‘You’re not a prisoner,’ Brodie said, then realized what she’s just said. ‘Well, you are now—but you weren’t before!’
‘We’re all prisoners here.’
‘I know the last week has been tough.’
‘You think?’
‘Okay. It’s been really tough,’ Brodie admitted. ‘Still, we’ve got a mission to carry out—’
‘Mission?’ Chad rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t recall signing up for any mission! I want to see the paperwork!’
A guard appeared. ‘It’s time,’ he said to Brodie. ‘These boys have got another visitor.’
She cast a helpless look at us. ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’
I glanced over at Chad.
I can’t make any promises.
No sooner did Brodie leave than Twelve appeared. It was the first time we’d seen him since we arrived. He still didn’t look like an alien, but now he definitely resembled an ogre. His face, which hardly showed any expression at all, was wearing an unhappy frown.
‘I’m very disappointed,’ he said. ‘You boys signed an agreement, and now you’ve broken—’
‘I don’t recall signing any agreements,’ Chad interrupted.
Twelve didn’t look like he often got interrupted. ‘You signed an agreement,’ he said. ‘And now you’re going to keep to it.’
‘What’re you going to do?’ Chad asked. ‘Force us?’
‘If we have to. Typhoid is not the only organization that can coerce difficult subjects.’
I thought back to the room with Ravana, and my stomach turned over at the memory. From somewhere deep inside me, the rage suddenly rose to the surface. Maybe it had been there all along, just waiting to erupt. The last week had been crazy: fear, pain, stress, and relentless exercise. After all of that, I’d been tossed in jail for walking out of the building.
Now, finally, I was being threatened.
That’s it, I thought.
I was on my feet in a second.
‘You will not threaten us!’ I snapped.
‘We don’t want to threaten—’
I yelled out some stuff then. Later, when I thought back on it, I couldn’t remember anything I said. What drove it was that memory of Ravana. That horrible little man with his torture probe.
The next thing I knew was that Chad was also yelling. ‘—that’s it!’ he was shouting. ‘We’re not taking orders from some alien weirdo!’
There was a buildup of heat in the room. A ball of fire in Chad’s hands grew red and then white-hot. Twelve stepped back. To his credit, he showed not a shred of fear as Chad swung about and hurled the ball of fire at the wall behind us. I threw up a shield as the wall exploded, sending bricks and mortar in all directions.
Chad grabbed my arm. ‘Come on!’
We sprinted down a corridor. It was all happening so fast. Alarms blared. A pair of guards appeared, and I knocked them over with a blast of air. A few more arrived down another corridor, and Chad blocked their passage with a wall of ice.
We found ourselves in The Cavern containing all the strange aircraft and equipment. Personnel were running to their posts but obviously didn’t know the nature of the threat. Pushing through the crowds, we raced up to the main concourse. The easiest way out was up and out. Doctor Sokolov had told us not to show our powers to the other personnel, but we didn’t care. I pointed to the hanger doors and forced them apart.
Daylight streamed through. Grabbing Chad, I threw up a barrier and flew towards the gap. Someone shot at us, but the bullets bounced off. We landed on the grass outside as guards approached from the woods. They’d surround us in seconds. All I had to do was pick up Chad and take to the skies. We’d be gone, and they’d never catch us.
Except—
Chad grabbed my arm. ‘What’re you waiting for?’ he asked. ‘Let’s go!’
I shook my head. This is all wrong. These people weren’t our friends, but they weren’t our enemies either.
‘No,’ I said. ‘This isn’t right.’
‘What do you mean—’
I turned to him. ‘Typhoid is going to destroy a city with a nuclear weapon,’ I said. ‘Do you want that to happen?’
Doubt showed in his eyes. ‘Well, no,’ he said. ‘But—’
‘Our place is here.’
Helicopters converged. Dozens of armed men surrounded us. I knew we could have taken them out, but not without hurting people. Maybe not without killing someone. And whose side would we be on then?
