Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) (6 page)

Chapter 9

Ryland’s Angry: Why Am I Not Surprised?

–TANNER–

Okay, when Ryland said we got a pilot, I was picturing someone tall and strong. I was picturing a hero. You know, someone who could save our lives and all. I don’t even know what to think about Viktor. He seems too nervous to be a pilot. Clay says he’s good, so I guess he’s better than nothing.

Siberia, though? Really, Siberia was definitely not on my list of places I ever wanted to visit. The rodent guy stammers something about an ancient colony ship. He is totally excited about getting his hands on the archaic controls.

Kai perks up and asks, “The ancient ships? Like the artifacts?”

The new guy gives him a look like he has no idea what that means—which, of course, he doesn’t.

“The original colony ships?” Kai asks, getting annoyed with Viktor for the hundredth time.

The strange little man shrugs it off, ignoring the questions.

Alice’s dad, Gale, walks up to the small man and starts talking to him like he already knows him. This is weird. Marcus, Gale, and this Viktor guy look like they are old friends.

I look over at Ryland, and she is glancing between Alice and this Gale guy—totally confused.

“Alice?” Ryland says.

“Oh, yeah!” Alice says excitedly. “That’s my dad! He’s—”

She goes from crying to excited in nothing flat. What happened to stoic, emotionless Alice?

“Your dad? What’s—” Ryland interrupts.

“I’m trying to tell you,” Alice says. “He didn’t run out on me.”

Ryland wrinkles her brow.

“He was protecting me,” Alice goes on. “He was always watching.”

“What?” Ryland is still confused.

I ask, “What does that mean? Are you a Shift—”

“No, no. I’m not like you, but,” she says. “My dad is a pilot.”

“You’re from . . .” Ryland asks.

“Yeah . . . Gaia,” she says excitedly. “We’re from the same place. Well, my dad is. He escaped. I’m an Ordinary!”

“Is that how you got away?” I ask her.

“Yeah! My dad was there. He wanted to get everybody, but there were too many . . .” Alice says.

“Wait!” I stop her. “You nearly dislocated my jaw when I left Melinda at the White House, and you left our family with Shifters?”

“What were we supposed to do?” she says, now sounding apologetic. “We’re Ordinaries. You guys are the super heroes. What could we do?”

“Okay! Shut up!” Ryland spouts. “What do we do
now
?”

“Hey!” someone shouts. “You’re on TV again.”

The room quiets, and we all stare at the television. They show footage of the DC battle. When my sister flies through the air—I totally missed that part when it was really happening—the room lets out a collective cheer.

Ryland doesn’t really know how to respond to the sudden burst of admiration. She just smiles shyly and lowers her eyes. Contrary to popular belief, she doesn’t usually like to be the center of attention.

They cut to several shaky scenes of explosions and fighting. Plastered across the bottom of every shot in huge, bold letters, the TV shows: “Terrorists Attack DC.” I am completely taken by surprise when they show Devon as she shoots a small black weapon, taking out one of the Shifters in a burst of blue light. Ryland squeezes my hand, and I realize I’m not breathing.

Alice must have noticed something because she asks, “Who is that?”

I realize that she doesn’t know. How could she? We left her and my friends with Sol
é’
s parents. I stare silently back at her.

“That’s Devon,” Ryland tells her.

“Our sister,” the J’s say in unison from behind her.

I look at Alice and say resolutely, “She’s why we’re going to Six.”

“What are you talking about?” Ryland says.

“They didn’t want to tell you, before, I mean . . .” I hesitate. “That’s why we need pilots.”

“Tell me what?” Ryland asks sternly, voice like steel, eyes flashing gold.

I look at the J’s and tell them, “We have to show her.”

The J’s shrug their shoulders and start to get up. Clay and Kai are glued to the television screen, but they notice Ryland leaving and follow her grudgingly, knowing that something more important must be about to happen. I trudge after them, feeling and dreading the hole in my heart growing as I watch Devon begging me to save her for the hundredth time.

Marcus sees us and nudges Alice’s dad and the rodent pilot guy. He says something to them I can’t hear, and they head our way.

