“Hey, Zone-Out, are you listening?” Marco asks, spearing a slice of tuber. “I asked how you got Waters off our case this morning.”
And it’s not the first time he’s asked. He’s pestered me about it ever since the Tundra Trials this morning. It’s definitely not helping my guilt complex. I really should tell them about the brain patch. I have to tell them. But not yet.
“I don’t know,” I lie. “Let’s go. I want to sneak in a round of Evolution, Gladiator Round, before bed.”
We make it back to the burrow and hang out with some of the guys until Sheek shows up with a Rah! Rah! rally speech. He’s been making those on a nightly basis the last few weeks. I think it’s how he checks the box for his Director of Bounder Affairs duties. We scoot into our hovel seconds before lights out. By the time Marco, Cole, and I make it all the way to our bunks, they’ve already flipped the switch.
It’s dark when I climb into bed. I settle against my pillow, snuggle under my blankets, and replay an awesome Evolution battle in my mind. Just as I’m about to drift to sleep, there’s movement in the bunks across from us. Wait a second . . . Did they get released early from the hospital?
“I know it was you,” Regis says. He speaks quietly, but those five words seem to reverberate through the burrow. They’re low and menacing and filled with absolute determination.
Regis is out for revenge.
20
WE ARE CLOSING IN ON our last caches, and now it’s all about strategy. Soon, pods will be shut out of cache tokens. I don’t think any cache is maxed yet, but it’s getting close. Cache 28 was down to five yesterday. According to Ryan and the others in our alliance, Cache 11 had only three tokens left when they snagged theirs just before curfew. That’s where we’re headed this morning.
The rule is, we’re only allowed to access the BPS twice a day for caching, and we have to come back to the base to use it. Opting for a BPS bound first thing in the morning is risky, because there’s often a queue and that means lost time. Typically we get as close as we can to a fresh target by leapfrogging between known bounding spots, then fly with our packs the rest of the way. Once we’ve secured a cache, we bound back to base and grab coordinates from the BPS to bound to the day’s second target.
But today, we hover near the BPS as soon as we reach the surface. We can’t take any chances. We have to get to Cache 11 right away. Odds are we aren’t the only pod missing that token who heard about the short supply.
Six pods rush the BPS once the Trial gun sounds. I think we get there first, but Gedney lets two other pods go before us, probably so it doesn’t look like he’s playing favorites. When it’s our turn, Cole scans the cache coordinates and we bound.
When I hit the ground at the cache site, I immediately see we’re not alone. One of the pods who used the BPS before us is combing the area for the box. Mira is already sprinting across the cache zone.
I take a second to size up the competition. Malaina Suarez’s pod is nice and very middle of the pack. But just as I’m about to chase after Mira, Han’s pod bounds in. Regis hits the ground and takes off running.
When we reach the center of the cache zone—a plain of boulders the size of hovercars—Cole waves us in. “We need to cover as much ground as possible. At this point, it’s all about finding the cache first. And with all these rocks and crevices, it could be anywhere. Let’s split up. Search your assigned direction.”
This is our standard strategy—four of us search the compass points while Cole covers the center circle. I confirm with the astrocache compass and head east.
Even though it’s freezing cold, sweat beads on my forehead as I race from boulder to boulder, searching for the cache. Everywhere I look, there’s a Bounder crawling through the landscape, turning over rocks, scampering over boulders, leaving no sight unsearched.
Someone should have found it by now. Maybe another pod buried or camouflaged it, or possibly even removed it from the cache zone against the rules.
As I’m about to circle back to Cole for a strategy check, a flutter of movement catches my eye.
Roughly twenty meters south, Suarez’s pod is converging. The pod members race toward Lian, a tall girl from Eurasia with black hair that reaches past her waist.
She must have found the cache.
I definitely don’t want to alert everyone, but I have to let my pod mates know. It won’t matter how quickly I reach the cache if the pod isn’t present for the scan. I bound to the center zone and fly to where Cole is searching. He agrees to grab Marco and Mira and tells me to get Lucy and fly for the cache.
