Ignition Point (4 page)

Thom woke to a boom echoing off the wall above him. His heart pounded at the unexpected noise, and the sound of running footsteps below him.

Squinting, Thom peered down the rows of benches to the floor below.

Alex had stopped in the middle of the room, his box of Taser pieces still cradled in his arms. His head swung as he searched for Thom.

No. Not Thom. What was he doing?

Alex’s chest rose and fell, and he was sweating enough that Thomas could see the sheen on his skin even from a distance. He wasn’t looking around for someone. He was looking around for some
where
. He ran across the auditorium now, to grab the handle on one of the office doors and twist frantically. He moved down the row, trying each, his head turning back twice to check the wide doors behind him that he’d came in through.

Was he hiding from someone?
Alex
? Who could have Alex hiding?

“Alex?” Thom called down, half-rising from the bench.

Alex jumped, and his gaze flashed up, scanning the rows of benches. When he found Thom, his eyes widened, and he shook his head. It was a small movement. Alex was scared.

Now, so was Thomas.

“Get down here, Thom.” Alex’s strangled, low shout carried easily to Thom. “Hurry. Hurry!”

Thom frowned, but he couldn’t help obeying.

Something was wrong.

Alex ran to the double doors leading out of the auditorium first, risking a quick peek out the narrow windows before meeting Thom at the base of the final set of stairs. He grabbed Thom’s arm and pulled him along, head turning again as he searched for a new way out. The only other doors were those under the seating. They led into the showers the boys were expected to use after the indoor fitness classes that made use of the huge room behind them.

“Alex?” Thomas didn’t know why he whispered his friend’s name. The only thought that swirled through his mind was something was very wrong. Alex didn’t hide. Not from anyone. Not even the older Wards. Not even the ones who tried to bully him over class work.

“Shut up,” Alex hissed. He dragged Thomas across the wide shower room, head still turning, searching. He was looking for somewhere to hide.

Thomas dug in his heels. “No.” He needed to know what was going on, although he believed Alex’s genuine distress enough to keep his own voice low. “Alex, what’s going on?”

Alex turned back. His dark eyes were wide. “We don’t have time—”

“Alex.”

Alex shook his head. “After you left, Sam told me some things. About what happened to him. A long time ago, the Council—they did stuff to his girlfriend to get him to cooperate. I didn’t want to believe him. I didn’t want to. But afterward, I needed to think, so I snuck out to the garden.”

The garden was a long, walled area topside, extending back and away from the rear of the entrance to what seemed a nondescript building in the middle of a western wasteland. The building was just the top of their school, burrowed deep into the earth, the remnant of some long-ago military base. An oasis in the desert, it was the exclusive province of the Guardians that ran the school. Before Thomas had a chance to respond, to ask if that violation was why Alex was running, he was stunned by his friend’s next revelation.

“The WardMaster was out there, with Councilor Five and Guardian Michelsen and some agent I didn’t recognize. And
Marreau
, standing by waiting on them,” Alex’s voice dripped with contempt. Marreau was one of the worst of the Senior Wards who bullied. “And they were talking about you, Thom. They were—” Alex’s voice cracked. He swallowed.

Talking about him? Why would the Councilor of Zone Five be interested in Thomas?

“They were talking about you, and the Scavs, and how the role the Scavs play can’t get out. The role the Scavs play.” Alex’s voice throbbed with betrayal. “They do use them. They have a
pact
with them.” He shook his head. “But they were mostly concerned with how well you’re reintegrating and whether you know anything, whether you remember anything. They said you could be a danger, and they were quizzing the agent to be sure you were too sick to know what he was. They said—Thom, they said if you remember then you have to be removed. I don’t think they meant to be sent off to some other Zone.”

Alex shook his head again, the movement nearly constant now. “I tried to sneak away, but I tripped over a rock behind me.” Alex’s face reflected his disgust at himself. “They heard me go down. I ran for the door. Marreau came after me. I don’t think he’s actually seen me, but he’s not giving up. It’s like he’s tracking me. I don’t know what they’ll do if he catches me and takes me back.”

“Yes, you do.” Thom was surprised at how calm his voice was. “They’ll do the same thing to you that they’ll do to me.”

The door to the auditorium outside boomed closed. Both boys started, and their eyes met.

“There’s no way out of this room.” Thomas surprised himself. His low voice was calm and clear.

Alex nodded. “It was a stupid choice. I wasn’t thinking.” He looked at the floor and whispered again, “Can’t ever happen again.”

Thom felt his lips twist into a smile. “May not have to worry about that, Alex.”

Alex raised his eyes. Thomas was surprised by the venom and determination in them.

“Yes, I will. We both will.” Alex looked at the box in his hands, then at the Taser still clutched in Thom’s hand. “That thing work?”

Thom looked down. “It should. I’m sure it does. You want me to stun him?”

“No,” Alex said. “I don’t want him to see us.” He ran his teeth over his lip, chewing in thought. “But how else can we use it?”

Thomas thought back to something he had done once—only once, and not with a Taser—to save his Neo-barb foster brother from a lion attack. The charge from a Taser didn’t amplify in water, they’d been told that when they’d been given the weapons to build. But could Thomas boost it?

He could.

He had to.

It was Thomas’s turn to drag Alex away. He headed for the showers, rushing from tap to tap and turning them on full blast, at their hottest setting.

“Thom, Tasers don’t—”

“It will this time. I can make it. I can boost it. I’ve done something similar once. Help me. We need water on the floor and steam so he can’t see us.”

Alex hurried to help him. Mist was already forming around the sprays of heated water and rising from where it hit the cold tile floor. In minutes, it would be billowing in the shower area.

Did they have minutes?

