Day of Doom (30 page)

Am I dead?

When Grace Cahill sat down next toher and took her hand, Amy knew that she

was no longer in the land of the living.

“How did it happen?” she asked her grandmother.

“You fought the good fight, Amy. You defeated the Vespers. It just came at a great personal cost.”

Amy nodded. She tried to remain calm even as her chest felt tight and the tears trickled down her cheeks.

“But Dan’s okay, right? He made it? Right?”

Grace pointed around the misty edges of the space they were in.

“You don’t see your little brother here, do you?”

Relief washed over Amy. At least Dan had survived. He would carry on the Cahill name and family. Attleboro would be his home. He would grow up and have

kids, and maybe he would name one of his daughters Amy.

With   that   thought   more   tears clustered around Amy’s eyes.

It sucks being morbid.

But she couldn’t help herself. She was dead, after all. She had the right to be a little depressed, to wallow in a little self-pity.

She looked around. Jake wasn’t here, either. He had made it, too. Maybe he and Sinead would fall in love, marry, have kids, grow old together.

Okay, Amy, enough with the tear ducts.

“Hi, Amy.”

She looked up to see Evan there. He looked just like he always looked, except a bit pale, which being dead can certainly

do to a person. Amy supposed she looked like parchment herself.

“Hi, Evan.”

He said sheepishly, “Kind of a bummer, being dead and all.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But it could be worse.”

“How’s that?”

“We could be dead and the world

could have ended thanks to Vesper One.”

“Hey, I died before it all turned out. So we won?”

Amy nodded. “Yeah, we stopped the machine. Isabel took the serum and went

all
 
Matrix
 
on us. She squashed Vesper One like a bug and died in the process. The planet will live on, even if we won’t.”

“That’s cool. Maybe we can hang out

together.”

“That would be nice, Evan. Thanks.”

Amy glanced to her left and caught a breath. She was seeing something she thought she never would.

Isabel Kabra was walking along with Natalie. Hand in hand.

Isabel looked different. She looked,well, normal, not evil. Natalie was staringup at her mother as they walked along. Shelooked happy. Happy to be dead.

Wow,
  
thought Amy.
 
Like, really,

wow.

Off in another corner she saw

Alistair. It looked to her like he wasrunning some sort of business. But deadpeople didn’t buy things. Or eat things. What would have been the point?

“Amy? AMY?”

Things went black again.

“Amy?”

Something shook her by the arm. Amy slowly opened her eyes.

The misty room was gone. The sunwas shining in a window. She felt abreeze on her face. She sat up, lookedaround.

She was in her bedroom at Attleboro.

“Amy?”

She turned to see Dan sitting on the side of her bed and looking at her anxiously.

“Dan? What’s going on? Am I dead?”

Dan smiled. “You almost were. In

fact, we thought you were, but we were

wrong, thank goodness.”

“What happened?”

“To make a long story short, the mountain sort of collapsed. We barely got out. You got hit in the head by a chunk of rock.”

Amy reached up and felt the bandagearound her head.

“They had to cut some of your hairoff, but it’ll grow back fast.”

“I don’t really remember.”

“Docs said short-term amnesia isperfectly normal for getting your headcreamed like that. It might come back. Butthen again, you might not want it to.”

“What happened after the mountaincollapsed?”

“Jake carried you over his shoulderthe rest of the way.”

“Jake did? Is he okay?” she addedquickly.

“Everyone’s okay. Well, everyone

else. You remember about Natalie and

Evan?”

Amy sat back against her pillow. Sheblinked back tears. “I was hoping that wasa dream.”

Was I dead? I saw Evan. And

Natalie. Did I just come back fromalmost dying?

“We got you to a hospital. It wastouch and go for a while.”

“I just don’t remember any of it.”

“You had surgery and were releasedlast week. It’ll take you a while to getyour strength back, but the docs saidyou’ll be fine. No permanent damage.”

“And what about the Doomsdaydevice?”

“Buried under the mountain. Along

with Isabel and Vesper One, if anything

was left of them.”

“And the Wyomings and Sandy?”

“Arrested. For multiple felonies. Kidnapping.    Assault.    Unlawful imprisonment. Stealing a truck. Driving a stolen truck without a license. Oh, and trying to blow up the world. That was a biggie. And they also got Sandy, for impersonating a meteorologist. Seems that he never actually got his degree and he forged his credentials.”

“And  Nellie   and  Fiske?   Their

injuries?”

“Doing fine.” He paused. “Oh, and I forgot. Chicago is still there.”

Amy smiled. “Maybe we should go visit again. By train. It was a lot of fun.”

“I think I’ll go by plane,” replied

Dan. “And meet you there.”

A week later, after she felt stronger, Amymet with everyone at Attleboro.

