The Vindico

by King, Wesley

  Hayden glanced at Lana, but she didn’t meet his eyes.

  “Good,” Leni said as he started down the staircase. “Sliver, signal Sam.”

  “I can’t…he’s blocking his mind,” Sliver said. “That, or he’s very focused on something else. He’s not listening.”

  “Try harder!” Leni snapped. He ran down the main hallway and took a sharp left into the bedroom they’d come in through.

  “I am!” Sliver replied. “There, I got him. He’s upset…uh-oh. We have trouble.”

  “I know,” Leni said quietly as the rest of the group caught up with him in the bedroom.

  Through the open doorway, Lana could see a white ship descending to the grass, the League crest emblazoned on its side. It was the Defender, their flagship. As soon as it landed, League members began streaming down the ramp.

  “We’re in trouble, all right,” the Torturer muttered.

  “Everyone spread out…” Leni started, but he was interrupted as two missiles suddenly exploded into the side of the white ship. The impact blew the Defender sideways, causing it to roll, and the League members went flying through the air.

  The Shadow appeared over the forest, streaking just a few feet above the treetops. It dove toward the lawn and just barely pulled up before it hit the ground. The ramp was already down.

  The group sprinted toward the Shadow, the floating bodies of the captured children hurtling after them. As soon as they were all inside, the ship leapt into the air. A flurry of red blasts dinged off the hull, but the Shadow turned sharply and accelerated into the clouds. The Torturer managed to close the hatch, shutting out the raging wind, and the hold fell into silence.

  Hayden sat down next to Lana and took her hand. She leaned against his shoulder, her eyes on the floor. She didn’t say anything the entire trip home.

  28

  WHEN THEY RETURNED TO THE MANSION, THE PROTÉGÉS QUIETLY filed into the Baron’s classroom, where the old man stood in front of a large blue schematic of the estate projected onto the wall. Emily was already waiting at her desk, and she gave them a relieved smile when she saw that they’d all returned safely.

  “Welcome back,” the Baron said. “I’m sorry we haven’t given you the chance to rest, but we have to begin planning immediately. Fortunately, the Defender was too damaged to give chase, and so the exact location of this mansion remains a secret. For now. The League knows we’re in this area, and they will find us soon. We must prepare for their assault.

  “But before that, let me be the first to congratulate you. Leni has informed me of the success of your mission, and I am extremely impressed.”

  James glanced at Lana. Her eyes were locked firmly on her desk.

  “You managed something we have never been able to do: capture Thunderbolt. And not only that, but you did it in the League’s original headquarters.”

  “That was the League’s original headquarters?” Hayden asked, frowning.

  The Baron nodded. “Did the house look familiar to you?”

  “Yeah, it was pretty much the exact same as this one,” Hayden said.

  “It is.” He clasped his hands behind his back, staring at the schematic. “When I first proposed the League of Heroes, I also offered up my home as the headquarters. I’d had it built years earlier in the middle of the wilderness for privacy as I conducted my experiments. But when my war with the League began, I was forced to give it up. Courage raided the mansion in the early days and converted it back into a League base. I was furious, but there was no way to take my home back, and hold it, with our limited manpower. So, I secretly began the construction of a replica. I changed some of the decor, as you may have noticed, but otherwise, it’s identical.”

  He gestured around them.

  “Its existence has long been a secret. The materials were all diverted from cover projects, and the construction workers were imported. Rono even installed a fake broadcast signal so when a satellite scans the area, all it sees is trees. This has been the headquarters of the Vindico for years. I suspect the League already had an idea I was in the area: they uncovered one of my fake construction projects and tracked the materials to this state. Now with the Torturer’s excursions to nearby Cambilsford and Fornist, that suspicion must have been confirmed.

  “They will soon begin more detailed reconnaissance on this area. In Thunderbolt’s absence, their next in line for command would be Meirna, and she’s cautious. She’ll wait until they have the exact location and information on our defenses before making a move. This should buy us some time.”

