Relic (17 page)

Eric and Rodney looked smugly at me from a couple feet away. I wanted revenge for what they'd done out there, but I wasn't a match for them. They had experience, but more importantly, they had all the toys. Eric's family was so rich that we'd never have a fair fight.

I looked back toward Colin and was about to congratulate him again when the red and yellow blotches of paint on everyone's coveralls suddenly turned gray. I blinked. I wondered if it was a trick of the light, or something to do with everyone being dressed in camouflage. I even thought that maybe I'd taken a blast in the eyes from those darn lasers.

So when Sok suddenly stepped up out of nowhere, wearing some kind of dark turtleneck and black pants, and looked at me with hollow eyes, I wondered when he had joined the game and how my mom had managed to track him down to invite him in the first place. Then his head tilted and his eyes and mouth widened. But I was ready. I recognized what was happening and braced myself for the scream. And it came with a vengeance. Only it wasn't from Sok; it was from my right. I spun around and found myself face to face with the twisted expressions of not one, but two of the security guards from the museum. Instinctively, I brought my arms up to shield myself, and my finger clenched around the trigger of the gun. There were two quick bursts, then some screams, then the vision of Sok shrieked and I jumped again, sending a new burst of paintballs into the crowd.

“Gun down, gun down!” Dyson screamed.

I took a couple slow breaths to compose myself as I started to see colors again, and then I turned to the group. “I'm sorry,” I said, lowering the barrel. “It was an accident. I thought I…um…I just got scared,” I finally said. I hung the gun at my side and took in the carnage. My carnage. To my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Most of the people must've hit the deck right away, and after a couple seconds almost everyone started to laugh.

There were, however, a few people who bore fresh spatters of red paint. Rylee was rubbing a red spot on her thigh.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

She shrugged, then smiled and shook her head.

“You're gonna pay for that,” Eric's sniveling voice said from a few feet away. I turned, hoping that he'd have a nice red burst right between his eyes, but he didn't seem to be in pain at all. He had a bunch of paint splatters on his coveralls, but those were from the actual game. Rodney, on the other hand, was on the ground, sniffling and clutching the side of his face. Red paint oozed through his fingers.

“Oh, man, Rodney,” I said, “I'm sorry about that.”

“Relax,” Dyson said, “it happens at least once a day.” He looked around the room. “It's just paint, people. Unless you've been shot in the eye or something, just shake it off. It's not like Dean did it on purpose. Sometimes the adrenaline from the game makes you kind of twitchy. Let's just keep your finger off the trigger, okay?”

I nodded, and then felt suddenly ill. The weight of what had just happened settled on me. Two guards were going to die…and this time I was sure Sok was also going to die. Why did that kid have to keep putting himself in danger? I glanced at my watch: 10:47 p.m. “What are you planning, Sok?” I muttered. “Why can't you just leave it alone?”

“Now he's talking to himself,” Eric said.

I gave my head a shake and glared at Eric. I wished I'd had enough sense to point the gun at him when the vision had startled me.

“Just you wait, Curse,” Eric continued. “You have no idea what we're going to do to you, but it's going to—” Two quick bursts of compressed gas erupted from the crowd, and Eric's eyes widened as a gasp escaped his suddenly gaping mouth. A fresh splash of red paint stained his chest, and there was a yellow spatter of paint on his crotch. He dropped to his knees and then fell over whimpering. Lisa smiled and handed a gun she must've borrowed back to the girl beside her. At the same time, Colin turned around and ducked to the back of the group. Everyone was laughing, and I was just impressed that both of them had had the same thought at the same time.

“And that's the end of the game, kids,” Dyson said quickly. “Turn in your guns to Tank and put your coveralls on the table by the stairs, then out you go.” He gestured to the illuminated exit sign at the top of the metal staircase. “Come again.”

