Power Revealed (The Elementers) (20 page)

She placed the papers back in the bag and pulled out a blue folder from one of the other sections. Raven opened up the folder and noticed it contained various business documents. She laid the papers out on the bed in the same order as they existed in the folder so she could be sure to return things as she found them. After laying them out in two rows she began taking a closer look at them. They seemed to be a business analysis of some company named Lannix Chemical Company in Seattle. It was probably unimportant, but Raven figured she might as well take photos of the papers since she wasn’t really sure what she was looking for. After pulling out her phone, she began snapping pictures of the documents. She was nearly done when her phone vibrated. It scared her so much that she dropped the phone on the bed. She quickly picked it up and looked at the text message:
Alexei may be coming back to room. Get out now.

Raven’s stomach felt like it suddenly changed places with her throat. She shoved the phone in her pocket and quickly began picking up the papers. But she realized she had placed them in reverse order. She rearranged the first few, picked up the rest of them, placed them in the folder, shoved them back in the computer bag, and hung the bag on the back of the chair. She almost darted out of the room, when she realized the computer was still on. She touched the mouse pad and began moving the cursor to make the laptop shut down, but the mouse pad was over sensitive and in her haste she moved it too quickly. She started whispering insults at the computer but then she realized she could just manually turn it off. She pressed down on the power button until she could hear the laptop shut down.

Running to the door, Raven grabbed hold of the handle and began to turn it when she heard through the door a Russian accent floating down the hallway. Alexei was already here. She couldn’t get out without being seen. Raven spun around and scanned the room desperately for a place to hide. She considered the bathroom, but he might use it. She noticed the closet. Sliding open the door, she stepped into the closet and bumped the hangers. They clanged so loudly she suspected everyone in the entire hotel heard them. She grabbed hold of them to stop the noise and pushed them to the side against the wall to avoid bumping them again. She crouched down and pulled the closet door shut just moments before she heard Alexei stop in front of the door.

Raven wondered how many teenagers suffer heart attacks simply as a result of being suckered into doing stupid things for their friends. If she got out of this safely, Justin would owe her big time. She focused on bringing her breathing under control so Alexei wouldn’t hear her.

“Dryden? Already?” Alexei said after entering the room. Raven realized he must still be talking on the phone. “No, I look forward to getting rid of him. I just planned on spending a few days skiing up in Whistler. But ridding the world of Dryden will be almost as much fun. After I’m done with the logistics for Lannix, I’ll head to Texas to take care of Dryden. That will leave me plenty of time to finish preparations for the big bang. They’ll never know what hit them.”

While Alexei listened to the person on the other end of the line, Raven began worrying about Rex. She needed to warn him. She also wondered what Alexei meant by the big bang. The tone he used sounded ominous.

Alexei responded to the person on the phone. “Don’t worry. When I get rid of Dryden, it will be clean. Everyone will think it was an accident just like when I removed our precious Zephyr.  No one will suspect a thing.” Upon hearing about the Zephyr, Raven unconsciously gasped. She covered her mouth with her hand waiting to see if Alexei heard her, but he was too focused on his phone call to notice the sound. Raven continued listening but she could barely believe what she heard.

“Yes, the restaurant fire got a little out of hand, but at least we were able to see what Justin is capable of. He’ll be a great asset. I’ll make sure he’s on our side. Dryden and the Council are so controlling that it’ll be easy to turn Justin against them. Between our staged attacks at the school and restaurant and Jake tailing Justin at night, Justin’s a scared kid and wants my help. I’ve fed him plenty about Dryden so Justin is thoroughly convinced that Dryden is trying to kill him.”

Alexei listened to the person on the phone for a while. “Do you need anything else? I should return to dinner. Justin will be wondering what happened to me.” Alexei began walking for the door. “Okay. I’ll call you once I’ve taken care of Dryden. Au revoir, Madame.”