I put my hands up in the air. ‘Come on,’ I said to Chad. ‘It’s time to play ball.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was almost a pleasure when the alarm went off the next morning. The fluorescent light flickered to life, we showered with time to spare and made our way to the dining hall in silence.
Twelve allowed us to return to our dorm room after our surrender. I’m not sure what made him rethink his strategy. Maybe he decided that he needed us more than we needed him. Whatever it was, we spent the rest of the day in jail but were returned to our dorm room late that night.
Dan said nothing on the way to the dining hall the next day. Once we reached it, he jerked a thumb in our direction.
‘The jailbirds are free,’ he said.
Brodie jumped up and hugged us both. We sat, and then everyone was talking all at once. Everyone except Ebony. Her face was paler than ever with red blotches in her cheeks.
Chad finally noticed. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked. ‘Why’re you looking at me like that?’
‘You were going to leave me.’
‘No, I wasn’t—’
Her quiet voice shook with fury. ‘What else do you call it?’
‘I call it fun.’
‘Fun?’
Chad might have been the one with the ice powers, but right now, Ebony was doing a great job of making the temperature drop.
She continued. ‘You thought abandoning your sister was fun?’ Before Chad could reply, she continued. ‘Are you a jerk? You could have gotten yourself killed—’
The argument continued all through breakfast. We were ready to resume training, but it turned out there was a change in plan. Mister Brown arrived with the other trainers and took us to a truck.
Climbing aboard, the truck headed down a tunnel. The drive took over an hour underground until we finally reached a metal door that groaned open, allowing a flood of cold, salty air to wash over us. We looked out onto a bright blue ocean.
‘It’s a great day for the beach,’ Chad commented.
Dan glanced at the trainers. ‘Something tells me there’s no time for sun.’
‘You’ll be learning a new skill set today,’ Mister Brown began. ‘Up till now, you’ve worked individually to hone your abilities. Today all that changes. Today you’ll work as a team. You’ll have to rely on each other to complete this training mission.’
‘Sounds tough,’ Chad said, smirking.
Mister Brown gave him a look. ‘Today, you will face live ammunition.’ He stepped up to Chad’s face. ‘It will be tough.’
Producing a map of the area, the training instructor pointed to an island off the coast. We could see the island from where we were standing. He explained that our mission was to get to it—hopefully without being detected—then break into a compound and destroy an obelisk in the facility.
‘We’re throwing you in the deep end. Have no doubt about that. We are forcing you to sink or swim.’ Brown paused. ‘The war game will only end once your objective is achieved. You have three hours to complete your mission.’
‘Uh,’ Chad began, holding up a hand. ‘What happens if we don’t want to achieve our mission?’
Brown’s eyes narrowed. ‘Say again.’
‘What happens if we decide to go for a burger and fries instead?’
Oh, Chad, I groaned.
The seconds passed as a gentle morning breeze washed over the beach. A solitary seagull cried and spun away into the distance. The waves crashed, rolled up the beach, and drai
ned into the sand.
Finally, Mister Brown’s eyes moved to each of us. ‘If you succeed in today’s mission, you will be rewarded with a twenty-four-hour furlough.’ He let that sink in. ‘If you should decide you are incapable of following orders, you will be considered an enemy of The Agency and will be treated as such.’
His eyes settled on Chad.
I’ll say one thing for Chad. He may have been arrogant, but even he knew when he was beaten.
Chad looked to the island. ‘Looks like we party tomorrow,’ he said.
Nodding, Mister Brown led the other trainers back through the metal doors. He turned back one final time and looked at me.
‘You remember the exercises we conducted regarding flight shapes?’ he said.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘The wedge should get you to the island without being detected. It’s the most like a stealth bomber. Stay low and fast.’ He turned to the rest of us. ‘Remember. It’s live ammunition. You will die if you make a mistake.’ The metal doors started to slide shut. ‘Good luck.’
