Swallowing, Dan took a single step backward. The robot raised its hands. Dan focused on the roller door and wrenched it across as a shield as a burst of orange power flew at him.
Bammm!
The power beam crashed into the metal sheet, which then slammed into Dan. He hit the ground—hard. You’ll be sorry! Dan focused on the robot, using his powers to push it back.
Nothing.
It’s not made of metal, Dan realized. And if it’s not metal…
‘Ferdy!’ he yelled. ‘I need help.’
Dan turned and ran, rounding a corner just as another burst of power slammed into the wall behind him. Liber8tor was parked on the roof. Dan had to get up there if he stood any chance of surviving, but first, he had to get away from the robot.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
There was an explosion and then the sound of wrenching metal as the robot randomly raked the storage facility with weapons fire. A single sheet metal piece had not been protection enough, so now Dan focused on dragging pieces of it together to form a shield. The robot emerged from around another corner and fired again.
Bam!
The energy bolt struck Dan’s makeshift shield—but this time, the shield held. Dan, looking about desperately for a way out, spotted a window at the end of the hallway—and Liber8tor beyond!
‘Dan!’ Ferdy said. ‘Get down!’
Dan dropped. A volley of weapon’s fire from Liber8tor smashed through the window and pummelled the robot, driving it back. Creeping to the window, Dan stayed down as Ferdy kept up his weapons fire
‘Ferdy!’ he said. ‘You’ve got to get me out of here.’
‘Does Dan feel like jumping?’
He glanced back at the robot.
No. I don’t feel like jumping, but I don’t have a choice.
‘Get as close to the window as you can!’ Dan yelled.
Ferdy stopped shooting, and Dan gathered up another pile of shattered metal to use as a shield to protect his back. The stranger fired again, pummelling his makeshift barrier as Dan stepped back from the jagged window. Bringing the ship nearer, Ferdy opened the side door.
That’s only three feet, Dan thought. Hardly any distance at all.
Except he was four floors above the ground. Taking a deep breath, Dan ran forward, stepped on the window sill, and propelled himself across the gap. He went sprawling into the Liber8tor as Ferdy lowered the door. More gunfire hit the side of the vessel, but for now, he was safe.
‘Is Dan safe?’ Ferdy asked.
‘Dan’s safe…I mean, I’m safe,’ Dan said. ‘Where’s the robot? Is it still out there?’
‘It is no longer on Ferdy’s senses.’
‘So it’s just disappeared?’
‘It would seem so.’
Somehow, Dan thought, I don’t think that’s the last we’ve seen of it.
Chapter Eleven
‘You can’t be serious about helping Ravana,’ Chad said.
We were back in the Flex fighter and soaring away from the prison. Brodie and Ebony were flying, leaving Chad and me to sit in the back. I’d been staring out the window at the vast landscape when I told him about what I’d promised Ravana.
‘The guy’s never going to see the light of day,’ I said.
‘Great,’ Chad said. ‘That’s how it should be.’
‘But is it right?’
Chad rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve always been Mister Goody,’ he said. ‘Ravana’s in jail because he’s an evil psychopath. That’s where he deserves to be.’
‘He does. But to never see sunlight or the sky or trees—’
‘It’s rough,’ Chad agreed. ‘But Ravana brought it all on himself. Don’t forget that.’
I nodded absently. Chad was right. Doctor Ravana had been an evil, sadistic monster. He’d ended up in jail because of his crimes. Still, missing out on seeing sky or clouds or rain was a terrible punishment. It was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
‘Hey guys,’ Brodie said. ‘We’re getting a message from Dan.’
‘Put it through,’ I said.
She connected. He told us about finding the second reader and meeting up again with the robot.
‘Are you all right?’ Ebony asked.
‘I’m fine,’ Dan said. ‘Beating the robot was easy.’
Ferdy’s voice came over the loudspeaker. ‘Dan ran away.’
‘Did you have to tell them that?’ Dan asked.
