by Lucas Flint
Although the figure in the doorway was silhouetted, I instantly recognized the voice. “Triplet, is that you?”
Before Triplet could respond, a loud, ear-piercing shriek echoed through the basement, made even louder by the confined space of the basement. I saw Triplet move out of the way just in time to avoid the sound blast, which shattered the door frame and the door itself upon impact.
“Damn it,” Grandmother said. “How did he get in here? Echo, kill that damn detective.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Echo.
Echo ran around my table, huffing and puffing. I decided to take advantage of this moment to try to break free again. The clamps were still very tight, but I could feel them starting to give way. As long as Triplet kept Echo occupied, I might be able to free myself.
I saw Echo run up the stairs, but when she was about halfway there, I saw something fly through the doorway and strike her in the face. The blow sent her stumbling back down the stairs until she hit the floor, where she lay very still, but I couldn’t tell if she was unconscious or just stunned.
Then Triplet reappeared in the doorway, saying, “Hold on, kid, I’m coming!”
Triplet got only a few feet down the stairs, however, before Echo sat up and screamed at him again. This time, Triplet ducked, which allowed him to avoid Echo’s sound blast. He then ran down the steps and started fighting Echo, punching and kicking at her. Echo, to her credit, was a surprisingly good fighter, keeping up with Triplet despite the weight and height differences between the two.
I heard Grandmother growl in frustration somewhere nearby. “Matthew, get me out of here! We must flee and try again somewhere else. It is obvious that our base has been compromised.”
“Yes, dear, right away, dear,” said Grandfather’s voice, which sounded very small in comparison to the sounds of fighting between Triplet and Echo.
Then I heard Grandfather run over to Grandmother’s table. I couldn’t let them escape, so I struggled even harder to break free. The clamps were indeed starting to give way, but they were just too thick to break.
Then I heard Grandmother urging Grandfather to help her off the table and into her wheelchair, followed by the squeaks of her wheelchair’s wheels as they escaped and Grandmother reminding Grandfather to take Savannah’s soul with them. I had no idea where they were going—maybe the house had a secret basement escape route—but I knew that if I didn’t stop them here, they would just try again somewhere else.
Finally, after several more seconds of struggle, I freed my right arm from its clamps. Then I ripped off the clamps on my left arm and neck, allowing me to sit up and tear off the clamps around my legs. My body felt stiff and uncomfortable from having to lie in that position for so long, but it felt great to be free at last.
Shaking my head, I jumped off the table and said, “Triplet! I’m going after my grandparents. You stay here and keep Echo distracted, okay?”
“All right,” said Triplet as he dodged a punch from Echo. “But you’d better hurry. I just saw them go through that door. They’ll probably be out on the street within minutes, if they aren’t already.”
‘That door’ turned out to be a wooden door built into the back wall of the basement. It was left open, no doubt by Grandfather, who had been in a hurry to leave. I ran through the open doorway, dashing into the dark, narrow, hallway. I didn’t hear Grandfather or Grandmother inside it, but I knew that they were somewhere up ahead.
After a couple of twists and turns, I finally reached the end, which was yet another wooden door. This one, however, was closed, and even locked, but a single punch was enough to break the lock, allowing me to kick open the door and run out onto the street.
I had emerged onto a back street behind the old house, which, like the rest of the area, was totally abandoned. Except, of course, for my grandparents, who I immediately noticed going down the street to my right. Grandfather was hurriedly pushing Grandmother along, while Grandmother berated Grandfather to push faster and to keep going.
“Hey!” I shouted. “You two, stop!”
That actually worked, much to my surprise. Grandfather stopped and looked over his shoulder in shock and horror. His aged face turned even paler than usual, making him look just as sick as Grandmother, if not more so.
“Matthew, what are you doing?” said Grandmother. She slapped his hands. “Keep pushing. Don’t let our foolish grandson slow us down.”
“No,” I said. “You two aren’t going anywhere. You know you can’t escape me. Don’t run.”
