The Rise of Nine

24

I hide behind a row of lockers in a long dark hallway while I turn visible. The pain from using my Legacies is so intense I curl myself up into a ball, pressing the two batons into my ribs to get some relief. I push my sweaty head against the cool cement wall and try to catch my breath, hoping the pain will subside quickly. I’ve been going up and down hallways, but I worry I’m just running in circles. So far, I’ve found an empty hangar and a lot of electronically locked doors. I know from when Sam and John were caught by the police before that our telekinesis doesn’t work with electricity. I think about John and Sam, Marina and the others. I hope they’re okay; or, at least, in less pain than I am. I picture John and Sam waiting for me at our rendezvous point. We were supposed to meet there in a few days. What will they think when I’m not there? I am so frustrated – and scared – I feel breathless. I know this kind of thinking isn’t helpful, so I try to refocus my attention on how to get the hell out of here.

Almost on cue, an alarm sounds. The bleating overhead feels relentless as soon as it begins. I know what this means and I know I need to get it together. Fast. Everyone is looking for me. Armed soldiers zip down the long hallways in small open vehicles. Each time one passes, I’m tempted to pluck the men out, hop in, and take off. But I’m sure I wouldn’t get very far and I’d give up the one advantage I have right now. They don’t know where I am.

I’ve stopped trying to communicate with Ella. Clearly, I was just delusional. I’m on my own. I need to stop talking to myself and find something to blast through a door and get out of here. I think I’m underground. I just wish I knew how deep.

The lights go on in the hallway. As I discovered earlier, I know this means the motion-sensors have been triggered. A moment later, I hear a vehicle coming my way. I clench my stomach, turn invisible, and get the anticipated wrench of pain. Tears silently flowing down my face from the agony, I press myself up against a wall and watch the cart crawl towards me carrying three soldiers. As it passes in front of me, I hit the driver in the face with one of the batons. Man, do head wounds bleed a lot. Nose, mouth, forehead, all gushing geysers. His (seemingly) spontaneous injury causes him to slam his foot on the gas pedal and veer straight into a wall. The driver is out cold and the other two soldiers spill onto the cement floor. They take in the driver’s face and see absolutely nothing around that might have caused it, and grab for their walkie-talkies. But I’m expecting this, and I’ve stepped into position to slam the closest man’s head into the hood of the vehicle and kick his legs out from underneath him. The third soldier starts over to see what happened, and I slam his head down too. Then I grab one of their badges and run.

I need to figure out where to go from here and I need to do it fast. I can’t stay invisible too much longer.

I use the swiped badge to get past an electronically locked door and find myself in a hallway completely different from the others I’ve seen so far. I have to stop the pain, so I turn visible and immediately feel relief. I look around and try to figure out where I am. The hall is wider than the others, with a high ceiling that’s domed and carved out of sandstone. Two thick yellow pipes crawl along the ceiling, flanked by drooping electrical lines. I come to a turn in the hallway and peek around the corner. I don’t see anyone, so I flatten my back against the wall and ease around the corner. I’m facing a red door with a sign that reads: DANGER. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. SHUTTLE ONE.

I try using my telekinesis to open the door, pushing through the pain, but another electric lock keeps it shut. I’m about to try the badge again when I hear footsteps coming fast in my direction. I turn invisible again, but it makes my stomach churn so violently I fall to the floor. I can’t survive another round of this, no way. Around the corner someone yells, ‘I think I hear something this way!’

From the ground, barely able to stay invisible, I grab a guard by the ankle as he runs by. He goes facedown onto the floor, giving me enough time to swipe my stolen badge through the electronic lock. The door pops open and I slip inside.

I’m on a grated metal platform, high above three sets of train tracks that disappear down a circular tunnel. A three-car tram, plastered with several different symbols of the U.S. government, sits empty on the set of tracks closest to the platform. Outside the door behind me, I hear the guard I disabled yelling to a group of men who have just arrived on the scene. I stumble down a narrow set of stairs and jump inside the open doors of the tram, pulling down on the first lever I see.

