Ben yawned. “Sure.”
Poole pointed at the pizza box. “Then finish that.”
“Okay.” Ben didn’t mind cold pizza. He lifted the lid and grabbed a stiff slice. “So where are we at?”
“We are nowhere. You are sitting there today while I make final arrangements for the transfer tonight.” He stopped what he was doing. “Unless you have some idea where Ronin is.”
“No idea. But I’m sure he’ll turn up.” And it had better be soon. They had to come up with a new plan, something that didn’t require Ben to actuate.
But the hours passed, and Ronin never showed.
By that afternoon, Poole had become increasingly agitated. “Where is he? I should have killed him. I had him, and I should have killed him.”
Ben acted as nonchalant as he could manage, but inside, he was panicking. He didn’t know where Ronin was, or what had happened, but they were running out of time.
“I don’t like this, I don’t like this at all.” Poole paced laps around his desk. “Ronin on the loose. Perhaps I need to reconsider.”
“Reconsider what?” Ben asked.
“The transfer.”
“Forget about Ronin,” Ben said. “He doesn’t even know you’re moving the augmenter tonight. What about the Quantum Lea —?”
“Damn the League, the League, the League!” Poole pressed his palms against his temples, squeezing his own head like a vise. Then he relaxed. The man was coming loose. “You’re right. You’re right. Ronin means nothing. It’s the raid.”
“The raid,” Ben said. Keep him thinking about the raid. Confirm his fears.
Things quieted down after that. Ben and Poole went downstairs, and everyone who would be involved that night gathered on the floor of the arena. By evening, Poole had made all the preparations, handpicked his men, checked every detail over and over and over again, and now they were just waiting for the order to move out.
That was when Poole’s phone rang. He listened for a moment, and then he started screaming. “You listen to me! You’re dead! You hear me? Dead! And after that, I’m going to take out the rest of your crew! You —” He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it. “He … hung up on me.”
“Was that Ronin?” Ben asked.
“Yes.” Poole put his phone away. “He has removed himself from the equation. The hour has come. Let’s go.”
“What do you mean?” Inside, Ben became frantic. That sounded like Ronin wasn’t coming. But Ronin had to come. Ben couldn’t do the job without him. “Where’s Ronin?”
“The coward has run off.”
“What about —?” Ben swallowed. “Did he say anything about me?”
“Yes. He said to tell you that you’re on your own.”
On his own? Ben had no idea what that meant. Was it now up to him alone to free Dr. Hughes during the ambush? Or had Ronin and his crew abandoned the job altogether, along with Ben?
Poole grabbed Ben by the neck. “Not to fear, devilish one. You were never his, remember?” He dragged Ben along with him, behind the stage and out the back door. They piled into three waiting SUVs. Poole shoved Ben into the middle car, and climbed in after him, leaving a space between them.
The vehicles pulled out and headed for the park exit, but along the way they stopped behind another building. Two Dread Cloaks emerged from a back door, and between them Ben saw Dr. Hughes. She looked frightened as they hauled her to the car. Poole got out, took Dr. Hughes by the arm, and pushed her into the vehicle with Ben.
He got in and shut the door. “Isn’t this a pleasant reunion, the pupil and the student.”
“Ben?” Her round eyes were red and watery.
“Hi, Dr. Hughes,” Ben said. A Dread Cloak loaded a plastic crate into the back of the car, and Ben figured it had to be the augmenter gun.
Dr. Hughes shook her head. “What are you —?”
“And that’s enough of that,” Poole said. “Roll out!”
The SUVs pulled forward and followed the road to the park’s back gate. From there, they charged across the parking lot. Ben didn’t know what was about to happen, or what he was going to do, but he had Dr. Hughes beside him. He hadn’t seen her since the Dread Cloaks had attacked her lab, and so much had happened since then. She looked tired, but she was alive, and she wasn’t hurt, and he felt reassured by that. Now it was up to him to get them both out of there. Somehow.
The convoy reached the edge of the parking lot, and soon drove under the Mercer Beach sign. The night was clear, the streets completely deserted.
“It’s good to see you,” Dr. Hughes whispered.
