The Never War tpa-3

by D. J. MacHale

  Finally we got up to the catwalk, and I ran for the door. I prayed I was right about it being open and kicked it. The door flew open. Yes! I turned to see Spader was right there with me. We ducked through the door and all I could hope was that it would lead outside.

  It didn’t. We found ourselves in a long, narrow corridor. Choking smoke filled the narrow, dark space and made it impossible to know which way to go.

  “Right or left?” I yelled.

  “My eyes are burning, mate. Doesn’t matter. Just move!”

  I took a chance and turned right and immediately saw good news and bad news. Good news was that in spite of the dark smoke, there was something to guide us forward. The wooden floorboards were so old that there were spaces between them. Through those spaces I could see fire below. It lit up the floor and kept us from running into the walls. But that was bad news too. If there was fire below an old wood floor, it meant the floor was going to burn. All the more reason to get out of there fast. I grabbed Spader’s hand and ran. I could only hope that we’d get to the end of the corridor and out before the whole floor caught fire.

  We didn’t make it. After running about ten steps, I heard a loudcrack! It was the only warning we had that the floor was collapsing beneath us. A second later we both crashed through in a shower of sparks, smoke, and burning wood. The next few seconds were a blur. I’ll try to describe it as best as I can, but it happened so fast, I’m not sure I remember it all.

  When we fell through the floor, I lost my grip on Spader’s hand. Fire was everywhere. I remember thinking that I was falling into the center of an inferno and that I was gonna roast. But the fire had been burning below for some time and the next floor down was already weak. When I landed, those boards gave way too, and I crashed through again. It was a miracle I didn’t break any bones.

  The next thing I knew, I was underwater. The slaughterhouse had been built on a pier jutting out over the Hudson River. In a matter of seconds I went from fearing I was going to burn to death, to fearing I was going to drown. Somewhere in my fall I slammed my head pretty hard and couldn’t focus. I remember flaming chunks of stuff falling into the water all around me. There was a maze of pilings that must’ve held up the pier. Every way I turned I seemed to either hit one, or knock into burning debris from the firestorm above. I gulped water. I couldn’t breathe. I was exhausted and losing consciousness fast. My head kept going underwater and I was losing the strength to keep pushing myself back up.

  Then things gotreallybad. I heard a loud, screeching sound from above. That could only mean one thing. The building was breaking up. The pier was going to collapse on our heads. I had just about given up any hope of getting out of there alive, when I felt a strong grip on my arm.

  “Hold your breath!” Spader ordered.

  I barely had time to gulp in some air before Spader pulled me under. I totally gave myself over to him and relaxed. While holding on to me with one hand, he swam with a strength that I couldn’t believe. No, who am I kidding? Sure I could believe it. Spader was part dolphin. If he wasn’t hurt, a swim like this was a piece of cake. I really hoped he wasn’t hurt, for both our sakes.

  I didn’t know how long I could hold my breath, but I knew we were safer under the water than on the surface because I heard the sounds of the building above us collapsing. We had to keep moving and get out from under the structure if we had any hope of surviving. I don’t know how long we were below the water. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds because I don’t think I could have lasted more than that.

  When we finally broke the surface, the first thing I remember seeing was the sun. The next thing I saw was Spader’s smiling face as he tread water next to me, looking as relaxed as if he were floating in a kiddie pool.

  “Took a little knock there, did you, mate?”

  I touched my forehead and felt the lump that was already forming. “I’m a little out of it,” I admitted.

  “No worries,” he said. “On your back, I’ll tow you in.”

  I didn’t argue. This was no time to be macho. I gladly let Spader pull me to shore. It only took a minute until we made it to a small, wooden dock. Spader dragged me up onto the platform like a wet doll. We made it. We were alive.

  The two of us lay there, trying to get our wind back. After breathing in disgusting smoke for the last ten minutes, the air actually tasted sweet. I closed my eyes and focused on clearing my lungs. I was in pretty rough shape. Besides the slam on the head, I had cuts and burns all over my body. My clothes had protected me some, but they were now less like clothes and more like rags.

