B003J5UJ4U EBOK

by Lubar, David

The damage was bad, but Eddie was worth a thousand times more than all of the Roth-Bullani contracts. And Eddie would be under control soon. His inexperience made that inevitable.

  Bowdler placed a call to Santee. “I have four locations I know he’s visited beside the airport.” He read off the addresses.

  “I’ll have my men check taxi records. It’ll take some time.”

  “Use as many resources as necessary. Cost is not an issue. Has the Woo connection provided any cross-links?”

  “Too many. We’re sifting through it.”

  “Call me when you find them.”

  THE CALL CAME at seven-fifty that evening.

  “I’ve located the targets in an apartment above the Happy Dragon Family Restaurant,” Santee said. “We’re currently directly across the street from the building.”

  “On the sidewalk?”

  “Negative. I’m off the street.”

  “Do you have a van?”

  “Affirmative. Do you want me to extract them from the building?”

  “No. It would be best if you secured them in a less-populated area.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Hold your position. I think I can arrange for them to leave cover.”

  Bowdler looked at the bed where the boy was dozing. “Company’s coming, Dominic,” he said. “Let’s give your pal Eddie a call.”

  negotiation

  I WAITED UNTIL after the third ring, trying to calm my nerves. Then I flipped open the phone. “Eddie’s Wrecking Service.”

  The slight pause told me I’d scored a point.

  “You’ve caused a lot of trouble,” Bowdler said.

  “I can cause a lot more. Right now, you can probably still patch things up with those companies. Or find some new partners. But I’d be happy to wipe out the rest of your experiments. You’d never make another dime.”

  Instead of a reply from Bowdler, I heard a shout of pain. Then he said, “Do you recognize that voice?”

  I bit back the angry words I wanted to use. “Hurting him doesn’t get you anything.” I could feel sweat pouring down my back. I tried to keep my voice calm. “Let him go and all of this stops. You get to keep running your research scams. I get to go on with my life.”

  “We need to discuss this face to face. Go to Rittenhouse Square,” he said. “Call me when you get there and I’ll give you an address of a house where we can meet.”

  I didn’t like the way he gave in so easily. And I wasn’t going to play any of his super-spy games. “Not a chance. We’re meeting someplace open.”

  “The square is a bit too public for our purposes,” Bowdler said. “There’s a park nearby.”

  “Too many trees.”

  “So what would you suggest?”

  “Maybe a field.”

  “Now there’s a great idea,” he said, speaking to me like I was a child. “Do you think the Phillies would let us use their stadium?”

  “No. I meant a school field or something.”

  “In the city?”

  Playing dumb, I guided him along and, amazingly enough, he finally agreed to meet right where I wanted—at the ball field Cheater had found. I think Dad would have been proud if he’d heard me.

  I turned to the guys. “We’re meeting him at nine at the ball field behind the high school.” It was a small victory, but it gave me hope.

  Torchie glanced at his watch. Then he shook his hand like he was trying to fling water from his fingertips, and studied his watch again. “Darn. It isn’t working.”

  “Don’t worry about it. The cell phone shows the time.”

  “I got a new battery in it last month,” Torchie said. “It’s my favorite watch. It’s my only watch, but even if I had another, it would be my favorite.”

  I got up from the couch. “Forget the watch. It’s not important.”

  “Everything’s breaking,” Flinch said. “Your watch. The microwave. The kitchen radio. Nothing works. It’s like someone has the hidden talent to kill electronic stuff.”

  “Wait!” Cheater said. “Torchie, what time did your watch stop?”

  “How would I know that?” Torchie asked.

  Cheater grabbed Torchie’s wrist and looked at the watch. “That’s it. I’ll bet it stopped when we were at the lab. That thing you found. What did you say it was?”

  “There was a note,” Torchie said. “To Bowdler. From one of those companies. It said something about a sample of their new FME thing.” He went over to the table next to the couch and picked up the device.

