Ms. Jane Jansen had only just met the two, but she didn’t seem to like them. She didn’t seem to like much of anything. Her face was in a permanent state of pucker, like she had a lemon in her pocket that she was constantly sucking on.
“Oh, sorry,” said Mark, as if he had been caught doing something wrong. “We were reading. Can we come back tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” snapped Ms. Jane Jansen. “And this isn’t a library. You children have spent far too much time here already.”
Courtney didn’t like Ms. Jane Jansen’s attitude. And she definitely didn’t like being called a child, especially by such a prune.
“So if we can’t read here, what are we supposed to do?” asked Courtney politely, trying not to let her distaste for the woman show through.
“The content of that box belongs to you,” Ms. Jane Jansen said. “Do whatever you want with it.”
“You mean, we can take it all home?” asked Mark.
“I said, whatever you want,” said Ms. Jane Jansen impatiently.
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” asked Courtney. “Or do you always provide such lousy service?”
Mark winced. He hated it when Courtney clicked into wise-ass mode.
Ms. Jane Jansen’s eyes popped open wide. “Miss Chetwynde, I have been an employee of the National Bank of Stony Brook for over twenty years and I have always provided thorough and professional service.”
“I’ll be sure to include that in our report to your president,” Courtney said. “That’s what this is all about, you know. To test how bank employees deal with unusual situations. So far, you haven’t exactly rolled with the punches, now have you, Ms. Jane Jansen?”
Ms. Jane Jansen’s eyes grew wide. She suddenly turned all friendly and polite. “Well, uh, if you have any complaints I’d be more than happy to personally ensure your complete satisfaction.”
“Thereissomething,” Courtney said. “If you’d be so kind, would you return the empty drawer to our safe-deposit box? We’ll be taking the contents with us.”
Ms. Jane Jansen clenched her teeth. It wasn’t her job to clean up after people. But she sucked it up.
“Of course,” she said with a big, phony smile. “I’d be happy to.”
Mark quickly scooped up the four journals and stashed them in his backpack. He wanted to get out of there before Courtney got them into trouble.
“Th-Thanks,” he said with sincere courtesy. “We’ll get out of your hair now.” He went for the door, pulling Courtney along with him.
“Thanks for all your help, ma’am,” said Courtney sweetly. “You really put theassin assistance.”
Mark yanked Courtney out of the vault, leaving Ms. Jane Jansen with a twisted smile that actually looked painful. A minute later they rushed out of the gray bank building onto Stony Brook Avenue. Courtney was all smiles. Mark was angry.
“Are you crazy?” he yelled. “What if she threw us out of there? We could have lost the journals!”
“No way,” assured Courtney. “You heard her. They belong to us. Besides, she deserved it. She treated us like a couple of turds.”
“Yeah, well, some things are more important than your bruised ego,” Mark muttered.
“You’re right, Mark,” Courtney said sincerely. “I’m sorry.”
Mark nodded, then looked at Courtney and smiled. “Shediddeserve it.” The two burst out laughing. Now that their bank adventure was behind them, their thoughts turned to the important issue. After waiting for months, they had another journal from Bobby! Better, they hadfourjournals. In Mark’s pack was an entire new adventure. They wouldn’t have to wait impatiently for new journals to show up. They had a full story in their hands.
“I don’t know about you” said Mark, “but once I start reading again, I’m not going to want to stop.”
“Agreed,” said Courtney.
“Here’s what I’m thinking. It’s getting late. How about if we wait till tomorrow?”
“You’re kidding!” protested Courtney.
“I’m serious. Tomorrow’s Sunday. I’ll come over to your house real early, like eighta.m. We’ll go down to your father’s workshop and won’t come out until we’re finished.”
Courtney gave this some thought. “You promise not to read anything tonight?” she asked.
“Promise,” Mark said, crossing his heart.
“Okay, cool,” she said. “I’ll make some sandwiches. You bring chips. We’ll make it a marathon.”
“Excellent. I’ll bring the Dew, too,” Mark said with excitement.
“Whatever.” Courtney didn’t do the Dew.
“This is gonna be great!” Mark shouted.
The next day at 8a.m. sharp, Courtney’s doorbell rang. Courtney’s dad opened the door to see Mark standing there with a loaded grocery bag.
“Morning, Mark,” he said through sleepy eyes. “Going on a picnic?”
“Uh… no,” answered Mark. “Courtney and I are working on a school project in your basement. It’s gonna take all day so we need provisions.” ”Really?” said Mr. Chetwynde. “It’s August.”
“Right,” said Mark, thinking fast. “Summer school.”
“Courtney doesn’t go to summer school.”
“I know,” Mark said, mentally kicking himself for being such a lousy, uncreative liar. “I do.”
Mr. Chetwynde looked at Mark. Mark smiled innocently.
Mr. Chetwynde shrugged and yawned. “Whatever, c’mon in.” He stepped aside and Mark rushed in.
Mark knew exactly where to go. He and Courtney had used Mr. Chetwynde’s basement workshop as a private place to read Bobby’s journals many times before. Mr. Chetwynde had set up an entire workshop down there and never used it. He was a lousy do-it-yourself type guy. Mark and Courtney could be there all day, even on a Sunday, and never worry about anybody coming down.
