SYLO (THE SYLO CHRONICLES) (35 page)

“And we got camouflage,” Sleeper replied proudly.

We arrived at the edge of what was normally a dense scrub forest. Even in the dark of night, I could see that camouflage netting had been erected in the trees.

“We only travel at night, and keep the lights out,” Sleeper said. “During the day we’re hidden beneath the canopy. Besides, we won’t be here long.”

We stepped into the forest to see an elaborate camp filled with small tents. There were no campfires to give them away. Instead there were multiple containers stacked everywhere for storing food. Dozens of camp chairs were scattered about. Most were empty because it was so late, but there were still plenty of people awake and talking in hushed tones.

Calling this a camp for guerilla fighters seemed silly, considering that the people didn’t look anything like hardened revolutionaries. It seemed more like a campground for parents who wanted to get away for the weekend. All that was missing was the beer. The only sign it was something more ominous was that most of them carried guns.

“What’s the point?” I asked. “I mean, you’re not really planning some kind of revolution, are you?”

“Depends on your definition of revolution,” Mr. Sleeper said and kept walking.

As we moved through the campground, we kept getting suspicious glares from the people we passed. There were no smiles or waves or words of welcome. These people were living on the edge—and they were scared. I recognized a few more faces, but there were just as many people I had never seen before.

Mr. Sleeper led us to the largest tent in the campground. Inside were several portable picnic tables. It could have been a food tent, or a meeting hall. The only light came from shielded camp lanterns that were hooded to keep the light contained.

“Take a load off,” Mr. Sleeper said.

Tori and I sat at one table, Kent and Olivia at another. Feit sat by himself.

“We’re not kidding ourselves here,” Mr. Sleeper said. “We have no hope of bullying SYLO off the island. But we can make ourselves heard.”

“How?” I asked. “They’re an army. You guys…aren’t.”

“We’re going to kidnap Granger,” Mr. Sleeper said as nonchalantly as if he had said, “Pass the salt.”

None of us reacted. I think we might have been in shock. I know I was.

“Why?” Tori finally asked.

“To force their hand. You know as well as I do that we’re isolated here on Pemberwick. Nobody on the outside knows what’s happening. They haven’t since the day communications were cut. We figure that if we can pull in SYLO’s most important player, somebody somewhere will finally listen to us.”

“But there’s no guarantee of that,” I argued. “Even if you get Granger—and I’m not so sure you can—we’d still be cut off. Nobody outside of Pemberwick would even know.”

“Exactly. That’s why we wouldn’t keep him here,” Sleeper said with a satisfied smile. “The plan is to bring him to the mainland. We’ve got a half dozen speedboats ready to make the run. We’d send them all at once so they won’t know which one’s got Granger. Once we get to the mainland, we can parade him in front of every camera we can find and let the world know what he’s been doing here.”

“Awesome,” Kent said. “I can’t wait to see that guy squirm in front of TV lights.”

I wanted to tell Mr. Sleeper what a crazy plan that was, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t much
different from what Quinn, Tori, and I tried to do. We wanted to get to a radio or TV station to blow the whistle on SYLO and that was exactly what Mr. Sleeper was planning. The only difference was that he wanted to do it armed with some serious evidence. Granger.

Tori must have been reading my mind because she looked at me and said, “It’s not bad.”

“Where are the boats?” I asked.

“Out here on Chinicook. Hidden in Crescent Bay. It was a hell of a risk getting them out here at night, but we pulled it off.”

My mind raced—and it had nothing to do with the Ruby.

“Is there a plan to get him?” I asked. “I mean, sneaking a couple of people out of that compound is one thing. Breaking in and nabbing the boss is a whole ’nother ball game.”

“We’ve got a lot of people on our side,” Mr. Sleeper said. “Out here and on the inside.”

“Prisoners?” Tori asked.

“That’s how we smuggled in the Ruby. SYLO doesn’t know who is innocent and who they have to be afraid of. People have sacrificed themselves just to get inside. We have total surprise on our side. And something else too.”

Sleeper nodded to Feit. Feit walked to the side of the tent where a tarp was stretched over a bulky object. He grabbed one end of the tarp and yanked it off to reveal eight clear plastic containers, each the size of a cooler—and each packed solid with the Ruby.

