Shadows of Neverland (Second Star Book 3)

by Josh Hayes

  Wendy nodded. "That's right."

  "I'm sorry to say, young one, but Hook's already taken control of it. In fact, that was one of the first places they boarded."

  "How many men?" Tom asked.

  Irving shrugged. "Sadly, I was never made aware of Hook's operational plans, so admittedly, my knowledge on such things is limited, to say the least. But I do know that the Portal is what he wanted more than anything else. It was his first target."

  "What kind of a name is Hook?" Bella asked.

  "A nickname, my dear. Ironically, one which I'm responsible for."

  They all ducked as another explosion echoed in the distance.

  "That being said," Irving said, "I'm fairly confident it's time we should be going."

  Wendy frowned. "Going?"

  "Leaving the station."

  "We're not leaving."

  "Sweet child, you don't—"

  "I'm not a child," Wendy told him, a little more harshly than she'd intended. Her cheeks flushed slightly and she took a breath. "I'm sorry. But we're not leaving. We're going home."

  "No, no, please, accept my apologies. I meant no offense, but my original statement is nonetheless true. If Hook's men don't have control of the entire Garrison by now, they will shortly, and trust me, you do not want to be here when the dust settles."

  Wendy glanced back at Maggie, then back to Irving. "We're not leaving."

  "Yeah," Carter said, "and we probably need to get a move on, Pan is probably already in position by now."

  "What's a Pan?" Irving asked, sounding more than a little curious.

  "Don't worry about it," Tom said.

  "Of course, of course."

  "Why don't you come with us?" Bella asked Irving.

  Wendy and Tom both scoffed in disbelief. "No!" Wendy said.

  "No," Tom echoed.

  "I mean, no offense," Wendy said, turning to Irving.

  "But look at him," Bella argued. "He's hurt, he needs our help. Besides, it's not your decision to make." Wendy straightened, opening her mouth to respond, but Bella waved her off. "No, you're leaving, Wendy. We're not. We still have things to do here and we're going to need him. We've still got a battle to fight and we need people to fight with us."

  It was the first time the girl had ever said something that wasn't sarcastic or even remotely serious. It was hard to imagine this blue-haired girl, who constantly joked and played with everyone, having a serious thought, but Wendy had to admit that she was right. If all went well, she and Maggie would be home, back on Earth, and the Lost Boys of Neverland would still be here, fighting to survive.

  The guilt that washed over her at the realization turned her stomach. In all the time she'd spent thinking about going home, she'd never considered what she was leaving behind. She looked down at her sister, whose eyes were still bloodshot from crying. Those eyes said it all. There was no turning back now, Wendy told herself. She'd made a promise to her father, and she was going to keep that promise, no matter what.

  The radio on her waist buzzed and Peter's voice came through. "Wendy, Carter, where the hell are you guys? I'm in position about the platform."

  "We're on our way," Carter said. "We had a bit of a delay."

  "Delay? What the shit are you talking about, Carter? What delay?"

  Wendy pulled her radio from her belt. "It's nothing, we're on our way. We picked up a--" She paused and considered Irving briefly, before saying, "friend."

  "A friend? What—"

  Wendy cut him off. "We'll explain later, hold tight, we'll be there in a few minutes."

  She clipped her radio back on her belt, ignoring Peter's continued requests for some information, and said, "Okay, you're coming with us. Try and keep up and stay out of our way."

  Irving considered her for a moment, then nodded. "You drive a hard bargain."

  Wendy arched an eyebrow at him. He smiled. "You've got yourself a deal."

  "Okay, let's go."

  Five minutes later, Carter slowed as they reached another corner. He stopped and turned back to the group. "This is it. The corridor ends around this corner, then comes the gantry to the Portal area." He peered around the corner. "Oh, wow."

  "What is it?" Wendy asked, stepping up behind him. He moved out of her way and she leaned around the edge.

  Several bodies littered the floor at the end of the corridor, some wearing Enforcement uniforms, others not. A doorway, just past the collection of corpses, led to one of the Garrison's open-air walkways, separating the main parts of the complex.

