Spell Robbers (11 page)

It was late enough, or early enough, depending on how you counted it, that the city streets were pretty deserted. The few buses they passed still running at that hour were almost empty. The vans glided by darkened storefronts, apartments, and other buildings. At another time, Ben might have liked the feeling of being out while the world around him slept. But tonight, every shadow and every black window held something sinister within.

No one spoke. With each mile, the tension inside the van mounted. Like when his mom used that cooker to can blueberries from the farm. Ben felt the silence like a pressure on his ears.

A short while later, Agent Spear leaned forward. “We’re here. Slow down, and pull into that alley.” He pointed the way.

The driver killed the headlights and eased the van into a black rift. The other vans followed in a column behind them.

After they’d come to a stop, Spear looked back at Sasha, Ben, and Peter. “You remember your orders, Agent Lambert?”

“Yes, sir.”

Agent Spear nodded, opened his door, and slipped out of the vehicle. The agents sitting behind them opened the van’s sliding door and climbed out after him. Ben turned around and watched them form up and stalk from the alley.

A handheld radio hissed to life in Sasha’s hand. She adjusted the volume, and the sounds of footsteps, movement, and hushed voices came through.

“What are your orders?” Ben whispered.

“Sit tight,” Sasha said. “Keep you safe. Only intervene if given no other options.”

“Then why are we here, again?” Peter asked.

“Pieces in a game,” Ben said.

They sat listening to the radio for a while. Not much seemed to be happening out there.

And then they heard Agent Taggart’s voice come through. “Approaching the building now.”

“The jewels are in a bank around the corner,” Sasha whispered. “Scheduled for transfer tomorrow. Right now, the agents will be trying to gain access without being spotted by Ronin’s lookout.”

The radio squealed and clanged with the sound of metal. Then silence.

“We’re in.” That was Agent Spear’s voice. “All agents with me.”

Ben’s heartbeat quickened. He leaned closer to the radio. So did Peter.

Silence followed. The agents were inside the bank now, closing in on the Paracelsus crew. Ben imagined them advancing forward with hand signals.

Peter took a breath. “What —?”

“Shh!” Sasha said.

The radio went quiet, so quiet Ben thought it might have switched off. It stayed that way for a long time. But then an explosion of sound ripped through it, a roar of static and shouts.

Ben jumped.

“What’s going on?” Peter asked.

Sasha gripped the radio. “They’ve engaged the crew in combat.”

“Target on the move!” Agent Spear shouted. “All agents pursue!”

Sasha looked over her shoulder down the alley. She bit her lip. “Put on your helmets.”

Ben and Peter did as she ordered.

They listened to more sounds of fighting. Actuations exploding through the radio speaker, one after the other, then simultaneously.

“Agent down!” That was Agent Taggart. “McNeil is down!”

Sasha covered her mouth.

“Agent Lambert!” That was Agent Spear. “Sasha, listen to me! The target is coming your way.”

SASHA
tossed the radio aside and grabbed her helmet. “Stay in the van,” she said. “And keep hidden.” She climbed over Peter, pushed the door open, and slipped out into the alley. She looked terrified.

Ben moved to follow her. “We’ll come with you.”

“No!” she hissed. She peered toward the street. “Stay here.”

“We should do what she says.” Peter looked even more scared than she did.

Sasha took a deep breath and crept down the alley. Ben punched the seat. He felt helpless, like he had back in Dr. Hughes’s lab when the Dread Cloaks attacked. He wanted to do something.

Sasha took up a defensive position against the grille of the van behind them. Ben guessed she was loading an actuation. Which was what he should be doing.

Agent Taggart squawked through the radio. “Agent Lambert! We took out the crew’s getaway. The target is coming for a van. You need to get out of there, now!”

Ben looked at Peter. Peter just shook his head.

The silhouettes of two men appeared at the alley’s entrance. One of them had to be Ronin, but which one? Ben looked at Sasha. She was peering around the edge of the vehicle, her hands balled up into fists. She was getting ready to attack. Where were the other agents? Where were Taggart and Spear?

“I told you,” one of the silhouettes said. “Still the same playbook. Not even guarded.”

Sasha leaped out and fired off a lightning bolt. It arced down the alley, lighting it up in a flash. But it missed and struck the brick wall. The two silhouettes dove for cover between the other vans.

Sasha pulled back to her position.

“We’ve got to help her,” Ben said.

Peter shook his head. “I’m not good enough.”

A fireball blazed past the van’s door, striking a dumpster farther down the alley. They could escape that way. Ronin only wanted a vehicle.

