Spirit wasn’t sure how much of Dylan’s information was true and how much was pure fantasy. She was sure he was repeating what Clark had told him, for whatever that was worth—Clark Howard would say anything Breakthrough wanted him to, and every sentence would be calculated for maximum damage.
They were still staring at The Fortress when a car—and not just any car, but a stretch-Humvee limo with a custom pearl-gray paint job—pulled up to the curb beside them and stopped. The back door opened.
“It’s too cold to walk anywhere,” Teddy Rider said. “Hop in! I’ll give you a ride!”
“Oh, wow, you’re about to save my life!” Maddie said enthusiastically. There was a chorus of agreement from the others. The last place Spirit wanted to go was into a limo with the chief Shadow Knight’s baby brother, but if she didn’t, she’d be the only holdout. Teddy pushed the door open wider, and they began to clamber in. Spirit went last. The door shut behind her automatically (or maybe by magic, how did she know?) as soon as she was in.
In the last six months she’d been in more limousines (three) than she had in her entire previous sixteen years, but even so, the inside of the Humvee was luxurious beyond her wildest imaginings. As she looked for a seat that wasn’t too near any of the others, she felt completely intimidated by the opulence. I can’t believe people really live like this. The floor was carpeted in a thick rug that gleamed like velvet. The back seat was a U-shaped couch upholstered in soft gray leather. There were jump seats along the interior walls between the doors, and a bar with a refrigerator in the middle. What, no swimming pool? Spirit thought, sitting down.
“Library,” Teddy said into the intercom on the wall. It was part of a whole control panel—probably how he’d closed the door. The car moved off.
“Wow,” Chris said, not bothering to conceal his admiration. “This is—”
“Fully armored,” Teddy said, smiling. “Customized by Grovemount International, the firm that does the limos for the oil sheiks. Armored glass, special tires—that’s after the stretch customization—did you know they told me there are seventeen coats of lacquer involved in the paint job? I would’ve blinged out the wheels, too, but Grovemount wouldn’t go for it. Hey, anybody want a Coke?”
There were enthusiastic sounds from the Oakhurst students. Teddy pointed something that looked like a TV remote at the bar, and the refrigerator doors opened on two sides. He gestured for them to help themselves.
Play along with the forces of evil, kids, and you too can get a car like this, Spirit thought crossly. She took the red-and-silver can Chris handed her. It’s even diet, she thought in irritation, most guys wouldn’t think of that. Chris was a nice guy, and smart, and if she could only be sure he wasn’t a pawn of evil, he was the kind of guy she’d like to have for a friend. Too bad you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.
“You never forget your first limo,” Teddy said, with an engaging grin. Whatever he was selling, Spirit could tell Kylee and Dylan couldn’t wait to sign up. Maddie and Zoey looked more doubtful. Spirit didn’t know what Zoey’s Gift was—though from her ring she could tell it was something from the School of Fire—and Maddie was a Water Witch. It was clear neither of them could imagine what Breakthrough could want with them. Chris was just quiet.
“I know you’re all thinking about what you’re going to do when you’ve finished at Oakhurst,” Teddy said. “Worrying about the future, yadda. And I know you’ve all heard Doc A’s speeches about you being ‘part of the Oakhurst family.’ I got them when I was there, too—and that stuff might have been great when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, but personally, I don’t buy all that chick-flick crap. But there’s one thing I do believe, and that’s magic is thicker than water. If somebody has a Gift, they’re a part of my family—mine, Mark’s, Madison’s, everyone at Breakthrough. And families take care of each other. None of you has a thing to worry about. My word on that. We’ve got a place for you. And if we haven’t got one that fits you, we’ll make one that does.”
How can we fight that? Spirit thought with a sense of growing despair. I can’t even be sure Muirin’s still on our side. And Teddy was so handsome, so earnest, and so sincere. Who wouldn’t believe him?
Dylan snickered. “In that case, we should make Spooky get out and walk. She doesn’t have any magic.”
