Sylo

by D. J. MacHale

  “There was no mistake, Mrs. Pierce,” Granger shot back curtly. “We have the satellite intel. It was your son and the Sleeper girl who witnessed our ambush of the rogues out near the Sleeper house. I only wish we had seen them at the time.”

  I had to hold my breath to keep from letting out a gasp. We were done. Granger knew we had seen him kill those men—and apparently so did my parents.

  Granger continued, “This island is a powder keg and the fuse is burning quickly. If those two children start throwing accusations around, it will get very ugly very fast and it will be well within my mission to use whatever countermeasures are necessary to keep the peace.”

  Dad said, “When he gets home, you’ll be the first to know.”

  I knew that tone. His teeth were clenched in anger as he fought to keep from boiling over.

  “I can’t wait for that,” Granger declared. “We’re going to find them.” It sounded as though Granger had stood up and was headed for the door.

  “You mean like you found that Feit person?” Dad called sarcastically.

  My head started to spin. Dad knew about Feit too! He knew everything!

  “We’ll find him as well,” Granger shot back. “This entire operation is about timing. I want to minimize casualties but if your son interferes—”

  “He won’t,” Dad assured him.

  “I need you to understand,” Granger said sternly. “There is far too much at stake here to jeopardize our mission by protecting them.”

  “We understand,” Dad shot back sharply. “We’ve all worked too hard and too long to let this get out of hand now. I can’t speak for the Sleeper girl but you won’t have to worry about Tucker.”

  “I’m going to make sure of that,” Granger said. It sounded like a threat.

  Someone’s cell phone chirped. I didn’t think for a second that phone service had been restored to everyone. It had to be one of the SYLO guys.

  “Granger,” said the captain, answering the phone.

  There was silence for a few seconds as he listened to whomever was calling him.

  “When?” Granger barked angrily, sounding even more annoyed than he had been a second before. He listened for a few more seconds, then added, “Understood.”

  He cut off the phone and announced, “Less than an hour ago, Dr. Francis Carr logged on to the Pemberwick Medical Database at the hospital and opened the files concerning the Pemberwick virus. However, Dr. Carr and his wife weren’t at the hospital. They are assigned to the SYLO base. But their son was seen at the hospital, along with another young man.”

  “My God,” Mom said. “Quinn.”

  Quinn let out a gasp that I feared was loud enough to be heard from downstairs.

  “Quinn’s a smart kid,” Dad said. “If he smells a rat, he’ll find it, and this bogus virus is a very big, smelly rat.”

  I had to keep from screaming. It was true. There was no Pemberwick virus—and my parents knew it all along.

  “I want all three of those young people in custody,” Granger said, the tension in his voice rising.

  “I’m going with you,” Dad declared. It sounded as though he was moving across the room.

  “I’ll wait here,” Mom called. “And captain?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do not harm those children. Any of them.”

  I’d never heard my mom talk with such intensity. It wasn’t a request; it was a threat.

  Granger didn’t respond to her. A second later I heard a door slam, and soon after that, one of the Humvees roared to life. Only one. Whoever was driving the other vehicle was still downstairs with my mother.

  I was ready to puke. How was this possible? My own mother and father knew exactly what was happening on Pemberwick Island…and they were working with Granger to capture me.

  I didn’t know what to do, but Quinn and I couldn’t stay there, not with a SYLO soldier downstairs waiting to grab us. I motioned to the window and Quinn nodded. We were on the same page.

  It took every bit of willpower I had to climb out of my room—the room that always felt so safe but was now just a room in a house of people I wasn’t sure I could trust. Quinn followed as I climbed out, and we made our way back to the ground. Without a word I sprinted to the far end of the property and dove through some tall hedges until we were out of sight and earshot of the house.

  “What the hell?” Quinn exclaimed, with tears growing in his eyes. “What was that?”

  “I…I don’t know,” I stammered. “They’ve been acting strange lately. Mom has been crying a lot and they’ve been talking about having moved to Pemberwick because it was ‘safe.’ What was so unsafe about Connecticut?”

  “You didn’t ask?”

