“I didn’t have time for that!” Tony replied, irritated. “Anyway, my way worked fine.”
“You’re always in too much of a hurry!” Layla countered.
The large man shook his head. “Hey, so I’m José. And we really need your help, so can you maybe argue with each other later and instead stop the train? Traci said it should have stopped by now.”
“It’s definitely not stopped,” Tony noted.
“What would we do without your powers of observation?” Layla muttered.
CHAPTER 20
THE BAY BRIDGE
Ms. Nowhere’s voice crackled through the comm system of the hauler. “Frostee, what’s the status on the reactor? I need good news here.”
In the back of the hauler, Frostee grimaced as he worked on the makeshift device he’d been using to slow the stolen accelerator’s meltdown. His brow was soaked with sweat as he carefully threaded a wire through a device that was probably never going to work. “Oh, everything’s just fine,” he answered in a calm and soothing voice. “Why, Cisco and I were just preparing to have a lovely cup of tea.”
There was a pause on the other end. Then Ms. Nowhere spoke hesitantly. “So, you mean . . . ?”
The device that Frostee was working on sparked and sputtered, then died in his hands. He tossed it to the ground in frustration. “It’s all bad, Ms. Nowhere! Super bad! I can’t stop the device anymore and we can’t even get in range if I could! We’re on the bridge and—”
Frostee was interrupted as the hauler suddenly accelerated to a dangerous speed.
“Aagh! Cisco? Why?!”
“Hold on!” Cisco yelled back. “Gotta save a bus before it crashes off into the bay!”
“The bay . . . ,” Frostee muttered. “The bay!” he then exclaimed loudly. “I know how we can stop the reactor! It’s the bay!”
CHAPTER 21
BART TUBE
Meanwhile, Echo was still driving underground, coming up with a plan of her own. It wasn’t the best plan she’d ever had, but that train wasn’t slowing down and the whole team needed her help.
Before she could second-guess herself, Echo’s car accelerated. The tires shifted horizontally, allowing the car to cling to the tunnel wall. It was almost too dizzying to watch as speed and momentum carried the teardrop-shaped dragster upside down onto the roof of the tunnel.
At just the right moment, Echo reached down to her dashboard and triggered her booster rockets. The car responded like lightning, and within two seconds, it was corkscrewing back down the wall in front of the speeding train. Getting in front of the getaway vehicle was only half the equation, though.
“This really is a terrible idea,” Echo said out loud to herself as she pulled her car in front of the speeding train, matching its velocity perfectly.
Using her car’s ability to recharge its battery on the fly, Echo swerved over the powerful third rail. The battery of her electric vehicle surged but didn’t explode, which was a very real concern. Using the additional power boost, Echo fired her rockets in reverse in an attempt to stop the train with her own car. The full weight of the train slammed into her moving vehicle. Then, without letting up on the rocket boost, she pushed down on the brake pedal.
Bit by bit, the car was slowing the train.
CHAPTER 22
THE BAY BRIDGE
Way above the bay, Cisco watched as the school bus continued to careen toward the edge of the bridge.
He thought quickly. The tow grapple should work, but if he fired it too soon it would miss its target altogether, and it could burst through the side of the bus too late, hurting someone.
He was going to have to be super, extra careful.
Five . . . four . . . three . . .
The hauler hit a pothole in the bridge and he accidentally smashed his thumb down on the dashboard. A towline sprang out from the back of the hauler, catching the bus on the bumper.
It had been the luckiest shot ever.
Quickly, Cisco spun the wheel as the bus’s momentum threatened to pull the hauler off the bridge.
Frostee ran up into the driver’s cabin. “Cisco! I know what to do! We gotta flood the tunnels! That’s the solution!”
“Kinda busy here, bro,” Cisco said, as he strained to hold the wheel in place. The hauler suddenly fishtailed and yanked the bus back from the disastrous path it was on.
They were safe:
The bus.
The kids.
The hauler.
Cisco took a deep breath.
“Great!” Frostee said. “Now all we have to worry about is a thermonuclear explosion!”
CHAPTER 23
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
“We’re stopping!” Tony yelled. “The train is stopping!”
“But the reactor is still glowing!” Layla yelled back.
Frostee chimed in through his spy watch. “We have a plan! Does the reactor have three green wires? Do you see those?”
“Got ’em,” Tony yelled, grabbing the wires and yanking them out.
“Whatever you do,” Frostee’s voice warned, “do not disconnect those wires! As long as you leave them in, we can make this all good!”
Layla looked at Tony.
Tony looked at Layla.
The man named José looked at both of them, then to the severed wires.
“Well, dang,” Tony said.
The reactor surged again.
“I think we just lost more time,” Layla observed.
Up in headquarters, Ms. Nowhere let out a massive sigh of exasperation. “He yanked out the wires, didn’t he?”
