Emily’s face lit up. “Yes!” she said. “And I know just what I want to see.”
“Nothing with princesses or dancing,” Josh warned her.
Emily made a disgusted face. “What do I look like, an eight-year-old?” she said. “I want to see that documentary about the sharks they found in the Hell Sea on Mars.”
Josh groaned. “Haven’t you seen that, like, twelve times?” he asked.
“Thirteen,” Emily corrected. “But I can watch it over and over. Those sharks are amazing. I mean, come on, they practically have lava for blood. What’s not to love?”
“All right,” said Josh. “We can watch your stupid sharks. Now get out of here. I have some stuff to do.”
When Emily was gone, Josh lay back down and closed his eyes. Why had he and Charlie been so careless? Maybe it was time for them to just tell people they were together. Charlie said it was against Clatter’s rules, but maybe he would make an exception.
Then again, the mood on the team had been a little strange. Stash still hadn’t come back, and not only had Bess been injured in that afternoon’s game, Freya had taken a bite when a meatbag hiding underwater in one of the sewers had jumped up and grabbed her from behind. So now they were down three team members. Maybe it’s not the best time to try to bend the rules, Josh decided.
Then there was the Firecracker situation. It had been really hard for Josh to ignore his best friend, especially since they had a couple of classes together. But after Firecracker had tried to talk to him a few times and Josh had made it clear he wasn’t going to talk, they had each started pretending that the other didn’t exist. In class they sat as far apart as possible, and Josh had started eating lunch in an unused classroom in the school’s lower level. Sometimes he had to share it with one or two of the stoners who liked to spend the lunch hour high on virtual-reality drugs, but they were mostly okay.
He knew that he was partly to blame for what had happened between him and Firecracker. It was only natural that Firecracker was curious. But now it was too late to apologize.
Or is it? he asked himself. Why couldn’t he tell Firecracker he was sorry? He didn’t have to tell him everything. He could just tell him about Charlie, and say that he was afraid she would get in trouble if anyone knew about them. That was sort of a good explanation for Josh’s behavior that day.
He got up, went to his desk, and punched Firecracker’s number into the com terminal. After three notifications the screen lit up and Josh found himself looking at the face of Firecracker’s uncle, who he and Poppy lived with. He was a timid, nervous man, but when he saw Josh he smiled.
“Josh!” he said, sounding relieved.
“Hi, Mr. Reilly,” said Josh. “Is Firecracker there?”
A worried look crossed the man’s face. “No,” he answered. “Isn’t he there with you?”
“No,” Josh said.
“He said he was staying over at your house tonight to work on a project for school,” Mr. Reilly said.
Josh didn’t know what to say. Why would Firecracker tell his uncle he was staying over at Josh’s house? More important, where had he really gone? It wasn’t like him to lie to his uncle. But Josh didn’t want to upset Mr. Reilly, so he said, “I remember now. He was going to stop by our friend Mac’s house and try out a new game. Then he’s coming here. Duh. I totally forgot.”
Mr. Reilly sighed, visibly relieved. “That’s what I thought,” he said.
“I’m sorry I bothered you,” Josh said. “Have a good night, Mr. Reilly.”
“You too, Josh. Tell Peter to call me when he gets in.”
“Sure thing,” said Josh, and cut off the comlink. He leaned back in his desk chair.
Things weren’t adding up. Firecracker wouldn’t just disappear. But now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen him at school that day either. He’d assumed Firecracker was sick or had a dentist’s appointment or something. Now he worried that something bad might have happened to him.
A terrible thought came to him… but it was the only possible answer.
“Charlie told Scrawl about Firecracker following me,” Josh whispered as a cold, hard knot gripped his insides.
16
“It’s Josh.”
“Hey,” Charlie said. “I was going to send you a video message later.”
“Did you tell anyone about Firecracker following me?” Josh asked her.
A flicker of fear crossed Charlie’s face. She recovered quickly, but Josh had seen it. “You did, didn’t you?”
“What makes you think that?” said Charlie. She cleared her throat.
“Firecracker is missing,” Josh said. “And I think Scrawl has something to do with it.”
“Scrawl?” said Charlie. “What would Scrawl have to do with Firecracker?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Josh answered.
He watched Charlie’s face on the com screen, waiting for her reply. She looked down. For a long time she didn’t say anything. When she looked up again her eyes were clouded with fear. “I need to talk to you,” she said. “Not on com. In person.”
“Why can’t we talk here?” Josh asked.
“We just can’t,” said Charlie. “Please, Josh. Just meet me. I might know something about Firecracker.”
Josh hesitated. If Charlie knew something about his friend’s disappearance, why couldn’t she just tell him?
“Where?” he asked Charlie.
“Do you know where the Church of the Sorrowful Mother is?” Charlie answered.
“Yes,” said Josh.
“Meet me there in half an hour,” Charlie told him.
Josh hesitated for a moment. Should he trust Charlie? He wanted to. He needed to. But now he didn’t know. If she had told Scrawl about Firecracker, then how could he believe anything she told him?
He looked at the clock. It was seven-thirty. If he hurried, he could get to Three Sisters Square and back before ten. He had no choice. He grabbed his jacket and knit hat and left his room. Nobody was in the living room, so he didn’t bother telling anyone he was going out. He would be back before they noticed anyway.
It was raining again, and he wished he’d remembered to bring an umbrella. He pulled his hat down, but still he got wet. He didn’t care, though. He just wanted to get to the church and talk to Charlie. Hopefully she would know where Firecracker was.
He decided to take the hoverbus. Because of the rain, most people were heading underground. Only a few chose to stand at the curb getting wet. But Josh saw the blinking blue lights of a city hoverbus only a block away, so he joined the small group at the stop. He watched the bus approach, the jets on its underside emitting streams of warm air that kept it floating several feet above the street. In the cold the air turned to steam, giving the bus the appearance of an angry dragon. When it came to a stop, Josh got on and took a seat near the back door.
The ride took twenty minutes. It was raining even harder when Josh got off at Three Sisters Square, but the Church of the Sorrowful Mother wasn’t far. Josh ran across the square, which was filled with penitents standing in the rain mumbling the strange chants of their religion. Their eyes were closed, and they took no notice of him as he ran up the stairs and passed through the huge stone archway above which the Mother stood, her hands covering her eyes.
Inside, the church smelled of incense and old wax. Oil lamps, centuries old, hung on long chains from the vaulted ceiling, their flames sending up plumes of black smoke. All along the stone sides of the sanctuary, stained-glass windows depicted strange scenes from the life of the Mother. Josh had studied some of them in his religious history class at school, but he had long since forgotten what they were.