“Oh, Jenkins, you idiot,” said Colin Needle, shaking his head in gleeful disgust as he looked from Tyler to the cavegirl. “You just couldn’t mind your own business, could you? And now you’ve really messed up. You might as well go pack your bags.”
Chapter 21
O ne thing Colin really liked about those Jenkins kids: they were their own worst enemies. It never seemed to have occurred to them that he might be keeping track of where they were. Both of their rooms empty after nightfall? Something had to be up. Noises in the silo, a building that was kept empty at all times? Who else would it be?
But it wasn’t just Tyler Jenkins he had discovered in the Fault Line cavern. There was a girl, too, a stranger-Paleolithic, from the looks of her. It happened occasionally with the Fault Line, these spontaneous manifestations. Like stuff washed up on a beach, he supposed, or left behind on a riverbank, tossed out of the flow of time. It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last. But Jenkins screwing up so badly- that was something Colin had been waiting for.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Go pack your suitcase. You’re as good as gone.”
“You creep!” Tyler stomped toward him, pointing a finger. “What are you doing, following me everywhere I go?”
“Gideon should never have brought you to the farm.” Colin turned his back and went quickly up the ladder and through the trapdoor, into the empty silo. “But now he’s going to realize his mistake, because I’m going to tell him what you’ve been doing-messing with his biggest, most important secret.” He shoved open the door and went out into the warm night.
“Oh yeah?” said Tyler. He ran up the ladder and out the door after Colin, waving his flashlight like it was a Star Wars light saber. Colin laughed-did the kid really want to pick a fight? He was a full head shorter than Colin was. Still, the idiot kept coming at him, and the light got in Colin’s eyes, blinding him. He had underestimated and did not get his hands up in time as Tyler Jenkins swung a fist and hit him in the neck. Colin stumbled back, choking, and the younger boy was on him with arms windmilling so fast Colin was driven farther backward.
“Tyler, stop!” someone shouted even as Colin slipped and fell.
The Jenkins kid seized the advantage and began pummeling the side of Colin’s head. Colin swung his own right hand around and delivered a satisfyingly nasty blow to Tyler’s face, then he was back in the game again, slapping and scratching and butting with his head until he could get off his back. Another flashlight was playing over them and someone was still shouting at them as they jumped at each other.
“Tyler, no, no! Let go of him!” It was Lucinda’s voice.
They were rolling, struggling with each other like wild animals. Jenkins managed to get on top of him again and Colin was lashing out, hitting anything he could, when Tyler suddenly straightened up. Lucinda had grabbed the neck of her brother’s sweatshirt and was pulling as hard as she could. She had caught him by surprise. Tyler fell back, allowing Colin to struggle free.
“What are you two doing?”
The words were barely out of her mouth when Colin jumped past her and tackled her brother again-he wasn’t going to lose the advantage she’d given him. The two of them went down again, kicking and thrashing so that dust flew up in a cloud, obscuring the beam of Lucinda’s flashlight. Then, suddenly, there was triumph: Colin was atop the wretched Jenkins boy, sitting on his chest. He put his forearm on Tyler’s throat and heard the choking sounds begin. God, he was going to enjoy this!
Then a shadow moved over Colin and something smashed down on his head, turning his bones and muscles to water. After that, it all just went blank.
The next thing he felt was a throbbing in his head like the aftermath of an explosion, as if something had blown his skull into hot pieces that were barely holding together.
My brain, he thought. Somebody knocked my bloody brain out.
Colin tried to sit up, but just the tiny movement of bracing his hands against the ground made him feel dizzy and sick so he gave up. It was dark where he lay, which was just as well. Light in his eyes would have felt like a blowtorch.
“What’s with this farm?” Lucinda was saying. “I mean, Tyler, who are all these people? What are they up to? Witches? Monsters? Magicians? You were right, Tyler, you were so right, and it just keeps getting crazier!”
“You think that’s crazy,” her brother answered, “but you haven’t heard what happened to me yet.”
The pain in Colin’s head was so bad that he began to think he might throw up. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and crouched, his aching head against the cool dirt. The two Jenkins children fell silent.
When he could, Colin turned around and sat up, but even that careful movement made the world swim and he groaned loudly. At this new sound the stranger in the hooded cape moved toward him, growling quietly as if in reply and raising a menacing hand. The face in the hood was smeared with dirt so that Colin could see little more than staring eyes and bared teeth, but the large rock in the creature’s dirty paw made things clear: this was the bastard who had smashed in his skull. And if this spawn of the Fault Line wanted to do it again, there wasn’t much Colin could do to stop it. He raised trembling hands in front of his face.
“No! Don’t hit him again!” cried Lucinda.
The crouching shape stopped and cocked its head like a dog when its name was called-hearing but not quite understanding. “ Na krut? ” it asked. It was a girl, or at least the voice sounded like it. “ Na krut? ”
“Nah, I guess not,” Tyler said. “Don’t krut him.” He laughed a little, which only made Colin ache to hit him again. “Hey, I speak cave language!”
“Cave language?” Lucinda asked.
“Yeah, you’ll never guess where I’ve just been, Luce. I think it was the ice age. It wasn’t very easy getting back, either-I’m still not quite sure how I did it.”
For a moment Colin forgot the throbbing misery of his head. Tyler’s words rang in his thoughts like a sudden thunderclap. The ice age? Was that what the Jenkins kid had just said? That he’d gone somewhere, not just been around when this prehistoric murderess had washed up out of some backwater of time?
“Yeah, that’s where the girl’s from,” Tyler went on excitedly. “Her name is Last One, or at least that’s what she told me when she could still talk. Do you think she’ll learn how again? She sure took care of Junior Doctor Evil.” He turned toward Colin. “Hey, Needle, had enough? You step to me, you better step up strong.”
“Spare me your trashy hip-hop video dialogue,” Colin told him, but inside he was suddenly very frightened. Was it true? Could Tyler Jenkins navigate the Fault Line without an instrument? This could change everything. Even if Colin’s grand scheme worked out, the one he had spent months planning, Gideon would probably still prefer these stupid, heedless kids. It was unfair beyond belief! They had to go-they’d ruin everything. “You’ve gone too far this time, Jenkins,” Colin snarled. “Gideon is going to have you both out of here by tomorrow morning.”
“Colin, please,” said Lucinda. “Whatever we did wrong, we’re sorry. Tyler, what are you talking about? Ice age? Where did she come from, really?”
“I told you, I went to the ice age… I think. Anyway, it was totally snowy, and there was this giant monster bear, and she killed it with a spear.” He shook his head as though even he was having trouble believing it all. “First I was exploring the silo and I… I fell through. Through something. We were right, Lucinda-that’s where the Breach is, or the Fault Line, or whatever Octavio Tinker called it. It’s a cave underneath the silo. It’s like a hole in time or something!”