closer look. She had glimpsed several black military-style vehicles and a row of identical white vans inside, but little of the ground floor of the building itself.

  “That place is locked down tighter than a leprechaun’s wallet.” Cisco gestured for Penny to keep moving. “And I spotted at least four security cameras pointing at that gate as we went past.”

  “Did you see all those guards inside?” she whispered back. “At least a half dozen right at the gates, and a few more scattered near the building. Cisco, how the hell are we going to sneak past them?”

  “We?” Cisco shook his head. “You’re kidding, right? We can’t do this ourselves.”

  The sudden realization that their job was over made Penny’s knees weak with relief. Of course. She yanked her phone out and called Agent Crenel.

  Penny tapped her foot nervously. The chain of black FBI vehicles had passed them at least five minutes ago. “Where is he?”

  “He’ll be here,” Cisco assured her confidently.

  Crenel had been very clear on his instructions to Penny. “At least three blocks away. I don’t want you anywhere near that place when SWAT gets there, understand? I’ll pick you up on the way.”

  Finally, one last black car came cruising around the corner and stopped in front of Penny and Cisco. A door flew open and Crenel barked, “In. Now.”

  Penny didn’t wait to be told twice. She jumped in the car and slid across the back seat to make room for Cisco. “Have they found Trevor yet?” she asked eagerly.

  Crenel didn’t respond for a moment. When he did, it was in a hard and angry voice. “You kids better have a damn good explanation for leading us on this wild goose chase.”

  “Wild… what?” Penny looked at Cisco, who shrugged. “You mean Trevor wasn’t there?”

  “Where?” Crenel snapped. “In that empty paddock?”

  Penny let out a growl of frustration. “You got the wrong address? How? You track my phone, for crying out loud!”

  “Don’t you try and weasel out of this one,” Crenel told her. “My team went to your exact location. Which, yes, matched up to the address you left me.”

  Penny pressed a hand against the window. “Why the hell are you driving back to the Academy?”

  “Where the hell else do you expect me to take you?” Crenel yelled, his anger finally getting the better of him. “Goddammit, Penny, this wasn’t funny. It’s an incredible waste of government resources, resources we could have been using to find Trevor.”

  “What are you talking about?” Penny yelled back. “We followed the van to that compound and called you right away! Why aren’t you going there? Those are the guys that have Trevor, I swear!”

  Crenel yanked on the steering wheel, cutting across a lane of traffic to turn the car around. The car lurched forward as he accelerated. “You wanna go there? We’ll go there. Have your damn laughs.”

  Crenel took the same route Penny and Cisco had when following the mysterious white van that had picked up the arcade machine from Tony’s. They passed the emo skater kids and slowed to a halt some way down the road.

  “What? I don’t get it.” Penny could feel the tremor in her voice as she clutched at the door handle. She yanked it back and stumbled out of the car. “Cisco? This can’t be happening.”

  She faced a vast, empty lot. No concrete walls or metal gates, no big glass building, and sure as hell no guys with machine guns waiting for them. “This… This isn’t right! It was here. Minutes ago!”

  “You expect me to believe that?” Crenel growled. He seemed less certain in the face of P
enny’s reaction. “Listen, kid. I don’t care what you do on your time off, but you haven’t, you know…” He mimed a puff on an invisible cigarette.

  Penny gave him a withering glare. “Fuck you. It was here.” She stared at the lot a moment longer, then rounded on the agent. “Goddammit! If you hadn’t told me not to stop and take pictures, I’d be able to prove it to you.”

  “He said that?” Cisco asked.

  “It was for your own safety!” Crenel huffed a breath then pulled out a cigarette. “I didn’t know you were just delusional.”

  “There was a building here,” Cisco insisted. “And I can prove it.” He fumbled his phone out.

  “You took pictures?” Penny breathed.

  Cisco shrugged. “You didn’t tell me the old man said not to.”

  For a change, Crenel ignored the “old man” jab. He snatched Cisco’s phone away from him and held it up. “This peak here is that old warehouse?” he asked.

