Raging Sea (26 page)

“Bex, what happened to his body?” he asks.

“There was a gap between the furniture store and the apartments next door where the buildings had shifted. It was just big enough, so I rolled him over to the edge. No one would ever find him there, at least not until they demolished the buildings.”

“The tidal wave made sure that would never happen,” I say.

“And the gun?” my mom asks.

“I dropped the gun over the side.”

“Russell killed Shadow. He did horrible things to you and Tammy,” I remind her.

“But the most horrible thing he did was turn her into a murderer,” my father says. “Killing changes a human being. I shot a man who was attacking people with a knife on the boardwalk, and it has never left me. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it again, or even that Spangler shouldn’t be stopped, but there are repercussions to taking a man’s life. Doyle is the soldier. He has been trained to kill. Let him do it.”

“He can’t do it by himself. What if he fails? There’s only a couple days left,” I say. “What if I wake up tomorrow and find out Spangler’s killed more of the parents? I couldn’t live with myself.”

“If you kill Spangler, you might stop the children from being sent back to Coney Island,” my mother says to me, then turns to my father. “It could save their lives.”

“You must,” Arcade says. “Look around you. Look at what he has created. He has to pay the price for this evil.”

My mother takes my hands and kneels before me.

“Do it,” she says.

“Summer!” my father cries.

“This place is death, and the people who work here feed off the corpse, Leonard. Spangler is the worst. If Lyric can stop him, she has to do it. She’s the only one who can,” my mother argues, then turns back to me. “Lyric, you are Sirena, my daughter, and the greatest regret of my life is teaching you to hide from it. Our clan is built on diplomacy, but your blood is made of countless warriors. You must fight like your grandparents and their parents before them. It is time for this camp to learn that you count yourself among them. If Doyle manages to turn that machine off, then I want you to hit this place hard and wipe it off the map.”

I
T ALL GOES DOWN AFTER DINNER. I MOVE FOOD AROUND ON MY PLATE,
unable to shake the thought that I’m about to help a man kill another. Spangler should die, but with each passing minute, I feel my role in it getting heavier and heavier.

Bex sits next to me. Her hand is on mine underneath the table. She has not abandoned me, though I know there have been times since we left Brooklyn when it made perfectly good sense to walk away. It was she, my besty, who steered me off a course of death. Sadly, I have found myself back on it.

My father is trying to be strong for me. My mother is resolute, revealing a side of herself that I never would have expected. And all around me are the children, eating their dinners, making ice cream sundaes, chattering away about the battle they are all so eager to join. I ache for what lies ahead if something isn’t done to make sure they never get there. Spangler will drop us all into the middle of a bloodbath, but he can’t if he is no longer breathing.

I give the people I love a quick glance. My mother nods. My father does as well. Bex takes a deep breath and tries not to cry. I give her hand a squeeze, a little promise that I will not let this change me. I don’t know if it’s possible to keep my word, but I’m going to try.

“Have the kids meet me in the park,” I tell Darren.

He calls over some guards, who offer to escort me, then calls Spangler on his radio.

“I love you,” my mother says.

“We all do,” my father adds.

I look to Bex.

“Good luck,” she whispers.

“Do not fail,” Arcade says. “And do not hold back.”

Every step to the park feels like a trudge through cement. I waffle back and forth a hundred times on the plan, wanting to run back to my family and hide, then determined to help Doyle. All the while, my thoughts do a number on me.
Spangler is smarter than Doyle and me. The guards side with him. He has been one step ahead of us the whole time.
But then my anger takes charge
. He put you in a cage. He chopped off Arcade’s hand. He’s killing people.

When I get to the catwalk, I’m sure we’re making a mistake.

“Where’s Doyle?” I ask the guards.

They call for him on their radios, but he doesn’t respond.

I try to be cool about it, but the old panic returns.
Spangler knows the plan. He’s already killed Doyle. He’s up in my room slaughtering my friends and my parents. He’s putting Arcade in the tank with the squid creature so he can watch her die.

“Can you let Spangler know I need him to turn off the EMP? The kids can’t practice with the Oracles when it’s still on,” I ask Darren just as the kids enter.