My head snaps back as the tram takes off like a rocket. The circular tunnel blurs with red lights and long dark shadows, and twice I zip under grated platforms like the one where I entered without slowing down. The tracks suddenly dip and curve to the right, and then I’m rolling high over a long canal filled with water. I’m hoping this will shoot me out into the desert. Instead, the tram slows down and stops below another platform. There must be points at which there are automatic stops. The doors open and I jog up the stairs. I’ve let myself turn visible again and appreciate how pain-free my stomach is, knowing it won’t stay that way for too much longer. I’m going to need my Legacies to get out of here.

I take a deep breath and carefully try the door at the top of the stairs. It’s unlocked. Slowly, I open it just a crack to peek and see what is on the other side. My eyes have barely focused when the door is slammed open, clipping my shoulder painfully. I’m now face to face with a guard with a familiar weapon hanging from his shoulder – a Mogadorian cannon. As soon as the guard reaches for it the cannon buzzes to life with a spark of lights. But before he can press the trigger, I dive at him and we crash into a stone wall. The guard rushes forward and tries to grab me by wrapping his thick arms around my waist. Instead, I move just out of his reach and tackle his legs, pulling them out from under him. His skull makes a horrible cracking sound when it hits the ground. I cringe, but I can’t stop to think about it. I quickly shove his body just through the door into the tunnel and close it. I grab his cannon and bolt.

I look around to get my bearings. There are enormous, smooth columns holding up the ceiling of the winding tunnel, and I weave in and out of them, keeping an ear out for more guards. My mind is racing, sorting through what I’ve seen, trying to piece it together. First on the list, why did that soldier have a Mogadorian cannon? Did he get it from a captured Mog? Or are the Mogs supplying the government with their weapons? The tunnel forks and I slow, trying to decide which way to go. I see nothing to help me choose, so I think of the last time I encountered a fork in a road. It was in the Himalayas, the one that surprised Commander Sharma. I go left.

The first door I spot on the left is all glass. Through it I can see scientists in white coats and masks moving around what look like large gardens brimming with tall green plants. Hundreds of powerful bright lights hang low over them from the ceiling.

A red-haired woman in a dark suit enters through another door and walks over to one of the guys in a white coat at the front of the room. Her right arm is in a sling and she has bandages on her cheek. She watches the scientist pour a vial of liquid over a section of the closest garden. I am stunned to see the plants instantly grow several feet taller and their tips split open. White vines spread in every direction, creating a thick canopy over their heads. The scientist writes something on his clipboard, and then looks up to talk to the woman. I don’t have time to duck out of the way and we make eye contact through the glass door. I slowly raise the Mog cannon at him and shake my head. I have to hope he considers himself a noncombatant and wants to stay out of the action. No such luck. I watch him slip his hand into his pocket. Damn. He’s triggering something. There’s a noise over my head and a thick sheet of metal nearly hits me as it falls in front of the glass door, protecting it. Alarms sound and I know the whole area is going into lockdown. I can’t get captured. I brace myself for the pain about to take over my body and make myself invisible.

Just in time. Soldiers pour into the tunnel and I inch along the wall to avoid them. The pain and the wave of sickness doesn’t come. Whatever drug they gave me must have worn off. The relief I feel is profound, though I don’t have time to enjoy it. A door clicks open on my right. Without thinking, I jump through it and find myself in a narrow white hallway lined with more doors. Halfway down the hall a lone soldier is backing out of one of them.

‘Please. Just shut up already,’ he calls into the room. ‘And you should really eat something.’

He pulls the door shut and starts to turn and walk away. But I’m right there and drop him with a right hook to the jaw. I see his keys hanging from his belt, pull them off and frantically shove them into the lock of the door he just closed, one after another, until I find the one that works. I am guessing whoever he was talking to is no friend of his, and I could use an ally right now. I push the door open to see if today is the day I make a new friend.

