SYLO

TWENTY

The effect from the Ruby was instant and dramatic.

As before, it felt like an electric charge had fired up every nerve in my body. Any trace of fatigue was wiped away. My head cleared. In a word, I felt powerful. There was a moment of fear as I remembered the dangers of what it was doing to my body, but it didn’t last. I felt as though I could see better, hear better, and leap over any fence that stood in my way.

“I am so ready,” I said to Kent.

“After you,” he replied with a sly smile.

I scanned the area, looking for any SYLO guards. I was surprised to see that none were around. Did they really believe that once everybody went to sleep in their underwear, nobody would try to escape? That was fine by me. I took off sprinting for the gate that led to the seventh fairway and the women’s section of the compound. The distance was maybe fifty yards but I was there in an instant. Anyone running that fast would have to appear as a streaking shadow to a guard who happened to be looking. My confidence soared.

The Ruby was doing its job.

The gate was locked, no big surprise, but Kent was right. It wasn’t exactly a formidable device. It would have stood up to a normal person trying to break through, but at that moment I wasn’t a normal person. I laced the fingers of my right hand through the lattice of the door and pressed my left hand against the frame. I knew I could break it open because I had to break it open. I gritted my teeth, gripped the fence, and pulled.

The lock snapped and the door opened as easily as if it were a flimsy latch on a dollhouse. The metal lattice of the door was bent and twisted by the sheer force of my grip. I had a feeling of complete dominance. I couldn’t wait to use it again. I was ready to tear down an entire section of fence, if need be.

I turned back to see Kent running up behind me.

“Don’t stop now,” he whispered, breathless.

I ran through the gate, confident that Kent would close it to cover our tracks. I sprinted the distance of the corridor, sure that my fleeting shadow wouldn’t be seen, until I reached a gate on the far side. Tearing this open was as easy as opening the first. We had arrived at the driving range, beyond which was the clubhouse where I had been repeatedly Q-tipped. An ambulance was parked in front.

Kent caught up and closed the gate behind us. Without a word we both sprinted for the safety of the shadows behind a row of Porta-potties. My confidence was high. I felt invincible. It took a load of willpower to stay calm, both physically and mentally. All it would take was being spotted by a SYLO guard and we’d be done. No amount of the Ruby would protect us from a bullet.

“You still want to go after Sleeper?” Kent whispered.

I nodded.

Kent frowned, then peered around the corner—and quickly pulled back. He held a single finger to his lips. There was no need to explain. Somebody was out there. He held his hand up as if to say, “Don’t move.”

I heard the door of the Porta-potty squeak open. Whoever was out there had come to take a leak. All we had to do was wait him out, but that was easier said than done. The Ruby was surging through my body, demanding that I move. It felt like a bomb had gone off inside of me and the only way I could release the pressure was to do something physical.

I heard the splash of the guy peeing and hoped that was all he had to do. If he had gone in there with a magazine, I’d have to scream. I looked at Kent to see how he was holding up. He was doing better than me. He held both hands out as if to say, “Stay calm.” I clenched my fists, hoping that pumping them would help relieve the pent-up energy.

Mercifully, I heard the sound of the potty door slam. Kent got on his hands and knees to peer around the corner.

“C’mon,” I urgently whispered.

Kent held up his hand to keep me back for a few more seconds, then motioned for me to come forward.

“He went inside the clubhouse,” he whispered. “Let’s make our way around the outside. I want to get close to the ambulance before you go after Sleeper.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I jumped up and ran for the fence, staying low, relieved to be moving. I ran parallel to the fence, jumping over obstacles, willing myself to appear as nothing more than a fleeting shadow. I wasn’t frightened. The Ruby gave me a feeling of invincibility. This wasn’t good because we were extremely “vincible.” That much had been proven by Marty Wiggins. And Peter Nelson. And Kent’s father. And, and, and.