  “No! Jeez, they’re my parents. They’re supposed to be looking out for me, but—”

  “They’re looking out for you, all right,” Quinn said, interrupting. “And when they find you they’re going to turn you over to Granger. They’re working with him, Tuck, and so are my parents. There is no Pemberwick virus. The quarantine is just a cover for—what? Genocide? Or some freak experiment? Are we all going to be fed this Ruby stuff?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, numb. I felt like I was falling and that there would be no soft landing.

  “What was that about an event?” Quinn asked, clicking back into analytical mode. “Granger said it was imminent. And your parents knew what he was talking about. It sounded like they’ve known for a while. You heard the threat. Granger would sooner kill us than risk us telling anybody about it.”

  We stood there, both trying to understand what it was we had heard. I didn’t know what bothered me more: the fact that the people of Pemberwick had been fed a steady stream of bull since the moment SYLO invaded our home or that my parents had known about it from the start. No, worse—my parents were actually part of it. Quinn’s parents too. They had lied to us. All that time my parents and I had spent wondering what was going on, it was all an act. The people I relied on the most, whom I loved, couldn’t be trusted.

  “What are we going to do, Tuck?” Quinn asked softly. “They’re coming after us. We can’t hide forever.”

  “I’ve got to talk to my parents,” I said.

  “What? No! They’ll turn you in!”

  “They’re my parents, Quinn. I don’t care what we’ve heard, there’s got to be some reason behind this that makes sense. I don’t believe for a second that they’d just turn on me like that. Your parents either. It just doesn’t fly.”

  Quinn calmed down, which ended up being worse. In many ways anger and confusion were easier to understand and deal with than betrayal. He had to fight back tears.

  “How could they lie to me like that?” he asked, as much to himself as to me. “Does that mean our whole lives have been based on lies?”

  “I don’t want to believe that,” I replied. “I can’t. It sounded bad, but they were still trying to protect us. You heard. I’m going to hold on to that and I think you should too.”

  Quinn nodded and wiped his eyes. “Well, we can’t talk to any of them now because we’re on the Pemberwick Most Wanted list and if we—”

  “Oh no!” I shouted as a thought hit me like a bat to the head.

  “What now?”

  “Tori’s on that list too.”

  I pulled out my cell phone and started dialing before realizing what a waste of time that was.

  “Damn.” I exclaimed, snapping the phone shut.

  “Yeah, you’re not on SYLO’s calling plan,” Quinn pointed out.

  “C’mon,” I said and took off for our garage.

  “To where?” Quinn asked nervously.

  “We’ve got to warn her,” I shouted back.

  “How?”

  I didn’t answer because I wasn’t sure myself. It was like I was on autopilot. My legs were ahead of my brain as they carried me to our garage, where Dad’s pickup was parked.

  “We’ll drive to her house,” I announced, jumping behind the wheel.

  “
You can drive? When did you get your license?”

  “Yes, and about two years from now.”

  Quinn crawled into the passenger side.

  “Seriously? You’re going to drive us out to the far end of the island and you don’t have a license?”

  I turned and looked Quinn square in the eye.

  “Maybe you’re right,” I said sarcastically. “The island’s about to explode, people are being abducted and murdered, we’ve got the United States Navy hunting us down, and our parents are helping them. Wouldn’t want to add a driving violation to that.”

  Quinn gave me a weak smile. “Point taken,” he said sheepishly. “Just keep us on the road.”

  I had driven with Dad many times on the more desolate roads of Pemberwick, so handling the truck wasn’t the problem. Making it to Tori’s house without getting caught was the real challenge. I turned the engine over, eased into gear, and slowly drove out of the garage. Our driveway ran right by our house, which meant the SYLO soldiers inside would definitely see us. I had to take an alternate route. Rather than head straight along the driveway, I made a U-turn around the garage, drove across the grass, and straight through to our neighbor’s property. The folks behind us had a perfectly manicured lawn. Not anymore. It killed me to drive a truck over it and dig in deep tracks…but not really. There were way bigger things to worry about than lawn care.