I suck in my breath, shocked at what I see. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t the girl I see cowering in the corner. She’s covered in grime and there are thick red welts on her wrists, but I recognize her instantly. Sarah Hart. John’s girlfriend, and the one who turned John in to the police the night we went back to Paradise.

She pulls herself shakily to her feet, using the walls on either side for support. She is steadying herself to face whoever walks through the door. The fear in her eyes tells me only bad things happen when the door opens. I remain invisible long enough to drag the unconscious soldier from the hall inside the room. Leaving him just invites others to investigate, and I don’t need any company. I shove him into a corner, hoping that he’s out of sight if there are cameras in here. I close the door.

‘Sarah?’ I say quietly.

She spins around, looking towards my voice but visibly confused. ‘Who is that? Where are you?’

‘It’s Six,’ I whisper. She gasps quietly.

‘Number Six? Where are you? Where’s John?’ she asks, her voice shaking.

I’m still speaking softly, not sure if we’re alone. ‘I’m invisible. Just sit back down like you were and pretend I’m not here. Put your head down so we can talk. I’m betting they have you on camera.’

Sarah’s sinks back down into the corner, pulling her knees to her chest. She lowers her head, her hair falling forward and blocking her face entirely. I walk over and sit down next to her on the floor.

‘Where’s John?’ she whispers.

‘Where’s John?’ I can’t keep the anger out of my voice. ‘Right now, you can forget about John, Sarah. You should know where John is; after all, you set him up, right? Because of you, he went to jail. And then, I got him out. What I want to know is, what are you doing here?’

‘They brought me here,’ her voice trembling.

‘Who brought you here?’

Sarah’s shoulders shake as she cries softly into her knees. ‘The FBI. They keep asking me where John is and I keep telling them I don’t know. You need to tell me where he is. I have to tell them or they’re going to kill everyone I know!’ She sounds desperate.

I can’t say I’m very sympathetic. ‘That’s what happens when you switch sides, Sarah. You knew how John felt about you; you knew he trusted you. And you used that to help these people. And now, they’re using you. Now, quickly, tell me what you told them about John!’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Sarah says, and she starts to sob even harder. I can’t help it; it kind of breaks my heart seeing her like this. What have they done to her? Her long hair covers her face and arms and she looks so small and young. I feel my anger melt away and I rest my hand on her back.

‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper.

She catches her breath at my touch and turns her head to look in the direction of my voice. I can just make out her blue eyes; they’re red and bloodshot. To give her the strength to do what we need to I make myself visible for a split second, show her the Mog cannon in my hands, and disappear again. I see a tiny smile cross Sarah’s face before she turns her face back to her knees. She sighs, takes a deep breath and in a much firmer voice says, ‘It’s good to see you. Do you know where we are?’

‘I think we’re in New Mexico in an underground base. How long have you been here?’

‘I have no idea,’ she says, wiping away a tear that has fallen on her leg.

I stand up and go over to listen at the door. I don’t hear anything. I know I’m wasting precious minutes, but I have to ask. ‘I don’t get it, Sarah. Why did you turn John in? He’s in love with you. I thought you cared about him.’

She flinches as if I’ve slapped her. Her voice is wobbly, but she looks me right in the eye when she responds. ‘Really, I have no idea what you’re talking about, Six.’

I have to close my eyes and breathe a few times to keep my voice from rising, to keep my anger from returning. ‘I’m talking about the night he came over to profess his undying love for you. Remember? Your phone buzzed at two a.m., and the police arrived a minute later? That’s what I’m talking about. You broke John’s heart when you turned him in.’ She starts to raise her head to respond, but I make a noise to remind her to keep her head down.

She resettles her head on her knees and speaks in a flat voice. ‘That’s not what I was trying to do. I didn’t have a choice. Please. Where is John? I need to talk to him.’