I ran up to one of the large military trucks that were used as troop transports and hid there. From that vantage point I could see the ambulance parked in front of the clubhouse. A guy wearing a red EMT-like jumpsuit with a SYLO logo on the sleeve entered the driver’s side. He wasn’t armed, which gave me hope.

It didn’t last. My stomach sank when I saw a SYLO soldier who was armed open the rear door of the ambulance and climb in back. He was riding shotgun. Literally. The ambulance rolled past the clubhouse and up to a small guard shack near the front gate of the country club. The driver spoke a few words to the guy in the shack, after which the iron gates swung open and the ambulance drove out. The gate remained open long enough for another ambulance to drive in and stop in front of the clubhouse. The back door opened and a SYLO soldier jumped out along with a lady who was the perfect image of somebody’s grandma…except that her hands were cuffed behind her back. I didn’t recognize the lady. She was yet another unfortunate victim of the quarantine—and now a prisoner of SYLO. The soldier roughly pulled her into the building and the ambulance drove off to get back in line.

“My God,” I whispered. “This is just crazy!”

“They don’t trust anybody,” Kent replied. “Doesn’t matter how old they are.”

The ambulance did a U-turn and parked back in front of the clubhouse. The EMT-looking driver got out and the ambulance was left unguarded.

Kent said. “I think they just wait there until they get called out to pick somebody up.”

“So we could be waiting here all night,” I said.

“Or it could take off a minute from now.”

“I’m going for Tori,” I said and started to move.

Kent grabbed my arm and said, “If that ambulance goes, I’m on it. With or without you.”

“I’ll be back,” I said and took off.

The women’s area was set up on the next fairway over from the medical area. I knew that from watching where the women went at the end of the day. It was easy to see pretty much everything through the fences. I made my way there quickly, always keeping an eye out for anybody in a uniform. I got as far as the gate that led through to the women’s area when I saw my first patrolling guard. It was a woman who stood like a sentry near the closed and locked gate. She didn’t look as though she was going anywhere soon, so I had to find another way through.

The answer was simple. I climbed the fence. None of the interior fences had razor wire. There was no way we could climb our way out of the compound to freedom without getting slashed, but moving between fairways was easy, especially when fueled by the Ruby. I was up and over the fence in seconds. Getting Tori back over wouldn’t be as easy.

There were five barracks, all similar to mine, and I had no way of knowing which one Tori was in. My only option was to search. I had to hope that if any of the women prisoners were awake and saw me, they’d think I was one of the laundry elves coming to pick up the day’s work. I sprinted to the first building, took a deep breath, and entered.

My only strategy was to get in and out fast. With luck I’d be moving so quickly that I would appear to be nothing more than a shadow, though I couldn’t move too quickly or I might not spot Tori. I zipped in, sprinted between the two rows of cots, quickly checked out the sleeping women on one side then did an about-face and repeated the process while checking out the other side on the way back.

No Tori. At least I didn’t think so. One sleeping lump didn’t look much different from another. I was able to see most of the faces but some of the woman had their blankets up over their heads. I could have missed her but I had to play the odds and keep moving. I flashed into the next barracks and did the same thing. Still no luck. I was beginning to think I would have to come up with a different plan.

I went into the third barracks and sprinted along the row of cots. The last bed on the right held a woman with the blanket covering her face—and a USM cap resting on the footlocker. I moved quickly to the side of the cot, knelt down, and gently pulled back the blanket.

The sleeping woman wasn’t sleeping. Touching her was like releasing the catch on a coiled spring. She lunged forward, hands first, and closed her fingers around my neck in a powerful grip that had to have come from hauling lobster traps her whole life. Her eyes were wild with fear and I have no doubt that she would have strangled me if I hadn’t had ridiculous strength from the Ruby. With one hand I grabbed her wrist; the other I clamped over her mouth.

Tori’s mouth.

“We’re getting out of here,” I said with a strained whisper as her hand stayed clamped around my throat.

