“No, Conrad. Stop!” Piper pulled at Conrad’s arms, holding them back. “The ice is too thick. You’ll only hurt yourself doing that.”
Conrad jerked himself away, pacing around the ice block with no purpose.
Piper hated to see Conrad in such a state and raised her hands up as though directing fidgety traffic. “We’ll just thaw him out. Look,” she said, pointing to the ceiling where blue crystals emitted a sharp coldness. “I’ll knock those crystals out and it’ll warm up lickety-split.” She impulsively flew to them. “As soon as your father thaws we’ll get going home.”
“Don’t touch them!” Conrad shouted with alarm. “Piper, don’t!”
Piper stopped in mid-swing, her hand about to make contact with the largest crystal.
“If you thaw the ice my father will die. He had a bullet pass through his heart, and Max couldn’t fix it … so he froze him.”
“So…” Piper waited for Conrad to give her a plan. “Then what do we do?”
Conrad looked into his father’s face. “Max didn’t want him dead because he needed him as a bargaining chip; he’s using him now just like he’s used him his whole life. It was Max who saw to it that my father was given power, and as the President of the United States he could make him cover for all the mischief and destruction he caused. Then we came along and started to cause problems and Max didn’t like it. But Max being Max, he didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity, either, so he chose us to serve him.”
“Serve him? How?”
“Good question. Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Conrad said. “I’m sure he’s more than happy to explain it.”
Turning around, Conrad faced Max, who was now standing at the threshold of the cavern. Max was breathing hard as though he had been running a great distance but had a delighted expression on his face like he was expecting to open a fabulous present.
“Did I miss anything?” Max panted. “I got here as soon as I could.”
“Your timing is impeccable,” Conrad commented wryly, “as always.”
“Buddy.” Max threw his arms wide and rushed at Conrad, capturing him in a bear hug and shaking him with vigor. “WE ARE GONNA HAVE FUN!”
CHAPTER
43
Jerking his body around, Conrad whacked his elbow into Max’s spleen. Max crumpled at the same time Conrad pulled his knee up to smash him in the face.
“Uhhh.” Blood spurted out of Max’s nose, but it only lasted a few short seconds before it healed and the flow stopped. Moments after that Max shook it off completely. “Dude, what was that?”
“Cut the crap, Max.” Conrad crossed his arms furiously over his chest. “So what is it you want me to do? What’s your grand plan?”
“I just need a plague.” Max shrugged. “And I thought up some other gadgets, weapons of mass destruction mostly, that’d come in handy. You could whip them up in no time.”
“No.”
“But I got you the T-shirt and everything.” Max unfurled a bright yellow T-shirt that read THE ULTIMATE WEAPON. He tossed it at Conrad.
Conrad dropped the T-shirt in the snow. “Yellow isn’t my color.”
“You’re not funny, Max,” said Piper, disgusted. “You’ve hurt a lot of people.”
“True. But your dad is depending upon your cooperation.” Max nodded to Harrington’s frozen form. “It’s not going to be pretty if he thaws.”
“Yes, if he thaws he’ll die,” Conrad agreed. “So now you’ll hold my father’s life over my head just like you did to Starr. But I still won’t help you. My father wouldn’t want me to.”
Despite the danger, Piper felt her whole body swell with pride.
Max exhaled dramatically. “What? You mean you won’t do as I say?”
Conrad stood, immovable.
“Rats! And I thought I had everything all figured out. What am I going to do now?” Max sagged, sighing for a second time as though to drive home the point that his extreme disappointment could not be contended with. “All this planning for nothing.”
“You can’t outsmart Conrad,” Piper gloated.
Max threw up his hands, defeated. “You win. I lose. You’re smart. I’m not.” Thrusting his hand into his pocket, Max pulled out a bunch of bloodstones and popped one into his mouth like it was a piece of candy. He sucked on it and then spat it onto the floor and quickly put a fresh stone into his mouth. Conrad immediately noticed that the discarded stone was black, as though Max had sucked the red out of it, and not only that, but as Max sucked on the stone he looked younger, reenergized.