  Spader spoke first. “It’s a horror, mate; it truly is.”

  I opened my eyes and saw that he was staring at the burning slaughterhouse. The place was nothing more than a giant, twisted, flaming wreck. Black smoke billowed up and drifted out over the Hudson. I wondered why the fire department hadn’t shown up yet. My guess was they were afraid to come down to this neck of the woods.

  “Farrow said this was a test,” Spader said through gasping breaths. “If this was just the test, what are they planning to do for real?”

  That was the big question. What was their target? Saint Dane said we had all the clues, but I couldn’t put them together.

  I saw that Spader was in just as bad shape as I was. His clothes were shredded and burned, and his arms were covered with scratches. “You okay?” I asked.

  “I will be just as soon as we finish off Saint Dane,” he said angrily.

  “You trust me, don’t you, Spader?” I asked.

  “Of course, mate,” he said quickly.

  “Then, please, remember that the next time you get all bent out of shape and want to go after Saint Dane,” I said. “He’s gotta be stopped, but we have to be smart about it.”

  “Right,” Spader said in response. “Smart. Let’s be smart now and get out of here.”

  I felt like he was blowing me off, but now was not the time to argue. We were still stuck in the badlands. As beaten up as we were, we had to move. The river was about six feet below street level. At the end of the dock was a wooden ladder. I climbed up first and carefully poked my head up and over to see what was going on.

  My heart sank.

  We were about fifty yards upriver from the wrecked slaughterhouse. Between me and the burning building was nothing but a big empty lot…and a group of gangsters. They were all standing there: Winn Farrow, his tattered thugs, the big-armed muscle boys, and of course, Saint Dane. They all stood with their backs to me, no more than thirty yards away, watching their handiwork. If we tried to make a run for it, they’d see us for sure.

  But worse than that, parked only a few yards to our right were the gangster’s cars. When they went for those cars, they’d find us. We were trapped with no place to hide. In a few seconds we’d be right back where we started.

  (CONTINUED)

  FIRST EARTH

  “What do you see, mate?” Spader asked.

  I looked down at him and put my finger to my lips to “shush” him. The last thing we needed was for one of these goons to hear us. If we were going to get out of there, we had to do it before they got tired of watching the burning building. As soon as they went for their cars, they’d see us. The only thing we could do was run. I was pretty sure they’d see us if we ran, but at least we’d have a chance. So I looked around for the best escape route.

  Parked about twenty yards from us was a derelict truck withWILD BOAR MEATSpainted on its side. It was halfway between us and the street beyond. I thought that if we could run to the truck without being seen, we’d have a shot at making it all the way past the bad guys to the street. From there we could disappear into the city. The crucial move would be from here to the truck. It wasn’t going to be easy because we would have to run across the wide open, empty lot. If somebody happened to look back while we were running, well, good night.

  I climbed back down and told Spader my plan. ”Right,” Spader said. “Me first.”

  Before I coul
d argue, Spader scrambled up the narrow ladder. He peered over the top, looked back to me, winked, and was gone. I quickly climbed the ladder to watch.

  Spader crouched low and ran fast. I held my breath. He was totally exposed. But none of Farrow’s goons saw him. He made it to the truck and pumped his hand in the air in victory. Yes! He then peeked over the hood of the truck at the gangsters. They had no idea what was going on behind them. Spader then motioned for me to follow. Gulp. My turn. I bolted over the top and ran.

  I wasn’t as lucky as Spader. I had only gone a few feet when one of the thugs turned and saw me. It was as simple and stupid as that.

  “Hey!” he shouted. Instantly all the gangsters turned and saw me. I made it to the truck and crouched next to Spader. The last thing I saw before ducking down was Winn Farrow angrily grabbing a shotgun from one of his men.

  “I guess this was a bad plan,” I said.