It took a second for her to register what was happening. I watched her eyes. They went from terrified to knowing. She released her grip. I let her go and without a second’s hesitation she hopped off her cot fully dressed, slipped on her sneakers, grabbed her hat, and led the way out of the barracks. It was as if she had been waiting for me.

She didn’t say a word until we left the building. I took her by the shoulders and guided her to the shadows on the side of the barracks and out of sight.

“What’s the plan?” she asked in a whisper.

“Kent is at the clubhouse. We’re going to hijack an ambulance.”

Tori nodded in understanding. She didn’t question. Just the fact that she was sleeping in her clothes meant that she was ready for anything. My coming to get her was far less of a surprise than I thought it would be. I suppose I would have felt the same way. It wouldn’t have surprised me at all if she had come for me.

“I’ve got to find my father,” she said.

“I don’t think he’s here,” I replied. “I’ve been looking. He’s nowhere in the men’s area or the recreation fairway and I didn’t see him at meals. Have you?”

Tori shook her head. “No, but I’m not leaving without him.”

“I get it, but I wouldn’t know where to begin looking. Not now. We’ve been lucky so far; nobody’s seen us. That won’t last.”

Tori was staring right into my eyes.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I replied, suddenly self-conscious.

She continued to stare at me as if searching for the answer to a question she couldn’t quite grab hold of. Two seconds later, she had it.

“You’re on the Ruby,” she stated flatly.

“I am. Kent and I both are.”

“Damn. Are you okay?”

“Sort of, though I feel like I swallowed jet fuel. I did it to get us out of here. If you want, I’ll stick around to keep looking for your father, but whatever we do, we have to do it now.”

Tori started to argue but then thought better of it.

“Thanks for that,” she said. “And for coming to get me.”

“I knew where to find you. I can’t say the same about your father.”

“Okay, I get it,” she said. “Let’s get out of here and hope the rest of the world will help us get him out.”

I hate to admit it but I was relieved that we didn’t have to find Mr. Sleeper. Not that I didn’t want to rescue him, but looking for him would probably have sunk us all.

“One way or another, we’ll get him out,” I said. “I promise.”

“You can’t make a promise like that,” she said sternly.

“I can promise to try.”

Tori nodded. “I’ll hold you to that. How do we get out of here?”

I grabbed her hand and ran for the fence that would lead us back to the medical fairway and the ambulances.

“Whoa, slow down,” she whisper-yelled.

I had to consciously force myself to go slower because there was no way she could keep my Ruby-fueled pace. It didn’t take long for us to get back to the area I had climbed over earlier.

“There’s a guard outside the gate,” I explained. “Can you climb up the—”

She finished my sentence by hopping up on the fence and scaling it with the confidence of a cat. I stayed below in case she slipped. When she reached the top, I hyper-climbed up and back down the other side to get under her again. A few seconds later, she joined me on the ground.

“That’s just wrong,” she said with dismay.

It was, but I wasn’t about to stop and debate my decision to use the Ruby. We hurried back the way I had come, retracing my steps until we got back to the truck to find Kent still there, cautiously peering at the ambulance that hadn’t moved.

“I was about to give up on you,” he said without taking his eyes off the vehicles.

“Nice to see you, too, Kent,” Tori said sarcastically.

“There’s been some activity down there,” Kent explained. “But no driver.”

Tori looked around the enclosure, the wheels turning in her head.

“Why aren’t there more guards?” she asked. “It’s a prison. Shouldn’t there be more security?”

“Who cares?” Kent said. “That’s their problem.”

“Maybe now’s the time to get in the ambulance,” I suggested.

“No,” Kent shot back. “We could be sitting there for hours. We’ve got to—wait! Look.”

A SYLO guard walked quickly to the ambulance, opened the rear door, and climbed in.

“They’re getting ready to roll,” Kent declared. “Get down there and take him out before the driver shows up.”

“What do you mean, ‘take him out’?” I said skeptically. “I’m not some ninja.”

“You don’t need to be. Not with the Ruby. Open the door fast and punch his lights out. He won’t know what hit him.”