Ben nodded, his attention on the road ahead. He looked for signs, anything at all, of the Paracelsus crew. But the strip malls gave way to houses, and pretty soon they would reach the freeway. If the crew didn’t show, what could Ben do without his Locus? Without it, he was just an ordinary kid, trapped in a vehicle with a paranoid murderer. What would Poole do when the raid never happened, and he figured out what Ben had done?
Ben had to escape with Dr. Hughes. Soon. Now. They could hide among all these empty houses, just like the Paracelsus crew had planned to do. Could they make a jump for it from the moving car? That seemed too risky, and the Dread Cloaks would be on them in no time, actuations firing. No, he needed to think of something else. Without moving his head, his eyes roamed around the vehicle. Then he remembered the crate in back.
The portable augmenter. He didn’t need a Locus. He just had to get his hands on that gun. But how?
“Fog, sir,” the SUV’s driver said.
Ben looked ahead, hope flaring inside him, as they plowed into a bank of mist so thick they lost sight of the vehicle in front of them. Argus.
Poole looked across the seat at Ben. “Devilish tricks.”
Ben just shook his head.
The first explosion flashed in front of them, blinding, deafening, and then a second ripped through the fog behind them. That was Meg and Lykos, taking out the other cars.
“AMBUSH!” Poole pounded on the driver’s shoulder. “GO, GO!”
The driver slammed down on the gas, throwing Ben back against the seat. But the SUV didn’t get far before it jolted and slowed.
“Our tires are out!” the driver shouted.
That was Polly, blowing their valves, and that was supposed to be Ben’s cue. His and Ronin’s. But Ronin wasn’t there, and Ben didn’t have his Locus. There was only one thing to do. He unbuckled and heaved himself over the seat into the back. Poole tried to grab him.
“What are you —?”
Ben kicked him away and flipped the lid off the crate. There was the gun. He grabbed it and aimed it at Poole. “Move and I’ll shoot! Try to actuate and I’ll shoot!”
Poole snickered. “It doesn’t work, you stupid, stupid boy.”
“It does for me.” Ben went for ice, just like he had the first time he’d used it. It was easy, with all the water in the air from Argus’s fog. The temperature inside the car plummeted. Poole’s breath became visible in the cold, and Ben sensed the force of his own actuation. “Can you feel that, Poole?”
Poole’s cheeks reddened. His whole face quivered with rage around his wide, bloodshot eyes.
“Dr. Hughes,” Ben said, “get out of the car. Don’t be afraid of the big guy.”
Dr. Hughes sat there for a minute, and then did what Ben said, disappearing into the fog.
“The big guy?” Ben could almost see Poole’s thoughts racing to the realization of how he’d been played. “The Paracelsus crew?”
Ben kept the gun trained on Poole, the actuation poised at the edge of reality, and reached behind him with his other hand. “It’s easy to get someone to believe something they want to believe.” He felt for the handle, popped it, and the back of the SUV lifted open with a whiny hiss.
“You’re still on borrowed time,” Poole said. “You and the Paracelsus crew.”
“Actually,” Ben climbed out onto the street, “once your rival hears about this, I thi
nk you’re the one on borrowed time.”
Poole’s face blanched.
Ben turned and ran into the fog.
BEN stumbled ahead, unsure of where he was going. He didn’t think Poole would come after him, not if he thought the Paracelsus crew was out there somewhere in the fog. But Ben had to find the safe house and get off the streets before the air cleared.
“Polly!” he whispered. “Dr. Hughes! Argus!”
Suburban homes loomed out of the mist around him, looking even more haunted than they had before. Ben ran down uneven sidewalks that seemed to heave up under his feet, in and out of cul-de-sacs, over lawns left to dry up and die.
“Meg! Lykos!”
“Ben!”
He stopped and oriented toward the voice. That sounded like Argus, and not too far away. Ben cupped his hand to his mouth. “I’m here!”
“Ben, this way!”
Ben ran toward the voice, between two houses, through a backyard, and almost tripped over a child’s abandoned tricycle. He came to a low picket fence, and climbed over it.
