“Isn’t that cute, Calvin? Your friend is trying to drive a wedge between us,” Ms. Watts said.
“She’s not my friend,” said Cal coldly. “Just a means to an end. Infiltrate the Fulbright Academy, kidnap Dad, and get out alive. Mission accomplished.”
Cal’s words shouldn’t have hurt M, but they did. The sharp-edged statements rattled in her head and tore at her memories of Cal. The boy in the water. The patient in the infirmary. The prisoner in the glass house. The double-dealing thief in the library. The disappearing partner who had reappeared with a weapon aimed directly at her.
Not her friend.
“We’ve got what the experts call bad blood,” said M, and she spat on the floor. “So this is the end of our visit. I hear the guards at Buckingham Palace are a sight to see. I’m sure they’re more interesting than watching the two of you playing house.”
“So we’re clear,” said Ms. Watts. “If you don’t want to help us, we’ll have to place you on the disabled list. It would be a shame to bench your talent.”
M flexed her right hand behind her back. The magblast glove from the suit she was wearing underneath her clothes obeyed and clasped into place.
“Then let’s not waste one minute more.” M fired a cyclone magblast that knocked Cal and Ms. Watts together. Cal was back up in no time, but Jules grabbed the paint cans from the bar and heaved them at him. Cal instinctively raised his hands to block the cans, but the paint splashed all over his magblast glove. He tried to fire another attack, but the device was jammed.
“RUN!” screamed M as Ms. Watts jumped up and pulled out a weapon of her own. The baton was silver and began to glow red. M wasn’t going to stick around to find out what it did, though. She grabbed the dazed Ben’s elbow and dragged him through the front door while Jules yanked Evel off the ground and followed.
Once outside, M used the magblast to mold the door shut by warping the wooden frame. She heard a muffled scream of “Get them!” from inside the restaurant, and they scrambled down the alley before the door blew off its hinges.
Evel stumbled and tripped over himself, keeping Jules from running fast. “It’s not going to work, M! We need to face them.”
“No,” said M as she shoved Ben down next to Evel and Jules. “I need to face them.”
“Wait!” yelled Jules, but it was too late. M sent a magblast that cradled her friends and lifted them up off the ground.
Holding the weight of three people set M’s arms on fire, or at least that’s what it felt like. Her elbow shook under the effort it took to move them slowly and safely. For a second, M thought her arm might snap in half, but then the suit kicked in and fortified her weakest point, just like Keyshawn had designed it to do.
Jules stared down at M, shaking her head and smashing her fist against the invisible sphere that guided her higher into the air.
Once her friends were deposited on the nearest rooftop and out of harm’s way, M pulled her arm to her chest and fell to one knee. The magblast tech burned white hot against her knuckles and the pain in her elbow pounded like it had its own heartbeat. Still, M knew what was coming. She tried to collect her wits and plan her next move. She had made it back to the narrow alleyway. It was as good a place as any to make a last stand, she supposed, if she could use it to her advantage. She stretched her arms out and touched both walls with her palms. Maybe she could magblast herself to the roof with the others. She placed her fist to the ground and prayed it would work … and not tear her arm off.
Click.
It was the hollow sound of an empty chamber as the hammer connected with nothing. Her magblast wasn’t going to save her now. She’d used too much energy saving the others.
Cal came roaring around the corner first, sword in hand slashing down at M. She kicked from wall to wall, climbing up above his attack as the sword whiffed the air underneath her. Then she landed and kicked Cal hard in the back before unsheathing her own sword from her suit. The small pieces slid into place and combined with a clicking that sounded like a hail of bullets striking a metal sheet.
Cal recovered faster than M had hoped. Crashing against the wall, he kicked off and landed like a puma ready to pounce, sword extended. With his free hand, he shot out a whip that snagged M’s sword. She wrenched it back toward her, and both the sword and whip exploded into bits of the suit’s programmable matter, which scattered across the ground like technological ants.
