by Wesley King
“Are you comfortable?”
“Just great,” Emily replied sarcastically. “You could bring a blanket for Blue, you know. She’s freezing in here.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I’m sorry your stay continues to be extended. Events on the outside are being delayed. Your friends are resourceful.”
“Are they all right?” Emily asked.
“Yes, for now. They’ve already visited the Perch.”
Emily feigned surprise. Obviously he hadn’t found out that his sister had already paid them a visit.
“They acted . . . differently than I had expected,” he continued thoughtfully. “They left your mentors there. Wise, of course, but I had assumed they cared enough for you to take their chances. I know at least one of your mentors offered them a deal.”
“They’re smarter than you think,” Emily said, folding her arms.
“Maybe so,” he conceded. “But alas, not smart enough. They should have killed them when they had the chance. Because I released the Vindico and gave them a ship.”
Emily scowled. “Why are you doing this? My friends didn’t do anything to you. They didn’t have a choice to get involved.”
He nodded, and for a moment, he actually looked remorseful. “I know. It’s unfortunate, but necessary. We don’t always get a choice of what we’re involved in. But they are playing an intrinsic role in these events, one that you were supposed to be involved in, by all rights.”
“So let me out,” Emily countered.
“I can’t. For a number of reasons. One is that you are much safer here, and if I can save at least your life, that would be of some relief to me.”
“I’m so pleased,” she muttered, getting to her feet. Her body was stiff and sore from lying on the uncomfortable cot. “I want to fight with my friends.”
“I know. But they are off the radar, so to speak, so it doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t be able to find them. They’ve managed to lose themselves in the middle of New York City. But the Vindico are hunting them now, and so are the Flame and his little rogue group. I hope they do not overwhelm them too easily.”
“Obviously my friends are doing just fine,” Emily said.
“They are. They are even stronger than I imagined. They will be trying to find Thunderbolt as quickly as possible now. It’s their only chance. I of course can’t allow that to happen. I must put my own men into the fray. With this many people after them, even New York will not hide them for long.”
“Why are you involved in this?” Emily asked. “What do you want?”
Dolus smiled. “I’ve been involved since well before you were born. I am a man of many faces, Emily, and many pasts. Unlike you and your friends, I chose to become a part of this a long time ago. I wasn’t always like this, you know. I used to be a good man, or as close as we can be. But that man died, and I woke up in the darkness.”
Emily thought briefly about attacking him, but there was something about his stance that warned her against it. She suspected that his gun would be aimed squarely at her forehead before she even finished her first step.
“I didn’t come here just to worry you,” he said. “I will attempt to capture your friends, not kill them. The others won’t be so kind. Do you have any idea where they might go?”
“To find Thunderbolt,” Emily answered. “And no, I still don’t know where that is.”
“I see. Think about it very carefully, and I will return again soon.” He turned to the door, but paused. “One more thing. When this is done, what would you have me do with you? The League will be gone, and your friends may not survive.”
Emily narrowed her eyes. “If you hurt them, I’ll come after you.”
He smiled and swung open the door. “You are a rare specimen, Emily. The safe answer would have been to go home. But you’re not one for the safe answer.” He sighed. “I suppose I’ll have something to think about too.”
He shut the door, and it clanged loudly into place. Emily bent over and shook Blue. She groggily opened her eyes.
“What is it?” she murmured.
“We need to figure out where Thunderbolt might be,” Emily said, “before that woman gets back. We need to help her find him soon, or her brother is going to kill everyone.” She glanced at the door. “Including us.”
21
“I MUST SAY, I EXPECT A BIT MORE FROM A HOTEL BATHROOM,” HAYDEN said as Lana rubbed the antibacterial cream into his scorch marks.
The skin was blackened all along his forearm, and it had begun to blister. The wound was horrendously painful, but Hayden had never been one to complain, so he continued to occupy himself with a thorough inspection of the bathroom.
They were holed up in a very cheap, dingy hotel in one of the less pristine parts of the city. Lana had found the car owner’s wallet in his briefcase, which had contained a decent amount of cash. They’d used it to buy the cream and some painkillers at a pharmacy, and then they’d passed the hotel and decided it might be a good idea to get off the street.
“For one,” Hayden continued, biting back a surge of pain, “that red color on the bottom of the curtains, that’s mold. I have the same thing at my house. And look at all those water stains. Clearly they aren’t wiping the tiles. Who knows what James and Sam are getting from those beds—” He jerked back as she touched his arm again. “Okay, ow!”
“Sorry,” Lana mumbled as she tightened the tensor bandage. “You’re good to go. Let’s get your shirt back on.”
“What’s the rush?” he said. “Actually, we should probably take a shower. We are pretty dirty. Let me help you get your shirt off.”
“Shut up. You might be right, though. I’ll take one. You go lie down. I just put the bandage on, so you can’t go getting it wet.”
“I can’t stay in here?”
“Get out.”
Sighing, Hayden traipsed out of the bathroom and slowly eased himself onto the bed beside James.
“You should try not wearing a shirt,” Hayden whispered to him. “It’s liberating.”