 

My mom was waiting in the lobby when we got there, and after a brief, startled glance at my painted clothing, she was all smiles. She'd done this for me, and I knew she had meant well. I forced a grin, which really wasn't easy considering I was in physical pain, covered in paint, and trying desperately to work out exactly how we were going to save Sok and the security guards…AGAIN.

Everyone thanked my mom and me for the fun evening. Eric and Rodney wandered into the lobby after everyone else was gone. Eric was limping, and Rodney was still holding his neck, but the two of them put on their most innocent faces and thanked my mom too, adding that they couldn't wait for the next time I could hang out with them. I resisted the urge to slug Eric, relying instead on the memory of him getting shot in the groin to brighten my mood. My mom beamed.

“Ten forty-seven,” I muttered to Lisa and Colin while we walked to the parking lot. “Sok and two guards.”

Colin cursed under his breath. “What is that stupid monk doing?”

“I told you we should have tried harder to find him,” Lisa said.

We rode the rest of the way answering questions from my mom and raving about how much fun it was. Colin took the lead and told how he'd managed to guide the team to two victories. He left out the part about how that had only happened because Eric and Rodney were trying harder to attack us than they were trying to win.

 

***

The next morning I woke up to an email from Lisa telling me to come over. After breakfast, and some teasing from Becky for still having a few spots of yellow paint on my skin, I said good-bye to my parents and ran to Lisa's place.

Lisa's house was small, one-story, and green, which was funny because her last name was Green. Both her parents did shift work, and usually we didn't hang out at her place because one of them was always sleeping. On that particular Saturday, Lisa was home alone, and Colin was already there.

“You really need to get a new cell phone,” Colin said. “We've been waiting an hour for you to get over here.”

I checked my watch. “It's eight o'clock in the morning. You've been here since seven? Since when do you ever get up before noon on a weekend?”

“I would have come at six if I thought Lisa had been awake. We have to figure out what we're doing about this,” Colin said. “We've already left a message for Archer to meet us in the park at nine o'clock, or as soon as he can, but if he's still not around, we don't really have a lot of options.” He was trying to keep his voice steady, but I could hear the panic.

Lisa shook her head. “I already told him we just need to go to the museum again. It'll be better this time. We'll call the police sooner.”

“And I told her,” Colin said angrily, “that it barely worked last time, and we almost didn't make it out of there. Something she would have known if she had been there.”

Lisa's face flushed, and she opened her mouth to speak, only to clamp it shut again.

“Look, guys, there's no point in fighting. Lisa did the right thing by not coming that night, and Colin, you know it. We all could have been in a lot more trouble if she'd snuck out and gotten caught.” Colin looked down at his shoes, and I hesitated just long enough for a breath before I spoke again. “You already called Archer, so let's just go to the park and see if he's there.”

“And if he's not?” Lisa asked.

“If he's not, then we'll think of a plan on our own. But I think he'll be there. In fact, I'm sure he'll be there. C'mon, let's go.”

 

***

 

Nine o'clock came and went, and Archer didn't show. At eleven o'clock, we called Archer again and left another message. By noon, we'd come to the conclusion that he wasn't in town and we were on our own.

“He should've given you a number for the others in the Society,” Colin said. “How can he expect us to rely on just him when he's running around saving the people in his own visions?”

Lisa sighed and looked at me. “So what do you think we should do?”

“I've been thinking about that a lot,” I said. “We tried to stop Sok last time, and all it did was delay him. If we manage to stop him again, there's no guarantee he won't try again in the next museum.”

“And?” Colin asked.

“And what if it's in Budapest or something, and I get a vision that he's got twenty-four hours to live? There's not a whole lot I'll be able to do to stop it, that's what.”

Colin nodded. “Then what? You think we should actually turn him in? Get him arrested?”

“We can't do that, Dean,” Lisa said firmly. “He's not a typical thief. He's just trying to get something back that rightfully belongs to his ancestral village. He's not a criminal.”

Colin rolled his eyes. “Better he's locked up than dead. Wouldn't you say?”

