This conversation reminded him of those glorious moments somehow. He didn’t want it to end. But before he could ask another question, Sabretooth had turned away and begun contemplating the empty space where the chopper presumably sat. The water seemed calmer, the waves less choppy.
“I think if we balance out the boat, that’ll be better than getting into the water,” he said.
“What’s that?” asked Christopher.
“Either I try to crack through the force field from out here, or I climb back down into the water and do it there. If I stay up here, you have to try and counterbalance me, and there’s a risk that I could send you flying, but I’ve got a better angle at it. If I go into the water, you’re safer, but if I get knocked unconscious, you’ve got to haul my butt back onto the boat, and I’m not light. I’ve got to be honest: I don’t like either option.”
“Stay up here.” Christopher said after a moment’s thought. “I’ve got a flotation device on if I do go overboard, and I can swim. So I think it’s worth having the better angle.”
Sabretooth nodded. “You’re the boss.” He considered the boat again. “If you stand down at that end, and I go over here, we should be good. When I touched the force field before, it shocked me wicked hard. I don’t want you anywhere near it when I hit it. There’s gonna be some blowback.”
Christopher went to the spot that Sabretooth indicated, watching with concern as the mercenary mutant lifted a clawed hand, trying to judge the distance to his imaginary target. Then, inspiration struck.
“Wait!” said Christopher. “I just had an idea. There’s some fishing equipment in the locker next to the anchor. They got harpoons. Why not use one of them instead of sticking your hand into the force field?”
Sabretooth considered. “That’s not a half bad idea.”
Christopher pulled one of the harpoons out of the locker. The small, spear-like object was heavier than he’d anticipated, and he fumbled it a bit before tightening his grip. Then he gave it an experimental spin. Unlike his staff back at school, the harpoon was terribly unbalanced, but he thought he’d be able to work with it in a fight if he had to. Good to know.
“Any time now,” Sabretooth prompted.
Flushing in embarrassment, Christopher tossed the weapon to Sabretooth, who caught it one-handed and made it look easy. He tested the long length of wood and took a moment to judge the angles before preparing himself to strike.
WHOM!
The thick harpoon impacted against the invisible barrier of the force field. Christopher felt the blow deep in his bones, a vibration down in his marrow. It seemed like even his teeth shook in their sockets. The boat slid backwards, and an electric shimmer in the air outlined the shape of the force field for just a moment before it disappeared again. Sabretooth gritted his teeth, shifting the harpoon in his grip. The metal tip smoked where it had impacted the magical barrier.
“Good idea, kid,” he said, indicating the harpoon. “You OK back there?”
“Yeah.”
Sabretooth struck again. The first time, he’d been testing the weapon and the balance of the boat, but this time, he put the full force of his might behind the blow.
WHOOOOMMMM!
This time, Christopher felt a pulse of familiar magic grip his heart and squeeze it painfully. For a second, he couldn’t breathe. White spots danced around the edge of his vision, and he struggled to keep his grip on consciousness. He gasped for air, sagging against the side of the boat. It rocked as a wave hit them, sending him overboard. The cold water smacked him, and his brain froze in shock and panic. The vest brought him immediately back up to the surface, where he weakly spluttered out water. He bobbed there, flailing in helpless desperation.
“Sabretooth,” he croaked, but his voice was too feeble to carry over the wind and waves.
WHOOOOOMMMM!
The harpoon struck again, and Christopher’s vision went dimmer. He couldn’t feel the tips of his fingers. He tried to speak but couldn’t make his mouth form the words. His lips had gone numb too. He heard the slap of water against the hull of the boat but didn’t know where the edge was. He lacked the strength to haul himself aboard anyway. Sabretooth wouldn’t know what had happened to him. Hopefully the vest would hold him afloat long enough for him to be saved, but he wasn’t even sure about that. Right now, he could barely hold his head out of the water. He even struggled to breathe…
“Kid? Chris? You OK?!”
Sabretooth’s desperate face filled his field of vision as the color slowly began to leach back into the world. Christopher became aware of heat in his hands as Sabretooth massaged warmth back into his fingertips. He struggled to move his mouth and finally managed to force out a single word.
“Thanks,” he said.
Sabretooth’s face relaxed slightly.
“Don’t mention it,” he said, sitting back on his haunches. “What the hell happened?”
“That force field is tied to the Box. When you hit it, it hurt me.”
Sabretooth went pale. His eyes blazed yellow in a suddenly white face. Without another word, he leaped to his feet, leaving Christopher lying on the deck, and ran to the wheel, turning the boat on. The engine roared to life, and he flicked it into gear and started back to shore while Christopher still struggled to sit up.
“What is it?” Christopher asked.
“Graydon,” said Sabretooth, his expression grim. “If it hurt you when I hit the force field, what did it do to him?”
