Day of Doom (4 page)

When the screen finally went dark Amy said, “Did you figure it out?”

Atticus nodded. “I believe so.” Helooked at his notes and muttered, “Riley McGrath is Vesper One.”

“Riley McGrath,” said Dan. “Who’s

he?”

Amy said slowly, “I don’t know.”

“I wonder why Ted thinks he’s Vesper One,” said Atticus equally slowly,as though he was trying to answer thequestion before he finished saying it.

“I don’t know,” said Amy again. Shesuddenly looked sick to her stomach.

“Excuse me,” she said. She handed Dan her  computer  and  slipped  into  the bathroom and shut and locked the door.

Jake glanced anxiously at Dan. “Do you think she’s okay?”

“No, of course she’s not okay,” exclaimed Dan. “Alistair is dead. The

hostages are still hostages. Phoenix is dead. And Vesper One basically told Amy that we were the ones responsible for destroying the world. After she’s done in the bathroom,
 
I’m
 
going to go in there to throw up, too.”

Dan slumped down to the floor and stared at his shoes.

“But at least we know Vesper One is Riley McGrath,” pointed out Jake. “That’s something.”

“No. We just know that Ted
 
thinks

he is,” replied Atticus. “That’s not the same thing as it being a fact.”

Dan said, “And how does that help us? We don’t know who McGrath is and why Ted thinks he’s Vesper One. We don’t know where the hostages are located. For all we know they’re already dead. That web link could be old. And now Vesper One has everything he needs to wreck the planet. Wow. Cool. Let’s have a party.”

Jake said angrily, “Hey, I know all that, okay? I’m just trying to stay positive.”

“Don’t bother,” shot back Dan. “It just makes you look stupid, because there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be positive about.”

Jake was about to respond when the

bathroom door slid back with a crash, making all three of them jump.

Amy stood there, a determined look on her face.

However, Dan did notice that hercheeks were red, her nose runny, and shelooked like she had scrubbed her face

hard to wipe away the tears.

“Okay, listen up, because here’s the deal,” she said. “All we can do is keep trying. Vesper One has the upper hand now. Alistair and Phoenix are dead. The hostages might be, too, soon. But we have a lead. We’re going to follow that lead. If we can catch Isabel, we may have some bargaining power. And even if we don’t, we can still find out what she wants in DC. That might help us somehow. I know it doesn’t sound like much. But it’s all we

have right now. So we can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can keep fighting. I don’t know about you, but I plan to keep fighting.”

She took her laptop from Dan and marched back to her seat.

The guys all looked at one another.

“Wow,” said Jake. “Not what I expected.”

Dan said hotly, “What
 
did
 
you expect from her?”

“Well, she did sort of crack up about twenty-four hours ago,” pointed out Atticus.

“Everybody  is   entitled  to   one meltdown,” Dan said loyally. “But she’s not going to give up again!”

“Hey, you sounded like
 
you
 
had given up,” Jake reminded him.

Dan started to shout something backbut stopped. “You’re right. I did. But Iwas wrong,” he said quietly.

Atticus added, “And the last thing weneed is to start fighting with each other. We have plenty of bad people to fight as itis.”

Jake said, “Atticus is right. I’m sorry, Dan.” He put out his hand.

Dan shook it. “It’s cool. Sometimesthis    fighting-global-evil-to-save-the-world thing starts to get a guy down.”

Jake grinned. “I know exactly howyou feel.”

The three of them went off to join Amy in the fight.

It was Dan who first noticed it. He’d been

doodling on a napkin. Amy was surfing on her computer, no doubt trying to find some helpful lead or bit of information that would help them defeat the Vespers. Maybe she was looking at the floor plans for the Museum of American History in case they had to make an escape from it. It seemed to Dan that they could build a business out of escaping from museums,

art galleries, and other secure places, seeing as how they had had to do it so often. Jake was leaning back in his chair staring at the ceiling. But he would occasionally glance over at Amy, and Dan would roll his eyes at the puppy-dog look Jake gave his sister. Atticus had his eyes closed, but Dan knew he wasn’t sleeping. He was thinking. Atticus was always thinking. That came with having a brain the size of a watermelon.

So Dan had glanced out the window. They were, he thought, just passing overthe Delaware River. But he wasn’t

looking at the river. He was looking at the sky. He sat up straighter and pressed his face to the window, his eyes pointed up at such a harsh angle they hurt.

Was the sky . . . purple?

And were the clouds actually movingthat fast? It was like one of those zoom-

track weather maps that accelerated the movements of storm and cloud patterns. But this was real. A second later a gust of wind hit the train so hard that it actually rocked back and forth. For a terrifying moment Dan thought that they were going to plummet into the water.

He looked around at the others. While they all seemed to have noticed the buffeting wind, they weren’t looking outside. Dan glanced at some of the other passengers. They all were staring at their computers,   or   reading   books   or newspapers. Not one of them had noticed the weather. Maybe that’s how the world was now, thought Dan. Everyone was so wrapped up in his or her own little world

that no one ever really
 
saw
 
anything

anymore.

“Uh, Amy,” said Dan.

She looked up, obviously annoyed at this interruption.

“Yes?”

He pointed out the window.

