Tells
Page 10
“She’s older than you and seems bent on joining your family. Maybe she needs a good scare. How much do you trust her?”
“With my life,” I said without hesitation. “Before we get to the dorm, do you have anything that might make us invisible to security cameras?”
She stepped into an alcove and fumbled a hand into her backpack. Luca mumbled something as she wiped her own face and then mine. “It’ll make our faces fuzzy or out-of-focus for an hour.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Dina, catching up.
“Isa walked through a spiderweb, and I wiped it off.”
“Ick.” Dina looked herself over for webs. Then, she noticed the sign in front of the building. “Hey, that’s an Iranian name.”
“That’s the billionaire scientist who donated Zak’s dorm,” I said.
“It’s an omen,” Dina whispered.
I struggled not to release the snark. When Luca walked toward the front steps of the building, I grabbed her elbow and pointed toward a window. “We’re going in that way.”
“Why?”
I psyched myself up for the ordeal. The basement was only half underground and had big windows. Not too bad if I don’t think about the tons of dirt on the other side of the wall. “Who in their right mind walks up a big staircase outside to ride back down in a cramped box?”
Dina told her, “Isa doesn’t like elevators.”
“Claustrophobia?”
“Mostly elevators,” I said faintly.
“Wow. Supergirl has a Kryptonite? Wasn’t your mom a shrink?”
Dina stood nose-to-nose with Luca. “Leave her alone. She hasn’t had a flare-up in years.”
“I’m not mocking.” Luca stepped back, smile vanishing. “What happened?”
“We visited a children’s museum in first grade. On the way lunch, the elevator broke down. The little phone inside didn’t work, and nobody noticed we were missing for hours. We were all kind of freaking out.”
Nodding, Luca said, “As a Sensitive who was younger than the rest of you, she felt everyone’s panic. That’s rough.”
“Exactly. Maybe you do know her.”
Ignoring the analysis of my life, I snuck around the back and knocked on Zak’s normal window.
Rat Boy opened it. “Oh, it’s you.” He had perfectly trimmed black hair, a pressed Oxford shirt, and dazzling white teeth. “Give me a reason I shouldn’t report you to the floor monitor.”
Luca opened her blazer and undid a top button on her shirt. When she leaned over, she said, “Hi. We came to see Zak.”
“Hello!” He cranked the window all the way open and helped her descend, using a bookcase and a low stool.
“We brought him a care package.” Dina held up the tin of cookies. “I’m Zak’s girlfriend.”
Rat Boy asked Luca, “Does that mean you’re still free?”
Luca looked shy and batted her eyelashes. “Is Zak upstairs in his room?”
I climbed through and helped Dina inside. Though, I kept my eyes focused on the alley.
“No,” said Rat Boy. “He always works late at the computer lab. He likes the uncrowded hours at night.”
“But he should be here,” whined Dina. “I texted him.”
I stifled an outburst. We’re trying to sneak up on a warlock, and you told him we were coming. Ack! The indignation took my mind off the closeness of the walls.
Luca covered for me. “He’s probably meeting us at the ice cream place. As long as we’re here, Zak borrowed a family journal from Isa, and she needs to get it back. Could we look for it?”
“Take anything you want,” Rat Boy said, gesturing to a study cubby with its own bookshelf. He flipped on the light more to see Luca’s cleavage than to help us search.
As long as she kept flirting, he couldn’t see me ransacking the room. None of the books on the shelf felt powerful, or even interesting. Most were on math or mathematicians. The oldest one was about the history of pi. I wiped my hands after touching that tome. The desk was also littered with origami. He was trying to recreate the notes Mom put in our lunches, but none of them were quite right.
Dina searched his drawers with stalkerlike precision. She came out with a lab notebook with the title “Special Projects.” Curious, she flipped through it. “If he managed to reproduce some trick that your great-grandmother taught your mom, he could revolutionize secure message passing. Once someone reads it, the message disappears.”
