Michael Vey 3 ~ Battle of the Ampere (21 page)

One of the three quickly replied, “You did what you had to do. It just means more for the rest of us.”

“It means more for me,” the Australian said. “I did the dirty work, you get what we agreed on.” He brandished his pistol. “Or don’t you agree?”

“No worries,” the man said.

The Australian laughed as he returned his pistol to its holster. “No worries, mate.”

I counted the guards. Two down, four left. “I thought you saw seven,” I said to Ian.

“I must have counted wrong,” he said.

“Let’s move,” I said.

Ostin grabbed McKenna’s hand and we moved to the left while everyone else moved right. I stopped at the designated place while Ostin and McKenna moved past me to the truck Taylor was in. Ostin whistled. The men all looked back.

“What was that?” the Australian asked.

One of them shouted, “Over there by the—”

A lightning bolt stopped him. Then a second flash knocked over the tall guard. Two guards ran toward our position. I reached out and pulsed, knocking them both backward and unconscious. Zeus and Tessa emerged from the trees.

“They’re out,” Zeus said. “I’m surprised they’re still alive. With Tessa around I don’t know my own strength.”

“Let’s handcuff them,” I said.

“Why don’t we just electrocute them and be done with them?” Tessa said.

I looked at her. “We don’t do it that way,” I said. “Unless we have to.”

“They do,” she said.

“We’re not them,” I said. I knelt over the men I’d shocked. One was on his back, and I rolled him over onto his stomach and handcuffed him, then I did the same to the other, while Zeus and Tessa handcuffed the other two. As I was undoing their utility belts I heard someone say, “What does a girl need to do around here to get some attention?”

I looked up. Taylor was walking toward me.

“Taylor!” I ran to her. We hugged, then she pressed her lips against mine. When we parted, her eyes were locked on mine. “You have no idea how good it is to see you,” she said. “I wondered if I would ever see you again.”

“You didn’t think I would come for you?”

“I knew you’d try,” she said. “But there’re five thousand of them and only one of you.”

“Yeah, the odds were a little off,” I said.

“For them,” she said. Then she laughed, which was beautiful to hear.

“What happened here?” I asked, touching the cut on her forehead.

She shrugged. “Car accident,” she said. We kissed again.

“Hey,” Zeus said. “Get a room.”

Taylor looked over at him and smiled. “I’m glad to see you in one piece.”

Zeus grinned. “That makes two of us.”

Tessa just stared at Taylor with a confused expression. “What is Tara doing here?”

“She’s not Tara,” Zeus said.

“This is Taylor,” I said. “Number seventeen.”

Tessa still looked confused. “But you look just like Tara.”

“They’re twins, bagel head,” Zeus said.

“Twins? You must be identical,” Tessa said.

“Only on the outside,” Ian said, walking up to us.

Taylor looked at Ian and hugged him. “Thank you for coming after us.”

“No woman left behind,” he said.

“Where’s Jack?” I asked.

“Still in the truck,” Ian said. “Wade’s untying him.”

“He probably needs some help,” McKenna said. She began walking back toward the truck. Suddenly we heard Jack shout, followed by a gunshot.

“What was that?” I said.

“Look out!” Tessa shouted. An Elgen guard came around the side of the truck pointing his gun at us. Zeus fired full force, blowing the gun out of his hands and knocking him back nearly twenty feet.

“Where’d he come from?” I shouted. We all ran toward the truck.

“I didn’t see him,” Ian said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see him.”

As I came around the truck my heart stopped.

“Oh no,” Abigail said.

Jack was kneeling on the ground holding Wade in his arms. There was blood everywhere.

A
s we got to Jack’s side, he was pressing down on Wade’s abdomen. Blood was rising up between his fingers. Wade was shaking and his skin was pale and waxlike.

“You’re going to be okay, buddy,” Jack said, his voice trembling. He looked up at us. “Someone help me stop the bleeding.”

“It hurts . . . ,” Wade said. His voice was slurred.

“You’re a warrior,” Jack said. “Remember you’re a warrior.”

“It hurts. . . .”

Abigail fell to her knees next to Wade and touched his leg. Even though he was still shaking, his face relaxed. “Thank you,” he said softly.

“I can cauterize it,” McKenna said. “Ian, tell me where the injury is.”

Ian didn’t answer.

Pulling Ian back, I whispered, “How bad is it?”

Ian shook his head, then said just loud enough for me to hear, “His body is filling with blood.”

Wade’s entire body shook. “I don’t think . . .”

“Stay with me, buddy,” Jack said frantically. “You’re a warrior.”

“I don’t think . . .” His chin quivered.

“Are you a warrior or wimp?!” Jack said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Warrior or wimp?!”

Wade looked up at him. “You’re . . . the only friend I’ve ever had. Thank you for being . . .”

Jack’s eyes filled with new tears. “Don’t leave me, buddy. Please. Wade . . .”

Wade trembled. “I . . .” He swallowed, then mumbled, “I . . . I’m . . . sorry.” Then he went silent. His head fell back.

“No!” Jack shouted. He began pressing on Wade’s chest, but it did nothing but force more blood out of his wound.

“Start his heart!” Jack said to me. “Michael, shock him. Please.”

I didn’t move. I knew it wouldn’t help.

“Please.”

“All right,” I said. I knelt down. “You need to let go of him.”

“No,” he said.

I shocked him. Jack shouted out with pain, and Wade’s whole body jerked but nothing happened.

“Nothing,” Ian said.

“Again, Michael!” Jack said.

I looked at him. “Jack . . .”

“Please.”

“All right.” I jolted him again.

Again Jack shouted.

I looked at Ian and he shook his head.