  He turned to the schematic again.

  “The focal point of their attack will come right at the front entrance,” he continued, pointing to the circular lobby. “It’s an obvious point of entry, but it’s also the weakest area of the entire mansion. There are two large windows and a lot of exposed wall. We need to set up shooters on the balconies, and the Torturer will lead the first charge from the hallway…”

  After the Baron’s strategy session was over, the protégés all walked back to the common room, discussing the impending attack.

  “Where’s Lana?” Sam asked suddenly.

  James turned around and saw a flash of blond hair disappear into the lobby at the far end of the hallway. For a moment, they were all too stunned to speak.

  Finally, James snapped out of it. “Lana! Wait!” he shouted, running after her.

  He heard the rest of the group start after him but didn’t bother looking back. He ran into the lobby and saw that the front doors were still closed. Lana wouldn’t go for the front doors anyway, he realized. She’s too smart for that. The garage.

  James sprinted down the right wing of the mansion. Skidding to a halt in front of the door, he flung it open and stepped inside. The garage was dimly lit, so he stepped forward uncertainly, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. It was completely silent.

  The others ran in behind him, their footsteps unnaturally loud.

  “Lana! Are you in here?” Hayden shouted, his voice echoing around the room. “See anything?” he asked James.

  “Nothing,” James replied, puzzled.

  “Let’s go check outside,” Hayden said, and he started back toward the hallway. “She must have gone out the front door.”

  James was just turning away when the garage door started sliding into the ceiling. He jumped, startled by the noise, and then he saw it. The Shadow was lifting off the cement floor, wobbling in midair. The ship hovered there for a moment, and then sped out of the garage.

  29

  “I’M GOING AFTER HER,” AVARIA SNAPPED, JABBING A FINGER at the Baron. “Right now.”

  “Of course,” he agreed. “I’m only saying we need to be careful. She’s in the Shadow: we can’t catch her. The best I can do is get a helicopter in.”

  Avaria paced around the meeting room, livid. She should have known Lana might do something drastic. She had seen the horrified look on Lana’s face after she killed Septer and the way she was staring at the floor on the flight back. She’d looked broken, defeated. Avaria had pushed her too far, and now Lana had snapped.

  “The League will capture her in no time,” she said. “The Shadow is far too obvious in the middle of the day, and the media will be at her house the second they find out one of the missing children is home.”

  “What happened?” Rono asked, rushing into the room. Sliver was right behind him.

  “Lana left,” the Baron explained, “in the Shadow. I’m calling for the helicopter.”

  Rono shook his head. “A helicopter will be too slow. We’ll take my new ship, the Arrow. I haven’t finished all of my tests, but we don’t have much choice. We better move fast; the League will hear about the Shadow very soon. It’s done too much damage lately.”

  “Let’s go,” Avaria said, and she sprinted out of the room.

  She’s going to get herself killed, Avaria thought furiously. And if I catch her before the League does, it won’t be much better.

  Lana lifted the Shadow highe
r up into the thin cloud cover. It was a relatively clear morning, which was not to her benefit. The black ship would be easy to spot.

  The full weight of what she had just done was pressing down on her, but she had to stay calm. If Lana allowed herself to realize the implications, she might start to panic, and that wouldn’t help. She knew Avaria would find her soon, even if the League didn’t.

  But Lana couldn’t face another battle. She couldn’t face the League, knowing she’d murdered one of them. She couldn’t bear the thought of having to kill again.

  So when she left the Baron’s classroom, she’d had only one thing on her mind. She had to see her family. She knew she might be bringing a lot of trouble down on them, but she had to. Even if it was just one more time.

  She pushed harder on the levers, sending the Shadow hurtling across the sky. There was a blank screen beside the controls, and she tried to activate it, searching for a map or GPS. Then she remembered something Emily had told her: almost all of Rono’s devices were voice-activated.

  “GPS system activate,” she said, and a map immediately popped onto the screen, with a little glowing dot representing the Shadow’s position.