‘I’d like to talk to him too. I’d like to talk to all of them! First, though, we have to figure out a way out of here.’ My voice is urgent.

She sounds defeated when she speaks again. ‘There is no way out of here. Not unless you want to fight a thousand Mogadorians.’

‘What?’ I circle back to her. What is she talking about? This is a U.S. government facility, not a Mog base. ‘You’ve seen them? The Mogs? They’re here?’

A glazed look washes over Sarah’s face. She no longer looks like the girl I met in Paradise, the human girl who John fell in love with and was willing to do anything for. I don’t even want to think about what the FBI and the Mogs have done to her. ‘Yes. I see them every day.’

I feel as if the wind has been knocked out of me. It was one thing to suspect this was the case – another to have it confirmed. ‘Well, I’m here now,’ I announce, trying to make one of us feel more confident. ‘I promise, the next Mog you see will have my foot up his ass.’

Sarah laughs quietly into her legs. Her shoulders relax a bit for the first time since I walked in. ‘Sounds good to me. Six, please, can you tell me where John is. Is he okay? Will I be able to see him?’

I know she’s worried about Four, but her constant questions about him are beginning to really annoy me. ‘To be perfectly honest, I haven’t seen him recently, Sarah. We split up. He went with Sam and Bernie Kosar to get his Chest back, and I went to Spain to find another one of us. We were supposed to meet up in three days, but I don’t see that happening right now.’

‘Where? Where are you supposed to meet? I need to know. It’s killing me, not knowing where he is.’

‘Right now, it doesn’t matter where we were supposed to meet because I won’t be there,’ I explode. ‘We need to focus on how we’re going to get out of here.’

Sarah flinches at the anger in my voice. She tries again. ‘Where are the others? Where’s Number Five?’ Sarah asks.

I ignore her – she is clearly not listening to me. I walk back to the door and put my ear to it again. I hear footsteps – definitely more than one person – coming down the hallway. I consider my options. I can either lure them into the cell or I can take them down where they are. Either way, I know I need to deal with them, turn Sarah invisible, and pick a direction for us to get out of here.

Sarah stands up. ‘What about Numbers Seven, Eight and Nine? Where are they? Are they together?’

If she doesn’t quiet down, she’s going to get us captured, or worse. I hiss at her, ‘Sarah! Enough! Stop!’ I put my ear against the door again and instantly know something is wrong. It sounds like the hallway is packed with men. We’re trapped. I spin around to tell Sarah, but she looks like she’s in the middle of a seizure. I am frozen seeing her body convulse and flop around the floor of the cell.

‘Sarah!’ I let myself become visible and run over to try and keep her head from slamming down on the cement floor. Has she been drugged?

Sarah’s body starts to shake so fast she becomes a blur. I can only watch helplessly as a white outline appears around her body. I reach out to touch it but before my fingers reach it, the line turns black. I focus on Sarah with my mind to try and stop her convulsions with my telekinesis, but as soon as I try my brain feels like it’s burning, like an enormous amount of dark energy is invading my skull. The next thing I know, I am falling backwards, holding my throbbing head, my eyes squeezed shut. When I open them again, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Sarah Hart is growing taller, and darker, until she’s at least seven feet tall. Her blond hair shortens until it’s a short black buzz cut. Her face morphs into a demonic monster’s. A purple scar appears on one side of her now thick neck; then it slowly elongates until it reaches the throat. When the scar finally stops growing, it begins to glow.

Did I just watch Sarah turn into Setrákus Ra? I’ve never seen him, but I’ve heard enough to have a pretty good idea of what, or who, I’m looking at.

The door bursts open and I am momentarily blinded by a flash of blue light. The next thing I know, a dozen Mog soldiers rush in, cannons up and ready.

