“Is that snow?” exclaimed Amy.
They all looked outside, all except Jake, who was still glued to his laptop screen.
Dan said, “How can it be snowing? It was seventy-five degrees in Chicago. And we’re not that far from there.” He quickly checked his phone’s weather app.
“It’s thirty degrees out there! How can the temperature drop forty-five degrees just like that?”
Then Dan blinked, and the snow seemed to simply vanish. “Okay, I am big-time freaking out now.” As he continued to watch, a thunderstorm started up. But, like back in Chicago, the lightning was shooting upward. Dan gripped his seat and paled. Isabel Kabra, curse her, had been right that the apocalypse was coming. In fact, it was apparently already here. As they continued to stare out the window, all those meteorological anomalies disappeared and the sky cleared.
Atticus pointed to a distant hill. “Look!”
As they watched, the mound of dirt trembled and then came crashing down, taking some houses, and no doubt people, with it.
The train roared on.
“Was that an earthquake?” asked Amy. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“The whole world has gone crazy,” said Dan.
“No,” announced Jake.
They all gaped at him.
He was finally looking up from his laptop.
“The world has not gone crazy. In fact, it’s starting to make a lot of sense.”
Dan peeked over at Amy, who was looking all gooey-eyed again at Jake. Dan groaned. He’d had enough.
Dan snapped, “Okay, Mr. Genius, why don’t you enlighten us morons as to exactly what all makes sense?”
So focused was Jake on the data on his computer that he didn’t appear to have gotten Dan’s sarcasm at all. This seemed, to Dan, to be a genetic problem with the Rosenblooms.
Jake said amiably, “Glad to.”
He spun his laptop around so they could all see the screen.
“I’ve been researching both the historical accounts of Archimedes’ inventions, and the elements that we were forced to gather by Vesper One. I did a spreadsheet analysis that attempted to make sense of both the elements’ potential use and the plans that Archimedes had for his devices. I was, in effect, searching for a pattern.”
“Well, can you search faster?” complained Dan. “Because the world is coming to an end, bud, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Dan,” said Amy in an admonishing tone. “What Jake has done looks brilliant.” She flashed Jake a huge smile. Poor Jake looked on the verge of melting under its wattage.
“Go on, Jake,” said Amy encouragingly.
“Oh, give me a freaking break,” muttered Dan under his breath.
Jake continued. “What I found was that the Doomsday device, constructed with the aid of all the elements we gathered, has the potential not merely to disrupt the Earth’s magnetic field, but also to reverse the polarity of the magnetic poles of the Earth entirely.”
“And that’s bad?” said Dan.
“It could be catastrophic,” answered Jake. “Reversing the polarity of the magnetic poles could result in unprecedented loss. It’s no wonder that all the planes were grounded. In fact, very soon the entire Internet might crash.”
“Well, we knew that Vesper One had already activated the Doomsday device,” said Atticus.
“Yeah,” added Dan. “All the crazy weather, the planes, stuff like that? He had to have pulled the trigger. It’s the only explanation.”
“I still think that Vesper One is only doing a trial run,” Jake said. “He deliberately hasn’t activated the device to its full power yet. If he had, I think we’d see a lot worse than we have so far.”
“How can you be sure of that?” asked Amy.
“Fully reversing the magnetic poles of the Earth would cause catastrophic damage the likes of which we have never seen before, Amy. Tsunamis striking land on the East Coast. Dozens of hurricanes forming simultaneously in the Pacific. Earthquakes where earthquakes have never happened before. Increased volcanic activity. It could potentially even take the Earth out of its proper orbit. It could turn the world literally upside down.”
“And destroy it?” she said in a hushed tone.
“Absolutely. It could even interrupt the actual gravitational forces of the Earth. And if that happens, there would be no guarantee that anything would be left to hold us onto the planet.”
The others instinctively gripped their armrests as though to keep themselves firmly on Earth.
“Well,” said Dan. “I guess that’s sort of the point of a Doomsday device. You know, doomsday!” He glanced surreptitiously at his knapsack, where the flask containing the serum was hidden.
Amy said, “But as evil as he is, why would Vesper One want to destroy the world? He lives on it, too.”
Atticus piped up. “It must be that he thinks if he demonstrates that he has the ability to cause such devastation he can blackmail the rest of the world into doing his bidding.”
Dan said, “Exactly. The guy is going to use this threat to make himself supreme ruler of everything. And that would suck big-time, because the guy is obviously a jerk.”
Amy said, “And that explains what Isabel was doing back there. Her organization will reap enormous benefits if she’s ahead of the curve on this. She’ll pretend to clean up the mess she helped cause. The people will love her when they should be arresting her.”
“That witch,” snapped Dan.
Amy stared at the laptop screen. “And from what we know about subduction zones, the Cascade Mountains are the perfect place to set off the device and show the world the power Vesper One has.” She paused. “And that also explains the location of the hostages.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jake.
She looked at him. “They’re going to bury the hostages under what’s left of the Cascade Mountains when they turn on the device full blast.”
They all stared at one another.