  Cisco squinted at the phone and nudged it to the left. “Yeah. There.” The glowing image on the screen lined up perfectly with the surrounding buildings. It was just the one in the middle that had…vanished.

  “I must be losing my mind.” Penny pressed a hand to her head. “This… They made a whole building disappear?”

  Crenel scowled at the vacant lot as if he could summon the compound back from force of will alone. “Impossible.”

  “Agent Crenel, my best friend sprouts fur and four legs every full moon,” Cisco pointed out. “Missing buildings? Not so farfetched.”

  Crenel grunted but didn’t respond.

  Penny paced toward the lot. She stepped off the footpath, one hand out. She griped, searching for an invisible barrier.

  “Don’t bother,” Crenel told her. “My people searched the lot top to bottom. No invisible walls, no secret underground passages. Whatever was here, it isn’t anymore.”

  Penny persisted, reluctant to give in to the obvious fact that the building had indeed vanished. If it was ever even here to begin with. Below her feet, a thick layer of gravel was undisturbed.

  “What if it was just an illusion?” Penny asked. “A hologram or something?”

  Cisco hissed a breath through his teeth. “Nope. Remember the kid who threw a ball of paper at it? It bounced off.”

  Penny remembered and took off jogging down the street, leaving Crenel and Cisco to scramble to keep up with her. She found the paper napkin, still lying in the gutter. She unwrapped it, hoping for some kind of clue.

  “Ew.” Cisco sniffed it. “Oh, it’s only melted chocolate. Mmm, peanut butter cups.”

  “This is real,” Penny protested. “And the van was, too.” She pointed back down the road. “I know that building was here. I saw those men walking around, Cisco. They had guns and cars and a big old building. You can’t convince me it was fake.”

  “I’m not trying to,” Cisco told her. “Look, we’re dealing with myth and legend here. Anything is possible. For all we know, the whole place just folded up small enough to fit in a matchbox, and some guy walked away with it in his pocket.”

  “You watch too many movies, kid.” Crenel finally lit his cigarette and drew on it deeply. He puffed out a cloud of smoke. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll put this place under surveillance for now.”

  “So you believe us?” Penny asked. She held her breath while she waited for an answer.

  Crenel grimaced. “Yeah. I guess I never really thought you’d pull a stunt like that.”

  Penny socked him in the shoulder. “What the hell, dude!”

  Crenel rubbed his arm and gave her a penitent wince. “I was pissed off. Trevor is still missing, and every damn time we get a lead, it vanishes into smoke and mirrors.”

  “Lead?” Penny stepped closer, pinning the agent against the car. “What lead?”

  Crenel crumbled. “Fine! We’ve had three teams working this case. Yours, and two of ours. One of the teams emailed the boss to say they’ve found the compound. They went radio silent for three days, then turned up at the airport, memories wiped. They didn’t remember a single damn thing about the mission they’d gone on.”

  “The other?” Penny pressed.

  “The other lost one man in a shootout, and one of the women got brainwashed by one of those damn arcade machines. It turned up in her house, according to her husband, and she hasn’t been the same since.” Crenel inhaled deeply on his cigarette again. “I know, I should have told you. I didn’t wanna scare you off. You’re our best chance, going by how badly the rest of them screwed up.”

  “Crap on a cracker.” Penny rubbed her hands over her face. “You really think we can do better than seasoned agents?”

  “Are you dumb enough to actually play one of those machines?” Crenel shot back. “Do you have Kevlar under that shirt?”

  “No, and yes.” Penny lifted the edge of her t-shirt to reveal the armor beneath it. “But really. We don’t exactly have a ton of field experience here.”

  “Which is why I had two backup teams, and yet this is the closest we’ve come to nailing these bastards down.” Crenel pointed to the car. “Come on. Let’s get you back to the Academy. We need a new plan.”

  Chapter Twenty

  After four hours of brainstorming, Crenel finally called a break. “We’re all tired and hungry, and to be honest, I’m getting pissed off.”

  “Hungry is right.” Agent DeLouise had joined them in Crenel’s office at the Academy with a latte in one hand and a chicken sandwich in the other. She hadn’t made a fuss when Crenel plucked it out of her hands and ate it, but now she rubbed her stomach.