“Oh, man,” I exclaimed and jumped to my feet. I couldn’t help myself. Seeing that much of the deadly substance was a shock.

“It’s like making a deal with the devil,” Mr. Sleeper said
ominously. “But if used properly, it’ll give us the advantage we need to get Granger, bring him to the mainland, and end this nightmare.”

“I like it,” Kent said enthusiastically.

“Shut up, Kent,” I snapped.

Kent was ready to jump at me but thought better of it and backed off.

“Let me make one thing clear,” Mr. Sleeper said. “I’m only telling you this so you know what’s been going on. You all are not going to be part of the operation. You’ve been through too much as it is.”

“You get no arguments from me,” Kent said.

I shot him a dirty look but he avoided eye contact.

“When?” I asked.

“Tomorrow night. There’s no telling how long we can keep Chinicook a secret so we have to move fast. One last thing we need before we move is something from the three of you.”

“Anything,” Kent said quickly, but I didn’t think that extended to him taking the Ruby.

“You’ve been inside the compound,” he said. “We need maps and any other information you can give us about how it all works. Hopefully between the three of you, we can get a good idea of what we’ll be faced with.”

“What about me?” Olivia asked. “How can I help?”

Kent took her hand and kissed it. “You’ve already done your part by getting us out here.”

Tori rolled her eyes and said, “I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.”

Olivia ignored the cut.

There was so much to digest. What had started out as the search for answers about a mysterious virus had become something far bigger.

“There’s something else,” I said. “Have you seen those flying shadows?”

“We have,” Mr. Sleeper said. “We think they have something to do with SYLO.”

He looked at Feit, as if expecting him to add something.

“They do,” Feit said. “I don’t know what kind of aircraft they are, but they’re SYLO all right.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Two weeks ago I was supposed to get a shipment of the Ruby. I got a call to be out on the bluffs on the east side of the island at midnight. I drove out there and saw this shadow fly by—and it exploded. Scared the hell out of me so I just took off.”

“And the next day a boatload of the stuff washed up on shore, along with the wreckage,” Mr. Sleeper added.

“And killed my horses,” Tori said.

“The pickup truck,” I said. “The one we saw on the bluffs. That was you?”

Feit nodded. “I didn’t think anybody saw me.”

“But that doesn’t explain what the shadows are, or what they’re doing,” Tori said. “There was a dogfight over the mainland. If those shadow planes were SYLO, who were they fighting? And why? Planes were blown out of the sky. People died.”

“Quinn died,” I said.

“What?” Olivia exclaimed. “Quinn is dead?”

Tori ignored her and said, “Even if you get Granger and make
it to the mainland, what are you going to find there? Whatever SYLO is doing, it’s not just about Pemberwick.”

“We thought about that,” Mr. Sleeper said. “All of it. I’m sorry to hear about your friend, Tucker. And your father, Kent.”

“I can’t believe that Quinn is gone,” Olivia said, genuinely upset.

“And I’m sorry about my parents,” I said. “They’re working with SYLO.”

That shut the conversation down. With each new revelation about SYLO, I kept thinking about my mom and dad and wondering what part they were playing in this nightmare. For me, that
was
the nightmare.

“We don’t have a whole lot of answers,” Mr. Sleeper said. “But we all feel certain that the only way to get the truth is to blast off of this rock and get back to civilization. Nobody knows what we’re going to find there and who might be on our side, but what other choice do we have?”

“None,” I said quickly. “I’ll help. I’ll draw you as many maps as you want and tell you every last thing I learned about the place, but I want something in return.”

“What’s that?” Mr. Sleeper asked.

“I want Tori and me to be on one of those boats going to the mainland.”

“What about me?” Kent asked.

“And me?” Olivia chimed in petulantly.

“You do whatever you want, but Tori and I will be on one of those boats.”

Mr. Sleeper frowned and shook his head. “No. Too dangerous.”

I stalked toward him and said, “It’s no more dangerous than
what we’ve been through already. We’ve been out there, Mr. Sleeper. In your boats, in the middle of a battle. One of them was vaporized with my best friend on board.
That’s
how Quinn died.”

Mr. Sleeper went white. “You made a run for the mainland? Tori?”

