by Adam Holt
He put the knife to my throat.
“You are Tully Harper,” he said.
“Yes, I am.”
“Swear by the Sacred that you will not hurt us,” he said.
Gulp. I was about to swear, but the words stuck in my throat. Even a knife could not make me speak them.
“Sorry, but I can’t swear,” I said. “The Sacred would not like that. I can give you something else though, but first I need your name. I gave you mine.”
“Jason, son of Typhon.”
“Jason, son of Typhon, I give you my word. I won’t hurt you or your dad. I just need to get to Rathmore to save a friend.” He hesitated, then withdrew the blade from my neck and prepared to slice my bonds. “Wait, not yet, Jason. Will you free the others and promise to help us get to Rathmore?” He did not respond, just finished freeing me. He helped me to my feet and backed away with the knife between us.
“Stay in front of me,” he said.
He guided me through the enormous hollow rooms of his house. Some rooms were made of ice, others were constructed of some sort of metal, all of them connected by a series of rising and falling tunnels. After several rises and falls we reached a final room, which was clearly his bedroom. He pointed to a circular opening in the far wall. Hopefully he’s not tricking me into something.
“The tube goes to the waters. You will find your friends and the submarine.” Sure, that makes perfect sense. Just jump into the black hole in the wall and everything will be fine. I put on my helmet, but he grabbed my arm.
“Before you go, some things for Rathmore.”
He rummaged through a small opening that resembled a closet. A cot stood against one wall with clothes shoved beneath it. There was one shelf, and it was lined with figurines, some of them Ascendant and some dressed like human soldiers or cowboys or cops. He’s a kid. He plays with these. I imagined all the figures arranged on the floor doing battle for control of the universe. The rummaging stopped behind me, and he smiled.
“That one is called a cowboy,” he said, grabbing the figurine. “These are his guns. He wishes that he had a horse. Can I tell you my secret?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Sometimes the cowboy fights against Commander Akakios, the great warrior of Rathmore, and sometimes, when papa is not watching, I let the cowboy win.” He grinned at me with mischief in his eyes, and I smiled back. Something big changed within both of us in that moment in his room. Time stood still. We were just two kids looking at action figures. Then we heard clanking sounds echo from another room. Jason put his finger over his lip and handed me a backpack. It was made out of sealskin or something. I opened it to see what was inside, and when I did, the backpack didn’t seem so cool anymore.
“What in the solar system are we supposed to do with these?” I whispered.
“You do not know how to use them?” he asked.
“Of course I do, but why would we wear these?” Travel can get confusing sometimes, even if someone is speaking English.
He explained his plan for our arrival in Rathmore in great detail. By the end, it seemed clever enough to work. Clever, stupid, crazy—there’s a fine line between them, but we really were ninjas like Sunjay said, this might work out just fine. What made less sense was how a ten-year-old alien boy developed this plan.
He pointed toward the tube. We could hear Typhon in the other room grumbling, but I was too curious to leave just yet.
“Wait,” I said. “Jason, you didn’t come up with this whole plan by yourself, did you? Did someone help?”
“Maybe,” he said. “He doesn’t have a name. I call him the Misty Man.”
“Then I think we have a mutual friend,” I said. The Sacred took on the same form when he talked to me. My dad was right. Something guided us.
“I did not think he was real,” Jason whispered, “but now I do. You are good and real, too, and so I think now, maybe the Lord Ascendant is wrong. Maybe Icarus is good and real like you.”
“Ica-who?” I asked, but Jason said no more. He pushed me into the tube, and I slid toward an unknown future with a backpack full of crazy.
Thump.
I slid into the fishing cave again. The lights popped on, almost blinding me. Everyone was asleep. Stars, how long have we been here? Sunjay and Janice were huddled together in one corner. My dad stirred first, saw me coming, and roused the others. He pointed toward the far wall where our black staffs hung. They were in my hands in a split second, and I pulled at the cage door with a staff while Buckshot kicked from the inside. Success. They put on their suits as I searched for the first part of Jason’s plan.
