Villain's Lair (13 page)

So that's what Dave did. And the instant he was on the roof and saw Pablo and Angelo
blocking the emergency stairs, he realized that there was only one way down.

The same way he'd come up.

Which he could have turned around and done right then, but there was one little problem.

The boy.

Now, dastardly, demented villains like Damien Black understand that people who are good cannot just abandon people who need help.

Dastardly, demented villains like Damien Black
count
on this.

It's how they lure victims into their lairs.

How they extract information.

How they use people to get the things they want.

And what Damien Black wanted more than anything he'd ever wanted was to get the power-band back.

So he moved toward Dave and said, “There's no way out. Give it to me or the boy dies.”

“Don't say a word,” Sticky whispered into Dave's ear. “He will remember your voice.”

So Dave didn't say a word. Instead, he circled away from the treasure hunter, trying to maneuver closer to the boy.

“It's no use!” Damien hissed, circling, too. “Give it up and you'll both go free.”

It would seem they were at an impasse. Dave would not give up the powerband, and Damien would not set Luis free without it. There was no escape, nor were there helicopters flying overhead on their way to rescue them.

And yes, Dave could have just disappeared down the face of the wall, but he felt responsible for the predicament that Luis was in. After all, it was his shoes and hat that had gotten Luis nabbed in the first place.

So this was a showdown.

A face-off.

A take-ten-paces-and-shoot situation.

And Damien Black, for his part, did not feel he could lose. Even if police swarmed the roof or helicopters arrived, he planned to escape undetected.

You see, the villain had brought along the Invisibility ingot.

All he needed was the powerband, and
poof
, he would simply disappear.

But what Damien Black had neglected to figure into his evil equation was the Sticky factor. For while the treasure hunter was keeping pace with Dave (the two of them moving round and round like figures on a deadly carousel), Sticky had whispered, “See you at home,
hombre,”
in Dave's ear, and had snuck off of one ride and onto another.

In other words, he had sneaky-toed his way onto Damien Black!

Now, when Sticky made it up to Damien's collar,
he
wasted no time. With a wide-mouthed
gecko CHOMP, he bit that evil
hombre
on the back of his neck.

“Aaaaghhh!” Damien Black cried, flailing backward and stumbling around like a madman.

For a moment, neither the Bandito Brothers nor Dave nor Luis thought anything of this behavior.

Damien Black
was
, after all, a madman.

But then Sticky shouted

“Run!” at Dave, then deepened his voice and bellowed, “Get
back to the mansion, you fools!” to the Bandito Brothers before chomping down on Damien Black's neck again.

To the Bandito Brothers, the voice sounded for all the world like it had come out of the mouth of Damien Black. But they knew that the boy in the sunglasses had something very valuable, so while Damien Black was screeching and flailing in pain, they charged Dave, thinking they could get whatever it was for themselves.

Dave looked around quickly but could see only one way out.

He grabbed Luis and simply said, “Piggyback.” And, hoping desperately that the gecko power of Wall-Walker would hold their combined weight, over the edge they went.

Dave did several smart things as he took Luis down the building.

First, he didn't go down the wall facing the pileup or the walls that faced the other streets. He went down the fire escape wall. The one that led to the narrow alleyway (where, if you'll recall, there were trash cans and mangy cats and broken bottles and not much else).

He also didn't take Luis all the way down.

He dropped him off at the fifth-floor fire escape landing.

“Wait!” Luis cried. “Where are you going? Who are you? How come you can walk on walls?”

Dave just flashed him the peace sign and scurried away.

The minute he was on the ground, Dave tore off his hat and sunglasses and stuffed them inside a trash can. Then he hurried back to the basement stairwell, whipped on his red sweatshirt, clipped on his helmet, and slipped back into the crowd.

He had two things on his mind.

First and foremost, Sticky.

Had Damien Black caught him?

Would he ever see his sticky-footed friend again?

But second, an alibi. He needed an alibi.

So he searched the crowd for Lily, and when he saw her, he went up behind her and stood like he'd been standing there all along. “Do you think he's going to come back down?” he asked.

“I hope so!” Lily said, glancing over her shoulder at Dave. “Wasn't that the most radical thing ever?”

“It sure was,” Dave said.

So Dave established an alibi with Lily, but he
didn't stick around. He went back to his bike and rode home. Home, after all, was where Sticky had said he'd meet him.

But the little lizard didn't return.

Not that hour.

Or the next.

Or the next.

That night, Dave's parents (like everybody else in the city) tuned in to the news. When footage of Dave scaling the wall came on, Dave held his breath, hoping his parents wouldn't recognize him.

It was all so strange to watch.

Like it had happened in a dream.

Or to somebody else.

Then the newscaster said, “All through the streets, people were calling this capped crusader the Gecko. He scaled the wall like an enormous gecko lizard, rescued the boy, and enabled the police to capture his assailant.”

“They caught him?” Dave asked.

“Of course they caught him,” his father replied. “How did he ever expect to get away?” He pointed to the image of Damien Black, handcuffed and furious. “Look at that lunatic! I hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars!”

“Amen,” Dave's mother murmured. So Dave's parents didn't show any hint of recognition, which for Dave was an enormous relief.

Evie, however, was another matter. First she stared at the TV. Then she stared at Dave. She stared at the TV.

She stared at Dave.

And although (for the first time in her life) she didn't point a finger or tattle, Dave could tell she was making plans.

Big, long-range, torturous plans.

But even that barely bothered him. All he really cared about was Sticky.

Where was Sticky?

He didn't sleep a wink all night. Every time he heard a tiny noise, he hoped it was Sticky. He checked the flower box outside the kitchen window over and over and over.

Sticky was never there.

In the morning, he left for school at the very last minute and even rode home at lunch to check the flower box.

Sticky had not come home.

“Where
are
you?” he whimpered, and in his heart of hearts he feared the worst. He even (for the first time) asked Mr. Kelly to please let his customers know that he was sick and couldn't do his deliveries (because he did, in fact, feel sick and didn't know how he'd make it through the afternoon).

He went straight home after school, and even Lily being friendly to him in the foyer couldn't raise
his spirits. In fact, she depressed him all the more. “Everybody was talking about the Gecko today!” she said. “He's like a real-life superhero!”

A superhero?

He didn't want to be a superhero!

He didn't want to be the Gecko.

He just wanted
his
gecko.

Dave trudged up to his apartment, checked the flower box, then flopped onto his bed.

What was he going to do?

But then from beneath his pillow he heard, “Hey,
hombre
, you're squooshing me!”

“Sticky?” he gasped, whipping the pillow away.

“No,
señor”
Sticky said with a scowl. “You've got a talking pillow.”

“Sticky!” Dave squealed, scooping him up. “I was so worried about you!”

“Easy,
hombre
, eeeeeasy! It was a long way, you know. And I was carrying something that slowed me down.” He jumped back onto the bed and burrowed
under the covers, and when he emerged, he had a coin in his hand.

A shiny coin.

With special notches.

He handed it over to Dave and said, “Here,
hombre.”

Dave blinked at the coin. On it was the design of half a man. “Is it…?”

Sticky gave a little gecko shrug and a little gecko grin. “Pop it in. See how you like it.”

And so, with shaking hands, Dave did.

And disappeared completely.

Now, I could tell you what happened next. And I could explain how anyone who thinks that a simple cage is enough to hold a devilish villain like Damien Black has a lot to learn. But those are stories for another day.

For this story, for today, the time has come to say…

Adiós!