Mystics 3-Book Collection (65 page)

Her golden weapon rocketed through the air
and whacked the two Alphas on their heads. Their eyes rolled in the
back of their heads. They tripped and crashed to the ground.

But then, from nowhere, came a flash of
green light.

Zoey screamed as a hot green whip wrapped
itself around her leg.

She looked up and recognized an Alpha man
with dull eyes and a gray beard. He was the same one she had kicked
in the leg when she had been captured by Xenor. He had acquired the
Indiana Jones whip since then. He had moved up in the world, no
doubt.

He sneered at her. “Told you I was going to
kill you, you ugly little redhead.”

He yanked his whip and pulled. Zoey resisted
the urge to scream as she staggered forward. But he had made the
mistake of letting her arms free.

Zoey shot her boomerang like a golden
Frisbee, and it slashed the skin on his face.

She caught it back and threw it again, but
the man ducked, and slammed his baton into her chest. She jerked
away, but the whip’s hold on her tightened until she could hardly
feel her leg.

The man was upon her again, and closed his
finger around her throat.

Zoey whacked him as hard as she could on the
back of the head with her metal pliers.

The man stiffened. He dropped his whip and
collapsed to the ground.

“Guess you didn’t kill me after all.”

Zoey pried the whip from her leg and ran
towards the hundreds of sickly-looking mystics who worked on the
wall. They were as she remembered them from before; bleeding,
half-starved, and covered in dirt.

A thunder blast shook the ground.

The mystics stopped and turned. A great big
cloud of silver dust formed above the middle of the village.

“Good boy, Simon,” said Zoey.

At first none of them paid any attention to
her. They stood still and stared in astonishment at the cloud from
the explosion. Then they noticed the girl with the red hair.

Zoey ran to the closest prisoner.

“Quick,” she urged, “show me your hands. I’m
here to help you. I’m going to free all of you.”

She raised her pliers.

The enslaved mystics just stood there and
stared. “You’re here to
free
us?”

“Yes,” said Zoey.

She moved closer and cut the bonds of the
poor mystic who was closest to her.

He lifted his hands, and tears swelled in
his three eyes.

“Here,” she handed him a second pair of
pliers. “It’ll go faster if you help me. We don’t have much
time.”

When the other mystics realized what was
happening, they all gathered around and held up their chains.

Zoey and the mystic worked fast. But it
wasn’t as easy as she had first thought, and after cutting about
thirty chains she could feel blisters forming on the inside of her
hand. She was glad the mystic she had first freed was stronger and
faster at cutting the chains than she was. All the mystics on the
east wall were free in a few minutes.

“ZOEY!”

Tristan and Simon rushed her way.

“Did you see my awesome explosion?” said
Simon, a wide grin spreading on his face.

“No, but I saw the cloud,” said Zoey. “Well
done, agent Bond.”

Simon beamed. “It was totally
Hollywood-worthy. Maybe if I don’t make it as an agent, I could be
a movie producer!”

He was covered in soot, and his mustache was
gone.

Hundreds of freed mystics ran behind
Tristan, who had the biggest smile on his face she’d ever seen.

“It’s done,” he said proudly. “I got all of
them—you?”

He looked around at the mystics near
Zoey.

Zoey matched his grin and took his hand. “We
did it—”

“HALT! STOP!”

An army of Alphas charged towards them.

“I knew we’d see the red-morons soon
enough,” said Simon. He pulled out another silver egg.

Zoey reached out and lowered his arm. “Wait,
look!”

Hundreds of recently-freed mystics turned
and charged the oncoming Alphas. They roared in fury as they
destroyed the Alpha army. Then they cheered and ran for the
exit.

Zoey and her friends joined in the cheer and
ran alongside them. Zoey was so overwhelmed with emotion that her
eyes burned. She let her tears flow. She felt wonderful.

When she had passed the front entrance, she
stopped and turned.

On the very top of the hill, above the Alpha
village, she could see the silhouette of a woman standing in the
grounds of the great manor house. Even from this distance, Zoey
could imagine the glare on Mrs. Dupont’s ugly face.

Zoey raised her arm and waved.

Then she turned and ran to catch up to her
friends.

“Was I dreaming or were you just waving at
someone?” asked Simon when she reached them.

“You weren’t dreaming,” she answered, still
smiling. She watched the mystics they had freed as they disappeared
into the forest. She could barely make out the blue light that came
from deep in the woods, but she was too far away to see the giant
portal.

“Where do you think they’ll all go?”

Tristan shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that they’re
free
.”

Zoey moved her hand and found his. He
squeezed it gently, and an understanding passed between them.

Simon was excited.

“Well, I’m ready for another adventure. So,
where are we going now? We can still catch what’s left of the
celebration. I’ve got a few new gags I’d like to try on Stuart
King.”

“For now, we go back home, and pray Director
Hicks won’t murder us for sneaking out of his uber-important
ceremony,” answered Zoey.

It had been worth it. Freeing all those
mystics was better than receiving a shield. She knew Director Hicks
would be disappointed, but she was sure if he knew the real reason
she had skipped the celebration, he’d be proud of them.

Suddenly, more red uniforms spilled out of
the entrance and charged towards them.

“Here come the reinforcements,” said
Tristan. “Let’s get out of here.”