She hugged Ian and talked to himabout Natalie and their mother. She told

Ian that she had seen Isabel’s face whenshe had spotted Natalie’s body.

“I think she really cared for youtwo,” said Amy. “Deep, deep down.”

Ian seemed comforted by this.

Sinead was with Ted and Ned. Bothof them looked better and Sinead reportedthat   some   experimental   treatmentsundertaken in Switzerland were reallystarting to pay dividends.

“Thank goodness I didn’t try to use

the serum,” she said. “Nasty stuff. I even felt a little sorry for Isabel.”

Amy said, “I’m looking forward to being friends with you again, Sinead. And all of the medical treatments Ted and Ned

require will be taken care of.”

“That’s not your problem, Amy. It’s my burden to deal with.”

“It’s
 
our
 
issue to deal with, Sinead. We are family, after all.”

“But after all the things I did?”

“We all make mistakes, Sinead. But there is a thing called redemption. You fought with us against the Vespers. You saved my life. You saved Nellie’s life. You’re a good person. Never stop believing that.”

Sinead  looked  uneasily  at  her, swallowed with difficulty, and gave her a

hug.

In one corner of the room Phoenix

and Jonah were doing a little jam session on the piano. It turned out that Phoenix actually had better pipes than his famous relative.

Jonah said, “Okay, little bro, some mentoring, some attitude and clothing changes, and you learn my hip-hop version of the moonwalk, we got a gold-plated show we take on the road.”

Dan stood behind Jonah and mouthedfrantically to Phoenix,
 
Just say NO!

Hamilton and Reagan were in onecorner of the room practicing their martialskills.

“Couldn’t have done it without both

of you,” Amy told them.

Hamilton said, “Just think of the

stories we’ll have to tell our kids. Saved the world. Not that many people can say they did that.”

“Drop and give me twenty, Ham,” said his sister. “You’re looking a little soft.”

Nellie looked beautiful and her

shoulder and arm hung normally. She’d cut her hair and it was now dyed a new color that Amy could not really describe. They hugged and Nellie said she was going to take a little vacation from being their guardian. “Just need to get my mojo back. And I got cheated on my Paris trip, so I’m booking a trip now that I know you’re okay.”

Fiske was dressed all in black. With his fine, silver-white hair he cut quite a figure. “I don’t think you and Dan need

guardians anymore,” he said.

“Maybe not, but we do need family, right?” said Amy.

“Are you asking me to stick around?” said Fiske.

Amy looked at Nellie and then backat Fiske. “I’m asking both of you to hangwith us till we drive you absolutely crazy. Although with Dan in the picture thatmight be tomorrow,” she added, smiling.

Fiske bowed deeply. “It would bemy honor.”

“Mine, too,” said Nellie. “As soonas I get back from Paris.”

“Fair enough,” said a grinning Amy.

That left Atticus, who Amy spenttime with and gave plenty of hugs, too.

Then there was Jake.

“We have a lot to talk about, I

guess,” Jake said.

“We do, but we don’t have to do it now.”

“I’m really sorry about Evan. He was a cool dude.”

“Yes, he was. And we’ll never forget him because he’ll always be a part of us.”

She took his hand. “And by the way, thanks for carrying me out of that mountain.”

“Any time,” he replied, smiling at

her.

“And I think I owe you something from the storage room at the train station in Chicago.”

She reached up on tiptoe and kissed

him.

Later, Dan and Amy walked over thelovely grounds of Attleboro. This was Cahill land, something that was intimateand comforting and familiar. They walkedto the top of a little knoll and looked out ata place that their family had called homefor so long.

Amy said, “I thought I was dead, youknow. I saw Mom and Dad and Grace.

And everyone else who had passed. Iguess it was just a dream. But it seemedso real.”

“Did part of you want to stay there?” Dan asked curiously.

“Yes, but it was just a little part. Most of me wanted to come back here, to

the living.”

“I’m glad you did. It would’ve been pretty lonely around here without you.”

They walked some more and then headed back to the house.

“So, I guess we can settle down to nice quiet lives now,” said Amy. “I can think about college, you’ll be going into high school soon. Just . . . normal . . . everyday . . . lives.” With these last words her tone grew rote and her expression became bored.

“Yeah, what a relief,” said Dan, but he looked every bit as bored as his sister.

They looked at each other.

Dan said, “Normal everyday lives? Sounds so cheesy, doesn’t it?”

Amy nodded. “Of course it does. And you know why, right?”

“Why?” asked Dan.

She grinned. “We’re Cahills. We save the world. It’s what we do.”

“It’s what we do,” repeated Dan and he grinned, too.

They gripped each other’s hands and started to sprint toward the house.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35

Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40