I stepped to the window and looked down. The ground was much closer than I thought it was and there were some nice bushes to cushion my fall.
“I’m not going to,” I said. “I’m going to stop Sykes and then Project Midnight. Something you never tried to do. You need me to take them down.”
“I don’t trust that you will.”
“You’ll have to.”
I jumped.
Chapter Fourteen
Lockdown
I heard the sirens start up by the time I had reached campus. I unclipped the earpiece from my shirt and put it in my ear as I walked.
“You there?” I said.
“You alive? I heard a whole bunch of banging. I thought for sure he was going to kill you.”
“We had a little disagreement. The police force should be on my trail any minute.”
Silence on the other end, then, “Yeah…I’ll guess we’ll just make this up as we go?”
“Right. Sykes is the priority now.”
I took a short cut that I knew ran past the gym where they were holding the pep rally.
“I’m almost to the gym. You still there?”
“No, I’m at the dorm, but don’t come back here. Melanie’s at the pep rally. I’ll sneak out and meet you there.”
“The whole school’s in lockdown. We won’t be able to get into the gym.”
“You’re Phantom. You can find a way in for us.”
I was about to say no again when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Melanie.
Something weird going on at the pep rally. You here?
Melanie
“Fine, it looks like I’m needed at the pep rally. I’ll find a way in and you let me know when you’re here.”
“Got it.”
I started jogging towards the gym. When I arrived I tried the front door just to be sure, but they were locked tight, the windows covered. I went around the back, where nobody could see me. Hopefully there would be a vent I could climb into on the roof.
I took the grapple from the costume and, making sure nobody was around, fired it to the ledge above me and pulled myself up.
“No go,” Cody said once I reached the top. “I tried to leave but some guys caught me. I have to stay put.”
“That’s fine. I’m almost in. Stay on the line.”
I spied a vent and popped the cover off. I looked down but couldn’t see too far into the blackness. I put on Phantom’s gloves in case I slipped, attached the grapple to the lip of the vent and started to repel down.
Cody’s voice came again, sounding slightly worried. “I got Melanie’s text, but when I called I got a dead tone. I’d get Matt to check on her but he’s at the Lab finishing up the water molecule materializer. The lockdown’s keeping him there, I’m sure.”
“Can you call him?”
The gloves managed to grip the slick interior of the vent and I paused, listening to the dial tone of Cody’s phone.
“You are so lucky I picked up,” Matt said. “Do you have any idea how close I am to finishing this?”
“His call went through,” Cody muttered.
“Sorry, Matt, But I need to see if you can find out where Sykes is,” I said. I waited until Matt was done sighing heavily into the phone and said, “Listen, this is urgent. They’re not going to lift the lockdown until Sykes is gone, Matt.”
“What lockdown?”
“Are you working under a rock?” Cody said in disbelief. “Sykes is on campus. The school’s in lockdown. I’m stuck in the dorm and Drake’s breaking in to the pep rally.”
There was a brief pause. “I see,” Matt said.
“Since he’s on campus then it should be easier to find out where he is. Call Cody if you find him.”
“And please see what’s going on in the gym. I can’t get through to Melanie. I think something’s up.”
“Okay, I’m doing it.” He hung up.
“I love that guy, but he’s totally clueless,” Cody said. I continued repelling down the shaft. I saw a faint light below me and a minute later touched down on some squishy air vents that gave under my weight. “At least he’s safe,” I said. “I think I’m in a maintenance shaft. Yep, there’s the ladder.” I took the gloves off, descended the ladder and opened the door to find myself in one of the back hallways near the locker room. A hum of voices came from some double doors to my right. I glanced through the windows to the inside.
Hundreds of students checkered the stands raised high above the sunken basketball court. I went back into the hallway. The stairs would take me up the side to the higher bleachers and I raced up them, past a maintenance room and through another set of double doors.
A nervous buzz of voices blasted my ears. Despite the lockdown, the band was still playing in full force while cheerleaders tumbled beside them. It all looked normal, but something was off. I couldn’t put a finger on it, but this was the calm before the storm.
I quickly busied myself with looking for Melanie.
“Drake!” She was coming from the top of the bleachers. She hopped down the last few steps and ran over to me.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
Melanie took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Everybody’s phones stopped working just after I texted you.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, trying to think. I spotted Liz in the stands and exhaled a sigh of relief. She was here and safe. “Is there any help here? Anybody who might have connection with the outside, like an officer or someone?”
“There were a couple here earlier, but they left to check on the lockdown and haven’t come back yet. I know Sykes was spotted on campus but I don’t think he would dare come here—”
“He would,” I said. “He definitely would.” Other than sad faces at a pep rally, nothing else looked too bad.
“Listen, go back up into the stands and—”
Melanie clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream, looking at the gym doors behind me. I spun around. Two masked gunmen cradling Uzis had pushed through the doors.
