“He did?”
Sato nodded.
“That’s-” Sofia shrieked as something grabbed her ankle. She looked down to see a slick yellowed hand gripped around her, attached to one of the fangen, crawling out of the river. Behind it she saw another’s head pop out of the water.
Before she could react, Sato kicked down with his foot, breaking the miserable thing’s hand with a hideous crunch. It squealed and splashed back into the water, just as Sato got down on his knees and shot the other one with a muted thump from his Sound Slicer. The creature disappeared into the black water.
Sofia reached down and helped Sato back to his feet, then dragged him away from the river, seeing no signs of other creatures-for the moment.
The breaches in the doors were cracking wider, almost big enough for one of the monsters to squeeze through. A sickly arm reached inside, a glimmering silvery globe clutched in its hand. Sofia was about to shout a warning when Mothball whacked the thing’s arm with her huge stick.
The tall woman turned around, her face on fire with rage, yelling at the others. “Run away from the door! All of you!”
Paul didn’t argue, turning immediately to run down the dark tunnel. He grabbed Tick’s arm as he passed, half dragging him along since Tick was still focused intently on the Barrier Wand.
“Come on!” Paul yelled. “We need to get out of their reach or they’re going to fry us for dinner. Just a little farther in!”
Tick finally snapped his concentration and broke into a full run behind Paul. “I’ve almost got it,” he said, panting. “Just one more dial.”
The last word had barely crossed his lips when a horrible explosion of cracking wood boomed and echoed down the dark stone tunnel. The silver ball had been some kind of bomb.
The breach was complete.
~
Tick tried to ignore the noise of screaming and howling fangen pouring through the shattered doors behind them. Knowing he had no time left, he quit running and knelt down again, bringing the Barrier Wand up to his eye level. “Everyone come here!” he shouted. “Grab the Wand!”
He focused on the bottom dial-the Whattzit. He turned it to the correct position, then glanced over the other six controls, verifying each of them one last time. The other Realitants had gathered around him, leaning over to grasp the Wand in different locations, being careful not to cover up or bump the dials and switches.
The nightmarish sounds of the onrushing fangen grew louder. Sato used his free hand to shoot with his Sound Slicer, keeping some of them at bay, but Tick knew it was only a matter of time.
“Everyone ready?” Tick shouted over the cackles and war cries of the fangen and the teeth-jolting thumps of Sato’s lone weapon.
“Do it!” Mothball answered for everyone. “Be quick about it!”
Unable to prevent a smile from spreading across his face, Tick pushed the golden button on top of the Barrier Wand.
Nothing happened.
The haunting chorus of horrible sounds continued. Tick and the others were still trapped inside the Lemon Fortress.
Tick pushed the button again, then again, triggering his finger up and down several times.
Nothing.
“What’s wrong, Tick?” Sofia yelled.
“Dude, hurry up!” Paul added.
Tick ignored them, studying the controls to see if he’d made a mistake. One by one, he quickly scanned them, matching their positions with the image burned inside his mind. Everything was right.
He pushed the button again, with the same result.
No, no, no, he thought. Not after all we just went through. You will work. You will work!
“Tick!” Sofia yelled, swatting him on the shoulders in panic.
Tick could hear the creatures coming, could feel them.
Focusing, funneling the surroundings out of his mind and heart, Tick gripped the Barrier Wand, staring at it like he could melt it with his eyes. They’d come so far…
He felt that strange reservoir of heat deep in his stomach bubbling to life. He’d tapped into it twice before and now he reached for it eagerly, letting the warmth flood through his entire body, filling him with certainty.
Tick shouted into the air, louder than he’d ever shouted anything in his whole life.
“YOU WILL WORK YOU STUPID PIECE OF HUNK-A-JUNK!”
He closed his eyes and pushed the button one last time.
Tick instantly felt a tingle shoot down his back and the world around him fell into dead silence.
Chapter 50
What do you mean, it worked?”
Mistress Jane glared at Frazier Gunn, who knelt before her chair by the window, like a criminal begging for his life. Surprisingly, Jane felt more intrigued than angry about this new development. Maybe she would let Gunn live after all.
“I don’t know how it happened, Mistress,” Gunn grumbled, sweat covering his face. “The Realitants disappeared and took the Barrier Wand with them.”
Jane reached over and lifted the Chi’karda Drive from where she’d placed it on the stone ledge of the windowsill. “ How, exactly, could they do that when I’m holding the heart of the Wand in my hands?”
“George must’ve winked them out somehow.” Gunn kept his eyes fixed on the floor.
“Impossible,” Jane said immediately. “I have firsthand reports that George’s Wand broke in half. Plus, you’re the one who said their plan was to go back to the ancient Plague battlefield and get winked hours from now.”
“Then how did-”
“SILENCE!” Jane had endured this stupid man for quite long enough. “Leave me. I don’t want to see you for a very long time.” She dismissed him with a wave of her hand.
“Yes, Mistress.”
Jane watched him get to his feet and shuffle away, murmuring incessantly his thanks for her gracious decision to let him live. He was lucky-losing the Wand was a major loss; its parts and mechanisms were equally as important as the Chi’karda Drive itself-but she had much more important things flying through the recesses of her brilliant mind.
How had they done it? How had they manipulated the Chi’karda powerfully enough without the Drive? And in the heart of her personal fortress at that? Did it have something to do with the twisted version of the mysterious force that existed in the Thirteenth Reality? Jane tapped a sharp fingernail against her lips, thinking.
Did one of those bratty kids have some kind of special power over the Chi’karda? Many questions indeed.
The implications were vast, the possibilities endless.
Despite the setback, Mistress Jane smiled.
To any outside observer, it would have seemed as though Tick and his friends had just won the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NBA Championship in one fell swoop. Having been through so much, and after having hundreds of creepy yellow fangen within inches of tearing them to pieces, winking away to complete safety seemed reason enough to jump up and down, screaming and hugging and cheering and then to start all over again.
“What took you so long!” Paul yelled, whacking Tick on the back with a huge smile on his face.
“I was trying to decide if I wanted to take you or leave you behind,” Tick replied, grinning.
They celebrated inside a room very similar to the one they’d left in the Bermuda Triangle, though a much smaller version-a couple of couches, a chair, a cold brick fireplace. A single window was placed directly across from the fireplace, and it looked out upon a dry palette of colors-oranges, reds, browns.
Tick brought his giddiness back to reason and walked over to get a better look at the view. Beyond their room was a huge drop-off that led to a brown strip of river far below. Sheer walls of striated rock rose up from the valley on all sides, stretching in all directions as far as Tick could see. This was the satellite location Master George had said he’d send them to?
It was a canyon. No, it was the canyon.