We wore identical gear, a modified version of army fatigues with no insignia. I felt as anonymous now as I did when I woke up in that hotel room with the dying Doctor Richards.
We jumped out one at a time into the early morning sky. Nobody looked confident. Even Chad looked scared to death, but there was nothing any of us could do about it. As I jumped, the wind caught me, and I plummeted towards the earth. My chute opened with a jerk, and I quickly created a flying platform to collect everyone else.
Unfortunately, I missed Chad, who landed some distance from us. He was sputtering and choking as we pulled him out of the choppy waters.
‘Very clever,’ he snapped.
I shrugged. ‘Sorry.’
Keeping low, we made our way to the island. The sun still hadn’t risen, but the sky was growing light. I wanted us to reach shore before we were too visible. We eventually found an inlet at the end of the island most distant from the base. By then, Chad had dried off and his temper had improved.
Reaching the shore, we examined the map. I pointed out the best place for Chad and Dan to position themselves. Then we synchronized watches as we did the previous day. This time we were also carrying phones to stay in contact.
‘Good luck,’ I said to Chad and Dan.
‘We won’t need luck,’ Chad said.
‘Yeah,’ Dan added. ‘He’s got me.’
They scooted off into the jungle as we headed on our way. I may have had superpowers, but I was still afraid. We had no real experience in doing anything like this. An attack of this kind would generally be carried out by an elite force of fully-trained armed SAS soldiers—not a bunch of teenagers. Still, The Agency’s artificial intelligence program seemed to think that we were the right team for the job.
I just hope it’s right.
The sun was rising as we worked our way around the island’s edge. I felt terribly exposed on the shoreline, so after a few hundred feet, I suggested to the girls that we move up the cliff face.
‘Don’t you think that’ll be more dangerous?’ Brodie asked.
‘I think it’s more dangerous to be out here where everyone can see us.’
We climbed up the cliff and found a narrow path that ran parallel to the coastline. It reminded me of the trail where Chad had almost died. This could be a trap. I pointed this out to the girls.
‘Maybe,’ Brodie said. ‘But even the Typhoid agents need to move around Cayo Placetas.’
‘Still,’ Ebony added. ‘Let’s keep a close eye out for tripwires.’
We moved slowly along the path. After a few miles, Ebony grabbed my arm and dragged us into the undergrowth. No sooner were we hidden than a group of four men marched past. Fully armed with rifles and handguns, they all wore a symbol on their jackets that resembled a spider web. The sound of their footsteps faded.
‘That was close,’ Brodie whispered.
‘We’d better keep moving,’ I said.
We followed the path around the island. It split into two at one point, but we keep to the coast trail. After another half an hour, the path started to climb, but then I grabbed the girls, and we took refuge in the bush.
‘Look,’ I whispered, pointing.
A guard tower sat at the top of the hill. It gave a commanding view over the path and coastline.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Although we couldn’t see the complex, we could hear movement and traffic coming from our right. Keeping close to the ground, we crept through the jungle until we arrived at a wide muddy road. It cut through the undergrowth towards the compound. A high fence surrounded it. A truck roared past us to the gate where guards checked the back and allowed it inside.
I began to wonder if a more old-fashioned way of entry might be the best method. The guard tower was constructed to watch the coast: not the gate. No one was watching the tops of the vehicles. When the next truck headed past us toward the compound, I lifted us softly onto the roof. The truck paused for what seemed an eternity at the gate. The men talked about a new shipment of arms. Then it continued on into the facility.
It was heading to a warehouse, so we jumped free and rolled under the nearest building. There were guards everywhere. I wasn’t too sure how successful we’d be at staying hidden. It was only a matter of time before we were discovered.
Pulling out the map, we worked out our current location. The computer room was still some distance away. At least a few hundred feet. It was a shame it was daylight. This would have been easier at night.
‘Lift us onto the roof,’ Ebony whispered. ‘We can hop from building to building.’