“Why don’t you do it?” Tori asked.

“Because I didn’t take it.”

At first I thought I hadn’t heard right.

“Wait—what?” I asked.

“I didn’t take the Ruby,” Kent said.

I grabbed him and spun him around to face me.

“Are you serious?” I screeched in an intense whisper.

“Why should we risk both our necks? I took the chance of smuggling it in—the least you could do is use it. And one of us has to be thinking straight.”

I wanted to punch the living crap out of him.

“That’s why you needed me,” I said, seething. “You didn’t want to take it yourself.”

“I nearly died on that stuff,” Kent said through clenched teeth. “It killed my father. No way I’d take it again.”

It suddenly made sense why he had been lagging so far behind ever since we had left the barracks. I was angry enough to hurt him, especially since I was fueled by the Ruby. He was lucky. Tori got to him first. She grabbed him by the throat and forced him to look at her.

Kent’s eyes bulged under the pressure.

“If anything happens to Tucker because of this,” Tori snarled. “I’m coming after you.”

“Then let’s make sure nothing happens and get the hell out of here,” he said in a strained whisper.

Tori pushed him away and Kent fell back against the truck, hitting his head and letting out a pained whimper.

“We’re on the same side here,” he complained. “Try to remember that.”

“I could say the same to you,” Tori shot back.

I snuck a peek around the corner and saw a guy who had to be the driver walking down the clubhouse stairs, headed for the ambulance. There wasn’t time to think or question.

“I’m going,” I said.

“You sure?” Tori asked.

“No, but it’s as good a plan as any. After I get inside, wait a second and then follow me.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Tori asked, wide-eyed.

“I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’ll be fast. I’ve got that going for me.”

I gave her a wink.

She gave me a nervous smile.

Before I could second-guess myself, I took off running. The more effort I put out, the more the Ruby produced. I covered the distance in what seemed like a second and yanked the rear door of the ambulance open. Kent was right about one thing—the guard didn’t know what hit him. I jumped in and tackled him like I was headed downfield on kickoff coverage. That much I knew how to do. The guard let out a grunt because I probably knocked the air out of his lungs. He hit the deck so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d broken some ribs.

Seconds later I was joined by Tori and Kent. They jumped inside and closed the door.

“What the hell are you doing back there?” the driver said.

There was a partition with a sliding glass window between the cab and the back of the ambulance…that the driver was sliding open. In seconds he would look back and see us all.

Kent reacted first. He grabbed the rifle from the dazed guard, jumped to the front of the cab, and leveled the weapon at the face of the startled driver.

“Drive,” Kent said with a slight quiver in his voice that betrayed his nervousness. “Just like normal.”

The driver’s eyes went wide.

“No problem,” he said quickly. “I ain’t no hero.”

The driver started the engine and a second later we were moving. I didn’t believe for a second that Kent would actually shoot the guy. I doubt that he’d ever fired a rifle except maybe on a shooting range. But as long as the driver didn’t know that, we’d be okay.

The stunned guard moaned. Tori stuck her knee on his neck and twisted his arm behind his back. Where did she learn to do that stuff?

“Easy,” she said. “Your rifle is aimed at the driver’s head. Don’t do anything stupid.”

The guard strained to look up and see who his tormentors were but Tori dug her knee in and he backed down. He wasn’t going to be a problem.

I held my breath as the driver rolled up to the guard shack.

“I can hear everything you’re saying,” Kent warned him.

We came to a stop and the driver lowered his window.

“Evening,” the guard in the shack said. “Got a lead on somebody?”

“Yup,” the driver said casually. “They just keep turning up. It’s gotta stop sometime.”

“Let’s hope so,” the guard said. “Be careful. Good hunting.”

Good hunting? These SYLO characters were cold.

I imagined the gate swinging open. We were seconds away from being outside. The driver had done exactly what we needed him to do. We could only hope that he hadn’t given some secret signal that would have alerted the guard to the fact that there were a couple of escapees on board. I held my breath for what felt like an eternity, and then the ambulance rolled forward. A quick glance through the back window showed that we had left the compound.

