The Never War tpa-3

by D. J. MacHale

  “Well,” he said. “I think we know how theHindenburgis gonna blow up.”

  “Yeah,” I added. “What we don’t know is if we can stop it.”

  FIRST EARTH

  We rode the rest of the way back to the Manhattan Tower Hotel in silence. I think we were all trying to get our minds around the fact that there was going to be a disaster the next day. Winn Farrow was going to light the fuse that would lead to one of the most infamous catastrophes in history. He was going to blow up the airshipHindenburg.

  There wasn’t all that much I knew about the crash. The basic event was one of those things that everybody knew about because it was such a big deal. I’d seen pictures of theHindenburgin flames. I’d seen scratchy news footage of people jumping from the passenger compartment, desperately trying to escape. There was also a famous radio broadcast where some news guy was announcing the arrival of the ship, and then had to keep his head together to describe the horror of the fiery crash.

  It was a famous moment in history; it was going to happen the next day. Question was, what were we going to do about it?

  When we got back to the hotel, Gunny stayed in the car. “You boys go up to your room,” he said. “I’ve got a friend who can fix this car up like new. No sense in having Caplesmith on my back. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.” He hit the gas and peeled out, leaving us alone on the sidewalk.

  “Why are we going to fry big fish?” Spader asked.

  “It’s just an expression,” I said.

  “Too bad,” he said. “I’m hungry.”

  We entered the building through the kitchen and grabbed some fruit. Turned out I was pretty hungry too. The next trick was to get back to our room without being seen by any of Max Rose’s goon squad. The plan was to dodge them.

  We got halfway through the kitchen when we walked straight into the same thug who nailed us the last time. Didn’t he ever go home?

  “Well, lookee here,” he said. “You two boys look like you been through the war. You smell like it too.”

  “Back off, bozo,” I said, trying to act all tough. “We gotta go change and-“

  The goon grabbed us by the arms and marched us toward the elevators. I guess I didn’t act tough enough. Next thing we knew, we were being shoved into the living room of the penthouse. So much for our plan of dodging Max Rose.

  “And don’t touch nothing,” the goon ordered. “You two are disgusting.”

  The guy left, giving us a short window to figure out what we would say to Max Rose.

  “We gotta tell him,” Spader said instantly. “Everything.”

  “Yeah, right,” I shot back. “We’ll tell him how I’m from the future and that’s how I know theHindenburgis going to explode tomorrow. Perfect.”

  “Well, you can’t saythat,”Spader countered.

  “Duh.”

  “But if we tell him Winn Farrow is going to blow up the zeppelin, Rose could send his thugs to stop him. They could do the job for us!”

  I had to think about that. Spader might be right. If our mission was to stop Farrow and Saint Dane from blowing up theHindenburg, we could use all the help we could get, even if it was from a gang of thugs. This could be a real easy solution. But for some reason, the idea of telling Max Rose what was going to happen made me uneasy.

  “You might be right,” I finally answered. “But let’s not tell him anything yet. Not until we’ve worked this through.”

  “We don’t have time, Pendragon!” Spader argued. “The sooner we tell him, the better chance he’ll have of stopping Saint Dane.”

  “You mean stopping Farrow,” I said.

  “Whatever. Hobey, mate, we gotta tell him!”

  “No, we don’t. Not yet. Don’t say anything, all right?”

  Before Spader could answer, the door opened on the far side of the room and Max Rose entered with Harlow. Both were dressed in silky pajamas. Big surprise. When he saw us, Max Rose’s face lit up with a big smile.

  “Buck! Flash! You’re not dead!” he bellowed.

  Obviously.

  Harlow got close to us, took a sniff, and wrinkled her nose. “You boys been playing with fire?”

  “No, but Winn Farrow has,” Spader said quickly.

  I shot Spader a look, willing him to keep quiet.

  Rose and Harlow plopped down on the couch, waiting to hear our report. “I’d ask you to sit down, boys, but to be honest, you stink,” Rose said.

  “No problem,” I said. “How ‘bout if we get changed and washed up before telling you what happened?”

