“The fire might get real close and burn like crazy,” Billy continued, “but you have to do it. If this works, you should feel everything sealing as you slowly pull out.”
Matt sucked in a breath. “Okay. Ready when you are.”
“Let’s do it.”
Matt uncovered the candlestone, releasing a haze of red-tinted light. Billy blew a thin stream of fire directly at the stone. Like orange phosphorescence, the fire splashed outward in short arcs that sparkled and disappeared.
The fire lit up her shoulder and a sea of blood around the gem. While the jet of flames continued, Matt touched the wounded area, probed for a hole, and found it less than an inch from the candlestone. Cringing, he pushed his index finger inside, then inserted his middle finger. Bonnie twitched and let out a low moan.
Billy took a breath. “Keep going. It’s all right.” He resumed the stream of fire.
Matt stared at Billy for a moment. With firelight illuminating his face, his features became clear for the first time—dark hair down to his collar and over his ears, choppy, as if scissors-cut without a mirror; a similar beard, trim in places, but uneven; and bright eyes set under a creased, determined brow.
Pushing his fingers deeper, Matt touched something hard, likely a bone. Something sharp pricked his skin, maybe a splinter in the bone. Blood oozed around his fingers. It seemed that the cavity inside was bigger than the exterior hole. The bullet had done quite a bit of damage.
The arcs of fire spilled across his hand, scalding his skin, but that didn’t matter. He had to keep working; ignore the pain. A tingling sensation ran along his arm from his shoulder to his elbow to his hand, growing stronger with each passing second. It radiated down his fingers and seemed to flow from the tips.
He swabbed around, imagining his fingers applying a healing salve to everything he touched. One fingertip brushed across something that moved. He pinched it between his fingers and began drawing it out. “I think I have the bullet.”
Billy didn’t answer. He just took a quick breath and continued blowing fire.
After withdrawing the bullet, Matt pushed his fingers back inside and continued the massage. The hole felt like it was closing in. “I think it’s working.”
Billy took another breath. “Keep it up, Son. You’re doing great.” Again he poured on the fire, but the stream seemed much weaker than before. The candlestone was probably sapping his energy.
Matt pulled out slowly, swabbing along the way. Centimeter by centimeter, the hole collapsed behind his fingertips. When he finally withdrew them, he rubbed along the external wound until it sealed. “Got it!”
The flames ceased. Breathing heavily, Billy coughed through his words. “Take the candlestone and hide it somewhere.”
Matt scooped it up and buried it under the pile of chains. “How’s that?”
“Perfect.” Another burst of flame coated the end of a rope in Billy’s hand. It caught fire and burned steadily, casting a dim glow. “Hold this.”
Matt took the rope. The flame dwindled but still provided enough light to see by. Billy closed Bonnie’s shirt, pushed a wing to one side, and pulled her into his arms. “Bonnie,” he said softly. “You should be able to wake up now.”
Her lips trembled for a moment, then moved more freely. “Billy?”
“Let’s see if you can stand.” The two rose together, and Billy steadied her. “How do you feel?”
Bonnie jerked away and stared at him. “Billy!”
“In the flesh.” He held out his arms. “We’re finally together.”
With a beat of her wings, she flew into his arms and pressed her head against his chest. “Oh, Billy! I missed you so much! Tell me this isn’t a dream. Tell me right now!”
“It’s not a dream. You’re awake, and I’m awake. We’re still in prison, but I feel freer than a bird.”
With tears flowing, they rubbed noses, then kissed tenderly.
Matt smiled. This reunion was cool, very cool.
Billy turned Bonnie around and nodded toward Matt. “And our son used his healing powers to save you … his dragon healing powers.”
Again beating her wings, Bonnie flew to Matt and embraced him. “Thank you for healing me. I’m so proud of you!”
He dropped the rope, wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and patted her on the back. The hug felt warm and good. “You’re welcome. I’m glad I could do it.” He let a smile break through. Actually, healing her was the most awesome thing he had ever done in his life. And to be able to do it for his long-lost mother? Doubly awesome.
