I Am Phantom (25 page)

“Drake,
please!” Melanie urged. “There are a million things you could have done
differently. A million things we all could have. What’s done is done. Blame
Sykes for this, not yourself. There was nothing you could do.”

“That’s
going to change,” I said. “I’m finding the last Project Midnight lab. That’s
where I’ll find Sykes.”

Melanie
pushed me from the door. “If you think throwing yourself at him, hoping it will
bring Cody back the way he was, you’re wrong. You can’t bring that back
you—” she choked, glancing at Cody on the bed. “—you can’t make him
better.”

“I’m
not—”

“Yes
you are,” Matt said. “Stop being an idiot and think.” He had his own laptop in
front of him. “You need a plan. I concur that finding the last Project Midnight
lab is the key to finding Sykes, but something must be different this time to
ensure a victory rather than you getting your butt kicked again.”

So
sensitive, Matt. “If you have any brilliant ideas about where the lab is, I’m
open for suggestions—”

The
TV went dead, casting everything into an eerie silence. Even the scrambling
outside the hall lessened.

Then
Sykes face popped on screen. He stood in front of a black backdrop and wore a
nice suit with his hair freshly combed as though about to attend a dinner
rather than having just blown up half my school.

“Greetings,
Queensbury! Young and old, alive and dead, though I guess there are a few more
dead now aren’t there?

“I
have taken time out of my precious schedule to tell you that it’s about time I
retired. I know that’s hard to hear but please, no tears yet. I’ve had fun and
I hope you have too, but before I go I wanted to express my thanks to a few
members of the Queensbury Community.” He paused and picked up a sheet of paper
off-screen. I realized my hands were clenched.

“First,
to the honorable Police Chief Ryans,” At this his face turned from the
pseudo-joyful to slightly malicious. “for always being there for me. Here’s to
you getting the best seat in town for tonight.”

“And
secondly, to Phantom. Oh, I know some people think he’s a menace, but the guy’s
not so bad. In fact, he’s helped you people out more than you know. I mean, can
you remember what it was like without him? I can’t. Though that could be
because I was preoccupied in a certain institution. So, Phantom, how about you
and I have one last little get together for old times sake? I’m sure by now
you’ve figured out where I am. To everyone else, I hope you stay for the
finale.”

And
the black screen returned.

I
immediately started putting on my Phantom costume.

“What
are you doing?” Matt demanded as I put the last glove on. “People will see you
here.”

“Doesn’t
matter.”

“And
Ryans,” Melanie said quietly. She stood close to Cody, arms at her side with a
fiery look of determination on her face. “Sykes said something about Ryans. I
think he may be planning to do something to him.”

Matt
didn’t stop looking at me. “You could die. For real this time.”

“I
could have almost always died, Matt,” I said, but it wasn’t all of me talking.
That was the angry part of me talking, while the terrified part stayed quiet.
“This isn’t going to be any different.”

“Go
find Ryans,” Melanie said. “We can tell the National Guard what we know about Sykes
and the Project Midnight lab.”

“You
know that won’t work—”

“Shut
up, Drake,” Melanie said. “You can help Ryans, but stopping Sykes? Look what
happened the last two times you faced him. You failed both times! You can’t
stop him by yourself.” That made me pause. I glanced at Cody.

“And
I will regret those failures for a long time.” Melanie suddenly realized what
she said.

“No—I’m—I
didn’t mean that, Drake!”

I
finished with the costume but didn’t say anything.

Melanie
had her face down, her hand pressed against her forehead. I gently took her
hand and squeezed it.

“I’m
sorry. You’re right, I can’t do this alone. I need you behind me, and Matt. I
need your belief that I can do this. I’ve always needed that.” She finally
looked up. “Can you give that to me?” I asked.

“Remember
back at the Lab when this all started, when I said that if you get in too deep
I’m out?”

 
I dropped her hand.

“Yes,”
I said. “I don’t blame you if you stand by that.”

