by James Phelan
This one’s for Chris, aka Paco Jnr—JP.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Our Battle Continues
Previously
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Collage
Preview of The Last Thirteen: 6
Sneak Peek
About the Author
Copyright
PREVIOUSLY
Sam is gliding high above the Amazon, desperately trying to hold onto the unconscious Dreamer, Rapha, and evade Stella’s capture. They crash-land and make their way through the thick jungle undetected, and meet up with Tobias and Xavier, the prized Gear still in their possession.
Eva and Lora continue to be held captive on the luxury boat belonging to the renegade Councillor, Mac. Mac tries to convince them of his elaborate plan—to doublecross Solaris by masquerading as his ally.
Pooling Academy and Enterprise resources and working around the clock, the Professor and the Director believe they have traced Stella’s location. Alex is dispatched with his mother, Phoebe, and a team of Agents to an abandoned Enterprise site in Vancouver to apprehend Stella.
Unsure about their next step in the race, destiny hands Sam a lucky break, redirecting them to Cuba, close to the location of the next Dreamer. They find Maria, but the recent disappearance of her father means she is wary, and reluctant to help them locate the next Gear.
Sam proves his sincerity to Maria, and with Tobias they begin their deep-sea dive to the ancient shipwreck from Maria’s dream. They find the Gear.
Eva is shocked by the sudden appearance of her aunt Julia, who is now working for Mac. Mac takes them to the storage facility in Vancouver in pursuit of Enterprise files. Mac allows Eva and Lora to “escape” his capture. They flee, but remain distrusting of Mac’s plot.
While making their way through the Vancouver storage facility, Alex sees disturbing evidence of the Enterprise’s genetic experiments. When Stella’s forces arrive and start shooting, Alex, Phoebe and their commander, Rick, are separated from their team and trapped underground.
Sam and Maria start a dangerous swim for survival through shark-infested waters. They find Maria’s father and Sam is relieved to be headed back to the Academy with his friends, another Gear safe in his hands … until an explosive fireball erupts on the road ahead, stopping them in their tracks.
01
SAM
The firefight erupted before Sam’s world had even stopped spinning. The sound of gunshots rang out all around, the echoes washing over them, trapped in the crushed car. Sam reached out to pull hard at the door handle. Next to him, Xavier leaned over to help wrench the door open, but the impact of the crash had bent and twisted the door frame.
The wrecked Guardian car ahead was an empty shell, burning hot and bright. The surviving Guardians sheltered behind it, using it as cover from their attackers as they returned fire. Sam twisted his neck to look frantically at the windows. Each was cracked or shattered. None would provide an easy escape.
How are we getting out of this?
“Out the back!” Tobias called, taking charge as everyone began to cry out and gasp for air. He climbed over to the back seat and manoeuvred in between a visibly petrified Maria and her father, kicking open the lift-up door. The other Dreamers and Sam followed. The two Guardians in the front seats were leaning out of their wrecked windows, shooting furiously.
Darts pinged off steel close to where Sam knelt, huddled behind Tobias.
Still crouched and staying close together, Sam, Rapha, Xavier, Maria and Chris all followed Tobias to shelter behind their crashed car. Darts continued to ricochet off the metal frame. The rear sedan had escaped any damage, its Guardian passengers now standing close to the Dreamers on the bridge, defending against Stella’s Agents.
From out of the loud gunfire, Sam heard a buzzing noise overhead. He looked up and saw a small helicopter hovering above, rotors blurred in flight.
What the …? His fear switched to hope. Is this some kind of remote assistance from Jedi? That’s so cool!
As he looked closer, Sam noticed that the helicopter had a tiny camera fixed to its underside, and it hovered on the spot, remaining positioned directly above him. He squinted up into the lens.
“Sam! It’s not ours—and it’s monitoring you!” Tobias called out. “It’s relaying your position.”
Oh, great. That’s so not cool.
Sam ignored the helicopter and scanned the scene, looking up and down the endless bridge highway that stood imposingly over the sea. All other traffic had stopped, turning around where they could to speed away from the fight that had erupted in the middle of the bridge.
Four Guardians were close by, holding back Stella’s Agents, shooting and reloading their weapons. Sam knew there were more Guardians protecting their position farther up the bridge. From where he took cover, he could see seven rogue Agents hunkered down around their own vehicles, waiting for their chance to advance.
“Xavier and Rapha,” Tobias said urgently, “go with Maria and her father. Use the Guardians’ car behind us. Get to the nearest airport and let Lora and the Professor know what’s happened.”
“What about Sam?” Xavier asked. “We could take—”
“It’s Sam they’re after,” Tobias said, shaking his head. “Go!”
