3

by James Phelan

  He heard it. And felt it.

  KLAP-BOOM!

  The force of the explosion sent a shock wave of air rushing over them as they ran.

  A new sound followed.

  Sam looked over his shoulder.

  The water tank closest to the gas tanks shattered—and began a chain reaction as the pressure was suddenly released and the broken concrete from one tank slammed out at its neighbour, each tank doing the same as the weight of the water inside broke through the cracks.

  BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

  A wall of water came rushing behind Sam and Eva as they ran across the bridge.

  Sam remembered Alex’s dream—and his warning.

  A tsunami.

  37

  EVA

  “I always wanted to see Australia,” Eva said, swatting away some flies.

  “Me too,” Sam said.

  They’d hidden among some rocks, a few kilometres west of the government installation and now dawn had broken. Neither had slept. Instead, they’d talked in hushed tones about what they’d seen and heard since they were last together. They waited quietly, listening for any guards who might be searching for them. Around them there was only the vast empty landscape of desert scrub.

  “Hey, you haven’t told me,” Eva said, “What’d you find on that island up north?”

  “A cool local guy named Malcolm. He’d seen us in his dreams.”

  “He’s a Dreamer too?” Eva asked. “Wait. I saw him in my dream, when I first saw all this.”

  “Nice. He showed me a sacred place,” Sam said. “There was a tunnel that led under the rock of the island, to a sacred cavern.”

  “What was in there?” Eva asked.

  “It was a crystal chamber, like the one I saw in Japan with Issey. A chamber used to read dreamwaves via the energy they produce. The early Australians must have known about it too and they kept it a secret until the time was right.”

  “What time?”

  “Our time—the time of the last 13. A time when people would know what to do with it. I mean, what would they say to the world? That they found a machine buried deep under a rock in the middle of an island, built tens of thousands of years before we could even imagine machines like that?”

  “Machines? You’re saying this crystal chamber was a machine?”

  “In a sense. It’s a dream machine.”

  “And how does it work?” Eva asked.

  “We turn it on, it affects the Dreamspace. Malcolm said there was a big room like it under Uluru, that when activated will start up a new Dreamtime on this continent. It’ll help transform the world. I think that’s what we’re getting toward, at the end of all this.”

  “Do you think there’s another machine at the Dream Gate?”

  “I think that whatever it is, it’ll lead to answers, about who built these chambers, how they built them, for what purpose, and why they’ve been forgotten all through time but for a few Dreamers.”

  “So we have to go in there, and switch this machine on?”

  “That was my dream.”

  “But we have the next Gear, and I think that’s what really matters now,” Eva said, shielding her eyes from the sun. “We can come back later.”

  Sam had a pained look as he looked around the landscape.

  “We’re splitting up again,” Eva said. “Aren’t we?”

  Sam nodded.

  “You want to stay, to see what this machine will do?”

  “I have to.”

  “Because some old guy told you to?”

  “No, because I’m following my dream,” Sam said. He took Eva’s hands in his. She held back tears. “You go back to the Academy—first flight you can. You have your passport, plenty of money. Get that Gear back to London. Stay there, with the others.”

  “And you?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  A little mob of rock wallabies bounced by them, making Eva laugh.

  I can’t help but think we should stay together.

  “I’m sick of losing people I care about,” she said.

  “You’re not losing me,” Sam said with a smile. “Besides, if I don’t do this, who knows what will happen?”

  “Who knows what will happen if you do? This machine has been abandoned all this time for a reason.”

  Sam hugged Eva and then pointed to a dirt track.

  “About five kilometres. You take the last of the water. Find a tour group and join them, they’ll take you back to Alice Springs, and from there you can get home.”

  “Home …”

  “The Academy. That’s your home now.”

  “And where’s yours, Sam?”

  Sam looked at the Rock, the pull of the place, the specialness, tugging at him, calling him.

  Can’t he just stay with me, by my side, for these final couple of steps of the race?

  “Right now, it’s here,” he said, “until I dream otherwise.”

  Suddenly the sound of a helicopter broke the still morning air.

  Sam looked up and saw a familiar shape.

  “It’s Henk!” Sam said. “The guy that flew me in.”

  The helicopter spotted them and touched down. They could see that Henk was not alone.

  Jabari was with him. He got out and ran over to them.

  “I’m so glad you two are OK!” he said.

  Eva hugged him.

  “You got the Gear?” he asked.

  “Here,” Eva said, showing him the tiny double-disc Gear around her neck.

  “I’ve got news,” Jabari said. “Lora and Xavier are alive—they got out with Dr. Dark. They even managed to blow the Chernobyl-2 site. The charges were laid just in time …”

  “So it’s offline?” Sam asked.

  “Offline forever,” Jabari said.

  “What did you mean ‘just in time’?” Eva asked.

