Johnny Graphic and the Etheric Bomb (32 page)

Clegg pummeled Burigli about the head and shoulders, and buried a nasty left hook into the Steppe Warrior’s mid-section again and again. The colonel attacked his kidneys from the back.

Johnny had seen boxing matches and fights at school, but nothing nearly this brutal. The two dead cavalrymen were burning with rage.

All that the eyeless assassin could do was to fend off the blows and, finally, try to plunge through the ballroom floor. He nearly made his escape.

But the colonel—whose lightning quick reflexes hadn’t been dulled by all those decades in the ether—managed to grab a fistful of Burilgi’s pigtail. He held on with fierce tenacity, preventing the Steppe Warrior from slipping deeper into the floorboards. Then he yanked powerfully on the pigtail, ripping it and a piece of the ghost’s scalp entirely from his skull.

Burilgi vanished.

“Clegg, after him!” bellowed the colonel.

Clegg dived down through the oak, as the colonel rushed to Mel’s side, still gripping his grisly trophy.

Though his chest hurt like heckfire, Johnny wanted to jump up in the air, hug the colonel, and shout
hurray
. For the moment they had defeated Percy’s minions.

Chapter 64

“But where’s the diamond?” cried Mel, after receiving hugs from Dame Honoria and Uncle Louie. “This is all pointless if we don’t find the Star of Gilbeyshire! Zenith could still get blown up!”

Johnny was thinking the exact same thing. He looked anxiously from Mel to Dame Honoria to Nina. Where was the gem?

Dame Honoria turned to Nina, a look of profound worry on her face. “My dear,” she asked breathlessly, “what did you do with it?”

Nina looked around warily. “Are the Steppe Warriors gone?”

“For the time being, I should think so,” Dame Honoria answered. “Now Nina, where did you put the diamond?”

“It’s in here,” said Nina, holding up her purse and snapping it open for Dame Honoria to examine.

The old lady shook her head. “But there’s nothing there. Nothing at all, except—”

“Except a zipper,” said Nina with a self-satisfied smile. “I showed him the inside of my purse, but I was guessing that the Steppe Warrior had never seen a zipper before.”

With that, she unzipped the small side pocket inside the purse. She withdrew the Star of Gilbeyshire, resplendent and glittering in its titanium setting.

“Oh, Nina!” exclaimed Dame Honoria, picking the girl up in a tremendous hug and twirling her around in a complete circle. “
You are a genius!”
Then her face went somber. “But…”

Johnny’s smile faded out quickly at Dame Honoria’s use of that certain conjunction—usually signifying problems or objections. It was one of his least favorite words.

“Yes,” said Uncle Louie, “but
what?
”

“But we now have in our possession what is surely the deadliest weapon in existence,” Dame Honoria said. “And we have to decide what to do with it.”

“Even though the new government is a big improvement over the old, I’m not sure I’d trust them with an etheric bomb,” said Mel, dabbing at the cut on her throat with a napkin.

“Precisely,” Dame Honoria agreed. “That’s why we have to destroy it. Immediately. Irrevocably.”

“But how?” Johnny asked. “It’s a diamond. Hardest substance on earth.”

“Hard but brittle, John,” observed Uncle Louie. “Not indestructible.”

“But what happens to all the ghosts inside it?” asked Nina. She held up the necklace and tried to see inside the big black stone. “Can we free them?”

“I think I have an answer to all that,” said Mel, “now that we know the dimensions, the approximate weight, and the atomic structure of the bomb. Dame Honoria, what I’m thinking is—”

Mel huddled with the old lady. They started talking in terms so technical and abstruse that Johnny had no idea what they were saying. There were various noddings and shakings of heads. Several equations and formulae were scrawled on paper napkins picked up off the floor.

In the middle of all that technical chitchat, Johnny grabbed a couple of quick shots of the devastated ballroom. Injuries or not, he still had a job to do. Mr. Cargill would expect some pictures.

Mel and Dame Honoria soon reached a consensus. And they would have to move quickly. They’d need to rely on Mr. Cargill and Mrs. Throckmorton to spring them from the anticipated attentions of the police. They’d require a quick visit to the hospital, to take care of Johnny’s new wound and check out Mel’s neck.

Then a thought popped into Johnny’s head: where had Bao gotten to?