A rising tide of screams gradually rose at my back as I guessed more gunmen had appeared. Students sprang from their seats but a smattering of gunfire came from the gym floor. A couple of people collapsed and a voice roared into a microphone,
“Sit down!”
The gunman nearest to us shoved me. I thought for sure I was going to get herded right along with the other kids, and then I heard Melanie.
“What do you think you’re doing here? Don’t you know this is a pep rally?”
She stood near the door, hands on her hips. The determined look on her face almost hid her shaking shoulders.
Melanie tossed up her hands.
“How are we supposed to have a rally with people like you here?”
The men glanced at one another. I almost missed Melanie’s slight nod my direction, but the second the men stepped towards her I went for the back of their necks. Both dropped. I kicked their guns under the bleachers. The gunmen on the gym floor were too distracted with terrorizing people to notice.
I turned to Melanie. Her shaking had increased but she was holding it together. I gently grasped her arms and said in my most reassuring voice, “Melanie, that was great. You’re okay. We’re all going to be okay.”
She took in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know how you stand up to men like that. I about fainted.”
I laughed weakly and double-checked the gym floor. “You were really brave. I need you to get back to the bleachers and stay safe—”
“Drake!”
Great.
“Liz!” She joined me and I pushed them both to the side of the bleachers, just out sight of the chaos around us.
“Don’t draw attention to yourself,” I said. “I’m going to find a way to take out the gunmen.”
I looked over her shoulder. There were two gunmen at each of the other three exits, corralling students back to their seats. At least ten masked men had made a wide ring on the gym floor around their leader. I saw at least three
bodies.
“Please go back to the stands,” I said.
“The lights,” Liz said quickly. “Cut the lights. Melanie and I will try to get some students ready to jump the gunmen when you cut them.”
“The lights will work but don’t get the students involved in this. Stay here—”
“We can help!” Melanie insisted. Something about standing up to the gunmen must have hardened her resolve. “Leave before they notice. Don’t worry about us.”
Liz shoved me towards the door and with a quick glance back I slipped through it and into the vacant hallway.
I changed into my costume in record time and stuck the earpiece back in.
“Cody,” I said.
“Matt told me somebody put a jamming signal on the gym. Sykes—”
“Is here,” I said. “Keep me updated with anything outside the gym. I need to work.”
“Is Melanie—”
“She’s fine. Most everyone is.”
“Most everyone?” Cody said. I brushed the image of the bodies from my mind. I had other people to take care of.
I tried to find where the lights to the gym might be. The switches were probably inside but there had to be a breaker or something out here. I spotted the maintenance door I had passed coming up the stairs. I found a bolted handle attached to a circuit breaker inside. The glove contracted on the lock and with a huge tug I tore it off.
“Things are about to get dark,” I said. Then, to myself. “Here we go.”
One, two, three.
I pulled the handle down and a monstrous humming in the background died. Screams erupted from the gym but I was already moving, the darkness growing brighter as my mask amplified whatever light was still left.
The moment I re-entered the gym there came a smattering of gunfire into the ceiling directly across from me that quickly stopped. I guess Melanie had distracted the gunmen enough. I grappled to the other side of the gym. Two more guards near the other double doors came in to view, sweeping blindly in front of themselves and thankfully not firing.
I shouldered one to the ground and kicked another in the face, making his gun discharge into the wall. I heard more gunfire and screams from the floor and picked up the pace.
The guards at the other set of doors went down easily enough. A second later I hung above the gym floor, like spider dangling over the remaining men. Most of them had spread out in the darkness. The leader had no gun. He hadn’t moved, as though waiting.
I dropped on the outside of the circle of men. One of them heard me and spun around, but I kicked his leg and smashed his face as he collapsed. Someone tackled me from behind and we both fell. I felt his fingers struggle towards my throat. I freed my elbow and hammered it back. I was rewarded by a nasty crunch as it met his nose. He screamed and I chopped his throat.
Three more went down from chops from behind before the lights came back on, but by then it didn’t even phase me. The rest of the gunman waved stupidly around as their eyes adjusted to the light.
“There he is!” one yelled. I dove as he fired and came up under his jaw. The remaining four, minus the leader who still hadn’t moved, surrounded me. They didn’t fire, either because they thought they would hit their own guys or were waiting for their chance.
“Arms up, freak!” One yelled and all four leveled their guns. A sudden hush had fallen on the stands as I circled to face each of them.
“Hands up!” The man screamed again. I raised my arms. And fired the grappling hook at his arm, wrapped it around his bicep and with a massive heave swung him sideways into another man.
The last two rushed me. My arms came up to block. Jab to the side, duck, roll out of the way. One went down, and then a strange, faint sound started from the stands, so soft I thought I had heard wrong.
I must have heard wrong.
“Drake?” Cody said confusedly as I dodged a punch. “Are they…chanting your name?”
And they were. “Phantom! Phantom! Phantom!” The cheer rose and fell among the stands like waves. Students leapt from their seats and escaped while I had the men distracted, all the while still chanting, still cheering.