Alice looks at Ryland, her friend since childhood, and asks, “Ry? What are they talking about?”

“I have no idea,” Ryland says now following the J’s, Marcus, and our new pilots toward the back room.

“Who’s Devon?” Alice asks.

“My brother’s girlfriend,” Ryland answers. “She was taken. By the Shifters.”

Alice stops in her tracks and says, “Tanner has a girlfriend?”

Ryland goes back, grabs Alice’s hand and says, “Yes . . . girlfriend . . . whatever.” She drags Alice along saying, “Hurry up!”

“Baby Boy Ascunse finally has a girlfriend?” Alice grins over her shoulder.

We all walk into the command center, and they fire up the monitors, playing the footage of Devon pleading for help. Alice stares stunned at the screen as Ryland’s anger looks like it is about to burst out of her. She watches as Lena comes into view, and I swear she is about to go ballistic.

“I know that place,” Gale says. “The west quadrant . . . Delfis. Viktor, did you pick up at 24926?”

“Of c-c-course,” Rodent Man—Viktor—says, with a strange Russian accent. “Not my fa-favorite.”

“Where’s your convoy ship, Viktor?” Gale asks.

“Russia,” he says longingly.

“Can you get to it?” Gale asks.

Viktor nods. “And y-yours?”

Gale smirks at Marcus and tells Viktor, “Out back.”

“Here?” Viktor scoffs. “Well, I-I-I have a beh-beh-better ship.”

Gale smiles and says, “I would expect nothing less.”

Viktor, the stuttering rodent guy, beams with pride. “Across the border. Much better defenses. Brand new.” I notice that he says this without his usual stutter. Strange.

–RYLAND–

The video makes my blood boil. I cannot believe that the J’s, Marcus, and even my own brother kept this from me while I had to track down stupid Mole Man.
“We need to go now!”
I snap, daring them to contradict me.

They all stare sheepishly at the floor.

“We’ll take Gale’s ship across the border to collect Viktor’s. Then we can head over to Russia for this artifact,” Kai says authoritatively. Everyone knows he’s right.

“How will everyone board the ship if it is all the way in Russia?” This question comes from a small, pixie-like girl in the back wearing some kind of weird ninja outfit. I didn’t even notice her, but she must have been in the room all along.

“Cooper’s right, Ryland,” Tanner says. “We need a plan. We can’t go marching off to overthrow an ancient alien government without a battle strategy.”

Tanner is right. I know he is, but that doesn’t mean I want to throttle him any less. How can he claim he loves Devon and yet abandon her to be tortured by Lena? They could be beating her, burning her, electrocuting her, brainwashing her….

Her life was bad enough already.

“We need our army assembled and ready somewhere we can pick them up. How big is this Siberian ship?” I ask, formulating a plan.

“F-f-from what I’ve gathered, it’s large enough to hold your army of Shifters and Ka-Ka-Keepers,” Mole Man stutters awkwardly.

“Marcus,” I command so abruptly that he stands to attention. “You will gather the Young and Tyros in Canada. Train and prepare them for the battles to come. Set up command with the J’s and contact as many as possible. We need doctors, medics, strategists, techs,
and
fighters. Mostly, we’ll need diplomats and spies. We need people who can make alliances with the Ordinaries as well as people who can fight the Shifters.”

Kai nods at me. “We will take a small team to Siberia. Ryland, Tanner, Viktor, Gale, and I will go and recover the lost ship.”

Cooper pipes up, “I’m coming, too!”

Tanner shakes his head, “Marcus will need you to help train the new recruits.”

Cooper bites her lip, obviously thinking of arguing, but she must think better of it because she eventually nods. Something tells me that she doesn’t want to disagree with Tanner, even if it means being left behind. He’s becoming a leader in his own right, with the followers to back him up.

“Well, I’m going,” Alice says resolutely. “I just found my dad; I’m not about to lose him again.”

Gale frowns. “As much as I want you with me, you need to stay behind and train if you’re coming with us to Six.”

While Alice ponders this, Clay asks, “How do you intend to fly all three with only two pilots?”

His question is light, but there is tension crackling in the air like a thunderstorm on the horizon. Kai stares hard at Clay, daring him to volunteer his expertise.