They pulled out their DSMs and stood
together. They angled their mirrors to get all their
reflections.

Zoey took a breath. She paused for a moment
and then said, “Tonight we go back to the Hive, but after that I’m
going to get my mom. I’m going to go to the
Nexus
.”

And they vanished.

MYSTICS

*
Book Three *

THE NEXUS

Mystics Book 3

By

Kim Richardson

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Kim Richardson on Smashwords

The Nexus, Mystics Book 3:

Copyright © 2014 by Kim Richardson

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you
share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it,
or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return
to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the author's work.

Chapter 1

A Giant Pain in
the Neck

T
he giant’s grin
revealed a mouthful of rotten teeth.

“You die. Me eat girl.”

Its rough, scratchy voice rasped like wind
through rock.

Zoey raised her boomerang.

“And I thought giants were supposed to be
big and dumb. Clearly, the agency was wrong about you, weren’t they
big guy? You’re not a brainless fridge after all, are you? No,
you’re practically a genius.”

The giant’s wet, pink eyes gave no
indication that it understood.

It stood about twelve feet high and was as
large and thick as a redwood tree. A mass of wiry straw-colored
hair decorated with jewels and precious stones fell from the top of
his small, flat head. It looked like a very ugly Christmas tree.
More jewels were tied around his muscular bare arms, and he wore
thick rings around his three fingers and three toes. He was naked
except for a kilt-like fur skirt. Skulls and bones hung from his
belt, and his skin was dark green and rough like tree bark. If
trees could have offspring, Zoey figured this giant would be a
pretty close match.

“Me eat girl,” repeated the giant.

Zoey rolled her eyes. “I heard you the first
time—”

“Zoey,
seriously
?”

Simon’s tousled blonde head appeared from
behind a rock.

“We’re not here to chat, you know.”

Simon emerged clumsily from behind the large
boulder. He wore a simple black jacket, a white t-shirt, and jeans.
He looked even more lanky and goofy than usual because he had grown
over the holidays and still wasn’t in total control of his
limbs.

“How long are you going to stand here and
wait for it to smash your brains in? They have a reputation for
being ruthless and unpredictable . . . and they
kill
for
fun
. I’d also like to point out that these mystics are
meat
eaters . . . .”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Besides, the
Mutes are starting to notice the giant. We have to hurry and get
out of here. Let’s fry this birdbrain and split.”

Zoey narrowed her eyes. “I wonder how the
Mutes see him? You think they see him as like a big tree?”

“Who cares? Zoey, come on! Enough small
talk; we need to get a move on.”

“I know. I know,” muttered Zoey.

She looked out over the beaches of Houghton
Bay, Wellington, New Zealand. The ocean breeze smelled like the
fish market near one of her foster homes. But the spectacular view
couldn’t lift her spirits.

Mrs. Dupont had successfully completed the
Great Junction, and the Agencies around the world were in a panic.
What was worse, Zoey’s mother was still imprisoned in the
Nexus.

Zoey had tried to transport herself directly
to her mother, but she couldn’t open a doorway to the Nexus. Other
than the fact that Mrs. Dupont had used Zoey’s blood, Zoey didn’t
know how the horrible Mrs. Dupont had opened the portal.

In the end, Zoey realized her only hope to
reach her mother was to
use
the portal Mrs. Dupont had
created. She thought of nothing else.

After Mrs. Dupont’s escape, the Operative
programs had gone into overdrive, and the entire year’s schooling
had been crammed into four excruciating weeks, without
any
breaks. Then Operatives had been sent on assignments on their
own
, without supervision. Things were
that
bad.

They had been elevated to OSC, Operative
Special Clearance, and given a golden badge with the letters OSC
embroidered in red thread to wear so that other agents would see
that they were officially agents. And while Zoey did not wear the
Shield of Valor she had been awarded, Simon wore his OSC badge
proudly on his chest. The little piece of cloth gave him extra
courage, like an adrenaline shot.

Zoey had been saddened when she was paired
with Simon and not Tristan. Although Simon was her best friend, and
she was glad to be paired with him—he
wasn’t
Tristan.

She did her best to hide her
disappointment.

She smiled in spite of herself and turned
her attention back to the giant.

“You’ve got two choices, Mr. Giant. You
either come with us willingly, or we take you by force. Your
choice. What’ll it be?”

The giant licked its lips, and strings of
yellow spit flew from the corners of his mouth. “You red like
tomato. I love tomato! Me eat tomato now!”

Zoey glowered and flattened her hair with
her left hand. “Who you callin’ tomato, tree bark—”

“Move over
tomato
,” interrupted
Simon, “I’ve got this.”

He stepped in beside Zoey and faced the
giant. He puffed out his chest and said, “See this badge, giant?
That’s OSC—Operative Special Clearance. You know what that
means?”

He didn’t wait for the giant to answer and
continued, “That means
we,
me and Zoey, have the
authority
to bring you in. By the Code, Section 3052.”

“There’s
no
such code,” whispered
Zoey.

Simon leaned towards Zoey and whispered
back, “But
he
doesn’t know that.”

He raised his voice. “Giants trespassing on
Earth without letting
us
know first,” he tapped his badge,
“and endangering the lives of the humans are breaking the code.
Which means we’re here to arrest you, big guy. Hands up!”