Mark settled into the big, dusty couch as Courtney ran down the stairs. “Sandwiches are in the fridge,” she announced. “Ready when we need ‘em.”
She sat next to Mark on the couch as he pulled the four red-leather journals from his backpack. He put them down reverently on the low table in front of them. The two sat there, staring at the precious stack. Neither made a move to pick one up.
“This is kind of weird,” Mark finally said.
“Really,” agreed Courtney. “I’m excited and afraid at the same time. I’m dying to know what happened to Bobby, but what if it’s bad?”
The two fell silent, staring at the books.
“There’s something else,” added Mark thoughtfully. “This wholeFirstEarth thing makes me nervous.”
“Why?” Courtney asked.
“It’s like Saint Dane is coming closer. To us.”
“You don’t know that,” Courtney said quickly. ”No, but Second Earth is a territory like all the others. One day Saint Dane is going to come here, too. And when he does, we’re going to be doing more than just reading about it.”
“Unless Bobby and the Travelers stop him first, right?” Courtney asked hopefully.
Mark didn’t answer. He looked at the journals thoughtfully, then reached for the top one. “Let’s just read, okay?”
Courtney took a breath to calm down, then said, “Let’s try something different this time. We’ll read out loud to each other.”
Mark was secretly relieved. He was a faster reader than Courtney and always had to wait for her to catch up. This was the perfect solution.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said, and handed her the journal. “You first.”
Courtney took the journal and cracked open the cover. “We left off where Bobby and Spader flumed to Veelox, right?” she asked.
“Right,” answered Mark. He sank back into the couch, put a hand behind his head, got comfortable and said, “Go for it.”
Courtney turned to the page where they had left off the day before, and began to read out loud.
“A second later we were swept up by the light and sound and pulled int
o the flume. Next stop… Veelox.”
FIRST EARTH
Flying through an interstellar tunnel across time and space was never a normal experience, but making the trip with somebody along for the ride kicked it a couple of notches higher on the strange meter.
“I could get used to this!” declared Spader as he did somersaults and flips, looking like an astronaut pulling zero g’s.
I had to hand it to the guy-he knew how to have fun. Me? I was more interested in kicking back and looking out at the stars beyond the crystal walls. Whatever. To each his own.
We had only been sailing for a few minutes when the flume dumped us off again. Spader had been flying headfirst and barely had time to spin around and land on his feet. Once the light from the flume was sucked back into the tunnel and the musical notes left us, we found ourselves standing in…
Nothing. Seriously. It was pitch-black. I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face.
“Whoa, Veelox is dark,” Spader declared.
“Yeah, no kidding. Let’s wait a second for our eyes to adjust.”
They didn’t. We stood there for two minutes, but the place stayed just as inky black as when we landed.
“Get behind me/’ Spader ordered protectively. “I’ll walk with my hand out until I hit-“
“Stop right there!” a voice boomed at us.
Uh-oh. We weren’t alone. This had never happened before. Was it Saint Dane? Could the quigs on Veelox talk? Was unseen danger hurtling toward us at this very second?
“Back up,” I said softly to Spader.
I took hold of his arm and was about to pull him back into the flume and get the hell out of there, when a light suddenly appeared, hovering in the air over our heads.
“You seeing this, mate?” Spader asked, his voice sounding shaky.
“Yeah,” I answered, just as shaky.
The light grew larger. It was all soft and watery at first, but then suddenly snapped into sharp focus to reveal…
A girl. Actually, not a full girl. A girl’shead. No kidding. Just a head. It was big, too. It floated over us like a huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.
“Who are you?” the head demanded.
Her voice was loud, as though amplified. The girl-head looked normal enough. She had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were blue, and she wore small, wire-rimmed glasses with yellow-tinted lenses. I’d even say she was cute, for a monster head, that is. She didn’t look dangerous, but then again, a giant floating head didn’t exactly look normal, either.
“I’m Bobby Pendragon,” I said to the head, trying to sound head-friendly.
“And my name’s Vo Spader,” Spader added. “Who are you?”
“I’ll ask the questions!” boomed the head.
I felt like I was standing before the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. With any luck, there’d be some befuddled old man hiding behind a curtain pulling on levers to control the big thing.
“Where do you come from?” demanded the head.
“I’m from Cloral,” answered Spader. “My mate here is from Second Earth. Do you have a body to go with that head?”
The head suddenly dipped down toward us. We both hit the floor. For a second I thought she was going to take a bite.
“I said I’ll ask the questions!” she roared.
“Sorry, mate,” yelled Spader. “No worries. I’m with you now.”
The head floated back higher without taking a chomp. Spader and I exchanged worried looks.
“Why did you come here?” asked the giant blonde girl-head thing.
“Spader and I are Travelers,” I said. “We followed someone here. His name is-“
“Saint Dane isn’t here now,” the head announced.
Whoa. The head was a couple of steps ahead of us… no pun intended.
“Uhh, sorry to disagree,” Spader said. “But he definitely came here from Cloral.”