“Just stay on your side,” James replied sharply.
“I’ve been waiting so long for this,” Hayden said, shuffling a bit closer. “Do you want to be the little spoon or me?”
James abruptly climbed off the bed and lay down beside Sam on the other one.
“So what are we going to do now?” Sam asked.
“We have the coordinates to Thunderbolt’s location,” James reasoned. “We just have to figure out where it is and then drive there.”
“What if it’s in Hawaii?” Hayden asked.
James hesitated. “Then we’re screwed.”
“Sweet,” Hayden said. “When’s that pizza getting here? I’m starving.”
James glanced at the clock. “They said forty minutes.”
“How long has it been?” Hayden asked.
“Five.”
“Crap.” Hayden shifted and pain lanced up his arm. Biting his lip, he readjusted himself again and closed his eyes.
They lay around for a while longer and then quickly devoured three pizzas. Once the discarded boxes were lying on the stained beige carpet, they decided to have a quick nap. They all knew they could have a long drive ahead.
As Lana settled in beside Hayden, he ran his fingers through her freshly washed hair. James and Sam were already asleep on the other bed.
“That hotel conditioner worked wonders,” he said. “Very soft.”
“Thanks.” She looked at him. “How’s your arm?”
“Better. Maybe a kiss would help.”
“Don’t push your luck,” she said.
He smiled. “I love you.” It was the first time he’d said it, but it wasn’t scary. It just felt right.
“I love you too,” she said, sounding surprised.
He leaned down and kissed her. Then he wrapped her in his arms, and they fell asleep.
* * *
James frowned and shuffled closer to his end of the bed. Sam was rolling back and forth, muttering under
his breath. He’d been doing it for at least twenty minutes now.
James considered waking him but decided that bad dream or not, Sam could use the rest. James closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.
Sam abruptly rolled again, coming right up to James’s back.
“No,” Sam whispered fiercely. “Stay away!” Then he rolled back to the other side.
James sighed, and after a moment of quiet, he began to doze. Just as he was fading out of consciousness, a disturbing thought struck him. He turned to Sam.
Sam was lying flat on his back now. His eyes were still closed, but his forehead, already glistening with a sheen of sweat, was creased with intense concentration. His mouth continued to move slightly, but no words were coming out.
“Sam,” James said, gently shaking his arm. “Sam?”
Sam didn’t stir. James shook him harder.
Sam’s eyes suddenly shot open, staring at the ceiling. “They’re coming.”
James leapt off the bed. “Wake up!” he shouted.
“What?” Lana mumbled.
“They’re coming,” James said sharply. “We need to leave.”
Hayden and Lana scrambled off the bed, and Sam groggily stood up as well, looking dazed. He teetered and leaned against the nightstand.
“How far are they?” James asked him.
Sam closed his eyes for a moment. “They’re getting closer. I don’t think they know exactly where we are. I tried to fight him.”
James nodded. “Let’s get the car.”
They cautiously opened the door, peering down the pale yellow hallway. The paint was peeling off the ceiling, and the carpet was matted with dirt. Several of the lights were flickering. It was empty, though, so they crept toward the staircase and hurried down the concrete steps.
When they reached the lobby, James peeked in through the small glass window on the door. The same pudgy man who had checked them in was sitting at the desk, watching television.
“I wish we had our guns,” Sam whispered.
“That might have alarmed the fat guy on the way in,” Hayden said quietly.
They descended the next set of stairs toward the underground parking lot. Only four cars sat in the garage, including theirs. James glanced nervously at the garage door.
“Didn’t he say he’d open it when we checked out?” he asked.
“Yep,” Lana said. “That’s why we have Hayden.”
“Glad to be of service,” Hayden said.
James climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. As soon as the others were in, he drove toward the steep ramp, half expecting the garage doors to explode at any moment.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Hayden?”
“Right.” Hayden closed his eyes and extended his left hand. With a labored grinding noise, the large door began to rise. Sunlight poured in the opening, causing them all to squint.
As soon as the door was about five feet up, James hit the gas. The car leapt up the steep ramp and burst out of the garage. Sam shouted as they left the ground for an instant, sailing up over the lip of the ramp, and then they hit the pavement again with a screech. James veered right just as a booming horn sounded, and they all turned to see a bus heading straight toward them. Everyone yelled at once as James hit the gas again and their car barely accelerated ahead of the bus, shooting down the street into traffic.
They slowed at a red light. James checked the rearview mirror and saw a black ship hovering right in front of the dingy hotel. Traffic had come to a stop and large crowds were already forming on the sidewalk, pointing up at the vessel.
“That was close,” James said, turning to Lana.
She nodded tightly. “Too close.”
“No more rest breaks, I guess,” Sam muttered.
Hayden stretched in the back. “But I’m so very sleepy.”
“We need to figure out what those coordinates mean,” Lana said. “Let’s get to an Internet café and look it up.”
Twenty minutes later, they were all gathered around one computer tucked in the corner of a seedy Internet café. James really wished he’d written the coordinates down. A fair amount had happened since they’d received Thunderbolt’s message.
