“This is the end of the story for you, my tragic trinity,” he hissed.
I pulled myself to my feet, rubbing the back of my head. I didn’t think anything was broken, but my neck and back throbbed with pain.
“What’s a trinity?” asked Akiko as Mae helped pull her to her feet. “I’ve never heard that word before.”
“You know,” I said hurriedly, my eyes on the Hisser writhing before us. “Anything that comes in threes. Like if Hauntima, Hopscotch, and Nova the Sunchaser all fought bad guys together, as a team.”
“Or Zenobia, the Palomino, and that wolfy sidekick the Palomino had, Star,” Mae added.
“I forgot the Palomino had a dog,” Akiko grunted in reply. “I like trinities.”
Before we had time to say anything more, the Hisser flicked his dangerous rattlesnake tail and slammed it into the building just above our heads. Wood and bricks exploded into the air, then crashed down around us.
“Say your goodbyes, girlies.” He laughed, his voice hitting us like a punch. Again we staggered backward from the force of it. “Because this battle is for grown-ups only!”
I picked up bricks in each hand as Akiko and Mae pulled themselves upright again. They came to stand on either side of me, holding bricks of their own. And while staring at the Hisser’s slimy, slithering form made my knees want to buckle, I felt stronger knowing Mae and Akiko were beside me.
Hurling the bricks at the Hisser’s dangerous, deadly form, I began to like the sound of “trinity” now too.
Thirty-Five
AKIKO WAS AN ORANGE BLUR as she soared into the air and circled Kay’s building, sizing up our battle scene. “About twenty or so men,” she called. “Maybe more.” Before long she joined Mae on the Moore School’s rooftop. Mae stood stock-still and again focused her powers on reading the Hisser’s mind.
“He’s thinking about breaking windows, maybe starting a fire,” Mae shouted as she read the oversize worm’s evil intentions. Akiko flung fireballs at his henchmen in the street. I saw the Duke duck for cover behind what looked a lot like an unmarked police wagon—long and brown with wooden sides—barely escaping one of her flaming strikes. And I caught sight of Harry Sawyer crawling behind the bumper of the Duke’s curvy sedan across the street, his fedora smoking from a near miss.
Anger flared inside me at the thought of Harry’s betrayal. While Akiko, Mae, and I were focused on Ursula, Harry had been one of the Duke’s spies all along.
I turned away from Harry and spotted more men crouching low behind nearby cars, avoiding Akiko’s fiery wrath and awaiting directions from their slimy boss, the Hisser himself. The number surprised me—the Hisser’s nest of spies was bigger than I’d first imagined.
How could the three of us beat them?
There was no time to doubt myself. As we’d done with the Carson Building fire and the battle at the naval shipyard, we just had to step up and do the best we could. With Akiko and Mae busy on the rooftop, it was my turn to act—and fast. So I summoned all the strength I could muster, and I whispered into the night two of the most powerful words I could think of just then:
“I can.”
Scrambling around for something to slow the Hisser down, I picked up a park bench that stood beside a lamppost. With all my might, I hurled it through the air at the hideous snake. “This is the end of you and your evil, Hisser!” I shouted. Then I saw a trash can, and I heaved that at him too. I passed two bicycles leaning near the bakery, and I flung them at his menacing shape.
They bumped against the Hisser’s slimy scales and crashed to the ground.
“You’re like a mosquito,” he taunted, his laugh terrifying. “I hardly felt that!”
And as if to put me in my place, his deadly split tongue shot from his mouth and slammed me backward into the lamppost. My head rang like a telephone, but I had to shake it off. I stood up again and got my bearings.
“He’s going to keep you busy in the street,” shouted Mae from the rooftop, again reading the Hisser’s thoughts, “so that the Duke and the other spies can slip inside!”
I dodged another swipe from the Hisser’s forked tongue, making sure to avoid his dangerous hypnotic stare as well, and I took off toward Kay’s door before the spies could get there. But movement to the right of me caught my attention. It was a group of what looked to be four college kids, laughing and talking as they passed down the street. At first they seemed oblivious to our battle, but then one of them caught sight of the Hisser’s grotesque snake form, and he screamed.