I zoom toward Lucy in my blast pack, but halfway there, I bail. Across the field, cadets from Han’s pod are rushing for the cache. If I don’t get there fast, the tokens will be gone. I think about bounding, but we’re so close, my pack is probably quicker. Plus, it would be pretty easy to make a mistake with everyone closing in.
I veer away from Lucy and race for the cache.
“Go, Jasper!” Lucy’s voice rises up. She’s figured out what’s happening, and now she’s guaranteed that everyone within earshot has, too. Although with all the cadets racing to the cache zone, it would be pretty hard to miss.
I push myself faster, pressing the connection between my brain and the pack. There are still too many cadets ahead of me. I’m not sure I’ll make it in time.
Then I feel a pressure at the base of my skull that builds and balloons like my head is going to burst. The pressure shifts. A surge of power shoots through me, and I explode forward in a sort of minibound. Instead of fifty meters away, I’m standing next to the cache. I pull a token from the cache box while Lian and her pod stand there mystified.
Seconds later, my pod mates arrive, along with every other cadet in the cache zone. Lian hands me the cache tablet. I scan my retina and pass it around my pod.
“We’re all set!” I say after Cole completes the last scan. “Let’s bound!”
As I lift my palms in the air, a fist rams into my face. I hit the ground hard.
“That’s from all of us, you cheat!” Regis yells.
He leaps on top of me, and I brace for more blows.
Marco and some of the cadets from Suarez’s pod haul him off me.
As I struggle to my feet, Regis tries to charge me again, but when he gets within half a meter, he freezes. Mira stands beside me, her hands raised against Regis, blocking him with her gloves.
“Call off your magic mistress, Jasper!” he shouts. “Let’s finish this!”
I surge forward. Mira’s hand whips around. My feet are rooted to the ground by an invisible force.
No! Mira’s mind bristles with anger and determination. She’s holding me back, too. She doesn’t want this snowballing into a full-on brawl.
But she only has two hands, and Marco has other plans. When Hakim rushes me from the side, Marco grabs his atoms and flings him to the ground.
Next thing I know, Lucy and Cole are trying to fend off Randall, and Hakim is back on his feet, making a run for Mira.
Her mind touches mine again. Bound!
Even though every ounce of me wants to beat Regis to a pulp, I don’t want my pod mates to be caught in the cross fire. Ignoring the pain in my jaw where Regis’s fist found my face, I tap in and open a port. Seconds later, I’m lying on the tarmac at the base.
Bam! Mira is there, too. Then Marco. A few seconds later, Cole and Lucy appear.
“Way to start a fight, Ace,” Marco says.
“I didn’t start it! Regis slugged me!” My speech comes out all garbled. My face must be really swollen. “Why did he go off and hit me?”
“You really don’t know?” Lucy asks. “He thinks you cheated! How did you do that superhuman charge at the target, anyhow? We haven’t been taught how to do that.”
The back of my skull still feels prickly from the surge. I know Mira passed me her energy through the Youli patch, but I can’t tell the others that.
“I was so focused on the target, I must have tapped into some
additional features of the gloves,” I say. “You know Gedney says what the gloves can do is limitless.”
Lucy look at me skeptically. “If you say so. It certainly didn’t give him the right to hit you.”
“Speaking of that,” Marco says. “We need to bolt. Odds are Regis will come here next, and if he does, he’s coming for you, Fly Guy.”
Later in the day, after we log a second cache, we meet up with Ridders’s pod at our usual lunch spot close to Cache 12, where we ate the first day. Apparently, word is out, because as soon as I bound in, Ryan starts up with the questions.
“Whoa! Your face looks like a rotten banana! Regis really walloped you good, didn’t he? How come you guys never told us about the bolt-and-bound move? Are you holding out? Is that like your secret weapon?”