“Again!” Jack pled. “Please, try again.”

“Jack,” I said. “He’s gone.”

“No. He can’t be.”

I put my hand on Jack’s back. “I’m sorry. But he’s gone.”

Jack wrapped his arms around Wade’s head. “No,” he sobbed. “No, no, no.”

We all looked at him, fighting our own emotions.

“It’s my fault,” Jack said.

“No, it’s not,” I said. “It’s not your fault.”

“I made him come here,” Jack said. “I made him. I’ve killed my best friend.”

T
ime seemed frozen, disjointed like broken sequences cut out of a horror movie. Jack’s hands and torso were drenched in blood and he was screaming in anguish. All of us were crying, even Tessa, who didn’t know either of them. During it all one of the guards woke and began shouting at us to let him go. The emotion of the moment piqued my anger. “Shut up!” I shouted.

“Let me out of this!” he shouted back.

I stood and walked to him. When he saw the fierce anger on my face his own expression turned from anger to fear. I had to control myself so that I only shocked him unconscious. Then Zeus and I dragged him out of the clearing into the jungle, crammed leaves into his mouth, and tied his shirt around his face to keep him from making any more noise. We were doing it for his benefit. In Jack’s current state he would gladly silence him permanently. Then Zeus, Ian, and
I dragged the other guards into the jungle, including the two who had been shot. There was no need to tie up the guard who had shot Wade. He hadn’t survived Zeus’s blast.

Abigail found a wool blanket in one of the trucks, and she and McKenna draped it over Wade’s body. It was nearly an hour before Jack finally left Wade’s side. He sat alone at the edge of the clearing, softly crying.

Grief is a powerful force that settles in the heart like a dark, heavy fog. It was familiar territory to me. I was eight years old when I lost my father.

Everyone wandered off to their own place. Ian was in a daze, muttering that he should have seen the guard, and he walked off alone. Abigail, Tessa, and Zeus sat together outside the clearing, near the spot we had first entered. McKenna and Ostin went for a walk while Taylor and I sought refuge in the front seat of the red truck. I just held her in silence. So much had happened since we’d separated, but neither of us felt like talking about it. The gladness we felt at being together again was muted by shock and grief.

An hour or so later Ostin walked up to us alone. He opened the back door of the cab and climbed in. His eyes were as swollen as ours. “I can’t believe this,” he said. “I can’t believe Wade’s gone.” He looked at me anxiously. “Is your mom safe?”

“She got out,” I said. “She’s with the voice.”

“I wish we were,” Taylor said softly. “What are we going to do now?”

I looked through the windshield at Jack, then back at Taylor. “We’ve got to get out of here before someone finds us.”

“And go where?” Ostin asked.

“Jaime gave me the name of a hostel in Cuzco. We’ll drive there.”

“Jaime?” Taylor said. “You mean the guy who took us up the river?”

I nodded.

“How did you find him?” Ostin asked.

“He found me,” I said. “Do you remember that tribesman we saw on the way in?”

Ostin nodded. “The Amacarra.”

“They saved me from the Elgen. Then they brought Tessa and me to Jaime.”

Taylor said, “Who is Tessa?”

“Tessa was one of Hatch’s kids until she escaped from the Starxource plant six months ago. The Amacarra were hiding her. When the Peruvian army started moving in, the tribe took us up the river to Jaime. We hiked through the jungle until we found a place to stop the convoy.”

“How did you know where we were?” Ostin asked.

“The voice,” I said.

“You talked to the voice?” he asked.

“Jaime had a radio.” I raked my hand back through my hair. “Things aren’t going well. Hatch has taken control of the Elgen. The voice wanted me to rescue you, then go to Lima and sink the Elgen boats.”

“What boats?” Taylor asked.

“The Elgen run their empire from a fleet of boats. Hatch has gathered the fleet and is taking them to an island where he plans to build a base where they can create weapons of mass destruction.”

“This just keeps getting better,” Taylor said.

“At least we’re still alive,” Ostin said.

Taylor looked at him as the pain of his words surfaced. “Not all of us.”

Ostin winced.

“I just want to get out of this stupid place,” Taylor said. “The Peruvians think we’re terrorists and want to publicly hang us.” She breathed out slowly. “I just want to go back to my old life. But it doesn’t exist anymore, does it?”

I shook my head. “Not the way it was. Until we stop Hatch, he’ll just keep coming.”

“Ignorance was bliss,” she said.

Just then McKenna walked up to us. Ostin opened his door, then slid over so McKenna could sit next to him. He took her hand, which surprised me. Outside of his mother, I had never seen Ostin even
touch a girl. Clearly a lot had happened since we’d been separated at the Starxource plant.

Taylor said, “So if we sink this boat, then what?”

“We’ll go back to America,” I said.

“What boat are you talking about?” McKenna asked.

“The Elgen boat,” Ostin said.

“The
Ampere
?” she said.

I looked at her. “You know about the
Ampere
?”

“I’ve been on it. It was a long time ago. Before Hatch locked us up.”

“Hatch is bringing the entire Elgen fleet to Peru. The voice wants us to sink the
Ampere
.”

“How do you sink a huge boat?” McKenna asked. “The
Ampere
is . . . huge.”

“I could come up with a dozen ways,” Ostin said. “At least.”

“How would we even get there?” Taylor asked. “You know the army will be watching the roads out of here. They’ll probably have roadblocks.”

“Maybe not this one,” I said, looking at the dirt road. “It wasn’t on the map.”

“It’s probably just an old logging road,” Ostin said. “They might not even know about it.”

“Those Elgen guards felt safe enough on it to use it,” Taylor said. “Do you think it goes all the way to Cuzco?”