“Clay will be coming, naturally,” Gale says easily, unaware of the two boys’ hostility.

I’m not sure where all this tension has come from. I can see that Clay is trying to help; he isn’t trying to overrule Kai. He’s just pointing out we need as many pilots as we can get.

Tanner looks at me and raises his eyebrows as if to ask, “What was that all about?”

I shrug, as if I have a clue about what’s going on in the minds of weird teenage boys. They make no sense.

Suddenly, Marcus’s phone rings, breaking the awkward silence. “Hello?” Marcus asks.

He pauses for a long moment, his face darkening. “Got it.”

He hangs up the phone and returns it to his pocket without a word.

“Who was it?” I snap when I can’t take the suspense any longer.

“Kyle and Sol
é
,” Marcus answers, refusing to say more.

Clearly he wants this information ripped form his cold dead hands. I’m perfectly willing to oblige.

“Where are they?” Tanner asks far more pleasantly than I could have managed. “I didn’t even know they left.”

“DC,” Marcus says tightly.

“Why are they back in DC?” Kai snaps. He’s more protective than I expected. “The Feds and Keepers are swarming.”

“They have their reasons,” Marcus snaps back.

“What did they say?” My vehement tone seems to unnerve him.

“Sol
é
says you will see Marques in Siberia.” There’s more that he’s not telling me. I know it; I can
feel
it.

“Fine,” I snap. “We’ll whoop his—”

“You can’t fight him,” Ocean
é
steps in from out of nowhere. I didn’t even realize she was here. “He has a role to play.”

More cryptic messages, secrets, and lies. Yay! I love all this “teamwork” stuff.

“Okay,” Tanner says, growing impatient. “Let’s go, then.”

Viktor beams. “I ca-ca-can’t wait for you to see it,” he says to Gale. “I call her The Wizard.”

“Why’s that?” Clay asks genuinely while I stifle a fit of giggles.

Did he really nickname his space ship Wizard? What is wrong with this guy? No one can really be this nerdy, right?

Viktor’s eyes sparkle. “You’ll seh-seh-see.”

Chapter 10

Off to See The Wizard

–TANNER–

As expected, Ryland wants to jump right in without a plan. Although I’ll admit, begrudgingly, that she did back down and begin to help mold one. Kai’s response surprised me: he took over, like a real leader.

“Okay,” I say, turning to Cooper. “Can you get Greg, grab some supplies, and meet us . . .” I stop short, realizing I have no idea where the ship is. “Mr. Halverson, where is your ship?” I ask, clearly not the only one that is clueless. I mean, he said it was out back. I’ve been out back, and I think I would have noticed a ship.

Marcus looks at Cooper and tells her, “The old barn past the oak.”

She looks hesitant and says, “You told us it was unstable.”

He gives her a look, and I can almost see the lightbulb above her head. She grins, giving him a nod and runs out the door.

Our new spaceship collection team starts to walk out. Wow! I never thought I would be in a spaceship collection team. That’s not exactly the kind of thing they teach in school.

I look back to see the J’s grinning broadly at each other. They jump up and say, “Awesome!” in unison as they run to catch up with us.

We all walk past the training structures, past the circle area and through a small group of trees. Buried in the wooded area is this old—like ancient, I don’t even know how it’s still standing—barn. Marcus and Gale both stop to look at it. Obviously, none of us know what to do, so we stop, too.

I look at my sister, who shrugs. I’m thinking that they must have misplaced it since there’s definitely no spaceship here. Seriously? How do you lose a spaceship?

“So?” Marcus says, patting Gale on the shoulder.

“Perfect, Marcus.” Gale turns to Marcus. “I knew you would take care of her.”

Huh?

I hear something behind us. I turn to see Cooper and Greg carrying several duffle bags and breaking through the trees.

Cooper stops right next to me, breathing like she just finished a marathon. “Did we miss it?”

Greg drops the bags on the ground and puts his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “Coop said . . . something awesome . . . was going to happen.”

“Um . . .” Ryland says, pointing to the run-down structure. “Just this old barn. I mean, it’s a big barn, but . . .”