“What are you looking for?” asked Janice.
“A submarine,” I said, frantically scanning the room. “Jason said we should take the submarine.”
“Who’s Jason?” asked Sunjay.
“Who cares?” said Janice. “Let’s check the water.”
Stupid Tully. We ran to the other side of the room where ripples pattered against the ice. Beneath it hovered a dark shape. It was either a large shark or a small submarine. I aimed my staff at the water and tried to pull it toward us.
“All together now,” my dad said, aiming his staff at the water. The ship ascended, and as it did so, the lights went off again.
“Buck, distraction,” said my dad.
Oh, great. Return of Typhon, I thought, turning around in the dark. Buckshot flipped on his headlamp. I heard running in the dark. But before the feet could reach Buckshot, I heard a loud grunt. A scuffle. Someone was fighting. I ran toward the sound, as did Buckshot, who shined his headlamp at the noise. What we saw terrified me. My dad held Typhon in a chokehold. The fisherman was losing consciousness, but my dad held him up. He didn’t let go, even as Typhon’s legs went limp and his eyes rolled back in his head. I could see the alien’s lips working. He was fading into a darkness that would not end.
“No!” I yelled, looking at my dad’s grip and the determination in his eyes. He did not plan to leave any witnesses to our arrival. In a few seconds, Typhon wouldn’t just be unconscious. This monster that planned to take my hand would be dead. I had no choice.
Whoosh.
I hit them both with a stun shot.
Typhon and my dad crumpled to the floor. The lights came back on, and on the other side of the room stood Jason with his eyes wide. He ran toward his father. Buckshot raised his black staff toward Jason. He reared back to stun the alien boy, but I rushed between them.
“Tully, move,” he said to me.
“Just wait, wait!” I yelled. “Jason, wait!”
I met him in the middle of the room and he threw a punch at me. I tossed aside my black staff and caught him in a bear hug. He was smaller than me. That’s pretty small.
“Tully…” demanded Buckshot, looking for an open shot.
“Buckshot,” I said slowly, “he has an action figure of a cowboy in his bedroom. Sometimes he lets the cowboy beat the alien. You understand. He’s a kid.” I gave him my dad’s commander stare, and to my surprise Buckshot lowered the weapon.
“You promised,” Jason said, struggling in my arms. “You are the Red Thief! You’re lying Earther scum just like they said. Icarus is a lie! My dreams are a lie!”
I spun Jason around to look in his eyes. Purple eyes full of tears.
“Trust those dreams,” I told him. “They told you the truth. So did I. I’m not a liar, Jason. Our dads were fighting. I just stunned them to make them stop. Your dad will be fine. So will mine. But we’re both going to have some explaining to do.”
Our dads sprawled on the ground in front of us. Jason straightened himself and sniffled. I wasn’t used to giving people commands, but he listened, just like Buckshot did.
“What do I tell my dad when he wakes up?” he asked.
“Tell him the truth. We stole your submarine, and if he says anything about this, we will return.” Then I whispered, “But I do not think the Misty Man will let that happen.”
Jason nodded and stepped back.
He pointed to the sub with a remote control of some kind. It raised the submarine the rest of the way out of the water. Then he sat down on the floor with his father’s head in his lap.
“Remember the plan,” he said. “And look for Icarus. If he’s real, he can help you.”
Ica-who? I wanted to ask him more, but time was up.
Buckshot hauled my dad on board, the rest of us behind him. I took one last look at Jason and his father before I ducked into the sub. With tears in his eyes, cradling his unconscious father, Jason flicked the controls again and lowered us into the mysterious ocean.
THREE FOR SURVIVAL
S tars, I stunned my dad. He’s going to kill me.
You can imagine what kind of explaining I had to do, crammed into the small, leaky submarine, with Buckshot piloting us underwater. Just like Jason explained, we found the “waterpath” to the Rathmore Chaos, which ran like a luminescent chalk line through the ocean.
