Owen laughed. “Look at her. Guess she’s not so tough after all!”
Sirabetta glared at them from the ground, where she was still struggling underneath the manhole cover pieces. She used her heat formula to incinerate more small, random items flying toward her. “You think you’ve won?” she yelled. “This is what I get for showing mercy. I won’t make that mistake again!”
She pointed toward Owen, who stared with horror as the blue heat formula on her leg glowed brightly. But they were all distracted by the sound of groaning metal. The three of them froze as Sirabetta’s sleek red car flipped onto its side. It scraped toward her, quickly picking up speed as it dragged along the pavement.
“NO!” Sirabetta cried and scrambled to shift one of the manhole-cover halves—it was covering the silver tattoo she’d used. She couldn’t move it enough and instead read a formula on her forearm. It glowed blue as she streaked into the air.
Simon and Owen gaped as the car changed directions; wherever Sirabetta flew, her car followed her. She soared higher, but the car just picked up speed—she was the ground to it, and the law of gravity said it had to fall to her.
Even as she fled from her car, Sirabetta shouted at the boys, “You think you’re safe? You haven’t stopped me! I’ll never stop until that Book is mine.”
“I believe her!” Owen whimpered.
Simon stared, frozen for a moment, but swiftly recovered. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said. “We’ll have to jump like I did in the woods.”
Owen nodded wildly. “Anything! Whatever it takes!”
Simon quickly lowered Owen’s and his personal gravity, and they leapt over the melted street, covering hundreds of feet with their first jump. They landed far down the block and chanced a look back: Sirabetta was zigzagging through the air, trying to outrun the car. The look on her face was murderous.
Simon and Owen jumped a few more times, each leap bringing them closer to Town Plaza. “I don’t know how long the gravity formula will work if I’m not there,” Simon said.
They heard a distant crash and a huge explosion, followed immediately by the sound of Sirabetta shrieking, “My car!”
Simon grabbed Owen’s arm to keep him from leaping again. “Change of plan; follow me.” Simon shifted their gravities to be just right for reaching the roofs of the two-and three-story houses in the neighborhood. They went from rooftop to rooftop. A few people glanced out of their windows, but Simon and Owen were going so fast they probably just looked like a blur.
The boys reached Simon’s house. Owen looked at Simon. “You okay?”
“I’m exhausted. Too much gravity control.”
Simon’s parents weren’t home, so the boys went up to Simon’s bedroom and called Alysha on speakerphone.
“I can’t believe it! That was just a few blocks from me!” Alysha exclaimed when they told her what happened.
“Don’t go outside! Ever!” Owen said.
“She’s probably gone by now,” Alysha said. “A bunch of fire trucks and emergency crews are out there now. My dad says it was probably a gas line rupture or something.”
“No, just Sirabetta.” Simon sighed wearily. “She’ll never let up, will she?”
Owen took a deep breath. “At least we know two of her weaknesses.”
“Two?” Alysha and Simon asked at the same time.
“Yeah,” Owen said. “She can only use one formula at a time, and she can’t use a formula if she can’t see the tattoo.”
“How do you know?” Alysha asked.
“When the manhole cover was stuck to her leg, it covered her silver tattoo; she couldn’t use it to blow up her car, so she had to fly away.”
Alysha whistled. “Wow. I’m impressed, Owen. Only problem is, how do we cover her other tattoos without her killing us first?”
“Hey, I can’t do everything,” Owen said. “I’m the scaredycat, remember?”
“First thing is, we’ve got to practice our formulas more,” Simon said. “We’ve got to be ready next time.”
They hung up after agreeing to talk more the next day and, if they felt it was safe, meet.
Owen called his mother to pick him up. He waited inside Simon’s house until she got there and then sprinted for the car. As soon as he was inside, he ducked down.
“Oh, Owen.” His mother shook her head. “What are you hiding from this time?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Owen muttered.
Once Owen was out of sight, Simon went back to his room and put the Book down on his desk. He was drained from the day’s activities; just thinking the word gravity made him want to collapse. As he crawled into bed, he had to wonder…what if things got worse?