Sasha shot off another lightning bolt. The two men returned fire. It went on like that for a few rounds. And then the van Sasha hid behind lurched. It started rolling forward. One of the men had actuated it into gear. Sasha moved with it a few steps, but if she didn’t get out of the way, it was going to pin her against Ben and Peter’s van.

She dove free just before the van hit, jolting Ben. Their attackers were waiting. A fireball struck Sasha in the chest and sent her flying backward.

“NO!” Ben shouted. “We’ve got to help her.”

“Look.” Peter pointed, and through the vans’ windows Ben saw the two silhouettes climb into the last van. “They’re leaving.”

“They’re getting away!” Ben said.

He jumped out into the alley, pulled out his Locus, and readied a lightning bolt of his own. He grabbed a swarm of electrons around him, balled them up, and slipped down toward the two men.

Their van’s engine roared.

Ben had to act now. He leaped into view and fired the lightning bolt straight at the van’s grille. It struck its target, and the engine choked and died smoking. He’d done it. He’d stopped them.

But now what?

The two men burst from the van. Ben could feel their actuations forming, that same change in the air he’d sensed from Poole. Ben was about to form another actuation of his own when a little fireball sputtered over his head toward the two men, where it smoked out harmlessly on the ground between them.

“I told you I wasn’t good enough,” Peter said from behind him.

“Fall back.” Ben actuated another lightning bolt, but it missed.

One of the men shot a fireball of his own, but Ben was able to actuate a shield of water. It stopped the fireball in a flash of steam, but most of the water splashed to the ground in a puddle at his feet.

Ben looked down and felt what was about to happen, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it. In that instant, one of the men shot a lightning bolt. The bolt arced and struck the puddle beneath him. Ben flinched.

Nothing happened. The suit had protected him. But that maneuver — fire, countered with water, then electricity — had been planned. He and Peter were clearly outmatched.

“Morrow!” Agent Spear’s voice echoed toward them.

The two men looked behind them, then charged forward into the alley. One of them flew by before Ben could react, but Ben jumped in front of the other one. They collided, and both went down hard. The impact had forced the air from Ben’s lungs. He gasped as the man got to his feet first. Ben felt him actuating as he came into view for the first time, but Ben was too dazed to do anything. He braced himself, hoping Peter had gotten clear.

But there was no actuation.

“You’re just a kid,” the man said.

Ben looked up. The man had close-cropped hair and a face that looked like someone had left it outside for too long. Ben felt the actuation fading as the man shook his head.

“So this is what they’ve come to,” he said.

“Hold it right there, Morrow!” Agent Taggart shouted.

She, Spear, and three other agents entered the alley.

The man smiled at Ben. He put up his hands. “It’s Ronin, if you don’t mind. I haven’t been Morrow for a long, long time.”

“Call it in.” Agent Spear was panting. “Tell Mr. Weathersky the target is acquired. We got him.”

“Sasha!” Ben took off deeper into the alley, but before he’d gone more than a few steps, he saw her walking toward him, one arm around Peter’s shoulders. “You’re okay?” he asked her.

She nodded. “I might not have any eyebrows, but the suit did its job.”

Police sirens howled in the distance.

“Ennays,” Agent Spear said. “Let’s clear out.”

They all loaded into the two working vans. Five agents rode with Ronin in one of them, while Ben, Peter, and Sasha rode with Agents Spear, Taggart, and McNeil. McNeil had taken a lightning bolt that had fried his suit and knocked him out for a bit, but he was alive and relatively unharmed.

“Well done, all of you,” Agent Spear said after they’d gotten on the road. “Agent Lambert, consider your first Trial passed. With a commendation.”

Sasha sighed. “Thank you, sir.”

“I think what she did should count for two Trials,” Peter said. “At least.”

Agent Taggart chuckled, and it was the first time Ben had heard the woman laugh. “Perhaps you’re right.”

Agent Spear turned to Ben. “What you did was remarkable, son. You stood your ground against two hardened criminals. One of them a former Quantum Agent.”

“Peter was right beside me,” Ben said.

“Then that goes for Peter, too,” Agent Spear said.

But the truth was that neither Ben nor Peter had decided the outcome that night. Ronin had stopped. He was about to finish Ben, could have done so easily, but he stopped himself. Because Ben was just a kid.

“What’s to stop Ronin from actuating right now?” Peter asked. “What if he tries to escape?”

“I’d like to see him try,” Agent Taggart said. “Each of the five agents in that van has an actuation ready to let loose on him if he moves a muscle.”