“Now what?” the driver asked.

“The Blackbird Inn,” Kent replied.

Tori and I exchanged glances.

Kent looked back at us and as if reading our minds said, “Relax. There’s a reason.”

I had put our lives into Kent’s hands. He had already shown his true colors by lying about the Ruby and using me. It was difficult to know how far we could trust him. I had to hope that as long as we were together, we had the same goal. Staying alive.

It didn’t take long to get to the Blackbird Inn. The driver pulled up to the front and stopped.

“Need some help with your bags?” he asked, sarcastically.

Kent jammed the barrel of the rifle through the window and clipped him on the side of the face.

“Ow,” he screamed. “What was that for?”

“For being clever,” Kent said coldly.

Kent scared me sometimes.

“You got the guard?” Kent asked.

“He’s not going anywhere,” Tori replied.

“C’mere, Rook,” Kent ordered.

I moved to him and he handed me the rifle.

“If this clown so much as farts, shoot him.”

I took the weapon and Kent moved to the back of the ambulance.

“Where are you going?” Tori asked.

“I’ll be right back,” he replied and jumped out of the van.

I turned my attention to the driver, who looked at me with wide, scared eyes. I had never held a gun on anybody before. It was a frightening feeling of power. I could pull the trigger and end somebody’s life. Bang. Just like that. I could. But would I?

“You’re not going to shoot me, are you, Chief?” he asked. “You look kind of squirrely.”

With the Ruby surging through my body, I wasn’t in my right mind and I think the driver sensed that. He looked at me like I was some deranged lunatic, and maybe at that moment I was. I had been sitting still for too long and it was driving me crazy. I kept fidgeting and shuffling, doing anything I could to keep from crawling out of my skin.

“Take it easy,” the driver said. “We’ll do whatever you want.”

The guard that Tori was holding finally spoke. “Tell us what you want and we’ll do what we can.”

“I want you to shut up,” I snapped at him.

It was like the words had come out of somebody else’s mouth. Tori thought so too, based on the surprised look she gave me. The Ruby was doing a number on my body and on my head as I fought to stay in control.

Thankfully the rear door opened and Kent climbed in. He came right to me and took the rifle back.

“Drive out to Quahog Beach,” Kent ordered. “Don’t break any traffic laws.”

“You got it,” the driver said and got us back under way.

Nobody said a word on our way to the beach. I was dying to know what Kent had planned but didn’t think he’d explain it to us in front of our captives.

Our captives. Up until that point, I felt as though we hadn’t done anything wrong, but the fact that we had captured two people and were holding them prisoner changed that. We were kidnappers. I hoped the night would end before anything worse happened.

In my gut I knew that wasn’t likely.

Kent glanced out of the window as we drew nearer to the beach.

“Drive us right out to the bluff,” he commanded.

I could feel the ambulance bump as we drove off the road and started to travel over sand. We continued on for a minute or so, but then the driver pulled to a stop.

“That’s as far as we go,” the driver finally said. “Another few feet and we’ll be wet.”

“Get out,” Kent said. “Everybody.”

I took charge of the guard. Tori may have been more skilled at controlling people, but I had strength that came from the Ruby. As soon as I grabbed the guard’s arm, he knew it. He was not about to try to fight me.

“Everybody move over there,” Kent ordered once we were out.

The four of us stepped back from the ambulance and stood together facing him. I suddenly had a sick image: firing squad. What was Kent doing?

“C’mere,” he said to me.

I was happy to see he was still aiming the rifle at the bad guys.

“What?”

“Put it in neutral, and push it over the edge.”

Ordinarily I would have laughed at that, but not then. He was talking to the right guy. I opened the driver’s door, put the gear shift into neutral, then ran to the rear.

“Yeah right,” the driver said, scoffing.