  “There were … casualties,” Jabari said. “I—I may be one of only a few of my kind left now.”

  “No!” Eva gasped. “I’m so sorry.”

  “And there is more bad news, I’m afraid,” Jabari added.

  “What is it?” Sam asked.

  “It’s Alex,” Jabari said, his voice grave. “We’ve lost him. Last we heard, he was hiking with Hans. But a few hours ago, a severe snowstorm hit Antarctica and now we can’t reach him.”

  “How …” Eva’s voice trailed off—but not because she’d lost her train of thought, but because she was falling to the ground. She reached up and touched the dart sticking in her neck.

  In her last moments, she saw movement flickering in the heat haze—several figures appeared out of nowhere, their Stealth Suits becoming visible again. She turned her head just in time to see Sam and Jabari collapsing under a hailstorm of darts.

  Be sure to read the next thrilling adventure in The Last Thirteen series:

  01

  ALEX’S NIGHTMARE

  A cursor blinks on the dark screen, bright, flashing. My breath fogs in front of me and I shiver again in the darkness.

  “What does it mean?” a voice asks.

  I turn away from the computer screen.

  Sam stands before me. He’s dressed in heavy snow gear, like he’s just come through a blizzard. There’s a shovel in his hands. He’s heaving in deep breaths, like he had to dig his way through endless thick snow to get here.

  “Alex,” Sam says, “what are you doing? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  “Why?”

  “The weather’s changing fast. There’s a superstorm coming in, some kind of polar vortex thing. We have to go—now.”

  “But we haven’t got what we came for.”

  “We’ll come back tomorrow,” Sam says. “We’re already a bit snowed in. We’re going to have to dig ourselves out. Come on, move!”

  I look from Sam to the computer. The cursor still blinks rhythmically as the file downloads. The screen shows the download is thirty-three per cent complete.

  I shrug. “I’ll stay behind. Come get me tomorrow.�
�� I don’t look at Sam, I just keep watching the computer. The file I am waiting for is a map of the area, detailed, showing the geography of the vast region. The download via satellite is slow.

  Thirty-four per cent.

  Thirty-five per cent.

  “Alex, you’ll freeze out here—”

  “I’ll be fine, Sam, really. You go. I’ll stay and do this.”

  Sam is silent.

  I sigh and turn around, expecting him to still be standing over me, ready to argue, but he’s gone.

  “Sam?”

  I get up from the chair to follow him. “Sam?” I call out again. “Sam!”

  Outside the communications room, I walk down a hall that wraps around in a gentle curve. I find Sam standing by the outside doors with his back to me. He’s motionless, facing the doors like he’s waiting for something.

  “Sam?” I approach him. “Are … are you OK?”

  There’s no answer.

  “Sam?”

  He swings around, and before I can say anything more, he hits the side of my head with the shovel.

  I wake up with a throbbing headache. It feels like my whole face is swollen and on fire. I wince and that makes the pain in my head even worse. I realize everything is moving, ever so slightly, back and forth. And I realize something else—something’s not right about what I can see …

  The world is upside down.

  I’m looking at the computer terminal but it’s the wrong way up.

  I can feel my ankles are tied together. I can see my wrists are too, dangling uselessly out in front of me. Looking down—up—at my feet, I see the rope around my ankles is lashed over a big hook in the ceiling.

  I’m hanging from my feet upside down, trussed up like a carcass in a cool room.

  Sam comes in.

  “Sam!” I say. “What a relief! Help me down from here.”

  Sam stops next to an old wooden chair. I struggle to recall what happened.

  I was working at the computer, downloading something … Sam came in and said we had to go and then … then what?

  My head throbs as Sam begins to drag the chair across the hard concrete floor, the sharp screeching noise knifing into my skull.

  The sound stops abruptly, and I wonder why Sam is now in the middle of the room and not next to me, helping me down.

  Isn’t he dragging the chair over to stand on and cut me free?

  He sits down, facing me.

  Wha—?

  I look at him. We are face to face, not far apart, only I am still upside down.

  “Alex,” Sam says, “this is really simple.”

  “Sam—what’s going on? Why am I tied up?”

  “All you have to do is tell me the location.” Sam’s voice is slow and deliberate.

  “The location?” I start to panic. “Of what?”

  “Yes. The location.” Sam smiles. “Tell me where the Gear is. Tell me that and we dig our way out of here, together. OK? It really is that simple. Tell me where your Gear is, and we’re out of here.”

  “I—I don’t know … wait, my Gear?”

  “Tell me where it is.”

  “But I don’t—”

  “Alex, this is important. Don’t waste any more time.”

  What’s happening?

  “Sam—help me down. This isn’t funny, man!”

  Sam shakes his head slowly and looks disappointed.