  "That hatch leads to the gantry," Carter explained.

  "Stay close," Wendy told her sister, squeezing her hand. She did her best to hide the gruesome scene from Maggs as they weaved through the dead bodies. The smell of seared flesh and blood was thick in the air, and Wendy felt her stomach twist. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to stay strong for her sister.

  They stopped at the hatch and Carter keyed his radio. "We're here."

  "The junction is clear," Peter told them.

  Carter pushed the hatch open and led them out on to the gantry. Wind whistled around them as they crossed, the sounds of the battle echoing in the distance. A skiff roared past, making them jump as it plummeted downward, smoke pouring out of one engine.

  Wendy peered over the rail, watching it descend as another skiff raced after it, auto-cannons blazing. It was impossible to tell them apart, but as long as they were concentrating on each other and not them, Wendy decided that she didn't much care.

  Carter pointed to the hatch at the far end of the gantry, shouting over the cannon fire. "The security room is on the other side of that door."

  Wendy nodded. "Peter, do you have an eye on the security room?"

  "Yeah," he answered, "hold on, give me a minute."

  The stopped on the small platform outside the door and waited.

  "Okay," Peter said. "There's a window on the east side, I can see in. Looks like three guards, one near your hatch, two on the far side."

  Tom edged closer to the door. "Where exactly is my guy?"

  "Five feet in, to your right."

  "Okay," he turned to Carter. "I'll take the first one, can you handle the other two?"

  Carter nodded.

  She felt a tug on her jacket. Maggs looked up at her, eyes full of fear. "I'm scared, Wendy."

  Wendy knelt down, holding her sister's face in her hands. "I know, but it's going to be okay, we're almost there."

  "Okay," Pan said, "on three…"

  Irving knelt down beside Maggie and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Just stay with me, little one, I'll keep you safe."

  Wendy shot the man a look, wanting to pull her sister away, but stopped. Wendy kissed her sister on the forehead. "Just stay behind us, all right? This will all be over before you know it. I love you, sis."

  "I love you, too."

  "…Three."

  Tom drove his shoulder against the hatch. It swung open and he immediately dropped, rolling into the room. As the door slammed back into the wall, Tom was up on a knee, pistol extended, firing. His rounds took the man in the chest, knocking him back over a table in the middle of the room.

  The first man hadn't hit the floor yet, and Tom was already ducking out of the way, when Carter moved in and fired his rifle. His weapon bucked, sending rounds downrange. The two guards, who'd just started to react to the attack, jerked back, slamming into the wall behind them as Carter's bullets hit home.

  "We're in," Wendy said as they filed into the room.

  Irving pulled Maggs to the side, keeping her attention from the dead guards.

  Carter moved over to the man he'd shot. "He's not Enforcement, that's for sure."

  "I told you," Irving said. "This was the first thing they hit."

  Wendy slung her rifle, then keyed her radio. "Peter, Black's men beat us here."

  "It doesn't matter, the mission is the same."

  "I see movement across the way," Tom said. He knelt at the far wall, peering through a
window. Another gantry stretched from the security room they were in to another, larger room.

  "That's the control room," Carter said, moving to one of the terminals.

  Wendy turned to Irving. "How many guards?"

  He shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

  "Damn it, hold on, Peter." She moved across the room and peered through the window. On the other side of the twenty-foot gantry, Portal Control was easily five times larger than the security office. Through the windows, Wendy could see rows of electronic equipment and monitors. Two figures moved behind the three large mainframe servers in the center of the room. Two large sentry cannons guarded a large landing platform to the left of the portal control room, as well as one focused on the lone gantry leading to the room.

  "I see two guards," Wendy said. Then she glanced back to Carter. "What about the cannons?"

  "Working on it," Carter told her without looking up.

  Wendy started to respond, but before the words came, the window in front of her exploded. Hundreds of razor-sharp pieces of glass cascaded into the room, knocking Wendy off her feet. She screamed, falling to the floor, pain shooting through her body. Instinctively, she brought her hands up to protect her face, and felt something wet and warm flow through her fingers.

