IA: Initiate (21 page)

Just then Naz heard it, the voice, faint but clear.
“Checkmate,”
the voice said quietly.

Naz gave his head a little shake. He listened closely, but there was nothing. He wasn’t scared, angry, or even excited anymore. His game with the Chess Master had gotten relatively boring.
I probably just imagined it
, Naz thought.

In the next round, the Chess Master no longer found the father and daughter team amusing, as they constantly argued with each other over which pieces to move. He took them both out of play at the same time. Naz was taught that the second rule of war is that consensus is the lack of leadership, and there is no deliberation in the heat of battle, only individual achievement, initiative, and decision. And then there were four.

Naz was getting impatient. He felt like the Chess Master wasn’t taking him seriously.
He hasn’t taken or given anything,
Naz thought
, but neither have I. I’m playing too conservatively. I need to be more aggressive.

Then it was Mr. Ledbetter, who had put up a valiant fight, but ultimately went down in flames. There was moderate applause. He stood up, shook the Chess Master’s hand, put his little white flag up, and then walked over and stood behind Naz. And then there were three.

A small crowd began to gather at the tables. As predicted, the Nerdsman was giving a good account of himself, and Naz saw this as an opportunity to strike at the fully-engaged Chess Master. Naz made an aggressive move, capturing one of the Chess Master’s knights. Unalarmed, the Chess Master continued his passive play with Naz, ignoring the capture with a nonchalant move of his own.
Is he still not taking me seriously?
Naz asked himself. The older lady next to Naz was decent enough, but clearly no match for the Chess Master, Naz, or the Nerdsman, yet she was allowed to linger there with false hope.

In the next two rounds the Nerdsman would fall, and his little white flag would rise. But he had put up a good fight. And then there were two.

And there it was again, faint but unmistakable.
“Checkmate,”
the voice said.

Naz shook his head again.
Not now
, he thought. His phone buzzed in his pocket and startled him.
Who would be sending me a text now?
he wondered.
I told Mr. Tesla and the other merchants
I wasn’t working today.
It could only be … Meri.
He looked at his phone to read:

Impressive

He turned around and winked at Meri confidently. She tried to wink back as best she could.
That was a good distraction
, he thought, and the voice was gone again.

If that last move didn’t get his attention, maybe this one will
, Naz thought. He made another aggressive move, putting the Chess Master’s king in check.

“Check,” Naz said matter-of-factly.

The growing crowd began to mutter in awe, as this was the first time that day the Chess Master’s king had been put in check. Seemingly unconcerned, the Chess Master quickly moved his king to safety and then moved to finally eliminate and dismiss the older lady. Dismantling the Nerdsman first, and then the older lady, the Chess Master was obviously employing the first rule of war again: eliminate the most serious threat, Naz thought. He had been courteous to the older lady throughout, letting her last almost to the very end. When he finally captured her king, he tipped his hat to her, grabbed her fingers ever so delicately as she stood, and kissed the back of her hand. The older lady blushed as the now sizable crowd erupted in applause. And then there was one.

At that point Naz knew it had all been a performance, orchestrated by the Chess Master himself. They had all been pawns put in play to carry out his sadistic show.
Well, not all of us,
Naz thought. Naz knew that there were only eight pawns on each side in a game of chess, and
all of those are gone
, thought Naz, counting the eight now vacant tables.
So be it
, Naz thought.
Showtime it is.

It had been well over an hour since the games began. One spectator handed the Chess Master a bottle of water. He opened the bottle and turned away from Naz to drink. At that moment Naz’s phone buzzed again with another text. He looked at it again and read:

Most Impressive

He turned and looked at Meri again, this time with an agitated expression.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You’re distracting me,” he responded wryly.

Someone next to Meri reached out to hand Naz a bottle of water. He declined. When he turned back around, the Chess Master was facing him, obviously staring at him through those dark glasses again. Then the Chess Master lowered his head slightly. He was looking at something else. Naz looked down.
Is it the scar on my neck?
Naz wondered. No, it was the key hanging around Naz’s neck that had caught the Chess Master’s attention.

“Get ’em, Naz,” said Meri.

“Yeah, get ’em, Naz,” echoed a now convinced Artie.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

THE MAN IN BLACK

Naz
made a defensive move, trying to bait the Chess Master into a confrontation. The bell sounded, and the Chess Master stepped back from the table. A puzzled Naz looked on. Moments later a clean-cut young man dressed in a black suit appeared from the crowd of spectators and stood next to the Chess Master.
Is this fair?
Naz thought.
Is he getting help?
The Chess Master began taking off his scarf while studying the board intently. After about two minutes, with the help of the man in black, the Chess Master used the thick wool scarf as a blindfold to cover his eyes. He intended to play the rest of the game blindfolded. Naz’s eyes panned the crowd as they murmured in awe and amazement again.
Did this impress them?
Naz wondered,
this trick?
It didn’t mean he was good at chess.
The Chess Master memorized where the pieces were on the board, and then the man in black would convey Naz’s moves to the Chess Master, and then move the Chess Master’s pieces for him.
It’s a cheap parlor trick, nothing more. He’s no chess master; he’s a charlatan,
thought Naz.