  “Sam? What the—? What’s going on?”

  “You tell me,” he says.

  “Get me down from here,” I say through clenched teeth.

  “Why would I help you?” Sam replies calmly. “You’re not helping me.”

  “You have to … wait—what did you say?”

  “I need answers, Alex. Tell me where the Gear is.”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Of course you do. You found it. Tell me.”

  “I—I didn’t! I’ve never found a Gear!” I struggle against the binds, swaying under the hook that has me hung from the ceiling. “Stop fooling around, Sam! Get me down from here right now, or so help me, when I do get down …” The blood is pounding in my ears, my head feels heavy, my skin flushed and hot from hanging upside down.

  “When you tell me where—” Sam says evenly.

  “I DON’T KNOW!” I scream. “Why are you doing this?! You’re supposed to be my friend!”

  “No,” Sam says in a quiet voice, leaning forward. “You’re supposed to be my friend. It’s you who’s been at the Enterprise all this time, while I was out doing all the hard work. You who has been sailing around in luxury, doing nothing, while I’ve been risking my life. It’s you who sided with Hans to get the Gear—for him. You’re a traitor, Alex. You’re working with the enemy. So you can be there at the end? So whatever is beyond the Dream Gate belongs to you, is that it?”

  “You’re wrong! Get me down!”

  “Have you been with Hans all this time, down here in Antarctica?”

  “Yeah, but …”

  “But what? Wait, let me guess—you were just down here sightseeing?” Sam paces around the room. “Look, Alex, I know you found it. You found the Gear, and you hoped the rest of us would be killed coming to help you, so that you could be there, on your own, at the Gate.”

  “What? Sam, you’re acting crazy. What’s with you, man? You know I’d never—”

  Sam stops pacing and turns sharply on his heel to face me, eyes fierce. “Tell me where it is, and this can end, OK?”

  A muffled explosion sounds from outside, in the distance. Dust drifts down from the ceiling.

  “That’d be your friend, Hans,” Sam says. “Tick-tock, Alex, we don’t have much time.”

  “No—he’s not my—I was only with Hans to get this done. To find out what he knows, to help us win.”

  Sam is silent. I struggle against my wrist binds, the movement rocking me from side to side as I hang there, like a pendulum in motion.

  “You’re the enemy, Alex, when you act like this,” Sam says. “Think back. Think back to when you came to Antarctica, wandering across the ice and you found a way into the complex and you found the Gear.”

  “I, I was …” I concentrate.

  Faded memories start to swim around my aching head.

  I did find it.

  “Fire,” I whisper, “so much fire. But deep, under a mountain. It’s so hot …”

  “Good,” he says, taking a step toward me. “Tell me where you found it. Start there, everything that happened, right up until you got it.”

  Something’s not right. Why’s he doing this?

  How did I end up here? The shovel! It was HIM!

  “I—I can’t tell you, Sam,” I force myself to say. My eyes widen as the dread fills me, overwhelming me. “All I know is … we don’t make it, Sam.”

  At the end, there’s only—

  Darkness.

  About the Author

  James Phelan started writing his first novel while in high school. He now divides his time between writing thrillers and books for teens.

  jamesphelan.com.au

  Scholastic Canada Ltd.

  604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada

  Scholastic Inc.

  557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, USA

  Scholastic Australia Pty Limited

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  Scholastic New Zealand Limited

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  Scholastic Children’s Books

  Euston House, 24 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1DB, UK

  www.scholastic.ca

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Phelan, James, 1979-, author

  3 / James Phelan.

  (The last thirteen ; book 11)

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4431-3395-1 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4431-3396-8 (html)

  I. Title. II. Title: Three. III. Series: Phelan, James, 1979-.

  Last thirte
en ; bk. 11.

  PZ7.P52Thr 2014 j823’.92 C2014-901816-9

  C2014-901817-7

  First published by Scholastic Australia in 2014.

  This edition published by Scholastic Canada Ltd. in 2014.

  Text copyright © 2014 by James Phelan.

  Illustrations & design copyright © 2014 by Scholastic Australia.

  Illustrations by Chad Mitchell.

  Design by Nicole Stofberg.