After she snatched the dagger out of the Steppe Warrior’s hand, she had flown up through the ceiling. Ghosts always seemed to be flying up through ceilings. Johnny looked around the disordered ballroom and there she stood, up on the bandstand, peering pensively from behind the overturned bass fiddle.

Johnny shuffled over through the balloons, right up to the edge of the bandstand platform. “Bao, what’s the matter?”

The little girl ghost frowned and tiptoed slowly over to Johnny, for the moment substantially taller than him. Her chin trembled and she had that girl-about-to-cry look—never mind that she couldn’t. She held up her right palm and whimpered, “I cut my hand.”

There was a nasty gash at the base of her index and middle fingers—showing muscle and bone and tendon underneath. Even though the wound didn’t bleed—a ghost being a ghost—it had to hurt Bao something awful. Johnny wondered if there was any way to give her stitches. Mel or Dame Honoria might know.

Johnny surprised Bao and himself by reaching up, grabbing her by her tiny waist, and lifting her down. He’d never tried to hold up a ghost before and she was surprisingly light—though solid enough to feel real. He set her down on the dance floor and gave her a quick embrace. So what if she had a crush on him.

“You were fantastic, you know,” he said. “Amazing. How did you think up that move?”

Now she was smiling again, beaming, staring intently up at him. “I couldn’t let him hurt Sister. I was the only one small enough to go up through her body without being seen. Except for cutting my hand, it was easy.”

Johnny beamed back. “Bao, you’re the bravest little girl I’ve ever met. Now I think there are some folks over there who’d like to thank you.”

Chapter 65

The long, black Kaiser Coronation limousine sat for several minutes just inside the entrance to the vast Acme Iron Works in West Zenith. It was the middle of the night, but angry red light erupted occasionally from the black, hulking structures spread across the landscape. The sounds of mechanical rumblings and metallic percussions were all around. Johnny could almost feel the vibrations in his bones.

Everyone had jammed into the cramped passenger compartment. Johnny was squeezed in with Mel, Nina, and Flo in the backward-facing seat. Dame Honoria sat with Mr. Cargill, Uncle Louie, and Mrs. Throckmorton in the forward-facing seat, also mashed tightly together. Danny sat up front with the chauffeur.

Johnny could see Colonel MacFarlane up on Buck, just between the limousine and the steel mill’s guard shack—with Bao in the saddle in front of him. She was jabbering away, just as any kid might have done after such an exciting evening.

There came a rap of knuckles on glass and everyone turned to see a young, stoutly built man, clad in a red-and-black wool jacket over denim work overalls. A hard tin hat rested atop his head.

Uncle Louie rolled down the window.

“We have an okay from the president of the company,” announced the young man, still looking baffled by his late-night encounter with a limousine full of bedraggled New Year’s Eve revelers. “He said anything Mrs. Throckmorton should need, we ought to help with.”

It didn’t surprise Johnny that Mrs. Throckmorton was on Acme’s board of directors. As the owner of the
Clarion
newspaper, she had to know all the big wheels in Zenith’s business circles. And it sure came in handy tonight. No other factory in town had a super industrial steel press. It helped, too, that it only took a call from Mrs. Throckmorton to the mayor to get them out of the police station.

“Our night superintendent’ll be joining us at Shed Number 3,” the young man said. “Now if you’ll just have your driver follow my truck.”

* * *

Shed Number 3 was as big as two football fields and lay dormant during the night shift. Circles of light came down from fixtures far above. The massive pieces of machinery looked like slumbering iron giants. Being here gave Johnny the idea of suggesting a photographic essay on these magnificent machines, for the
Clarion
’s Sunday picture magazine. He could have a lot of fun in here.

The stout young worker introduced himself as Gus Gunderson, but said everyone called him Gizmo. He explained what some of the machinery did. Johnny had never seen anyone with so many tools hanging from his tool belt.

After a few minutes, the night superintendent arrived. He was a trim, middle-aged man with a pencil mustache and
pince-nez
spectacles. He had on a heavy brown trench coat and a silver-colored hard hat. He told Mrs. Throckmorton that he was always glad to help a member of Acme’s board of directors.

“It’s my understanding,” said Mrs. Throckmorton, “that you have a large mechanical press in here that can squash iron flat.”

