SAM
THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHWEST MONTANA
“HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?”
Sam automatically looked for his watch, remembered it was gone, and said, “I’m not sure. I’m guessing about an hour.”
“Should we try to leave?” Nemo asked.
Sam thought about it. In the fishing hut, they were more or less safe. But they were also useless. Six was still out there, and even if Yo-Yo and Rena had gotten safely away, they were still vulnerable to anyone who might be following them. Despite Rena’s impressive work with the bear-thing and Yo-Yo’s ability to make fire, they were still at a disadvantage.
Then there was the cold. The change of clothes had helped, but Sam could tell that Nemo was suffering from her time in the icy water. She had her arms wrapped around herself, trying to get warm. But she needed more than that. So did he.
At least his leg was feeling better. It still hurt—a lot—but he was able to stand and move around.
“Well?” Nemo said, and Sam realized he hadn’t responded to her question.
“You never give up, do you?” he said.
Nemo shrugged. “Not usually,” she said. “Not when my friends need me, anyway. You don’t either. You or Six.”
Sam nodded. “No,” he said. “Especially not Six.”
“Then what are we doing sitting around in here?” Nemo said.
“That’s a good question,” said a man’s voice from outside the hut.
Nemo shrieked, and Sam sprang to hold the door closed.
“Relax,” said the voice. “It’s me.”
“Nine?” said Sam. He motioned for Nemo to get behind him, then opened the door a crack.
Nine was standing outside. “I never took you for the fishing type,” he joked.
He came into the hut, and Sam shut the door. Nine nodded at Nemo.
“Did you find Rena and Yo-Yo?” Sam asked.
Nine shook his head. “No. But Rena’s tracking device shows that she’s somewhere here.”
“Damn it,” Sam said.
“They didn’t get away,” said Nemo sadly.
“Did you run into anyone?” Sam asked Nine. “A woman? A hunter?”
“No one,” Nine answered. “I saw a lot of smoke and what looks like it used to be a barn. What happened there?”
“Long story,” said Sam. “Six is here somewhere. We need to find her. Is anyone with you?”
“What? I’m not enough?” said Nine, pouting and pretending to be offended. “Actually, there’s some help at the bottom of the mountain. Earth Garde. But they don’t move as fast.”
“We don’t have time to wait,” Sam said. “Let’s go to the lodge.”
The three of them left the fishing hut, walking out onto the ice. Sam kept his eyes open for any sign of the woman who had been hunting them. Had she given up, thinking he and Nemo were dead? He hoped so, but he had a feeling she was still out there, waiting to make another kill.
“Dennings is letting people hunt us,” he told Nine.
Nine’s face hardened. “Lexa told me,” he said. He let out a long breath. “Why did Six go to meet Dennings?”
“He had us trapped,” Sam explained. “And it’s Six.”
Nine looked at the device strapped to his wrist, pressing some buttons. “According to this, she’s still somewhere near the lodge.”
“Then something went wrong,” said Sam. “Otherwise she would have either been out of there already or torn the place apart.”
“What could stop Six?” asked Nemo.
“Not much,” Nine said. “That’s what worries me.”
They reached the edge of the lake and safely stepped onto the shore. Sam’s leg ached where the arrow had penetrated it, but he limped only a little as they walked back towards the lodge. They were halfway there, moving up the mountain, when Nine shouted, “Get down!”
A moment later, a bright light came into view, a single Cyclopean eye that burst out of the darkness—accompanied by the roar of an engine. A snowmobile crested the rise above them and came roaring down the side of the mountain. Sitting astride it was a single driver. The machine hurtled towards them with no sign of stopping.
Sam concentrated on telling the snowmobile to turn. The snowmobile jerked sideways, hit a mound of snow, and flew up. It lurched, throwing the rider off, and crashed into a tree, where it sputtered and stalled. The driver kept going, arcing up in the air and then landing on the ground before sliding down the slope.
Sam stood up and ran to where the body came to rest. The person was wearing a helmet, rendering the face invisible. Sam bent and removed it, revealing the face of the woman who had been hunting them.
“I can’t feel my legs,” she said.
Nine and Nemo ran over. Nemo leaned down and picked something off the ground. It was a pistol. She pointed it at the woman. Her hands were shaking, and the barrel of the gun moved up and down as Nemo said, “How’s it feel to be on the other end?”
“Nemo,” Sam said gently.
“Maybe I should put you out of your misery,” Nemo continued. Now her voice was shaking as much as the gun was. She had started to cry.
“Nemo,” Sam said again. This time he laid his hand on her arm.
“Why not?” Nemo asked, sniffling. “She was going to do it to us. She did do it.”
“She’s injured,” Sam said. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Nine looked at his wrist. “Backup will be here soon,” he said. “We’ll tie her up and leave her for them. We have to get to the lodge.”
Nemo lowered the gun. Sam took it. He searched the woman for more weapons, removing a knife and another pistol from the pockets of her snowsuit. He was looking for something to tie the woman’s hands with when she spoke.
“The girl has bigger balls than you do,” the woman said. “I would have killed you. I still would, if I could move.”
“Then it’s a good thing you can’t,” said Sam, knocking the woman on the back of the neck with the pistol. She slumped over, unconscious. “Let’s go,” he said to Nine and Nemo.
They left the woman lying in the snow. After trudging the rest of the way up the hill, they came to the lodge. “This is where I wish I could go invisible, like Six,” Nine said.
They looked for a way in that wasn’t the front door. There was one door on the lower level, but it was locked.