“What—” Conrad leaned down and picked up the discarded black stone.
“Don’t interrupt!” Max waved his hand at Conrad impatiently. “You’re like a little obsessed with these things. FYI—the ingredient you couldn’t figure out—it’s my blood. My blood sucks up energy, so I created the rocks as an easy way to get a snack. Anyway, that wasn’t what I was about to say. You made me lose my train of thought!”
He tossed a couple more bloodstones into his mouth and they seemed to jog his memory. “That’s it … Hold your knickers, I almost forgot.”
With a flourish Max pulled the purifier out of his pocket. It glowed bright orange in the blue ice light. “Ta-da. Problem solved!”
Conrad didn’t understand. “What do you think you’re going to do with that?”
“I fixed it,” Max explained gleefully. “Made it better. You know all about that, Conrad. You fix things all the time. Just not like this. Let me demonstrate.” He waved it about like a magician on a stage and then leveled it at Conrad. “Lick my boot.”
Suddenly Conrad felt an explosion ignite in the back of his head at the site of his Direct Brain Interface. It seared a pain into the core of him so deep that he fell to his knees clutching his skull.
Piper bent over, reaching to him. “Conrad? What’s wrong?”
“It’s his head,” Max explained. While Conrad writhed on the ground Max took his own sweet time walking up to him, the purifier leveled and pointing.
“You see, Piper, Conrad powered this by connecting it to the device on the side of his head. His brain sends it signals and those signals power it and allow it to function. But here’s the amazing thing, Conrad, and I know you in particular will appreciate this part—I’ve got this special thingamajig and it reversed the direction of the current. Meaning that instead of your brain sending signals to it, I can send signals back to your brain.”
“Stop it!” Piper begged.
“It’ll stop whenever Conrad wants it to. Con, if you want the pain to go away all you gotta do is obey what I say. You’re fighting against me and that’s why it hurts. Now lick my boot.”
“No!” Conrad’s entire body was shaking from the effort of disobeying. Max waved the purifier over him.
“What this is designed to do is to relieve you of executive function. Do you know what that means?”
Conrad’s face was white. He felt his hands shaking as he pushed himself to sit up. “It means that it can take away my free will.”
“Exactly.” Max smiled. “Your brain will do as I say and follow my instructions. I will then have the benefit of your genius for my own uses.” He looked at Piper, who was filled with horror. “In case you’re not following all of this, tootsie, this means that I win and you lose.”
“Stop hurting him.”
Conrad’s face curled with outrage as he felt his body standing up and walking toward Max. As he did so the pain went away. With all his might he tried to stop himself from walking, then from kneeling in front of Max, and finally from licking his boot. It was disgusting, it was exhausting, and ultimately it was futile. His body did just as Max told him to.
“Now sit down.”
Conrad’s body immediately sat on the floor as though he were a puppet.
Max clapped his hands, thrilled with the results. “This baby works like a charm. And the more we do it, the better it’ll work too.”
Conrad’s face was red and flushed. The interna
l war going on inside his brain was fierce. “You’re sick.”
“That’s funny, ’cause I feel fine. Well, this was fun, but it’s time to get to work. Conrad, go to the Knowledge Center right now.”
Conrad got up. Piper grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “Conrad, don’t do it. Stop!”
“Hit her!” Max told Conrad.
Conrad immediately slapped Piper across the face. The force of his blow left a red welt across her cheek and she reached for the pain in shock and horror.
Conrad’s jaw dropped, his hand tingling. “I—I…” There was no excuse.
“Congratulations—this is your purpose now, Piper.” Max smirked. “Whenever Conrad doesn’t work fast enough I will tell him to hurt you. It’s a wonderful incentive for him to do as he’s told.” Max threw his head back and laughed maniacally like a stock villain in a penny dreadful. He stopped as quickly as he started. “Seriously though, Connie—can I call you Connie? I’ll make you do real damage to her, and it’s not gonna be fun to watch, so let’s just not go there. Okay?”
