“My mistake. My fault. Not hers. Thank you for helping her.”
“It’s not enough,” blurted Salome. “We can’t just leave Eva there, Mikael.”
“You must not return to the Wolf’s Den. Not now. But we’ll find a way to help her, I promise.”
“Dad.” John leaned closer, staring hard. “How could you do all this? Why did you do it? To Eva, to us?”
“For you, John. You know that.” The voice halted for a moment. “I went too far. I know that. Remember Icarus, John? I flew too close to the sun.”
The photo of Eva dissolved, replaced by that static-blurred figure, and the voice was firm and dispassionate once again.
“He’s on his way. You have time, but it’s measured in hours.”
“Lykos?” Slack crouched over the screen.
“He won’t give you up, not that easily. He’s at Wales Airport now.”
Salome looked as if she wanted to cry. Instead, she raged. “So we move again. Where are we supposed to hide from him?”
“I’m sending you new coordinates. First you have to get to Anchorage, but do not return to Fairbanks. Not under any circumstances. Akane, you can’t go back to Tokyo.”
“No,” she agreed softly, “I understand that. They already tracked me down there.”
“I’ll contact you all again in Anchorage, let you know where to go from there. A safe place. There’s so much you can do: so much that’s good, that can benefit the whole world. But you could be used for evil; it’s why I ran, John. That and the fact Lykos would have killed me.”
“I know.” John nodded reluctantly.
“I hoped to protect you by faking my own death; instead, I left you vulnerable. There are people at the Wolf’s Den who could manipulate you into something terrible. Understand this, my young ghosts: you must not be caught. You’re too strong and too untrained. Lykos must not have you.”
“We understand,” said Slack grimly.
“There are others like you, in centers like the Wolf’s Den, all over the world. It’s not just Eva. And not all of them are ‘faulty.’”
“Others?” blurted Akane eagerly.
“Together we can save Eva. But right now you need to get far away from the Wolf’s Den. You have work to do, and so do I. I will see you in person—” For a moment, the strong voice faltered.
John’s breath caught in his throat. Resentment, anger, relief, joy: he didn’t know which was the strongest. The fuzzy on-screen image seemed to resolve a little, and eyes were almost visible: blue and clear and staring right into his.
“I promise you, John. Soon.”
The image flickered, dissolved into streaks, and faded to blankness.
John watched as the innocuous internet café login popped back up. It took him a few long seconds to realize that his friends were all staring at him.
“Are you OK, John?” Slack touched his shoulder.
“I’m fine.” For the first time in ages, John realized, it was true. He took a deep breath. “Are we all doing this, then? Going on the run? Hiding from a supervillain?”
“You bet!” Slack grinned. “But you forgot ‘training ourselves to be the best white-hat hackers in the world’!”
He and Akane shared a fist bump, but Salome looked subdued. “Of course we’re all running. We have no choice.”
“I’ll tell my parents I won a scholarship, that I’m staying here.” Akane shrugged wryly. “It’ll take some explaining, but I’ll find an excuse to stay away from home for a while. I can’t put my family in danger.”
“We’ll be in danger ourselves,” warned Salome.
“Danger is my middle name,” smiled Akane. “We’re in this together.”
“All for one, and one for all.” John couldn’t help laughing.
“Excellent!” Slack’s blue eyes glinted. “Long live the Ghost Network!”
“Let’s get out of here.” Grinning, John picked up his bag, but as a flicker caught his eye, he froze, and he turned slowly back to the screen.
His pulse thumped in his throat. He clicked on the box. Log in.
Luminous green type flashed onto a plain black screen.
>HELP
Chills shivered across John’s skin. He leaned down, typing so fast he was clumsy.
Ddad? E/va? Who r you?
>HELP ME
The pause as the cursor blinked was agonizingly long, and then letters appeared again, halting and jerky.
>WOLVES
And the screen went dead.
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The Ghost Network (book 1) Page 18