The submarine was thin, about thirty feet long, and smelled like my aunt’s old plane. There was no room to stand but there were four seats in the hull, which was transparent and allowed for an amazing view of the ocean. One seat in the back of the sub looked more like a gun turret. There were plenty of buttons for nets and controls for a retractable arm. I could imagine Jason and Typhon hunting sea creatures in this ocean together. They probably had great adventures, but I didn’t have time to ponder any of that.
“This hunk of junk makes the Mini-Mane look like a hover yacht!” said Sunjay, scrunched beside Janice. “Tully, what the heck was that all about?”
I tried to explain.
My dad worked his jaw back and forth, like he’d been punched. He sloughed off the effects of the stun shot, but he didn’t accept my reason so easily. “We need to stay hidden,” he said. “We left that boy and his father alive. That could get us captured or killed. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do, but we can’t just run around assassinating every Ascendant we run into. Especially if I promised not to harm them.”
“We may have to do some unpleasant things for the greater good,” my dad explained. “Why did he free you in the first place?”
“Because he knew who I was,” I said.
“How?” asked Sunjay.
“Uh, he just did–and also I told him.”
“Bangers, you’re nuts!” said Sunjay. “You blew our cover!”
“No, I didn’t. He knew. He helped us escape. They’re not all bad, the Ascendant.” I can’t believe I just said that.
Nobody was happy with that explanation, so I changed the subject to our arrival at Rathmore. Not like that calmed everyone down or anything.
“Lemme get this straight,” Buckshot said. “You want me to drive this sub to an alien city and just pop up beside it in some sort of lake. Then what did Jason say we should do? Swim ashore?”
There are times when telling someone everything is a bad idea. I’ve learned this, and I knew that if I told Buckshot the rest, he would probably wreck the sub.
“I’ll explain the rest later,” I said, leaning on the backpack behind me as we piloted slowly through the underwater ocean.
The ocean of Europa. Unbelievable. I forgot all about the crazy plan as we wound our way past an amazing array of plants and animals-fish, squid, sharks, whales, jellyfish all swam past us. They were all “one-offs” of the ocean life on Earth, like celebrity look-alikes. Most of them were bioluminescent. They lit the ocean with a wondrous purple hue—some as small as snowflakes, others as big and bright as stadium lights.
“Stars, it’s wonderful,” said Sunjay. “I just wish it wasn’t so dark.”
“It’s not that dark,” I said.
“Tully, your head,” said Janice, reaching over to me. I’d forgotten about the Typhon’s backhand. Dried blood crusted my forehead. She scraped it away. Her eye was still swollen from the geyser adventure.
“Sorry you got roped into this, Carpool,” I said. “This ‘Three for Survival Project’ is a bit more than you expected.”
“Bangers, that’s the first time you’ve been right in a long time,” she said, “but seriously, don’t be sorry, Tully. I just hope we don’t fail.”
“Take some pictures,” said Sunjay, “that might earn us some extra credit.”
“I have been,” Janice said, “but I’m not talking about the project, Sunjay. We can fail that. I just don’t want to fail the world…or Tabitha. Hey, Tully, we’re almost to Rathmore. When do you think you should use the Harper Device?”
“Uh, soon,” I said. No, actually that’s just a prayer.
“What about sooner rather than later?” she asked. “An Ascendant fisherman and his son just captured us. Jupiter’s rings, who are we going to run into in Rathmore? We could use some magical powers.”
A SUBMARINE RIDE
We didn’t run into more fishermen on our way to Rathmore. We bumped into numerous bizarre sea animals that couldn’t get out of our way, and one that we should have avoided. No one saw it coming except me.
Buckshot piloted us through the underwater ocean. Thousands of feet of ice formed a ceiling above the ocean, illuminated and sparkling by the bright glow of sea creatures and the path. Bright to me, at least. Buckshot seemed to strain to keep us on course.
“I can’t see but one beacon in front of us,” he said, steering toward it. I could see row after row lined up in a curving path.
“You don’t see the others?” I pointed. “Or that thing?”
