We gently lifted him and placed him down on the stretcher. He was out; an explosion wouldn’t have woken him.
We pushed Ryder to the elevator and when the door closed I pressed the roof button. The elevator moved up slowly.
The doors opened to an empty helipad.
Chuck was not waiting like I had instructed.
Chapter 34: Invisible
“I thought you had a ride?” Vanish asked, tired and weak.
“He is supposed to be here.” I said limping out onto the helipad. There was no sign of Chuck. I walked over to the edge to check on Jolt and to my horror, he was gone. Only a smashed car remained where he had landed.
When I turned around, the air in the center of the helipad began to shimmer and slowly the aircraft began to reappear.
Vanish pushed Ryder out of the elevator and onto the occupied helipad. The back door of the aircraft opened and Chuck walked out onto the helipad with us.
“I thought the stealth package wasn’t working.” I asked Chuck as he grabbed a hold of Ryder’s stretcher and pulled it into the passenger bay.
“Your father was farther along than his notes let on, he often left break advancements out until he was happy with the finished product. While I was flying to the helipad, I hit a small patch of turbulence that caused me to bump the stealth controls. It took me a moment to deactivate the stealth and the computer wouldn’t let me open the door until I deactivated the stealth system. I apologize.” He explained as he strapped Ryder down.
“We don’t have time for apologies. I don’t know where Jolt is; we need to get out of here.” I said sitting down and instructing Vanish to do the same. We both strapped into the seats and I gave Chuck the thumbs up.
He closed the rear door and climbed up the ladder into the cockpit. He flawlessly lifted the aircraft up off of the roof and began to take us away from the building.
The back of the aircraft shifted violently to one side.
“I guess this is Jolt.” Chuck yelled down from the cockpit. A holographic projection of the outside of the aircraft appeared in front of where Vanish and I sat. Jolt clung onto the wing.
Chuck dropped the left side of the aircraft suddenly making my stomach jump up into my throat. The maneuver caused Jolt to lose his grip and fall. He grabbed a tree branch on his way down and slammed into the ground.
Once Chuck regained our altitude and had gotten us back on course, we all took a breath of relief.
“Could you take us to Eastcroft instead of heading back to the lake house?”
“Yes ma’am.”
I turned to Vanish who hung her head, “What happened?” I asked. I wanted to know where they had disappeared to for a half an hour.
“I don’t really know how to describe what happened. I remember there being a lot of bright white lights and cold. I couldn’t really make out anything. My vision was blurred the whole time.” She didn’t look up.
“Well whatever happened, I’m glad to have you both back and in one piece. What did the doctors do to treat his gunshot?” I nodded towards Ryder.
“He was taken to several surgeries but I don’t think they accomplished anything. Silence never seemed to get any better. Everything they tried, they could not get the wound to heal. I hope that Doctor Z will be able to do something.” She wiped tears from her cheeks.
“I’m sure that Doctor Z will have the answer. I’m sure he is going to be just fine.” I hid my worry, I wasn’t sure if he would be able to do anything.
I watched Ryder as he rocked back and forth with the motion of the aircraft.
“Grace, we are nearing Eastcroft. I think that you should try and call their traffic control and request permission for landing.” Chuck announced, “I could land in stealth.”
“No need, I’m sure they will let us land.” I said.
“Go ahead whenever you‘re ready.”
“Eastcroft this is Sear, requesting permission to land immediately.”
“All air traffic has been halted; please proceed to another landing area.” said a man from the control tower.
“Please find Acumen; I assure you that he will let us land.” I said with desperation.
The line was dead for a few moments, “Please state reason for requesting permission to land.” The man said.
I was quickly becoming irritated.
“There are three injured people and we need to land now. Silence and Vanish need medical attention.” I practically yelled at the man in the tower.
“Permission granted.” said Sam over the line.
Chuck set the aircraft down softly near the hanger. I unbuckled my safety belt and stood, shaky from my injuries. I helped Chuck unbuckle Ryder from the aircraft. He opened the rear door and pushed the stretcher out onto the tarmac.
“I found someone.”
Sam’s face lit up with the sight of Ryder.
I sat in the lobby of the clinic.
I was alone and in pain. My head was killing me and I could only imagine what was coming from Alice when I got back home.
Ryder was in with Doctor Z and Vanish had been escorted home by Hothead. He was so happy to see Vanish that he almost crushed me.
Sam joined me in the lobby, “It’s going to be a while but the good doctor is optimistic.”
“That’s good.” I said exhausted.
“How did you find them?” He sat down in a chair across from me, “And what happened?”
“My father helped me find him, well a holographic representation of him. I gained access to his computer system and used some of the technology that he left behind.” I rubbed my face.
“What happened when you found them?”
“When I got to the hospital, everything was going great until a squad of Sabers and Jolt showed up. Jolt was pretty worked up on killing us.” I shifted gently in the chair.
“Is he dead?”
“No, he is not. It took everything that I had just to knock him out. I had to push him out of the fourth floor of a building.” I shook my head.
“I’m glad you did what you did. You understand that I can’t condone what happened, but I’m glad. The others are on their way here.” He got up out of his chair and gazed out of a nearby window.
“I understand.”
“Grace, I don’t know what is going to happen next. We have had close calls before, but…” he sighed deeply, “Nothing like this before.”
Just before I was able to doze off, the room filled with Ronnie, Sandy, Rachel, and Kenny. They were all excited to see me.
“Hey guys.” I said awkwardly.
There was a mumble of greetings and they all sat around me.
“Why didn’t you come and get us to help you?” Ronnie demanded.
“I didn’t want to waste any time and if I had, Jolt would have gotten there before me.” I explained. “Vanish and Silence wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“I’m just glad that you are back!” Sandy grabbed my good hand and squeezed.
Chapter 35: Lock Down
The first place I went after returning to my father’s house was to see Alice. She scanned my injuries with a sour look on her face the whole time.
“Four broken ribs, arm broken in two places, and the same shoulder dislocated. You have dozens of cuts and too many bruises to count. Were you hit by a truck?” She fumed throwing her arms into the air.
“No, I jumped off a building.” I smirked
Alice stopped what she was doing and looked at me to see if I was being honest; “You are as bad as your father!” she steamed.
“What? I did.” I shrugged, but quickly realized that shrugging was painful.
“Well lucky for you I can fix most of this.” She grabbed my shoulder and swiftly pushed it back into place with a small pop sound. I yelled in agony but she rubbed a light blue gel onto the shoulder removing all the pain. “Quiet you baby.”