“Too bad for you.” The Hisser laughed, his venomous head bobbing and fangs glistening in the moonlight. “You’re in the wrong place at just the right time!”
And he lunged at them.
I couldn’t bear to watch innocent people get caught in the Hisser’s deadly game. So at the same moment that the Hisser lunged, I dove for the college students too.
With a sweep of my arms, I scooped up all four of them under their armpits and carried them halfway down the block. I dropped them safely in the grass, but as I let go, my left arm burned with pain.
“You’re bleeding,” called one of the students as I took to the sky again. “Hey, caped kid, are you all right?”
Flying back toward Kay’s building, I touched my left shoulder and saw blood. One of the Hisser’s razor-sharp fangs must have sliced my skin. Even if I had a way to bandage the wound, there was no time to fuss with it now. I’d have to remember to tell Mae and Akiko that our costumes didn’t make us invincible.
They just made us think we were.
Back at the corner now, I hovered in the air and saw the Hisser make a go for the Moore School’s front door. He bashed at it with his tail, bricks shattering into the air with every hit. The Duke, with his shiny monocle over one eye, stood laughing behind him, signaling for the rest of his spy conspirators to scurry into the building. Like a pack of rats, they emerged from their hiding spots and darted across the street.
I had to stop them from getting to Kay and the other computers. What would happen if they destroyed Project PX? Or stole it for the Nazis? And what would they do to my cousin and the other women if they caught them? Pressing on my bleeding shoulder and feeling the pain shoot through my arm, I didn’t have to try hard to imagine how the Hisser would handle them.
“Knock, knock,” the Hisser boomed, his earsplitting voice bursting the glass in the Moore School’s windows. “Guess who’s here.”
Flying above the street, I looked around for a way to block his advance. With silent feet, I landed just behind him. Even though rage simmered inside me at the thought of Emmett kidnapped and Kay threatened, I tried not to act from anger. I wasn’t after revenge. What I wanted more than anything was to protect Kay and Emmett—and the other puzzlers and computers.
And if I kept this secret project from falling into the wrong hands, maybe that would protect us all.
“Don’t hesitate,” came a voice hovering in the air beside me. “He may seem more powerful than you, but don’t lose heart!”
It was Hauntima’s ghost, fainter than ever but back again to guide us!
“I can smell victory,” the Hisser boomed. “These caped crybabies are nothing more than gnats to me! But luckily, I come with a fly swatter!” And lifting his rattlesnake tail, he whipped it to the ground. The sidewalk crumbled under the force of it.
My throat went dry as a dustrag.
But Hauntima’s silvery form was unfazed as she swept toward the curvy sedan parked near us. “Use your gifts and defeat this villain,” she urged. “Hauntima wills it!”
The Hisser noticed Hauntima’s ghost, and he issued a deafening laugh that burst the domed glass of the streetlights and made my head throb with pain.
“A ghostly superhero,” he howled. “Where are the real ones? Like good old Hopscotch and the Stretcher and the rest? All tied up, I suspect?”
His scaly form was coiled in the middle of the street now, as his flat, deadly head bobbed back and forth, beady eyes studying Haunt
ima’s vapory shape.
Now was my time to act. I wrapped my hands beneath the back bumper of the car. And with all my strength, I lifted it high into the air, balancing the silver-grilled front in both my hands.
“Look at her,” shrieked one of the Duke’s men to my left. “That green kid’s lifting a car! Like Super—”
“Like the great Zenobia,” hollered Mae, who swooped down from the rooftop and landed beside me.
“And Hauntima herself,” added Akiko with a sneeze. Ah-choo! And suddenly the Duke’s fedora crackled with sparks. “Not to mention Hopscotch and plenty of others.”
“No, not Hopscotch,” corrected Mae. “She doesn’t have superpowers. She’s just got great fighting skills along with that mask that keeps her secret. You mean Nova the Sunchaser.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Akiko said with annoyance. “Again.”