  “Not FME,” Cheater said. He was so excited now he was almost hopping. “I knew that didn’t sound right. You got it backward. It’s an EMF gun. It fried your watch when Flinch pointed it at you. And you’ve been frying stuff with it for the last two days. This is awesome.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Electromagnet fields. An EMF pulse kills microprocessors,” Cheater said. “We can knock the disrupter right out.”

  “If that thing really works,” I said.

  Cheater took the device from Torchie, charged it, and pointed it at a digital clock on the corner table. Then he pressed the DISCHARGE button. The EMF gun let out a weak chirp.

  “It didn’t do anything,” I said.

  “It’s losing power,” Cheater said. “Maybe if I got closer.” He walked up to the clock and tried again from a foot away. This time the numbers on the clock all turned to eights, and then went dark.

  “Yup, it works,” Cheater said.

  “So we can knock out the disrupter,” Martin said. “This is great.”

  “If we can get close enough.” I didn’t think Bowdler would let us get too near him.

  “I got it,” Flinch said. “One of us has to go there first and walk past him. Someone he hasn’t seen.”

  Cheater pointed at Torchie. “It’s gotta be you. He’s seen the rest of us.”

  I didn’t like the idea. “Bowdler is going to be cautious. He knows there are five guys. Maybe he found a picture of Torchie. It’s too risky.”

  “But he wouldn’t be suspicious if it was a girl,” Flinch said.

  Martin and I protested at the same time. “No way,” he said.

  “We can’t send Livy,” I said.

  “Of course not,” Flinch said. “But we can send her clothes.” He looked at Torchie for a moment. “I think they’d fit you.”

  “What!” Torchie backed up a step and held his hands out, as if to push away Flinch and his ideas. “Not a chance. I’ll face Bowdler. I’ll face anyone I have to. But not in a dress.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a dress,” Flinch said. “A skirt would work fine.”

  “We’ll need a wig, too,” Cheater said. “They sell them on the corner.” He dashed off.

  Torchie looked at me, as if I’d help him find a way out. All I could do was shrug. “Hey, sometimes you just have to take one for the team.”

  Cheater returned with a blond wig and tossed it to Torchie, who stared at it like he’d just been handed a warm pile of intestines. “I’ll get a skirt from Livy,” Cheater said.

  “I’ll ask her for it,” Martin said. He dashed out the door and down the hall. We all crowded around the door to watch. I think he was halfway there before he realized how ridiculous a request he was about to make. Of course, by then it was too late because, somehow, he stumbled and ended up running into her door. I almost felt bad when I saw how hard he hit it. Maybe I should give him a break.

  When Livy opened the door, Martin said, “Can we borrow a skirt?”

  There was dead silence for a moment. Then Martin blurted out, “It’s not for me. It’s for Torchie.”

  “For Torchie?”

  There was this pause. I could almost hear Martin’s brain spinning desperately in search of an explanation. “He’s part Scottish,” he blurted out. “There’s this parade tonight. He forgot his kilt.”

  “Oh, that explains everything.” Livy laughed and disappeared inside her apartment. She reappeared at the door a
minute later and handed a plaid skirt to Martin. “Have fun.”

  “Thanks.” Martin came back, tossed the skirt to Torchie, then looked over at me. “She definitely likes me.”

  Grumbling, Torchie took the skirt and wig and went to change. “I hate to say it,” Flinch said when he came back out of the bedroom, “but you’d make a cute girl.”

  “Then don’t say it.” A wisp of smoke curled up from the hem of the skirt. It was a good thing the material wasn’t one of those synthetic things that burn real easily. Torchie slapped the fire out and walked over to the window, turning his back onus.

  “Cute and hot,” Martin said.

  “I wish you guys would stop making fun of me,” Torchie said.

  “I’m sorry.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Relax. We don’t want anything catching fire.” I pointed to the roof of the building across the street where a small flame flickered. “Like that.”

  He nodded, then squinted his eyes. The fire went out. I checked the time on the cell phone. It was getting close to nine. “We’d better get going.”

  As we left the building and crossed the street, Cheater sniffed the air. “You guys smell smoke?”