CHAPTER 24
THE ORDER GETS DISORDERLY
The next morning, I munched on a piece of toast and sipped a cup of tea; although Simon was still sleeping off his exertions from the day before, the Chronicle continued.
Back in Dunkerhook Woods, the Order of Physics had been called in for another meeting. Aside from Ralfagon, everyone who had been at the last meeting was back, including Mermon Veenie. They were all seated on their stumps, raincoat hoods tossed back, and were talking among themselves. I couldn’t see Sirabetta, but she might still have been there. That baffling hooded coat of hers had managed to hide her from me in the past.
Eldonna Pombina walked over to Ralfagon’s stump and stood in front of it. She wasn’t much taller than it, however, so nobody took much notice. She clapped three times.
“Attention, everyone. Please.” Nobody heard her over the din of conversation. She sighed, cleared her throat, and spoke a formula. “YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE!”
Her voice exploded across the clearing with the impact of a two-hundred-foot giant coughing into a loudspeaker. Trees swayed, leaves fell, and three hairstyles were badly messed up.
Eldonna waited until everyone pulled their hands from their ears and then reversed her formula. “Thank you,” she said in her normal voice.
Willoughby Wanderby raised his hand, and Eldonna pointed to him. “Yes?”
“I believe I speak for everyone when I say, ‘What?’” Willoughby shouted, his ears still ringing.
Eldonna frowned and spoke more loudly. “Sorry about the Sound Boost and any inner ear damage I may have caused. But honestly, people, this isn’t a cocktail party. We’re here to discuss serious matters.”
“Oh, really?” Mermon Veenie growled. “Then why did our all-mighty and just leader terminate this Order’s meetings in the first place? And speaking of the all-knowing man, where is he? Where is our great leader?”
Many faces turned and cast unfriendly glances at Veenie. Eldonna glared at Mermon and turned away from him before speaking. “Ralfagon is part of the reason I called this meeting. There’s been a terrible…accident…and”—she took a deep breath—“Ralfagon Wintrofline is in the hospital.”
Several members let out worried gasps and started sputtering questions, but Eldonna held up her hands to call for silence. This time, everyone hushed quickly, and she reported what she had seen at Milnes University.
The Order members were stunned, but Eldonna wasn’t finished. “Campus police have called it a freak accident.” Her voice turned cold. “But we know that such things are truly rare. The truck sped up to hit him, but it was driverless! And I’d swear that something prevented Ralfagon from using a formula to stop the truck. I think this was a deliberate attack!”
Confused and angry murmurs spread through the clearing. Even Veenie pretended to be upset.
“I’m sorry I didn’t contact any of you,” Eldonna said, beginning to sniffle, “but this is the first time I’ve left his side at Mountain Hospital in Stoneridge. I kept hoping he’d snap out of it. That he’d be able to tell me what to do. But now…” She took a deep breath. “Now I don’t know. Their best doctors are watching over him. They don’t know when he’s going to wake up. Or even if.”
Willoughby Wanderby raised his hand. “What now?” he sol
emnly asked when Eldonna nodded at him. “Will you guide us with the Book?”
Eldonna took another deep breath before answering. “I couldn’t even if I knew how. That’s the other terrible news: the Teacher’s Edition is missing.”
There was an outburst of fury and fear from the Order members.
Eldonna raised her arms, and after a few minutes, everyone quieted down again. “Please, there’s still more. Someone, perhaps more than one person, entered Dunkerhook Woods after Ralfagon disbanded the Order last Sunday. I arrived early today and found some damage.” Dunkerhook Woods had begun to heal itself, but the signs of the fight were still quite clear. “There are grooves in the dirt right by that chasm. And look at those bushes and that tree,” she said, pointing at the stripped shrubs and the tree that had been injured by Mermon’s lightning.
Myarina Myashah, a slender, dark-haired woman, spoke up. “Do you think that these intruders were Outsiders? Perhaps people from the town?”