Billy picked up the rope and relit it with a quick burst of flames. “Maybe you should get that wet shirt off and put the sweatshirt and jacket back on.”
“You’re right.” Bonnie pinched the neckband and peeled it away from her shoulder. “It’s a mess.”
Billy laid an arm around Matt and walked him toward the opposite wall. “While your mother’s getting dressed, I want to tell you something about her. You might have been wondering how I could stay so calm when my wife had been shot and lay bleeding to death.”
“It did cross my mind.”
“I once carried her dead body through the seventh circle of Hades, and she carried mine through a portal that spanned two other realms. We have both seen the wonders of Heaven and lived to tell about them. She has even been burned in the flames of the gatekeeper to the abyss and transformed into an Oracle of Fire. Being an Oracle makes her bold and fearless, though she can’t create fire like other Oracles can, but that’s a long story.” Billy compressed Matt’s shoulder. “The bottom line is, after all we’ve been through, don’t be surprised if we do things that would make most people curl up and suck their thumbs. We’re not afraid to die.”
Matt nodded. He ached to hear the story details, but the summary would have to do for now. “I get it. Thanks.”
“I’m decent,” Bonnie called.
Billy and Matt turned. In the glow of the rope, Bonnie spread out her wings and arms. “Good as new!”
“What’s that on your face?” Billy asked.
Bonnie rubbed her cheek, smearing a black smudge. “A fake birthmark. I was trying to disguise myself. I also pushed my hair under a cap, but I guess it fell off somewhere.”
A clank sounded. Billy handed Bonnie the rope and tiptoed to the door. “If anyone comes in,” he whispered, “he’ll get a face full of fire. They don’t know I’m loose from my chains.”
Matt eased closer to the door, also whispering, “I sense some danger, but it’s not intense, kind of low-key.”
“You’re sensing potential danger. Someone out there doesn’t intend to attack us, but he wants to do something that could eventually do us harm. It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes, but you’ll learn. That means I probably won’t need fire, but I have to be ready.”
A grinding noise floated through the air, probably the outer door sliding. Then, keys jangled near the center of the inner door. It opened a crack, then closed again with a click.
Matt lunged, but Billy grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back. “Don’t sweat it. It’s too late.”
The sliding noise returned, followed by a thud, another click, and a shout. “I put a camera with a microphone in there. Don’t try to obstruct it, or it’ll blow you to bits.”
A light appeared on the floor. A golf ball–sized sphere emitted tiny beams, maybe a dozen or more, like a diamond with a laser on each facet. The beams passed across their bodies and lit up the cell, but they seemed to do no harm.
“What is it?” Bonnie asked.
Matt bent over, scooped up the sphere, and displayed it in his palm. “A spy device. The army calls it an eye bomb. You can’t turn it off, and it’s indestructible. I saw a steamroller drive over one. Didn’t faze it.”
“So they’re watching us remotely.” Billy took it and brought it close to his face, making his eyes sparkle. “They didn’t put a camera in my cell before, because they always kept it
dark in here. Now they want to see what they’re up against before they storm the room.”
Matt nodded. “That’s my guess.”
“What did the guard mean when he warned us not to obstruct it?” Bonnie asked.
“That’s where the bomb part comes in. If most of the eyes get blocked, it sets off an alarm and blows up in fifteen seconds, but if the camera view clears up in time, it won’t explode.”
Billy let it roll around on his palm. “Was he telling the truth about how big of a punch it packs?”
“It packs enough of a blast to kill everyone in this cell.”
“Then we’ll make them squint.” Billy set it in a far corner. As he walked back, the eye bomb followed at his heels.
“Remote control,” Matt said. “The one I saw didn’t do that, but I heard a new model was coming out.”
Billy rolled his eyes. “Perfect. A puppy that’ll bite you if you don’t do what it wants.”