“Ignore him, Matthew!” Grandmother shrieked. “Keep pushing!”
Grandfather started, but like the ‘dutiful’ husband he was, resumed pushing Grandmother down the street. I prepared to run after them, but as it turned out, I didn’t need to, because someone ran out of an alleyway between two nearby buildings and blocked their path, forcing them to come to yet another stop.
“Matthew, why did you stop?” said Grandmother. “Who is in our way?”
Grandfather seemed at a loss for words. He was trembling in fear at the figure who stood in their path, the figure who I had not expected to see again so soon. “Cadmus Smith.”
Cadmus Smith did not smile when Grandfather said his name. He just nodded at Grandfather and said, “Matthew Jason. Long time, no see.”
“Cadmus Smith?” Grandmother repeated. “You mean Test Subject Zero Zero One?”
“Indeed,” said Cadmus. He nodded at me over Grandfather’s shoulder. “Good job locating these two, Bolt. I appreciate your help in this matter, but your help will no longer be needed after this point.”
“Huh?” I said. “How did you find us? I didn’t tell you I was going here.”
“You were pretty easy to follow,” said Cadmus. “Oh, and Shade, whose in the hospital at the moment, told me to say hi to you.”
I groaned. “Thanks.”
“Cadmus, please,” said Grandfather in a pleading voice. “Please let us go. We have not done anything wrong. Besides, we were friends, remember? You and I got along quite well in Project Neo. There’s no reason to arrest us.”
“I distinctly recall you treating me and every other Test Subject in Project Neo with considerable contempt,” said Cadmus. “Regardless, I must arrest you both anyway, given that you and your followers have committed a plethora of crimes, up to and including the kidnapping of a young woman’s soul. That’s not even counting the property damage caused by Drop, as well as other crimes to which you have been linked.”
“We can still escape,” said Grandmother, though now she sounded incredibly desperate. “Matthew, turn this damn wheelchair around and get us out of here. If we leave now—”
“You two will not be escaping again today,” came a familiar, monotonic voice above me.
I looked up just in time to see Mecha Knight slowly lowering toward the street. He landed at my side, looking as calm and emotionless as he ever did.
“Bolt, how are you?” said Mecha Knight, glancing at me when he said that. “Are you hurt?”
“Just a little stiff from lying on a stone table for hours,” I said. “Where were you and the others, by the way?”
“Too late, I am afraid,” said Mecha Knight. “We did not act at first because we thought you were just talking with your Grandfather. But then Valerie called me and told me that you were not answering your earcom, which is how we knew that you were in trouble.”
“Right,” I said. “But where are Blizzard and the rest?”
“Securing the perimeter to ensure that none of your grandparents’ other allies, if there are any, escape,” said Mecha Knight. “We are going to ensure that no one escapes justice today, including and especially your grandparents.”
I nodded and looked at my grandparents again. “All right, you two. You’re surrounded. There’s no way you can escape now.”
Grandfather was looking between us and Cadmus Smith like a trapped rat. I felt a little sorry for him, given that he was my grandpa and all, but given what he and Grandmothe
r had done already, I wasn’t willing to let my guard down just because I felt sorry for him.
“Jane, I don’t know what to do,” said Grandfather, looking down at Grandmother anxiously. “We’re trapped. I think we will have to give up.”
“Give up?” Grandmother repeated incredulously. “No. I will not give up. Not yet. Not when I have come so close to doing what I’ve been working toward for the last five years.”
“Listen to your husband, Jane,” said Cadmus. “He’s absolutely correct. There is no reason to keep fighting, not anymore.”
Grandfather moved Grandmother’s wheelchair, which gave me a good look at her. I noticed that she had something hidden underneath her coat, but because her coat blocked my view of the object, I didn’t know what it was.
“No,” said Grandmother. She sounded crazy now, like she was on the brink of utter insanity, which kind of scared me a little, despite her tiny, frail body. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, but you’ve left me no choice.”