“We do,” he said. “We call it the Super Stamper. But first, would you folks mind putting on these tin caps? Safety first, you know.” The superintendent pointed to a rack of hard hats just inside the door.

Johnny almost laughed. If the superintendent knew how spectacularly dangerous his late-night visitors’ cargo was—and how trifling the notion of a tin hat was in the face of the etheric bomb—he’d probably have a stroke.

“Now if you would tell me what you need, Mrs. Throckmorton,” said the superintendent, after everybody donned their metal hats.

The white-haired millionaire didn’t answer, but Dame Honoria did. “We need to demolish a certain small object beyond any hope of repair,” said Dame Honoria. “To dust, if possible. Nina, show the gentleman our problem.”

Nina snapped open her purse and withdrew the Star of Gilbeyshire, holding it up at arm’s length for the superintendent to see.

He stared at the big black stone, dazzled
and
flummoxed. “Ma’am,” he said slowly, “my Super Stamper’ll certainly pulverize even a diamond. But why would you want to? That gem has gotta be worth tens of thousands of dollars.”

“Half a million pounds, actually,” sighed Dame Honoria.

The superintendent, quite mystified, whistled. “But why destroy it?”

“We can’t tell you that,” said Mel.

“In fact,” said Mrs. Throckmorton in the iciest tone possible, “
we were never here
. If you or Mr. Gunderson or your security guard at the front gate should speak so much as one word about our visit, you will all be out of a job. Do you understand?”

The superintendent did indeed seem to understand and nodded vigorously, as did Gizmo Gunderson.

That was the moment when Johnny saw something tiny and fluttery and semi-transparent fly out of the left pocket of Uncle Louie’s overcoat.

Before anyone could react, the diminutive specter darted toward the black diamond in Nina’s hand, shrinking as it went.

Johnny screamed, “Nina, hold it tight!”

He closed the space between himself and his friend in two leaping strides, just as the little ghost’s single arm began to merge into the black diamond.

It was Checheg! Again!

Nina did just what Johnny told her to, grasping the titanium chain forcefully with both hands.

Johnny caught the little wraith by the legs, with his right thumb and forefinger, and pulled backward with both hands, with all his might, beginning a terrible tug of war with Nina.

The power that was sucking the ghost into the diamond shocked Johnny. The diamond was starting to glow and turn a livid shade of green.

He didn’t know if he could stop it from exploding!

Chapter 66

The tiny ghost’s head and shoulders had disappeared almost entirely into the green-tinged black diamond, when Dame Honoria rushed up behind Johnny. She took him in a bear hug, tugging him backward. A random thought flew through Johnny’s head: she’s surprisingly strong for an old lady.

For her part, Mel grabbed Nina by the waist to help her pull against Johnny and Dame Honoria.

Among all the dreadful things that had happened in the last few months, nothing came close to frightening Johnny more than this.

If Nina or he were to collapse or lose their grips, the tiny wraith would be sucked right into the etheric bomb.

And would somehow trigger it.

And then everything would be finished.

Nina and Johnny, Mel and Dame Honoria, everyone here and the whole city.

Gone in a flash of hellish green fire.

Realizing what was probably happening, Mr. Cargill suddenly barked out that more help was needed. He ordered Uncle Louie and Flo to pull behind Nina and Mel. He directed Danny to pull behind Johnny and Dame Honoria, then joined in himself. It had become a struggle with a whole city and a million lives at stake.

“
Got to rip her outta there
,” grunted Johnny through gritted teeth. “
Gotta! Just GOTTA!”

“
It’s like,
” Mel gasped from behind Nina’s left shoulder, “
the bomb…is giving…the ghost…super…strength.
”

Johnny caught a brief glimpse of the colonel and Bao off to the right, both glowing green—more brightly than he’d ever seen ghosts glow—trying to stagger away from the diamond. It almost seemed as if some super-powerful force of gravity was grabbing at them. The bomb wanted to consume them, as well!

“Don’t know how much longer I can hold on,” Johnny cried. “My hands are burning!”

“Mine too!” screamed Nina. “Thank goodness…for…titanium chain!”

“We have to keep trying!” bellowed Dame Honoria.

Now the Steppe Warrior’s chest was almost entirely inside the black diamond. It seemed that nothing could stop the inevitable from happening.