“Snapchat tried that,” I said to distract her, “but computers leave records of everything.” When I spotted a sketch of a pentagram on graph paper, I snatched the book out of her hands. “Keep looking for the journal.”
“I didn’t realize MIT had any sports teams,” Luca said to keep Rat Boy’s attention.
“It’s only intramural, but no one can lay a hand on me,” he bragged.
I skimmed through the notebook. Every experiment he performed had failed, but his ideas had been bold enough to catch the eye of one of his professors—something about collapsing information past the entropy limit in special corner cases. I had no idea what that meant, but it smacked of witchcraft.
The further I went, the scarier the ideas grew. Zak had decided that the way to cheat entropy was to hide information in other dimensions. Bad idea.
I paged ahead to see if he ever cracked the puzzle. Obsessed, he ranted about how simple the process should be with fractals. He just needed a way to vibrate nodes at controlled frequencies. A week ago, he found that computer disks could be programmed to generate a wide range of radio frequencies. He seemed really excited by that breakthrough. These experiments actually worked. He just needed a big circle of machines in the right pattern.
Zak had taped a photograph of a hundred-pointed mandala to the lab notebook. Beside it was a pencil drawing with machine names labeled at each point. This is a doorway, a big one. He had several pages of computer code scrawled after that. If he could gather enough power, he was convinced the pattern would expand to the five-dimensional version. I don’t know much witchcraft, but even I know this would be bad.
Making sure no one was watching, I stuffed the lab book into Dina’s purse. Normally, I tucked things like this inside my jeans and strapped it to the small of my back with a belt. Skirts were useless.
Then, I pulled Luca into the corner and whispered in French. “You’re right. Zak’s been experimenting with the Book. We have to stop him right away.” I glanced up at the guy with a goofy look on his face. “What did you do to Rat Boy? He’s dazzled.”
She smirked. “Nothing. Boys this age are easy. Besides he’s kind of cute. I think he may be a latent. He’s certainly from one of the original bloodlines. I cast a sympathy spell, and when I touched him, I felt a tingle.”
“Ah, you speak the language of love.” He grabbed Luca’s hand and said in horrid first-year French. “Je m’appelle Pete.” Then he kissed her hand, which caused her—no lie—to giggle.
I’m trying to save my future in magic and maybe the world. Can someone control their hormones?
In English, I asked, “Could we check his room for the journal? It’s a family heirloom. My great-grandmother, the code breaker, wrote it.”
“Oh, that old thing,” said love-struck Pete. “It wouldn’t be in the room. He takes it everywhere with him.”
Dina looked up from the map on her phone. “Which lab is he in? There are several.”
“The artificial intelligence center, Building 32,” Pete replied.
Now, that was ominous. “Come to think of it, he did say something about that place. We should meet him there as soon as possible.” I hopped up on the exit bookcase and held out my hand to help Dina.
Eyes fixed on the map, she followed. “It’s back past our car, the same distance east. Or we could cut across the green space.”
Pete assisted Luca, who needed the least help. “You ladies shouldn’t travel alone after dark.”
I made a scoffing sound. “On the MIT campus? With three people?”
&
nbsp; He crawled out the window after us. “Normally, I’d agree, but the lights have been going out a lot lately. It’s a really old campus. I think the new plasma physics lab draws too much juice and blows the fuses.”
Locking eyes with Luca, I said, “We’ll be stopping by the car first.”
16. The Dogs of War
By the time we reached the car, clouds had swallowed the moon. Dina drew up her hood, expecting rain. I encouraged Luca to bring her whole gym bag. Fortunately, Dina saved condiments for later use, so we were able to scavenge little paper salt packets from her purse. Lastly, I pulled out Dad’s baseball bat.
Pete stepped back. “Whoa! You’re going to walk across campus with that?”
I shrugged. “Zak could use it for intramural softball.” If they played on an X-box.
“I’d come watch his games and cheer for him,” Dina said with excitement.
Luca narrowed her eyes at the sparkling end of the bat. In French, she said, “Is that thing active? How?”