Raven waited at least a minute after Alexei left the room before she exited the closet. She desperately wanted to leave immediately, but after all she overheard, she decided it was important for her to search for any more possible clues about who Alexei was working with and what they are planning. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find anything else interesting in the computer bag and Alexei’s suitcase only contained clothes.

She took another look at the room to make sure it looked the same as she found it and remembered to move the closet hangars back to their original position. Not hearing anyone as she pressed her ear to the door, she slowly opened it, peeked into the hallway, and dashed down the hall to the stairs leading to the side exit. Once she sat safely in the fast food restaurant down the road, she sent Justin the text message,
I’m done
, so he knew he could finish with Alexei at any time.

Justin would probably want her to wait before she spoke to anyone, but considering the threat to Rex’s life and the other news she learned, she wanted Mr. Hamilton to be there when she spoke to Justin. She called her teacher and told him what she and Justin had done and what she overhead. After being chewed out by Mr. Hamilton for at least five minutes, he told Raven to stay put and he’d come pick up both her and Justin. He also said he’d call Rex and warn him.

***

Justin walked into the restaurant and froze when he saw Mr. Hamilton sitting next to Raven. “You told him?”

“Both of you, out to the jeep.” Mr. Hamilton marched toward the door.

Justin glared at Raven, but she walked toward him. “I’m sorry, but I had to call him. We need to talk. Please.”

He wanted to refuse Mr. Hamilton’s demands, but Justin needed to know what Raven found in Alexei’s room, so he finally spun on his heels and followed Raven out to the jeep. Justin waited for Mr. Hamilton to chew them out for breaking into Alexei’s room, but instead his teacher drove in silence. Justin began to ask Raven what she found, but Mr. Hamilton tersely told them to wait and something about his tone held Justin back. They finally pulled into a park with a covered shelter. It protected them from the rain and the weather deterred others from the outdoors providing them with sufficient privacy. Raven sat on the same side of the picnic table as Mr. Hamilton, so Justin sat down facing them impatient to hear answers.

“So what did you find in his room?” Justin asked.

“It wasn’t so much what I found, but what I heard.” Raven proceeded to give him a play-by-play on the events, describing everything she heard Alexei say, except for one thing.

“He said he’d get rid of Rex for us?” Justin smirked.

“Justin!”

“I’m kidding. It was a joke. Are you sure Alexei said he planned to kill Rex?”

“Definitely. I know you thought Rex was the attacker, but that’s what Alexei wanted you to believe. He said you’d be a great asset and they want you on their side. But I don’t know whose side that is. The attacks were all about turning you against Rex and the Council so you’d join some club Alexei belongs to.”

“It’s a shame,” Justin said.

“What is?”

“That Rex isn’t the bad guy.”

“Justin.” Raven frowned at him.

“I’m just saying that I’d prefer Alexei to be the good guy. He’s way more fun than Rex and he has a fabulous car.” Raven shook her head at him. “Okay. Okay. I’m kidding,” Justin said. “It’s just going to take a moment to change gears. I suspected there was something wrong with Alexei after talking to Anya. I just didn’t want it to be true. But we need to stop him from killing anyone— even if it is Rex.”

Raven turned to Mr. Hamilton and began chewing on her lip.

“What’s wrong?” Justin said, but Raven’s forehead furrowed. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

Mr. Hamilton spoke up. “Justin, Alexei said something else that Raven hasn’t told you.”

“What?”

“When he told the person on the phone he’d kill Rex, he said he’d do it as cleanly as he killed the Zephyr.”

“Alexei has killed others? Who’s this Zephyr?” Justin asked.

Now Mr. Hamilton became mute for a moment, but he took a deep breath in and continued. “There’s a Head Elementer for each of the four elements on the Council. Each element has a different name for that position. The Head Wind Elementer is called the Zephyr after the Greek god of the west wind.”

