Four guards came charging down the passageway, guns raised upon seeing Ghost, but lowered immediately as he waved them on, directing them toward the chamber. They didn’t look at the sword tied to his belt.
As soon as they passed, he ran like he’d never run before, up the passageway and through the steel security door. Miguel directed him to the circular room, into the West Tunnel, and up steps to the trapdoor. Ghost remembered Ami punching in a code to open it. But Ghost didn’t have to, because it was already open. He stepped out into the blackness of the forest.
Cormac, Kate, Makoto, and the Jōnin were about to follow Savage in search of Ghost when Makoto raised his hand for them to wait. He held his finger to his earpiece, squeezed his one eye closed, and shook his head.
The Jōnin put his hand on Makoto’s shoulder.
Makoto opened his eye. “It’s the sword.”
The Jōnin’s face tensed.
“It’s gone.”
The Jōnin met Makoto’s eyes and nodded, his mouth set into a grim line.
Makoto tapped his chest and delivered the order. “Issue code-red alert.”
Cormac and Kate followed Makoto and the Jōnin through corridors crowded with shinobi, Fuyu guards, scientists, and technicians, all responding to the code-red alert. On the way to the sword room, Savage stopped and sniffed the air. Kate raised her hand to halt the others.
“What is it?” asked Makoto.
Kate pointed at the mouse. “Savage has picked up Ghost’s scent.”
The mouse took off, and they followed it through tunnels and up stairs. Savage was heading up, out of Renkondo.
Soon they were racing up the final flight of steps and then into the dark forest above, Savage still scampering ahead of them.
HURRY, GHOST. BY NOW THEY’LL be after you. The forest ahead is full of shinobi, so that’s what you need to become. Look to your right.
Ghost obeyed.
Under that fallen tree is a shōzoku. Change into it and hide the Fuyu uniform.
Ghost removed the bulky uniform and gladly slipped into the skintight shōzoku. He pushed the Fuyu gear and weapons under the tree and covered them with leaves.
The sword, Ghost.
Ghost shook his head in frustration and pulled the blade back out from under the leaves. He was so tired he didn’t know what he was doing.
The end is near. Just do as I say.
Miguel guided him through the forest, Ghost putting into practice all he had learned about stealth and camouflage, moving from tree to tree like a shadow.
He wanted to get rid of the stupid sword and get as far away from Renkondo as possible. Tears stung behind his eyes. He could never return after this betrayal—he’d never see Cormac or Kate again. He knew the entire camp would come after him, and they’d be angry. Who knew what they’d do if they caught him?
In front of you is a clearing. Bring the sword to me.
To you? Miguel? You’re here? How?
Ghost stepped to the edge of the clearing. The moonlight cast a silvery outline on a figure wearing a hood. He could barely breathe.
“Miguel?” said Ghost, moving out of the darkness. “Is that you?”
The figure turned toward him, lowering its hood.
The moon illuminated her pale skin.
“Ami?” gasped Ghost.
She stepped closer. Her lips didn’t move.
Hello, Ghost.
It was still Miguel’s voice, but it wasn’t Miguel.
“Miguel never called me Ghost … ”
Ami came closer, her eyes as black as the night that surrounded them.
I’m sorry, Ghost. I’m sorry I tricked you. It was the only way.
“But how … ?”
Everybody in this camp has special talents, Ghost. This is mine. I am a mind dweller. If somebody has an emotional weakness, I can break into their mind. Your weakness was the guilt you felt about Miguel. Once I break into a person’s mind, I can inhabit their thoughts, see through their eyes, and communicate with them.
“But it’s Miguel’s voice … ”
Francisco. This time, he heard his friend Squint’s voice in his head. When I enter people’s minds, I can access their memories and take on the voices of people they know.
Ghost felt as though Ami had put her hand down his throat and ripped out his heart. “It was you all along?”
Ami nodded.
Ghost swallowed. So Miguel was gone. For good. “Who are you, really?”