“Stop it!” I said. “Just stop.” Their eyes widened at the sternness of my tone. “We need to work together on this. Besides, I have a plan.”

“To turn them in?” Colin asked.

“No,” I answered. “I think you're right. He doesn't deserve jail time.”

“But you were right too,” Lisa said. “He might try again somewhere you can't intervene. Then he'll be dead. And Colin has a point that being locked up is a lot better than being dead. I mean, he doesn't deserve to go to jail, but it's a better option than death.” Colin grinned and gave Lisa a thankful nod. At least they're not fighting anymore, I thought.

“I know,” I said. “That's why we can't let that happen either.”

“Then what?” Colin asked. “I don't see any other option here.”

“There's one,” I said, hesitantly.

“Well?” Lisa asked. “Spill already. What's the other option?”

I drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We steal it,” I said. “We steal the relic.”

 

“You're crazy.” Lisa paced in a tight circle around the bench Colin and I were sitting on.

“I agree,” Colin said. “I mean, it's one thing to stop a robbery; it's another thing altogether to actually be the robbers.”

“Keep your voices down,” I said, glancing at the people strolling by. Lisa sighed and sat back on the bench with us, and I lowered my voice to a whisper. “It's not ideal, I know that. But we're talking about a life here. Three of them, actually.”

“What if we die?” Lisa said.

“We won't,” I answered. “If we were going to die, I'd have had a vision of it. Archer shook each of our hands, so he'd be here too, telling us we were going to die.”

“We can still be arrested,” Colin said after a brief pause.

“Like you said, better arrested than dead.”

“I was talking about Sok. Not us!” He shook his head. “I'm too pretty for prison.”

“Don't flatter yourself,” Lisa said.

“Guys,” I said, “we don't have a lot of time, so how about this: let's just think of a way to get the relic. Hypothetically speaking, how would we do it? If we can't think of a good plan, we go to plan B and, I dunno, get some duct tape and tape Sok and his French conspirators to a tree in the park or something.”

“I like that idea,” Colin said. “I'll even pay for the duct tape.”

“Hypothetically,” Lisa began, “you'd probably have to go in through the roof the way you saw Sok's little gang going in.”

“We don't have a van,” I said. “And we'd be spotted carrying a huge ladder down the street. We'd never get up there.”

“We could use a grappling hook,” Colin said.

“Colin, you can't even climb the rope in gym glass,” Lisa said. “How the heck do you think you're going to climb a rope up the side of a building?” She hesitated and then added, “Do you even know where to buy a grappling hook?”

“I could find one,” Colin muttered.

“Lisa's right,” I said. “Besides, we'd probably get lost or stuck in the ventilation shafts and die of starvation or something.”

“And,” Lisa added, “hypothetically, we can't break a window to get in since you did that and the alarms started up right away, right? We'd never have time to get in and get out without the guards getting us.”

I nodded. “Okay, so no getting in through the roof and no getting in through breaking glass. What's left?”

“Nothing,” Lisa said. “There's nothing left.”

Colin tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Well, there is something.”

“There's another way?” I asked.

He nodded.

“A way that doesn't have anything to do with a movie you saw?” Lisa asked, huffing.

He nodded again.

“Are you going to share it with the rest of us?” I asked.

He smiled slyly. “Do you guys remember when I stood in that caveman exhibit?”

I nodded, and Lisa said, “I know you fit in with them, Colin. But I think they'd notice a real live boy standing in the display. Pretending to be mannequins will not work.”

His smile spread. “Don't you remember the door?”

I did. The door Colin fell through. The door behind the caveman display. “It was unlocked,” I muttered under my breath.

“It was unlocked,” Colin repeated. “It's a huge storage area filled with crates, boxes, and display boards. Tons of places to hide. We could sneak in, hide until the right time, and then,
presto
, steal the head and make a run for it.” He checked his watch. “Museum closes at five o'clock today. We only have a few hours.”