Rapha and Xavier nodded. Sam hastily reached into his backpack and pulled out his dart gun, pressing it into Xavier’s hand just before they ran quickly with Maria and her father to the last remaining vehicle that could still be used to escape. Sam watched as they piled into the large black car, Chris at the wheel. The car roared into life and spun around rapidly, screeching down the wrong way on the bridge, back in the direction they had come. As they retreated, Sam could see the car weaving through the stopped traffic and taking the emergency lane to get far away from danger.
Sam could feel the heat radiating from the wrecked Guardian vehicle in front, twisted up against a passing truck that had also crashed in the mayhem, completely closing off the road ahead. The flames mesmerized Sam, putting him into a fearful, almost hypnotic state.
“Sam!”
Sam didn’t respond. He continued to watch the flames flicker, his senses all seemingly offline. An explosion of the truck’s diesel tanks cut through the air and the hot rush of the fiery wind flooded over him.
“Sam! We’re going to jump,” Tobias said. “Sam?”
Just like that night with Bill and the fire. I couldn’t help him … and in the end I can’t help anyone, not even myself …
“Sam!” Tobias shook him, and Sam, startled, came back to reality. “Listen. We have to jump into the water.”
“But,” Sam looked over the side railing, “they have a boat down there.”
> “Exactly.”
From his high vantage point, Sam could make out two guys in the back of the boat manning a rocket launcher.
They’re the ones that hit the Guardians’ car!
There was one other guy visible, standing at the wheel, obviously ready to drive the idling boat around when the team up top had finished off the job of getting Sam.
“Hide among our enemy …” Sam said, starting to see sense in the plan.
Anything to get away from this fire.
“OK, let’s do it.”
The little helicopter buzzed overhead, shadowing Sam’s every move. The Guardians were shouting at each other, coordinating their fire. Tobias called out commands to the closest one who nodded and relayed the information to his colleagues. Then, while the two front Guardians kept shooting at Stella’s Agents, the rear Guardians both turned around in unison, the small helicopter in their sights. They each pulled their triggers in the same instant, hitting the remote-controlled vehicle and sending it spiralling to the ground. Sam jumped out of the way as it crash-landed just where he had been crouched. With a swift kick, he sent it sliding across the road into the fiery furnace of the burning wreck.
“Follow me!” Tobias said, running to the guardrail of the bridge and vaulting over the side. At that same moment, the Guardians began firing even faster and more relentlessly at their enemies.
Sam followed, hitting the railing at the same spot and hurdling over it—one giant leap straight ahead, without even looking down until he was flying over the edge.
Oh mannnnnn!
Sam flew through the air, his arms and legs thrashing about as though he was still running. As he fell toward the water, he saw Tobias directly below him, a few seconds ahead.
More alarmingly, he also saw the boat directly below them both.
Sam adjusted his Stealth Suit so that the material between his arms and body formed the wingsuit he’d used before. It caught at the air and, with the added wind resistance, Sam adjusted and slowed his fall. He was still headed for the boat but was slowing, gaining enough time to better position his landing.
THUD!
He hit hard, landing directly on top of the guy loading the rocket launcher. The rogue Agent was knocked out cold, and the rocket he was holding clattered to the deck with a loud metallic CLANG that made Sam freeze in anticipation of what was coming.
But there was no explosion—the rocket didn’t go off.
The other Agent turned around, momentarily caught off-guard at the sight of his buddy on the ground and a new passenger standing next to him.
“OOMPH!” he exclaimed as Sam fly-kicked him, sending the Agent overboard.
The Agent behind the wheel at the front of the boat heard the loud splash and turned around to face Sam. His eyes were cold, a smirk starting to form on his lips. He reached for the holster on his hip and then raised his dart gun at Sam—
WHACK!
The guy’s eyes rolled shut, and he slumped forward to the ground. Tobias seemed to materialize out of nowhere, the life ring he used to hit the Agent over the back of the head with still held tightly in his hands.
“You drive the boat,” Tobias said to Sam. “I’ll use that launcher to even out the odds for our friends up there.”
Sam rushed forward and grabbed the controls of the boat, easing the throttle while turning the wheel. He brought the boat around fast to face the bridge.
WHOOSH!
Sam watched a rocket streak up and explode just behind Stella’s men, forcing them to run for cover.
02
SAM’S NIGHTMARE
The sunlight flickers off the water and illuminates the scene before me. I’m standing at a fork in a river at the base of a vast stone wall—not man-made, but a cliff. It is so big. It looks tall enough to be holding up the sky above me.
I’ve seen this before, been here with my family.
The Grand Canyon.
But not like this. Not from down almost inside one of the massive canyons.
And I’m not alone.
“This is Cody, do you copy?” I turn to see a guy about my age, tanned and fit, working a radio.
Cody, gotcha.
He tries the radio call again, and again, then switches it off. He says to me, “Radio hardly ever works in these canyons, not this far into no-man’s-land. Guess we’re on our own.”