She spoke aloud. “I am somebody who has spent the last eight years perfecting my plan to steal that sword. But then you came along and it was too good an opportunity to be missed.” Her gaze dropped to the blade in Ghost’s hand. “We have wasted enough time talking. Now give me the sword.”
Ghost gripped the weapon tightly. “Why should I?”
Ami’s eyes narrowed, her lips pulled back in a snarl. Suddenly she didn’t look so beautiful. “You have no other choice. If you go back to Renkondo, they’ll kill you. If you don’t give me the sword, I will.”
Ghost took a step back.
“Have you forgotten what happened the last time you made me angry?”
He hadn’t. He never would. “What are you going to do with the sword?”
Ami opened her palm. “Give it to me.”
A twig cracked at the other side of the clearing, and someone stepped out of the shadows.
“Do not give her the sword!”
Ghost squinted into the gloom to the source of the voice—Makoto. The clearing lit up as he was joined by the Jōnin, his long silver hair and white kimono illuminated by the light that seemed to come from inside his body.
“Come any closer and the boy dies!” shouted Ami.
Behind the Jōnin, dark shapes moved in the trees.
“That goes for the rest of you too,” Ami shouted into the night. “One false move, and the boy becomes a ghost, for real.”
“Ghost,” said Makoto. “Do not give her the sword. She is the enemy.”
Ami turned to Makoto. Her eyes were full of venom, and the once-beautiful face had contorted into a grimace of hate. “Don’t call me the enemy. You don’t know who I am.”
“This is true,” Makoto acknowledged. “You arrived on our mountain eight years ago. You showed us your power. We accept only children, but your skill was too valuable to refuse. We made a grave mistake.”
Give me the sword, Ghost.
“All this time,” continued Makoto, “you were Kyatapira.”
Ami laughed. “I’m not one of those fools. You’ve spent a lifetime studying this sword and its history, yet you fail to recognize me.”
Give me the sword, Ghost.
Makoto frowned.
“There’s more to the Goda family than Lord Goda himself,” added Ami.
“He had a wife,” said Makoto slowly.
Ami smiled. “And what do you know about her?”
Give me the sword, Ghost.
“There were rumors. It was said that she was a witch who could control people’s thoughts. But that was hundreds of years ago.”
Ami glanced at Ghost, smiled, and turned to the Jōnin. His bright eyes widened.
Ami bowed.
“Lady Kiko?” gasped Makoto.
Give me the sword, Ghost. Give me the sword, Ghost. Give me the sword, Ghost.
Ghost’s head spun. How could this woman be the wife of President Goda’s ancestor? It made no sense.
GIVE ME THE SWORD, GHOST! screamed the voice in his head. A bolt of pain jolted through his brain. His hands dropped the sword and flew to his head. He screamed.
CORMAC COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT HE was seeing. Shrieking with pain, Ghost fell to his knees, his head in his hands. With incredible deftness and speed, Kiko, the woman they knew as Ami, pounced on the sword, whipped off the scabbard, and raised the silver blade above her head. The Jōnin took a step toward her but stopped when Ghost screamed again and fell facedown into the leaves.
“I’m serious,” warned Kiko. “One
more step, and he dies.”
She backed away, glancing behind her toward the edge of the clearing at a large rock with a crack in its center. With careful movements, she sidestepped and walked backward as if she were trying to find a certain spot on the ground.
The Jōnin charged forward into the downward swing of her sword. There was a wet cutting sound followed by a dull thud. The Jōnin stumbled back, the glow from his body dimming, darkening the clearing. Makoto rushed to his side.
Then, raising the sword once again above her head, Kiko eyed an invisible target in front of her.
A blood-curdling scream pierced the night as she released her ki energy and slashed down with the sword. The air tore apart, and a blinding light burst through the gash, illuminating the forest clearing like sunlight.
Cormac fell back, shielding his eyes. He peered through his fingers and saw a shimmering mass of light moving like liquid in midair. Then he saw Kiko climb into it, sword in hand. Almost immediately the hole began to close.
Cormac saw Ghost take his head from his hands and stumble toward the rift. Then he threw himself into it.