“Good. How can I make it look like one of us is standing in the corner? Not exactly. Just a glimpse through the steam.” Thom spoke rapidly now, the stress and fear hyping him.

Alex glanced back into the locker area then stepped out to effortlessly lift one of the long wooden benches. He brought it back, setting it on its end and leaning it in the corner of the shower room where it would be clearly visible by anyone searching the locker room outside the wide entrance to the showers.

Thom nodded with excitement. He leaned over to balance the Taser on a support post. It wouldn’t matter if it fell after he set it off. All he needed was the initial spark of electricity to hit the water, and he could take it from there.

“Okay.” Thom nodded. “Go hide.”

“What? I’m not leaving you to—”

“Alex. I have to be able to see the Taser, and I have to be pretty close. I’m small enough to fit in a locker. You’re not. So go hide.”

Alex swallowed. He nodded once and turned to disappear into the far end of the locker room and hide behind a row of shelves. Thom moved quickly to a locker facing the showers. He did have to see. He could do some things—overcharging circuits and boosting currents—others couldn’t. But he wasn’t good at a distance. He climbed in, pulling the door closed behind himself and trying to regulate his breathing.

Thom peered through the slats and realized that the bench was too clearly a bench. He needed Marreau to see the shape but not recognize it. He needed the light, but it had to be dimmer. Thom glanced up at the lights in the ceiling. He focused…

It was too late. The sound of the door handle releasing and the door opening echoed through the mostly empty room. Footsteps sounded as someone slowly entered.

Thom couldn’t see him. Not yet. And he needed Marreau to not see the bench. Thom focused again, bore down with his will.

The lights went out. It was darkness so complete that Thom saw bright flares of color as his eyes missed the lights.

There was a mean laugh at the door. “Uh, uh, uh.”

Marreau was teasing them. The lights flashed back on. The rush of current through circuits was all Thomas needed. He was ready, focused on particular lights all around himself, and all but one light in the shower room. As the lights went back on, there were flashes, one after the other. Sparks flared out in the suddenly dimmer room. But for the sound of tinkling glass as a few of the bulbs burst under Thomas’s surge of power there was silence.

Thomas leaned to peer out the slatted opening again. The bench was a dim, dark outline swathed in steam now, a darker shape in the dim room beyond.

After a moment of silence, Thom heard Marreau laugh again. There was a repeated grunting thumping sound and then a clang as metal fell to the ground. A moment later, metal whined against metal. Thomas wished he could see through the rear of the locker. He had no idea what Marreau was doing. Why would it sound like metal sliding through metal?

Thom leaned his head back and his breath eased from his throat as he realized. Marreau had just barred the door. He’d locked them in, slowed them enough that even if they got away from him again, he’d be able to see who it was he was chasing as they pulled free whatever he’d used to bar the door. He was smart.

They were smarter. He wouldn’t see them pull the bar if he was immobilized on the floor in the shower.

Thom strained to hear. Why couldn’t he hear movement? Where were Marreau’s footsteps?

Sudden movement through the slats made Thomas pull back, holding his breath. Marreau moved past, his bare feet making no sound. He’d pulled off his boots.

He stalked them now. When he reached the edge of Thomas’s locker, he turned and peered into the showers, his head tilted.

Thomas heard a soft huff of laughter from the man’s throat. Because he recognized the bench? Or because he believed he’d cornered them?

Thom thought his head would explode. He was still holding his breath, afraid to breathe with the Senior Ward so close.

Marreau moved away, easing into the darkened, steamy shower room, glancing around the locker room one last time before he stepped into the billowy steam clouds in the dim, tiled area.

Thom’s breath eased from him as he reached out to the Taser. A little closer. He needed Marreau just a little closer.

The Senior Ward stiffened. He’d recognized the bench.

Thom fired the Taser, and the barbs shot out across the showers. Only one caught Marreau in the shoulder as he angrily turned to leave the room. The rest fell into the water pooled across the floor.

It didn’t matter.

Thom gasped as he reached out to the Dust, straining to force it to do exactly as he needed.

A surge! A surge! Bright and hot!

Marreau, who’d grunted and stiffened at the initial contact, was brushing clumsily at his shoulder, trying to get the single barb out of his flesh. Now he went rigid. His body rose up on his toes, and Thom heard popping and crackling.

The arch of his stiffened back toppled him over. The man fell into the hissing water, and his body convulsed.

Thomas waited ten seconds, watching in horror. Fifteen. Twenty seconds.

He blinked, releasing the Dust from his will.

The crackling died away. Thomas was suddenly aware of his breath rasping in and out. His own neck was rigid with effort and fear. He reached down and fumbled with the catch, trying to let himself out.

The locker door swung open. Alex stood before him, eyes wide, his hand still holding the door he’d swung aside.

“Dust, Thomas.” The words were a strangled combination of admiration and horror.

They stared at each other.

“We should go,” Thomas finally managed, “before he wakes up.”

Alex turned to look over his shoulder at the still man on the floor, mist easing itself around him. “Do you think he’s waking up?”

“Yeah.” Thomas wasn’t sure. He didn’t think he’d killed him. “I didn’t kill him.”

“Too bad.” Alex’s voice was hard.

Thomas slid out of the locker, closing it behind himself. He walked quickly to the entrance to the showers.

“Thom, no!”

Thomas looked back at Alex. “I stopped the current. It’s fine.”

He made his way across the room, avoiding the spray from the showers. He pulled the dangling Taser back up by the taut wires stretched over the thin beam of the bench. It hadn’t fallen to the floor, suspended by the sole wire that had lodged in Marreau. He gathered them now, cautiously approaching the Senior Ward. He plucked the barb from Marreau’s shoulder.

There was a swirling red cloud spreading from Marreau’s head through the water. He hadn’t killed him with the charge. The man might’ve died from the fall, though.