by D. R. Martin
They suddenly came into the square that faced the front of the Higgsmarket rail station, a great layer cake of red brick, cream-colored stone, and many tall, arched windows. Taxicabs were peeling in and out on the street in front of it, dropping passengers off and picking them up.
Following Rex, Johnny and the others marched through the crowded, noisy station, then outside. The travelers made their way across the tracks and around the near end of a huge steel shed.
What Johnny saw then absolutely took his breath away. A streamlined railroad locomotive built of stainless steel. It looked like a giant bullet on wheels, with functional adornments here and there. Behind the mirror-polished engine were eight rail cars.
“Wow!” Johnny exclaimed. “This is Old Sal?
“That she is,” Rex answered proudly. “The Super Automated Locomotive. Old Sal.”
Johnny had never seen anything like it. “I bet she can fly like a rocket.”
Rex nodded. “I’m told she can do one hundred and fifty miles per hour, on a straightaway of the proper track.”
Both Johnny and Marko whistled. That was impressive speed.
“It’s the king’s personal train,” Rex continued. “Because of that, it has a unique system to prevent derailment. A special sensor wheel alerts the engineer if there are obstacles ahead. Say, a fallen tree.”
“We’ll be up to Chippington in no time at all on this little buggy,” Marko enthused.
“Afraid not,” Rex said. “We won’t be traveling on mainline track, which Sal requires for full speed. And if there’s fog, we’ll have to slow down.”
“Is she steam-powered or diesel?” Nina asked.
Rex shook his head. “Actually, neither. Sal is electric. She runs on batteries and makes hardly any noise.”
Johnny was astounded. “But that’s impossible. You can’t power a train like this on electric batteries.”
“He’s right,” Marko put in. “It can’t be done.”
“Normally, I’d agree,” Rex said. “But Sal was built for the king by some of the best ghost scientists in the world. No one has revealed exactly how she works, but rumors are that ghosts in the circuits somehow make for an exponential increase in electric efficiency.”
Johnny grinned at Nina. “It’s going to be fun traveling on this big beauty, isn’t it, Sparks?”
But Johnny and his group were not the only passengers that Old Sal was carrying north that morning. There were a number of living soldiers aboard. And wraiths of the Special Ghost Service floated and darted all over the place. Rex explained that they were all tasked with hunting for and rescuing the missing children.
To Johnny’s dismay, his group ended up in the very last carriage, which was some kind of baggage car full of supplies. Rex apologized, but explained that it was the only place there was any room for them. So Johnny and Nina crowded into the car together with Marko and Iris. Raj, Petunia, and Rex had found perches on top of some crates. The colonel and his lads were to ride escort outside.
Everyone settled down on the hard benches in back, waiting for the departing whistle. The silence was awkward, so Johnny decided to do a little fence mending. He turned to Marko. “I was wondering, how’d you find my Ritterflex?”
Marko didn’t even look at Johnny. “Heard about the theft down at the police station. Knew you were the shutterbug from Zenith. Knew you’d need it. Seen your stuff even, once or twice. Pretty good. Like that shot of the nice-looking bird in the mustache.”
Johnny moaned. His picture of Mel on the Night Goose, wearing the fake mustache, would never stop haunting him. When they wrote Johnny’s obituary, hopefully in about 2013, they’d call him the photographer who shot the mustachioed girl.
“Your sis, right? Tell her if she’s ever in Higgsmarket to look up Marko Herne. He’ll show her a fine old time.” Then Marko made a weird clicking noise out of the side of his mouth and offered a sharkish grin.
Johnny almost laughed out loud, imagining what Mel would think of this brash character. What would the two of them even have in common?
“So I heard what the thief looked like and knew right off who it was. Weasel Pitt, the pest. Put out word among my ghost mates. Where’s that rotten little blighter at? Found him last night, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
Iris laughed. “Marko here’s on a first-name basis with nearly every underage lowlife in the county.”
As much as Johnny didn’t like Marko, the guy had done him a huge favor. Without his Ritterflex, Johnny couldn’t get the high-quality shots that might run someday in the Zenith Clarion.