“No-man’s-land?”
Beyond him I see our two kayaks. One of them is broken, cracked through the middle with a chunk torn out and there are no paddles to be seen.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been in worse situations,” Cody says, grinning. “Last spring, we had this flood come through when I was spelunking the Getzler Pass. That was bad.”
“Spelunking?”
“Yeah, caving—you know, exploring in caves?” Cody explains. “That time, it was like being spat out of a washing machine on spin cycle, and I was washed ashore with nothing but the shirt on my back. And I mean nothing—I had to make my shirt into a makeshift pair of shorts. Anyways, I got out of there. Took me two weeks, though.”
“Two weeks?” I ask, looking around at the red rock walls that reach up to the bright blue sky.
How do we get out of here? Swim?
“How’d you survive two weeks?”
“Lived off the land,” Cody replies. “Swam, hiked and climbed my way to a road.”
I look at the river that splits in two at the rocky shore that we are standing on. The water is running fast, foaming white where it collides with rocks. “Lived off the land? What, you caught fish and stuff?”
“Ah, yeah,” Cody chuckles. “I caught fish, with my imaginary fishing gear. Made some real nice sushi.”
Gee, sarcastic much? What’s with this guy?
He walks over and stops next to me, and looks up at the canyon wall. “Incredible, isn’t it?”
“Yep.”
“They must have been geniuses …”
I turn to Cody. He’s looking up at the rock wall, staring at it in awe.
Then I see it.
This isn’t just a canyon wall.
Someone was here, a long time ago …
“Isn’t it awesome?!” Cody shouts. “You OK?”
“Er, sure …” I hang on for dear life. Below me is an immense drop, spanned by an uneven, narrow rock bridge. We are in the heart of a cave, underground, but I can see a fast-moving river in the darkness. The weak light of my flashlight beams over it and I can see that it’s running fast. I can hear it—the phenomenally powerful roar of an immense volume of water moving at speed. The opposite bank is too far away to see in the dark.
“We have to cross it!” Cody shouts over the noise.
I turn and shine the light back the way we’ve come, all the twists and turns and levels that we’ve descended are now covered by complete darkness.
“You’re sure about this?” I ask.
“We’re almost there,” Cody replies. “We just have to cross it.”
I can make out the mural-covered wall behind us, scrawled with scripture in a language I’ve never seen. The pictograms look similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, only these are …
“Ah!” I say, startled as I bump into the back of Cody.
“Careful!” Cody is putting himself into a climbing harness.
“Why’d you stop?”
“Because of that.” He points at a giant cave spider. “It’s a pussycat but you don’t want to get too close,” Cody says, grinning. “And trust me, you do not want to fall into this river.”
“You’ve fallen in before?” I say.
“Yep,” Cody says, shivering at the memory. “First time I came down here.”
“How’d you get out?”
“Swam.”
I look out at the empty black space. “To where?”
“To the other side … well, the torrents kind of spat me out over there. Dumb luck more than anything else. It’s a long way over too—see how strong that current is? I just made it before the river disappeared in
to the cave. Heads underground way up that way.” Cody’s flashlight beam followed the raging river.
“I guess you’re a strong swimmer,” I say. I follow Cody’s lead and take a climbing harness, slipping my legs through and then fastening it tightly around my waist.
“Nope. Like I said, I got lucky, that’s the only way I can explain it.”
“What’s on the other side?”
“What we came for.”
“How do we get over there?”
Cody points above us.
“We go up.”
I look to where he is shining his light.
You’ve got to be kidding me!
I strap onto the zip line and hang on, travelling blindly through the complete darkness.
When did Cody say to apply the brakes?
Ahead, a tiny light appears in the distance—Cody’s flashlight. I squeeze the apparatus that connects me to the line and feel myself slowing, hearing the friction. Despite hitting the brakes, I stop hard and fast when Cody catches me at the end of the line. I unclip and climb with Cody down to floor level, which is paved with smooth stone slabs.
“This is …”
“Vast? Incredible? Out of this world?”
“All of the above …” I say as the two of us walk up the stairs to a paved ancient plaza. A magnificent shrine made of the same smooth stone blocks stands in the centre, surrounded by smaller outer structures. “A pyramid? In North America?”
“I know,” Cody says. “At first I thought it was Mayan, but it’s not. Sides are too smooth.”
“Looks more Egyptian.”
“We’re a long way from Egypt.”
“We’re a long way from anywhere …” I say, walking toward the shrine. I stop at a large altar.
“Ah, Sam …”
“Just a sec.” I reach forward, and my hand hovers near an intricate carving. It seems familiar.
I stare at the twelve figures depicted in the circle, focusing on the thirteenth standing in the middle of them, his arms outstretched. It is carved in the stone, but the middle man seems to be gilt in gold.
“Sam, I don’t think you should touch that.”