“And it has a microphone, so we should assume it can pick up anything we say.” Matt turned his back to the eye bomb and concentrated on the transmitter between his molars. No sound came through. Should he risk a whisper?
“I have an idea,” Bonnie said. She and Billy joined Matt, forming a line with Bonnie at the center, all three blocking the eye’s view. Bonnie spread out her wings and filled the gaps between their bodies. She withdrew a mobile phone from her pocket and pointed at the reception indicator.
Matt nodded. It was low, but maybe not too low.
The eye bomb rolled to their side, so they shifted, putting it behind them again, continuing that motion every time the bomb tried to get to a better viewing position.
Bonnie set the phone to silent mode, then, using her thumbs, typed out a text message addressed to Walter. “Billy, Bonnie, and Matt locked in cell together. Expecting a storm of guards soon.”
She sent the message. After a few seconds, a reply came through. “Code Red. Six hours.”
Billy and Bonnie looked at each other, both mouthing Code Red at the same time.
Matt lifted his eyebrows, hoping to signal his desire to learn what Code Red means.
Her thumbs working the keypad again, Bonnie typed out, “Dragons will come to free us.” She then erased the message and typed, “We need to let Lauren know before they find her.”
Matt nodded. As he reached for the phone to type a response, a new voice broke in from behind them. “Dragons are on the way, I see. And if you fear us finding Lauren, that means she must still be here. That’s useful information.”
“What?” Matt spun and looked at the eye bomb. “I didn’t know this model had speakers.”
Bonnie pushed the phone into her pocket. “And X-ray vision.”
“That’s not the eye bomb,” Billy said as he scanned the cell. “I could never forget that voice.” As his eyes narrowed, he called out, “Where are you, Semiramis?”
“Ah! Billy Bannister!” The sultry feminine voice seemed to come out of nowhere. “I am so glad to hear that you haven’t forgotten me.”
Billy stepped toward the door. “Show yourself.”
“I will show myself as you remember me.” A woman wearing a red dress and hooded cloak appeared two paces in front of Billy. Bathed by the light of dozens of white lasers, she appeared to be a hologram, semitransparent and hovering in place. She spread out her arms and smiled. “As you can see, I have once again defeated death.”
“Defeated death?” Billy smirked. “You’re a ghost. You’re dead and don’t know it.”
Lowering her hood and revealing long auburn locks, she took a step closer, solidifying as she moved. “Who is really dead, Billy Bannister? The woman who walks freely in a spiritual state, or the man who has been locked up in prison for fifteen years without hope of release? We have you exactly where we want you, and you will be more comfortable now that your wife is here. I hope you never say that I haven’t been kind to a lonely prisoner.”
As Semiramis drifted nearly nose to nose with Billy, he stood his ground, unflinching. “The last time I listened to your viper’s tongue, we nearly lost everything. Just speak your mind and leave.”
Semiramis let out a humming laugh. “The warrior speaks bravely, as always. A real hero. But will any courage remain when his dragon friends fly here only to meet their doom?”
“As if the prison guards here could repel them,” Billy said. “The ones I have met can conquer a hero sandwich, but that’s about it.”
“I know you are wiser than that, Billy. Since Elam has withheld rescue for this long, you must realize that he knows the danger. Surely someone with his character would not forsake his imprisoned friends without cause.” She looked away with feigned concern. “Or would he?”
Billy shook his head, laughing under his breath. “You sound like the villain in a bad horror flick. Do you get sadistic pleasure out of this taunting?”
“I do. Very much so.” She turned toward him again, her smile as sinister as ever. “Yet, there is more than mere pleasure that motivates me. I am here to distract you from using your mobile phone while my allies set up a mechanism to jam it. It should be ready by now, so when I leave, you will not be able to contact your dragon friends. They need not know that we will be prepared to repel their attack. This was one of our reasons for bringing Lauren here in the first place. She was the bait for catching dragons.”
Bonnie gave Semiramis a quizzical look. “Why was Lauren the bait and not Billy or me?”
