Edge of Time (22 page)

T
he sunlight was already dimming, despite the early hour. Riley stopped the military vehicle they'd acquired at the three-way intersection and waited for Alec's directions. She glanced over at him. He was very pale and staring straight ahead. Riley allowed several silent seconds to pass before she smacked him across the upper arm. “Hey, quit your dreaming. Which way, left or right?”

“Cut it out,” Alec flared, pulling his arm away from her and giving her a dark look. “Ask nicely.”

“By the time you wake up and get with the program, Rhozan'll have South America destroyed. Hurry up.”

“Piss off, Cohen.”

“Yeah, eat dung, Anderson,” Riley fired back.

“Hey, hey!” Darius shouted. “Leave him alone.”

“He's not going to morph into Darth Vader just because he gets pissed, Darius. Relax.”

“Yeah.” Alec added his insulted voice to hers. “I'm not.”

“Which way, Alec?” Darius sighed deeply and looked out at the cityscape as if too frustrated to look at either one of them.

“Left,” Alec instructed. The truck rolled forward, picking up speed once onto the newer road. “Is that what you think will happen to me?”

“What?” Darius asked, frowning.

“I'll turn into Darth Vader.”

“Who?”

“A character in a popular movie from the eighties,” Riley butted in. Alec would take all day to explain, and to be frank, she was just as curious. Not that she thought Alec would. He was a really sweet kid, underneath the bravado. “He had, like, evil tendencies and got pushed over the edge, turning into the ultimate bad guy. But then he turned good, in the end, when his son saved him.”

Darius peered around Alec to look intently at Riley. She spared a quick glance before focusing on the road again.

“I'm not familiar with the reference,” Darius began, “but the idea is relatively similar. Anger, despair, vengeance – all these can lead anyone into a hopeless state where their reason becomes clouded, their sense of themselves gets lost. I'm not just talking about Rhozan, although he's the main problem. Kids who lose their sense of moral direction, act out, and never find their way back. Alec has the added complication that he's susceptible to Rhozan because he's entered his mind when he was sleeping and vulnerable. I have no idea what he's planted inside your head, Alec, what might already be there to turn you away from us. So I need you to stay as calm as possible, keeping the anger at bay as much as you can. Do both of you understand?”

Riley nodded. Beside her Alec muttered something that sounded like “whatever” under his breath and slouched down in his seat, his shoulder rubbing up against hers in the tight space. With her own shoulder, she gave him a little shove of encouragement before focusing entirely on the road again.

Up ahead, several cars were piled up together in the middle of the road, and only passing over the sidewalk on the left would give them access to the road ahead. The sidewalk was blocked with several shopping carts, piled into a tangle. Riley came to a stop. She pointed at the carts with a finger. “You two'll have to move those.”

“No problem,” Darius said, already opening his door. “Alec?”

Riley shifted the truck into park and took her feet off the pedals with relief. She was a bit too short to drive the truck, which consequently put a strain on her neck. She rubbed her shoulders for a moment, watching Alec and Darius as they tackled the massive heap of carts.

The knife poked her throat, just enough to get her attention.

“Don't move,” a hoarse voice whispered in her ear.

Riley's heart zoomed up into her throat and began a wild tattoo, so loud she barely heard the man's next instructions. “Turn off the engine.”

She couldn't see him. He was outside the truck, his dirty sleeve winding through the open window towards her. Turning her head slightly, she glanced in the side-view mirror. The young man was dishevelled, dirty and grimacing. Slowly and carefully, she reached forward, the knifepoint never leaving her skin, and flicked her wrist. The engine died.

Suddenly there were dozens of them. Swirling out from the buildings around them, sliding out from the pile of cars in the accident, dropping down from the roof next to the sidewalk. Darius and Alec were instantly engaged in a vicious battle.

“Get out of the truck,” the hoarse voice instructed.

Riley eased herself off the seat and opened the door. There was a second in which the knife was gone from her throat but she couldn't act fast enough. The door was wrenched open, hands reached in to grab her and she was yanked out. She fell in a heap to the ground, bruising her hands and knees.

“Leave her alone.”

She heard Alec's voice break in his fury.
Don't get angry
, she mentally pleaded with him.

A pair of booted feet walked into Riley's view and stopped next to her nose. Hands pulled her upright. Her heart sank.

“We meet again, Potential,” said the Emissary. He was young, around Darius' age, and stinking of sweat and hatred. He wore a wedding ring and expensive shoes. His voice was deeper than she might have expected and was probably Rhozan's. She peered closely and a thousand shivers coursed down her back.
He wasn't breathing.

With lightning speed, the man slapped her hard across the face. She heard Alec's shout and opened her mouth to tell him to shut up when the pain hit.

“Search them,” the Emissary said. “Take everything out of their pockets and give it to me.”

Oh no, not her orb.

She glimpsed Alec and Darius over the shoulder of the Emissary who had dragged her from the truck. Alec's arms were cruelly pulled up behind his back and his nose was bleeding. Darius was on the ground, unconscious, the rapid swellings indicative of the beating he had taken. His orb, and Alec's, were handed to the leader, who said nothing as he deposited them, along with hers, into his jacket pocket. “Put them in the back of the truck,” the Emissary ordered.

She was dumped onto the floor. Alec was tossed up beside her.