  Bang! Farrow fired the shotgun. The window over our heads shattered, and bits of glass rained down on us. The other gangsters followed his lead. They all started firing at the truck. Boom! Boom! Boom! The truck was pounded with rounds of shot. The whole thing rocked each time it was hit. We were protected, but for how long?

  “Maybe we should have hid underneath the dock until they left,” Spader said.

  “Nowyou think of that?” I shouted over the booming shotguns.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  We then heard the sound of a car horn blasting and the screech of rubber wheels on the road. The gangsters stopped shooting, so Spader and I took the chance to peek out and see what was going on.

  I hoped to see a police car screaming to our rescue, but instead saw a black car flying off the street, out of control, headed right for the group of gangsters! The thugs scattered like bowling pins as the car nearly plowed into them. The wild car didn’t stop. With its horn blaring, it skidded past the fleeing gangsters and blasted right toward us. The gangsters got themselves back together and now took aim at the careening car. They unleashed their shotguns, this time shattering the car’s back window.

  But the demon car kept coming.

  We had no idea what to do. Was this crazy person going to slam into the truck? We couldn’t run or the gangsters would start shooting at us. All we could do was watch and get ready to dive out of the way. The driver accelerated right for our hiding place, then spun the wheel at the last second, barely missing the truck. The car skidded sideways, then the wheels got traction and the vehicle charged forward. A second later it wheeled around to our side of the truck and slowed down. Who was this crazy driver?

  “Get in!” shouted Gunny from the driver’s seat.

  Spader and I didn’t hesitate. We both ran for the car and dove into the backseat. Gunny never stopped. He only slowed down long enough for us to get in.

  “Go!” I shouted before we got the door closed.

  Gunny punched the gas, the wheels spit gravel, and Spader and I were thrown back in the seat. But we weren’t safe yet. Two more explosions sounded, and the doors of the car were slammed with shot. ”Stay down!” Gunny commanded. He didn’t need to. Spader and I were already down on the floor with all the shattered glass from the rear window. Three more shots were fired, but this time, only one hit the car. We were moving quickly out of range. Gunny bumped over a curb, skidded into a turn, and sped us away from the ugly scene. A few seconds later Spader and I got the guts up to peek out of the back window.

  Through the shattered glass we saw the burning slaughterhouse falling away in the distance. We had made it. We were safe, thanks to Gunny.

  Spader and I both let out a huge yelp of joy. “Gunny, yeah!” “Hobey-ho!” “You saved us!”

  Gunny turned back to us. His eyes were wide with fear. He may have just coolly executed an incredibly daring rescue, but it scared him half to death. “I don’t want to do anything like that ever, ever again,” he said with a shaky voice. “My heart is trying to bust out of my chest.”

  “Slow down,” I said. “We made it.”

  Gunny took his foot off the gas and slowed the car to a normal speed. I saw that his hands were shaking at the wheel. “This is gonna cost me my job, you know,” he said nervously.

  “Why, mate?” asked Spader.

  “This car belongs to the hotel manager, Mr. Caplesmith. What’s he gonna say when he sees I got it all shot up?”

  I’m embarrassed to say that Spader and I both laughed. We didn’t mean to, but it was just so…funny. What was a shot-up car compared to what we had just been through?

  Gunny said, “I don’t see anything funny about it at all!”

  “I’m sorry, Gunny,” I said. “You’re right. It’s not funny.”

  Spader added, “Thanks for being there, mate. We owe you.” ”You owe me a new car is what you owe me,” Gunny said. He then laughed too. He was starting to relax. He looked at us through the rearview mirror and winced. “You two all right? You look like you touched toes with the devil himself.”

  “That’s exactly what happened,” Spader said.

  “We found Saint Dane,” I said. “Or should I say, he found us.”

  Gunny gripped the wheel tighter. “He have something to do with burning that slaughterhouse?”

  “In a way,” I answered. “Winn Farrow is the one who lit the match though.”

  “He burned his own place down?” Gunny asked, confused.

