Rise of the Elgen (4 page)

“I’m sorry,” I said.

After a moment she replied, “I know.”

Jack started the car. Then he said, “We can drive by and see if Taylor’s house is okay. If everyone stays down, they probably won’t know it’s us.”

Taylor thought about this, then said, “Okay.”

“Then we can go to my sister’s place,” he said. “She has a tanning salon about a mile and a half from here. She’ll let us hide out.” Then he said in a softer voice, “Maybe she’ll know what happened to my dad.” He looked back. “Any objections?”

Going by Taylor’s house was risky, but she was so upset I couldn’t bring myself to say no. “Let’s go,” I said.

Jack pulled his car around until his and Wade’s windows were adjacent to each other. “Head over to my sister’s tanning salon, we’ll meet you there.”

“Where are you going?” Wade asked. He looked as shocked as we did.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said. “Just go.”

“Shouldn’t we stick together?”

“No,” Jack said, and rolled up his window. He turned back to Taylor. “Where do you live?”

“Behind the school,” she said.

Taylor lived only a few minutes away, and none of us said a word the whole way over. As Ostin liked to say, the tension was as thick as good bacon. I knew Taylor was afraid of what she might
find.
What if her house was burned down too?

Jack turned onto her street, driving a little below the speed limit to avoid drawing attention to us. Ostin and I crouched down in the back, though I could still see out. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Taylor’s house. Everything looked normal, though I noticed a white van with tinted windows parked at the end of the street. Taylor stared silently as we drove by.

After we had passed, Taylor said, “I think I saw my mom.” There was longing in her voice. And pain. But at least she wasn’t so afraid anymore.

“Seen enough?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Taylor said softly. “Thank you.”

He picked up speed and headed off to his sister’s tanning salon.

T
here are people in this world you don’t really picture as having a sister, like, for instance, Hitler. (However, Ostin told me that Hitler did have a sister, named Paula.) Jack was one of those people. I wondered what Jack’s sister would be like and how she’d respond to us all showing up at her tanning salon. I remembered what Jack had said about her on our way to California—that she didn’t really associate with the rest of his family anymore. Maybe she’d throw us out. Where would we go then? And what if Jack’s father was dead?

We drove to a small strip mall and pulled into the parking space next to Wade. The sign on the building in front of us read:

BRONZE IDAHO TANNING SALON

A red-and-blue neon sign in the salon’s front window flashed
OPEN
.

Wade started getting out of the van, but Jack stopped him. “You guys better stay here for a minute. I need to make sure my sister’s cool.”

“Okay,” Wade said. “We’ll keep watch.”

The rest of us followed Jack through the front door. The salon’s lobby was decorated in a Hawaiian motif, with amateurishly painted palm trees and hula girls on the walls and thatch covering the front counter.

The woman standing at the front desk looked up as we entered. She was a female version of Jack, though she was much smaller, maybe only an inch taller than Taylor. She had long, blond hair accented with a violet streak, and a nose ring and multiple ear piercings. Not surprisingly, she was very tan.

“Hey, sis,” Jack said.

“Jack,” she said, her surprise at seeing him evident in her voice. “Where have you been?” She looked at the rest of us with a confused expression, then came around the counter and hugged her brother.

After they separated, Jack said, “I just came from the house, or what’s left of it. Where’s Dad?”

I held my breath.

“He’s staying with me until he can find an apartment,” she said.

Jack’s expression relaxed. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Where have you been?” she asked again.

“California.”

“Who are these people?”

“Friends of mine,” he said. “We need a place to hide out.”

Her expression changed from curiosity to anger. “Hide out? What have you done?”

“Nothing,” Jack said. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

She looked at me and I nodded in confirmation.

“Then why are you hiding?”

“It’s a long story,” Jack said. “And the less you know the better. We just need a place to hang until we figure out what we’re going to do.”

She looked at him for a moment, then said, “Okay. But you can’t stay up front. I’ve got a business to run. And you owe me an explanation.”

Just then the front door opened and a tall, professionally dressed woman walked in. She looked around at us. “Excuse me, are you all in line?” she asked Taylor.

“No,” Taylor said. “We’re just visiting. We’ll get out of your way.”

“May I help you?” Jack’s sister asked.

“Yes,” she said, walking up to the counter. “Do you have a tanning bed available?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Great,” she said. “Do you have one a little more private—perhaps something near the back?”

“Yes. The last room has the Ultra Ruva bed. It’s one of our best. Are you a member of our executive tanning club?”

“No. I’m just traveling through town.”

“Very good. How long would you like me to set your session for?”

“Twenty minutes should be sufficient.”

“Twenty it is.” She handed the woman a key with a large key chain—a pineapple-shaped piece of plywood with the number six painted on it. “You’re in room six. Just push the start button on the bed when you’re ready.”

“Thank you. Do you have lotion?”

“We have Coppertone and Beach Bum.”

“Coppertone will be fine,” the woman replied. She suddenly turned and looked at me, her gaze lingering a little longer than was comfortable. I twitched a couple of times.

“Here you go,” Jack’s sister said, handing her a bottle of lotion. “Cash or credit?”

“Cash. How much is it?”

“With the lotion it’s twenty-nine dollars.”