  “Do I look like a patient man?” Rose asked. “Tell me now.” Spader looked at me, expecting me to start talking because that’s what I always did. But as I stood there in front of Rose, I didn’t know what to say. I was in total brain lock. Nothing was coming.

  Rose added, “I guess since you two aren’t dead, my old friend Winn is going to respect my request to mind his own business, am I right?”

  I needed to come up with a story that would give us time to figure out the best way to handle the news. But I was coming up empty. A second later it didn’t matter anymore.

  “Winn Farrow is going to blow up theHindenburg,”Spader blurted out.

  I closed my eyes. There it was. Bang. Spader had just set something in motion that was now officially out of our hands.

  Max Rose jumped to his feet in surprise. “He’s going to…?”

  He couldn’t finish the sentence. He started to pace nervously. Believe it or not, he not only seemed surprised, he looked scared. That was the last thing I expected. Max Rose was a guy who didn’t even blink while staring into an assassin’s gun. But now, after hearing that theHindenburgmight go down in flames, he was on the hairy edge of cracking. He stormed over to his bar and poured himself a drink. This time he didn’t shoot any Three Stooges fizzy water into it either. He wanted it strong.

  “How?” he demanded to know.

  I didn’t answer. This was Spader’s show now.

  “He’s got these rocket nasties,” Spader said. “He’s going to shoot one at the airship and blow it up.”

  “You think it’ll work?” Rose asked.

  “Take a look at us, mate,” Spader said. “He shot one of those bad boys into his slaughterhouse, with us inside. There’s nothing left of the place.”

  Rose gulped down his drink and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his expensive bathrobe. His hand was shaking. Harlow stood up and slinked over to him.

  “Don’t worry, Maxie,” she said calmly. “Farrow’s too dumb to pull off something like that.”

  Rose was starting to sweat. “Yeah?” he barked at her. “And what if he gets lucky? Do you know how much I got riding on that big balloon?”

  I took a chance and asked, “What is it that’s coming in?”

  I don’t think Rose would have answered if he weren’t so upset.

  “Payment,” he shot back at me. “I’ve done a lot of work for those Germans. I’ve shipped them equipment and tools and scrap metal and a whole lot of other things. It’s cost me millions. I went out on a very long limb for those Nazi creeps. I’m in debt to a lot of people. The kind of people you don’t want to be in debt to. If I don’t get that payment…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Whatever it was, it would be ugly. Oh yeah, Max Rose was scared.

  “Why don’t the Nazis just write you a check or something?” I asked.

  “It ain’t that easy,” Rose answered. “This isn’t the kind of transaction you want traced. By anybody. We had to be creative. There’s cash on that balloon. Lots of it. They’re also sending me bonds and a load of diamonds. Flawless diamonds. I’ve even got a couple of paintings coming in that were done by some famous dead guys. They’re worth millions! That’s the way they wanted to pay me and I agreed. They’re sending it all in on that blimp so it’ll be easier to get through customs. Iknewit was a rotten idea.” Now I knew what Winn Farrow meant when he said he was going to hit Max Rose where it hurt the most. If Farrow destroyed theHindenburg, it would be
the end of Max Rose’s business. Worse, going by how scared Rose looked, I’d say it would be the end of Max Rose himself.

  “It’s okay, Maxie,” Harlow said soothingly. “You’ll figure something out.”

  Rose took another drink to calm himself. “You boys did good,” he said softly. “I won’t forget that. Now get out of here. I need time to think.”

  Time to think. Yeah, tell me about it. I needed a little of that too. I wished I had more time to think before I let Spader give away the show to Max Rose. Now a chain reaction had started that we had no control over, all because I didn’t have enough time to think.

  I think I had better start learning how to think faster.

  (CONTINUED)

  FIRST EARTH

  Spader and I backed out of the room and quickly left Max Rose’s penthouse. We took the stairs down to the sixth floor to avoid Dewey. We didn’t want to explain the way we looked to him or anybody else. As soon as we got inside our room and closed the door, Spader let out a happy shout.