“You’re almost here.” Argus sounded very close now. “Hurry.”
Ben ran another few yards, and the back of a house materialized. Argus stood on the cement patio, near an open sliding door.
“Come,” he said.
“Dr. Hughes?”
“She’s inside.”
Ben slowed down and walked through the door. He froze as Argus slid the door shut behind him. In the middle of what was once a living room, Polly held Dr. Hughes by the arm, and she looked even more terrified of the giant than she had of Poole. Meg and Lykos held Ronin between them. He’d been beaten, both eyes blackened, a busted and swollen lip. His head lolled, and he seemed barely conscious.
Argus snatched the portable augmenter from Ben’s hand. “I’ll take that.”
Ben spun around. “What’s going on?”
“We’re taking the gun,” Argus said. “And we’re going to sell it to the highest bidder.”
“We?” What was Argus talking about? Ben shook his head. He looked again at Ronin and realized why he hadn’t come. “But —”
“Ronin thought he could use you to cross us,” Meg said. “But we knew from the moment he brought you to the safe house.”
After everything Ben had done. Working the Paracelsus crew, working Poole. He had rescued Dr. Hughes, had the gun in his hand. They were so close. “How …?”
“He didn’t ask about the jewels.” Lykos looked down at Ronin. “Not once. We’d just done a job, and he never even asked about his cut. We knew something was wrong.”
Ben lost feeling in his arms and legs. He thought he might go down, but he refused. To these people, he was still the kid capable of anything. “So what now?”
“Now,” Argus said, “we take the gun and we leave.”
“What happens to us?” Ben asked.
“Well, Polly has insisted you go free,” Argus said. “You and your professor. And the thing is, kid, we like you. So we’re good. Bygones be bygones.”
“And Ronin?” Ben asked.
“He played you,” Meg said. “He played us, he played Poole, and he played the League.”
“Worst thing we can do to him now is cut him loose,” Lykos said. “Throw him to the wolves.”
“There might be one more thing.” Argus walked up to Ronin and reached inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out Ronin’s keys. “I think we’ll take his car. Conveniently parked right outside.”
“You —” Ronin lifted his head and tried speaking for the first time, his voice raspy and weak. “You’ve always wanted my car.”
Argus slipped the keys into his pocket. “It’ll look better on me anyway.”
He nodded to Meg and Lykos, and they threw Ronin to the ground. He didn’t even try to catch himself, and went down hard. Polly nudged Dr. Hughes toward Ben and handed her off.
“Take it easy, kid,” the giant said.
The Paracelsus crew moved to the front door. Lykos and Meg went out first, and then Polly ducked through the door. Before Argus left, he turned back. “Word of advice, kid. Leave Ronin and clear out fast. It won’t take Poole long to find this place.” Then he was gone.
Ben dropped to his knees beside Ronin. “Are you okay? Get up, we gotta move.”
Ronin shook his head. “Wait.”
“Wait?” Ben said. “Wait for what?”
Another second passed, and then Ronin staggered to his feet. He straightened, both hands on his lower back, wincing, and then trudged toward the front door. Ben felt an actuation forming.
“Ronin, you can’t go after them,” Ben said. “They’ll kill you.”
Ronin smiled back at him, a confident glint in his eyes, and stepped outside.
Ben followed after him, and Dr. Hughes came behind. The fog had started lifting, and out in the driveway, the Paracelsus crew had climbed into Ronin’s car. Argus sat in the driver’s seat, Polly beside him, Meg and Lykos in the back. But they were just sitting there, looking around, confused. Ronin laughed and shambled over to Argus. He leaned his shoulder against the car and motioned with a twirl of his finger for Argus to roll the window down.
Argus did. “What did you do, Ronin?”
“A little upgrade.” Ronin knocked on the roof. “Call it an antitheft device. My car is now equipped with the latest actuation suppression technology, courtesy of the Quantum League.” He held up his hand. “And you’ve no doubt felt the actuation I have all warmed up. A little Class One, and this car blows sky-high.”