“Can’t you just rip it off the hinges?” Nemo asked.
“Probably—but that would make too much noise,” said Nine, testing the knob.
Nemo pointed to a small window set high on the wall. “Lift me up,” she said.
Sam held her around the waist and hoisted her up. Nemo hit the glass with her hand, breaking it. Then she slid inside. There was a thud as she landed on the other side. They waited for the door to open, but it didn’t.
“It’s an electronic lock,” Nemo said through the door. “It needs a key code.”
Sam placed his hands on the door. He connected with the lock’s chip, running through every possible combination. There was a chirp, then the sound of gears moving. The door popped open.
Nine and Sam slipped inside, joining Nemo. They were in a hallway. Walking along it, they passed several locked doors. Nine paused, listening.
“There are people in there,” he said.
Sam laid his hand on one of the locks, again telling it what to do. The door opened, revealing a small concrete cell. Rena sat on the floor, her hands tied behind her back. When she saw Sam, her face lit up. Sam put a finger to his lips, signaling her not to make a sound. He knelt and used the hunting knife he’d taken from the woman to undo the plastic tie around Rena’s wrists.
“Yo-Yo is in here too,” Rena whispered.
Sam unlocked the next door, but the room was empty. He found Yo-Yo in the one next to that. He untied him. Yo-Yo immediately yanked the mitts from his hands.
“You three stay back,” Nine told Nemo, Yo-Yo and Rena. “You’ll be safer here.”
Leaving the three younger teens behind, he and Sam walked the length of the hallway. As they reached the end, they heard voices and paused. There was a door between them and the next room, but it was solid metal, and they couldn’t see through it.
“What’s going on?” Sam asked Nine.
“They’re arguing,” Nine said. “It sounds like there are at least three of them.”
“Do you hear Six?”
Nine shook his head. He looked at his wrist device. “But according to this, she’s right behind this door.”
The sound of the voices suddenly increased.
“Kill me and there will be no one who can help you!” someone yelled.
There was a gunshot.
Nine kicked the door, and it exploded inward. He and Sam rushed in. The first thing Sam saw was Six, strapped to a metal operating table. Her eyes were closed.
The second thing he saw was the man called Drac. He was holding his arm, and blood dripped through his fingers. A man Sam had never seen before stood on the other side of the operating table, holding a gun and scowling.
Footsteps thundered on the stairs leading from the upper level. Dennings appeared. He looked at the bleeding Drac, then at Sam and Nine. His mouth hung open in surprise.
Sam started to move, but the man with the gun pointed it at Six’s head. “Stay where you are,” he ordered.
Sam froze. So did Nine.
“What the hell is going on?” Dennings said.
“The doc here gave me something, but it isn’t what it’s supposed to be,” the man with gun said.
“I told you it wasn’t ready,” said Drac.
The man grimaced in pain. “What’s it doing?”
“It’s altering your pituitary gland,” said Drac. “I don’t know what it will do, exactly.”
The man shuddered. Sam worried that he would accidentally shoot Six. They had to do something, and fast.
“I’m going to kill him.”
Yo-Yo’s voice shook with rage as he pushed between Sam and Nine. Already, a glowing ball was forming in his outstretched hand. He faced Drac. “This is for making me and the others your lab rats,” he said, getting ready to launch the ball of flame.
The man with the gun swung the weapon towards Yo-Yo and fired. Yo-Yo’s eyes widened in surprise. The fire in his hands went out, and he crumpled to the floor.
Nine used the distraction to move with superspeed across the room, leaping over the operating table and slamming into the armed man. Sam took on Dennings, throwing himself at the big man and aiming a punch at his face.
Dennings countered, blocking Sam with one meaty hand. At the same time, he shouted, “Scotty, get down here!”
Sam kept fighting. But it was obvious that he was no match for Dennings physically, so he tried another attack, this time pushing Dennings away with his telekinesis. Dennings faltered, and for a moment Sam felt a surge of triumph. Then a teenage boy appeared on the stairs. He was the same pug-nosed boy Sam had seen before when Rena and Nemo were in the van.
“Get us out of here!” Dennings said.
The boy came down the stairs and reached out, touching Dennings’s shoulder. Dennings tried to pull away from Sam, but Sam flung himself forward, just managing to grab hold of Dennings’s hand.
Then he felt the familiar vertigo that meant he was being teleported. The room disappeared, swirling away. The last thing he saw was Nine bending over Six to make sure she was okay.
The feeling of disorientation lasted only a few seconds. Then he felt himself solidifying, as if all his atoms had been pulled apart and were now being forced back together. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. Then his lungs went back to work, and he gasped in air. He smelled something salty and felt cold air on his skin.
He was on the deck of a boat.
“Looks like we got ourselves a hitchhiker,” said Dennings.
Sam prepared to resume their fight. Then he saw the three men standing with guns pointed at him.
“Take him below,” Dennings ordered the men. “Lock him up. I’ll figure out what to do with him later. I’ve got bigger problems right now.”
Two of the men came and took Sam by the arms. The third quickly knocked him in the back of his head with the butt of his rifle. Sam crumpled and was dragged across the deck and down some stairs. He was taken along a narrow corridor, then thrown into a tiny cabin. The door slammed shut behind him and locked.
“If he tries to get out of there, shoot him,” a man’s voice said.
Sam faded in and out. There was little in the room besides a bed affixed to one wall. He pulled himself toward it. In just a few minutes, everything had gone wrong. He had no idea where he was. He didn’t know if Six was all right. He had no way to contact anyone who could help him.
He was all alone.