I took that as a challenge. I leaned down, put my shoulder against the rear bumper, pumped my legs like I was hitting a blocking sled, and pushed the ambulance forward.

“Jeez!” I heard somebody exclaim in awe.

It only took five strides before I felt the ambulance begin to slide forward on its own. I stopped pushing and stood to watch as the white vehicle went over the edge and tumbled end over end down the steep bluff before crashing into the sea.

“That’s, like, impossible,” the driver exclaimed. “Can all you people do that?”

“You people?” Tori said quickly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The driver didn’t answer. He looked at the ground as if he had already said too much.

“Now what happens?” the guard asked.

“Drop your gear,” Kent commanded. “Your walkie, cuffs, baton, everything.”

The driver and the guard obeyed quickly.

“Now climb down the bluff,” Kent ordered.

“What?” the driver exclaimed.

“Or I could shoot you,” Kent said.

The driver and the guard exchanged nervous looks.

“You’ll be fine,” Kent said quickly. “All we want is a head start.”

The two gave in and marched to the edge of the bluff. The driver went first, carefully climbing down the steep embankment. It was treacherous but not impossible. The guard was next, but before dropping over the edge, he looked up at Kent with hatred like I’ve never seen before.

“We’ll never give up,” he said defiantly.

Tori gave me a questioning look.

“Stop talking! Go!” Kent barked.

The guard began his descent.

“What did that mean?” Tori asked. “And what did he mean by ‘you people’?”

“Who cares?” Kent replied. “By the time they make it back up, we’ll be long gone.”

Kent walked quickly to the edge and looked over to make sure that the two men continued to climb down.

I didn’t know what to think about the guard’s odd comment. I was too busy fighting to stay in control of my racing heart. I wondered how long the Ruby would be working on me. It seemed as though once it was in your system, so long as you called upon it, it gave you what you needed. It wasn’t until you forced yourself to calm down that the effects would lessen.

But it wasn’t time to calm down. Not yet.

“Oh my God,” Tori exclaimed. “Listen.”

At first all I heard was the sound of crashing surf. Before I could ask Tori what she meant, I heard it too.

“They’re back,” I said fearfully.

“Who’s back?” Kent asked.

Once again the eerie music floated down from the sky. We all looked up to see another formation of dark shadows approaching from the east.

“What the hell is that?” Kent asked.

The shadows moved fast, headed west toward the mainland. There looked to be about a dozen of the stingray-shaped objects, each emitting the same incongruous musical sound. They were moving fast, far faster than what we’d seen two nights before. They flashed overhead and were gone in seconds. Moments later, the sky to the west lit up with the same kind of brilliant display we had witnessed before.

Kent took a few steps toward the light show, as if those few feet would give him a better view.

“What’s going on?” he asked, numb.

“It’s the same as the other night,” I answered. “There’s a battle going on but I have no idea who’s fighting, or why.”

Unlike the previous night, the light show didn’t last long. Nor was there another dogfight. No fighter planes arrived to challenge the dark shadows. The light show soon ended and I expected to see the mysterious aircraft flying back our way, having completed whatever mission they were on. But they didn’t.

The three of us stood there, staring west, trying to understand what it was that we had just seen. It was at that moment that a pair of headlights appeared on the sandy road in front of us, headed our way.

“Uh-oh,” Tori uttered.

“It’s okay,” Kent assured us. “All part of the plan. Pick up their gear and toss it.”

I snapped back into the moment, the disturbing light show momentarily forgotten. I didn’t care about the handcuffs and the baton, but the walkie would cause us trouble if the guard got it back too quickly. I picked it up and heaved it into the sea. It was the longest throw I had ever made.

Kent did the same with the rifle. He wound up and tossed it away, spinning it into the sea. Part of me was relieved. I didn’t like the way he was waving that thing around. I wouldn’t have put it past him to use it on us. But we were on the run and could have used the protection, especially since somebody was driving toward us.

“C’mon,” Kent said and ran toward the car.

“Do you trust him?” Tori asked.