As Cal charged, M quickly formed a shield. His sword landed this time, clanging sharply and bringing the two nose-to-nose.
“Work with us, M,” Cal rasped. “It’s the only way.”
“Never.” The word had barely escaped her lips when her body convulsed with electricity. Her mouth tasted like a battery, and the wires lacing her suit glowed white and contracted, squeezing her body like a fist wringing water from a towel. M crumbled to the ground.
Ms. Watts loomed over her with the silver baton in hand. “Oh no! How could this have happened … ? That’s what you must be thinking right now. I told you we needed to talk, Ms. Freeman. You used to confide in me, remember? So let’s try this again. A part of you knows exactly why you’re here in London.”
“You …” M struggled to speak. “Need to leave. Take the Mutus Liber and go. If Doe gets his hands on it …”
“Full of predictions, just like your father, aren’t you?” said Ms. Watts. “No, I think we’ll stay. I’m beginning to like it here. I’ve got my boy, I’ve got my husband, and I’ve got you. Next I’ll get John Doe. Who said a woman can’t have everything in life?”
“Cal … you know I’m right,” M pleaded. “Leave London.”
“You heard her!” Ben’s voice echoed from above them. He was no longer under Ms. Watts’s spell. “Get out before I come down and kick you out on your lousy, evil bums.”
“Ha!” scoffed Ms. Watts. “You and whose army, you Fulbright surplus reject?”
“Me and that army,” he called back.
A crowd appeared in the alley, surrounding Ms. Watts and Cal. First from one side and then from the next. They were different ages, different builds, different nationalities. M even recognized some of them from the roving tour groups that had crossed the bridge earlier that day. Sercy and Merlyn had done their job. The word was out and the troops had assembled.
“Ronin aren’t big fans of you, Ms. Watts,” said Ben. “We are many and you are few. Two, to be exact. So I’d take M’s advice.”
Cal retracted his sword and nodded to his mother. “We should go. These are just kids. Not a part of what we’re after.”
“They’re all a part of what we’re after,” said Ms. Watts. “The in-the-way part.”
She charged her baton and aimed at the children, but Cal moved between them. “Stop it. We have an idea of what we’re after now, Mom. This isn’t a necessary fight.”
Ms. Watts flipped the baton to rest on her shoulder while looking at Cal, then she studied the Ronin behind him. “You’re right … and you’re wrong. I’m letting them live today. But only because slaying these misfits would raise a red flag, and that’s not the grand entrance I’m looking to make.”
With Ms. Watts under control, Cal guided her away, but the Ronin held their ground, blocking the exit. The kids looked scared to death, but still they wouldn’t budge. One could almost hear their hearts thumping in their chests over the silent standoff.
“Please, don’t be stupid,” warned Cal. “M?”
“Let them through,” M ordered weakly from the ground as her suit let go of its strangling grip. “They’re not worth it.”
The Ronin stood aside and formed a path for Ms. Watts and Cal, who shoved their way through and disappeared around a corner.
A door flew open and Jules came bounding to M’s side, helping her friend up. “M, are you okay?”
“A little trash-compacted, but I’ll live.” M stretched her arms and legs after she stood. It was like her own skin was a size too small.
“Good, now I don’t feel bad saying
this,” said Jules. “You totally deserved to get beaten by those two. You were lucky this time and you know it. M, there’s no way you can handle this on your own. So stop trying.”
“But you didn’t have a weapon, Ben wasn’t himself, and Evel was loopy. I didn’t have a choice,” pleaded M.
“Hey, I’m a big girl. I know what I signed up for by coming here,” said Jules. “Back there, you took my choice away and made me powerless. That’s not what a leader does, M, so don’t ever do that again. As my friend, you’ve got to promise to let me help.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t … I didn’t see it that way,” said M. “And I promise, next time, I’ll fight alongside you.”