Amy said, “Now the question is, how do we stop it?”
As the train rattled on, no one seemed to have an answer.
It was very late at night. The train was rolling on toward Colorado.
Inside the compartment where Jake and Atticus were staying, Jake slept soundly.
Atticus was having a much tougher time of it. He tossed and turned, tried deep breathing, counted backward, but nothing worked. He finally sat up in his top bunk, drew aside the curtain, and looked out the window. He had no idea where they were. All he could see was darkness and the silhouettes of landscapes zooming by. And then Atticus started thinking about his mother.
Astrid Rosenbloom had been full of health and vitality until she had started going rapidly downhill. The doctors could never figure out exactly what was wrong with her. But now it seemed to Atticus — based on what he had observed — that the doctors were always being reactive to his mother’s conditions. They had treated the effects of her illnesses. But they had not focused all that much on the cause. They had run many tests, to be sure, but had they run enough of them? And had they run the right ones?
It now seemed so simple that Atticus couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before.
And I’m supposed to have such a big brain.
When someone became ill and continued to sink despite everything the doctors could do, and no cause was ever found, there often was a good explanation for that.
And a criminal one.
His mother had started feeling bad not that long after she had gained a new research assistant, Dave Speminer. And the whole time that assistant was with her, Astrid Rosenbloom had become sicker and sicker. And that assistant would have been in an ideal place to administer a poison even after she was being cared for by the doctors, because he came to visit her often.
Am I paranoid?
Dave Speminer? Dave Speminer?
There was something about that name that was bugging him. And then he got an idea. Of course, ideas came to Atticus all the time. But he had a feeling abou
t this one.
Atticus closed the curtain, picked up his phone, and began hitting buttons.
His phone had a Scrabble app. He brought it up and typed in the name Dave Speminer. There was something about that name that seemed familiar, if one looked at it in a different way.
A few seconds later Atticus was proved right. Dave Speminer was an anagram. The Scrabble app took the name Dave Speminer and turned it into another name.
Damien Vesper.
Dave Speminer was Damien Vesper. Dave Speminer had murdered Atticus’s mother.
And then Atticus, his huge brain firing on all cylinders, made another leap of logic.
While not all anagrams of Damien Vesper, Atticus was sure that Damien Vesper, Riley McGrath, and Dave Speminer were one and the same. It just made sense based on all the facts.
And one of those “facts” hit Atticus like an artillery round. His eyes filled with tears. The man his mother had trusted had killed her. And that man had been the dreaded head of the Vesper clan. He wiped his eyes and cleared the tears away. His mouth set in a firm line. Now was not the time for grieving or sadness or despair. Now was the time for action, for justice. And yes, for revenge. He climbed down off his bunk and woke Jake.
His big brother looked very annoyed at having his sleep interrupted.
Atticus had heard Jake in his sleep say the name Amy more than once. He had to hide a smile as Jake looked at him.
But when Atticus showed Jake his cell phone and the results of the Scrabble app, Jake sat up so fast he hit his head on the underside of the top bunk.
Rubbing his head and looking cross, he said, “I’ll get dressed and get Amy and Dan. You stay here.”
As Jake was getting dressed, Atticus sat in the chair by the window and gazed out. Atticus finally looked over at his brother.
“We have to get him, Jake,” said Atticus.
“I know,” said Jake as he buttoned up his shirt.
“He killed Mom.”
“I know, Atticus, I know.”
“We’ll get him, right? Make him pay?”
Jake laced up his shoes and then put a hand on his little brother’s arm. “We’ll get him, Att. I promise you that.”
Jake knocked lightly on the door of Amy and Dan’s compartment. Amy opened the door, dressed in sweats. Her hair was tousled, her eyes puffy with sleep, and yet to Jake she looked beautiful.
“Is everything okay?” she asked nervously. “Where’s Atticus?”
“Everything’s okay,” said Jake softly. “But Att has figured out something, and you all need to hear it. Can you get dressed and come on?”
“Give us a couple of minutes.”
Jake waited outside the door, ever mindful that Isabel Kabra and her men were on this train as well. However, no one passed by except a female conductor who looked vaguely familiar to Jake, but he figured it was because he had seen her pass by earlier in the day.
He didn’t look again at the woman.
Sinead Starling never glanced back, either. The wily Ekat with nerves the size of Alaska kept walking until she reached another train car and passed through into it.
A few minutes later, Amy and Dan, fully dressed, were following Jake down the hall to his compartment.
Dan yawned and said, “This better be good, Jake. I was dreaming about feeding Isabel and Vesper One to the sharks. And feeling sorry. For the sharks.”
They reached the other compartment and Jake slid the door closed behind them. Atticus was sitting on the lower bunk. Jake sat beside him, and Dan and Amy sat in chairs opposite.
“So what’s up, Atticus?” asked Amy.
He quickly explained about the Scrabble app and showed them the results on the screen.
Atticus said, “It can’t be a coincidence about the names being an anagram. The odds are billions to one.”
Amy nodded. “You’re right. So Dave Speminer, your mother’s assistant, is Vesper One.”