“Ghost!” screamed Kate, racing toward the light. She too leaped and disappeared into the brightness.
“No!” shouted Cormac, jumping to his feet and running after them.
The hole had shrunk to barely three feet wide and was closing fast. Like a dolphin through a ring, he sailed into the shrinking hole of light.
Kate picked herself up off the ground and turned back to look for the hole she’d jumped through. A black disc shimmered and contracted before finally disappearing.
She was in a sloping forest, just like the one she’d left, except this one was bathed in sunlight.
“Over here!” shouted Cormac.
“What the heck happened?” said Kate, running over to him. She squinted up at the blue sky peeping through the overhead canopy. “Daylight?” How can it be light when it was dark only minutes ago?
“Where’s Ghost?” asked Cormac.
Kate looked around and saw Ghost running downhill through the trees. “Over there!”
Cormac shot off after him. Kate searched for Ami, or Kiko as they now knew her. There was no sign of her, and Kate wasn’t waiting around for her to turn up. She sprinted through the forest in pursuit of the boys, passing a patch of muddied ground covered in hoofprints, horse manure, and hay. A long piece of rope, cut at one end, was tied to a tree.
She heard them arguing before she saw them.
Ghost was pulling away from Cormac’s grasp. “Let go!”
Cormac held up his hands. “OK, but stop running for a minute.”
“No time,” said Ghost, looking behind him. “She is on a horse, getting away.”
“She almost killed you back there. Let her get away.”
“I can’t—it’s all my fault,” said Ghost, turning and racing down through the trees.
Kate looked at Cormac. “If she’s on horseback, we’ll never catch her.”
“I could.”
“No.” She put her hand on his arm. “We stick together.”
They set off after Ghost, crashing through foliage and jumping over fallen trees. Kate’s mind ran even faster. What happened back there? Where are we?
They eventually caught up with Ghost farther down the slope. He’d collapsed with exhaustion on the ground.
“We have to take a break,” panted Kate.
Cormac sat down. He wasn’t even sweating. Kate joined him.
“No time,” croaked Ghost.
“Well, we can’t keep running,” said Kate.
“But we must get the sword back.”
Kate shot him a look. “Then why did you steal it?”
Ghost looked at the ground. He didn’t answer—or couldn’t.
“I don’t know,” he replied quietly. “But I know stealing the sword was a big mistake. I have to get it back.”
“That’s not gonna be easy,” said Kate.
Cormac looked back up the hill, through the trees. “Maybe we should go back to Renkondo for help.”
“Not me,” said Ghost. “I’m going after the sword.”
Kate stood up. “Let’s all go. If the Black Lotus are as good as they claim, they’ll have no trouble finding us.”
Deep hoofprints in the soft, sloping ground made the trail easy to follow. They walked in silence for a while until Kate felt a scratching in the pocket of her shōzoku. Savage! She’d forgotten all about him. And all that tumbling about couldn’t have been good for him.
“Are you OK?” she asked, taking him out.
He twitched his whiskers. “Food I need.”
“So what’s new?” Kate fed him crumbs from the cookie she’d saved.
“What is this?” asked Ghost, nodding at the mouse.
“This is Savage.”
Ghost’s nose wrinkled. “Savage?”
“Her pet mouse,” explained Cormac.
“Ugh, I hate mouses.”
Kate glared at him. “If it hadn’t been for this mouse, you’d be dead!”
“Eh?”
“If we hadn’t been there to distract her, Kiko would have killed you as soon as you handed over the sword. And we’d never have found you in the first place if it hadn’t been for Savage.”
Ghost thought about it, and for a moment looked sorry, as if he was going to apologize. But then he seemed to change his mind and looked down as if he didn’t know what to do. Finally he shrugged and turned away.
Cormac grabbed him. “We were supposed to be your friends, but all you did was ignore us!”
“Get off me!”
“You owe us an explanation!” Cormac pushed Ghost in the chest, sending him staggering backward.
“Stop it!” shouted Kate, but no one was listening.