The woman handed her a couple of bills. “Keep the change,” she said, stepping away from the counter. As she walked past me she dropped her cell phone on the ground near my feet. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.

“No problem.” I bent over and picked it up. “Here you go.”

She made no effort to take the phone from me. “That’s not mine.”

I looked at her quizzically. “But, you just . . .”

“I believe it’s yours, Michael.” She looked right into my eyes, then handed me the tanning room key along with two other keys. “Take these into the room. Someone needs to talk to you.”

My chest constricted. “Are you with Hatch?”

She touched her finger to her lips to silence me. “Room six,” she said. “Turn on the tanning bed. I’ll watch the door.” She patted her jacket, making me think she was carrying a gun. I looked over at the others. No one was paying attention to me except Ostin. I could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on.

“Hurry,” she said. “We haven’t much time.”

I looked back into her eyes. Something about her seemed trustworthy. “Okay,” I said.

“Room six. Don’t forget to turn on the bed when you get inside.”

I walked back to the room and stepped inside, shutting the door behind me. I turned on the tanning bed and the sound of the machine filled the room. The phone she had given me rang immediately. I raised it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hello, Michael. Are you alone?” The man’s voice was deep and grave.

“Who is this?”

“One of the few people in this world who knows what you’re up against. They’re following everything you’re doing.”

“Who is?”

“You know who. We don’t have much time. If we can find you, so can they. Now listen to what I say and follow my directions precisely. You have to leave immediately. As soon as you get in your car I’ll text you an address. Drive directly to that location and abandon your vehicles. The Elgen van you borrowed has a tracking device, and I’m sure that by now they’ve identified your friend’s Camaro.”

“How do you know this?”

“I haven’t time to explain,” the voice said.

“How do I know this isn’t another trap?”

“You don’t. But think about it, if we wanted to capture you, we would have just done it. The building you’re in right now is a death trap. It only has two exits, the front glass door and a back door that leads to a narrow alley. You’re sitting ducks. You have to trust me. If you want to escape the Elgen, you’re going to need our help.”

“Why would you help us?”

“We have our reasons. And we know even better than you what the Elgen are planning and what they’re capable of. The Elgen are rising. You should also know that there are more electric children. And they have terrible powers—worse than anyone you’ve met so far.”

“Great,” I said.

“You can defeat them, Michael. You might not be strong enough to face them today, but by the time you do, and trust me, you will, you’ll be ready. But you’ll need to act quickly to stop them.”

“But we did stop them. We shut down the academy.”

“They were going to close it anyway—you just sped up their timetable. I wish we had more time, but that’s a luxury neither of us has, so try to understand what I’m saying. Now is the opportune moment to strike. The Elgen are divided. To most of its board members, it is just a business. To Hatch, and a few others, it’s more. Much more. They’re building a secret society, and they’re growing fast. They’ve made inroads in government, police, and military. If you don’t believe me, check the state records to see what happened to the man who robbed your mother.”

“What happened to him?”

“He’s not a worry to the Elgen anymore.”

“How do I know you’re not one of them?”

“Like I said, you’re going to have to trust a little. I won’t ask more of you than that.”

“If we ditch our cars, how will we get around?”

“Where you leave your cars, there will be two other vehicles. My associate gave you the keys.”

I looked down at the keys in my hand.

“I’ve programmed the address of a safe house into the GPS system of the yellow vehicle. Go there and wait for my call. But you must leave now. The police are already on their way to the salon.”

“The police? Why?”

“To arrest you for burning down Jack’s house.”

T
he phone went dead as the man hung up. I put it in my front pocket and walked quickly out of the room. Apparently Jack’s sister hadn’t made everyone go to the back, because they were all still in the lobby. The strange woman was gone.

I walked up to Jack, who was talking to his sister. “We’ve got to go,” I said. “Fast. The police are on their way.”

“How do you know that?” he asked.

I looked at the others, who were now all looking at me. “I just do.”

“Who was that lady?” Ostin asked. It was the first thing he’d said since we’d left the apartment.

“I’ll tell you in the car,” I said. “We’ve got to hurry.”

“Why don’t we just wait for the police?” Taylor said. “They’ll help us.”

“No. They’re coming to arrest us.”

“Arrest us for what?” Ostin asked.

“We stole a van, Einstein,” Jack said.

“It’s worse,” I said. “Someone told them that I burned down your house.”

Jack frowned. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“You stole a car?” Jack’s sister asked angrily. “You said you didn’t do anything.”

“We borrowed it,” Zeus said. “And they owed us big-time.”

She looked flustered. “What’s going on, Jack? Why are the police coming?”

“I can’t tell you right now. Just tell them that you don’t know anything.”

“I don’t,” she said.

“Good. It’s better that way.” He looked at her sadly. “We’ve gotta run. I’ll explain when I can.”

“C’mon, everyone,” I said. “To the car.”

*   *   *

When we were in the Camaro, Jack asked, “Now what?”

“I have an address,” I said. I picked up the phone, but it was out of power. “I can’t believe it, it’s dead. It was perfectly fine a minute ago.”

“Let me see it,” Ostin said. He took the phone from me and examined it. “You just need to hold it.”