Spirit gritted her teeth at the hated nickname. This was a perfect chance for Teddy to turn the others against her, playing the same Us vs. Them game Oakhurst played so well. But to her surprise, Teddy gave Dylan a stern look. “I didn’t have a Gift while I was at Oakhurst, either. I didn’t get my powers until I was twenty. But Doc A knew they were there, and Mark always believed in me. You all have to believe in each other.” He smiled at Dylan, softening the lecture. “Doc A doesn’t make mistakes.”
It would be nice if that were true, Spirit thought. But there was no reason to think it was any more true than anything else Breakthrough was saying.
Because if “Doc A didn’t make mistakes,” where had all the Shadow Knights come from?
* * *
“A new town library’s next on Mark’s list of building projects,” Teddy said as the Humvee pulled into the parking lot behind the Radial Association Library.
That was another thing Spirit would like to believe, because even by her old standards, the Radial library was a small and squalid place. It had obviously started life as a house; now the white clapboard siding was desperately in need of paint, and the clear plastic sheeting nailed up over all the windows was tattered and fogged.
Teddy looked out the window, frowning, then snapped his fingers as if he’d just thought of something (Spirit bet he hadn’t). “I don’t see any reason for you to be stuck here. Hey guys, are you up for a little adventure?”
“Hell yeah!” Dylan said, and even Chris nodded.
“Why don’t you go on in and get the rest of the Dance Committee, Hailey?”
“Yes, sir.” The voice of the chauffeur came over the intercom. Spirit watched as the woman walked into the library.
“What’s the adventure?” Dylan asked eagerly.
“Hey, big guy, it wouldn’t be much of an adventure without a surprise,” Teddy said. “Patience!”
A few moments later, Hailey returned with seven Radial kids in tow. Spirit only recognized two of them: Juliette Weber and her twin brother, Brett (who was so not a member of the Committee). Brett and Juliette were clearly the king and queen of Macalister High, and they weren’t really happy about being upstaged. Everyone scurried across the gravel and tumbled into the back of the limousine, which was big enough to seat all of them without crowding.
As soon as Hailey got behind the wheel again, she drove off. She obviously knew their destination without being told.
So this is what “normal” looks like. Even though she’d been to Billings only six weeks ago and Brett and Juliette had tagged along on that field trip, it had been a shock when Spirit realized the “magical” Oakhurst students really were different from “ordinary” kids, and the Radial Dance Committee might have been chosen to illustrate the difference. After she’d spent so long seeing nothing but other Oakhurst kids, the Radial kids looked as though they came from the cheap knockoff version of real life.
“Hey, wow, this is great!” a plump girl with terminal acne said.
“Big enough for your fat ass, Couch.” The speaker was a skinny dark-haired girl, the only one of the seven Townies not dressed for the weather. She wore a denim jacket, and she must have been freezing. One of her eyebrows was pierced, and her makeup was as heavy as Muirin’s—heavier. Her foundation and concealer were obviously worn to cover the pitting of acne scars.
As the Macalister High Dance Committee settled in (half of them overawed and trying not to show it, the other half chattering nervously) Spirit was able to match names to faces. “Couch” was Veronica Davenport—plump, spectacularly acne’d, and with a permanent nervously hopeful expression that made Spirit’s stomach twist in sympathy. Veronica clearly
knew the only way she could be included in anything was to agree with everything anyone else said. The girl who’d called her “Couch” was Kennedy Lewis. She was evidently the closest thing to a “bad girl” Radial could offer. (She did her best to be rude to the Oakhurst kids, but Teddy was pretending not to notice and everyone else was following his lead.) Erika Bass was the kind of pale sandy blonde who looked as if her eyebrows and eyelashes were invisible. She had a high nervous giggle—and she giggled constantly.
“Well, my dad—the Sheriff—says a one-industry town can have problems,” Brenda Copeland said, and Spirit realized that she was continuing a conversation that the Radial kids must have been having when Teddy’s driver went and got them. She was wearing a heavy shearling coat instead of a parka. “He says we should take a wait and see attitude.” It was difficult to tell whether she was pretty or not, because she wore glasses with lenses so thick they could probably start fires. They made her brown eyes huge—and not in a good way.
