“No, I think we’re supposed to stare it in the eye,” the Hyena replied.
“I’m sure that’s a dog. What about jumping up and down and beating on our chests?”
“Gorillas.”
“Fudge,” Jackson said. “Well, I vote for running very fast!”
Jackson turned to the Hyena and grabbed her hand. The two took off at a sprint, but the icy terrain didn’t make it easy. The polar bear, however, navigated the ground rapidly and with ease.
“We’re not going to outrun this thing. It’s fast,” the Hyena said.
“Don’t you have some kind of weapon on you? You are an assassin,” Jackson said through gasps of the frosty air.
“Me? You’re the superspy. Use that disgusting mouth thing of yours and kill it,” the Hyena cried.
“I’m pretty sure polar bears are endangered,” Jackson said. “It’s illegal to kill them.”
“It’s trying to kill us!” the Hyena shouted.
But the polar bear wasn’t their only problem. In their mad dash to escape, they were running straight for the burning rocket. The explosive heat coming from the wreckage was rapidly warming the ice around it. When Jackson finally noticed where they were headed, he realized he had to choose between two horrible deaths. So he stopped.
“What are you doing?” the Hyena cried, trying to drag him along.
“It’s time to see what I’m capable of,” he said.
The braces swirled in his mouth and morphed into a huge shield just as the bear reached them. The shield blocked the beast’s deadly blows, and sparks flew off in all directions. The polar bear roared with anger and swung again—with similar results. The impact caused a little irritation to Jackson’s teeth, but for the most part he realized he could probably defend them from the hulking animal for the rest of the day. “Problem solved,” he bragged.
“Look!” the Hyena cried.
Jackson turned his head to see that the burning rocket had sent ribbons of cracks snaking through the ice they were standing upon. One of the cracks was fast approaching.
“This is just not cool,” the Hyena said as the crack zipped between her feet. She stepped to the left as the pieces of ice began to separate. Jackson did the same. However, the polar bear was not so clever. The crack widened beneath it, and a moment later the big animal splashed into the water and vanished.
The pair now found themselves on a chunk of ice that had broken off completely from the rest of the sheet. The once-solid ice sheet was beginning to resemble a jigsaw puzzle. Worse, the ice was taking them farther and farther from Dr. Jigsaw’s fortress.
Jackson’s braces started to swirl once more and out sprang the four familiar spiderlike legs. He grabbed the Hyena by the waist, and the two rose into the air. The legs stepped over to the next chunk of ice.
“You know, this little gizmo of yours is very cool,” the Hyena said. “But it’s not going to help you with girls.”
Jackson rolled his eyes and said nothing. He concentrated on the legs, willing them to step to the next block of ice. They were making steady progress, but unfortunately the chunks of ice were drifting farther apart. Soon they reached a gap that was just too far across for Jackson’s metal legs to carry them over. He remembered Ruby’s advice, about really focusing on his braces, and that he had control over what they did. He set the Hyena down on their chunk of ice and focused. His braces shot out of his mouth in all directions and wildly went to work assembling his vision. They morphed and twisted before his eyes, and when they were done he had built a small boat with an outboard motor around himself. The Hyena climbed aboard. No sooner was she seated than the boat started pushing through the waves toward the fortress. When they reached the solid chunk of ice near the fortress, their speed sent them skidding onshore.
“Tell me that wasn’t cool,” Jackson crowed as his braces slid back onto his teeth.
“Save the celebration for later,” the Hyena replied.
“How do we get into this place?”
“Let us show you the way,” a voice said behind them. When they spun around to see who it was, they were met with fists to the face. Jackson and the Hyena fell to the ground. Just as everything went black, Jackson heard his partner grumble two words.
“Dumb Vinci.”
Jackson awoke on a lumpy cot under a bright fluorescent lamp. His head felt full of gravy, and his nose was running. Every joint in his body ached. He pulled himself up and waited patiently for his eyes to adjust to the blinding light. Soon, he could see his surroundings more clearly, though there wasn’t much to see. He was in a windowless room with gray walls and a concrete floor. The Hyena was sitting cross-legged on the cot next to him.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said.
“Where are we?”
“Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is we are inside Jigsaw’s fortress. The bad news is he has locked us in a back room and there’s no way out. At least, no way I could find. You, however, have the superbraces. Why don’t you use them to knock down the door?”
Jackson got to his feet but fell back on the bed with an awkward thump. He was still woozy.
“Easy, big shot,” the Hyena continued. She got up from her cot and helped him to his feet.
They stepped to the door and Jackson studied it. There wasn’t a doorknob—only a single metal panel. They opened it and found a tiny hole not even big enough for a key.
“OK, back up,” Jackson warned. “This might get violent.”
He focused his attention on the door, but nothing happened. His braces weren’t swirling—not even a little.
“That’s weird. My tech isn’t working.”
He scanned the room and spotted a bright orange device mounted on the wall. “What’s that?”
The Hyena climbed up on her cot to eye the device closer. “This is an EMP transmitter—an electromagnetic pulse device. It shuts off electronics.”
“That means no braces.”
“So you’re just a normal kid?”
“Aside from my incredible good looks and amazing athletic ability, yes. I’m totally normal.”
“We’ve got to get out of here, Jackson,” the Hyena said.
“Got any good ideas?”
She sat next to him. “Not a one. Some superassassin I turned out to be.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel. I’m like the worst secret agent in the history of secret agents.”
“All I ever wanted to do was kill people,” the Hyena said sadly. “I’m going to be the laughingstock of the union.”
Jackson smiled. “You say you’re a killer, and you dress like one, but you act more like a hero to me.”
“Just when I was starting to like you.” She sighed.
“So, if you want to kill people, why didn’t you kill Munoz?” Jackson said. “You had the perfect opportunity.”
“It was his little girl. She loved him so much. They reminded me of me and my father, before he died,” she said.
“My mother died last year,” Jackson said.
“I’m sorry. You must miss her. I miss my father a lot. He used to call me Giggles,” she said, then paused. “If you tell anyone that, I will murder you.”
Jackson swore he’d keep her secret.
“He was a helicopter pilot—used to fly rich people around, and sometimes he’d take me. He taught me how to get one into the air. I was nearly as good as he was. But he didn’t make a lot of money, and when he was gone there wasn’t much left. Our lives became about survival. We started entering beauty pageants to make money, but really they kept us just busy enough so that we wouldn’t have to talk about him.”
“Where’s your mom now?”
“She moved from people to dogs. She won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last year,” the Hyena said. She sounded bitter. “She’s got a West Highland white terrier named Daisy. You should see how she treats her. You would think Daisy was a person.”