“What just happened?” Trenton asked.
“Earn our trust first,” Alex said.
Once the Ninki Nanka was gone, Alex led Trenton out of the canal to a line of factories and warehouses. A few of them had smoke coming from the vents, but most looked like they hadn’t been used in a long time.
Alex stopped outside one of the abandoned buildings. The windows were covered with dust, and the front gate was chained closed. He shot a quick look in both directions before peeling up a section of fence. “Follow me,” he said, ducking through the opening.
Once they were inside the fence, he hurried to a four-inch metal drainpipe on one of the corners and began shimmying up. Alex moved quickly, and it was all Trenton could do to keep up. By the time he’d climbed through a window twenty feet above the ground, the other kids were right behind him.
Inside, he could see right away that the building had once been a machine shop. The tools and machinery were coated with a thick layer of dirt, but they looked like they might be operable once they were cleaned up.
Trenton bent forward, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “Does this stuff work?”
“Most of it,” Michael said, walking up beside him.
“And the ones that don’t we can get working,” Asher said, shaking back his blond curls.
Trenton followed the others down a set of splintery steps to where a metal table was covered with large sheets of paper and design equipment that looked much newer and cleaner than anything else in the room.
“Had a couple of the kids borrow a few supplies from the design shop on the way,” Alex said, nodding to Jack and Cameron, who were lounging on a stack of pallets across the room.
JoeBob folded his arms across his skinny chest. “Now it’s your turn. Tell us what you want this place for and how it’s going to get us out of the city.”
“You could ask a little nicer,” Hallie said.
Alex brushed his hair out of his face. “No. JoeBob is right. We took a big risk bringing you here. It’s time for you to open up. What’s the plan?”
Trenton took a deep breath. Technically the plan wasn’t only his, and he hadn’t had a chance to make sure the others were okay with him telling the Runt Patrol their secret. But these kids were right. They’d told him at least some of their secrets, not to mention they’d found this amazing building. He knew that without their help, building a submarine would be impossible.
“They took our dragons after we were captured,” he said.
JoeBob snorted. “Of course they did.”
“But we think we know where they are,” Trenton said. “They’re in an old fort called Alcatraz.”
“The island?” Lizzy asked. “There’s no way you can reach that without the dragons seeing you.”
The light that had been in Alex’s eyes went out. “She’s right. The dragons watch the harbor like hawks, and if they don’t spot you, the guards in the towers will. You might as well kiss those mechanical dragons of yours good-bye.”
Trenton reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He’d been working on the drawing every spare chance he got. “They can watch the top of the water,” he said as he unfolded the sheet, “but not underneath.”
The Runt Patrol gathered around him as he spread the paper out on the table.
It was a set of designs for a completely enclosed, underwater vehicle. The ship was more than ten feet long with a pair of tall, matching rudders on the back and narrowing to a point on the front. Scalloped fins angling down from the sides made it look like a metal fish.
Twin glass domes on the top covered a pair of seats inside where drivers could control the underwater ship with pedals and levers. With all the machinery they’d need to make the ship run, it would be a tight fit, but he thought two people could squeeze in.
“It’s called a submarine,” he said.
The kids around him gathered closer.
“What’s this?” Graysen asked, pointing to a brass tube rising out of the top.
“It’s an underwater telescope,” Trenton said. “It uses lenses and mirrors to see above the water while the rest of the ship remains out of sight below.”
JoeBob gaped. “You designed this yourself?”
Trenton felt himself blush. It wasn’t anything like what Leo Babbage could do, but he was proud of his work. “I saw something like it in a book, and I came up with the rest myself. I’m pretty good at inventing things.” He tapped the paper on the table. “There’s still a lot of work still to do. I have to figure out how to store enough oxygen to stay underwater, and some way to keep from crashing into unseen obstacles, but I have some ideas.”
Michael ran a finger across the design. “You think it will work? I mean, an underwater boat is crazy.”
“We won’t know until we test it,” Trenton said. “But, yeah, I think I can build it, and I think it will work.”
“We,” Hallie said. “We’ll build it.”
Alex studied the plans. “It only carries two people. How are we all going to escape?”
Up until that afternoon, Trenton had only been planning to get him and his five friends out of the city. Well, four, if Kallista refused to leave. But if the Runt Patrol was going to help him, they deserved the chance to escape too.
“Maybe we’ll build more than one,” he said. “Or maybe we’ll take multiple trips back and forth. The submarine can only hold two people at a time, and the dragons can only carry two, but I promise we’ll find a way to take anyone who works on this.”
A bang sounded from up on the platform where they’d climbed through the window. Trenton looked up to see a girl staring down at him.
Alex started forward, but Trenton put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. She’s with me.”
Somehow, even with her leg braces, Plucky had followed them all the way to the warehouse and climbed up the pipe and through the window without anyone hearing her.