Ben wanted to laugh. That was what Ronin had wanted with the plans. He had said they were for Poole, but really, they were for his own crew. Had he known they were going to double-cross him?
“Hand it over,” Ronin said. “I will not ask twice.”
Argus didn’t look quite as angry as Poole had, but almost. He passed the augmenter gun through the open window.
Ronin took it and limped away from the car. “Be grateful I’m not the type to hold a grudge and treat you in kind.” He walked up to the house’s garage door. “Help me with this, Ben?”
Ben didn’t know what was going on, but he walked over and lifted open the garage door. Inside, he saw another car. Ronin opened the trunk and put the augmenter gun inside. Then he walked to the driver’s side and unlocked it. “Get in, Ben. You, too, Dr. Hughes.”
Once they were all inside, Ronin turned the key, and the car rumbled to life. He put it in reverse and inched out of the garage, right past the Paracelsus crew trapped in his old car. Ben couldn’t resist, and he waved good-bye to them. Argus, Lykos, and Meg all glared at him, but Polly waved back.
“I’m going to miss that car,” Ronin said as he reached the street. “But this’ll do.” He threw the car into first gear, and Ben heard the tires squeal as they launched down the road.
During the drive back to the city, Ben filled Ronin in on what had happened with Poole and the Dread Cloaks for the past two days, while Dr. Hughes had somehow fallen asleep in the backseat.
“When you didn’t come back,” Ben said, “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“Sorry, kid,” Ronin said. “I had to let the crew think they’d gotten the jump on me. But I knew you could handle it. I’ve seen you actuate.”
“But that’s just it,” Ben said. “I couldn’t actuate. One of the Dread Cloaks destroyed my Locus.”
“You use a Locus?” Ronin asked. “How did I not know that?”
Ben shrugged. “Never came up.”
“So, wait.” Ronin crinkled one eye at him. “You were in the car with Poole during the ambush, and you couldn’t actuate?”
“Right,” Ben said.
“What did you do?”
“I grabbed the augmenter gun.”
“That thing works, huh?”
“It does for me.”
The sun was just coming up as they approached the League headquarters, the tip of the steeple lit by a slice of golden light, while the rest of it lay in shadow. Ronin suddenly
jerked the steering wheel and pulled them over to the side of the road. The jostling woke up Dr. Hughes.
Ben looked over at Ronin. “What —?”
“Get out of the car, kid.”
Ben pointed up the road. “But it’s just —”
The air stirred with an actuation. Ben froze. He didn’t know what was happening.
“I’m not gonna kill you,” Ronin said. “But I’ll hurt you if I have to. Now get out of the car. You, too, Dr. Hughes.”
Dr. Hughes hurried from the backseat onto the sidewalk.
Ben stayed where he was. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking the portable augmenter. What else?”
“But …” Ben didn’t know what to say. Ronin had coached him, taught him, saved him. Even if Ben had had his Locus, he was so confused right now, he wasn’t sure he could actuate a thing.
“Look, kid. I could have left you back by the refinery. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to risk the chance of Poole finding you. You’re safe now.”
“Ronin, please —”
“GET OUT OF THE CAR!”
Ben flinched. He opened the door, hopped out, then turned to ask, “What about your daughter?”
Ronin laughed. “Mr. Weathersky doesn’t have my daughter. Remember what I told you? The easiest way to play someone is to tell them what they want to hear. Anytime somebody is telling you what you want to hear, you’d better pay attention to what they’re really saying.”
“But …” Tears came to Ben’s eyes. A sob caught in his throat. This was too much. This, of all things. “Ronin — my mom.”
Ronin looked away, down the road. He cleared his throat. “Sorry, kid. Now shut the door.”
Ben shut it.
Ronin sped away.
“This isn’t your fault,” Agent Spear said. “You hear me, son?”
Ben stared at the agent. They were sitting in the library with Agent Taggart, Dr. Hughes, and Mr. Weathersky. The director had filled Dr. Hughes in on the League and its mission, and she’d seemed a lot less shocked by it than Ben would have thought. But then, she’d already been kidnapped by a gang of Actuators, so a self-appointed police force of Actuators probably made perfect sense.