  “He’s planning something,” I said. “They’ve got these fireworks that explode in a ball of fire, and he’s going to use them on Max Rose.”

  “It’s all about revenge,” Spader added.

  An idea hit me. “The hotel!” I exclaimed. “The Manhattan Tower. If he shot one of those rockets up to the penthouse, it would be all over for Rose.”

  “That’s it!” Spader shot back. “It must be. He’s going to torch the hotel. He could do it with one of those fire nasties, easy.”

  “We should evacuate the building,” I said, getting excited. “And tell the police. They can protect the place and-“

  “It’s not the hotel he’s after,” Gunny said calmly.

  Spader and I both fell silent. “How do you know that?” I asked.

  “Because I found out about LZ-one-twenty-nine,” Gunny answered with no emotion.

  Spader and I were both stunned speechless. Gunny had just casually announced that he had found the critical piece to the puzzle. I had almost forgotten about it. The mysterious LZ-129. We both looked at him. Gunny stared ahead, focused on the road. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “So? Are you going to tell us?” I asked.

  “What was it that letter said, Pendragon?” Gunny asked me. “You know, the one with the Nazi symbol on it.”

  I thought back to the letter from Ludwig Zell to Max Rose that I had committed to memory. “It said that payment would be coming to Max Rose on May sixth via LZ-one-twenty-nine,” I answered.

  Gunny nodded and said, “Whatever Max Rose did for the Nazis, he’s going to get his payment tomorrow, and it’s coming by LZ-one-twenty-nine. If Winn Farrow really wanted to hurt Max Rose, he could stop him from getting that payment.”

  “That’s what Farrow said,” exclaimed Spader. “He was going to hit Rose where it hurts the most.”

  “So what is LZ-one-twenty-nine?” I asked, getting impatient.

  “I saw it in the newspaper today,” he answered soberly. “I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out before. LZ-one-twenty-nine stands for Luft Zeppelin-one-twenty-nine.”

  “What’s a Luft Zeppelin?” Spader asked.

  The truth suddenly hit me.

  I felt sick. Saint Dane was right. I should have paid better attention in history class. I had the answer staring me in the face all along, but couldn’t put it together. It was a famous event in American history. There were movies made about it. There were books written and TV shows made. It was a tragedy as famous as the sinking of theTitanicor the destruction of the space shuttleChallenger. ”What’s he talking about, Pendragon?” asked Spade
r. “Do you know?”

  “Yeah,” I answered softly. “I think I do. And it makes a whole bunch of sense.”

  Gunny reached to the seat next to him where he had a newspaper. “Luft Zeppelin-one-twenty-nine left Germany last week. Tomorrow morning it’s going to arrive at the naval air station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.”

  He threw the paper to us and it landed in my lap. There on the front page was a big picture of Luft Zeppelin-129. It was a giant silver blimp. Only it went by another name that was way better known. That name was written on the silver nose of the air ship.

  It was called theHindenburg.

  “I’m guessing that Max Rose’s payment is aboard that airship, direct from Germany,” said Gunny. “I believe that’s Winn Farrow’s target.”

  Spader picked up the paper and stared at the picture of the giant airship with the Nazi swastikas painted on its tail.

  “This thing flies too?” Spader asked. “It doesn’t look like Jinx’s airplane.”

  “It’s a big balloon,” Gunny answered. “Lighter than air. They’ve been flying them across the ocean for a few years now. They say it’s the wave of the future.”

  “It’s not the wave of the future,” I said quietly.

  “What do you mean, Pendragon?” Gunny asked. “This is your history. Did you ever hear of theHindenburg!”

  I took a breath and swallowed. “Yeah, I heard about it,” I answered. “When theHindenburgarrived in New Jersey, it blew up. The balloon burned and the passenger compartment crashed. A lot of people died and the ship was totally destroyed by fire. I don’t think they ever figured out how it happened.”

  The three of us sat in silence for a good long time. Finally Spader said the one thing that was on all our minds.