“We’re so pathetic,” Chaz agreed.
After a while the laughter faded.
“I’ve been a total jerk to you,” Chaz said.
Jackson shrugged. “If it wasn’t for your insults, I wouldn’t have anyone speaking to me at all.”
They talked for hours. Mostly about their father, but also about how much they missed their mom, and about how much their dad had changed since she died. They also talked about football and about the crimes they had committed against each other and the other kids at school.
“You know, if you really like to read, you don’t have to do it surrounded by filth,” Jackson said. “There’s this place called the library. I’ve been in one. It wasn’t that bad. The closest is on Henry Street, two blocks away.”
“You’re pretty cool for a little brother,” Chaz said.
“And you’re pretty cool for a big brother,” Jackson replied.
“If you two hug I think I’m going to throw up,” a voice said from above them.
Jackson turned and looked up. Standing at the top of a pile of junk was the Hyena. Her hair was like silver in the setting sun. If Jackson wasn’t struck with overwhelming fear, he might have thought she was pretty.
“Who’s this?” she asked, pointing to Chaz.
“I’m his brother,” Chaz said. “Who are you?”
“I’m the—”
“Wait a minute!” Chaz said. “I get what’s going on here. Is this your girlfriend, Jackson?”
“Uh—”
“Little brother! Hey, don’t let me interfere with you two lovebirds. I’ll catch up with you at home,” Chaz said. He rushed to the gate, turned back and gave Jackson a raspberry, and slipped away.
“I’ve been looking for you,” the Hyena said.
“Stay back!” Jackson shouted.
The girl leaped down in front of him. Instinctively, he swept her legs out from under her with his own and knocked her to the ground. A moment later he was running.
“Where was that move when you had to fight Matilda all day?” he grumbled to himself. He made a beeline for the gate, but before he could get there the Hyena had backflipped off a junked car and landed in front of him. He skidded to a stop and raced back the way he came. The junkyard was a maze of debris piled high in neat rows. Jackson raced down one aisle and made a quick right into another. The Hyena was right behind him every step of the way.
He knew his only hope was to try to make it back to the gate, so he made another quick left, then a right, then another right. He mustered every ounce of his former glory on the football field and sprinted toward the exit. It was so close. He just had to get there. Once he was on the street he could hide in the backyards of the countless neighborhood houses, and she would never find him.
And then he saw a blur to his left and felt something in front of his feet, and before he knew it he turned into a human tumbleweed rolling on the ground. He finally came to a stop on his back, gasping to replace the wind that had been knocked out of his lungs. Unfortunately, the Hyena was waiting. She tossed aside the mop handle she had used to trip him.
“If you’re going to kill me, just make it quick,” he groaned.
“I’m not here to kill you, dummy. I need your help,” she said, reaching out her hand to him.
“Help?”
“Yeah, I need you to stop my diabolical boss and his evil doomsday device.”
“Is that all?” Jackson said as he eyed the offered hand. “How do I know this isn’t some kind of trick?”
“Why would I want you to help me stop the man who pays my rent?” she said. “I wouldn’t, unless you were right all along. I don’t want to know I helped someone destroy the world, and I can’t stop him by myself. I need you.”
Jackson took her hand and she pulled him to his feet. He dusted himself off, but kept a wary eye on her. “Why does a goon want to save the world?”
The Hyena snarled. “Watch it, pal! I’m not a goon.”
“You act like a goon. You kidnapped those scientists.”
“I was freelancing. I have to eat,” she said. “Are you going to help me or not?”
Jackson shook his head. “You don’t want me. You want the NERDS, and I’m not with them anymore.” He turned and headed for the gate, slipping out the hole and into the street.
The Hyena followed. “What do you mean you aren’t with them anymore?”
“I was a trainee,” Jackson admitted. “And not a very good one. I screwed up a lot, so I quit. I’m out of the secret agent business.”
The Hyena grabbed him by the shirt. “You can’t just quit.”
“You’re not listening to me,” Jackson said. “I can just quit and I did just quit. I can’t help you.”
“Then take me to the others,” she demanded. “This is important.”
“They’re missing,” Jackson said. “They’ve been gone for days. They’re probably on some other mission.”
“Listen, kid, if this wasn’t the end of the world, I wouldn’t have bothered. If you can’t find your team, then it’s up to you and me.”
“Fine, but why are you wearing only one boot?”
The Hyena groaned. “Focus, you idiot. We have to save the world.”
Even though all the students were gone and school had been closed for hours, the doors were still unlocked and Jackson and the Hyena stepped right inside.
“What are we doing here?” the Hyena asked impatiently. “Did you forget your lunch box?”
“This is our headquarters,” Jackson said as he led her down the hallway.
“Your spy headquarters is in an elementary school?”
Jackson ignored her question. She’d be impressed by the Playground once she saw it. He had turned the corner heading for the lockers when a mob of panicked scientists nearly ran him over.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“End-of-the-world stuff, kid!” one shouted back to him.
“C’mon,” Jackson said to the Hyena, and the two ran the way the scientists had come. Jackson shoved the would-be assassin into one of the lockers and slammed the door before she could ask him to explain, then climbed into his own. A moment later they tumbled out into the Playground.
There Jackson found Ms. Holiday shouting directions at dozens of scientists who were working furiously on computers.
“Find that signal!” she shouted. “I don’t care if it bounced off every satellite in space. Find its origin.”
Jackson was surprised by her tone, but even more surprised by her appearance. Gone were the cardigan sweaters and pleated skirts she usually wore. Now she was wearing a black bodysuit and a black beret, and had weapons strapped around her waist.
“Jackson, what are you doing here? And who is she?”
“This is the Hyena,” he said. “She needs our help. Dr. Felix Jigsaw is going to destroy the world.”
“We know,” the librarian said, just as a scientist approached her with a map. “What?”
“My math shows that Australia has indeed moved. It was here,” the scientist said, circling the continent with a red pen then circling a spot in the ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. “Now it’s here.”
“Where’s the team?” Jackson said. “They need to stop this now.”
“Unfortunately, that is no longer an option,” Ms. Holiday said.
“What? Why?”
“Benjamin, can you explain?” Ms. Holiday said, and the blue orb on the desktop began to spin. Soon, the holographic Benjamin Franklin appeared before the frozen landscape of the North Pole.
“Approximately an hour ago, a beam of magnetically charged energy shot out from the heart of the North Pole,” Benjamin explained as the North Pole morphed into the blackness of space. The sky lit up as the beam of green light shot through Earth’s atmosphere and bounced off a satellite.
“It’s Jigsaw,” the Hyena said. “It’s a tractor beam.”
The image changed, showing the ray bending to connect with the ground near the Sydney Opera House.