Did I just watch Sarah turn into Setrákus Ra? I’ve never seen him, but I’ve heard enough to have a pretty good idea of what, or who, I’m looking at.
The door bursts open and I am momentarily blinded by a flash of blue light. The next thing I know, a dozen Mog soldiers rush in, cannons up and ready.
I try to turn myself invisible, but nothing happens. I don’t have time to figure out why. I grab the cannon I had set down to help Sarah, jump up, and fire it at one of the Mogs. He falls to my feet in a cloud of ash. I keep shooting, killing two more, but as I turn to find my next victim, I’m yanked backwards and choked by my pendant. I can turn my head enough to see I’m being held by the beast who was once Sarah. He spins me around, swats the cannon out of my hands with his other massive paw and yanks me towards his face. Up this close, I can see his dark skin is a sea of small scars, like he’s been raked by razor blades.
I focus my mind on lifting my weapon off the ground but it just sits there. None of my Legacies are working! Without my Legacies, I’m vulnerable. I’m worse than vulnerable. I’ve got nothing to fight with. But I am not giving up.
‘Tell me where they are!’ Setrákus Ra roars. He pulls my chain tighter around my throat. I watch his purple scar brighten as he asks, ‘Where are they, Number Six?’
‘It’s too late,’ I whisper as bravely as I can. ‘We’re too strong now and we’re coming for you. Lorien will live again and we will stop you.’
The slap is so hard that I can’t feel the side of my face and my ears are ringing. I force myself to keep staring at him. He curls his cracked lips to reveal two rows of sharp, crooked teeth. He’s so close that my vision is slightly blurred, so I look for something I can concentrate on. I pick a tooth that’s broken in half and leaking a thick black liquid. I’m not sure why, but this has the strange effect of making him less scary. It’s just so gross.
‘Tell me where you’re supposed to meet Number Four in three days.’
‘On the moon,’ I say.
‘You will die in front of them. I will kill you myself.’
I don’t respond. I don’t acknowledge he’s even spoken as he tightens his grip. The pendant John and I found in the well in Ohio, the one that was on the massive skeleton, cuts into the back of my neck as it is pulled tighter and tighter. As he pulls the chain even more, I think of John’s face as we trained together, I see the Garde sitting around the white table on the ship and I smile. I’m proud to have been chosen by the Elders. Out of respect to them, I will not beg for my life.
‘So, there you are, Number Six.’ I know the voice immediately. Agent Purdy. I open my eyes to see an old man. He has a cast on one arm and his face is covered in bruises. When he walks towards me, I see he’s limping.
When he gets close enough, I spit at his leather shoes. Setrákus Ra laughs right into my ear.
Agent Purdy looks over my head to speak to him. ‘Did you get the information you were looking for? Do you know where they are?’
Setrákus Ra growls and I’m whipped against the wall as an answer, my knees striking the cement first. When I hit the ground, I’m immediately pulled back to my feet by the pendant chain. I can feel my ribs have taken some of the impact; I think a couple of them are cracked. I’m having difficulty breathing. I try again to use my mind to lift the cannon on the floor, but it doesn’t budge.
‘So nice of you to join us here, Six,’ Purdy says. ‘I see you’ve met Setrákus Ra.’
‘You’re a coward,’ I whisper. Legacies or no, I am going to take him down or die trying.
‘Coward? You are the one who runs from me,’ Setrákus Ra objects dismissively.
I stare hard into his maroon eyes. ‘This is cowardly. You must think you won’t be able to kill me if I am at my full power. And that is what I call a coward.’
Setrákus Ra’s scar glows again, the brightest yet. To my surprise, the chain around my neck loosens. ‘Put her with the girl,’ he says, pulling the pendant over my head. My stomach drops when I see it hanging from his hand. He looks at me, and smiles. ‘I will fight you, Six. Alone. And you will die. Very soon.’
I’m dragged out of the cell and the top of my feet sweep across the cement. Then something hard hits the back of my head. I close my eyes – better for them to think I’m out cold so it’s easier to focus on where they’re dragging me. One right and two left turns. I hear a door open and I’m pushed forward. I stumble until I hit something soft. Or until something soft hits me. I haven’t opened my eyes yet when I feel arms wrap around me. When I open my eyes I’m surprised, for the second time in an hour, to see Sarah Hart.
25
Our beige Ford Contour barrels down the highway with Nine behind the wheel. I stare at the long rows of corn in the fields and I try to picture what they’d look like from space. I can’t stop thinking about our ship sitting somewhere in the New Mexico desert. After all these years, after all the running and hiding and training, everything is nearly in place. Members of the Garde have developed their Legacies and are coming together, Setrákus Ra came to Earth to fight, and when it’s all over we will have a ship to fly us back to Lorien.
‘I’m bored,’ Nine says. ‘Tell me a story. Tell me about Sarah. How hot is she, anyway?’
‘Forget it. She’s out of your league,’ I say.
‘Four, if you could get anywhere near her, I’m pretty sure I’d have a shot. Especially in this car.’
This car. Nine let me wallow pitifully when I first saw it sitting there. I mean, given everything else that I’d seen about how Sandor and Nine had lived, it was understandable that I pictured our ride as something with a whole lot more bling to it. Turns out, looks can be deceiving. The Ford was just hiding its assets.
From the outside, the car does look like something most likely found on cinderblocks. But inside it has to be the most technologically advanced thing I’ve ever seen. I feel like James Bond. There’s a radar detector, a laser jammer, and bulletproof tinted windows. When Nine wants a break from driving, the car does the driving for him. With the push of a button, a gun turret with large barrels pops out of the hood. This, of course, is controlled with the steering wheel. Nine demonstrated all of it on a lonely stretch of highway in southern Illinois, squeezing off a few rounds at an abandoned barn. My firsthand experience of cars was limited to the beat-up pickups and other throwaways Henri found for us – the kind of cars we would have no problem ditching at the last minute. He never would have gone for something like this. There would be too much evidence if it got left behind. It just goes to show again how different each Cêpan was.
Nine takes his hands off the wheel and puts them together like he’s praying. ‘Please, I’m begging you. Just tell me again what she looks like. After this many hours of corn, I would do anything for something pretty to think about.’
I look back at the fields, lips pressed together. ‘No way.’
‘Dude, you’d think she hadn’t, you know, turned your ass in to the police. Come on! Why are you so protective?’