“Well, I’m going to apply there just as soon as school’s out,” Bella said. “I’m class valedictorian, you know,” she added, for the Oakhurst students’ benefit. “I’m studying programming, too.” She had frizzy brown hair, pale eyes, and braces—the full-on “Alien” kind, with the retaining wire and the neck brace. “I’ve always gotten straight As—I guess I could get a college scholarship if I wanted one, you know?”
“Oh yeah. Like an A+ in Home Ec is going to impress Breakthrough,” Kylee said cuttingly.
“Well, I think having Breakthrough here is a wonderful thing—for us and for Breakthrough,” Veronica said, her voice high and nervous. “Everyone knows they’ll bring jobs into the county, right?”
“‘They’ is sitting right in front of you,” Dylan said with a sneer, waving toward Teddy.
“Well, it’s still true, right?” Veronica said plaintively.
“Whatever you say, Couch. You better hope they hire you—maybe they could pay enough to afford even your grocery bills,” Kennedy said.
Spirit watched Juliette’s mouth settle into a thin angry line as the others did their best to impress Teddy. She wasn’t sure whether she was more embarrassed by the Radial teens, or for them. At least everyone stopped sniping at each other to stare out the windows when they arrived at their destination—the Breakthrough construction site.
“Oh awright!” Dylan cried, bouncing up and down on the seat. He’d said the complex covered fifty acres. Looking at it now, Spirit thought it might even be larger. There was a gravel road leading up to the building in the distance, and as the limo drove along it, she could see foundations being laid for a wall that would probably extend around the entire park. Despite the weather, construction was going full speed ahead. Trailers were clustered like a besieging army at the foot of The Fortress’s walls, and the roar of heavy machinery filled the air.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Teddy said, waving. “Once The Fortress is finished, we’re going to start work on the apartment complex—I think Mark wants to put that right in town, if he can get zoning approval. Have to have places for everyone to live, right? We’re relocating everyone who wants to come, of course, but we’ve really been romancing our key R&D staff. And Mark has plans for expansion, too. Come spring, we’ll be able to start the landscaping, too. It’ll look less like a big empty field then.”
“Oh, you’re so smart!” Veronica said.
Erika giggled.
“Mark knows all about the dangers of a one-industry town,” Teddy said, smiling at Brenda charmingly. “Look at what happened when IBM crashed. He has plans to invest in the county’s infrastructure in a big way. That way, even if Breakthrough goes bankrupt”—he laughed deprecatingly—“which isn’t likely as long as people want to play electronic games of any kind—we’ll be leaving behind us something of value.”
Spirit glanced around at the limo’s other passengers. She had the odd feeling Teddy was lying (but why would he bother with a big elaborate lie to a bunch of kids?) but she noticed none of the others looked as if they disbelieved him.
“That’s where we’re going today,” Teddy said, waving off toward the left.
About a half mile from the main construction site were four high-end RVs—the Greyhound bus conversions like the ones rock stars used on tour. There were cars parked around them, mostly luxury SUVs, but Spirit saw a regular limousine too. The closest RV had the tower-and-dragon logo on the side. It was obviously the “office.” Behind the RVs was a gigantic tent—the kind with inflatable walls and ceiling. A flag with the Breakthrough logo flew from its roof.
The Humvee drew up to the RVs and stopped. As it did, Mark Rider came out of the “office” RV. He was wearing a black leather stadium coat, but no hat. His dark hair whipped in the wind. As he looked at the Humvee, his face was expressionless, and Spirit was sure he was furious. But then he smiled.
“Oh my god he is soooooo handsome!” Bella said swooningly.
“Yeah, and his brother’s right here,” Kylee said blightingly.
Bella turned beet red, her eyes wide with humiliation.
“Ah, and I swoop in and romance the ladies who are struck senseless by Mark’s beauty,” Teddy said, seizing Bella’s hand and kissing it theatrically. She blushed even harder, but now she was giggling.
Can’t any of these guys pick on girls their own age? Clark Howard hit on her at the February Dance, Muirin and Ovcharenko were practically dating, and now Teddy was flirting with Bella. Clearly the dating pool for Dark Lords is shallower than I thought.
The back doors of the Humvee swung open automatically. Everyone climbed out. By the time Teddy finished introducing the Spring Fling Joint Dance Committee, Madison Lane-Rider had joined her husband. She looked as if she’d stepped from the pages of a very expensive outdoorsman catalogue.