  Someone called her name in the distance and hands grabbed onto her, pulling her back. Muted pops of gunfire pummeled her senses as Bella appeared above her, shouting, her rifle belching out rounds on full-auto.

  "Get her back!"

  Wendy's face burned. She could taste the blood running into her mouth, but she could still see, and the pain told her she was still alive. Hands pulled her away from the broken window and shards of glass, behind the table that had been tipped over on its side.

  Irving appeared over her, fingers inspecting her face. "Let me see what—"

  "No, I'm okay," she said, pushing away the man's hands away.

  She scrambled to her knees, searching for the rifle she'd dropped in her fall. "Maggie?"

  "I'm here." Her sister's voice was faint amid the gun blasts reverberating around them. She was huddled along the left wall, knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs, her eyes clamped shut.

  "Shit," Bella yelled, ducking behind the wall. She ejected an empty magazine, immediately slamming in a fresh one. "Carter, would you hurry the hell up?"

  Carter ducked down briefly as another barrage of gunfire tore through the security office. "Almost got it."

  Pan's voice buzzed through the radio. "Wendy, what's going on? Are you okay?"

  "We're fine, just having some issues with the locals." She brought her rifle up and fired off several rounds without aiming.

  "Got it!" Carter shouted.

  "Peter," Wendy shouted over Bella's gun blasts. "Peter, the guns are down!"

  "Okay, guys," Peter said, his shouts slightly distorted. "Hang tight, this is going to be a real show."

  Moments later an explosion shook the floor of the security office. Several sporadic gunshots rang out, followed by shouting and cursing; then almost as soon as the attack had started, silence fell around them.

  Peter's voice came over the radio, sounding winded. "Okay, room's clear."

  Irving helped Wendy to her feet and they all made their way across the gantry into Portal Control.

  They made their way around the humming server racks to the main operating station near the far wall. Several screens were mounted on the wall, displaying information from the computers that filled the room. The two center screens displayed colorful graphs that shifted and pulsed in a seemingly random order.

  Peter stood just in front of the station, shiftblade in hand, the tip held at the neck of a man dressed in all black. The guard was on his knees, arms raised in surrender, a look of sheer terror on his face.

  "Holy crap," Carter said, coming up behind them. "Next time, I get the harness."

  Wendy slung her rifle and stepped slowly around the dead bodies. "Peter?"

  Tom stepped around Wendy, leveling his pistol at the guard's head. "Move and you die."

  The soldier's eyes darted back and forth between the pistol and the sword. "I don't seem to have much of a choice, do I?"

  "Easy," Wendy said, giving Tom a cautionary look. She considered their captive for a minute. There was something different about him, but she was having difficulty placing what it was. After a moment, it came to her. "You're not a soldier."

  The man regarded her silently for a long moment, then said, "That's right."

  He dropped his hands slightly.

  "Ah, I wouldn't…" Peter said, pressing the blade closer.

  The guard's hands went back up. "Look, I'm not a threat to you. I'm not even armed. I'm nobody."

  "Don't give us that crap," Peter said. "Black wouldn't leave just anyone in charge here."

  The guard shot Peter a confused looked. "Black, what are you talking about?"

  "Later," Wendy said. "Irving?"

  The wounded man stepped forward, and the guard's eyes widened. "Doc?"

  "You two know each other," Peter asked.

  "Gentry Adams," Irving said, crossing his arms. "One of Black's senior scientists, well, one of Hook's now, I guess. And a quite capable one, I might add."

  The man's expression hardened. "Captain was right to get rid of you."

  "A point I don't disagree with."

  "He should have killed you outright."

  Pan frowned. "Wait, what did you just say? What about Black?"

  "Captain Black is dead," Irving told him. "Killed weeks ago, during a battle for the Revenge."

  "The Revenge?"

  "Ah, sorry. An old Graft warship, kept hidden away for years. His company was attacked while trying to retrieve it… oh, that was you?"

  "That's right."

  "Very interesting."