But somehow, Johnny had to make one thing clear to the guy. Johnny and Nina were here to do a job—get their stories and photos, and find out anything they could about Percy and the zombies. Marko’s job was to protect them while they did it. He was their guide and their escort. But he wasn’t their boss.
Finally, under a dismal gray sky, a whistle sounded and the train lurched forward. As it picked up speed, Johnny looked over at Nina, who was sitting next to Iris Budd.
Iris seemed the polar opposite of Marko. While he was humorless and moody, she bubbled with enthusiasm for the mission. She was examining the etheric goggles with a look of amazement.
“Would I love to have a pair of these, Nina. Simply amazing that Johnny’s sister came up with them. She must be some kind of genius.”
Nina nodded proudly. “That she is.”
“Any idea how much they cost?”
Nina shrugged. “Not a clue. I mean these are the first pair anywhere. But when I see Mel again, I’ll ask.”
“You know, our mum has no way of seeing Pet. I’m the only one in the family who can. But if Mum could actually look at Pet whenever she wanted to… Well, that would just be brilliant.”
Before long, the scenery outside the window became obscured by fog. But the train kept advancing at the same speed. After about an hour, Rex excused himself. He said he needed to talk to someone up front.
A short time later the ghost returned. “It’s a right old pea-souper out there.” He shivered as if he could actually feel some kind of bone-penetrating chill. “One of the worst I’ve seen. Somehow it’s given me a headache. Haven’t had one since I was alive. In any event, we should be in Chippington within—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a horrific, deafening scream of tortured steel came blasting at them from the front of the train.
Johnny felt the whole world lurching violently sideways.
Was it an earthquake?
But before he could think another thought, he was thrown into a pile of stacked boxes, as if tossed by a giant’s hand.
Stunned, he became aware that the floor of the car was rapidly tipping up toward the sky.
Boxes began to tumble over on top of him. He raised his arms to cover his head, trying to protect it from the onslaught. He was being battered and bruised from all sides. Confused, he struggled to figure out what was happening.
Then, all of a sudden, the lights inside the car winked out, and everything went black.
Chapter 15
There was silence in the railroad carriage. In the distance, metal continued to grind and wood to crack.
It took Johnny half a moment to clear his head. He had to make sense of where he was, of what had happened.
One thing was clear—the car was tipped on its side.
He seemed to be okay.
But what about the others?
“Is anyone hurt?” he bellowed into the darkness, his heart racing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some movement. A small shape of luminous green floated along up above the scattered boxes. It was the girl ghost, Petunia Budd.
She began to call out, in that papery sort of ghost voice, sounding very scared.
“Iris! Iris!”
A germ of fear formed in the pit of Johnny’s stomach, like the first hint of nausea. The train had wrecked, probably derailed. And what had happened to Nina? Why wasn’t she saying anything? If on
ly Johnny could see better. But the dense fog outside offered little illumination.
Johnny pushed several boxes aside as he stood. “Sparks! Sparks!”
There was some thudding and clunking as more boxes were manhandled.
A shaky voice came out of the darkness. “I’m okay, Johnny.”
“Are the rest of you guys all right?” Johnny hollered.
“Yeah, I guess so,” came Marko’s voice.
The boy ghost Raj floated into view. “Me, too. But then I’m already dead.”
“Rex?” Johnny yelled. “Where are you?”
“Over here.” The ghost agent emerged from the darkness at the front of the carriage. “Well, this certainly throws a monkey wrench into the works.”
Johnny groaned. “So much for a train that can’t be derailed.”
“The enemy must have figured out a way to outsmart the sensor wheel,” Rex said.
Petunia was still darting around nervously up above them. “Iris! Iris!” she panted. “I can’t find my sister!”
“Okay, everyone,” Johnny said. “Let’s help Petunia find Iris.”
Johnny was worried. Iris hadn’t made a peep since the wreck. She could be seriously hurt, lying unconscious beneath the boxes that had been strewn around. This could be bad.