  I sniffed. There was definitely something burning somewhere. “Probably from before,” I said. Then a flicker of light caught my eye from above. “Oh no …” It looked like there was a fire in the building in front of us—the one Cheater had told me about.

  “Fireworks …” Cheater said.

  FWOOMP!

  The night lit up. A rocket shot through the window and slithered into the sky. A zillion others chased after it. Firecrackers exploded and bottle rockets whistled.

  “Put it out,” I yelled to Torchie.

  A man came screaming through the door of the building, his clothes blazing. He rushed down the steps. Two more burning men followed right behind him. All three were wearing dark blue suits. They ran right past us, pushing between Cheater and Martin. One of them pulled a cell phone from his pocket, but then flung it away when the fire spread to his sleeve. As they turned and raced toward a van parked at the curb, howling and slapping at themselves, the fire on their clothes went out. Torchie must have doused it.

  “We have to help them,” Torchie said.

  “I don’t think so,” Cheater said.

  “It might be better if we didn’t,” Martin said. “They’re the bad guys.”

  The van squealed away from the curb, bounced off a couple cars parked across the street, and blew through a red light. Headed for the hospital, I guess. Torchie turned back to the building. The fire in the window dimmed and died.

  I heard sirens in the distance. “We’d better go.”

  “I feel awful,” Torchie said as we walked away.

  “Don’t,” I said. “They probably did a lot worse to a lot of people.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they did,” Torchie said. “It matters what I did. I’m a bad person.”

  “Hey,” Martin said, “that just proves you’re a good person. A bad person wouldn’t feel anything.”

  “You think so?” Torchie asked, wiping a smudge of soot from his nose.

  “Absolutely,” Martin said.

  “Besides,” Flinch said, “I think you just saved us from a very bad experience. Now let’s go give Bowdler a bad experience of his own.”

  THREE TIMES ON the way to the school, Cheater stopped and looked over his shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I think someone’s following us.”

  “Yeah,” Flinch whispered to me. “It’s Livy. She wants her skirt back.”

  I looked over my shoulder. There was nothing but shadows. I pointed at the school. “I’m more worried about what’s ahead of us.”

  As we walked around the side of the school, I imagined coming face to face with a dozen guys in dark blue suits.

  “I wish you could sense people from a distance,” I told Cheater.

  “That would be nice,” Flinch said. “Bowdler could have fifty guys with him.”

  “I don’t think so,” Martin said. “From what I’ve seen inside that twisted mind of his, I think he’s going to be by himself. He can’t imagine that he’d have any trouble with us. He has a disrupter. He probably has a gun or something. For all he knows, the bad guys back there caught us. He’s too full of himself to bring along help. He’s used to people following his orders. And there’s no way he’s going to let anyone see him negotiating with a bunch of kids.”

  “Let’s hope so.” I turned to Torchie. “I guess you’re on.”

  elsewhere …

  BOWDLER KNEW THAT for most people, there might seem to be little point going to the schoolyard. Santee would have the five boys secured before they got this far. But Bowdler believed in covering every possible outcome. If, by some unthinkable circumstance, Santee failed, then this is where Bowdler would need to be. This sort of careful planning was why he was destined to succeed.

  He definitely wanted Eddie back. And he wanted the Grieg kid. That would be useful. Fire from a distance. It wasn’t as universal as telekinesis, but it still had powerful potential. Dobbs didn’t seem to have much value. Unless he could be made to see farther into the future. It might be worth an experiment or two. Maybe try some extreme threats. But this one—Bowdler looked at him with disdain—he wasn’t worth anything.

  The mind reader would be valuable. The Anderson kid might be useful, too. Though he looked like he’d be the toughest to break.

  But that was all in the future. Right now, he had to stay focused on the present. They’d be here any moment. And then they’d be his.

  “Sparkie!”

  Bowdler spun to his right and reached automatically into his pocket. A girl was running across the field toward them.

  “Sparkie! Here, boy!”