Marcus, Gale, and Viktor smile and walk right up to it. Marcus fiddles with something on the door and opens it slightly. Gale and Viktor slip in as Marcus turns to us and yells, “Stay back there.”

Uh . . . yeah! Like any of us are going anywhere near that pile of wood. I swear I can see the whole thing shake as he moves the door. No wonder everyone stayed away from that building. It nearly fell over when he touched the door.

Marcus starts to go in, then pauses to say, “You best take a few steps back for this,” before disappearing into the dark opening.

We all look at each other then back at the barn. The ground starts to shake, and the barn’s loose boards rattle, some even clattering to the ground. We all jump several hasty steps backwards.

Cooper looks horrified and yells, “Guys! You better get out of there!”

She starts to run toward the building, and Greg grabs her. She looks back at him pleading.

There’s a bright flash, and I can’t see for several seconds. As my vision slowly returns, I see the wood melt into light. When the light dissipates, I can’t believe what I see. It’s totally gray. Plain gray. The size of the barn it was hiding in. Kind of like a box. A plain gray box.

I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but it sure wasn’t this. I mean, in all of the alien movies I’ve seen the ships are cool. Our ship? Our ship is the lamest alien spaceship in the history of the universe. Even the death ships that descended on us in DC were cool. Totally horrible, but still cool.

Clay gets a huge smile on his face and says, “Cool, right?”

My sister—with all of her natural tact—scoffs, “Um . . . is that it?”

Kai smirks and tries to hide a laugh. I can’t help it. I try to hide my disappointment, but I let it out when Cooper says, “Glad I’m not riding in that.”

Clay scowls. I feel bad for him, but seriously?

“Okay,” Clay snaps. “When you perfect intergalactic space travel, then you can have an opinion.”

“Whatever,” Ryland says.

“It’s a cargo ship . . . to haul supplies,” Clay says, now irritated. “When we escaped, it’s not like we had time to book first-class flights or anything. We got what we got.”

A panel slides open on the side, and Marcus appears, beckoning us inside.

“Shut up, guys,” I tell Ryland and Kai. “It’ll work just fine.”

I grab one of the duffles and run to the opening, cautiously stepping inside. The inside is cavernous with benches along the sides and tons of straps bundled neatly along the walls. There are loops along the floor in even rows, probably for the straps to hold whatever this craft was made to transport.

“Looks like a cargo ship,” I say, watching everyone survey the scene.

Gale steps through a door at one end and starts telling us where to put things and how to strap ourselves in.

Cooper gives me a quick hug before she leaves, saying, “We’ll be ready when you get back. We’ll find her.”

I see Ryland squeezing Greg’s hand. Whatever she tells him, tears well in his soft brown eyes.

When our goodbyes are finally finished, they close the panel, and after a brief stop in Canada to pick up whatever Viktor calls The Wizard, we are on our way to Russia.

“Great,” Ryland complains. “My seat is hard, and my butt already hurts.”

Clay and Kai catch each other looking my sister up and down, then give each other a glare. I clear my throat to get their attention. I’m not really sure why it still bothers me so much to see guys check out my sister. I really should be used to it by now.

But I’m not!

I ask, already dreading the answer, “How long will it take to get to Canada?”

Viktor jumps in with his distinctly Russian accent, “Approximately five minutes, wouldn’t you say?”

Gale nods in agreement.

“Five minutes?” Ryland scoffs, obviously not believing them.

“Well,” Gale explains. “It’s mostly for acceleration and deceleration. The actual trip is only a few seconds, but we can’t travel that fast within an atmosphere, for obvious reasons.”

Ryland shakes her head in disbelief and repeats, “Obviously.”

“Don’t worry,” Clay says. “It’s way faster in space.”

Kai, Ryland, and I all exchange awed glances. Clearly, we are the only ones that this doesn’t make sense to. All I can think of is that scene in
Space Balls
when Dark Helmet tells the pilot to turn it up to “Ludicrous Speed.” That was so funny. I love that movie. It actually seems more like real life now. My life is so weird!

Anyway, five minutes goes by, and we are unstrapping ourselves. Viktor goes running to the panel, clapping his hands together like he’s about to enter Disneyland’s main gate. He’s like the happiest little rodent man you’ve ever seen.