  Fortunately, Lana had followed her instincts, and she was flying in the right direction. She was heading northwest and only had to make a slight adjustment to get on a straight track to Maine.

  “How long until arrival in Maine?”

  A message popped up at the bottom of the screen: AT CURRENT SPEED, THIRTY MINUTES.

  She leaned back in the chair, biting her lip. In thirty minutes, she would see her family. Lana knew she wouldn’t have very long. Both the Vindico and the League would be right behind her.

  The worst part was that she wasn’t sure who she wanted to catch her.

  “I can’t believe she took off!” James said again, slapping the coffee table. “Stupid!”

  “What do you think they’re going to do?” Sam asked.

  Hayden was pacing back and forth behind the couches, his expression unusually serious. “I don’t know,” he said. “If they think she’s going to the League, Avaria might actually kill her.”

  Hayden was guilt-stricken. He’d been so busy talking about the battle, he hadn’t been paying attention to his own girlfriend. How could he be so stupid? Of course she wouldn’t want to fight the League again. Not after seeing Septer die.

  “The League might kill her too,” James mumbled. “Or take her to the Perch.”

  “We can’t let that happen,” Emily said, turning to the mirror. “Hey! Is anyone listening?” She stood up, hobbled over to the mirror, and proceeded to bang on the glass. “Hey!”

  “They’re busy chasing Lana,” Hayden said, stepping up beside her. “But you’re right. We have to do something.”

  James frowned. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Where’s your visor?” Hayden asked Emily, ignoring James.

  “In my room,” she said, and took off for her bedroom.

  Hayden paced along the mirror. “First, we’re going to have to go to Rono’s target range to get some rifles.”

  “You’re not serious,” James said. “We’re going to attack them? They’ll kill us. We’re not that strong yet, and they—”

  Hayden spun around to face him. “Whose side are you on?” he asked sharply.

  James put his hands up, taken aback. “I thought we were all on the same side.”

  “Not if they hurt Lana,” Hayden replied. He knew James was just being reasonable. But right now, he really didn’t care about reason.

  “We should at least just ask them not to hurt her first,” James pointed out. “We don’t know anything yet.”

  “We’ll ask,” Hayden said, “but if they try to hurt her, we fight.”

  “And we all get killed.” James sighed. “All right, I’m in.”

  Emily hurried back, wearing her visor and shoulder mount. The missile launcher was already protruding from the top.

  “Sam, who’s still in the mansion?” Hayden asked.

  Sam closed his eyes. “Sliver is gone. I don’t sense Avaria or Rono, and…no, I don’t sense Leni either. Just the Baron and the Torturer.”

  Hayden nodded. “The others must have gone after her, then. Well, we can take those two easily enough, but what good will that do?”

  “They won’t do anything to Lana out there,” Emily said. “They won’t have time; the League will be after them, if they haven’t already gotten to Lana first. The Vindico will bring her back here.”

  “And then we can be ready,” Hayden agreed. “We’ll just have to hope the League doesn’t attack at the same time.”

  “All right, so the target range, then,” James said. “But where do we find the Baron and the Torturer?”

  Emily glanced at him. “They’ll probably be in the monitoring room. Rono and I spent some time in there while you guys were at the League’s base. But they’ll be in direct contact with the ship, and Leni and the others will know if we attack. Let’s go to Rono’s lab first; I can shut off the signal.”

  “Good call,” Hayden said. He waved his hand, and the mirror door flew backward, snapping off its metal hinges. It smashed into the far wall of the control room, and the glass shattered everywhere.

  “Couldn’t you have just opened it?” James asked.

  “Probably,” Hayden replied, and then he hurried through the doorway, stepping around the blanket of shattered glass. “All right, guns first, then the signal, then the monitoring room,” he listed.

  James shook his head. “This is trouble.”

  “Lots of trouble,” Sam agreed quietly as they crept down the hallway.

  “Looks like the teachers are about to be taught a lesson,” Emily said. “If you turn a bunch of kids into supervillains, you can’t expect them to follow the rules.”