‘That is what happened, friend Dan.’
We grouped around the monitor in the flight cabin. ‘Can you show us the reader you found in the chest?’ I asked.
He held it up to the screen.
‘It’s the same,’ Chad said. ‘A brother to the first one we found.’
‘It might finally make the book readable,’ I said. The book had been blank when we’d found it. The addresses and formula it contained were only visible using the reader, but they hadn’t helped us understand their meaning. We were sure they contained some kind of code, but no one, not even Ferdy, had been able to crack it. ‘Maybe you need both readers for it to make sense.’
We filled Dan in on our meeting with Ravana and said we’d meet him at Mount Rhonan. The next hour went quickly as we crossed back over the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta. The scenery slowly transitioned from snow to lush forests.
Finally, Ebony called back over her shoulder. ‘We’re approaching Mount Rhonan,’ she said. ‘Looks like Dan’s already here.’
We landed nearby and crossed to him. The side of Liber8tor was blackened with scorch marks.
‘Hey,’ Chad said. ‘Looks like Liber8tor caught some damage.’
Dan looked defensive. ‘It’s a tough ship,’ he said.
‘Hey.’ Chad raised his hands. ‘No problem. Just saying that the ship will need some polishing later.’
There was no sign of the shack that Ravana had told us about, so we decided to split up and circle the mountain from both directions. Brodie came with me while Ebony, Chad, and Dan went the other way.
Mount Rhonan was only a few hundred feet high; it was more of a hill than a mountain. Still, the surrounding forest was very peaceful as we wandered through it. At one point, Brodie took my hand and gave me a kiss.
‘What was that for?’ I asked.
‘For being a good guy,’ she said. ‘I don’t really agree with you about Ravana, but I can see you’re trying to do the right thing.’
‘He’s a horrible monster—I know that—but he’s also a human being.’
We continued around the mountain.
‘Have you wondered what it’ll be like meeting our parents?’ Brodie said.
I shrugged. ‘I’ve thought about it,’ I said.
‘Because mine are probably in Australia.’
‘Okay,’ I said, slowly.
‘Which means I’d be moving to Australia,’ she said.
Oh. Now I understood what Brodie was saying.
‘What you’re wondering is where that will leave us?’ I said.
She nodded. ‘I suppose so.’
‘It’s a big world. Flying to Australia might be some distance to travel for a date, but it’s worth it.’
‘Really?’ Brodie wrapped her arms around me. ‘You know I love you?’
‘Uh, yeah,’ I said.
She stared at me. ‘Usually when one person says that, the other one says something similar, like I love you, too.’
I could feel myself turning red. ‘I just…’ I began. ‘I didn’t know we were using the L-word.’
‘Okay,’ she said, releasing me.
‘Look, what I mean is—’
Before I could continue, Brodie pointed. ‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Over there.’
Nestled among the trees was a rundown timber cabin. It looked like no one had been there for some time. I contacted the others and told them what we’d found, and it was only a few minutes before Chad had brought them around to us on his fireboard.
A leaning porch ran all the way around the outside. The window
s were cracked and in a poor state. The roof was made of sheet metal and had several holes in it. A vine growing around the timber looked like it had invaded the interior.
‘Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in years,’ Chad said.
Ebony started. ‘It looks like—watch out!’
She threw up a metal dome over us.
Ka-boom!
A power blast struck the barrier. The roar of it was deafening, and it was rapidly followed by another half a dozen explosions. We crouched under the dome as the attack continued.
Ebony had saved our lives. ‘Well done!’ I yelled to her. ‘Is it the robot?’
She nodded. ‘I spotted it at the last moment,’ she yelled back.
The ringing of the metal was deafening, but it was better than being blasted to pieces. The ferocious attack continued until there were three final blasts—none of which sounded like they were aimed at the dome–and then silence. Cautiously, Dan used his powers to lift the dome off us. Peering out, there was no sign of the robot, but it seemed to have achieved what it set out to do.