“It’s not like we have a choice,” was my sober reply.

We followed Kent, who became a silhouette against the approaching headlights. He ran right up to the driver’s side as the car came to a stop. The driver jumped out and threw her arms around him.

“It’s about time,” she cried.

It was Olivia. The stop at the Blackbird Inn now made sense.

“I’ve been so worried,” she squealed while hugging Kent and giving him a big kiss. She was wearing her usual short-shorts with a halter top—not exactly a practical uniform for aiding a prison break.

“Are you okay?” she added when they came up for air.

“Fine,” Kent said perfunctorily. “But we gotta keep moving.”

Olivia looked at me and said, “I was afraid I’d never see you again, Tucker.”

Maybe not as afraid as not seeing Kent again, but I appreciated her concern.

“Strange days,” I said with a shrug.

“Who is she?” Tori asked me.

“Kent’s girlfriend, Olivia,” I answered. I guess that was official now.

“And who are you?” Olivia asked, giving Tori an appraising once-over.

“Kent’s other girlfriend,” Tori said without missing a beat as she walked past Olivia toward the car. “Didn’t he tell you about me?”

Olivia stood stock-still with her mouth open, stunned. I would have laughed if my head weren’t still exploding. Seemed as though Tori liked pushing buttons too. Quinn would have loved it.

Quinn.

Thinking of him snapped me back into the mission.

“Where are we going, Kent?” I asked.

“Someplace where all your questions will be answered,” he said. He put his arm around Olivia’s shoulders and said, “Tori’s not my girlfriend.”

Olivia smiled with relief. “I knew that.”

We all got into the vehicle, which turned out to be a Jeep. Olivia sat behind the wheel while Tori and I climbed into the back seat. Olivia hit the accelerator and turned quickly, slinging up sand while the wheels spun. For a moment I thought she had no idea of how to drive and I feared we would follow the ambulance over the edge. But the tires bit, she spun the wheel back, straightened out, and we were on our way.

“Tell me everything,” she said.

“Not until we get there. Turn out the lights.”

“The lights?” she complained. “I won’t be able to see.”

“I’m more worried about somebody seeing us. Your eyes will adjust.”

Olivia shrugged and killed the lights. It was disconcerting for a moment as everything went black. But our eyes adjusted quickly and Olivia kept us on the road to…somewhere.

Tori put her hand on my arm and said, “How do you feel?”

“Okay. I think I’m coming down.”

“Perfect timing,” Kent said.

“That was a rotten thing to do, Kent,” Tori said to him. “You used him.”

“And he used me. You both did. But we’re out, right?”

“Yeah, we’re out,” I said. “So now tell us what’s going on. How did you get the Ruby inside?”

“And where are we going?” Tori added.

Kent gave us a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. “When you see where we’re going, you’ll know how I got the Ruby.”

We had trusted Kent this far and it had worked out okay, mostly. We had to let him play it his way. I took a deep breath and actually could feel the effects of the Ruby lessening. I had survived. At least that part of the nightmare was over.

Tori kept her hand on my arm and said softly, “Thank you.”

I shrugged.

“You’re welcome,” Kent said.

Tori smiled. It didn’t happen often, but when it did her face lit up. I was beginning to really like Tori Sleeper. She took my hand and gently rubbed my arm. I wasn’t sure if it was an affectionate thing to do, or if she was trying to calm me down. Either way, I didn’t hate it.

Olivia drove without saying another word. Thankfully. She must have been using all of her brain power to keep us on the road. I knew the island as well as anybody and saw that after moving along the Memagog Highway for several miles, we turned onto High Pine Road, the road that led due north and ended at Chinicook Island.

Chinicook was a desolate stretch of land that was technically part of Pemberwick but surrounded by water. The only access was by a long wooden one-lane bridge that had been built before the Second World War. Islanders never went out to Chinicook unless they were bird watchers. There wasn’t much there except for miles of beach surrounding dense scrub. Tourists were the only ones who made the trip. It was supposedly romantic to pack a picnic and get away from the crowded island beaches. At least that’s what it said in the guidebooks. But the drive took over an hour and then there was the half mile of narrow bridge. It was a trip that was daunting enough to turn back most casual explorers.