Tossing her the water vial from my skirt pocket, I replied, “I found it the same place I rescued this defensive magic.” I handed Dina the white stone and said in English, “You can only visit Zak if you pass your driver’s test. I brought you a good-luck charm from our house. I’m pretty sure it’s from the Jordan River.”
Mouth open, she examined the Hebrew writing. “Like the ones that the Israelites used to cross it?”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Thank you!” Dina tucked it into her purse and frowned when she noticed the notebook. When she opened her mouth to ask, I shook my head. She trusted me enough to stay quiet, but her wheels were turning.
Not to be outdone, Pete showed Luca the actual wheat-back penny in his penny loafers. “My aunt gave me this for luck. My old pair was burgundy, but I switched to oxblood. I think it makes a statement. What do you think?”
“Oh, it makes a statement alright,” I whispered to Dina, holding the thumb and forefinger of my right hand against my forehead in an L for “loser.”
Our horny tour guide led us down Vassar Street in the direction Dina had pointed us. I didn’t see anyone else. All the school buildings and businesses were closed.
Dina put her hand in her purse to grab her mace, just in case Pete was leading us into a dark alley. Smart girl.
“That’s thirty-two, the Stata Building.” Pete pointed to the right.
I blurted, “Oh, God, we’re too late. The gate to hell has already opened.” The building fronts were twisted like a cartoon skyline melting in the heat. They reminded me of the movie Dr. Strange when the villain was warping the cityscape to crush the hero.
“What?” Pete laughed. “No. They designed it this way.”
“Salvador Dali was the architect?” asked Luca.
Pete wrinkled his forehead. “He may have been Spanish. I don’t know.” He strode up to the front door and gave a tug. The doors didn’t open. He tried swiping his student ID in the reader by the door. “Oops. I haven’t been inside without Zaki-boy. I’m guessing only computer majors have access after hours.”
“There’s no other way in?” Luca asked. “Surely someone as clever as you can find a way around a little lock.”
While he scratched his chin in thought, I peeked through the glass doors into the lobby. Seeing no witnesses, I heaved back the baseball bat and prepared to make my own key.
“Whoa!” Dina grabbed the fat end of the bat. “Is there a reason you’re going full-on reform school?”
“Zak’s in danger,” I whispered.
She squinted. “For real?”
I crossed my heart.
With a sigh, she jogged around the building past a freaky sculpture and some bicycle-charging racks. “On the Internet, I saw pictures of a ground-floor entrance beside an amphitheater.”
Pete slapped his forehead. “Yeah, the radiation-lab memorial.”
We all followed Dina. On the left, I saw the northern green space, where the sidewalks formed—no joke—a pentagram. Was this campus designed by Stephen King?
Dina froze in her tracks when the streetlights turned off. One by one, every building around us went dark. I could see the river bridge in the distance until the blackness swallowed it, too. The sixth floor of this distorted computer building was the only beacon in this sea of night.
I clenched my fists. “At least we know where my Book is. That should make things easier.” Probably in room 666.
Meanwhile, Luca’s knife made a snick as it popped open.
That’s when Dina turned on her phone’s flashlight.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to attract—” Luca was interrupted by a ringing tone in the air I could only describe as someone running their finger over the rim of a wineglass the size of a stadium. The pure tone didn’t last long before a screech like bad brakes built inside my bones.
The metal-on-metal grinding made me clap my hands over my ears. I wasn’t the only one it hurt because something howled in the trees beyond the cement pentagram. Hell no. This has gone too far. The silence wasn’t a peaceful one.
“Someone’s watching us,” whispered Luca. She pulled a lump of white wax from her pocket and kneaded it with her left hand. As she gestured, her skin turned paler than normal. The others might not notice the subtle change in the dark.
I whipped out my phone and redialed my last call. Instead of reaching the witch police, the phone played a series of three tones. “The number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please hang up and check your number.”