“No,”
she said. “No, I’m not. I’m tired, Drake. I’m tired of the worrying and the
fear. I see what this does to you and to—to Cody. What it did to him. We
are in too deep. But what I realize now is we’re in so deep we can’t climb out.
We’re all in this with you until this is over.”

“Just
know that this isn’t what I had thought it would be,” I said. “Not at all. I
know how stupid that sounds now, looking at what I did but it’s the truth.
Maybe some good can still come from it.”

“Some
good already has,” Melanie said. “Just make sure you come back to see it.”

Matt,
ever the sentimental one, said, “You’d better get going.” I put my hood up and
went to the window.

I
had one foot outside when the door opened and a nurse walked in.

“Okay,
Mr. Richards needs his second round of—” She saw me and dropped the tray
with a loud clatter.

“You’re—you’re—Phan—Phan—”

“You’re
getting close,” I said, then jumped into the dark.

I
drove silently down the vacant streets, streaming past parked cars and avoiding
any signs of the National Guard who had now invaded Queensbury.

Queensbury’s
life had been sucked up as though holding an enormous breath. By now the bars
and nightclubs were closed. Gone were the nearly constant sounds of honking and
the dull thrum and buzz of a thriving city.

Ryans
lived in a subdivision just outside the pillars of skyscrapers. I steered
beneath the rows of sycamores lining either side of white washed, perfectly
aligned fences and straight back brick houses. Even my quiet motorcycle sounded
unusually loud. Ryans house was at the end. An unmarked van sat in front.

I
pulled my bike behind some bushes and crept to the front door. It had been
kicked in. I heard raised voices inside followed by a faint scream.

I
went in, sweeping left and right for anybody. I stepped across an overturned
umbrella stand and found thick, muddy boot prints stomping past the staircase
and into the living room. I glanced through the doorway.

Four
men with their backs to me stood in a semi circle around Ryans. Ryans held his
wife and son behind him, his face grim.

“Last
chance,” the one near the window said, leveling his pistol. “Just you, Ryans.
Leave your wife and your boy and come with us. I’ll shoot you in the leg and
drag you if I have to.”

The
woman was crying silently. The little boy was eerily stoic, staring back
intensely at the man with the pistol pointed at his father.

I
stepped lightly into the doorway. Ryans’ eyes shifted to me so fast I thought
they would pop out. He stiffened then, all his attention was on me, as though
he didn’t care about the gun aimed at his chest. Maybe because this was the
first time he had seen me up close, maybe I was that intimidating. Or maybe he
was pleading for me to help, though I doubt it.

I
crept closer to the gunman nearest to me, praying Ryans would
stop looking at me—

The
gunman’s eyes narrowed. “What are you—?” He turned and saw me. His mouth
opened to yell and he fired just before I leapt behind the couch.

“He’s
here! He’s here!” the man yelled. “Michaels! Willis! He’s—”

My
foot met his face with a sickening crack. I scooped up his gun and rolled again
behind a plush chair that was soon riddled with holes as the other three fired.

I
grabbed a lamp next to me, threw it and, following its flight path, tossed the
gun to Ryans and broke the first man’s arm.

I
turned on the last two.

BAM

BAM

BAM

The
gunshots faded just before the men’s bodies hit the floor. I stared at them in
shock and then turned to look down the barrel of Ryans’ gun. He was calm now.

“Hands
on your head,” Ryans said. There was no mercy in his voice.

I
took a hesitant step back and sharp pained roared up my side, buckling my
knees. I risked a glance down and found a ragged hole in my costume, tinged
with blood.

“Hands
on your head or I will put a bullet through it.”

Thankfully
it looked like that bullet had gone clean through the fleshy part in my side.

“I
just saved your life,” I gasped. “You have to let me go. I need—”

“I
don’t care what you need! Hands on your head!”

His
wife looked between me and the two dead bodies Ryans had caused. The boy hadn’t
moved.

“I’m
not scared of you,” he said to me.