“Oh, I’ve been looking forward to meeting all of you!” she said, coming forward and taking Juliette’s hands in greeting. “The Spring Fling’s going to be so much fun—and I hope you’ll be willing to help me achieve a lifelong ambition, Juliette. And you, too, Brenda—all of you, really—at least the ladies. I’ve always wanted to open a little dress shop, and I think Radial’s the perfect place for it. If I can talk you into borrowing some of my dresses for the dance, well, it will put me on the map! Please say yes!”
Spirit had thought things were already as weird as they could get, but the fact that everyone was taking Madison seriously was even weirder. A little dress shop? Come on! If Madison wanted to do something with fashion, she’d be designing a collection in Milan or Paris!
“Well I couldn’t just leave them at the library, Mark,” Teddy was saying. “That wouldn’t be fair.”
“Certainly not. But we can’t exactly leave them standing around in the mud, either.” Mark smiled at all of them again. “Why don’t you folks use the rec center? Feel free to grab some snacks. Just be sure to take care of business before you get on the computers. Although I’d just like to mention we put the beta of Final Battle: The Rise of the Black Dragon onto the server this morning, and I’d really love it if you could do a little beta-testing.”
“It’s in beta?” Brett said in excitement. “It isn’t going to be out for six months!” He looked toward the rec center eagerly. “Hey, I’m not on the Committee!”
“Come on then,” Teddy said, clapping Brett on the back.
* * *
The door had a Breakthrough logo on it. (Everything here seemed to.) Everybody murmured appreciatively as they walked inside—it was warm. Even Spirit, who by now expected over-the-top excess from Breakthrough, was stunned.
“Wow,” Veronica said in awe. “It looks just like a real house!”
“Yeah,” Chris said blandly. “If your house has a sixty-foot-long living room.”
The rec center was the size of two tennis courts. The floor was completely carpeted—a custom carpet with a repeating design of the Breakthrough logo (surprise). There were thirty computer stations—state of the art, of course—alon
g the left wall and across the back. The screen savers all showed an animated version of the logo: the dragon coiled around the tower flapped its wings, arched its neck, spat fire. The right side of the room held half a dozen fridges, some tables and chairs, a counter with sinks, microwaves, coffee machines—and the biggest plasma television Spirit had ever seen. It was showing a football game. The middle of the room had several couch-and-chair “conversation groups,” all upholstered in black leather.
“Enjoy!” Teddy said. He bowed with a theatrical flourish and left them.
Brett rushed over to the nearest computer and sat down. Juliette rolled her eyes and shook her head. Zoey walked to one of the fridges and opened it. “Oh, man,” she said. “There’s everything in here! Hey, who’s up for another Coke?”
“Potato chips,” Kylee said feelingly, opening one of the cabinets. Spirit could see it was filled with every kind of junk food in the entire universe—cupcakes, pretzels, Cheetos, chips …
When Zoey closed the fridge she was holding two six-packs of soda and half a dozen tubs of chip dip.
“Okay, let’s get this over with,” Brenda said briskly. “The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can get on the computers.”
Even Juliette didn’t argue. Looking at the faces of the Radial teens, Spirit realized that if he could read their parents the way he could read the kids, Mark was going to be able to buy the whole town out of pocket change—and everyone there would be eager to sell.
THREE
The Dance Committee got back to Oakhurst barely in time to make dinner—not that most of them would have cared if they’d missed it. The meeting had been brief and perfunctory—Juliette had wanted to set up a joint email list for planning, and had sneered when Maddie said Oakhurst didn’t let them have Internet access—and then everybody had sat around stuffing their faces on junk food until Hailey and another driver showed up to bundle all of them into a couple of cars and drive them home.
Zoey and Dylan and Maddie had been loud and giddy with their sugar high, and even Chris and Kylee had been cheerful. Only Spirit had nothing to say. Bread and circuses, Mom’s voice whispered in her mind. Bread and circuses. She hated to think that people could be bought off—or distracted—that easily from something (especially if it was really bad), but she was starting to realize the problem was actually that you didn’t know how bad something was at first.
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