“Let Piper go,” Conrad begged. “I won’t fight you if you let her go.”
“You’re hardly in a position to negotiate,” Max pointed out. “Now, no more dilly to this dally, let’s get down to some good old mass destruction. Go team!”
CHAPTER
44
The bell for the evening offering had rung, calling Xanthia to the large chamber on the plateau. Laughter and music from the gathering wafted along the mountain as Max escorted Conrad and Piper through the shadows to the Knowledge Center. Max was several paces behind them, the purifier pointed at Conrad lest there be any funny business. Piper was walking next to Conrad and they had their hands held up in the air because Max had demanded it (Reach for the stars, partner. Keep your hands where I can see ’em.) and Conrad had immediately obeyed.
“Conrad,” Piper whispered. “What are we gonna do?”
Conrad didn’t answer.
“Conrad?” Piper could see that Conrad’s hands were trembling.
Conrad’s eyes flicked to the side, checking on Max. Max was highly distractible, and after looking at the back of Conrad’s head for fifteen whole seconds he’d reached a sufficient level of boredom so that he allowed his attention to get caught up in a group of skunk birds. He giggled to himself when a blue skunk bird sprayed a yellow one in the face with his stink.
“Whoooa, face-stink,” he snickered.
“There’s only one way out,” Conrad whispered to Piper.
Piper immediately felt a bubble of relief forming in her chest. “Anything. Just tell me what to do.”
“You have to fly home and tell the others.”
“No problem.”
“Max will try to stop you.” Conrad spoke quickly. “We are the only people who know what is going on, and he can’t let that get out. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t go anywhere.”
“I can handle it. Just say when.”
They walked in silence for several yards, listening as Max chuckled over the birds. “Bam! Stink ’em up, yellow.”
“See that arch ahead?” Conrad flicked his eyes at a graceful archway twenty feet in front of them.
“Uh-huh.”
“Take off when we get to it. Just go and don’t look back. And Piper?”
“Yeah?”
“When you have the others and it’s safe, come back for my father and set him free.”
“Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
“But there’s one last thing.” He was careful to whisper and keep himself from looking at Piper. “I won’t be going with you.”
Piper inhaled sharply, angrily. “Then I’m not going. I won’t leave you behind.”
“It’s not your choice; it’s mine. Don’t fight me on this: there isn’t time. As long as my brain is functioning Max has power. It’s as simple as that. The only way to stop him is for me to stop thinking.” Conrad was strangely calm and assured. “I’d rather not be able to think at all than have my thinking used for Max’s ends.”
“You can’t stop thinking. That’s not possible.”
“Actually it is.”
Piper looked at Conrad out of the corner of her eye and he tilted his head, showing her the blinking lights on his Direct Brain Interface. She instantly understood. “You’re going to pull it out?” Piper gasped. “But it’ll kill you.”
“Yes. No. Maybe. It’ll fry my brain for sure. Whether it will cause my death is pure guesswork on my part.”
Horrified tears sprung to Piper’s eyes, which added to her stress of having to keep everything perfectly quiet. “But … you can’t.”
“I will. In another ten yards it will be over.” Conrad took a measured breath. “You are the only friend I ever had, Piper. And you are the best friend anyone could have ever hoped for. My life has been blessed by you.”
“Please—please—”
“Max will turn me into a monster. One day he will order me to kill you, and I can’t watch you die. If you are my friend you will do as I say and get out of here. Don’t look back.”
Time was not slowing but speeding up for Piper. If this truly was their only option (and when had Conrad ever been wrong?) it was far worse than she could ever have imagined. She wanted to argue but knew it would do no good. She wanted to plead and beg and rage and hurt Max and save Conrad, but the archway was before them.
“It’s alright, Piper.” Conrad could see his friend’s misery and pain. “I’m not afraid and I’m not sad. I swore that I would unravel this secret and I did: I now know the truth. It was a terrible secret and it is a terrible truth but it no longer has any power over me, and that is freedom.” Even now Conrad was impeccably rational. “There are things worse than not being able to think. It’s nice being smart, but it’s nicer to have a friend like you. Choosing you is the smartest thing I could ever do.”