“Shut
up, Richard,” Ryans said.

I
pushed myself into a crouched position where the pain was less. I looked at
Ryans who hadn’t moved an inch. I could tell every fiber of him wanted to pull
the trigger, but I guess a twisted sense of indebtedness stayed him.

           
“Phaaaantom…?” A sing-song voice crackled from a radio on the belt of
one of the dead men. The hairs on my neck rose. “Phaaantom…? I know you’re
there.”

I
looked at Ryans. He didn’t move. I reached for the radio, the gun followed but
he didn’t shoot.

I
picked up the radio and took a deep breath. “What, Sykes?” I said.

“Oh
good, you’re not too dense, Phantom. Is my pal Ryans there? I’m sure this is
just
killing
him that you helped save
his family. Am I right?”

“Something
like that,” I said.

“Then
I’ll be frank before he shoots you. Ryans, Phantom is going to come to me. He’s
going to get the chance to witness the destruction of our enemy. The abandoned
oil refinery on the edge of town.”

“I
don’t negotiate with madmen,” Ryans said.

“You’re
negotiating with me. Phantom knows where I am. Phantom knows a lot of things. Don’t
keep me waiting.”

The
channel clicked off.

“I’m
leaving,” I said. “Now.” Ryans’ eyes didn’t leave the radio.

“Why
should I trust you?” Ryans demanded.

“Because
you helped make me,” I said. “If anything, I shouldn’t trust you.”

I
stepped over the men and walked towards the front door. At any moment I
expected to hear a sharp crack and feel a final pain between my shoulder
blades.

“You
heard him. The abandoned refinery,” I said without turning around. “Keep the
National Guard off my back. I know you can do that. He wants me and if I don’t
play along he could set this whole thing off. Let me try to stop him first.” I
didn’t wait for Ryans to answer. I don’t think he would have. I went out the
door and back to my motorcycle. The pain in my side flared as I started it up
and pointed it towards Sykes.

Chapter
Sixteen

Endgame

I
whipped through the streets, barely registering the shrouded scenery. I was
about to ask Matt about any updates on Sykes, but realized I didn’t have my
earpiece. It must have fallen out during the explosions or when I had been digging
for students out of the remains of the dorm.

               
Now that I was aware it was gone I felt exposed, like I’d just lost an
eye or some really useful, sometimes annoying, part of my consciousness.

               
The abandoned refinery at the western edge of Queensbury loomed above me
as I neared it, a smoky black shadow against a dark sky, its iron teeth waiting
for me…I was getting too melodramatic with the metaphors.

               
I screeched the bike to a halt just outside the padlocked gates. From
far away I couldn’t see much. No lights, no sounds save the metal groaning in
the wind. No indication that the refinery had been used in years.

                
Maybe I had beaten Sykes.

                
Then I heard the screams.

                
I kicked the gate down and gunned my bike towards where I had seen some
people in lab coats run out. My headlight flooded across one of them and he
threw his hands up over his face.

                
“No! Take them, not me! I have—”

      
          
“Keep
running,” I said, jumping off the bike and dashing into the refinery.

                 
The inside was a jungle, thick with cold steel and caked with years of
rust. Gauges held readings frozen in time on bellies of giant tanks I assumed
once held oil. Ladders leading to nowhere climbed up metal sides and cut off at
overhanging walkways. Gravel crunched under my feet. A faint chemical scent
burned my nose. Oil stains on the floor led my way.

                 
Even though it was supposedly abandoned, floodlights cast everything in
a nightmare of contrasting shadows and dank lights.

                 
I was more jumpy than ever before. Any second I expected Sykes to pop
out and attack me. But I didn’t see him, or anything of the lab, for that matter.

Then
I found the first body.

              
The man lay face up. A foot-long knife jutted from his eye socket now
pooled with blood and dribbling down his cheek.

              
I was going the right way.

             
The body count didn’t stop there. The next few hallways were a labyrinth,
and guiding me the entire way was a macabre display of what had once been
workers of Project Midnight.