  Lana brought the Shadow down, angling toward her street. There was a crop of trees nearby and, within it, a small park. She aimed for that, not wanting to alert the whole neighborhood by setting a ship down in front of her house. Lana just needed to get home and have as much time with her family as she could before someone came and took her away.

  She rotated the Shadow so it landed at the edge of the trees, with the entrance facing away from the playground. Lana lowered the ramp and sprinted through the narrow patch of forest, leaping over a creek.

  She emerged onto her street and kept running, ignoring the stares from passing cars. Lana sprinted down the sidewalk, ran right across her lawn, hopped a flower bed, and threw open her front door.

  “Mom! Mom! Are you here?” Lana heard noises upstairs. “Mom! Dad! Jer! It’s me!”

  Her mother appeared at the top of the stairs, her hand pressed over her mouth. “Lana!” she shrieked, and ran down the steps. “Lana!”

  “Mom!” Lana buried her face into her mother’s shoulder.

  “Baby, baby,” her mom whimpered. “Where have you been?”

  “I was kidnapped,” Lana said, tears pouring down her cheeks. “I wanted to come back, but I couldn’t.”

  “What do you mean? Who took you?” She began to sob. “I thought I lost you.”

  “The Villains. They’re coming for me, Mom, they’re coming here.” Lana met her eyes. “They’ll be here soon.”

  “The Villains?” she gasped. “What do you mean, they’re coming here? Did they take those other children too?”

  “Yeah,” Lana said, glancing back at the door. “They took us to train as their protégés. They changed me, Mom. I’ve…done things.”

  Her mother took Lana’s face in her hands, looking confused. “People were saying they might have been involved, but I didn’t believe it,” she murmured. “What do you mean they changed you?”

  “They made me strong and fast. I…I killed a League member, Mom. I killed Septer.”

  Her mother pulled back. “You killed Septer,” she breathed. “No. How could that be? What do you mean they made you stronger?”

  Lana wiped her eyes. “Watch.” She took he
r mother’s shoulders and easily lifted her four inches off the ground.

  “They put me in a chamber—” Lana broke off as she lowered her mother again, unable to speak.

  “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” her mom whispered, but Lana saw fear in her eyes.

  “I didn’t mean to kill him,” Lana said, almost pleading. “There was a fight, and I didn’t know what to do. But I don’t have much time. They’ll be here soon. Where’s Jer? Is he at school?”

  “What are you talking about?” her mother asked, fearfully looking at the door. “I’ll call the police.” She ran for the phone, but just as she was about to grab it, the base suddenly blew off the wall and went careening into the living room.

  Leni strode through the front door, Avaria right behind him. Her green eyes flashed with anger when they met Lana’s.

  “Who are you?” Lana’s mother screamed. “Stay away from my daughter!”

  She charged Leni, her arms flailing, but she was stopped dead in her tracks, as if frozen.

  “Now, now,” Leni said, his finger absently pointing at her. He turned to Lana. “You’ll be coming with us now.”

  “Let her go,” Lana warned.

  “You’re in no position to make demands,” Avaria hissed, starting toward her.

  Lana threw a savage kick at Avaria’s head, and though she managed to block it, the force of the blow sent her reeling backward. Hooking her fingers into claws, Lana lunged at her, but she was knocked sideways in midair and sent crashing into the wall.

  “Enough,” Leni commanded. “We don’t have time for this.”

  But as soon as Lana hit the wall, she rolled onto her feet and rushed at Avaria again, who blocked her punch and viciously backhanded Lana across the face. Lana staggered to the floor, and she vaguely heard her mom screaming.

  “Resist again and I kill your mother,” Leni said coolly. “I should do it anyway as punishment.”

  “No,” Lana wheezed.

  “Then stand up and get in the ship. Now.”

  Lana shakily got to her feet, never taking her eyes off Avaria. Then she turned to her mom. “I’m sorry, Mom. I love you.”