That seemed like a good idea. I waited until some guards wandered past before flying us up and onto the roof. Flattening ourselves against the metal, we slid quietly along it to the end. From there, I flew us across to the next building and repeated the process two more times.
The building ahead of us was the computer complex. I began to feel hopeful. With a lot of luck, this could work. Glancing over the edge of the roof, I spied two men guarding the front door.
We’re obviously not getting in there.
I looked at my watch. We still had a few minutes before Chad and Dan were due to create their diversion. Before that, we still had to check in to confirm that everything was still good to go. A truck weaved through the jungle and down the muddy road to the front gate. A guard jumped out and spoke to the gatekeeper. After peering in the back of the truck, it was waved on into the compound.
I didn’t know why, but my heart had gone up a beat. The vehicle drew to a halt, and some guards opened the back. More men raced up to the vehicle and climbed inside.
They exited carrying two bodies.
It was Chad and Dan.
Chapter Thirty
Ebony stifled a cry. Brodie looked shocked. Even I couldn’t take in this latest piece of information. Chad and Dan have been captured. This didn’t come up in any planning session! My first impulse was to save them, but then I remembered the reason why we were there. We’ve got to stop the missile from firing. Millions of lives were at stake.
I asked Ebony to turn the sheet metal roofing to oxygen. This exposed the recess in the ceiling. Climbing in, we found ourselves among air conditioning ducts and cross beams. We would remain undetected as long as we were quiet.
Making our way along the roof, Ebony created a coin-sized hole, and I peered down into the room below. It took me a moment to get my bearings. Men moved around a large chamber where a computer terminal sat in the center.
That must be the missile computer.
I was about to burst in through the roof when Ebony gripped my shoulder.
‘We can’t go down yet,’ she whispered.
‘What do you mean?’
‘We’ve got to save Chad and Dan.’
I shook my head. ‘Stopping the missile is more important.’
‘It’ll be impossible to save the boys once they know we’re here,’ she said. ‘They might kill them immediately.’
She could be right.
‘Let me go back and save them,’ she said.
‘We’ve got to take out the computer!’
‘Give me fifteen minutes. That’s all I ask.’
I looked at Brodie.
She shrugged. ‘Ebony’s right,’ she said. ‘Who knows what Typhoid will do once they know we’re here.’
I sighed. ‘You’ve got fifteen minutes,’ I said. ‘I can’t give you any longer. There’s too much riding on this.’
Ebony skittered across the roof and disappeared from sight. I turned back to Brodie. It was uncomfortably close in here, and my mind returned to the previous night. I wanted to speak about it, but this wasn’t the time.
The minutes ticked by until I was finally counting off the seconds. Sixty seconds. Forty-five seconds. Finally, we were out of time. Ebony had either been caught or was still trying to save the others. Either way, we had to do this.
‘Let’s go,’ I said.
Brodie nodded glumly. Then the ground shook as if there were an e
arthquake, and an explosion rocked the camp.
What the—
Grabbing my arm, Brodie hissed to me. ‘Now!’ she said. ‘That’s our cue!’
I had intended to use Ebony to dissolve the roof under us. Instead, I drove a force field straight into it, and we dropped to the floor below. We had the element of surprise—but only for a few seconds. It wasn’t every day that someone fell in through your roof. Scientists stared at us in astonishment. Even the guards looked amazed.
‘Shoot them!’ someone yelled, and the bullets started to fly.
Throwing up a shield, the bullet’s rebounded, one hitting a scientist, killing him instantly. Brodie grabbed a guard and used him as a shield as another guard opened fire. She then used him as a battering ram to smash another guard to the ground.
Grabbing his weapon, she fired randomly around the chamber.
‘The computer!’ she yelled at me.
Keeping my shield in position, I built up my concentration.
Now, I thought. Now!
The blast of air I fired at the computer was as powerful as a tiny tornado. It slammed into the device, exploding it into a jagged wreckage of metal and wires.