  “Hobey, yes!” he yelled. “Rose is going to send his thugs to stop Farrow. We did it. TheHindenburgis safe.”

  I stared at Spader, my anger slowly building. “I asked you not to tell him about Farrow’s plan.”

  “I know, mate, but I had to. That was our chance. You weren’t talking so I had to take it.”

  “And what if it was the wrong move?” I asked, trying not to boil over. “This isn’t just about two gangsters who hate each other. We’ve got a whole territory to worry about.”

  “C’mon, Pendragon,” Spader cajoled. “You know it was the right thing to do. We outsmarted Saint Dane. Again. We won!”

  “Man, I hope you’re right.”

  I needed to be alone to think, so I left Spader and headed for the bathroom. I got rid of my burned clothes and stood in the warm shower to clean off the dried blood. The cuts andbruises were nothing that wouldn’t heal quickly. We were both very lucky.

  As I stood in that shower, I wracked my brain for answers. Not just about theHindenburg, but about Spader. He was driven by his need for revenge. Fine, I wanted to put Saint Dane out of business too. But though Spader and I were on the same side, we had different ideas on how to fight the war. I was afraid this would show up to bite us in the butt someday. Today was that day. Our butts had been bitten.

  Still, I didn’t want this to be an ego thing. I didn’t want to be angry at him just because he didn’t listen to me. Who am I? I don’t know everything. Maybe he had done the right thing. Maybe the reason we were on First Earth was to do exactly what he had done. By uncovering Farrow’s plot to destroy theHindenburgand telling Max Rose about it, we might have saved the airship.

  But that led me to the most troubling thought of all. As horrible as the destruction of theHindenburgwas going to be, we didn’t know what it had to do with Saint Dane’s overall plan. Saint Dane’s goal was to find the turning point of a territory and push it the wrong way. The question was, what did theHindenburghave to do with the turning point of First Earth? It was a German ship, but did it have anything to do with the coming war? Would saving theHindenburgstop the war from happening?

  There were too many unanswered questions for me to think our mission here on First Earth was over.

  When I got out of the shower, Gunny was there. Spader had already told him how he felt sure Rose’s gang would save theHindenburg. Gunny wanted to be happy, but he had this confused look that told me he wasn’t any more convinced than I was. It was time to put everything out there in plain language.

  “Here’s what we know for sure,” I began. “Max Rose has been working for the Nazis. They owe him a bunch of money. He needs the payment, bad, and it’s coming in on theHindenburg. Cash, diamonds, bonds, paintings, and who knows what else. It’s all flying in over the ocean right now. Winn Farrow, Rose’s enemy, knows how important the payment is to Rose, so he’s going to blow theHindenburgout of the sky.”

  “That’s an extreme thing to do, just to get revenge,” Gunny said.

  “Farrow’s an extreme guy,” Spader shot back. “But now Max Rose knows what he’s up to, and he’ll stop him from destroying the ship. TheHindenburgwill be saved! Sniggers for everyone!”

  “Maybe,” I cautioned.

  “He’ll do it,” Spader said with confidence. “You saw how scared Rose was. He’ll do everything he can to stop Farrow.”

  “But this isn’t just about two gangsters who hate each other,” I said, trying not to let frustration creep into my voice. “This is about the turning point on First Earth. We haven’t figured out why Saint Dane has his hand in any of this.”

  “Sure we have,” Spader said, acting all sorts of cocky. “It’s all about the big natty-do war that’s coming, right? Isn’t that the kind of thing Saint Dane is all about?”

  “Yeah, but what’s that got to do with theHindenburg!”I asked.

  “Maybe everything,” Spader shot back. “It’s like Gunny said. One little event leads to another and another. I think Saint Dane wants to make sure the war is going to happen, and somehow blowing up that airship will do that. So if we stop them from wrecking that ship, we’ll stop the war and Saint Dane loses.” ”Maybe Spader’s right,” Gunny said. “If we can stop the war by saving theHindenburg, it would be like beating Saint Dane.”

  Spader looked at me with a proud smile.