“Come now,” Viktor says. “Meet The Wizard. I’ll introduce you.”

Um . . . Introduce us? It is a ship, right?

–RYLAND–

So, Gale’s ship is completely, earth-shatteringly boring. I thought aliens would be interesting. As it turns out, not all of them.

Viktor’s ship, on the other hand, looks like something straight out of the new
Star Trek
movies—you know, the ones where the actors are actually hot. It’s a sleek black craft with absolutely no imperfections, doors, or even windows. It looks like it’s made of one solid piece of obsidian in the shape of a curvy, sexy stealth plane.

“Woah,” Tanner breathes. I know we all feel the same. In comparison to Gale’s ship, this is a gift from the gods.

Gale stares. “This is more advanced than anything we had on Gaia.”

Viktor is running circles around his ship, inspecting it for any damage. “I have been modifying the designs of my original craft. For the sake of simplicity, I built her new, from the ground up.”

He appears confident now, sure of his creation.

“How can you leave it out in the open here?” I ask, staring around the open field and into the blue skies above.

“The Wizard has her own stealth shielding, which makes her impossible to detect with any human radar or the ordinary eye.” Mole Man doesn’t even stutter as he flutters around his ship like a happy humming bird.

“Then how can we see it?” Kai asks flatly, pretending to be unimpressed as Clay studies him closely, searching for weaknesses.

“It has a recognition system,” Clay guesses. “It knows Viktor is here.”

Viktor grins and says, “Open sesame.”

We are nearly thrown to the ground as the ship begins to rumble. Clay’s arms encircle me as he catches me before I fall to the ground. I’m grateful for his assistance, but I pull away quickly as Kai shoots us a look.

The ship is reforming itself. A door hasn’t opened; instead, the whole ship has changed shape. It’s moving, evolving, flowing like liquid. It reshapes itself into a platform with wide black stairs.

I stare at Viktor. “This is a ship?”

A light blinks on the platform, and we all stare, unable to breathe. A ghostly image flickers there before stabilizing. It’s a beautiful woman. Her long, straight hair flows down her left shoulder. She smiles at us and says, “Viktor, welcome home.”

Clay stifles a sound, and I turn to him. His mouth is hanging open, and tears are in his eyes. “Mom?” he breathes.

Then I understand. The Wizard isn’t just a ship. Viktor has created an Artificial Intelligence system within the ship. But it isn’t just any AI. It’s Clay’s mom, the woman Viktor spent his whole life loving.

“Everyone,” Mole Man grins, “This is Mona. Mona is The Wizard. She controls the ship, adjusting the navigation system, monitoring flight controls, defending against enemy crafts . . .” Viktor rattles on about how amazing Mona is, but I am staring at Clay.

His body is breaking. He hasn’t seen his mom since he was like two years old. He can hardly remember her, but her ghostly, light-filled image is standing before him, smiling at Mole Man as though he were a god.

Anyone would be upset by that reality.

Clay crumbles inward, falling to the ground. A choked sob breaks from his throat, and the whole group suddenly notices his condition.

Gale growls at Viktor. “You made an AI of Mona? And you couldn’t have warned him?” Gale’s complaints break off into a series of curses I don’t think it would be ladylike for me to repeat.

Kai shrugs this off as “Clay’s problem” and heads toward the black staircase to inspect the new ship.

Tanner looks torn between his curiosity and his desire to help any human being—or well, anything in pain.

I head over to Clay, kneel down on the ground next to him, and wrap my arm around his shoulders. I don’t really know what to say. How would I feel if someone were to create a model of my mom? Would I be sad? Angry? Relieved? I don’t even know what she looks like. At least he has that.

He sobs for several long moments before picking himself up. With tears still streaming down his face, he sits up and grins at me. “At least it wasn’t Lena or something.”

I can’t help it. It’s a pitiful attempt at a joke, but I find myself laughing. We are both laughing, my arm still around him.

When he can finally speak he says, “You’re a lot like her, you know. From what I can remember. From what my dad told me.”

Again, I find myself at a loss for words.

That’s how our trip to Siberia begins.