  Cover photography: Blueprint © istockphoto.com/Adam Korzekwa; Parkour Tic-Tac © istockphoto.com/Willie B. Thomas; Climbing wall © istockphoto.com/microgen; Leonardo da Vinci (Sepia) © istockphoto.com/pictore; Gears © istockphoto.com/-Oxford-; Mechanical blueprint © istockphoto.com/teekid; Circuit board © istockphoto.com/Björn Meyer; Map © istockphoto.com/alengo; Grunge drawing © istockphoto.com/aleksandar velasevic; World map © istockphoto.com/Maksim Pasko; Internet © istockphoto.com/Andrey Prokhorov; Inside clock © istockphoto.com/LdF; Space galaxy © istockphoto.com/Sergii Tsololo; Sunset © istockphoto.com/Joakim Leroy; Blue flare © istockphoto.com/YouraPechkin; Global communication © istockphoto.com/chadive samanthakamani; Earth satellites © istockphoto.com/Alexey Popov; Girl portrait © istockphoto.com/peter zelei; Student & board © istockphoto.com/zhang bo; Young man serious © istockphoto.com/Jacob Wackerhausen; Portrait man © istockphoto.com/Alina Solovyova-Vincent; Sad expression © istockphoto.com/Shelly Perry; Content man © istockphoto.com/drbimages; Pensive man © istockphoto.com/Chuck Schmidt; Black and pink © istockphoto.com/blackwaterimages; Punk Girl © istockphoto.com/Kuzma; Woman escaping © Jose antonio Sanchez reyes/Photos.com; Young running man © Tatiana Belova/Photos.com; Gears clock © Jupiterimages/Photos.com; Woman portrait © Nuzza/Shutterstock.com; Explosions © Leigh Prather/Dreamstime.com; Landscape blueprints © Firebrandphotography/Dreamstime.com; Jump over wall © Ammentorp/Dreamstime.com; Mountains, CAN © Akadiusz Iwanicki/Dreamstime.com; Sphinx Bucegi © Adrian Nicolae/Dreamstime.com; Big mountains © Hoptrop/Dreamstime.com; Sunset mountains © Pklimenko/Dreamstime.com; Mountains lake © Jan Mika/Dreamstime.com; Blue night sky © Mack2happy/Dreamstime.com; Old writing © Empire331/Dreamstime.com; Young man © Shuen Ho Wang/Dreamstime.com; Abstract cells © Sur/Dreamstime.com; Helicopter © Evren Kalinbacak/Dreamstime.com; Airplane © Rgbe/Dreamstime.com; Phrenology illustration © Mcarrel/Dreamstime.com; Abstract interior © Sur/Dreamstime.com; Papyrus © Cebreros/Dreamstime.com; Blue shades © Mohamed Osama/Dreamstime.com; Blue background © Matusciac/Dreamstime.com; Sphinx and Pyramid © Dan Breckwoldt/Dreamstime.com; Blue background2 © Cammeraydave/Dreamstime.com; Abstract shapes © Lisa Mckown/Dreamstime.com; Yellow Field © Simon Greig/Dreamstime.com; Blue background3 © Sergey Skrebnev/Dreamstime.com; Blue eye © Richard Thomas/Dreamstime.com; Abstract landscape © Crazy80frog/Dreamstime.com; Rameses II © Jose I. Soto/Dreamstime.com; Helicopter © Sculpies/Dreamstime.com; Vitruvian man © Cornelius20/Dreamstime.com; Scarab beetle © Charon/Dreamstime.com; Eye of Horus © Charon/Dreamstime.com; Handsome male portrait © DigitalHand Studio/Shutterstock.com; Teen girl © CREATISTA/Shutterstock.com; Somewhere © istockphoto.com/TimothyBall; Australian landscape © istockphoto.com/sara_winter; Left turn in the Outback © Oskarwells/Dreamstime.com; Devils Marbles outback Australia granite boulders © Dirk Ercken/Dreamstime.com; Red track in the Outback © Csld/Dreamstime.com; Australian Outback Eucalyptus and Outbuildings © Travelling-light/Dreamstime.com; Wild nature in the Australian Outback © Ladiras81/Dreamstime.com; Off road car on rough road © Uros Ravbar/Dreamstime.com; Sydney © Steve Mann/Dreamstime.com; Sydney © Warren Gibb/Dreamstime.com; Sydney skyline © Andrew Chambers/Dreamstime.com; Sydney skyline © Cenk Unver/Dreamstime.com; Sydney © Explorer Media Pty Ltd Sport The Library/Dreamstime.com; Captain Cook’s ship © Ben Mcleish/Dreamstime.com; Night of Christchurch © Liwen Zhang/Dreamstime.com; Christchurch Art Gallery © Matthew Weinel/Dreamstime.com; Christchurch city scene © Intodune/Dreamstime.com; Christchurch city scene 2 © Intodune/Dreamstime.com; Christchurch gondola top station © Serget/Dreamstime.com; Captain Cook © istockphoto.com/GeorgiosArt; Ancient map and compass ©Dreamstime.com/travellinglight; Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific © istockphoto.com/kensorrie; Historic Anasazi petroglyphs © istockphoto.com/Pi-Lens; Petroglyph of man © istockphoto.com/Lokibaho; Changing colors of Uluru © Matthew Weinel/Dreamstime.com; Uluru © Mazzel1986/Dreamstime.com.