Because the feds were eavesdropping on my cell, the secretive council had eliminated the link between us. “So much for 9-1-1 to the rescue,” I said.
The outline of a wolf snapped a branch behind me. I couldn’t make out a single feature, but it was a handspan taller than me. It sniffed the air with tiny tentacles like I’ve seen on a star-nosed mole.
“Run,” said Luca in a voice barely audible above my hammering heartbeat.
Rat Boy ditched us and ran straight south. His sprinting skills were impressive, but he left one of his precious shoes behind.
The rest of us dashed toward the doors of the computer building. Our path led down into the bowl of an open-air amphitheater. When I glanced over my shoulder, I could see the blackness gaining on us. My amulet would protect me, but the others would be toast.
I skidded to a halt and raised my angel-touched bat like a sword. “You shall not pass. Flee this place! You are not welcome here.”
Dina sprayed a massive cloud of mace in the thing’s direction, which only made it sneeze. However, that was enough of a distraction for Luca the Barbarian to make her leap. She dove over the beast’s neck and slashed.
It roared like a grizzly in pain. A black tentacle plopped to the ground, writhing. Then it turned to ash like those snakes we lit on the Fourth of July.
I swung the bat upward with all my might, and something made a wet splat and hiss like steaks hitting a hot grill. I think I just hacked it off. If the bat didn’t work, what else did I have? Dimes.
Fumbling in my jacket, I pulled out Dad’s gift. Unwilling to sink my fist into that horror show of a face, I broke the paper seal. Individual silver dimes cascaded from my grip, some tinkling onto the cement. I tossed a dozen at the wriggling mass. “In the name of the Creator, begone!”
Sparks erupted where the silver hit, and the thing reared back. The squeal hurt my ears more than the metal shrieking had. As it screamed, we could see color inside the maw, luminescent green like an angler fish from the depths. The smell of rotting meat made me gag.
Luca uncorked the vial I gave her and lobbed it down the thing’s throat. The wolf tumbled to the ground, thrashing. Then it burst like a piñata, causing the dimes to jingle against the cement.
Ash drifted over us like snow. I envied Dina’s hood as I dusted my hair off.
“Don’t breathe it in,” Luca said, covering her face.
Dina whimpered. “What was that?”
I held up my hand
for a high-five, but Luca left me hanging. Pointing to the doors above us, she drew our attention to more of the shadow beasts. Though, I couldn’t tell the exact number in the darkness. My angel favor would only take care of one of them, and I had to save it for the boss monster at the end of the level.
“They must be drawn by the sound of Zak’s experiments,” I whispered. “How are we going to get inside to stop him?”
Rat Boy called from the open door of the closest building to the south. “This way. Quick!”
I could tell from his tone that he was seconds away from latching the door shut out of self-preservation. No longer judging him so harshly, I grabbed Dina’s hand and dragged her toward safety. Luca took her other hand and whispered, “We’ll explain later. Move!”
This time, I didn’t look back until we were inside, panting like steam locomotives.
“Good thing I was around,” Rat Boy bragged to Luca.
Puzzled, Dina sniffed the air behind him. “What’s that smell?”
I caught a whiff of urine. Gross. Stepping around a corner, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to find Blaise’s number. We needed the freaking Ghostbusters, soon. If they already had a team from the Boston area on the way to Holy Oak, I might be able to divert them toward us. I struggled to stop my hands from shaking so I could push the buttons. In the dark, I accidentally put her on speakerphone.
Blaise answered on the second ring. “Have you called to apologize?”
“No time,” I said. “Shadow wolves are swarming the Strata Center. Unless you can get the witch cops to MIT soon, they’re going to eat my brother.” And my Book.
“Are you pulling my leg?”
Dina grabbed the phone from my hand. “Listen, you twit. We’re surrounded by monsters! My best friend is quoting Gandalf and protecting me with a bat while my boyfriend is being hunted by Warg Ring Wraiths. Send us someone who can do something about it!”
“Fine. You don’t have to shout. Keep your phone on. They can track you that way.”