She wound the key on her braces with a soft click-click-click and grinned. “Looks plummy. When do we start building it, yeah, yeah?”
I demand to know where my father is, and I’m not leaving until I see him.” Kallista planted herself in front of the bored-looking woman behind the counter, refusing to break eye contact.
It had been a week since Kallista and the others had moved out of the dormitory and into the house on the hill, and she hadn’t seen her father since the night in the warehouse. She’d tried the city design office, engineering, the central mechanic shop, even food processing—anywhere the greatest inventor in the city might be, and yet every single person claimed to have no record of him.
And now she was at the city housing department getting the same story.
The woman dropped her gaze. “I don’t know what you want me to do,” she said, shuffling a stack of papers in front of her.
“I want you to find him,” Kallista said.
Maybe he’d realized he’d made a mistake. Maybe he was trying to find a way to fix it right this minute. Or maybe not. It was possible he still felt that the dragons were the next rung on the evolutionary ladder and there was no point in fighting against them. But no matter what he had done or how he felt about it, he would not go this long without talking to his own daughter.
Would he?
He had left her alone in Cove, and he had left Seattle without her. But the first time was because his life had been in danger, and the second time was because the dragons had captured him. Now that they were in the same city, he wouldn’t ignore her. He couldn’t.
She tried to convince herself he was caught up in a big project and had lost track of time, but she was beginning to fear more and more that the dragons had done something to him. What if he’d done something to anger the dragons? What if he was locked up somewhere—or worse?
Kallista clenched her hands in front of her un
til her knuckles turned white. “You say you have a record of every person living in the city, correct?”
The woman set her mouth in a frown before muttering, “I only have what I’ve been given, and I have no record of a Leo Babbage. There’s nothing more I can tell you.”
The line behind Kallista was growing longer by the minute, the people grumbling, but she didn’t care. She’d been pushed around from one spot to another long enough.
“Then get someone who can help me,” Kallista said.
“I’m sorry.” The woman placed her hands flat on the counter. “I need you to step aside so I can help the next person in line.”
The man behind Kallista tried to step around her, but she moved to block him. “I’m not leaving until you get someone who can tell me why my father, who has been in the city longer than I have, has no record of living here.”
The woman stood up, her bored expression replaced by an angry scowl. “Leave this building at once or I’ll have security take you away. Trust me, little girl, you do not want that.”
Kallista’s tongue stuck to the roof of her suddenly dry mouth, but she refused to back down. “Do it. Maybe they can tell me where my father is.”
The people behind her gasped, but the woman reached to the side of the counter and turned a crank. A moment later, a click and a hiss came from a small metal horn and a man’s voice asked, “What is it?”
The woman looked at Kallista as if giving her one last chance, but when Kallista didn’t move, the woman sighed. “I have a citizen who refuses to obey the rules.”
A moment later, the door swung open and a man and a woman in uniform marched to the front of the line, grabbed Kallista by her elbows, and pulled her away from the counter.
Kallista didn’t struggle. If this was the only way she could get answers about her father, so be it. She squinted at the bright sunlight as she was pulled outside.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” the woman asked.
“I want to see my father,” Kallista said. “No one has a record of him anywhere.”
“Maybe he’s no longer in the city,” the man said, his voice gruff.
Was that supposed to be some kind of joke? No one left the city. Unless . . . Her breath caught in her throat. “Do you know where he is? Did something happen to him?” Surely if he’d been hurt, someone would have told her.
Before either of the guards could answer, a shadow passed overhead. Kallista looked up to see a massive black-and-red dragon touch down in front of them. Both guards dropped to their knees, pulling Kallista down with them.
“How can we serve you?” the female guard asked without looking up.
“I take girl,” the dragon said in a gravelly voice.
Kallista looked up in surprise. What would the dragon want with her?
The male guard yanked her up from her knees and shoved her forward. “As you command.”
Kallista stumbled toward the black-and-red dragon, and it reached out to grip her in its talons. Sweat ran down the back of her neck, and her muscles turned to liquid. The only time she’d felt a dragon’s talons had been in battle. She glanced up and saw the dragon open its mouth. Venom glistened on its long fangs.
Was this how she would die? Had the dragons decided her questions about her father were worth killing over? Without another word, the dragon spread its wings and rose into the air. Its talons closed tighter and tighter around Kallista’s chest until she worried her ribs were going to snap.
“I can’t breathe,” she tried to shout, but all that came from her lips was a croak.
Looking around, she saw where they were headed, and what little breath she’d had left whooshed from her lungs.
The dragon flew to the top level of the white tower and through the open window, where it tossed her roughly to the floor and bowed to the white dragon sitting regally before them. “As requested, Majesty.”