  “You realize this isn’t a road, right?” Quinn cautioned nervously.

  I ignored him and drove slowly, hoping it would draw less attention. Gratefully, our neighbors didn’t come out screaming. I managed to get to the far end of their property and navigate across their bed of marigolds before hitting the gravel driveway. I made a mental note to replace their flowers as soon as I got the chance. The thought actually made me laugh. Why the hell was I worried about replacing flowers when we were fugitives?

  “Now go!” Quinn yelled.

  We hit the main road and I gunned it. Part of me wanted to jam the pedal to the floor and speed as quickly as possible out to Tori’s, but that would have been inviting attention. Our only chance was to blend in and avoid any SYLO soldiers who had been alerted to look for us.

  Tori’s house was about ten miles out of town along the Memagog Highway. There was no alternate route. I gripped the wheel so tightly I was afraid it would snap, and I constantly glanced at the rearview mirror, expecting to see a black Humvee speed up from behind. My stomach was in a knot, waiting for the worst to happen at any second.

  Quinn must have felt the same way because he didn’t say a word. I think he was holding his breath.

  We were about two-thirds of the way there and I started to think we might make it, when a black speck appeared in the road far ahead of us. A red flashing light shot from the grill. It was a Humvee.

  “Damn,” Quinn cursed.

  I looked left and right, hoping for a side road, ready to roll the dice and turn off in the hopes that they hadn’t seen us. There was nothing but an unbroken line of trees. It was the worst possible spot to cross paths with the enemy.

  “Turn into the woods,” Quinn cried.

  “That’s crazy. We wouldn’t get twenty yards.”

  “But we can’t just give up!”

  I squeezed the wheel even tighter. The black speck with the flashing light grew larger as we sped closer.

  “Maybe they don’t know it’s us,” I offered.

  “Yeah, right, and maybe Granger’s really a good guy,” Quinn said sarcastically.

  The odds of either weren’t good, but we had no choice. We had to keep going.

  The Humvee loomed large. I took my foot off the gas in anticipation of the car skidding to a stop on our side of the road, cutting us off.

  “Duck down,” I ordered.

  “Why?”

  “They’re looking for two guys. Maybe if they only see one they’ll—”

  Too late. The Humvee screamed by without stopping.

  Quinn and I kept looking ahead, both afraid to turn to see brake lights, which would mean it was going to come after us. Seconds passed and I finally looked in the rearview mirror to see the Humvee disappearing toward town.

  We both let out a relieved breath.

  “So then, who are they after?” Quinn asked.

  My mind raced ahead to our destination, making the answer obvious.

  “Maybe they already found who they were after,” I said and jammed the gas pedal to the floor.

  The truck skidded on sand, the wheels bit, and we took off. My fear was that SYLO had already gotten to Tori and she was a prisoner in the Humvee. I didn’t care about being inconspicuous anymore. I wanted to get to her house as fast as possible. It took only a few more tense minutes before I saw the turnoff to the Sleepers’ lagoon-side house. I made the turn while barely slowing down and screamed up the sandy driveway. We bumped along until we hit the clearing that was their yard, where I slammed on the brakes, killed the engine, and ran toward the house.

  “Tori!” I called.

  I ran up onto the porch and right to the front door, where I hammered more than knocked.

  “Are you in there?” I called.

  My answer was a shotgun blast that blew out the window next to the door.

  “Whoa!” Quinn screamed as we both hit the ground and covered up.

  “The next one’s aimed at you!” Tori yelled from inside.

  “It’s Tucker! And Quinn! Don’t shoot!”

  Neither of us dared to move. I didn’t want to have to deal with Granger, but at that moment I was more worried about tangling with Tori. I dared to look up at the door and saw the curtain pull aside to reveal Tori inside, peering out.

  A second later the door opened and Tori came out holding a shotgun to her shoulder, ready to fire again.

  “You alone?” she demanded.

  “Yes!” I shouted without getting up. “We came to warn you. Granger knows we saw him shoot those guys. He’s coming after us.”

  Tori’s eyes were wild. She scanned the yard as if looking for any hidden threats.