  She ran right up to him. She was so close, he could almost count the freckles on her face.

  “Have you seen my dog?”

  “No.”

  “You sure? His name’s ‘Sparkie.’ ”

  “If he ran away, he’s probably dead by now.”

  “You’re mean.” She let out a loud whistle, then turned and ran off.

  As she disappeared around the school, Bowdler pulled his hand from his pocket. He wouldn’t need any weapons tonight.

  showdown

  “OKAY, I DID it,” Torchie said when he got back to us. “Now give me my pants.”

  “What pants?” Martin asked.

  “You had my pants,” Torchie said.

  Martin shrugged. He looked at Cheater. Cheater shrugged.

  “Knock it off and give him his pants.” I liked kidding Torchie as much as anyone else, but it would be beyond cruel to leave him in a skirt.

  Flinch handed over the pants. Torchie pulled them on under the skirt, then slipped the skirt off.

  “Are you sure you got close enough?” I asked.

  “I hope so,” Torchie said.

  We’d find out soon enough. When we reached the back of the school, I saw two people standing near the bleachers at the opposite side of the ball field. Even from a distance, I could tell it was Bowdler and Lucky. The field lights were off, but the back of the school was lit up enough so we weren’t in total darkness.

  When we were about ten yards away from Bowdler, I reached out and plucked some grass at his feet to test my powers. It worked. The disrupter was disabled. Bowdler was at my mercy. I could rip his heart out right now, and we could all walk away.

  “You got your power?” Martin whispered.

  I nodded.

  “Take him out.”

  Bowdler walked toward us with Lucky in front of him. Bowdler’s hands gripped Lucky’s shoulders, as if he was steering him. He stopped a couple of yards from me.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  Lucky’s eyes seemed foggy, but he nodded.

  “It’s over,” I said. “Let him go.”

  I plucked a button from Bowdler’s jacket, just to let him know he’d lost. I couldn’t
wait to see the look of fear on his face when he realized he didn’t have any way to stop me.

  “Very clever,” Bowdler said. He didn’t seem ready to accept defeat. I guess an ego that large needs time to react—sort of like a super tanker.

  I plucked a second button from his jacket, floated it up in the air, then bounced it off his forehead.

  He didn’t even blink. “You’re quite a smart boy, Eddie.” He took his right hand off Lucky’s shoulder.

  I plucked the last button and chucked it toward the school.

  Bowdler took his left hand off Lucky’s shoulder. “It looks like you’ve outsmarted me. Sadly for you, looks are deceiving.”

  He draped his hands back over Lucky’s shoulders. I was ready to react if he had a gun. My stomach tightened as I saw what he was holding. In one fist, he had a hand grenade. In the other, he had the pin. He tossed the pin to the side, and then laughed.

  “Here’s the thing,” Bowdler said. “With a normal grenade, you’ve got five seconds. Plenty of time for you to deal with it. Of course, I’d be a fool to bring a normal grenade. I’ve got the detonator rigged to explode the instant I let go. You can pull it away as fast as you want, but I don’t think you can pull it away fast enough to keep from getting turned into Swiss cheese by the shrapnel. Remember, I am the world’s greatest, and only, expert on the limits of your powers. I don’t think you’re fast enough. Want to find out?”

  “You’re crazy.”

  He slipped the hand with the grenade inside the neck of Lucky’s shirt. “Oh, look. It just got even tougher. Maybe you had a slight chance before. But you really can’t pull it away fast enough now.”

  “You’d die, too,” I said.

  He shrugged. “We’d all die. You, me, your parents. Your friends’ parents.”

  “What?” I felt the whole meeting was spinning out of control. We’d already won. How could we be losing now?

  “If I don’t make a phone call in fifteen minutes, a chain of events will be set in motion, ending with quite a few tragic accidents.”

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “You. I want to finish what I started. I want to turn you into the perfect weapon. Of course, I’ll need you to take your medicine again, just for the ride back. Happily, I brought a bottle of it with me. Unwatered, of course.”