  "Black's dead?" Peter asked.

  Irving nodded. "That's correct. Captain Hook is in charge now, I'm afraid."

  "Do you know how to operate this?" Wendy asked Gentry, pointing to the command station behind him.

  The man hesitated, cautiously eyeing Peter and Tom in turn. "And if I don't?"

  Tom pulled back the safety on his pistol. "Then there isn't any reason to keep you alive, is there?"

  The soldier nodded slightly, indicating the shiftblade still inches from his neck. "You're just going to kill me anyway."

  They all ducked as a loud boom echoed outside.

  Tom eyed Peter. "We don't have a lot of time here."

  A barely audible clicking signaled Peter's shiftblade folding back into the hilt. He slipped it back onto his belt and folded his arms across his chest. "You don't have a lot of options here, my friend, just like we don't have a lot of time, so I'll make it as simple as I can. You open the Portal to where I say and I'll let you live."

  A flicker of hope came across the man's face, but it vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. "That's a hell of a deal. You'll let me live long enough for the Captain to figure out that I helped you, and then I'm dead anyway."

  "Can you activate the Portal or not?"

  "Yes… I can. But once I do, Hook will know something is wrong. This place will be crawling with soldiers in a matter of minutes."

  "It doesn't matter," Wendy said, glancing back at her sister. "We're going home. Back to Earth."

  The guard followed her gaze, and seemed to see the small girl for the first time. "You want to go back? Why do you want to go back? No one ever goes back."

  Somewhere in the distance, something exploded, and a moment later the room shook slightly as a small shockwave pushed against it. Bits of glass shook loose from the window frames, clinking to the floor. Outside, Wendy could see several skiffs shooting past, wondering how Tim was managing to keep out of trouble.

  "Come on," Peter said, jerking his head to the computer terminals. "Hurry."

  Gentry got his feet and cautiously moved around to the controls.

  Peter keyed his radio. "Tim, you there?"

&
nbsp; Static buzzed and a second later, Tim said, "Yeah, I'm still here, holy crap, what the hell are you guys doing in there? This isn't exactly a leisure flight out here."

  "We're almost finished," Pan told him. "We should have the Portal open in a matter of minutes. You need to be heading this way, I'm not sure how much time we're going to have. The pad's clear."

  "You got it, boss. Be there in a few."

  Gentry tapped a series of commands into the computer. "I haven't had enough time to really learn the program, I'll need a minute to find the right sequence."

  "I'm afraid we don't have a minute," Irving said.

  Everyone looked to where he was hunkering down over one of Hook's men, one of their radios in his hand. He held it up. "He knows. They're coming."

  A rush of panic washed over Wendy. She couldn't give up now, not when she was so close. She slapped a hand down on the counter in front of Gentry. "Hurry!"

  Gentry pounded frantically on the keys. "I'm trying, I'm trying!"

  Tom crossed to the gaping hole separating Portal Control and the landing platform outside. "Tim, we're going to have company any second."

  "Almost there."

  "Okay, everyone to the platform," Peter said. "There's no way we can fight off a full-on attack here."

  "No!" Wendy screamed. They were so close. "We can't leave, we can't! We need to—"

  "Wendy, we can't stay here!"

  She couldn't stop the river of tears. "No, no, no, I promised! I promised him I'd get them home!" Carter put a hand on her shoulder and she brushed it away. She pressed herself into the counter, willing the computer to work. "Come on! You've got to hurry, please!"

  Gentry shook his head but didn't stop working. "Come on, come on, come on."

  Peter stepped close, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Wendy."

  A rage she hadn't felt sense her father had passed rose up within her. Her heart pounded in her ears and electricity flowed in her veins. The pain from her facial wounds forgotten, she stepped away, brushing his hand aside. "No, you go! We're staying. We're going home."

  Peter cursed her through gritted teeth and said, "I'm not going to leave yo—."

  A barrage of gunfire barked out, followed by a swarm of bullets tearing into the wall behind them. Sparks erupted from the monitors and electronics. Everyone ducked for cover.