The big head rolled her eyes like we were annoying her, and said, “I didn’t say he wasneverhere. I said he’s not herenow. Weren’t you listening?”
Spader and I shot each other looks. This was getting even stranger. We were talking to a big, floating, obnoxioushead.
“Watch,” the head said impatiently, as if she were talking to a couple of naughty children. “This happened a few minutes ago.”
The head then disappeared. Just like that. It faded out like a movie. I began to wonder if it had really been there or if it were some kind of projection. We were in the dark again, in more ways than one. But not for long.
Another light began to grow. At first I thought the head was coming back, but what appeared right in front of us was another image entirely. It looked like the mouth of the flume! It was like a 3-D movie projected in space. Very cool. That started to explain the giant head. My guess was these guys on Veelox had some hot technology going on.
Spader backed off. “What is this, Pendragon?” he asked nervously.
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “I think it’s like a movie.”
“Oh,” Spader said. “What’s a movie?”
The image of the flume then came to life. Bright light shone from the mouth and the musical notes told us that somebody was about to arrive. And then this strange movie took an interesting turn.
Saint Dane stepped out of the flume.
“Hobey!” shouted Spader in surprise.
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “It’s just pictures.”
Saint Dane stood in the mouth of the projected flume. This may have been a hologram movie, but it sure looked real. His long gray hair cascaded over the shoulders of his dark suit, and his piercing blue eyes cut through me as if he were actually standing there. Saint Dane even gave us a wave, as if he knew we were watching him.
Even though I’m still trying to understand where we fit into this whole Traveler picture, there are a few things I know all too well. Mostly they have to do with our mission and with the guy who was standing before us in a hologram-Saint Dane.
Halla is in danger because of him. Halla is everything-every territory, every person, every thing, and everytimethat ever existed. I know, it doesn’t make total sense to me, either, but that’s what I’ve been told. Saint Dane is a Traveler who wants to control Halla. In a word, he is evil. But simply calling him evil is like saying Tiger Woods is a good golfer. Saint Dane is the Tiger Woods of bad. He enjoys causing pain and suffering. I’ve seen what he’s capable of. It isn’t pretty. If he gets his way and somehow takes control of Halla, well, I don’t even want to think about that.
The only thing standing between Saint Dane and his wicked plans are the other Travelers. That’s us. Every territory is reaching a critical turning point. Saint Dane is doing his worst to influence these important events so that each territory will fall into chaos. If he succeeds, then all of Halla will fall to him.
We’ve got to make sure he doesn’t succeed.
So far we are 2 and 0. Denduron and Cloral were wins. But it’s going to be a long war.
As we stood staring at the hologram of Saint Dane, every fear I had about the guy came screaming back. He was one bad dude. I watched as his recorded image turned back toward the flume.
“First Earth,”he commanded.
An instant later the light and music swept him up and carried him into the tunnel. The image then faded out and the flume projection was gone. We were back in the dark.
“Now do you understand?” the girl-head’s voice boomed out of the darkness. “He was here. He left. End of story. Now go away.”
“Who are you?” I called out to the girl-head. “Why should we believe that?”
Another hologram appeared before us. It was the same view of the flume as before. Again, the tunnel activated with light and music. Who was going to arrive this time? A second later Spader and I watched as…
Spader and I stepped out of the flume in the hologram!
“I’ve gone totally off my nut,” Spader said in awe.
“Whoa, Veelox is da
rk,” the projection of Spader declared.
“Yeah, no kidding,” the projection of me said. “Let’s wait a second for our eyes to adjust.”
It was exactly what had happened a minute before.
“My name is Aja Killian,” boomed the head voice as our holograms disappeared.
Spader and I spun around to see the big head had returned. It hovered over us like a blond cloud.
“I’m the Traveler from Veelox,” she said. “I’ve got the flume monitored and I record everything that happens. That’s why I know Saint Dane isn’t here anymore. Any more questions?”
“Yes,” I said. “Would you please stop with this giant-head thing and show yourself? If you’re a Traveler, then we’re all friends here.”
I was feeling a little more bold now, and getting tired of staring up at this girl.
“I would,” Aja answered. “But I’m nowhere near you.”
Spader said, “So you’re telling us that Saint Dane flumed in here for a second, then flumed right back out again?”
“I’m not telling you,” she said curtly. “I justshowedyou. Don’t you believe what you see?”
Spader looked at me and asked softly, “Why did he leave so fast?”
“Because he’s wasting his time here,” Aja answered quickly. “Veelox is totally under control.”
I laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought about Cloral, until people started turning up dead.” ”Look,” the Aja-head scolded. “Nobody comes or goes through the flume without my knowing. He’s not here. So go chase him to First Earth where you can be more useful.”
Spader and I shared looks. “I guess she toldyou,”he said with a raised eyebrow.
I looked back up at the Aja-head and said, “If you think he’s dumb enough to be controlled by your little home movies, then you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
That seemed to strike a chord. The big head floated down closer to us and stared me right in the eye. It took all I could do not to back off.
“And what makesyouthe expert on all things Saint Dane?” she asked with disdain.
The Never War tpa-3 Page 2