Grandmother pulled something out of her coat. It was a large glass jar, which had a bright, glowing white light inside it. At first, I thought she had a firefly or something stuck in there, but then Grandfather said, “Jane, what are you doing? You might drop Savannah’s soul.”
“There’s no point in keeping her safe anymore, Matthew,” said Grandmother. “I must do what I must do in order to save the world.”
Grandmother raised the jar to her lips and flicked open a tiny funnel on it, which she put up against her lips. She immediately started sucking in Savannah’s soul, causing the jar to grow dimmer and dimmer with each passing second. Mecha Knight, Cadmus, and I just stared at her in shock. I wasn’t even sure it was possible to drink souls. I felt like I was in a really bad urban fantasy novel or something.
After a few seconds, Grandmother finished drinking the soul. She dropped the now-empty glass jar, which shattered across the concrete. She herself fell out of her chair, sprawling across the broken glass and cutting her thin, gray skin.
“Jane!” Matthew said. “Are you all right?”
Grandmother did not answer, however. She just lay there, moaning, while her whole body glowed the same white light that the jar had. Before our startled eyes, her skin started to change, becoming less wrinkly and dry, becoming smoother and cleaner. Long, dark hair grew out of her head, while her stooped back started to straighten out.
In seconds, Grandmother no longer looked like an old, sickly woman on the edge of death. Now she looked like a healthy young woman not much older than myself. She pushed herself off the street, shaking her head, and stood up to her full height.
When she brushed back her hair, I saw Grandmother’s face, which looked almost exactly like the face of that woman in the family portrait. The only difference was that her eyes were closed, but when she opened them, they were no longer empty sockets. Instead, they were glowing pure white, like how Blizzard had once looked when she had lost her control of her powers, only she looked even scarier than Blizzard had.
“Jane?” said Grandfather in awe. “Is that you?”
Grandmother ran her hands down her young body, a smirk on her face. “Yes. It worked. The young girl’s spirit gave me my old body back. I am young again, which means I can finally—”
Grandmother suddenly stopped speaking. She reached for her throat, like she was choking on something. Tears welled up in her eyes and she staggered forward. She just barely caught herself before she fell on the street, but she was starting to look bad again. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her body, even though it was really warm outside at the moment.
“Jane, what’s the problem?” said Grandfather. “Are you okay? Is there something wrong?”
“The girl’s soul …” Grandmother heaved. “It’s trying to break free …”
Grandmother gasped and a wisp of white light escaped from her lips before she clamped her mouth shut. She looked over at Grandfather with fear in her eyes, like she had just realized that something very bad was about to happen to her.
Then, before any of us could react, Grandmother’s head jerked upwards and her mouth opened far wider than was natural. A huge burst of bright white light exploded from her mouth, its glow so bright that it completely blinded me and probably everyone else, too. It didn’t hit me, but it did make me raise my arms defensively as I listened to Grandmother’s painful cries. I also heard Grandfather shouting Grandmother’s name, but it was impossible to tell what, exactly, was going on and I didn’t want to open my eyes and blind myself, possibly permanently, by looking.
The bright white light was present for only a few seconds. It soon completely vanished, causing me to open my eyes and lower my arms to see what had happened.
Grandmother lay on the street again, back in her old, shriveled, frail body. Her mouth was still open unnaturally wide, but she was no longer breathing or moving. Her eye sockets were empty again as well, adding to her corpse-like appearance. Even her clothes were ripped in a few places, showing bits of her skin that looked like they had been burned away by fire.
Grandfather must have fallen, because he was on his side next to the overturned wheelchair. But unlike Grandmother, he was still alive, because he shook his head and looked over at Grandmother.
“Jane?” said Grandfather. His voice sounded heartbroken. “Jane, can you hear me? Jane?”
There was no response from Grandmother’s prone body. Grandfather crawled over to her and scooped her into his arms, tears starting to well in his eyes.