Chapter 25
In the wake of Graydon’s shocking request, Eva didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t let him just waltz out of here with an artifact that raised the dead. It would be only a matter of time before some random undead beastie would take his head off. Other people would die too, and she’d be at least partially at fault. Plus, Sabretooth would probably kill her. But Graydon didn’t seem to be joking. In fact, he looked like he wanted to fall on his knees and beg, and that tugged at her heartstrings.
“Graydon,” she said gently, “you must not have thought this through.”
“Of course I have. I’ll have to go somewhere remote. I need to be near the Box, and the Box needs to be as far away from living things as possible. I’m thinking the desert makes the most sense. It won’t be the most comfortable existence, but it’ll be mine. Please help me make it a reality. It will cost me a lot to beg, but I’ll do it if I have to.”
“You know I want to help, but I can’t do that if I don’t understand what the heck is going on, Graydon. I have to admit that right now, you sound insane.”
He chuckled, looking down at himself, clad in a ripped and stained jumpsuit, his normally immaculate hair tousled and dirty. Blood smudged one cheek. He couldn’t have looked any more different from the perfectly poised, impeccably coiffed politician he’d once been.
“I look the part too, don’t I?” he said. “But I don’t feel insane. For the first time in my existence, I feel like I’m starting to see clearly. I just need a little more time to figure things out, but that’s the problem. Time is exactly what I don’t have.”
“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously, eyeing the bubble where the Box still sat, safely frozen in time.
“I don’t understand what’s been happening to me,” he explained. “I keep getting brought back due to circumstances outside of my control. I don’t understand how or why this is happening, which means it could end at any moment. I have no idea how much time I’ve got left. I’ve got to seize the opportunity to figure things out while I’ve got it, but I can’t do that with Sabretooth hanging over my shoulder. He’s… It’s…” He paused to search for the right words. “If I stay here, he’ll do whatever he thinks is right. I won’t even have a say in it.”
“He cares about you. Even I can see that.”
“Sure he does. And he’ll protect me no matter what. I won’t have any choice in the matter.”
Graydon sighed. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but I’ve had enough of being used. That’s what this would be, even if it was kindly meant.”
“Look, I get that, but I can’t let you gallop off into the sunset with the Box by yourself.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a finger to forestall him. “Let me finish. It’s not about a lack of trust. It’s not my judgment call to make. I don’t own the Box, so who am I to say whether you should be trusted with it or not? But I’m also not a complete and total jackwagon, or at least I try not to be. And only a complete and total jackwagon would let someone wander off into the desert alone with no food, water, or money. Not only is that an awful thing to do to somebody, but it also means that once you’re gone, there’s a dangerous artifact just sitting out there in the desert, waiting for somebody to come along and pick it up. I like nothing about this plan. This plan sucks rocks.”
As she spoke, Graydon’s eyes grew progressively larger, and finally he nodded, holding his hands up. “Fine, fine. I get it. It was a bad idea. But I have to do something. You do see that, don’t you?”
“Sure, but why go to all that effort just to be a hermit? I’ll give you some private time here. I could maybe keep Sabretooth off your back, too. Would that be enough?”
He began shaking his head even before she’d finished the sentence. “Afraid not. He’s just so huge. I don’t mean in the physical sense. Even if you did manage to keep him from interacting with me directly, I’d feel him when he’s near. He has an aura about him.” He sighed. “I sound ridiculous.”
“No, you don’t.”
Eva knew exactly what he meant. Sabretooth had defied many of her expectations. He was capable of kindness when she’d expected nothing of the sort from him. He had a wicked sense of humor that had shocked her. But still, throughout this entire day, she’d never lost the sense that she stood in the presence of a predator. Maybe it was in the way that he scanned every space they entered as if he claimed it for his own, or the way he stared down at everyone he met in a silent struggle for domination. He didn’t even seem to realize that he did these things. As a result, her hackles went up every time he came anywhere close, so she knew exactly what Graydon referred to. Sabretooth was truly equal parts man and animal. Neither side of him would ever fully dominate the other, but to discount either of his facets would be a fatal mistake.
Graydon watched her expression intently. “So you do understand,” he said, breathing out in what looked like relief. “Thank goodness. Will you help me?”
She licked her lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “We’ll figure something out,” she promised, not knowing what.
The lack of commitment seemed to discourage him more than anything. He slumped back against the tree, staring at the frozen Box with obvious longing. Eva racked her brain for a solution that would check all of the boxes – one that wouldn’t leave Graydon alone and vulnerable, anger Sabretooth and send him on a rampage, get her and Christopher into even more trouble, or expose more people to the Box’s magic. It seemed like a solution should be simple, but she couldn’t come up with it. She was just so drained after everything that had happened. Maybe she needed a little time and a clear head, and then the answer would become obvious. She hoped so, because despair weighed on her, and it looked like Graydon felt the same.
He cocked his head then, listening intently. The sudden movement drew her attention and she followed suit. Perhaps he’d heard Christopher and Sabretooth returning? It would be a relief to be able to finally leave. But she didn’t hear footsteps. Instead, she heard a faint hum, and she leaped to her feet and scanned the sky for the X-Copter.