“And there’s Miss Smash and the Rebelle in Red,” continued Mae. “They have great costumes but not superstrength like the others.”
“Okay already,” snapped Akiko. “You’re right. You’re right! It’s kind of getting annoying!”
“I am not trying to be annoying,” Mae told Akiko. “I am trying to be accurate.”
I didn’t have time to jump into their latest argument. With the shiny car balanced above my head, I tottered closer toward the Hisser. And using all the strength I could muster—and with searing pain shooting through my left shoulder—I heaved the car forward. It landed on the Hisser’s deadly tail with a devastating thud.
“Should we save Harry while the Hisser’s distracted?” called Akiko in a hushed voice. “I can transform into a net and snatch him to safety.”
“Or I can try to make it snow on him,” offered Mae, “maybe make him too cold to join with the bad guys.”
I could barely choke out the words. “Leave him.”
Akiko and Mae shook their heads like they didn’t understand.
“Just trust me on this one, okay?” I said, trying to be heard despite the Hisser’s furious shrieking. It shattered the windows of every car around us.
“Trust you?” echoed Mae, and her gaze was steady and knowing.
“What do you mean?” pressed Akiko. “We thought Harry Sawyer was your friend. I’m confused.”
“He acted like my friend,” I said, my heart squeezing at the thought of his betrayal. “It’s so hard to admit how wrong I was. But I have to tell you:
“Harry is one of them, one of the bad guys.”
Akiko looked stunned. Mae seemed sad.
“I should have told you sooner,” I said, desperate to get into the building and save Kay. “But it’s not easy to admit to you both that I’d been such a fool. Sometimes telling the truth, knowing I’m going to let somebody down . . . It’s too hard.
“I’m sorry.”
“What about Ursula?” whispered Akiko. “I thought she was the spy. . . .”
Mae reached over and clasped my hand. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’re not a fool. You’re a friend, and you trusted someone.”
Akiko punched me in my good arm. “We’ll stop Harry and all of these dopes. Now, let’s quit gabbing and go!”
Mae jumped into action, raising her arms and summoning the wind. Lightning crackled in the sky, and rain began to pour down in sheets. She was kicking up a hurricane!
“You’ve got to get inside,” Mae called to us. “I’ll keep them back for as long as I can. It’s up to you both to warn the computers!”
Akiko and I raced for the Moore School’s entrance. She grabbed the knob and rattled the wooden door with all her might.
“It’s locked,” she shouted, her voice barely audible over Mae’s howling storm and the Hisser’s angry wailing. “What do we do now?”
“We’re superheroes, remember?” I said, wanting to laugh despite the danger. “We can’t be stopped by a little locked door!”
I stared at the doorknob, squinting and trying hard to use the power of my mind to flip the dead bolt. But before I managed to make the lock turn, my concentration was interrupted by Akiko’s sudden sneezing. Flames shot from her mouth and nose, the way I imagined a dragon might breathe fire. And suddenly the wooden door was engulfed in fire.
Black embers fluttered to the floor at our feet, and with one nudge from Akiko’s shoulder, the entire door caved in. We slipped through the charred opening and heaved a sigh of relief.
“I could get used to this.” She laughed.
Me too.
“Now let’s find my cousin and the other computers,” I said, racing toward the staircase. “And Project PX!”
Thirty-Seven
I STAGGERED BACKWARD, MY MIND reeling so fast it made me lose my balance. Harry was a double agent? Not someone who had betrayed my trust? I wanted to throw my arms around him in a big hug, but I couldn’t let myself. Harry had no idea who the three caped heroes standing before him were, and I wasn’t about to give myself away. If I knew anything about anything, it was that superheroes never revealed their true identities.
Akiko and Mae stood there slack-jawed and staring at Harry too, so I could tell they were just as stunned. And while this was all only a momentary distraction, it was enough time for the Hisser to act.
“Traitorous scum!” he hissed, breaking free of the FBI agents’ handcuffs as he transformed again. “You may have deceived me, but you’ll never stop me!”