“I know the same stuff you know,” answered Gary, less than helpfully.
“All right, Tony!” Ms. Nowhere said, her voice growing stern as she leaned into her spy watch. “Time to abort! You and your team get out of there. Grab the bad guys, too.”
CHAPTER 24
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
Tony was holding the wires perfectly still. There was a tiny arc of yellow energy flowing between the two. And every time he tried to move them, the reactor surged with energy.
“There’s still a connection!” Tony shouted. “We can do this!”
Ms. Nowhere’s voice hissed over the spy watch. “Tony Toretto! Though I am well known to be extremely calm and mellow, I am about to lose it! You have shown nothing but impatience over and over again throughout this mission! When are you going to learn that you can’t just jump at every chance! Sometimes you have to restrain yourself!”
Frostee’s voice cut in. “Tony! That thing is a ticking bomb! The only reason it’s stopped is because you have the wires set perfectly. Maybe you can keep the wires steady to get an extra ten minutes, but you can’t stop it from blowing up if you can’t move it! You’ve got maybe three minutes once you let go. You all need to split. Now!”
“How were you going to stop it before I pulled the wires?” Tony asked.
“Water,” Frostee answered. “The fusion reaction can be deactivated if you submerge the machine. But you can’t move it if the wires are pulled!”
“We’re under the bay, right?” Layla pointed out. “There’s water all around us?”
“A lot of water,” the woman named Traci answered. “This tunnel is heavily reinforced, though.”
“But they have pumps!” Jonathan answered. “They have really big pumps to push the water out if it ever floods, like during an earthquake!”
Layla stared at him.
“I saw a special about it.” Jonathan shrugged. He touched a heavy pipe near the wall. “There’s one right here.”
“It’s basically a two-way system,” Gary chimed in from the comm. “The switch is easy to reverse and pull water in, but it’s not fast, and the tunnel you’re in is huge.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ms. Nowhere said. “It
’s too risky! Everyone clear out of there now! Tony, let go of that thing and you can still get away!”
Frostee agreed. “You gotta get moving!”
“Okay, okay,” Tony replied. “Ms. Nowhere and Frostee are right. Everyone’s got to get moving. It’s too dangerous for you all to stay.” He blinked as a bead of sweat slowly trickled down his forehead. Tony still held the wires, just barely out of reach from each other. “Just turn that water on first, okay?” he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. “I’m going to sit here awhile.”
CHAPTER 25
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
While everyone else was figuring out how to stop the accelerator from overloading, Red had been slowly coming to. The punch that had knocked him out had been a solid one. The first thing he noticed was that the train was stopped. The second thing he noticed was that everyone was just sitting around on the tunnel floor, playing with the glowing whatever-it-was that had been in the vault.
And the bazooka was still sitting right where he had dropped it.
“It was supposed to be easy cash . . . ,” Red muttered to himself. “Money goes in a vault. Everyone knows that. This . . . none of this was my fault.”
CHAPTER 26
THE BAY BRIDGE
Meanwhile, back on the bridge, Cisco was really starting to freak out. “We gotta get them outta there!”
“Tell that to Tony!” Frostee yelled back. “He’s still holding onto the reactor wires! It’s crazy! They only have three minutes once he lets go!”
“Well, do something!”
“I am! I’m telling him to drop them and run! FAST!”
Cisco shook his head. “Naw, bro,” he muttered. “Tony’s never gonna do that. I gotta get down there. But . . .”
Then he remembered that he had robot drones.
CHAPTER 27
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
Back in the tunnel, things weren’t any better.
“Tony, just let go of the wires,” Echo said. “We’re not leaving you behind.”
Tony shrugged her off. “Frostee. What’s better? Everyone’s chances of getting away while I hold this thing? Or our chances if I let it go and we all escape together?”
“There’s too many variables!” Frostee yelled through his spy watch.
“What gives everyone a better chance, Frostee?” Tony pushed. “Tell us.”
There was a long silence. Then finally Frostee answered. “It’ll hold longer if you keep those wires exactly where they are,” he said, his voice cracking.
“That settles it,” Tony replied. “Everyone get out of here!”
“No!” Layla shouted. “This is stupid—”
Tony cut her off. “What was stupid was me rushing off and jumping into things over and over. Just go.”
“We got the water open!” José shouted. “But it’s slow. Way too slow, man. This . . . this is a bad plan. You gotta leave with us!”
“I’m not going! I’m giving you your best shot. Go!” Tony yelled at everyone.
And then there was an explosion, though not the one everyone was worried about.
CHAPTER 28
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
Red wasn’t going to wait to see what everyone was talking about. His plan had gone sideways, but he could still make his escape. All he needed was a distraction. A large one, ideally. Then he could escape, get back home, and return to the quiet life of cell-phone repair until he had time to concoct a new, even better heist.