“I’m not holding out,” Lucy says. “Ask Jasper.”
“Well?” Ryan asks me. Everyone else in his pod stares, too.
“What?” I say, unwrapping my BERF. “Nothing happened. Or, at least, I’m not sure what happened. My desperation to reach the cache must have given me an extra power surge.”
Ryan doesn’t look very satisfied with my answer, but he doesn’t press me on it.
Annette is a different story. She walks to where I’m sitting and cups her hand against my bruised cheek. “I’m curious, Jasper. How come all the drama at the EarthBound Academy seems to gravitate to you?”
The warmth of her fingers against my skin is distracting. I think it should hurt, but it actually feels kind of soothing, and entirely awkward.
“It seems to me you must be looking for drama,” she continues, “sort of like Sheek.”
I knock her hand away. “You’re comparing me to Sheek? No way! I can’t believe you’d say that!”
“Most guys would take it as a compliment.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m not most guys.”
Annette looks at me with her level stare. “No. You’re not.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Is she insulting me? Should I be flattered? This girl is impossible to understand.
“What about me?” Marco says, thankfully rescuing me from one kind of drama I definitely don’t want: girl drama.
“You’re worse than Sheek,” Lucy says. “At least Sheek is actually ridiculously handsome.”
“Come on,” Marco says. “I’m hot and you know it.”
“In your dreams, Tofu Face.”
“What do you think, Meggi?” Marco asks.
Meggi looks like she might faint. She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out.
“You know she thinks you’re gorgeous,” Annette says.
Lucy slaps Annette on the shoulder.
“What was that?” Cole says.
“I said Meggi thinks—” Annette says.
“Not that. Over there.” Cole gestures to the huge boulder where we ditched our stuff. “I thought I saw something moving over by our packs.”
Everyone stops and stares at the big rock and the pile of blast packs.
“I don’t see anything,” Marco says.
“Maybe it was a slimer,” Ryan says. “Jaron from Amazonas swears they saw one yesterday.”
“Yeah, well, Jaron’s a liar,” Meggi says.
There’s been talk of slimers for weeks. The technical Tunneler name is impossible to pronounce, so we call them slimers. According to the junior ambassadors, a slimer is one of the few creatures that can survive aboveground on the Tundra. You can’t spot them until you step on them, and then it’s usually too late. Slimers can change shape instantly. Usually they spread out real thin along the ground and absorb starlight for energy, but they can also feed off organic matter. So if you step on one, they morph into a giant blob around you. You die a slow, painful death as they take days to dissolve you with digestive fluid. Most cadets think they’re not real, that the junior ambassadors are just messing with us.
“We have to go,” Annette says. “We have two more caches slotted this afternoon. If there’s a slimer by the packs, we’ll make sure to let you know.”
I think she’s being sarcastic—no one really believes in slimers, right?—but I just can’t tell with Annette.
Their pod successfully retrieves their blast packs and bounds away.
Once they’re gone, Cole asks, “Do you think slimers exist?”
“Of course not, Wiki,” Marco says. “But I’ll tell you what scary creatures do exist—the Youli! And so far we’ve been pitifully unsuccessful in discovering anything about Earth Force’s plans!”
“What about the conversation between Ridders and Sheek about the summit and the military engagement?” Cole asks. “Waters’s comments to Jasper confirmed it.”
“Great. And what do we know about the summit?” Marco says. “Nothing!”
“I don’t think Earth Force is going to offer up any details,” I say.
“Of course not!” Marco says. “We need a plan to get the information ourselves! I don’t know what ‘military engagement’ means to you, but to me it means there’s going to be a fight. And if they plan to send the Bounders to battle, you better believe I want to know about it in advance!”
“Leave it to me,” Lucy says. “It’s time I had a heart-to-heart with Sheek.”
“Seriously?” Cole says.
“Sure! It will be fun!”
“Okay, DQ, I’ll leave it up to you,” Marco says, “but if you haven’t found out by tomorrow night, I’m in charge, and I’m targeting the weakest link.”