“You okay?” Alec grunted just as someone's booted foot kicked his back. Angry, he twisted around. “Cut it out.”

“Shut up,” the Emissary instructed as he climbed aboard and settled onto the bench that ran down both sides of the truck-bed walls. “Both of you.”

Riley sat up and clasped Alec's hand. Darius was lifted up over the tailgate and dropped onto the floor. He didn't move. Without hesitation, Riley shimmied forward and lifted his head into her lap. She smoothed away his hair from his forehead and willed herself to touch his mind. Nothing. She raised her eyes to Alec's.

The truck engine roared to life and the vehicle lurched forward. Riley swallowed her sob as she swayed with the movement. Heaven only knew where the Emissary was taking them, and heaven help them when he got them there.

A
nger pounded through Alec's veins. He'd used that very same ambush scenario hundreds of times in Attack of the Zombie Warlords from Pluto and it hadn't even occurred to him for one second that Rhozan might use it on him. How incredibly stupid. Problem was, he had no idea what to do now. Rhozan clearly knew all the game strategies he did and that meant the Other would be aware of any possible attempt at escape Alec might choose. Maybe Darius had some idea of Rhozan's weaknesses, but he'd never discussed it with them and if he had a plan, Alec didn't know it and Darius was in no shape to tell him now.

With Darius out of the equation, at least for now, the responsibility fell to him. Sure Riley was older and infinitely bossier, but her skill with an orb was sorely lacking, not to mention her penchant for annoying the hell out of her captors. If he could get her to somehow understand his plan, she might be of help. That was, when he had a plan. Right now he was finding it a bit hard even to think straight. All he wanted to do was hit someone. Preferably Rhozan.

Rhozan. Alec tried to suppress the shudder. The alien field commander had been in his head, knew what he knew, and had powers Alec couldn't begin to match. The world around him was falling to pieces. If he didn't figure out what Darius considered to be Rhozan's weakness, they were all doomed. Him, Riley, his parents. Everyone.

There
had
to be a weakness. He just had to figure out what it was.

And fast.

R
iley shuddered as the truck jerked to a halt and stopped. Alec's arm tightened around her for a moment, then let go as the tailgate of the truck dropped open. The Emissary clambered down awkwardly as if not used to the body he in-habited. When both feet were on the ground, he turned and faced them.

“You will follow me,” he ordered.

“And if we don't want to?” Riley asked.

“We can beat you into submission. Is that preferable?”

“Well, no, duh.”

“Then follow me.”

“So, why'd we need to come back to my old apartment building? Is this your secret base?” Alec asked.

“The conduit here is open far wider and stronger than elsewhere,” the Emissary said. “As you suspect, Alec. Get down off the truck. Carry Finn.”

Riley grimaced but before she could make a scathing reply, an invisible energy yanked her hands off Darius and pulled her across the tailgate, dumping her onto the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of her. She lay in the mud, gasping for breath.

“Leave her alone,” Alec growled.

“Silence,” said the Emissary, turning his back to them. “Carry the Tyon.”

They were in front of a tall multi-storey apartment building that even before the looting and rioting would have had no street appeal whatsoever. The cement walkway was cracked and weed-choked, the metal balconies rusted and the paint around the windows blistered and peeled. People didn't move here by choice, Riley decided.

“I'll take his shoulders,” Alec said quietly, “you take his feet.”

It took a moment to manoeuvre Darius into their arms and pull him from the truck. Groaning slightly with the weight, she and Alec carried their swinging cargo up the front path, Alec walking backwards.

The security doors were off their hinges and piled in the corner of the otherwise empty lobby. Someone had spray-painted obscenities all over the walls and the smell was unbelievable. They waited by the elevator doors, trying as hard as they could to hold their breath. Surprisingly, the doors immediately slid back with a faint
ding
, permitting them entry. The Emissary came in with them, followed by several of the group who had attacked them, crowding her and Alec against the back wall.

There was a faint lurch, then they began to climb. Riley had the unsettling sensation of the space beneath her feet and the ground increasing, a thin and rapidly uncoiling wire the only thing between life and death. Rapidly she forced the thought from her mind. Rhozan didn't need any ideas.

A louder
ding
and the elevator came to a shuddering stop. The second the doors opened and the Emissaries got out of the way, Riley scuttled out.

The long, dingy hallway was barely lit. Broken glass littered the floor and spray paint adorned the cement brick walls. Alec didn't look up. He started to back down the hallway, shuffling slowly, his shoulders hunched. He looked different, Riley observed, as she struggled to keep hold of Darius' ankles in her small hands. Defeated. Worry increasing, she glanced back. The Emissary in charge was smiling.

Alec stopped only a few steps down the hall. He nodded towards a door to their left. Number twenty-seven. The seven was loose and lopsided.

The door unlatched and opened of its own accord. A bright, overpowering yellow light flooded the hallway. Riley blinked furiously. Her eyes began to tear. Her skin crawled. She felt ill. A dull pounding started at the back of her head.

“Enter,” said the Emissary.

Riley swallowed the lump in her throat. She glanced at Alec, but he was staring downward.

The Emissary shoved her.

“Cut it out, creep,” she snapped as she fought to regain her balance. “We're moving.”

There was nothing else for it. Surrounded and seriously outnumbered, there was no way to stall, no place to run, and no method of escape.

She took a deep breath. The power hit her broadside as she stepped into the doorway.