I try to turn myself invisible, but nothing happens. I don’t have time to figure out why. I grab the cannon I had set down to help Sarah, jump up, and fire it at one of the Mogs. He falls to my feet in a cloud of ash. I keep shooting, killing two more, but as I turn to find my next victim, I’m yanked backwards and choked by my pendant. I can turn my head enough to see I’m being held by the beast who was once Sarah. He spins me around, swats the cannon out of my hands with his other massive paw and yanks me towards his face. Up this close, I can see his dark skin is a sea of small scars, like he’s been raked by razor blades.

I focus my mind on lifting my weapon off the ground but it just sits there. None of my Legacies are working! Without my Legacies, I’m vulnerable. I’m worse than vulnerable. I’ve got nothing to fight with. But I am not giving up.

‘Tell me where they are!’ Setrákus Ra roars. He pulls my chain tighter around my throat. I watch his purple scar brighten as he asks, ‘Where are they, Number Six?’

‘It’s too late,’ I whisper as bravely as I can. ‘We’re too strong now and we’re coming for you. Lorien will live again and we will stop you.’

The slap is so hard that I can’t feel the side of my face and my ears are ringing. I force myself to keep staring at him. He curls his cracked lips to reveal two rows of sharp, crooked teeth. He’s so close that my vision is slightly blurred, so I look for something I can concentrate on. I pick a tooth that’s broken in half and leaking a thick black liquid. I’m not sure why, but this has the strange effect of making him less scary. It’s just so gross.

‘Tell me where you’re supposed to meet Number Four in three days.’

‘On the moon,’ I say.

‘You will die in front of them. I will kill you myself.’

I don’t respond. I don’t acknowledge he’s even spoken as he tightens his grip. The pendant John and I found in the well in Ohio, the one that was on the massive skeleton, cuts into the back of my neck as it is pulled tighter and tighter. As he pulls the chain even more, I think of John’s face as we trained together, I see the Garde sitting around the white table on the ship and I smile. I’m proud to have been chosen by the Elders. Out of respect to them, I will not beg for my life.

‘So, there you are, Number Six.’ I know the voice immediately. Agent Purdy. I open my eyes to see an old man. He has a cast on one arm and his face is covered in bruises. When he walks towards me, I see he’s limping.

When he gets close enough, I spit at his leather shoes. Setrákus Ra laughs right into my ear.

Agent Purdy looks over my head to speak to him. ‘Did you get the information you were looking for? Do you know where they are?’

Setrákus Ra growls and I’m whipped against the wall as an answer, my knees striking the cement first. When I hit the ground, I’m immediately pulled back to my feet by the pendant chain. I can feel my ribs have taken some of the impact; I think a couple of them are cracked. I’m having difficulty breathing. I try again to use my mind to lift the cannon on the floor, but it doesn’t budge.

‘So nice of you to join us here, Six,’ Purdy says. ‘I see you’ve met Setrákus Ra.’

‘You’re a coward,’ I whisper. Legacies or no, I am going to take him down or die trying.

‘Coward? You are the one who runs from me,’ Setrákus Ra objects dismissively.

I stare hard into his maroon eyes. ‘This is cowardly. You must think you won’t be able to kill me if I am at my full power. And that is what I call a coward.’

Setrákus Ra’s scar glows again, the brightest yet. To my surprise, the chain around my neck loosens. ‘Put her with the girl,’ he says, pulling the pendant over my head. My stomach drops when I see it hanging from his hand. He looks at me, and smiles. ‘I will fight you, Six. Alone. And you will die. Very soon.’

I’m dragged out of the cell and the top of my feet sweep across the cement. Then something hard hits the back of my head. I close my eyes – better for them to think I’m out cold so it’s easier to focus on where they’re dragging me. One right and two left turns. I hear a door open and I’m pushed forward. I stumble until I hit something soft. Or until something soft hits me. I haven’t opened my eyes yet when I feel arms wrap around me. When I open my eyes I’m surprised, for the second time in an hour, to see Sarah Hart.