  “Yeah, maybe,” I said. “I just wish we could be sure.”

  “C’mon, Pendragon! How can we lose?” Spader pleaded. “Even if it doesn’t stop the war, we’d still be saving the people on theHindenburg. Like you always say, this is a no-brainer.”

  Spader was making a really strong case, but something was keeping me from buying it a hundred percent. “I just wish we had more to go on,” I complained.

  We all fell silent for a moment, then Gunny said softly, “I think I know where we can find out more.”

  “Really? Where?” I asked quickly, grabbing at the lifeline.

  “We’re Travelers,” he said with a matter-of-fact tone. “We can take the flume into the future of this very territory and look back on how things happened.”

  My heart sank. As much as I loved the idea of going home to Second Earth, I knew it would be a waste.

  “It wouldn’t help,” I said with disappointment. “Sure, we could go to Second Earth and do some research about theHindenburgand World War Two, but that wouldn’t tell us anything. We need to figure out what would happen if theHindenburg doesn’tblow up.”

  “Who said anything about going toSecondEarth?” Gunny said with a mischievous smile.

  At first I didn’t know what he meant. If we were going to look into the future of Earth, then of course we would go to Second Earth. That is, unless…

  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked, barely able to contain my excitement.

  “What’s he saying?” Spader asked. Gunny said, “I’m talking about taking a trip toThirdEarth, of course.”

  “There’s a Third Earth?” I asked, trying not to sound like a giddy geek. “Have you been there? When is it?”

  “Yes,” he answered with a smile. “I’ve been there. The year, I believe, is 5010, give or take a year or two.”

  I had to sit down. The idea of seeing what Earth was like threethousandyears in the future was making my head swim.

  “I am all over this,” I said. “But seriously, why would going to Third Earth help us any more than going to Second Earth?”

  “I told you, I’ve been there,” he answered. “I went with your uncle Press when he first told me about being a Traveler. It was like something out of a book of fantasies. They have libraries there. But not like the ones we know. There aren’t any books or papers or anything you can touch. All this information is kept on little tiny specs of nothing, no bigger than a grain of sand. They had the entire New York City public library on just one of those little things. Imagine that.”

  Gunny was talking about some kind of computer. At home when you got a computer, it wa
s already outdated. That’s how fast advances were being made. I couldn’t imagine how far things had gotten in three thousand years.

  Gunny continued, “It seemed like they had every little bit of information about everything that ever happened on those little bits of things. I’m guessing if we went there and spoke to Patrick-“

  “Patrick?” Spader asked.

  “The Traveler from Third Earth. Nice fella. Smart, too. I’m thinking Patrick might be able to tap into all that information and maybe give us a little more idea of what we’re dealing with here.”

  The man was incredible. How many times had Gunny bailed us out already? I’d lost count.

  “I think that’s a great idea!” I shouted. “Let’s go right now.”

  I couldn’t sit still. I had forgotten how bruised and banged up I was and started getting dressed for the trip. But then, in the next second, the air was totally sucked out of my balloon.

  “I’m not going,” declared Spader.

  “What do you mean? We’re all going!” I said.

  “Not me,” Spader said. “There’s too much at stake here to go fluming off. We might come back too late.”

  D. J. MacHale

  The Never War

  “It won’t be a problem,” I said. “Time between the territories isn’t the same, remember? We could be gone for a year, but then flume back here an hour from now.”

  “It’s too big a risk, mate,” Spader said with conviction. “That airship is due early tomorrow morning. I want to be here when it shows up, just in case Max Rose doesn’t take care of Winn Farrow. You’re right, mate. We can’t rely on Max Rose to do our job. If he fails, it’ll be up to us to save theHindenburg.”He looked at Gunny and asked, “How far is this Lakehurst place?”

  “About eighty miles, give or take,” Gunny answered. “It’ll take the better part of four hours to drive there. Longer on the bus.”

  “See?” Spader said. “It’s going to take a while to get there. I don’t want to risk being late.”

  “Spader,” I said. “I’m telling you, we’ll be back in time.”