Chapter Sixteen
By the time we’re in position, the weather has disintegrated. And in a big way. Driving back into town, storm clouds swept over the city. The radio station warned there was rain on the way. Even a chance of hail.
All the better.
We’re standing on the roof of the Lexor Building. It’s just another skyscraper in the heart of Manhattan, but it’s important to us because it’s right across the road from Ravana’s building.
Everything has worked according to plan, although there are a couple of things we didn’t take into account. Thanks to Dan, the electrical substation that controls this side of town is out of commission. He was able to project a piece of metal into the heart of the thing, knocking out power to an eight block city grid.
We were pleased with our efforts until we realized we still needed to get to the roof of the Lexor Building without elevators. This meant walking up thirty flights of stairs.
Even for young, fit teenagers such as ourselves, it was a struggle. By the time we reached the roof, our legs were jello.
“Are you sure you couldn’t just fly us up here?” Dan asks.
I shake my head. “I want to keep that to a minimum. The less chance that people have of seeing me, the better.”
This is an era where anyone with a cell phone is a journalist. I want to stay off YouTube for as long as possible.
There’s only about fifty feet between us and the other building. Back in the park, I practiced lifting Dan and Brodie into the air and landing again. While I wouldn’t carry both of them at the same time, I found I was able to master keeping two of us in flight at the same time. I hang onto the other person and extend the flying platform under both of us. It’s not elegant. I don’t have the Superman technique handled yet, but it works.
It starts to rain, a driving torrential downpour driven by high winds. In one way it’s a nuisance, but at least it creates another diversion and we need all the help we can get. First I fly Brodie across to the other building. It’s windy, but we make it across without incident. By the time I return to take Dan, the winds seem to have doubled. The only way we make it is that I stay completely focused on the task at hand. Our landing is a little rough, but it’s one we can live with.
“Dan, we need the door open,” I tell him.
“Gotcha,” he replies.
It takes him longer than expected. The driving wind and rain don’t help things. Finally the lock breaks and the door swings loose in the wind. We hurry in from the rain and find ourselves in a darkened stairwell. The only lighting is an emergency exit sign above the door; it must be operated either by a generator or stored solar power.
“I don’t hear an alarm,” Brodie says.
“Let’s hope there isn’t one,” I say.
We make our way down the stairs. Fortunately the doors are marked with the floor number in large letters. We listen closely at the fire door leading to the twenty-fifth floor. Silence. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a guard at the door. There could be ten guys on the other side waiting for us.
We just have to take our chances. Dan focuses on forcing the lock open. He does it as quietly as possible, but it sounds like a train wreck in the silence of the stairwell. Every cracking of the metal is magnified tenfold.
Finally, Brodie eases it open and checks in both directions. She waves us in after her. From here, we don’t really have a plan except Dan has been able to give us a general idea of where he thinks the other teenagers are being held. It’s on the other side of the building, so our intention is to get there without being seen.
We go down the corridor and turn left into another passageway. We’re half way down it when two guys come through a doorway. At first we’re lucky. They turn immediately away from us, but at the last instant one of them must have spotted us from the corner of his eye. He stops and starts to turn.
That’s enough to get Brodie moving.
Man. Is she fast or is she fast?
In about two seconds she’s covered the distance between us and them and she’s knocked one guy’s head against the other. It’s like something out of The Three Stooges. They go down in an untidy pile with barely a sound. Both men are security guards armed with guns, batons and mace. We drag them into the room they exited. It’s some sort of meeting area. Hopefully they won’t wake up any time soon.
We continue down the corridor. After a moment, Dan grabs our arms and drags us to a halt.
“I can feel them.” He rubs the side of his head. “They’re close. And in pain.”
I think again of Ravana’s device and I feel the hatred bubbling up inside me. I push the emotion to one side. Later there will be time to dwell on him. Now we need to focus on the task at hand.
We reach another corridor. Brodie peers around the corner. There is the sound of a door closing followed by receding footsteps. She waits until the footsteps have gone silent before she turns to us.
“I got a glimpse of the room those guys left,” she says. “It’s some sort of guard room. There’s about a dozen guys in there. If we can trap them in there…”
She looks at Dan.
“Consider it done,” he says. “They don’t call me Metal Boy for nothing.”
Personally, I’m unaware that anyone has ever called him Metal Boy, but I let it pass.
Seconds later we’re hurrying past the door. Dan has somehow melted the lock together. Just as we turn into the next corridor we hear someone trying to exit the room. There’s the sound of a commotion.
“We need to hurry,” Brodie says.
We turn another corner. This time our luck goes south because there’s two security guards heading straight toward us. We adopt a maneuver we talked about in the car heading over here.
I throw up a shield as the guys pull out their guns. They start firing, but the bullets bounce off and ricochet into the side walls. Dan focuses on their weapons. As we advance, I can see the barrels of their guns bending back on themselves. One of the guys doesn’t notice his gun has turned into a pretzel. It blows up in his hand. At the same time I drop the barrier and Brodie moves in on them.
All of five seconds later we’re stepping over their unconscious bodies.
“Remind me never to argue with you,” I tell her.
She flashes a smile at me and we keep moving.
We’ve lost the advantage of surprise, but that becomes a moot point because the next corner we come around has a heavily fortified metal door at the end of the corridor.
“We’ve got to move!” I yell. “Dan – uh, Metal Boy!”
I hear Dan grunt with effort and the door flies off the hinges away from us. Beyond it we see a line of guys protecting another door. They open fire immediately, but by now I’ve got my shield up. Bullets are flying everywhere. There are six of them with guns versus the three of us who are completely unarmed.
They don’t stand a chance.
One of the guys suddenly drops to the ground or I should say he is dragged to the ground by his own weapon. There’s no telling what he thinks of his gun operating of its own accord, but within seconds it has trained itself on the feet of his companions. It opens fire and takes out the lower limbs of the other men. They hit the floor, crying out in pain and writhing in agony. My stomach rolls over at the sight. I don’t like to see anyone in pain, but they happened to pick the wrong side. Dan bends the barrels of the other guns, then turns his attention to the entrance. It’s another metal door and it takes him a few seconds to break it out of its frame.
It hits the ground with a crash.
We can see another chamber inside the room. Some sort of cell where two people are waiting expectantly. A girl and a guy. They have similar features. Probably brother and sister. As I step forward to enter the room, a figure with a gun suddenly appears.
Ravana.
The gun in his hand is aimed directly at my chest. Just as he fires I realize Brodie has moved like lightning and already pushed me to one side.
/> She’s still not fast enough.
I still feel the agony of the impact as the bullet slams into me.