She glanced past him. Her alarmed expression told Dan that she saw what he

saw.

Now Jake and Atticus were lookingout the window, too.

“The sky is . . . purple,” said Jake. “How can the sky be purple?”

“Is there a rainbow somewherearound?” asked Atticus. “It might simplybe a case of light refraction combinedwith other elements to create some sort of

optical illusion.”

“There’s no rainbow,” said Dan. “And since when have you seen clouds move that fast?”

They looked upward. The clouds flashed past and were soon out of sight.

They all looked at one another.

Amy said slowly, “It could be totally unrelated to the Doomsday device.”

“Yeah,” said Dan. “And I
 
could
 
actually be Justin Bieber, only with a better haircut.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it now,” she said. “But we can try and narrow down the location of relevant

subduction zones. That will tell us where the  Vespers  may  have   located  the Doomsday device.”

“Good idea,” said Jake. “Let me help you.” He was sitting next to Amy and

simply eased up the armrest separating

them and moved closer to her.

“Thanks, Jake,” said Amy, smiling at him. “You’re really good at helping.”

Dan watched all this with an

incredulous look. He really did want to throw up. He actually stuck a finger down his throat and made a gagging noise.

Amy   ignored   this   and   said, “Subduction zones, fortunately, aren’t all that plentiful. And in the United States they are pretty few in number. They’re mostly along the coasts.”

Atticus said, “That’s still a lot of ground to cover. And we don’t have much time.” He looked out the window again and  observed  the  ominous   celestial happenings.

Amy’s phone buzzed as an e-mail

came in.

Dan looked at the device like it was

a rattlesnake poised to plunge its fangs

into him.

“Please don’t let that be Vesper One telling us someone else is dead,” he muttered.

Amy picked up the phone. “It’s from Evan.” She read the e-mail and her jawdropped nearly to the table. “Omigod.”

“What is it?” asked Jake, who wastrying to read the tiny screen.

Amy let out a long breath and tearsfilled her eyes. “Phoenix managed toescape from the Vespers. That’s why hewasn’t on the screen with the others.”

Jake   exclaimed,   “Way   to   go,

Phoenix!”

Amy looked at him. She didn’t know

Phoenix all that well. He had not been abig part of the Cahill family. But he wasonly twelve and Amy liked him, and whenshe had thought he was dead, she had felttremendous guilt. Now she just feltstupendous relief.

“Where is he?” Dan asked quickly.

“At a motel near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. Evan and Ian are on a plane right now to get him. Phoenix says he can lead them to thehostages. Evan sent me the address of themotel where they’ll be. I’m going to e-mail him back now and tell him that he

needs to get the police involved. I know that sort of goes against the Cahill way of doing things. But I’m afraid if they go after the  hostages  alone,  they’ll   end  up captured, too.”

Dan said, “So we need to get on aplane and fly to Washington. Let’s get offthe train at the airport near Baltimore.”

“No,” said Amy. “We can’t do that.”

Dan looked stunned. “What are youtalking about? Two minutes ago we had noclue where the Doomsday device was. Orwhere the hostages were. Now we know. The Cascades, I’m sure, has subductionzones.”

Jake was hitting computer keys withdizzying speed. He read the screen andlooked up. “There is an enormoussubduction zone located right off the coastof Washington State,” he said.

“Okay,” said Dan triumphantly. “Sowe kill two birds with one stone. Doomsday device and the hostages. We’refinally a step ahead of the Vespers. We

have to go for it.”

“What we have to do,” countered Amy, “is find out why Isabel Kabra is going to DC.”

“What does it matter?” exclaimed

Dan. “And it might be a trap. Or this couldjust be a wild-goose chase.”

“She had no reason to believe thatwe could hack into her files,” pointed out Amy. “And why lead us on a wild-goosechase when, as far as she knows, we haveno idea where the hostages or the Doomsday device are? If she’s going to DC at such a critical time, it must be for avery good reason.”

“I agree with Amy,” said Jake.

“Of course you do!” snapped anexasperated Dan. “Because you’re, like,so in loooove with her.”

“Dan!” said Amy sharply, but she was also blushing.

Dan barked, “So we’re just going to let Ian and Evan go in alone?”

“With the police,” amended Amy.

“Come on! They can’t go to the police,” said Dan. “What will Ian and Evan tell them? That some maniac named Vesper One is planning on blowing up the world and all they have to do is search an entire mountain range to find the hostages and a device that Archimedes made centuries ago? And, by the way, that’s why the sky is purple? They’ll lock
 
them
 
up.”

Atticus said, “I think Dan has a point. It would be hard to believe. And by thetime the police got up to speed andactually did anything, it might be too late.”

Amy  considered  this  and  said, “Okay, I’ll call in reinforcements.” Shepicked up her phone and punched in thenumber.

“Hamilton? It’s Amy.” She quickly explained what had happened. “I need you and Jonah to fly to Washington State right now. You can fly into Seattle and then get to the motel and meet Ian and Evan.” She

paused, her mouth breaking into a grin. After all the bad news it felt terrific to be

able to convey something positive.

“And I’ve got great news,” she said. “Phoenix is alive. And free. He got away from the Vespers. He’ll be with Ian and Evan.”