“I think this is it,” he said uncertainly, “if I got that last number right.”
“What’s with them and Canada?” Hayden asked. “How long of a drive is that?”
James punched in the information. “Ten hours,” he grumbled.
“You know it could be on the other side of the world if you have that number wrong,” Lana pointed out.
“I think this makes sense,” James said. “The League’s original base was in Canada.”
He leaned back and stretched his hands over his head. There was only one other person in the café, and he was intently bent over his own computer, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.
“Maybe we should e-mail our families,” Lana said. “Tell them we’re okay.”
Sam brightened at that and wheeled his chair a little closer. Lana went first, and then Sam followed. He was halfway through his e-mail when James noticed the man at the other computer was staring at them curiously. He quickly looked away when James made eye contact with him.
Lana noticed too, and she and James exchanged a quick look.
“How long was he staring?” James whispered.
“Too long,” Lana said.
Sam finished, and James rolled his chair up. He hadn’t even started typing when the man stood up quickly and exited the café, pulling out a cell phone as he went.
“He was very anxious,” Sam said.
“Maybe we should check a news site?” Hayden suggested.
James pulled up a news website. A picture of League headquarters dominated the front page, with black smoke roiling out of the windows. Below that were smaller pictures of the twisted holes blown through the floors.
The headline read: LEAGUE HEADQUARTERS ATTACKED BY TEENAGERS. And at the bottom of the page was a video link with the subtitle: “Surveillance video of the four teenagers who were abducted by the Vindico four months ago, assaulting two police officers before stealing a vehicle and fleeing the scene.”
“Click on it,” Lana said softly.
They sat in silence as they watched themselves hurry across the lobby and then as Hayden waved his hand and sent the two cops flying across the room.
“That looks even funnier from this angle,” Hayden said.
“My mom’s probably watching this right now,” Sam whispered.
“This is bad,” James agreed. He glanced at the door. “And that guy—”
“Was probably watching it too,” Lana finished. “And is now calling the cops as we speak.”
They had taken about five steps toward the door when they heard the first siren.
22
“WE NEED TO GET TO THE CAR,” LANA SAID. THEY HURRIED DOWN THE NARROW staircase to the entrance of the small building and then stepped back again. “Too late.”
Outside, four police cruisers were already coming around the corner. They pulled up in front of the café, forming a loose perimeter.
“Should we give ourselves up?” Sam asked nervously. “At least then we’d be protected.”
“You think those cops would be able to stop the Vindico from getting to us?” James said. “We need to get to Thunderbolt.”
The police officers stepped out of their cars, weapons drawn. More cop cars pulled up and James spotted two large black vans as well. Armored SWAT police poured out of them.
“We’re screwed,” James said.
Hayden sighed. “This is going to be messy. Sam, can you keep some of them occupied?”
“I think so,” he said uncertainly. “Why?”
“James, you run to the car and get it started,” Hayden said, then turned to Lana. “Feel like flipping some cop cars?”
“No,” she replied. “But we don’t have much of a choice do we?”
Hayden lifted his hands. “Ready?”
“Ready,” they all said quietly.
One of the police cars slowly floated upward, and the terrified officer behind it scrambled on his hands and knees toward another vehicle. The car stopped its ascent and hovered in midair. Then it abruptly flew across the street and smashed into one of the black vans.
“Charge!” Hayden shouted.
James kicked open the door, snapping it right off its hinges, and saw the black van toppling over in the corner of his vision, its windows shattering. Hayden ran out behind him, and with a vicious wave of his hand, another cruiser went skidding into a pole.
James sprinted toward their red sedan and realized a cop car was parked directly in the way. The officer behind it fired, hitting James in the arm. Sharp pain lanced up his arm as the bullet bounced off his hardened skin, and he knew it was going to leave a nasty bruise.
James lowered his shoulder and plowed into the vehicle, sending the officer flying and the gun spilling from his hands. He risked a glance backward at the scene of chaos. Cruisers were overturned everywhere, and he watched as Lana tossed one officer onto the hood of a parked car. He bounced off it, shattering the window.
Several other officers were standing by with weapons lowered, obviously under Sam’s control. Hayden sent them clattering to the ground with a wave of his hand.
James jumped into the car. A few seconds later, Sam barreled into the front seat.
“Tell them to hurry up,” James said.
He watched in the rearview mirror as Lana ripped a gun out of one armored cop’s hands and then dispatched him with a swift kick to the stomach. Then she shouted something at Hayden and sprinted toward the car. Hayden took an unnatural leap, throwing himself across the street. He stumbled on the landing, but Lana caught his arm, and they fell through the open door into the backseat.
“Canada, please,” Hayden said.
James hit the gas. The car jumped forward, leaving the tangle of destroyed cop cars behind them. The remaining officers opened fire at their retreating vehicle.
James whipped the car into a turn. But before they’d rounded the corner, he saw two cruisers streak out of the pile after them. He veered right into opposing traffic, and a chorus of horns sounded from all directions. Another cop car suddenly flew out of the intersection in front of them, skidding in a tight turn. They were going to crash.