The longer we stayed on High Pine Road, the more certain I became that we were headed to Chinicook. The question was why?

Olivia drove fast, considering we were flying without lights and the road was covered with sand. I closed my eyes, suddenly feeling weary after losing my Ruby boost. Tori rubbing my arm helped with that. I think I might have fallen asleep because the next time I opened my eyes, we were approaching the Chinicook Bridge.

“Take it easy here,” Kent warned. “We don’t want to go over the side.”

It was good advice. There was no rail to speak of, only a long wooden beam that ran the length of both sides a foot off the deck. One wrong move and—splash.

“You’re awake, Olivia, right?” I asked.

“Wide awake,” she replied quickly.

I sensed the tension in her voice. She was alert and locked in.

We had gotten maybe halfway across the bridge when she jammed on the brakes. Tori grabbed my arm as we skidded forward. I thought for sure that we were going over the side but Olivia managed to keep the Jeep going straight until we came to a stop.

“Why did you do that?” I demanded.

“What’s that?” Olivia cried nervously, pointing forward.

Something was on the bridge ahead of us. In the dark it appeared to be a moving gray shape.

“Kent?” Olivia whined, her anxiety growing.

“It’s okay,” Kent said with confidence.

He got out of the Jeep, walked to the front, and stood directly between the two headlights.

“Flash the lights,” Kent commanded. “Two short. Two long. Two short.”

“What?” Olivia asked, totally confused.

“I’ll do it,” Tori said impatiently and reached forward.

She flashed the lights, just as Kent had instructed.

The gray shape offered a reply with its own flashing light. Two long. Two short. Two long.

“Very James Bond,” I said.

Kent got back in the Jeep and said, “Drive. Slowly.”

Olivia obeyed. She gently stepped on the gas and we rolled forward, staying a good thirty yards behind the gray shape that now looked to be moving back toward Chinicook.

“Friends of yours?” I asked Kent.

Kent didn’t answer.

After a nerve-wracking few minutes, we reached the far end of the bridge and drove onto the sand of Chinicook Island. Now that we were closer, I saw that the gray shape was actually a group of four people.

Kent turned to us and said, “This is what SYLO wants to know about.”

“What?” Tori asked. “A bunch of people hiding out in the dark?”

“Hiding out in the dark,” Kent said. “And planning to take the island back.”

Kent got out and went to the group. They all shook hands.

“This is just plain creepy,” Olivia said.

I couldn’t argue with her.

Tori and I got out of the Jeep and stood in front, not sure of what to say or do. If what Kent had said was true, we had found the people Granger referred to as “rogues.” It sounded like some kind of revolutionary underground that wanted to fight back against SYLO. Knowing that, all of Kent’s caution about saying anything about his plan made sense. It raised him up in my estimation. At least a little.

“Tori?” one of the gray shadows called. “Is that you, Tickle?”

Tori immediately tensed up. “Daddy?”

The man hurried toward us and I quickly recognized him as the guy who was sitting aboard the Tori Tickle working on his lobster traps when I first visited their house.

Tori ran into his arms and the two hugged.

“What are you doing here?” he cried, full of emotion.

“I gotta ask you the same thing,” Tori said through her tears.

Another mystery was solved. We now knew why Michael Sleeper wasn’t hanging around the SYLO compound.

“Young Tucker Pierce!” called another of the shadows. “Never thought I’d be seeing you out this way.”

It was my turn to tense up, but not for the same reason as Tori. I knew that voice and as soon as I heard it, I realized that yet another mystery had been solved.

I knew where Kent had gotten the Ruby.

The man stepped forward and held out his hand to shake. “Welcome to the revolution,” he said with a warm smile.

It was Mr. Feit.