The bazooka was a perfect opportunity, and anyone that survived the blast would be way too busy to follow him. There was a service tunnel not far away. All he had to do was reach that and no one could catch him.
And so, he quietly picked it up and carefully balanced it on his shoulder.
And then Cisco’s drone flew directly at him.
“Noooooooo! Don’t!” shouted Cisco’s voice through the drone speaker as he piloted it directly into Red’s line of fire, slamming into the angry-faced man.
Red stumbled, and the rocket launcher misfired. The rocket went over the heads of his target and into the tunnel wall where the water pipe had been opened. The resulting explosion was fierce, and the integrity of the wall was instantly broken. Seawater began to pour in at a fast pace.
Getting water into the tunnel was no longer a concern.
CHAPTER 29
BART TRAIN TOWING PLATFORM
The torrent of water slammed into the group. Everyone was knocked over.
“No!” Tony yelled as he lost his grip on the wires. “The reactor!”
Frostee’s voice cut in through the spy watch. “It’s submerged! The fusion chamber is deactivated! Grab it and get out of there already!”
“Gah!” Layla said, trying not to get swept up in the rapidly increasing current. “Echo?” she called out. “Echo, you there?”
“I’m good!” Echo called back through her spy watch. “But if we don’t roll soon, we’re gonna need boats!”
“Everyone into the car!” Tony yelled. “Go!”
As they all piled in, Red staggered up. “Don’t leave me!” the would-be criminal genius whined. “I can’t swim!”
“No one left behind!” Tony yelled loudly amid the steady roar of water.
“Thank you!” Red muttered as he pushed toward the door. “Thank you so—”
“But you don’t ride up front,” Tony said, and with a quick shove, he pushed the drenched mobster into the trunk, slamming it tightly closed.
The wall started cracking further, and more water flooded into the tunnel.
Ms. Nowhere’s voice shouted loudly on all the spy watches. “Get out now!” she bellowed.
With a quick burst of speed, Tony and Echo sped back the way they’d come, the water pouring after them.
CHAPTER 30
BERKELEY, SPY RACERS SECRET HEADQUARTERS
“That was incredibly unsafe!” Ms. Nowhere yelled.
“But everyone’s okay . . . even the bad guys!” Tony protested. “And we saved the reactor!”
“And you flooded the Transbay Tube. That alone is going to cost at least two million dollars to repair!”
“But isn’t the accelerator worth over ten million?” Frostee asked, raising an eyebrow. “That’s what you said this morning.”
“I exaggerated. It’s only, I don’t know, worth 9.5 million. Maybe. Anyway, that’s not the point! You all could have been killed! I would have had to fill out so much paperwork!”
“What about the bad guys?” Cisco asked.
“Hmm,” Ms. Nowhere replied. “Well, it turns out it was all that fellow Red’s idea and he was extorting the others.”
“The others helped us,” Echo offered. “We couldn’t have done it without them, and none of them seemed to want to hurt anyone.”
Nowhere clicked her tongue thoughtfully. “A good word has already been put in for them.” She then wheeled on Tony. “But you!”
“Me?” Tony asked, innocently.
“I should consider grounding you! Or wiping your memory or something . . .”
Tony shook his head. “I know. I messed up. I was impatient and I didn’t listen. If we hadn’t jumped off to chase them, they probably would have just been caught when they went to unload the vault.”
Ms. Nowhere’s expression softened. “Or they might have sped away anyway, and triggered a massive explosion that could have had gigantic consequences.”
“Really?” Tony asked, confused.
“Maybe,” Ms. Nowhere answered. “Just maybe. You were impulsive and reckless and you leaped into action without thinking. But . . .”
“I can’t tell if you’re yelling at me or not. This is very confusing,” Tony muttered.
“But,” Ms. Nowhere continued. “Sometimes action is needed. Sometimes you have to be willing to do whatever it takes t
o save the day. You were dumb, maybe. But you also showed a lot of potential.”
Tony’s expression changed to excitement. “Really? You think so?”
“I said so, and I refuse to repeat it!” Nowhere snapped. “Now, you’ve got a long drive home—and I expect you all to obey the speed limit!”
The kids all jumped up and ran for their cars. Gary looked over from his workstation.
“You think they’re going to obey the speed limit?” he asked in a whisper.
“Pff,” Ms. Nowhere answered with a wry smile. “The day they do that is the day we recruit new agents.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Landry Q. Walker has been making stories happen for over twenty-five years. He has worked on well-known properties such as Star Wars, Batman, Supergirl, Frozen, The Incredibles, The Avengers, and many more. He's also the author of the series Project Terra, and writer of several creator-owned comics, including Danger Club and The Last Siege.
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The Stolen Vault Page 3