Nina had on her etheric goggles now and took charge. “She’s here somewhere. Raj and Petunia, can you fly slowly around where she was sitting? Maybe we’ll spot her.”
Under the very pale green glow of Petunia and Raj, everyone began to pick up boxes—some of them surprisingly heavy—and move them to the side. They found Iris a moment later, crumpled beneath boxes of pork loaf—rations for soldiers up north.
Rex and Marko hefted the boxes off her, and Petunia zoomed down to hug her sister. That’s when the battered girl slowly came to, with a fluttering of her eyelids. Johnny could tell that she would have one terrific shiner. Too bad for a girl with such amazing violet eyes.
“Are you all right, Iris?” Marko sounded anxious. “Are you hurt?”
Iris, slowly rising to a sitting position, shook her head, nodded, then shook her head again. “Dunno. Maybe.”
“Let’s get her up,” Johnny said.
“Right,” Marko agreed.
The two boys tried to haul Iris to her feet. That was when they discovered something was wrong. Very wrong.
The girl screamed in agony as they tugged on her arms.
Johnny had never heard a person make such a terrible noise. “Ease her back down! Now!”
Johnny didn’t know what to do. He looked at Marko, but Marko was just as baffled.
That’s when Nina elbowed her way onto the scene, goggles pushed up on her forehead.
“Let me check her out. I earned a first-aid badge from the Woodland Guides. Johnny, get out your flashlight.”
My flashlight! Johnny thought. Of course! Both he and Nina carried one in their backpacks. But he’d been too stunned by the crack-up to even remember it until now.
While Johnny pointed his flashlight at Iris, Nina squatted down by the injured girl. “Now, this may hurt a little bit, Iris, but be tough.” Nina prodded gently at the right arm—shoulder, upper arm, and forearm. Iris didn’t make a peep. But when Nina started to feel the left forearm, Iris screamed again, though not so horribly.
“Nuts!” Nina muttered. “She’s got a broken radius bone, I bet. Let me feel it again, Iris. I’ll try to go easy.”
Iris nodded. She bravely allowed Nina to probe her forearm again, though she did whimper a bit at the pain.
“I think it’s a partial break,” Nina announced. “Bad, but not real bad.”
Petunia was floating right above Iris and Nina. “You be careful with her,” she snapped. “She’s my little sister!”
But Nina, not seeing the ghost, let alone her moving lips, never heard the little girl’s scolding.
From outside came the sounds of men hollering and shouting, of gunfire and clashing metal.
Johnny put up his hand. “Everyone, quiet. Listen.”
They all went silent. Something was happening out there in the fog. And it didn’t sound like a tea party.
There was more shouting and shooting. And the noise seemed to be getting closer.
Just the, Colonel MacFarlane, still mounted on Buck, flew into the railroad car, stopping right in front of Johnny.
“Am I glad to see you, Colonel! What the heckfire is going on?”
“The scoundrels threw something on the track from the embankment a short way ahead of Sal,” the colonel answered. “Something big enough to derail the train.”
So there had been no time for Sal’s anti-derailment warning system to work, thought Johnny. No wonder they were in this pickle.
“As soon as the SGS forces and soldiers started coming out of the passenger cars, they were ambushed,” the colonel continued. “There’s a devil of a fight going on. I fear it may spread back here. We have to get you out of this car and into the woods. Now!”
Over a desperate few minutes, the colonel and Buck hauled Nina, Marko, and Johnny up out of the car, and flew them into a dense thicket of trees nearby. Then, with Petunia hovering nearby, the colonel gently lifted Iris out. She cradled her arm as best she could.
From the safety of the woods, Johnny heard more shouting and shooting. But there was also another noise—a guttural bellowing from things that sounded not quite human. Johnny had no idea what exactly was happening out there in the fog. But it didn’t take much imagination to understand that they were in terrible jeopardy.