Ben and Evel joined the crew as the Ronin army stood hunched with bad posture and general confusion. These were not well-trained recruits ready for a war. They were slackers and scrappers who, like Evel, had spent their entire lives being told that they were powerless. That they didn’t make the cut, were missing the right stuff to be either good guys or bad guys. But through her, they were going to be the ones to help take down the good and the bad. They were the last hope of saving the world.
“So what’s next, guys?” asked Ben. “Am I wrong in guessing we have some sightseeing to do?”
M hugged her friend again and pulled Jules next to her. Around them the Ronin kids had started watching one another. They jostled nervously, then one kid shoved another. “You want to go, you criminal failure?” Another kid pushed in and yelled, “You Fulbright wannabe! Get your paws off him or I’ll show you how it feels to be beaten bad!”
“Stop it!” yelled M. “Stop it, all of you!” Then she beckoned the Ronin to come closer. Her hands shook as she waved them over. “You’re used to being on different sides of this war. You probably don’t trust each other at all and I don’t blame you. But that’s what they want. If you keep fighting each other, you’ll never realize who the real enemy is.”
“And who are you supposed to be?” asked the Fulbright Ronin. “Why do you know so much?”
This was the moment she’d rehearsed for. The speech that had been growing inside her, turning in her throat since the very beginning of her adventure, tumbled out. “Hello. My name is M Freeman and I always knew I had a purpose. Now you have a purpose, too.”
“The British Museum,” said Ben Downing as he held a foam double-decker bus at the end of a stick high in the air, “is the oldest national museum in the world. Founded in 1753, it was designed to serve all those who were ‘studious and curious’ … and I can tell we’ve got a quite of few of you on this tour today!”
The group following Ben chuckled and lifted their cameras, vying for the best picture of the museum’s massive entrance. Flanked by giant columns that stretched from the foundation to the sky, the museum’s façade looked like it should be the home of Greek gods on Mount Olympus. Ancient relics and art from every human civilization were displayed inside, spanning two million years’ worth of human existence in over eighteen acres of rooms. And breaking in was easy, because it was free to anyone who wanted to visit.
M, Jules, and Evel were not part of Ben’s tour group. They filtered into the courtyard and shuffled through the crowd of tourists taking in the majesty of the building. The entrance was set back while either side of the museum extended forward, pulling people in as if with an oddly warm embrace. Many famous monuments around the world had the same effect, from Versailles in France to St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican to the Taj Mahal in India. All were extraordinary feats of architecture built in different worlds at different times but said the same thing to all who passed by: You are drawn to me.
“Do we even know what we’re looking for?” asked Jules. “This place is huge.”
“No,” admitted M, “but we’ve got a hint, thanks to Evel blabbing when he was on the truth sauce.”
“Again, I was thirsty,” Evel said with exasperation in his voice. “You can’t stay mad at me because I was thirsty.”
“I’m not mad,” said M as she playfully punched him on the arm. “Just don’t take drinks from strangers anymore, okay?”
“I’ll try,” said Evel. “But what did I say? I can’t even remember.”
“You said a lot of things,” said Jules. “Like a verbal faucet that sprang a leak.”
“Chaucer,” said M. “You mentioned Geoffrey Chaucer. I’d forgotten what Keyshawn was mumbling back in the forest, but he mentioned Chaucer, too. Plus, he had a book by Chaucer back in his lab at the Fulbright Academy.”
“I wish we could just call Keyshawn and ask him for clarification,” said Evel.
“Coma patients can’t shed a lot of light on much, but we can work with what we know,” said M.
“So what do we know about this guy Chaucer?” asked Jules.
“He was a writer, so we’ll start with any famous books they might have here,” explained M.
“Ugh, not another library,” complained Jules. “My knees still hurt from climbing through the last one.”
“I have a feeling this place is going to be different.” M breathed in the cool morning air, then casually touched her hand to the side of her head as if she were brushing hair out of her face. “Okay, Ben, take everyone inside. Remember, have them cover every exit, two per door, and keep watch for anyone or anything suspicious. Over.”