Ghost ran at Cormac, tackled him around the waist, and pushed him into a tree. Face twisted in fury, Cormac swung a punch.
“Ow!” Ghost leaped backward, clutching his face.
Cormac shoved him hard and dived on him. In a flurry of limbs they rolled down a leafy incline and disappeared over a low ditch.
Kate heard a splash and ran over.
Coughing and spluttering, the two boys crawled out of a pool of muddy water, their faces marbled with dirt, their shōzoku dripping wet.
Kate put Savage into her pocket and folded her arms. “If you guys are finished playing, we really should get going.”
The boys scowled at each other. Ghost swallowed and stood up. He offered Cormac his hand. Cormac took it, and Ghost pulled him to his feet.
“I’m sorry,” said Ghost.
Cormac blinked. “It’s OK.”
Ghost looked at Kate. “No, it is not OK. I was in a sad mood in the school. I was not a friend to you and Cormac.”
“We understand,” said Kate
“No, you don’t understand. I must explain to you. Ami—Kiko—she controlled my mind. Now she has gone, the voice has gone. I hope it won’t come back.”
Kate raised her eyebrows.
“It is her skill. She told me to steal the sword.”
“But why didn’t you say no?” asked Kate. “Why didn’t you tell someone?”
“I didn’t know it was her. I thought it was my little brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” said Cormac.
“I don’t. I mean, I did. Miguel is dead.”
Cormac put his hand on Ghost’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
Ghost looked down. “It was my fault he died. I was supposed to look after him. Our house went on fire. Miguel died. I woke up in the hospital.”
“Jeez … ” mumbled Kate, feeling her eyes fill with tears. She put out a hand to comfort him, but Ghost brushed her away. He wasn’t finished. He stared ahead as if in a daze.
“With Miguel gone, I wanted to die. I lay in the hospital bed and closed my eyes. I let my spirit go. And it did. It left.”
Kate glanced at Cormac, who looked as concerned as she felt.
“Cold came
into my body. I felt like ice. I waited for bright lights. But nothing happened. I opened my eyes, but I was still in the hospital. I looked at my arms. They were gone. I looked under the blanket. My legs were gone also. But not gone—I could feel them. Invisible.”
Ghost was silent now, his gaze fixed on some distant part of the forest. Kate waited for him to continue.
“I pulled off tubes and wires and the hospital cloak. I was invisible completely. I think this is what death is—invisible spirits walking the earth. I walked down the hospital corridor past nurses and doctors. They didn’t see me. Outside the sun was shining, but I was cold like snow. I walked down the street, shivering, until I could walk no more. I found an abandoned warehouse and lay down in a corner to die a second time.”
Ghost’s eyes had glazed over as if he were reliving every second.
“When I woke up in the warehouse, I was alive and naked. I knew I was alive because I felt hungry and I felt my heart beating. But I felt dead. I felt empty. I had nothing: no clothes, no money, no home, no brother. All I had was this thing I could do. In the warehouse, I practiced going invisible many times, watching my skin bleach, then disappear. The Bleaching. That’s what I call it. I was no longer Francisco. I was Ghost. Life had stolen everything from me. I stepped out of the warehouse, ready to steal something back … ”
Ghost fell silent again as if he’d run out of words.
Kate wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Ghost, that’s terrible.”
He snapped out of his daze and looked at her. “Ami spoke to me in Miguel’s voice. That’s why I stole the sword.”
Kate nodded. She understood.
Cormac cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to say.”
Ghost looked at him. “Say you’ll help me fix this. Say you’ll help me get the sword back.”
“Absolutely,” replied Cormac, extending his hand, palm down.
Ghost placed his hand on Cormac’s.
Kate joined in too, placing her palm on top. “We’re a team,” she said. “But we’d better get going if we’re gonna catch that horse!”
Kate was glad they’d cleared the air, but their troubles were far from over. She still couldn’t get her head around what had happened back there. She looked up through the trees. The sun was directly overhead, which meant it was around midday. But how was that possible when it had been night before? When they’d jumped through that hole, had they jumped forward into a new day?
The Black Lotus Page 10