Continuing to pan the crowd, Naz caught a glimpse of a familiar face. It was a face he had seen only twice before, but it was burned into his memory that first day of school. It was the face of the man who had driven by as Ham almost bled to death that morning. And earlier that same morning he was parked in front of Miss Tracey’s house.
Has he been following me … watching me?
Naz thought.
Nah … it’s just another coincidence, only … I don’t believe in coincidences. There’s too much going on. I have to focus
.

Blindfolded,
Naz laughed.
What a joke.
I should return the favor and play standing on my hands right on this table … and the crowd would go wild
, he laughed again.
Nope, I’m just gonna beat him fair and square, no tricks.

The Chess Master didn’t take the bait on Naz’s move. It was as if he were oblivious to it. He directed the man in black to carry out his next move, a basic move,
nothing special
, Naz thought.

Naz was insulted by the Chess Master’s arrogance and passive play, so he went after him with both guns blazing.
He tried to embarrass me with his little blindfold stunt. Now I’m gonna embarrass him,
Naz thought. Two moves later Naz cornered the Chess Master’s king again, stunning the crowd of onlookers.

“Check,” Naz said arrogantly, looking at the Chess Master.

The Chess Master smiled calmly as he directed the man in black to effect his narrow escape. This infuriated Naz. He studied the board then picked up his queen and took aim—his target—the Chess Master’s king—for the final blow. He would finally put this sham to shame and out of his misery for good.

“Check,” Naz said triumphantly for the third and final time.

Then without warning, it happened. The man in black took Naz’s queen with the Chess Master’s queen and in the process trapped Naz’s king on every side. Everything fell silent. Naz looked at the Chess Master and saw his lips barely move to say along with the voice, “
Checkmate
,” and it was all over.

Suddenly the silence was engulfed with the noise of clapping and voices, and Naz was up, shaking everyone’s hand.
But I lost
, he thought. He turned back around, and the Chess Master was gone. Through all of the handshaking and accolades, Artie was saying something unintelligible, while patting him on the back, Mr. Ledbetter was letting Naz know he would see him Monday after school for chess club, and Meri just wanted to know what happened. Through all the commotion he noticed his phone buzzing again. He looked at it the third time to read:

But you are not a Jedi yet.

He looked at Meri and thought she was rubbing it in, but she hadn’t sent him a text. When he looked back at his phone again, he noticed it wasn’t Meri who had sent it. She hadn’t sent the previous two texts either. The sender had blocked the number, if that was even possible, Naz thought. He looked around for the mysterious man with the hat from the first day of school. He was nowhere to be found. He looked around again for the Chess Master. He too was gone. If he were looking for some excitement in his life, this day he had surely found it.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

THE DARKNESS

Naz
Meri, and Artie spent the next hour celebrating Naz’s success at the chess tables, even though Meri didn’t quite see it that way—as a success. They continued playing games, going on the rides, and eating as much junk food as they could, just before the point of sick stomachs, which was a lot of food in Artie’s case. On the way home from the festival Naz and Meri’s number increased by one. Artie was so enamored with Naz and his performance against the Chess Master that he fabricated an excuse to his parents to allow him to ride the Helix back to the Exclave with Meri and Naz. The excuse was something about Mr. Ledbetter requiring it for extra credit in math class and being part of the chess team.

Naz stared out of the window slightly concerned.
I hope we make it home before dark,
he thought. He had played it close, maybe too close, he worried. He wasn’t exactly sure where Artie lived except that it was in Marshal Park. His biggest concern was Meri. During the twenty-five-minute ride home, Artie and Meri continued to blather on, Artie about how Naz almost beat the best chess player in the world and Meri wondering how Naz could have lost to a homeless man in the first place.

Come on … come on,
Naz thought as he watched the sun quickly begin to duck behind the horizon in the west. The long day of discovery and events, coupled with the drone of Meri, Artie, and other passengers, along with the hum of the Helix lulled Naz to sleep. Artie and Meri soon followed suit.

Naz awoke with a start as the Helix jerked and began to slow. He wiped his eyes, looked out the window, and gasped. The sun had set, and Naz realized they had gone several miles past their stop.

“Wake up!” said Naz, nudging Artie and Meri.

They both awoke reluctantly, stretching casually and unaware of their predicament.

“We missed our stop,” panicked Naz.

“Me, too,” said Artie less concerned.

“What do we do now?” asked Meri.

“We have to get off … now … at the next stop,” said Naz.

There was something else in the car ahead that Naz could plainly see in the now well-lit train.
They must’ve gotten on while we were asleep
, Naz thought.
First the festival, and now here, they’re following me.
He cursed himself for being so careless. He had told Meri weeks before that there were no such thing as coincidences, so he wasn’t buying this as one either. Both Artie and Meri read the distress in Naz’s expression and turned to see what concerned him so. It was the gang that had confronted him earlier at the festival. Naz flashed back weeks before to the sight of Red poking his finger at Tone’s beak. Naz then reached up to feel the scar on his neck that Gruff had given him in the knife fight.