“We did,” Tori said. “The
Patricia
was hit by a light that vaporized it, along with Quinn.”

“Seriously?” Olivia said, stunned. She looked whiter than Mr. Sleeper. “Evaporate? Like…poof?”

“I don’t know who is fighting who,” I said. “Or why. But they’re not taking prisoners. We saw it all, which means we have a hell of a lot more experience making a run for the mainland than any of your weekend warriors here. We will be on one of those boats, Mr. Sleeper. In fact, Tori will be the captain. I trust her more than anybody. It’s not a request, it’s a fact. Accept it or you won’t be getting any map from me.”

Tori stood up and said, “Or from me, Dad.”

I looked toward Kent. He saw how serious I was. He gave a resigned shrug and said, “Or me. I don’t want to be stuck here either.”

Mr. Sleeper was speechless. Tori went to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek against his chest.

“Don’t think that leaving us here is the same as protecting us,” she said. “We stand just as good a chance of surviving by making a run as staying on the island.”

Mr. Sleeper closed his eyes and hugged his daughter. She was all he had in the world. It must have pained him to think that he would lose her. But he wasn’t the kind of guy who would step back, hope for the best, and let fate play out on its own.

“All right,” he said softly, then looked at me and added, “You know how to pick ’em. If anybody’s got a chance of piloting a boat through a crapstorm, it’s my daughter.”

“That’s what I figured,” I said. “Do I have your word?”

He nodded. “You do.” He wiped his brow and added, “Let’s get to work on those maps.”

We spent the next hour drawing, talking about what we saw in the SYLO compound, and answering questions thrown at us by a group of people that Mr. Sleeper brought in. Most I knew from around town. They were Mr. Sleeper’s buddies, and now they were his lieutenants. It was clear that Mr. Sleeper was the boss. He’d grown up on Pemberwick; he knew every inch of the island and most of the people. He also had a very strong personality. When he spoke, his buddies listened.

They didn’t fill us in on the details of their plan to snatch Granger. I think they were still figuring it out, especially since we had dumped a boatload of new information on them. All we knew was that once the team left Chinicook, we would move down to the boats and wait.

Feit was not part of this discussion. When the lieutenants showed up, Feit was asked to step out. Obviously, nobody trusted him. He wasn’t going to play a critical role in the kidnapping other than to provide a boost from the Ruby. I got the feeling that nobody liked him much. Made sense. As far as I was concerned, the guy was a murderer. I hated that the good guys had to rely on him and worried that they were going to take the Ruby, but it was a small risk compared to everything else that was going on.

It didn’t help my opinion of him that he was such a good liar.
Everything he first had told me about the Ruby was bogus. It made me wonder where his lies stopped and the truth began. We accepted everything he told us about SYLO and Granger because it fit and helped to explain some things. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if everything he said was the absolute truth.

It was nearly four in the morning by the time we finished. I hadn’t slept much earlier that night and I was definitely feeling low after coming down from my adventure with the Ruby. Olivia had already crashed somewhere because she didn’t have anything to offer. Kent got bored quickly and was asleep on the floor of the tent.

“Get some rest,” Mr. Sleeper said. “If you think of anything else, you can tell me later. And sleep in. We don’t move around much during the day. We’re like a camp of vampires.”

The lady from the ice-cream shop came in with a couple of sleeping bags and pillows for us and started to lay them out near the crates of the Ruby.

“Thanks,” I said. “But I’d rather not sleep near that stuff.”

She glanced at the Ruby and nodded. “Right. Sorry.”

She laid both of the bags down on the opposite side of the tent and I went right for one, ready to crash.

Tori gave her father a playful poke in the chest. It reminded me of when she pushed his hat over his eyes on their dock. “I’m proud of you, Dad,” she said. “If anybody can pull this off, it’s you.”

“It’s not like I have a choice,” he said. “I’ve gotta take care of my little girl.”

He kissed the top of her head and headed out of the tent.

Tori came over and lay down on the sleeping bag next to mine.

“Did you ever imagine that your father would be the leader of a revolution?” I asked.

“No, obviously,” she said. “But if there’s gotta be a revolution, there’s nobody better to run it. People listen to my dad.”