“What on earth does that mean?” I say.
“Our furry friend’s father is the highest-ranking Tunneler in Earth Force, and his daughter has a hard time keeping secrets.”
“Marco, not again! You wouldn’t!” Lucy says.
“You bet I would if it means finding out the truth!”
“I’ll get the truth from Sheek tonight,” she says. “But you leave Neeka alone! After the foot powder, you promised!”
Cole outlines our afternoon cache strategy. We’ll bound to a cache site we visited last week and then fly our packs to today’s target. Once we secure the cache, we’ll bound back to the base before curfew. One by one, my pod mates head out.
I’m just about to bound when Mira bursts into my brain.
Wait!
I pull back from my port and blink. I expect Mira to be right in front of me. Instead, she’s running from rock to rock where we ate lunch like she’s searching for a cache, and my brain is picking up panic.
Let’s go! I think, and just in case she’s not paying attention in her mind, I shout, “Let’s go!”
Mira is frantic. She’s still running, but now she’s shaking her arms like she has something super nasty on her hands that she needs to fling off. My brain feels like a glitter bomb exploded all over it.
I dash in her direction. She’s basically flipping out—waving her hands, pulling her braid, darting around. When I reach her, I grab hold of her shoulders so she’ll stop running. That sends her into even more of a freak-out, so I back away, rubbing the back of my neck as I do. This brain-connection thing is not all fun and games.
“I’m not touching you, okay? What’s wrong? How can I help?”
She keeps waving her hands. Hands! Hands! Hands!
I have no idea what to do. “What is it, Mira? How can I help?”
My hands! She waves them frantically.
“What about your hands?”
She takes off again, bending down to look beneath every rock.
Her hands . . . hmmm . . . maybe that’s not the exact word. What I’m feeling from her brain is more the impression of hands. I watch carefully as she shakes her hands by her sides.
Wait a second . . .
I dash to her side. “Mira, where are your gloves?”
There’s a wash of relief that crosses her face and my brain. That’s it. That’s why she’s freaking out. The reprieve only lasts a second, though, because the problem itself is extremely grave.
Lost!
21
“YO
U LOST YOUR GLOVES?”
A sense of confirmation fills my brain, but it’s accompanied by a hoverload of panic.
“Take a deep breath. Try to focus. Where did you leave them? Was it when we were having lunch?”
We race to where we were eating, even though I’m pretty sure Mira already scoured the place searching for her gloves.
I check where she was sitting, and then I branch out in circles, canvassing the area for any sign of her gloves. By the time I’ve searched a twenty-meter radius, I’m feeling pretty desperate, too.
I also know the others have got to be worried. Seconds later, Marco bounds in, confirming my hunch.
“What on earth?” he shouts. “We’ve got to bolt, or we won’t make it to the cache and back before curfew!”
I lean up against a rock and try to catch my breath. “Mira lost her gloves.”
Marco narrows his eyes. “Gloves don’t just get up and walk away.”
“Yeah, I know, but we’ve looked everywhere.” I throw my hands in the air. “They’re gone.”
“Maybe one of the others accidentally packed them.”
“Good thinking. Bound back and check.” The star sinks on the horizon, confirming the dark truth. “If we can’t find her gloves, we’ll have to fly. And even if we leave this very second, we’re cutting it pretty close for curfew. If you haven’t found them in five minutes, bring us the astrocache compass.”
Marco shakes his head. “I’ll be back in three minutes.”
Lights glow from his palms, and he vanishes.
Mira sits on the ground with her back to a boulder. I sink down next to her.
Go.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Go.
I don’t bother responding, by mouth or by brain. Instead, I remove my right glove. Then I untangle her left hand from her right and weave my fingers through hers. She rests her head against my shoulder. Sadness rolls off her in waves. I watch the numbers on my watch tick down.
Three.
Marco and the others must have searched their packs by now.
The Tundra Trials Page 17