Piper placed one shaking hand over her lips to stop her sobs.
“I don’t think I told you what my father said to me before Max shot him.” Conrad wanted to give Piper something to make her strong so that she could get through what was to happen next: his father’s words seemed fitting. “He told me about a prophecy. The prophecy says that there is a girl who can fly and a boy who knows everything and that they can change this world. It says that they alone will have the power to stop Max. And do you know what?”
Piper shook her head. “No,” she whispered.
“I believe that’s true. That boy and girl are you and me.” Conrad smiled thinking about this. “I’m sorry I can’t go the rest of the way with you but I know you are strong enough to do it alone. Okay?”
Piper was far from okay.
“I need you to tell me that you’ll be okay. Please do that for me.”
Piper heard her friend’s voice crack and it made her aware that Conrad needed her to be strong. He was being strong for her, but it was a burden he could no longer lift alone. If she truly was his friend and this was the last thing she could do for him, she would do it with all she had. Piper swallowed her sobs and inhaled fire.
“Me? Okay? I’m gonna kick his butt!”
Conrad grinned. “That’s my girl!”
At the archway Conrad stopped walking and turned to Piper. “Tell my father it was worth it and I wouldn’t change anything. Now go.”
Piper didn’t hesitate but flew like the wind.
“Hey, dude!” Max shook the wand at Conrad furiously. “Stop the chitter chatter and get clippety-clopping to the Knowledge Center. And tell Piper to fly back here. I order you.”
Waves of pain erupted in Conrad’s brain. With all the strength he possessed he reached his hand up to his head, wrapped his fingers around the metal DBI, and ripped it from his skull.
“DUDE!”
Piper did not look back. She did not see Conrad crumple to the ground, tremors pulsing through his body as though an internal earthquake was silently erupting in places unseen.
Max grabbed Conrad’s sh
oulders, shaking him, but Conrad was past the place of responsiveness. Max was no longer playful or telling jokes or having a good time. His face was no longer cleverly hidden behind a mask of youth and beauty, but laid bare by the hard lines of the oldest man in the world.
“Nooo,” he screamed.
Reaching for the purifier, he pointed it at Conrad, but the orange light was flickering. Max hit the side of the wand like it was a broken toaster, knocking it against the railing.
The orange light dimmed and then died out completely.
“Ahhhh!” Furious, Max threw the wand aside and rushed to the railing, looking for Piper in the sky. He spotted her at once flying fast over the plateau toward the valley.
Max bent down and placed his hands on the mountain. “Mother Mountain, I have given you my people.” He spoke quickly and quietly like he was praying. “I command you now to give me a thunderstorm.”
Beneath Max’s hand Mother Mountain rumbled in response, the distant sound of lightning making the air shake.
“Strike her,” Max growled. “Strike her down for me!”
Clouds pushed together closely and like a switch had been pulled, the rain fell in thick angry pellets. Piper was instantly soaked.
BOOM! The thunder was so loud it made the air around her reverberate with electricity and danger.
“Fly home,” Piper coached herself. Repeating Conrad’s words gave her comfort.
Gaining altitude, Piper began her journey across the valley. The cloud cover blocked the moon and visibility was a struggle with the rain hitting at her face. The force of the wind pushed her off course, but she corrected by dipping her left arm down.
Suddenly Piper felt the air around her change; her hair rose up and her skin tingled, and a moment later a brilliant blinding flash of lightning sliced, striking her arm.
“Owww,” Piper yelped. Losing her balance, she spun out of control.
“Strike one,” Max shouted from his vantage at the edge of the plateau. He was gripping the railing, watching Piper’s progress. She had just started across the valley on what Max predicted would be her last flight.
Throwing her weight up, Piper managed to stop the spin and regain control. Back on course, she started across the valley. Her arm was black at the impact site and throbbing wildly. The cool balm of the rain was welcome relief. “It’s okay,” she told herself. “I’m fine. I can make it.”
The Boy Who Knew Everything Page 23