The doors slammed shut with an ominous boom.
‘Live ammunition,’ Brodie said, turning to Chad. ‘Where’d you say that burger place was?’
‘We’ll be okay,’ I said, although I didn’t feel as confident as I sounded. ‘Mister Brown’s right, though. We’ve got to work together.’
Chad shook his head in mock admiration. ‘You’re such a hero,’ he said. ‘Such a leader.’
I snapped. ‘Is there something wrong with your brain?’ I asked.
‘No. Is there something wrong with yours, Mister Goody?’
‘What is your problem?’
‘I don’t recall anyone making you leader—’
Brodie pushed us apart. ‘Boys,’ she said. ‘Turn your glands to the off position. We need to move.’ She checked her watch. ‘We’ve got two hours and forty-five minutes.’
I created a wedge as Brown had instructed, and we all climbed on. A week ago, I couldn’t have imagined building a flying device for us to fly on, but now I did it with ease. It even had a handrail. With enough practice, I could probably even give it really cool fins and make the wings—
Brodie looked at me. ‘Are you ready?’
I roused myself from my flight engineering dreams. ‘Aye, captain,’ I said.
We started across the water. With the wind and sea spray sweeping across us, it was almost easy to believe we were on a pleasure cruise and not heading into danger. I glanced at Brodie. Her red hair was flowing back like that scene in Titanic. She glanced over at me and smiled.
She’s beautiful, I thought.
I had to remind myself to stay focused on the flying wedge. Landing us all in the drink wouldn’t endear me to anyone.
From my training with Mister Brown, I knew that keeping us close to the water decreased our chance of being picked up by radar. Getting to the island would be one obstacle overcome.
I looked over at the others. They all looked so happy it was hard to believe we were heading off on a dangerous mission. I remembered Mister Brown’s briefing.
Live ammunition, I thought. I hope we don’t end up dead.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Reaching the island without incident, we huddled in a small cave as we examined the map. The island was essentially a large isosceles triangle with the base at the center of the thick end. We were on the opposite side. I asked everyone what they thought.
The good news was that everyone had a plan.
The bad news was that everyone had a different plan.
‘We need to hit them with everything we’ve got,’ Chad said. ‘A full-frontal assault where we annihilate anything that moves.’
‘I think we need to creep up on the compound,’ Brodie suggested. ‘Then create a diversion by blowing something up.’
‘We could tunnel under,’ Dan said thoughtfully. ‘Or leave a wooden horse out the front—’
Okay, it got weird, fast.
I held up a hand. ‘These are some good ideas,’ I said. ‘Can anyone suggest a single coordinated plan?’
No one spoke.
Chad glared at us like we were stupid and marched out of the cave.
‘What are you doing?’ I said, following him.
‘You people are fools,’ he said. ‘I’ll have this whole mission done by the time you’ve worked out north from south.’
I shook my head in amazement as he started towards the nearby cliff face.
‘What is his problem?’ I asked.
Ebony was at my elbow. ‘That’s my brother you’re talking about,’ she said, glaring.
‘I didn’t mean—’
We followed Chad up the cliff face. It was an easy climb, and he was already most of the way up. By the time we reached the top, Chad had started down a trail through the thick foliage. It gave me a bad feeling. Why is there a trail through the undergrowth unless—
Unless it’s a trap.
That’s when I spotted the wire across the path.
‘Chad!’ I yelled. ‘Stop!’
He turned at the last second but was too late—a bolt of electricity, a blue and white jagged line of fire, arced out of nowhere. Catching him in the chest, the impact threw him twenty feet into the jungle.
‘No!’ Ebony screamed.
Everyone started forward in panic, but I stopped myself. One injured person is enough. I spotted the generator and took it out with a single invisible ball of energy. Now we were safe.