Yes!
Now to help Brodie with the remaining villains. Not that she needed my help. In a matter of seconds, we’d created complete chaos. Men lay all over the place, and part of the building was alight. We sprinted to the door. We’ve got to find the others and get out of here. Demolishing the door—indeed, the whole side of the building—with a single blast of air, we faced off against another group. They fired, but my shield held.
Thank you, Mister Brown!
Now to find the others. I recalled a building on the map that Hodges had marked as a storage block. Why didn’t I think of it before? I angled Brodie and myself between two buildings while I picked up debris and hurled it at the approaching guards.
‘Do you know where we’re going?’ she yelled.
‘I think so.’ Approaching a brick building, I tried to punch a hole in the side, but couldn’t build up enough focus. I was already deflecting bullets and hurling as much debris at attacking guards as I could.
‘I can’t take out the wall!’ I yelled. ‘I can’t—’
Brodie grabbed the door handle and swung it open.
‘Ever hear of one of these?’ she asked.
I followed her inside, and we locked the door behind us. The interior was quieter than I expected. The walls must be reinforced. No wonder we couldn’t break in. We followed a narrow corridor and turned into the next—and were confronted by an artillery gun.
Uh oh.
The artillery round hit my shield, but the blast was still so powerful that it still threw us backward. We both hit the floor—hard. Lifting my head, I saw Brodie staggering to her feet.
‘What hit us?’ she asked.
‘Something big,’ I told her.
The artillery gun had been set to fire automatically. Beyond it lay another metal door. This is a maze. No sooner did we overcome one barrier than we met another. A small viewing slot in the door showed the room beyond.
Brodie peered through. ‘I can see them!’ she yelled. ‘They’re on the floor! And they’ve got Ebony!’
‘Stand back.’
Building up a blast of air, I fired it at the door. I’d like to say it was ripped off its hinges, but my focus was utterly shot by then. The door sort of lurched and slid to the floor. Entering the room, we quickly checked everyone’s pulses.
‘They’re unconscious,’ Brodie said. ‘I think they’ve been drugged.’
Something about this was wrong. Guards were still outside, and they hadn’t come pouring in after us. Why not?
My stomach churned.
It’s almost as if we’ve been drawn here on purpose—
The answer came in a flash.
‘It’s a trap!’ I yelled to Brodie. ‘We’ve got to—’
But the gas was already pouring down from the ceiling. I was supposed to be a master of air, but now I couldn’t get enough to even sustain myself.
It only took a few seconds for the floor to rush up to meet me.
Chapter Thirty-One
When my eyes finally opened, the first thing I heard was Chad.
‘Looks like Mister Goody is awake,’ he said.
I sighed.
Did it have to be Chad?
It took a moment to focus, but it made me wish I’d remained unconscious. Nothing I saw looked good. We were in an enclosed cell similar to the one that had held Ebony and Chad back in Ravana’s building. A wire mesh covered the front. We were all chained in a standing position to the rear wall with metal cuffs over our wrists. The strain in my arms was terrible. My feet reached the floor, but barely.
I knew it was pointless trying my powers, but I attempted to make them work anyway.
Nothing.
‘Don’t bother,’ Brodie said, reading the look on my face. ‘They’re using those zeno ray emitters.’
‘If we could have escaped,’ Chad said, ‘I would have already gotten us out of here.’
Now I was awake, I remembered what had gotten us in here. ‘What happened to you guys?’ I asked. ‘You were supposed to create a diversion.’
Chad looked away. ‘We were…uh, overtaken by superior numbers.’
‘They shot us with that stun ray,’ Dan explained. ‘We were busy skipping stones.’
At first, I thought I’d misheard him. ‘You were…skipping stones? You’re kidding.’
If looks could kill, Chad’s glare at Dan would have struck him down dead. ‘Did you have to tell Mister Goody?’ he asked.