But she saw nothing, and as she looked over the unbroken gray expanse of clouds, she realized that it didn’t sound like the chopper anyway. It was too high pitched and much too close by. It grated on her eardrums, growing in intensity with every passing moment.
She clapped her hands over her ears, but that failed to provide any relief. Beside her, Graydon had climbed to his feet too, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. She could feel her bones vibrating.
“What is that?” she shouted, trying to be heard over the deafening whine.
Graydon shrugged helplessly, looking around for the source but coming up empty.
From its spot on the ground inside the time bubble, the Box flashed with a bright white light. Eva experienced a dim echo of impact, like when the bottom half of her face had been nicely numbed at the dentist but still she felt a vague rummaging about as the necessary work was accomplished. The bubble vibrated visibly now, letting off curls of steam. She had the strong idea that touching it would be a very bad idea indeed. It glowed as if it would be burning hot to the touch.
The Box flashed again, brighter this time. Graydon winced, putting a hand to his forehead. Eva’s attention went instantly from the scorching hot surface of the time bubble to him.
“You OK?” she demanded.
“Just a blinding headache all of a sudden. That’s all,” he said through gritted teeth. “Keep an eye on the bubble. Please, whatever you do, don’t let it pop. I have the distinct feeling that would be a very bad idea right now.”
She couldn’t have agreed more, but the bubble had reached a critical point of instability. It vibrated uncontrollably, hissing and burning a visible scorch mark into the grass underneath it. She reached out tentatively, trying to take a mental hold of it, and immediately drew away as even the slightest contact sent white-hot bolts of pain through her. Apparently the heat wasn’t just physical. She couldn’t reinforce the bubble. It was just a matter of time before it blew. But perhaps if she was on the ball, she could replace it with another bubble quickly enough that whatever was going to come blasting out at them would still be contained.
She readied herself and tried to look confident. Based on Graydon’s worried expression, her efforts were less than successful.
“Maybe we should take cover,” he suggested.
“That isn’t a bad idea,” she admitted.
But the phenomenon failed to repeat itself. The Box emitted no more waves of power. Unfortunately, the time bubble continued to quake, and although Eva couldn’t reach out to test it, she knew that it had been strained to its limits. Tentatively, she began to form a second bubble, layering it atop the first one. Perhaps she could sandwich them one on top of another like layers of an onion and keep the Box contained that way. As the new bubble solidified into shape, Graydon nodded his approval.
“Smart thinking,” he said.
Moments after she’d formed the second bubble, the first one winked out of existence, sending a wave of magic impacting against the new one.
WHOOM!
The bubble rocked visibly, its surface darkening from a translucent blue to a deep and vibrant violet within seconds. She would need another one, much more quickly than she would have wanted. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, but giving up wasn’t an option. Desperately, she began to form the shape of another time bubble in her mind.
“They’re coming!” Graydon shouted, pointing through the trees.
At first, Eva’s stomach fell, anticipating yet another problem to add to the already full stack of troubles on her shoulders. But then she saw them. Sabretooth sprinted at full speed toward them, with Christopher huffing and puffing along behind him as fast as he could go. But his fastest gallop couldn’t match Sabretooth, who had gone to all fours and ate up the ground in long, bunching strides that reminded Eva of a cheetah running across the African prairie. He was just that fast.
Relief coursed through her. This wasn’t another problem; this was the cavalry coming to the rescue. She didn’t know what they could do to help, but at least if more Sentinels poured out of the trees, she could focus on her bubbles and know that they’d watch her back.
“Are you OK?” Sabretooth shouted, his eyes wild.
“The Box went haywire,” Graydon
explained, indicating the steaming time bubble containing the artifact. “Eva is trying to contain it, but it’s a losing battle. It’s been burning through her bubbles almost as fast as she can make them.”
Eva thought this summary sounded just about right. Good thing, too, because she had her hands full. She let another bubble loose, barely containing the shockwave as the previous one burst. She shook her head, spots dancing in front of her eyes. That had been close.
Christopher staggered up to her, holding his side. “Are you… OK?” he panted, doubled over. “We… came… as… fast… as…” With every word, he grew increasingly more unsteady, and his pauses for breath took longer and longer.
Finally, Sabretooth clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Take a breath, bud. You galloped all the way here. You earned it.”
Christopher nodded and sat down right on the spot. It looked like his legs had given out underneath him.
“This might be my fault,” Sabretooth explained. He briefly described how they’d discovered the force field and tried to batter through it, and the effect that striking it had had on Christopher. “So we ran all the way back here. Chris stuck with me the whole way. He couldn’t keep pace, but he never lost me entirely. I’ve outrun trained military men before. He’s got some guts.” He turned an admiring look towards Christopher, which faded slightly when he saw that the younger mutant had collapsed onto the grass. “I thought he’d puked them all out.”
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