“Now I must keep some secrets, mustn’t I?” Semiramis glided to the door and turned back. “It’s sad that those who call themselves alive know less than those who are supposedly dead.” She faded to semitransparency. “In six hours, we will snag our prey. We will be ready.” She backed through the door and disappeared.
Bonnie typed out a message on the phone, whispering the words. “Walter, they know you’re coming. Be prepared.” After she sent it, she clicked a few more keys and shook her head. “It didn’t go through. No signal at all.”
Matt grabbed the eye bomb and slung it at the door. It ricocheted at an angle, and bounced along the floor a few times before rolling to a stop. Like a persistent cockroach, it crawled toward them, its lasers again filling the room.
Setting a fist on her hip, Bonnie scowled at the door. “How did that witch get away from Second Eden? Didn’t Elam lock her up with her pathetic excuse for a son?”
Billy gave the eye bomb a swift kick, sending it back toward the corner. “Obviously there’s a lot going on we don’t know about.”
When the eye bomb returned, Matt nudged it with his shoe. If only they could speak freely without this robotic spy broadcasting every word.
Bonnie reached for Matt and pulled him close. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered at the same time, muffling her voice. “Lauren’s tooth transmitter.”
Drawing back, she looked at him. The lasers cast white beams across her hair and face. Tears sparkled in her eyes, accentuating her blue irises.
“I love you, too,” he said softly. The words rang true, expressing a growing love for his newfound mother, but they were also the only words he could think to say. Obviously he couldn’t talk about Lauren. They had to communicate without letting the eavesdroppers know.
Bonnie eased over to Billy and gave him a whispering kiss. Matt scooped up the eye bomb and shouted to drown out her message. “Dragons are coming! You think you’re ready, but you’d better be shaking in your boots. You’re all expendable frontline troops who’ll die in the first wave. The officers don’t care squat about you. Consider that when you think about the spouses and kids who will cry when you don’t come home from work tomorrow!”
Billy took the eye bomb from Matt. “Everyone huddle.”
As they gathered together, Billy concealed the bomb in his hands. “Bonnie, tell him.”
The bomb began to whistle like an old-fashioned coffeepot. “We have fifteen seconds,” Matt said.
“No problem.” Bo
nnie typed out a message on the phone and showed it to Matt.
It read, “Walter spoke in code.”
Matt nodded. “Got it.”
She typed again. “Hours divided by three.”
Again, Matt nodded. That meant the dragons would arrive in two hours, not six.
Billy set the eye bomb on the floor and rolled it away. As the whistling faded, the bomb made a wide arc and headed toward them again.
“Since we have no way to contact anyone,” Matt said, “maybe we should take turns yelling … to … uh … annoy our eavesdroppers.”
Bonnie pinched Matt’s sleeve and pulled him closer. “Jamming could block anything. No use giving away information.”
As he looked again into her gleaming eyes, Matt parsed her words. Apparently she thought yelling would tip off the guards that they were trying to communicate with Lauren. No one in his right mind would think their shouts could penetrate these walls, and if the guards were jamming a phone frequency, that might hinder the tooth transmitter as well.
Billy crouched near the eye bomb and looked directly at it. “Listen up, whoever is spying on our conversations. Like Matt said, you should be afraid, very afraid. The dragons will come with a fury that you have never seen before. Ask yourselves why the video files for the dragon attack on Fort Knox show only the initial wave. Why weren’t the media ever allowed to visit the complex afterward? I’ll tell you why. Because even with all the firepower they had at Fort Knox, the dragons annihilated every building, every weapon, and every soldier who dared oppose them. The carnage was unbelievable. But there is still hope for you. If you become our allies and fight alongside the dragons, we will spare your lives. Of course if you’ve already faced and conquered a squadron of dagger-toothed, scaly-backed, winged infernos storming at you while blasting white-hot balls of flame, you have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, you’ll just have to take your chances.”
THE RED WALL