Across the courtyard, Ben waved the tour group on. “And now, ladies and gents, let’s go get cultural. Each of you pick a partner and stick together. This lovely museum is full of surprises lurking in every nook and cranny. So prepare to have your eyes set to ‘stunned.’ ”
As the Ronins walked inside, Evel looked at the sky. It was a clear, sunny day. Beautiful by any standard. “The sun is out and the world is happy. So why do I feel like it’s all going to fall apart?”
M punched him playfully on the arm again. “Because you’re smart. Clear skies mean that Fulbright helicopters can see for miles. Crowds at the museum means that anyone could be a Lawless thug waiting to steal the same thing we’re after, whatever it is. Plus, Ms. Watts and Cal are in the city and they would love to play tie-you-up-and-throw-you-down-a-bottomless-pit with all of us.”
“Can we go inside already or are you guys not finished stalling yet?” asked Jules.
She was right, they were stalling. M didn’t want to admit it, but even she was scared. She had a lump in her throat over what they would find behind those Greek-revival museum doors. But that wasn’t going to stop her from going inside. She’d already survived a black hole. It was hard to imagine anything worse, though she knew John Doe was capable of anything.
Inside, the museum felt expansive and endless. There was a gigantic central room, known as the Great Court, that served as a welcoming area. Its roof was made of glass panes, and the sunlight poured in from above, casting spiderweblike shadows over the walls. It was like walking into a piece of graph paper. M was measuring the connecting lines, plotting points to find the fastest means of escape and the areas of greatest possible danger.
“If we live through this,” said Jules, “remind me to come back and take my time touring this place. It’s incredible.”
“I’ll add it to the top ten things we should do together if we don’t die today,” M said with a chipper lilt in her voice. “So, to the library?”
“This way,” said Evel. “It’s the big oval room in the middle of everything.”
He started walking and M grabbed his arm to pull him in another direction. “Wait, let’s not be so direct. We’re being watched.”
Sure enough, there were three adults dressed in black turtlenecks positioned around the room. They were all talking on phones … and the phones were all the same brand and model. They reeked of Fulbright undercover operations. The way they stood out in the crowd, staring daggers at people — that’s how M knew they were trouble. Unlike a Lawless operative, a Fulbright was meant to be seen, because like cockroaches and mice, if you saw one in your house, you could bet that there was an army of them just out of sight.
>
M and Jules guided Evel to the Egyptian Room. It was filled with ancient sarcophagi, mummies, broken pieces of pottery, obelisks, and more.
“Whoa, look at this!” Evel leaned closer to a glass display that enclosed a heavy piece of stone.
For a second, M’s mouth went dry. “Tell me it’s not another meteorite.”
“Meteorite? No,” said Evel. “Groundbreaking, codebreaking discovery, yes. This is the Rosetta Stone! It’s the best key researchers have ever found to help them understand and decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics! Without it, all those drawings and etchings would have been nothing more than fancy wallpaper. But this helped us know what the ancient Egyptians wanted to tell us!”
Jules stared at it, then stared at Evel, whose eyes were wide with excitement. “How did this rock help?”
“See those symbols inscribed in the rock?” asked Evel as he pointed to the markings etched into the stone. “Those say the exact same thing in three different languages: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. People knew how to translate Greek, so by reading this stone, we could finally read hieroglyphics, too.”
“So what’s it doing here?” asked M.
“Being awesome.” Evel was beaming being this close to history.
“I mean in England,” said M. “Why not keep it in Egypt if it’s part of their history?”
Then she found a floor map and studied the layout, room by room. Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Africa, North America, China … these historical pieces had been taken from all over the world. Taken and collected, just like the Lawless and Fulbright students. Just like thieves steal artwork and just like authorities capture criminals. But this was meant for a greater good — to provide a chance for people to visit and learn, to become enlightened by the beauty, wonder, and mystery of the world. There were too many thoughts clouding her head. M tried to focus.
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