  “They’ve already been here,” she said, and I sensed the confusion in her voice. She was putting on a good show of strength, but she was upset.

  “We saw a Humvee screaming the other way into town,” Quinn said. “What happened?”

  “They took my father,” Tori replied. Her voice was shaking. Gone was the bold protector of their property.

  Quinn and I stood up cautiously, neither convinced she wouldn’t suddenly turn the gun on us again.

  Quinn said, “And they left you here?”

  “They couldn’t find me,” Tori replied. “There’s a root cellar you can get to through the pantry. If you don’t know it’s there, you’d never see it. Dad made me hide down there just before they barged in and starting shoving him around. They wanted to know where I was. Dad reacted the only way he knows how, with his fists. He wasn’t about to let some thugs take his little girl.”

  Tori lowered the gun and started to cry. Seeing that was almost as unsettling as her pointing the shotgun at me. The girl who rarely showed her emotions was finally breaking down.

  “They dragged him out like…like some criminal,” she said, her words clutching. “What the hell is going on?”

  I didn’t know where to begin to answer that question. The only thing I knew for certain was that the three of us were about as alone as could be. There was nowhere for us to go and nobody to turn to for help.

  Quinn said, “Tuck’s parents, and my parents…they’re working with SYLO.”

  Tori stiffened with surprise.

  “What? How is that possible?” she asked.

  “We don’t know,” I said. “But we heard that something is about to happen. Something huge. They’re afraid that if we tell people about what we know, there’ll be a riot and the island will explode.”

  “What’s going to happen?” Tori asked, sounding lost. “What could be so bad that they’re willing to kill people to keep it quiet?”

  My ear ca
ught a faint sound that broke through the normal ocean and wind sounds of the remote property.

  “Wait,” I said, holding up my hand. “Listen.”

  We all stood still, straining to understand what the alien sound could be.

  Tori heard it too. “What is that?”

  The sound grew louder. It was a steady thumping noise that quickly grew louder.

  “Helicopter,” Quinn announced. “They’re coming back.”

  SIXTEEN

  “That root cellar!” Quinn declared, taking off on a dead run for the house. “We’ll all hide down there.”

  Tori started right after him.

  “No!” I shouted. “The truck!”

  Dad’s pickup was sitting right in front of the house, a dead giveaway that we were there. Seeing that, SYLO would tear the place apart looking for us. Tori put on the brakes and changed direction.

  “The barn,” she declared.

  There was no need for her to explain. I sprinted back to the truck and jumped in the cab while Tori went for the barn and swung the doors open. The engine fired quickly, though I could still hear the sound of the rapidly approaching chopper over its rumble.

  “Hurry, man,” Quinn urged through the driver’s window.

  I hit the gas, spun the wheel, and drove straight for the barn. There was no way of knowing if they had already spotted the truck. All we could do was hope they couldn’t see this far ahead. And pray. Tori had barely gotten the doors open when I tore through, careening toward the back wall. I jammed on the brakes, skidded across loose hay, and crashed into a stack of lobster traps that came crashing down onto the hood. Racer and Derby reared up and whinnied at the sudden intrusion. Tori went right to them and calmed them down.

  We were in, but was it too late? I killed the engine and jumped out in time to see Quinn swinging the big barn doors closed.

  “Did I leave tracks out there?” I asked, breathless.

  “Too late to worry about that now,” he replied.

  Quinn and I leaned against the door, listening intently as the roar of the helicopter grew louder. Tori stayed with the horses, petting them and getting them to relax as best as she could. I couldn’t say which was beating faster, the rotors or my heart. The ground trembled as the powerful chopper flew closer. I wanted to peek out of the window next to the door but was afraid I’d be seen, so all I did was close my eyes and wait. A shadow moved across the sky, blotting out the sun that streamed through the glass. The helicopter was hovering directly overhead. The sound was so deafening that Quinn put his hands over his ears. The shadow remained for a good thirty seconds. Did they spot the tire tracks? Had they seen us scramble to get inside? Were soldiers dropping down on zip lines?