“Jane, please, Jane, wake up,” said Grandfather. His voice nearly broke. “Please wake up.”
But Grandmother didn’t wake up.
So Grandfather buried his face into her chest and began to cry.
Chapter Nineteen
Watching Grandfather cry was hard. Even though he had been too weak to stand up to Grandmother and had worked with her to try to harm me, I still felt sorry for the old man. I guess he must have really loved Grandmother after all, but I didn’t know what to say or do to console him or if I even should at all.
Then, without warning, Triplet burst out of the door from the secret entrance. He skid to a stop and was about to say something, but then he paused when he saw Grandfather sobbing over Grandmother.
“Is she dead?” said Triplet, looking at me. Triplet had a few bruises on his face, but otherwise looked okay.
I nodded. “Yes. She tried to absorb Savannah Jones’s soul, but I guess it must have been too much for her body, because it killed her and escaped.”
“I bet that means that Savannah’s soul has returned to her body, then,” said Triplet. He sighed in relief. “That’d good to hear. I’ll be sure to contact her parents soon and let them know, though I imagine they’ll know about it themselves soon enough.”
“Right,” I said. “What about Echo? Is she—”
“I knocked her out,” said Triplet. “And tied her up, too, so she couldn’t escape while I went to check on you. That’s part of the reason I didn’t come out to join you right away.”
“Good,” I said. “But how did you find me here anyway? I didn’t tell you about my meeting with Grandfather.”
“I’ve been following Matthew Jason’s trail for a while now,” said Triplet. “Granted, I did lose him after seeing that soul-stealing incident in that small town, but that was only for a brief time. I pretty quickly found some more clues to his location after that and simply followed the trail here. I cut the power to the basement when I realized everyone was down there and that it would be a good way to get the jump on Matthew and the others.”
“Thanks,” I said. “If you hadn’t done that, I would have been an old man by now.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Triplet. He looked at Mecha Knight. “Mecha Knight. Long time, no see.”
Mecha Knight nodded at Triplet. “It’s good to see you again, Triplet. I also want to thank you for helping us stop Bolt’s grandparents.”
“Not a problem,” said Triplet. “What matters to m
e is that I helped solve my clients’ case, which is how I get paid. Helping you guys out was just a bonus.”
“I must thank you anyway,” said Mecha Knight. “By the way, I have something I wish to discuss with you sometime.”
Triplet raised an eyebrow. “What would that be?”
“A new case I think you would be able to solve,” said Mecha Knight. He glanced at me before looking at Triplet again. “But not right here in front of Bolt. It’s top secret.”
“I see,” said Triplet. “Well, just call me sometime and we can talk about it.”
“Okay,” said Mecha Knight.
Then we heard footsteps coming toward us and we looked over to see Cadmus Smith walking toward us. He just walked right past Grandfather, who was still sobbing into Grandmother’s corpse, without even looking at the old man, and then stopped several feet from us, his hands in his pockets.
“Cadmus,” said Mecha Knight. Although his voice was pretty monotonic, I noticed a coldness in it that hadn’t been there before. “I did not expect to see you here tonight.”
“Nor did I expect to see you, Jack,” said Cadmus. “It’s the first time we’ve worked together in many years. Reminds you of the old days, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” said Mecha Knight, “though those days are long past.”
“Indeed,” said Cadmus.
I looked between Mecha Knight and Cadmus, unsure if I had heard that correctly. “Huh? You two worked together once?”
“We knew each other at one point,” said Cadmus. “We were in Project Neo together, after all. Jack was Test Subject Zero Zero Three.”
I looked at Mecha Knight in shock. “You never mentioned that you were in Project Neo.”
“It’s a period of my life I generally don’t like to talk about,” said Mecha Knight. “But it is how I knew the Test Subjects, in case you haven’t put two and two together yet, though unlike the others, I was allowed to leave the program voluntarily, instead of breaking out like the others. It’s part of the reason I came here in person; I wanted to put some closure on this chapter of my life.”