The monarch nodded, and the black-and-red dragon flew away.
Kallista got to her feet and rubbed her bruised ribs. “Why am I here?”
“Bow before me, human,” the monarch snarled.
“Not until you tell—” Kallista began. Before the words were completely out of her mouth, the white dragon spread its wings and gave a mighty flap at her. A hurricane-like blast of wind lifted her up and threw her fifteen feet across the room, where she smashed against the wall. Her ribs screamed in agony as she crumbled to the ground.
The dragon spread its jaws, and a blast of purple energy smashed into the wall above her. Although the sky outside was clear, a bolt of lightning struck just outside the window, filling the air with the smell of an overheated engine.
Before she could even think about getting up again, the monarch was across the room, picking her up and slamming her face-first to the ground. Colored spots flashed in front of her eyes, and blood leaked from her nose.
The dragon flipped her over so she was looking directly into its purple eyes. “You will speak only when invited to, you will refer to me as ‘Your Majesty,’ and you will kneel unless I give you permission to stand. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Your Majesty.”
The white dragon released her and strode back across the room. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Kallista shook her head, too scared to speak.
The monarch sat back down, picked up a golden goblet, and took a long drink. “Stand up. You look silly there on the floor.”
Kallista rose cautiously, afraid it was another trick and that the white dragon would throw her across the room again, this time maybe cracking her skull or breaking her neck.
“I understand you’ve been traipsing across the city, making a nuisance of yourself,” the monarch said in a jovial tone of voice.
“I—” Kallista began, before realizing she hadn’t actually been asked a question.
The monarch waved his goblet. “You may speak.”
“I’m looking for my father, Your Majesty,” Kallista said. Blood dripped down the back of her throat, and she tried not to choke on it. “No one seems to know where he is, and I’m afraid something’s happened to him.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” The monarch laughed. “You should have come to me first.”
“You know where he is?” Kallista blurted, unable to help herself, then added, “Your Majesty.”
The white dragon spread his wings, and Kallista ducked, but it was only a stretch. “Of course I do. I’ve been keeping him busy. In fact, he is here right now.”
Kallista turned and saw her father standing at the back of the room. “Dad,” she shouted, running to give him a hug.
He put his arms around her stiffly and patted her back. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Kallista stepped away. She touched her nose and glanced at the white dragon. How long had her father been there? Had he seen what the monarch had done to her and simply let it happen?
“Where have you been?”
“I’ve been working on a project,” he said in an almost mechanical voice.
She shook her head. “What kind of project? Where?”
For a quick second his gaze dropped to the floor, then he looked back at her. “I’m afraid I can’t say.” His eyes flickered to the monarch, then down to the floor again. “I’ve been spending very long hours in my . . .” His lips started to form a W, and she was sure he was going to say workshop, but after the slightest hesitation, he said “. . . laboratory.”
Why did he call it that? She’d never heard her father refer to where he worked as a laboratory.
She glanced toward the monarch, who was watching them closely. Did his violet eyes flicker for a moment?
“I want to come with you,” she said, turning back to her father. “Whatever you’re doing, I can help. You know I’m good with projects.” She turned from her father to the white dragon. “Please
, Your Majesty, can you transfer me to wherever my father is working?”
“That isn’t a good idea,” her father said.
She turned back to him. “Why not?”
He studied her closely, his eyes so intent they nearly gleamed. “Do you trust your friends?”
“Of course,” she said at once.
He shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t. What I’m working on is secret. I’m afraid no one must know about it.”
“I won’t tell them,” she said. “I promise.”
He gave her a sad smile. “I wish I could believe that. I really do. But if you want to know my secrets, you must first tell me yours.”
She shook her head, confused. “What secrets? I don’t have any secrets.”
He leaned toward her and whispered so quietly only the two of them could hear. “I think your friends are up to something. Find out what it is, come and tell me, and then I’ll know I can trust you.”
She stared at him. What had happened to her father? This wasn’t like him at all. “You want me to spy on my friends?”
He nodded vigorously. “Find out what they are doing, and come to one of the dragon towers—any tower will do. The dragons will know how to find me. Once I’m sure I can trust you, the two of us can work on my project together. It will be wonderful.”
Okay, listen up,” Trenton called. “I’ve got assignments for each of you.” He pointed to Michael, JoeBob, and Hallie. “I want the three of you to work on the rudder controls. They still aren’t sturdy enough to handle the pounding we’re going to get in the ocean. Michael, see if you and Alex can get the pump to work any more efficiently. Plucky, can you check the seals for leaks again? I think we’re still getting water through a couple of the ports.”
Each of them nodded and went to work. Trenton was worried that after a full day of working as mechanics, everyone would be too tired to come here and do more of the same type of work, but they actually pushed him to give them jobs.
Embers of Destruction Page 18