“You okay?” Riley asks, giving me a little nudge on the shoulder.

I nod, but I’m not really listening to anything he’s saying.

Spangler enters with a bright smile.

“I love the dedication, kids,” he says as he activates the machine that reveals the pool. “Show me what you can do! We don’t have a lot of time left, so do your best.”

My insides clench with how much I hate him. He needs to go away. I wasn’t sure about it until right now. I’m going to help Doyle end this man.

The children line up to demonstrate the extent of their skills. Some are impressive, but all of them are good. Riley is still the best, then Geno and Georgia, but Cole, Breanne, Alexa, and Danny have all made dramatic overnight improvements. Tess, Emma, and Jane, as well as William, freshly wounded by the deaths of their parents, are not far behind. Even Chloe, with her tiny little body, makes a sword as big as a rowboat.

While the kids applaud, my eyes find Doyle on the catwalk high above. He paces, agitated. He checks his watch and disappears. The plan has started.

“Lyric, I did it,” Chloe says proudly.

“That’s great news,” I say, leaning down to hold her hands. “Chloe, I want you to stay very close to Riley tonight. Can you promise me you’ll do that?”

She nods.

“Good. Riley, don’t let her out of your sight. Keep her close.”

“Why? What’s happening?”

“Lyric, you’re not looking,” Chloe scolds when she creates a dolphin that leaps into the sky.

“It’s beautiful,” I say, then scan the room for the other kids. I want to know where they are when the system crashes so I don’t accidentally hurt anybody.

There’s a piercing alarm, and lights go out. The ceiling glows with red emergency lights, and backup illumination appears above the exit doors. The children cry out, but Spangler and the guards urge them to stay calm.

“What’s going on?” Breanne cries.

Spangler taps his screen, then does it again. He looks up at me, and suddenly his concerned face changes to one of understanding.

“This was a very dumb move, Lyric,” Spangler says, then taps on his tablet and races off as soldiers rush into the room. Half attempt to corral the children, while the other half aim their guns at me.

“Lyric, what is happening?” Tess cries.

“Stick together!” I shout.

It’s time to do my part. I power up my glove, and it burns brighter than I have ever seen it.

What would you have us do?

“Help me put a stop to this place,” I whisper back.

The pool comes alive, bubbling and spilling over its sides. The water reaches up and snatches the armed guards nearby, violently jerking them off the ground like dolls and pulling them under. More soldiers charge through the doors, shouting orders, but I send a lightning-fast whip that smacks them across the room. With my path clear, I sprint forward, only to be clobbered from behind by a wall of salty liquid. I tumble to the grass, end over end, and land flat on my back. When my head stops ringing, I find Riley and his glove glowing in my face.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening, but you can’t—”

This is exactly what I feared. Riley and the other kids are siding with Spangler. I yank half the water out of the pool and throw it at Riley. He slides across the lawn as scales appear on forearms and neck, fiery red with confusion and anger.

“I’m sorry too,” I say as I scamper back to my feet. “I’m bringing this place down right now. If you’re smart, you won’t try to stop me. Get away from here and take whoever you can with you.”

“I thought you were one of us,” he cries.

I dart through the double doors and into the hall as soldiers pop up in my way. I cause the pipes to burst on either side of them, and they fall over like chess pieces. I leap over their unconscious bodies and continue onward, racing up a flight of stairs to the cells, just like Doyle and I planned.

Bullets skitter on the floor near my feet. I turn and bring geysers up to destroy the flooring behind me. I watch several men topple into the massive hole I’ve created. That will buy me a little time.

“Lyric?”

I turn to see familiar faces. These are the parents of the children I’ve been training. They are filthy and bewildered but free from their cells; shorting out the system has released them. They take tentative steps into the hall.

“There’s a flight of steps behind that exit door!” I shout, pointing across the hall. “Take them up until you find the surface. Get as far away as you can. I want to help you all, but there are so many others to save. Run. Don’t stop!”