Dan eyed Atticus sadly. “And that means he killed your mom?”
Atticus slowly nodded as he gazed back at Dan.
They had always had a special bond, both having lost their mothers. But now that bond had deepened. They both had lost their mothers violently and pre-maturely to the Vespers.
Jake said, “So this sort of confirms, doesn’t it, that Isabel isn’t Vesper One?”
“It does,” said Amy.
Atticus added, “And Dave Speminer is young, much younger than Isabel.”
“Ooohhh, Isabel must really hate that,” said Dan. “Taking orders from basically a kid.”
“When I was goading her in that alley in DC, I could see how badly she wanted to be the leader in all this,” said Amy. “Her blind ambition might give us an opportunity.”
“What do you mean, Am?” asked Jake.
“That she’ll do anything to become Vesper One.”
“Including knocking off Vesper One?” said Dan.
She gazed at him. “You know as well as I do that Isabel will kill anyone to get what she wants.”
“Yes, she will,” agreed Dan.
“Well,” said Atticus, “she’s on the train right now.”
“Yeah, which makes me very nervous,” said Jake. “If she spots us, we are dead.”
Atticus continued, “What I was thinking was that we might turn her being here into an advantage.”
“How?” asked Dan.
“If we can search her compartment, there might be something in there that could help us.”
“But we don’t know which one is her compartment,” said Amy.
Dan held up his phone. “Already hacked into Amtrak’s reservation system. She’s in Train Car A, Compartment Three.”
“But, search her compartment?” exclaimed Jake. “We’ll get caught for sure.”
“Not if we can create a diversion,” said Atticus.
Amy said, “Atticus, do you really think the risk is worth it?”
Atticus took a moment before answering. “I’ve given this a lot of thought, Amy. I am the last Guardian and it’s my job to stop the Vespers. But now it’s personal. He murdered my mom. So nothing will stop me from beating the Vespers. And I’m tired of just reacting to whatever the Vespers do.”
Jake added, “Yeah, they have had us running around, doing all of their dirty work for them.”
“Amen to that, brother,” said Dan.
They all looked at him curiously.
He said sheepishly, “I’ve been watching movies from the eighties on my laptop. They said that line a lot way back then. I’m not really sure why.”
“But we still need a diversion,” noted Jake.
Atticus smiled. “I have a plan for that. A really cool one.”
“Amen to that, bro,” said Dan.
Atticus held up a fist. “Word.”
They all looked at one another and then started roaring with laughter. Even under the dire circumstances it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Isabel Kabra sat alone in her private compartment. She was staring into the mirror over the tiny sink that made up part of her lavatory.
She never had ridden on an American train before. First class or private planes had always been part of her world. And luxurious train travel in Europe. As the pampered wife of a billionaire, she had always assumed that the world would literally be at her feet. She was appalled at having to travel this way, and with ordinary people so close around her. Why, a man in a uniform had come in and said it was time to go to the dining car to eat.
To eat with ordinary people!
She would have shot him for his insolence, if she could have figured out a way to dispose of the body.
And then there was the tiniest of bathrooms in the compartment. It doubled as both a toilet and a shower! She was sure to the peons of the world — meaning pretty much everyone except herself — it was just fine. But to her it was unthinkable. She shuddered at even the thought of wedging her perfect self into that minuscule space both to pee and to bathe.
But the
train it had to be. Her private jet had attempted to take off from Washington DC after that fiasco involving Amy Cahill in that alley. But after repeated attempts her pilots had reported that they could not safely get into the air.
She couldn’t believe that the Cahills had actually called in the police in DC. That was not playing fair at all. The battle was between the Vespers and the Cahills. It was a family matter. It should be kept in the family. She would make Amy’s and Dan’s deaths a million times more painful to make up for that insult.
She looked over some of her AWW materials. She smiled. What a brilliant subterfuge, and the idiots ate it up like chocolate. But once she dethroned Vesper One, AWW would be an important element of her overall plan. Vesper One, the snot, could never be this subtle. Subtle? Ha! He was about as subtle as a charging rhinoceros.
But that would work to her advantage.
She looked at her watch. Two in the morning. She should get some sleep. She had to keep up her beauty rest, even in the midst of her quest for total and complete world domination.
After all, a girl had to look her best if she was planning on ruling the world.
And Isabel had always been beautiful. All the men thought so. Even ones who were her sworn enemies. And all the women were jealous of her looks, she was well aware of that. But then again, people were always intimidated by perfection.
She studied her face in the mirror once more. She then looked closer.
Was that a wrinkle?
The lights in her compartment went out. She jerked up so suddenly, she hit her head on the little overhead light.
Trembling with rage, she screamed into her cell phone, “Here. Now!”
The door to her compartment flew open and two of her men stood there.
“Yes, Mrs. Kabra?” said one of them nervously. “Is there a problem?”
“A problem?” she began sweetly. “Why, just a teensy-weensy one.” Then she roared, “The lights went out, you idiot. Find out why! And I hit my head. I’m going to sue whoever owns this crummy train.”
Day of Doom Page 9