‘Look,’ Brodie said.
The cabin had been blasted to pieces. Whatever secrets it held had been reduced to a smoking ruin. Fires had broken out around the cabin. Ebony created some water and put these out.
Chad and Ebony kept an eye out as the rest of us examined the site. There were pieces of timber that may have been furniture and scraps of paper, but nothing else seemed to have survived the barrage. There was no sign of who had lived there or what it was for.
Then Brodie lifted the smoldering remains of a table. ‘Oh no,’ she said breathlessly.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
She held up the charred remains of what had once been a book. The red cover was identical to the book I’d been given by Doctor Richards a year ago. The book’s top three-quarters were gone; only the bottom section, held together by the spine, remained.
Taking out the reader that Dan had retrieved, I scanned what remained of the blank pages. Similar to our experience with the original book, the reader revealed lines of addresses and formula. Now, most of them had been obliterated by the fire.
‘We’re too late,’ I said, staring at the burnt pages. ‘Whatever secrets the book held are lost.’
Chapter Twelve
‘Don’t give up,’ Brodie said.
I stared at the charred remains in my hand. We had two readers, one full book and the burnt remains of a second. We’d found a way forward only to be stopped at the last minute. I was angry and wanted to go after the robot to make it pay for this.
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘Do you know where that robot went?’
‘Unfortunately, it disappeared from our senses almost immediately after the attack. The robot must use a cloaking device that shields it from radar.’
So there was no way to find it.
‘Whoever controls it is using some good tech,’ Brodie said.
‘If someone’s controlling it,’ Chad said. ‘It seems to be controlling itself.’
Dan had been sifting through the wreckage. ‘Hey guys,’ he said. ‘I may have found something.’
We grouped around as he produced a piece of unburned paper from the ruins. The page was part of an email that had been sent to someone. It was signed The Swan.
‘Look at that,’ Chad said.
One small part of the email remained. It read:
established at The Alpha Project site. At 38.992208, -94.591521
That was all.
‘We need to check it out,’ Brodie said. ‘See what those numbers mean.’
The others nodded. Returning to Liber8tor, we asked Ferdy if there was anything in The Agency databases mentioning The Alpha Project site. After a moment, he came back with a reply.
‘There is not,’ he said. ‘And the capital of Cuba is Havana.’
‘Thanks,’ I said absently, staring at the numbers. ‘I wonder what these mean.’
The others grouped around.
‘38.992208, -94.591521,’ Dan read. ‘Are they weights?’
‘The second one has a minus sign,’ Chad pointed out.
‘What about times?’ Brodie said. ‘Times can be really exact.’
‘But that still doesn’t explain the minus sign.’
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘What do you think these numbers are?’
I held the page up to one of the onboard cameras. Only about five seconds passed before Ferdy gave us an answer.
‘They appear to be latitude and longitude coordinates,’ he said.
‘But aren’t those usually in three sets of two?’ Chad said.
‘They can also be written in notation known as decimal degrees.’
‘Really?’ I said. This was news to me. ‘What’s at that location?’
‘It appears to be a small uninhabited valley in an area called Boxton in Kansas.’
The rest of us exchanged glances.
‘Looks like we’re going to Boxton,’ Brodie said.
It was getting late in the day now, so we flew across the country in Liber8tor, stopping only for pizza on the way. By the time we reached the valley, the sun wasn’t far off the horizon. I was feeling tired, as were the others, but we’d come too far to stop now.
Dan, in the meantime, had taken the remains of the book from me. He said he couldn’t make any promises but might be able to copy what was on the pages into The Agency computer to see if they could find anything.
The valley that Ferdy had taken us to wasn’t so much a valley as it was a crack in the earth. Two overgrown hills flanked a small clearing. Cottonwood and ash trees covered the hills on both sides. Something that looked like a chipmunk scrambled into the undergrowth as we left Liber8tor. A hawk coasted overhead and disappeared over nearby hills.