  “It’s taco night in the dining hall,” Penny told her. “Cook should nearly have it ready.”

  DeLouise shook her head. “I need to get back to the office.” She jabbed a finger at Crenel. “And you need to come with me. There’s no way they’re gonna believe this whole vanishing building schtick without a firsthand witness.”

  “But I didn’t witness it,” Crenel pointed out.

  DeLouise flicked a glance at Penny. “You really want to pit a student against that asshole Banks? He’ll tear her a new one.”

  “I can take him,” Penny interjected immediately. “I know what we saw.”

  “It’s fine.” Crenel grabbed his sunglasses and wallet off his desk. “I’ll go. Banks loves me.”

  “Damn right he does.” DeLouise flashed Penny a grin before turning back to Crenel. “Once you get Banks off my ass, I can go hunt down that damn tooth fairy on the east side.”

  “Tooth fairy?” Penny asked. It hadn’t come up in their weekly class briefing.

  DeLouise rubbed a hand over her mouth absentmindedly. “Yeah. She’s been breaking into houses at night and stealing kids’ teeth.”

  “From under their pillows?” Penny asked, her stomach churning.

  DeLouise shook her head.

  “Spare me the details.” Penny stood. “If you don’t mind, I’m outta here. If I come up with anything I’ll let you know, Agent Crenel.”

  “Sure, Penny.” Crenel touched her shoulder as she passed him. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”

  Penny nodded briskly and walked out of the room, shoulders set and jaw clenched. She waited until she was around the corner to lean against a wall and let out a slow, shaky breath. Come on, Trevor, where are you?

  She heard the agent’s door close as she set off toward the dining hall, unwilling to wait for the agents to catch up to her and offer more platitudes. So far, their best—their only plan—was to wait until the following Wednesday and hope the arcade machine would be picked up again.

  “Fat chance,” Penny mumbled. Tony had already informed them that the replacement machine hadn’t turned up at its usual time.

  Penny bypassed the dining hall and headed for the dorms. She was so buried in her thoughts she didn’t see the girl coming from the other direction. Penny and Jessie plowed into each other.

  “Oh, hell. Sorry, mate!” Penny grabbed Jessie’s arm to steady her as the g
irl clutched the fat leather book she had almost dropped.

  “No problem!” Jessie gave her a cheerful grin. She darted off but not before leaning into Penny for an awkward moment.

  Penny watched her go, then slipped a hand into her pocket where Jessie had pressed against her. A tightly folded note brushed her fingers. “You sly thing.”

  Worried about the secrecy Jessie had employed to pass it on, Penny waited until she was in her room to open it.

  Space Buster app is recording your calls and location, delete it. Also, your room is bugged. New machine at the Twisted Monkey biker bar, data pickup sometime tonight. Be careful.

  Penny shot a quick glance at her watch. “I’ve got some time.” Then she looked at her phone. “And what the hell?”

  Penny opened the app menu and scrolled through. Sure enough, a tiny icon for ‘Space Busters’ sat nestled between Settings and Spotify. Penny held down the icon and slid it over to the delete option, then restarted her phone. Good, it’s still gone.

  Penny sank onto her bed, then stood as a spike heel stabbed her thigh. “Amelia! Dammit, this room was spotless a few days ago!”

  Clothes were strewn across the room, and an empty suitcase sat ajar at the foot of Amelia’s bed. An open bedside drawer was full of makeup, and the wardrobe had a pile of shoes in front of it.

  Penny called for Boots. The room was silent. “Guess you don’t like the mess either,” Penny muttered as she searched for the supposed bug.

  She found one under her bedside table, crushed it under her heel, and kept looking. She turned up four, by which point she was certain she had searched every square inch of the room. And I still don’t trust that I got them all.

  Resolving to have Crenel ask a team to do a sweep, Penny headed back into the hallway and locked her room behind her. Amelia was nowhere to be seen, so she made for Crenel’s office. It was empty, the agents having already left to face the music from their superior.