They all kneeled in the dirt amidst the twigs and branches, with the colonel and his men arrayed around them. Private Boo, normally the most good-natured of ghosts, seemed almost as if he were in pain, rubbing his temples and grimacing. Johnny wanted to ask what was wrong, but there were far more pressing matters at hand.
Marko actually looked at a loss. It was pretty clear that this mess was a lot more than he had bargained for.
“Ask the colonel if he has any ideas,” he whispered to Johnny.
Johnny caught the colonel’s eye. The ghost officer and the other troopers had dismounted, so they wouldn’t be as visible. “Colonel, what do we do?”
The colonel was about to answer when a terrible scream—much closer than before—cut through the fog.
“You and the others sit tight here,” the colonel said. “Sergeant Clegg and Private Boo will stay. I aim to sortie up the tracks with the rest of the lads. See if we can help those SGS and army boys up front. They sound like they’re in trouble. We’ll find you later. We could use your help, Captain Ward.”
Rex nodded, pulling his army revolver out of its holster. “Quite right. I think it’s time we got into the action. May I ride with you, Colonel?”
With a wave to Johnny and the others, the colonel, Rex, and the four troopers set off through the brush and fog.
Even in a tight spot like this, Johnny’s photo instincts took charge. He grabbed his camera and began to creep forward to the edge of the vegetation. But before he could get more than a few feet, he felt a hand on his shoulder, sharply tugging him back.
It was Marko. And he seemed to have recovered his bossy attitude.
“What do you think you’re doing, you fool? Those goons out there will see you. You’ll get us all killed.”
Johnny yanked away from Marko. “Can’t you get this through your thick skull—I’m a news photographer! I’ve done this before and I know what I’m doing!”
That’s what happens when you get stuck working with an amateur, Johnny thought, as he snuck forward. Marko may know his street thugs and pickpockets, but he doesn’t know much about a news lensman’s job.
When he reached the edge of the railroad bed, Johnny saw a trio of hulking figures. Zombies for sure. They had axes and bludgeons in hand, and were surveying the ruined railroad carriages. They were standing with their backs to Johnny, making the scene a perfect shot.
Johnny looked down into the camera’s viewfinder, focused th
e lens, and snapped the shutter. The flashbulb flared.
And before its light faded away, the three hulking figures had turned and were charging straight at him.
Chapter 16
Johnny tore back into the woods.
“Sergeant Clegg! Help! Three zombies! Coming at us!”
The beanpole ghost soldier leapt onto his horse. “Private Boo and I will decoy them away. You and the rest just head into the woods, out of sight.”
Marko glared at Johnny. “Told you not to do that.” He grabbed Iris by her right hand and, in a crouch, began to lead her back into the woods. Petunia floated close behind.
“Don’t go too far,” the sergeant warned. “We’ll find you later.”
And at that, Clegg and Boo burst out through the undergrowth into the open, whooping and hollering.
Then came a rapid clanging of blades. Johnny could hear the receding hoofbeats, the clunking of hobnail boots, and finally one blast from the sergeant’s shotgun.
“What happened?” Nina asked.
“Clegg and Boo lured those zombies away,” Johnny told her. “But there might be more. We gotta hide farther back in the trees.”
Nina grabbed her backpack and swung it onto her shoulders. “The trick will be keeping together out there in this fog. You can barely see your hand in front of your face.”
“Then we’d better catch up with Marko and the Budd sisters, or we might lose them.”
As Johnny turned to go, he felt a tugging at his elbow. It was the ghost boy, Raj Gupta.
“Let me bring up the rear. I can warn the rest of you if someone’s approaching. I’ll be okay. I think whoever’s after us is looking for living kids, not a dead boy like me.”
They set off at a right angle to the derailed train, going single file, brushing aside branches and twigs. They soon caught up with Marko, Iris, and Petunia. From then on, Johnny tried to make sure that he could always see Iris up ahead and Nina behind. To lose sight of one of them could be big trouble.
But that’s exactly what happened.
Just after carefully climbing over a fallen tree trunk, Johnny looked up and saw the faintest shadow of Iris vanish before his eyes—as if by magic—right into the dense fog.