‘Ferdy,’ Chad said. ‘Are you sure this is the right place?’
‘This is it,’ Ferdy responded.
‘There’s nothing here,’ Dan said.
‘Hang on,’ Ebony said, gazing across the clearing. ‘What’s that? In the middle?’
I followed her gaze. At first, I thought she must have been referring to something on the ground. Then I focused harder and saw the faint outline of an object, as if a vast, glass hive sat in the clearing.
‘What is that?’ Brodie asked.
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘Are you picking anything up from an object in the clearing?’
‘Ferdy is using the Liber8tor sensors to scan the clearing but has not yet picked up any data.’
Hmm, I thought. So it’s invisible to Liber8tor.
Spreading out, we walked around the circumference of it. The size of a small house, the hive was transparent except for a slight rainbow refraction at its edges.
‘That’s weird,’ Chad said.
‘Or it’s The Alpha Project,’ I said.
What an almost invisible hive in the middle of Kansas would have to do with us was a mystery. I scrutinized the sky. Every time we’d come close to learning something new, the robot had unexpectedly turned up. At least, this time, we seemed safe.
‘So what will we do?’ Chad asked.
‘We need to touch it,’ Dan said. ‘It might be hiding something.’
Sighing, I nodded. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I suggest that one of us touches it while the rest stay back—just in case.’
‘Just in case…’ Chad’s voice trailed off. ‘In case the person melts or catches fire or explodes?’
‘That’s kind of what I mean.’
We all exchanged glances.
‘Anyone want to volunteer?’ Brodie said.
Chad shrugged. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘Why you?’ I asked.
‘Because…’ he paused dramatically. ‘I’m The Chad.’
‘Be careful. Otherwise, you’ll end up as The Melted Chad.’
Chad approached the hive. He hesitated for a moment before reaching out to touch it. Then he started to pat the side.
‘It’s solid,’ he said. ‘And cold. Really
cold.’ He slowly made his way around the circumference, running his hand across the translucent surface. ‘It seems to be the same the whole way around.’
Then—
His hand went in a little further—and disappeared. ‘Wait a second,’ he said. ‘There’s a gap—and it’s warm on the other side.’
‘It’s a cloaked ship,’ Dan said.
Chad continued around the exterior, but it was clear there was a gap big enough to fit a truck through on one side.
‘That’s it,’ Chad said. ‘It’s a big hive-shaped thing with a gap in the side.’
‘I’d hate to see the bee that would come out of that,’ Dan said. ‘Can you stick your head in?’
Sighing, Chad touched the empty spot again. He gently moved his face into the gap. Then, as if something had grabbed him from the other side, he was jerked into the object and disappeared from sight.
‘Chad!’ Dan yelled.
‘Where’s he gone?’ Ebony asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I’m going after him.’
‘That would not be advisable,’ Ferdy said. ‘Chad seems to have opened a window into a gravity well of unknown density. Ferdy is now receiving information about—’
‘There’s no time,’ I said. Forming an air shield around myself, I flew towards the gap. ‘This might not be safe, so don’t follow me.’
‘Axel—’ Brodie started.
I flew towards the gap.
At the same instant, I picked up a message from Ferdy.
‘Ferdy is also entering,’ he said. ‘The rest of the team must not follow.’
Then I reached the invisible doorway. There was a strange moment of disorientation and a terrible sensation of falling. It was as if I were in a dark tunnel. At the other end was a single tiny white dot. The dot grew bigger over a few seconds, and then I was through the gap and on the other side.
I went sprawling onto a ground covered in fist-sized grey stones. These continued into a rocky valley beyond. Hills, the same color, rose up on both sides. Above these lay the sky, a turbulent canvas of splotchy red and black. I shivered as a wind swept through the rocky valley. Turning around, I searched for the doorway I’d just fallen through, but there was no sight of it. My hands met empty air.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 100