I was about to explode at Chad, but at that moment, the door swung open, and a man in a Typhoid uniform entered. He was tall, European looking with stark white hair. He didn’t look too old, so his hair must have aged prematurely.
Two guards flanked him.
‘So, the children have awoken,’ he said. ‘Good. We must keep moving. Time, as they say, is money.’
‘Who are you?’ Chad asked. ‘Let us out of here or—’
The man tut-tutted as he shook his head. ‘You are not the one giving orders here, boy,’ he said. ‘I am. I will be the one who decides who lives and who dies and when that will happen.’
Well, that was a conversation killer.
You must be real fun at parties, I thought.
‘I am General Solomon Wolff,’ he said. ‘I was not born with that name, but it is the name by which I am now known. You know a little about myself and my organization, and I know a little about you.’
He paused, but none of us spoke.
‘Now, you are silent. Later you will speak. You will beg to make yourselves heard. Some of you have already met our motivational devices. We have many others. If you thought you previously experienced pain, I assure you it is only a taste of what we can dispense.
‘As I say, I know a little about you. I know about The Agency and its alien representatives. I know about their constant watching and the scientists that work with them. Perhaps you do not know that there are other aliens here on Earth. They also have their affiliations and their aspirations for our planet.’
None of us said anything.
‘In its creation of super-powered mercenaries, The Agency has created an imbalance in the power structure of the world,’ Wolff said. ‘There are governments that will pay handsomely to have that balance redressed.’
‘What do you want from us?’ I asked.
‘First, there will be blood.’ He gave us a sympathetic look. ‘Oh, no. We are not so inhumane that we intend to beat you. No, we want your blood to examine. If it is possible to replicate the processes that created you, then we can make you in our own form.
‘What could be better than to create an army of super beings? Nothing could stop such an army. It would be invincible.’
‘Funny,’ Brodie said. ‘I think Hitler had similar ideas and see what a loser he was.’
‘You compare me to Hitler,’ Wolff shook
his head. ‘I have no such grandiose ideas. Money is power. It is a simple ingredient that oils the wheels of the world and makes all things possible.’
The door to the room creaked open again, and I felt sick at what I saw. The man who entered looked like a mummy with his entire body covered in bandages. It didn’t take a genius to work out his identity.
Wolff chuckled. ‘I believe you know the good Doctor Ravana? His appearance has changed somewhat since your last encounter.’
Ravana yelled a command, and the two guards unlocked the cell. They went straight to Ebony.
‘No!’ Chad screamed. ‘Leave her alone.’
Ravana entered and punched Chad hard in the stomach. Once. Twice. Three times. As Chad hung helplessly from the wall, struggling to regain his breath, Ravana grasped his head back with a bandaged hand.
‘You are the fire boy who set me alight,’ Doctor Ravana rasped. ‘I will save something special for you.’
The doctor turned his attention to Ebony and injected her with a needle. Within seconds, her eyes rolled up into her head, and she sagged from the wall. Unchaining her, the guards dragged her from the room.
‘You monster!’ Chad gasped. ‘Leave my sister alone!’
‘She is not alone,’ the general said as he relocked the cell. ‘Doctor Ravana will be keeping her company.’ He made his way to the door. ‘One final thing. The Agency seemed to believe that Pegasus operated under a separate guidance system.’ He gave a gentle laugh. ‘I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. We rectified that weakness when we modified the missile. Pegasus is fully capable of finding its way to New York on its own.
‘We are making history within the hour. It’s a shame you will not be present for the launch.’ He paused. ‘What is it you American’s say? Adios?’
The general exited.
‘I’m not American,’ Brodie muttered.
The only other sound was Chad trying to regain his breath.
‘Can anyone use their powers?’ I asked. ‘At all?’
‘Not me,’ Dan said.
‘I’m still strong,’ Brodie answered. ‘But not this strong.’
‘Chad?’ I asked.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 12