“How?” Robertitus Charlsus replied, shaking his head. “The woods are protected from them.”
Willoughby raised his hand again.
“Willoughby,” Robertitus said. “We can cut the hand raising, dontchathink?”
Willoughby cleared his throat, embarrassed. “Sorry. Comes from working at a grade school. Eldonna, is it possible that someone from another Order came in and caused the damage? The formulas don’t keep out other Union members.”
This caused a commotion. Some shook their heads in protest; others grumbled and rubbed their chins with suspicion. The noise got louder as more members considered the possibility of another Order causing trouble.
“Perhaps we should take action,” Wanderby said. “Refuse to communicate with the other Orders in the Council of Sciences. No, with every group in the Knowledge Union. Even the Board of Administration!” The Order broke into excited chatter. Wanderby continued more loudly. “Think about it, people! We can’t trust anyone but ourselves. We need search parties for the Book! And security for Ralfagon. Someone has declared war on our Order; we can’t just sit quietly!”
Eldonna waved her hands again, trying to restore calm. “Everyone, please. PLEASE!” she shouted. “There’s no need to get hostile toward anyone yet. We don’t have any suspects or clues. Besides, I was thinking we should seek help from the other Orders. The Biology Order has members who can heal injuries. Ralfagon always spoke of their Keeper as a friend. If they can heal Ralfagon, he might be able to tell us who attacked him or what has happened to the Teacher’s Edition.”
The members murmured as they considered this, but Wanderby slammed his doughy fist into his palm. “No! We have to be on guard against the culprits. Look around you, Eldonna! You pointed out the destruction yourself. Who else but Biology could damage Dunkerhook Woods like that? They’re waiting for us to let our defenses down so they can finish Ralfagon off.”
More murmurs rose among the Order.
Loisana Belane frowned. “Wait a minute…if they have the Book, they also have access to all our formulas.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Eldonna said. “They’d have to figure out how to read the Book, which should be impossible. There’s no need to overreact.”
Mermon stood up. “No need to overreact? Look what they did to our woods! And my neighborhood!”
There was another gasp throughout the Order. Veenie nodded. “Yesterday the local police and firefighters had a real mess to deal with. The street was torn up, property was scattered, a car was blown up, and several lawns—those that gave this town its name—were set afire! The Outsiders all think it was some freak accident, but I don’t believe in coincidences like that. We have enemies in the Union, and it looks like they’re coming after us!”
The Order members were clearly aghast; many had heard about the explosions but had believed the Outsiders’ explanation. Most forgot their long-nurtured dislike for Veenie in their need to learn more. They shouted out questions about the type of damage and if he’d seen anything.
“You see?” Wanderby said. “This is what I’m afraid of!”
“Okay, our first task is—” Eldonna started to respond.
Wanderby interrupted again; he’d apparently gotten used to skipping the hand-raising process. “We must stop them before they can master the Book! We must search out members of other Orders. They’re surely roaming about as spies. We must protect our leader, our Order, and our lives!”
Order members shouted, clapped, and cheered. The ground in Dunkerhook Woods rumbled, the trees shook, and the air was filled with bursts of light and color, random weather changes, and tiny bursts of fire and electricity.
Eldonna looked on in shock as the meeting spiraled out of her control. I was equally stunned. These people, usually mild-mannered as they spent their time thinking of Physics and related matters, were acting like a bunch of soccer hooligans! I glanced at Mermon Veenie and rubbed my chin (I had an itch there). This turn of events served Veenie and Sirabetta’s needs perfectly. In fact, if Veenie had suggested this, I’d have thought it was part of their plans. But Wanderby had been the one behind this chaos. And Wanderby was no friend of Veenie’s and Sirabetta’s…was he?
Flangelo, in sparrow form, observed from a nearby branch. Two things were clear to him: Mermon Veenie and Sirabetta no longer had to worry about the other Orders interfering with their plans, and Simon and his friends would find many more enemies if they got caught using their abilities.