But in sparing Ben, Ronin had basically turned himself in. “Agent Spear.” Ben leaned forward. “I don’t think Ronin —”

“Let it settle, son,” Agent Spear said. “When we get back to headquarters, Mr. Weathersky will want a full report. For now, just let it settle. We’ll get Ronin into a cell, and then we can all breathe easy.”

“A cell?” Peter asked.

“A prison cell,” Agent Taggart said. “A room that neutralizes actuating thoughts. The opposite of augmentation.”

Ben sat back. He was confused, unsure of what to think about Ronin now. Maybe it was best to do like Agent Spear suggested, and let it settle.

They met Mr. Weathersky in the library. He debriefed the other agents first about what had gone down in the bank.

Apparently, the raid had been smooth, right up until the moment the agents were set to ambush Ronin and his men. That was when they realized Ronin had brought an additional member onto the Paracelsus crew, a man the League hadn’t known about. Which meant there was an extra lookout.

The agents had lost the advantage of surprise, and that was all the edge Ronin had needed to make an escape.

“We immobilized his transport,” Agent Taggart said. “So Ronin went looking for ours. Agent Spear radioed a warning to Agent Lambert.”

Mr. Weathersky turned to Sasha. “Who I understand has just passed her first Trial, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” Sasha said.

“Very good.” He addressed the room. “I’d like to talk with Agent Lambert, Ben, and Peter now. Agents Spear and Taggart, you will remain here as well. The rest of you are dismissed.” The other agents filed from the room. “And get some rest, Agent McNeil.”

After they’d gone, Mr. Weathersky stood. “Agent Spear tells me you all performed admirably. Vastly exceeding our expectations of ones so young.”

So young.
The very thing that had stalled Ronin.

Mr. Weathersky turned to Sasha. “Tell me what happened after you received the radio warning, Agent Lambert.”

Sasha recounted her fight with Ronin and the other man. She told it how Ben remembered seeing it, in detail and objectively. Her report stopped when she got hit by the fireball and thrown backward.

“At which time” — Mr. Weathersky turned to Ben — “you engaged the target?”

“Yes,” Ben said. “I didn’t want to let him escape. I … immobilized their transport. I mean, the League’s transport. The van they were trying to steal.”

“And then what?”

Ben described the subsequent actuations, and how Ronin and his partner had gotten the upper hand. How they had tried to escape on foot when they’d heard Agent Spear. And how Ben had tripped him up. “He was about to kill me,” Ben said. “I think he would have, but he stopped when he saw how young I was.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Weathersky asked.

Ben nodded. “He said it.”

“Perhaps,” Mr. Weathersky said, “Ethan Morrow still has a conscience of some kind.”

“Not likely,” Agent Taggart said. “He was probably just caught off guard that a kid had been holding his own against him.”

Ben wouldn’t say he’d been holding his own. The whole thing could have easily gone a different way.

“Even so, we may be able to use that.” Mr. Weathersky turned to Agent Spear. “It’s time to initiate the next phase of this operation. I’d like to speak with Mr. Morrow. And I’d like for Ben to accompany me.”

“Sir?” Agent Taggart said.

“Me?” Ben asked. Why would Mr. Weathersky want him?

Mr. Weathersky adjusted the lapels of his pale gray suit. “Ben threw Morrow off balance once. Perhaps he will again.”

It seemed Ben was still just a piece on the board.

Mr. Weathersky crossed to the door. “Come, Ben.”

Agent Spear nodded for him to go. Ben looked at Sasha and Peter. They both just stared. Perhaps they were still settling. Ben wished he could settle. He wanted nothing more now than to go downstairs and collapse on his bed.

But he followed Mr. Weathersky instead. “Coming, sir.”

They went down the hallway to a door Ben hadn’t ever used. It had its own lock, and Mr. Weathersky inserted a simple key. Ben guessed the actuations in the building fried the circuits in electronic locks like they did computers. The door opened onto metal stairs leading downward, most likely to a different part of the basement than their sleeping quarters.

Their footsteps echoed up and down the stairwell as they descended. When they reached the bottom, Mr. Weathersky unlocked another door, and they entered a white hallway. Three agents in combat suits stood guard down its length. They snapped to attention when they saw Mr. Weathersky.

“As you were, gentlemen.” Mr. Weathersky went to the first door. He turned to Ben. “He can’t harm you here. There’s no need to worry.”

“I wasn’t,” Ben said.

“Good.” Mr. Weathersky opened the door, and Ben followed him inside.