At the end of the hall is another door, and I slam through it to find another flight of steps. Once I reach the top, I’m in an identical situation as on the floor below—faced with dozens of scrawny, starving people who are afraid of what has happened. I tell them pretty much what I told the others, but this time a group of heavily armed soldiers storms into the hall. They open fire. People scream and fall to the ground. I see blood, but I can’t tell who it belongs to. The water in the pipes along the ceiling shouts to me, and I free it. It’s boiling hot and it burns the guards, but it avoids the prisoners completely. The soldiers scream, trying to get away from the attack. One hits the ground near me, and his rifle falls out of his hands. I snatch it off the floor and shove it into the hands of a tiny Asian woman who looks like she’s been locked up for years. I don’t stop to ask her if she knows how to use the weapon. If not, I hope she’s a fast learner.

I race onward, up another stairwell, into a hallway where I find the elevator. I also find Fathom blocking my way.

“Lyric Walker, whatever you are doing must stop,” he says.

I could stand here and let him try to explain why he’s done me wrong. I could give him a chance to persuade me that Spangler’s plans are good for us all, but I’m sort of sick of this kid’s face. I have never turned my power on another person the way I do Fathom. Water hits him from every side, like four tractor-trailers crashing through an intersection and he’s caught in the middle. It sends him crashing through the adjacent wall and out of my path.

I jam the elevator button, but nothing happens. I jam it again and notice the sensor pad. I’m so stupid! I need a passkey!

I use some water on the floor to help me pry the doors open and look down into the blackness of the elevator shaft. Up is no more inviting. There’s just no way I can climb it. I’m sure I’d fall to my death the second I tried. I’m going to have to get creative. I’m unsure how far the shaft goes down, but if there’s water at the bottom, I need it. I extend my hand into the void and bear down with my mind. What was it the preacher said about this valley? The mountains block the moisture. It’s the driest place in the country. Still, there has to be some, maybe down in the bedrock below us, hundreds of feet deep. I feel some wetness on my lip. The nosebleed has started, and I’m beginning to feel a dull headache from trying so hard. Things are getting a little fuzzy, and then—

We are here, Lyric.

“Come,” I whisper.

There’s a rumbling from far below, an explosion, and
whoosh!
I watch the liquid blast up through the shaft, filling the space and rising higher. My hand gets whipped upward from the gushing water. I’ve made my own elevator.

I have no idea why I hold my breath. Maybe it’s an old habit dying hard, but I do, and then I leap. The current rockets my body upward, higher and higher. My scales appear, and my gills take over for my lungs. The whole experience is . . . magical. I’m about to reach the very top floor, and with a sweep of my arm, the doors fly off. It’s pretty badass, if I do say so myself. They crash into the laboratory, and water spills onto the floor, flooding everything. Unfortunately, I go with it. It’s not the most elegant entrance. I flop around like a crab in a net, but it certainly gets everyone’s attention. Spangler’s science staff stands around me, gaping and dumbfounded. That is, until I stand, and they fall over themselves to get out of my way.

“How do you let them out of the tanks?” I shout. No one answers. I should have grabbed one of those nerds and forced them to help me.

“Lyric!”

I turn, half expecting Fathom, only to find Riley stepping out of my water elevator. He’s dripping wet, breathless, and his eyes are wild and troubled. He’s also got his weapon ready.

“Riley, please don’t try to stop me,” I beg. “I only have a little time to get this done.”

“Get what done? What is this place?” he asks, staring hard at the tanks.

“This is where they keep the Alpha parents,” I explain.

“You lie!” he shouts angrily.

“Riley, Tempest is the lie. Everything Spangler and Doyle and the guards have told you about this place is a lie. Your human parents aren’t sick. They’ve been prisoners locked up in this building, and your Alpha parents are in these tanks.”

“That’s not true!” he shouts.

Water seeps out of the elevator and wraps itself around a chair. Suddenly, it’s off the floor and sailing right at my head. I manage to command it to slam into a wall before it clobbers me, but it was close.

“It is! I’ve seen it all. I was locked away myself. Spangler only let me out when I promised to train you with the gloves.”

Another chair soars across the room. A leg clips me in the side, and my ribs burn.