          
Some were splayed in freeze-frame poses, as though they had been in the
middle of fleeing when death caught them A couple were skewered to the metal
siding with knives. Blood slathered the walls, almost like paintings.

             
I’d had enough long before I reached one last man pinned to some double
doors. I reached around him, but before I could grab the handle the doors burst
open and a couple people ran out screaming. Their lab coats were flecked with
blood and they were so terrified of what was behind them they didn’t even
notice me slip past and into the heart of the refinery.

             
Project Midnight must have built some kind of cloaking device, because
what was inside wouldn’t have passed unnoticed for long.

             
It was bigger than the inside of a stadium, so far I could barely see
the other side even without the smoke from the fires raging everywhere.
Floodlights washed the concrete floor bright as daylight. Screams filled the
air mixed with gunfire, breaking glass and explosions.

             
The bodies were everywhere, and the few people who weren’t dead had
banded together and were scrambling towards the exits.

             
A small group froze in their escape when they saw me.

             
“Don’t hurt us!” one woman screamed, collapsing to her knees.

            
“Where is Sykes?” I said.

               
The woman paused in surprise that I wasn’t going to kill her and then
pointed back to where the screams and gunfire were. I supposed I could have
figured out he was over there on my own.

              
“We had no idea what Carlyle was doing!” The woman blabbered. “Honest!
He said—”

              
“Get out,” I said. I wasn’t a killer like Sykes, but that didn’t mean I
didn’t hate the people who made us the way we were.

                 
I sprinted towards the chaos. I had only now just realized it was
another training room, like the one that had been underneath the Lab. There
were more workstations too, all beneath a shimmering sort of shield rippling
high above, disguising everything. I came around a pallet of weapons and nearly
ran into a man fleeing Sykes.

                 
Sykes was a monster, tearing into everything around him. He was just
like I had seen him at the other lab, all traces of humanity gone. He hefted a
guard in black armor and hurled him towards others who were advancing on him.
They had him surrounded but he dodged their bullets. His knife came up and
three more guards fell before he moved on to the next victim. He seemed
unstoppable.

                 
Without thinking, I leapt at him and punched him so hard he flew back
and crashed into a stack of crates.

 
               
“Everybody
run!” I said, as if it wasn’t already obvious. Some of the guards hesitated,
then decided they did want to live. One of them ran close to me and I waited
for him to try to attack.

                  
He pointed and I followed his finger way back to the rear of the
facility. “Sykes rigged the power generators with explosives but no one can get
near enough to disarm them.”

                  
“What happens when they go off?” I said, keeping a sharp eye for
wherever Sykes would appear from next.

                   
The guard started backpedaling. “If those reactors go then everything in
a mile radius will be gone.”

                    
Great. Just what I needed.

                    
Sykes suddenly leapt from the wreckage and landed in front of me. Pieces
of his shirt were burned off and the skin on his arms was flayed by debris,
flapping in the open air, but he didn’t seem to notice. I could practically
feel the rage rolling off him. We circled each other, opposites of the same
outcome.

 
                  
“You’ve finally arrived,” Sykes said, “to the conception of us. Here’s where
things get interesting.”

                   
“You can still stop,” I said. “Just stop killing. I hate Project
Midnight as much as you do but this isn’t how it should be done!”

                   
“How then?” Sykes yelled. “For years they’ve used fear and violence so
why not have a taste of their own?” His eyes remained fixed on me, reflecting
the fires growing around us.

                   
Then he held his hand out in front of him. Another detonator.

                  
“Prove it. Prove to me you hate them as much as I do, as much as you
should. Think of what you can do. Your speed and strength. How different you
are and how much others adore and fear you. It may seem great now, yes, but in
time,” he shook his head, “it will, like it’s done to me, take everything away.
Your friends, your loves.” He smirked. “You were an outcast from all of them the
day you were born.”

“My
friends are safe, Sykes,” I said. “You can’t hurt them now.”