Flangelo shifted from one leg to the other. He needed to know more about this Sirabetta before he would even consider trying to contact Gilio. He didn’t want his Keeper meeting the same fate that Ralfagon had.
Still, he didn’t like the thought of the children facing more trouble. He flew back to Simon’s house to warn them.
CHAPTER 25
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
That Sunday morning, Simon waited until his parents left for their offices (they were admitted workaholics, but because it was Sunday, they waited until almost ten in the morning before heading in). He then used three-way calling to speak with Alysha and Owen at the same time and make plans for the day. Part of that plan involved going outside without getting spotted by Sirabetta or Mermon Veenie.
Simon was holding his baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses. “Alysha, are you sure about this? It’s not much of a disguise.”
“Trust me,” Alysha said. “Famous people do the same thing all the time when they go out in public.”
“Big deal,” Owen said. “They’re only hiding from paparazzi, not people who can blow things up by pointing at them!”
“Do you have any better ideas?” When Owen didn’t answer, Alysha said, “Then just wear them.”
“So where should we go?” Simon asked. “I think your neighborhood’s off-limits now, Alysha.”
“What neighborhood? You guys blew up most of it. Well, she did, anyway.” Alysha paused. “The woods are probably a bad idea, right?”
“If you guys can find a way over here, my place might be good,” Owen said. “It’s pretty far from Alysha’s; if Sirabetta is checking for us around there, we’ll be safe. Plus, there’s a junkyard a few blocks away. It’ll be empty: it’s closed on Sundays. Maybe we can practice there.”
They agreed on a time, and Alysha had her father drive her over. They picked up Simon along the way. Max Davis glanced from Simon to his daughter, both wearing a cap and sunglasses. “Are we expecting reporters, kids?”
Alysha turned to Simon in the backseat. “See? I told you we’d look fine!”
Simon mustered a brief smile and then went back to staring out the window. Each time they passed a car or a house, he had to wonder…Are they there? Are they watching for us?
After Alysha’s father dropped them off and Owen came out to meet them, Simon said, “Alysha, why don’t you use your formula and start storing up random energy?”
“I did before I left home. I even drained a little electricity from my house just in case.” She frowned. “I wonder what
my parents’ electricity bill is going to be.”
The three walked down Owen’s street in silence, alert for any sign of danger. Five minutes later, they arrived at the junkyard unscathed.
The gate in the chain-link fence was closed and padlocked, but the trio climbed over easily. There were heaps of old, rusted-out metal. Pipes, tools, dishwashers, refrigerators, many other appliances, and even cars were spread out around them.
Owen spread his arms. “What do you think?”
Simon pulled off his cap and sunglasses as he looked around. “This is it.”
Alysha wrinkled her nose. “This is what? Dirty? Smelly?”
“The perfect training ground.” Simon let out a whoop and ran toward the nearest pile of abandoned appliances. He used friction control on his feet to glide across the dirt ground and then used his gravity command to make the nearest old washing machine weightless. He restored friction and slid to a stop in front of the washer, then reached down and grabbed hold of its sides.
He tried to lift it, but it was harder than he thought; although it weighed nothing, it still had the same mass and was thus difficult to move. He heaved and slowly raised it until he held it over his head. Once he had it up there, he felt like some sort of superhero.
“This,” he shouted, “would be a great place for a battle.” He started to run toward Owen and, after a few steps, threw the washing machine as if it were a huge metal soccer ball. “Owen, catch!”
It moved through the air in a straight line, going a little faster than Simon had been running. Owen closed his eyes for a second, then smiled and opened them. “Got it.” He spoke his formula, and the washer stopped in midair above his head; he’d robbed it of its velocity. He concentrated and rephrased his formula, sending the washer hurtling toward a pile of car engines.
They heard a loud whirring sound as a hubcap sailed through the air like a Frisbee, only this hubcap was glowing. It struck the machine with a loud BOOM; the appliance was knocked out of the air before it could hit the engines. It crunched to the ground in two pieces.
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