The Hisser’s hideous snake form filled the room, his scaly, serpentine body slithering around and around in a dizzying, hypnotic threat. With a whip of his rattlesnake tail, he swatted Harry and the agents. They flew backward, slamming into the blinking black steel of the ENIAC machine.
“These computers are mine now,” he announced, yellow eyes blazing and fangs flashing as his deadly coils wrapped around Kay, Jean, and the rest of the ENIAC Six. In one fluid motion, his slimy body squeezed, trapping them in his hideous grip. And he slithered toward the door. Before I could leap after them, he was gone.
“No,” I shouted, looking for something to throw at his retreating form. “Leave them alone!”
Hauntima’s pale shape hovered overhead as we chased the Hisser into the night. “Don’t give up,” she urged, though her ghostly outline was quickly disappearing now. “Though evil may seem to be winning, it shall never triumph. So long as there are good people willing to fight!”
“Don’t go,” Akiko called, her voice pained. “We need you, Hauntima! We’re not ready!”
“It is we who need you,” Hauntima said, her silvery form almost transparent. She was like a bubble floating in the moonlight. I reached out my hand as if to touch her. “The three of you—you’re our last hope.”
And then she was gone. Akiko, Mae, and I were on our own.
“Let’s keep after him,” I shouted. And concentrating on my telekinesis, I began to fling whatever I could at the Hisser’s scaly head—potted plants, rocks, even another trash can. Mae bounded behind me, hurling lightning bolts like javelins, while Akiko shape-shifted into animal form.
“An otter? What are you thinking?” hollered Mae as she caught sight of Akiko’s furry new body. “Otters aren’t scary! What do you plan to do, kill him with cuteness?”
“I’m a mongoose, not an otter!” answered Akiko testily. “The mongoose is a snake’s worst enemy!” And she lunged for the Hisser’s throat with her sharp front teeth as Mae and I dodged out of the way.
I soared high above them to get a better view. And that’s when I noticed the big wooden station wagon parked across the street again. I’d seen it before, when we’d first begun fighting off the Hisser and his bullies, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it. Now the wagon’s back doors were open, and I could see a few figures sitting on benches inside.
“Help!” one of them shouted. “Get us out of here!”
I recognized that voice right away. It was Emmett!
I swooped down to the wagon doors and hovered in the air as I peered inside. Emmett’s arms and legs were bound in rope, but he’d bee
n able to slip off the gag that was wrapped around his mouth and shout for help. Four other boys were with him, tied up the same way. They must have been the other puzzlers!
“Be gone with you, Emerald Irritant!” bellowed the Hisser. And his booming voice hit me like a fist, sending me crashing backward through the window of the nearby bakery. Shards of glass shattered into the air. “These puzzlers are mine!”
Kay and Jean, along with Marlyn, Ruth, Betty, and Fran, pounded on the Hisser’s scaly skin. But he would not release his grip, shoving them into the wagon with the others before transforming back to his human shape. “And now that I have the computers, too, our army will be unstoppable,” he said, slamming the back door on the wood-paneled wagon. “Farewell, losers! My submarine awaits!”
Snatching the sharp-edged fedora off his head, he whipped it at Mae and Akiko, who had come to rest on the sidewalk near the park. They ducked just in time, as his dangerous hat sliced through the air, the razor-sharp rim piercing the moonlight. Branches from the trees just overhead fell to the ground in its wake, cut down by the hat’s deadly brim.
Diving behind the steering wheel, the Hisser took off down the street, tires squealing as he made his escape.
“We can’t let him get to his submarine,” I called to Akiko and Mae. “He’s got Kay in that wagon! And Emmett too! We have to save them—and all the others.”
The three of us took to the sky and raced right behind him, the wagon’s headlights making the Hisser easy to spot on the dark boulevards below. Without even having to utter a word, we seemed to know just what to do. Using our separate powers that made us each so special, we would find a way to defeat the Hisser—together.
Akiko sprinted ahead of us, shape-shifting into what must have been a cheetah, judging by her speed. Racing alongside the Hisser, she distracted his driving, causing the wagon to careen wildly down the nearly empty road.
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