“I
can change that,” Sykes said.

                   
The familiar surge of anger came but I held it in check. Barely.

                  
“You’ve seen the other side,” Sykes continued. “You’ve seen the darkness
this place created. Will you stop it the only way it can be stopped?”

               
I felt my hand reaching towards him. I tried to keep looking at him,
tried not to blink.

             
“I’ll do it,” I said.

              
Sykes’ hand faltered when my fingers brushed the smooth metal of the
detonator. His eyes narrowed in rage.

            
“
You’re lying
.” His knife went
for my throat. I rolled back but his second attack sliced my upper arm.

            
“I thought you of all people would get it!” Sykes screamed at me,
stabbing right first, then left. He was so fast, it took everything I had to
stay alive.

            
“You, the one most like me. I brought you here, told you everything you
needed to know to fight them.” He spun and grabbed a fleeing woman by her
throat and held her before him. “Look at them! They’re weak and fragile to us.
They are nothing. And yet they have more future than we do.”

            
The woman clawed at his fingers around her throat, but Sykes didn’t seem
to notice.

            
“Please!” she choked. “No…please…”

            
“Stop it!” I leapt at him. Sykes snapped a kick at my stomach, keeping
the woman held in front of him, taunting me.

            
“
I-gave-you-everything
,” Sykes
said sadly. “I saved you.”

           
“And I’m doing the same,” I said. I shot my grapple at him and it threw
him back.

He
stumbled up, laughing, still holding the woman.

 
“My oh my, you never give up, do you?” He
taunted. “Perseverance, I like it! Reminds me of myself when I was your age. So
young…and naïve…and…and…”

In
our little ring, time seemed to slow down, the flames and destruction around
didn’t seemed to matter. “We’re so alike, you and me…and now I…”

Something
in his face changed, as if his mask broke, revealing everything underneath.

            
 
The malicious grin on his
face dropped off and left nothing but the remnants of that terrified man I had
once seen. The woman tried to gasp for air and Sykes seemed to notice her for
the first time. He dropped her and she scrambled away. His eyes traveled from
his hands to the rest of his body all covered in blood.

           
“My God, what have I done?” He whispered. He looked around at the
burning lab. The heat was growing unbearable.

          
“This is what you do, Sykes,” I said as he continued to swing his head
around, bewildered. “All you do is ruin lives. You blow up those generators and
you’ll kill hundreds of innocents. You’re no better than they are!”

Sykes
stared at me, but his eyes couldn’t seem to focus. I held my arms in front of
me in what I hoped was a calming gesture and started to approach him. “But you
can stop. Project Midnight needs to pay for what they’ve done. But not like
this. You and I will find the rest of those responsible. We’ll bring them in,
have them face justice. This whole thing can stop with you and me.”
           

           
Sykes breathed in deeply and closed his eyes. “So many dead. When does
it end? I…” He seemed to have trouble talking, like every word was a battle
against an unseen enemy. “I…need you to…kill me…stop…me before—”

          
 
“Sykes!” Sykes’ head snapped
up. Carlyle and a few guards stood on the catwalk above us.

           
“No!” I shouted as Sykes’ expression fell back to one of pure hatred. He
pressed the detonator.

            
A deep hum grew steadily louder, and then died. Sykes stared down at his
hand.

          
“I shut the reactors down, Sykes,” Carlyle said. “You’re done.”

           
I moved before Sykes. I could see what he was going to do a second
before and shot my grapple up to the catwalk, swung around and knocked Carlyle
down.

           
Sykes leapt after me, kicking one of the guards over the edge.

“Let’s
go!” I said, grabbing Carlyle and hauling him down the walkway as Sykes turned
towards the remaining guards. The catwalk swayed and I tried to steady myself
but the flames made the metal too hot to touch.

         
“Why are you saving me?” Carlyle asked. Gunfire sounded behind us. Sykes
took a bullet to the shoulder but quickly snapped the guard’s neck.