Justin’s looked away shaking his head side to side, but Mr. Hamilton continued. “Your grandpa was the Head Wind Elementer. He was the Zephyr. Alexei killed him. I’m sorry Justin.”

Raven reached out to comfort Justin, but he pulled away. “No. He died in a car accident,” Justin said.

“On the phone, Alexei said that he’d make Rex’s death look like an accident just as he had for your grandpa,” Raven said.

Justin’s emotions spun wildly inside of him mixing with the energy that the news had unleashed. He couldn’t sit. Stumbling up from the picnic table, he backed away. He already suspected his grandpa had been murdered, so why was this news making his world spin? It wasn’t because he found out Alexei was the killer. It must have been because it was real now. Henry really had been murdered and someone was to blame.

“He’s gonna pay.” Justin glared into the night.

Chapter 30

Justin almost didn’t come to school after learning last night that Alexei murdered Henry. But if he faked being sick, he would have gone crazy cooped up in his room all day. He wound his way down the hall through the press of bodies on his way to the cafeteria. Suddenly, a buzz of energy ran up Justin’s arms giving him goose bumps. He stopped in his tracks and looked to find the source of energy. But halting in the middle of a packed hallway at lunch time is never a good idea. A mass of people ran into him causing him to ricochet between them like a ball inside a pinball machine. Pushing his way to the wall, he freed himself from the onslaught of bodies and looked around.

Behind him he saw Raven waving for him to come over to her. He wished it had been Alexei so Justin could catch the creep. Mr. Hamilton had called Rex, Anya, and a few other Elementers. They were all meeting here in Bellingham tonight to discuss what to do about Alexei and how to keep Rex safe. Justin wanted to act as soon as he heard the news from Raven, but Mr. Hamilton convinced Justin to wait and first talk to the others. He only agreed because he figured the others would increase his chances of catching Alexei. But waiting to act was killing him. The anger inside of him continued to grow like a cancer with each passing hour.

Raven pushed through the crowd in the hallway making her way toward him. “We need to talk,” Raven said, “in private.” She motioned to the left with her head and Justin followed her in that direction. Making their way down a few halls, they finally found an empty, small side hallway near the main gym. Raven turned to Justin. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I’m fine, really. I just want to catch him as soon as possible,” Justin said clenching his fists at his sides.

“Raven,” a voice called out. Raven jumped in surprise, but Justin simply looked up in irritation. Eric walked up and put an arm around Raven’s shoulders. “What are you doing here? I was on my way to meet you at lunch.”

“I was just talking with Justin about our science project,” Raven said.

“Justin?” Eric looked over at Justin with an air of superiority. “Oh, yeah. You’re the guy from the restaurant fire and you were sitting beside Raven at the basketball game.” His face hardened and added, “You seem to be spending a lot of time with Raven.”

Justin was in no mood to be civil with this guy. Justin opened his mouth to make a rude remark, but Raven spoke up first. “Eric, I need to ace this project to get an A in Mr. Hamilton’s class. Come on. Let’s head to lunch. Justin, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Justin nodded and watched with resentment as Raven placed her hand in Eric’s grip and begin leading him away, something Justin couldn’t do with her without risking her life. Before turning the corner, Eric looked in Justin’s direction and nodded to someone behind Justin. Eric’s eyes then fell on Justin with a smug look. Justin knew that look. He’d seen it many times just before some brainless jerk decided to pick on him. He’d learned long ago to be aware of what went on around him as a matter of survival. Justin knew what must be waiting behind him without even turning around.

Any other day, he would have quickly walked away trying to avoid the situation, but not today. He was in the mood for a fight and if Alexei wasn’t available yet, whoever stood behind him would have to do. He wasn’t picking the fight and if he avoided them today, Justin was sure they’d just come find him later. He had power now and he wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore. Slowly turning around, Justin saw Hank, the bully, standing just twenty feet away blocking the hallway. Justin smiled. He was glad it would be someone who deserved to be humbled.