I sidestepped a man and hit him in the back of the head before kicking him down. What few students were still left cheered as they ran out the doors.
“One to go,” Cody said.
I turned to the last man. He hadn’t moved the entire time. His masked face looked up as though observing the stars, except there weren’t any stars in the gym and his eyes were closed.
“What did you expect to do here?” I said.
“Take him down, Phantom,” Cody urged. Sykes’ eyes snapped open and he pulled the mask off as if he hadn’t really wanted it on in the first place. He looked so… normal, so clean cut that I had to remind myself there were murderous scars under his shirt and utter madness behind his eyes.
“You aren’t who I thought you were, Drake,” he said. I continued circling around him. Despite all I had seen him do and all I knew he was capable of, he held me immobile by the mere inkling that he might know something more about me. “We’re the same, I said, practically brothers. Right now, right here, there are only the two of us who could possibly understand what the other is going through. And yet you sided with those who were lesser than us.”
“I saw the videos,” I said. “You were normal before all this. I think I understand now. You never wanted any of this but they forced you to do it. I’m sorry, Sykes.”
“I don’t want your pity!” Sykes snarled. “I helped you because I thought you of all people would best see my grand vision and what we could do for everyone by ridding the world of Project Midnight and any of those who didn’t believe in what we were doing. I told you not to listen to Ryans, and you did. I warned you not to interfere in Project Midnight and yet you did. You did everything I warned you against all the while claiming you wanted answers, and I gave them to you. You wanted me as your enemy—”
“No, I—”
“—from the very start and now you’ve got it. It’s obvious I can’t trust you to help me. So it’s time for a little revenge, plain and simple. You hurt me, I’ll hurt you right back.”
I tried to get closer to him but Sykes took a step back. “There aren’t any sides! I’m like you, but murdering innocent people to get back at those you feel wronged you? You have no accountability. You just do as you please and don’t answer to anybody. You’re right, I wanted answers from you, but now I’m done. I’m taking you down, Sykes.” My throat caught. “Whether you’re like me or not.”
“Police are almost here,” Cody said. “People from outside must have called them or the jamming signal is down.”
I lunged at Sykes, but he jumped back.
“The police are almost here. You’re done, Sykes.” I punched but he ducked under it. His attacks were controlled, calculated. He deflected me and shoved me back, like he was wasting time for something.
I shot forward with an open hand strike. Sykes sidestepped and caught my arm and flipped me.
“Too slow.”
I jumped up. “Guess I’ll try harder, then.”
Sykes leapt back from me again. “There’s one more lab, Drake.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Sykes. You’re through.”
“Oh, but it does. The last Project Midnight lab. I’ve got an appointment to destroy it, the final scourge on this city, and I want you to be there.” He paused and cocked his head, like a dog listening for his masters’ call. “Tell me when the police are right outside the gym.”
At first I didn’t think I’d heard right.
“What did he say?” Cody asked. Then he stopped, as if reading something. “They’ve surrounded the gym.” Sykes read my pause. His demeanor turned serious in an instant.
“I take it they’re there now, aren’t they? Well then, time to wrap this up.”
Wrap this up? I was frantic now, driven by the ever-growing panic in my gut of what he was going to do, whatever it was. I fired the grapple at hi
m but Sykes leaned back and it shot over. He grabbed it and swung me away.
“Drake? What’s going on?” Cody said frantically. “Take him down and get out of there! The police are preparing to come inside.”
“Tell me if you’ve heard this rhyme before, Drake. I’m sure you have,” Sykes said.
I missed him again as he danced away, toying with me.
“When Sykes burst in with a roar and a clatter, Queensbury’s finest came to see what was the matter—”
I missed again.
“And all the men in the street and the students in their rooms, jumped at the sound—”
He pulled a gleaming black cylinder from his coat pocket. A detonator.
“Of a great—”
“Cody! Get out of the dorm!”
“Big—”
“Drake, buddy, what’s in his hand?”
“Boom.”
He pressed the button.
Cody screamed in my ear as an explosion ripped through his end. And then a second one followed just outside the gym, the lights died for the last time, and my world collapsed.
Chapter Fifteen
Phantom’s Fall
Darkness blanketed us again. Not the beneficial darkness of my making but the kind only caused by something very bad happening. It was like the darkness of Monstaff, where this all began. The darkness of Project Midnight’s laboratory. Sinister.
Sykes was gone by the time my eyes adjusted. He must have gotten away already. I didn’t care.
“Cody,” I said, tapping the earpiece. “Answer me. Are you there?”
Only static. I looked around the gym. The stands were clear. A fine layer of dust rained from the roof and coated the floor. I jumped and crawled my way up to the second floor and out the entrance into the blinding sunlight.
A wrong world greeted me.
Trees were not supposed to be upside down, police cars not blown in half and on fire. And the bodies—human bodies did not twist that way, should not have been spread across the ground like careless child’s forgotten playthings. Crackled black skin and pink, raw flesh hung from limbs. Blood gushed down drainage canals made for rain.
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