Chad was motionless and pale by the time we reached him. A burnt, black hole scarred the middle of his chest. Brodie checked his pulse before looking up at me with dismay on her face.
‘He’s not breathing,’ she said. ‘I think he’s dead.’
Under any normal circumstances, we would have pulled out a phone and rung for help. Unfortunately, none of us owned phones, and if we had, we didn’t know our location.
We started CPR. Ebony pressed down rhythmically on Chad’s chest as I delivered mouth to mouth. The minutes passed. At first, I thought we’d lost him. It was like his body had given up completely. Maybe his heart had been irreparably damaged by the bolt of electricity. Ebony started crying. Even Dan’s eyes filled with tears.
How can The Agency do this? Don’t they know right from wrong?
Then I thought of Twelve. He wasn’t even human. If his people had been on Earth for hundreds—or thousands—of years, they would have seen millions of humans grow old and die.
Killing a teenager would mean nothing to them.
Would it?
Chad groaned. Reaching up blindly, he pushed me away. It took him a few seconds to scan the circle of faces around him before finally focusing on me.
‘You’re ugly,’ he said.
‘I think he’s going to be okay,’ I told the others.
No sooner was Chad on his feet than Ebony slapped him—hard. The sound was like a bullet in the silent jungle.
‘You are an idiot,’ she said furiously.
Chad’s chin shook. For a moment, I thought he was about to cry. Then his head dipped. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m really sorry.’
She threw her arms around him and burst into tears. The family reunion continued for another minute before Brodie finally cleared her throat.
‘This is all very well and good, but—’
‘But we’ve got to get going,’ Chad said. ‘How long was I out?’
‘Too long.’ Brodie checks her watch. ‘We have less than two hours to reach the complex.’
‘Okay,’ he said, looking up at me. ‘I think we need a plan.’
‘Agreed.’
‘What do you think we should do?’
It took me a moment to realize he was asking my opinion. Hard to believe, but true. Maybe the electricity jolted some sense into him. I pulled out the map again. Everyone had suggested some good ideas, and I thought we could combine them to produce a successful strategy.
‘Here’s what I think we should do,’ I said, peering at the map. �
�We split into two groups. Group one creates a diversion at the far end of the island. Hopefully, that draws most of the forces away from the base. At the same time, the other group circles around and approaches the compound at the short end of the triangle. The distance to the obelisk should only be a few hundred feet.’
‘Sure,’ Brodie said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Sounds easy.’
I ignored her. ‘I suggest Chad and Dan create the diversion.’
‘What makes you think I’m capable of causing trouble?’ Chad asked with a straight face.
I ignored him too. ‘Ebony, Brodie and I will head to the compound,’ I said. ‘One of us should make it to the obelisk.’
Synchronizing watches, I reminded everyone about the live ammunition. ‘This isn’t a game,’ I said, turning to Chad. ‘And watch out for tripwires.’
He laughed. ‘You too.’
We had an hour to make our way around the edge of the island. It was tough going as we clambered over the rocky coastline, watching out for traps and cameras on the way. By the time we reached our position, we were hot and sticky in the late morning sun.
The cliff that rose up from the shore was steep as compared to the rest of the island. It even looked like it had been purpose-built by The Agency. Maybe it’s to deter attacks like this. We crept along what appeared to be the easiest way up the cliff face to a dirt path at the top.
‘That’s got to be a trap,’ Brodie said.
‘Absolutely,’ Ebony echoed.
It was easy to see how Chad got zapped. Any sensible person would have taken the path. Of course, they’d be dead, but their last moments would have been spent on a pleasant trail as opposed to scrambling through hot, insect-infested woodland.
‘We need to hurry,’ Brodie whispered.
We dove into the jungle. It took another fifteen minutes to maneuver. Even then, we still discovered three tripwires on the way. One was attached to a massive blade poised to swing down and slice the innocent victim in half.
I shook my head in disbelief.
Surely this is too serious for a training exercise.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 10