“What others?” said Sunjay. “What thing?”
The line of beacons glowed brightly as we approached. The creature retreated, but not before I caught a glimpse as it strayed too close. Long neck, paddle-shaped legs, and swooshing tail. It’s like a sea dinosaur, I thought as it plummeted into the darkness below us. Europosaurus? That was a good name for it.
“Boy howdy,” Buckshot said. “Why don’t you drive, eagle eyes?”
We switched seats and I took the controls of the submarine.
“More like an owl,” my dad said. “Maybe it’s the effect of the Sacred. It came from Europa, so that may be part of your powers.”
After all my insecurity about my powers, it felt great to pilot us through the water. The feeling was right, but I was wrong about one thing.
A 3D map appeared in front of us with our location blinking purple. It was much like the starmap. Other blips emerged as well, but one brighter than the rest—our destination. I recognized the word:
Χάος
Chaos.
We were close.
Bump.
“Stars, what was that?” Sunjay asked. I saw a dark shadow for a second under the submarine, but it disappeared.
“We just plowed into some big alien fish,” Buckshot explained. “Get used to it, Sun.”
Bump, bump.
The map flickered.
“Seriously, it’s nothing,” Buckshot said. “Ain’t no fish in any ocean that wants to eat a metal submarine.”
“What do you know about what fish on Europa like to eat?” said Janice.
“Carpool, you ever been fishing?”
“Have you ever been to Europa?” she asked.
“Dangit, you’re missing the point,” he said. “I do a lot of surf fishing.”
“Nobody surfs and fishes at the same time,” Sunjay said. Buckshot threw up his arms. Little Bacon popped out of my pocket and cleared his throat.
“Surf fishing,” Little Bacon said, “is a sport wherein the fisherman stands in shallow ocean water and attempts to catch fish that are very close to shore. Many surf fisherman wear rubberized pants to stay dry.”
Janice laughed. “I’m picturing you in rubber pants!”
“They ain’t tight or anything,” said Buckshot. “Just waterproof. Anyway, that’s surf fishing. Get it? Things bump your legs, but nothing bites you. Fish eat fish, not people. Definitely not metal. Listen, y’all wake me up if anything takes a bit out of us.”
Buckshot kicked back and pulled
his cowboy hat down over his eyes. Where did he keep that thing? I would have shown it to Jason if I had the chance. The submarine pumped along happily. Janice chuckled to herself about Buckshot’s rubber pants. I rubbed my eyes. My dad scooted forward to talk to me, which seemed to wipe away all the silliness.
“I found a hiding spot for the Device,” he told me. He gestured to the back of the submarine. There were small grey buoys toward the back. Some were attached to cages, and all of them looked similar to the Device. “We can hide it in plain sight when we park the submarine. I don’t know what will happen if you wake it up, but it won’t be close enough to hurt us or draw much attention.”
“Sure,” I said. I still had this picture in my mind of him choking Typhon to death. I had seen him fight before but never fight to kill.
“Son, you okay?”
“Sure.”
“You look a little tired,” he said. “Hang in there. So explain Jason’s plan to me.”
“Oh, you mean Jason, the kid whose dad you almost murdered? What about ‘Fight, but do not hate’?”
“Oh, I see,” he said. He shook his head. Not in a “I told you so” way, but in a way that told me he understood and was sorry. “Son, the fate of the world rests on our shoulders. We can’t get captured. If we fail, many more people will die. I will kill to keep that from happening. I suppose I should have asked you this a long time ago.”
“What?”
“Will you?”
“Will I what?”
“Kill, if necessary,” he said, stroking the red streak in his hair.
“Before I met Jason, I would have said yes. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Well, you need to know. It may come down to that. We’re at war. There’s a difference between killing someone in war and killing someone on the street. There’s a difference between a soldier shooting his enemy and a murderer shooting his victim. The soldier does what he does for God and country. The murderer takes a life for his own selfish purposes. We are more like soldiers; we are not murderers. Do you see?”
