“We have some time before then. We should be safe for now,” Alex said. “Come on, let’s go back with everyone else.”
A few yards away, Kyle and Gage were on their knees beside Misty, watching her sleep. Amp paced back and forth in a tight line, Kirbie watching from nearby.
“Gage, we broke the Umbra Gun, right?” Alex asked. “The bomb is gone?”
“Thanks to Mallory, it should be irreparable,” Gage said. “All they have now is the containment cell—Phantom’s stored power. It is possible that they could have another commissioned, but frankly, they would be hard-pressed to find someone who can build one. Even if they did, it would take some time to design another prototype. Months, maybe years.”
“We should go to the authorities,” Amp said.
“Cloak will be watching the police reports,” Gage said. “They’re hacked into the entire computer system of the Sterling City government. If any of us go to the police for help, they will know, and they will take us.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Amp said. “So we’re stranded out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”
“Actually, my pockets are stuffed with cash,” Alex said, patting his coat. “That’s a start.”
“That’s not all,” Gage said, reaching into the pocket of his lab coat. He pulled out a sparkling teardrop—the Excelsior diamond. “I thought this might come in handy.”
“Gage,” Alex said. “You’re a genius! Don’t let that thing out of your sight.”
“We’re all alone,” Kyle muttered, his eyes starting to water.
“That’s not true,” Alex said. “We have each other. And we’ll get the Rangers back. In the meantime, someone has to be there when Cloak makes their next move.”
“You’re asking us to team up with our enemies,” Amp said. “With the bad guys.”
“Good and bad don’t really matter anymore,” Alex said. “It’s not about being a hero or a villain. It’s about protecting each other and the people of Sterling City, who have no idea what’s coming. We can do that. We know Cloak. We can stop them when they make their next move.”
“Okay,” Amp said, after a pause. “Let’s give this a try.”
“What now?” Mallory asked.
“We wait for Misty to wake up,” Alex said. “After that, we head for the highway. We need to get out of Sterling City for a while.”
He turned and stared at the city’s skyline, his eyes unable to move away from the plume of dirt and dust rising from the north side of Victory Park, where the dome of Justice Tower once stood proudly, glowing.
“Everything is going to be all right,” Alex said.
“I believe you,” Kirbie said.
The city would just be waking to discover that its guardians were gone. There would be lamenting in the streets, public vigils, anger, confusion. People would panic. But Sterling City wouldn’t fall to the Cloak Society. Alex would make sure of that.
The first beams of morning light shot over the distant rooftops. In Alex’s eyes, they shone a radiant gold, before the world again faded back to blue.
About the Author
JERAMEY KRAATZ has wanted superpowers ever since he opened his first comic book as a kid. He attended Texas Christian University and the MFA writing program at Columbia University. THE CLOAK SOCIETY is his first novel. Jeramey lives in Texas, where he works in the animation industry.
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Credits
COVER ART © 2012 BY MICHAEL KOMARCK
LOGO TYPE BY JOHN DISMUKES/MENDOLA ARTISTS
COVER DESIGN BY TORBORG DAVERN
Copyright
The Cloak Society
Copyright © 2012 by Full Fathom Five, LLC
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kraatz, Jeramey.
The cloak society / Jeramey Kraatz. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Alex Knight, a twelve-year-old in training to be a supervillain in the elite Cloak Society, becomes friends with a young superhero and begins to question where his loyalty lies.
ISBN 978-0-06-209547-3 (trade bdg.)
Epub Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN: 9780062095497
[1. Supervillains—Fiction. 2. Superheroes—Fiction. 3. Mothers and sons—Fiction. 4. Loyalty—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.K8572Clo 2012
2011044635
[Fic]—dc23
12 13 14 15 16 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Jeramey Kraatz, The Cloak Society
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