Planet Heist (The Dunham Archives Book 1) (7 page)

I moaned as loud as I could manage without hurting my winded lungs. The pain was rasping around inside of my chest, trying to escape with every breath. Though my ribs were horrible, my ninth rib was almost poking out of my skin and tearing it open, my leg was the worst. It was flaming pain, searing through ripped flesh.

I had to move, had to get away. This was a bad place to be with five broken bones.

Luckily, my brother heard my cry and jumped down the broken skylight, landing solidly on his feet next to me.

“Get down here Salah!” He yelled up, ducking down next to me.

“Kai? Can you hear me?!” He whispered nervously, seeing my fluttering eyelids as I floated in and out of consciousness for a while. I managed, despite it all, to nod.

He let out a relieved sigh. “Listen, are you okay?”

A nod, a lie. If I made Rowan nervous, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything.

“What’s bad?”

I lifted up my throbbing hand, touched my leg and then my ribs, giving across the message as clearly as possible.

“Alright. Can you walk?” He sounded nervous as he asked this, and Salah plopped down behind us.

“Oh my god.”

“Not helpful!” Rowan snapped.

I shook no to Rowan’s question curtly and attempted to sit up; the effort made me woozy and Rowan was suddenly behind me, holding me up.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, gasping.

“I know, I just don’t know how to get
you
out of here.” He told me, his eyebrows furrowing in thought and frustration.

“Leave me here,” I said, “I can get out by myself.”

“No!” Salah protested, breaking his silence. He turned to me, “You’re our leader. I’ll carry you out myself before leaving you here. In fact…Rowan, grab her arms, I’ll support one of her legs and be careful with the other. We
will
get her out if it’s the last thing we ever do.”

“And it may be.” Rowan told him seriously, “But I can carry my little sister by myself, thanks,”

“I’m older,” I mumbled with effort.

“Whatever you say,” I heard Rowan reply under his breath.

“And boys,” I whisper, gaining back some of my strength. The pain had ebbed a little, though it still felt as if my leg was being sawed off by a hot blade, “Shut up about carrying me. I’ll walk; I just need to lean on one of you.”

For a moment or two, they glared at each other. It was obvious both of them wanted to be my splint, but they would have to argue it out since I didn’t have the strength anymore.

For another painstaking minute, they stood debating silently with each other, slow in deciding despite the obviously deadly situation.

“I’ll do it,” Salah piped up.

“No, you won’t. She’s
my
sister, I’ll do it.”

“Shut
up
!” I said as loudly as I could muster, “Salah will help me, he offered first.  Stop acting like four year olds fighting over your mother’s attention!”

A plan was already forming in my head.

Rowan glanced at me, and then nodded curtly. He clenched his jaw and grabbed my arm. He pulled me up and then Salah took my other arm as Rowan let go, somewhat hesitantly.

Thank god Salah’s strong – I leaned on him very heavily as we slowly trudged to the bottom of the building, where the police were waiting.

“Salah,” I whispered, quiet enough so Rowan, even with his impeccable hearing, wouldn’t notice, “There’s a vaporizer strapped to my side, under my shirt, it’ll kill all of those police officers, but you’ll have to get us out of there, and fast, okay?”

“All right.” He said, and I felt his hand slip again to my waist, where he lifted my tank-top and loosened the small cube that would expand and become my Rizer. At his touch, I noticed my heart thudding a bit – irrational response to stimulus, just like before.

“Now,” I instructed, limping forward, “There’s a turquoise button glowing on the top – press it and it’ll expand to about the size of your hand. Good. Now, see that red button?
Do not
press it, that’ll make it fire. I want you to pretend your holding me captive – they want me alive and will do anything to prevent you from killing me. Take me about thirty feet from them, with the gun pointed at my head. Then, flip it out and point it towards Dmitri Ivanov, the tallest one towards the middle. He’s the only one who’s going to know what it is, and he will run. When the rest try to follow suit, you have to shoot them.” I tell him, swaying.

“Okay.” He gulped, and I knew he was uncomfortable with useless murder.

“You have to prove something by doing this. Whether you shoot them or not is your deal breaker: if you do, you prove your loyalty to me, and if you don’t, I know you’re against me and I will instruct Rowan to kill you on the spot.” I told him sullenly.

After three painful staircases, we were at the bottom, ready to open the door.

“Are you okay?” I asked Salah.

He nodded.

“Put on a good show. Rowan! Play along, all right?”

He nodded.

“Act like you’re trying to get Salah to let me go.”

He nods, and Salah pulls out another knife from my back, holding it level with Rowan’s neck.

“Go outside. Now.”

Salah held me to his chest and dragged me outside, the gun at my head. I allowed real terror to sink into my eyes as I scanned the scene. Looking directly into Dmitri’s cold brown eyes, I saw him assess the situation and realization cross his features.

“C’mon, boy,” he beckoned to Salah, “give her to us. There’s twenty of us and one of you – we will win, and you will die.”

“Never!” Salah yelled, “I’ll kill her first! Now back up or I’ll shoot.”

“Listen Captain,” A man said, addressing Dmitri, “our supervisor told us to bring her back alive. She told me her brother was expendable.”

“Of course.” Dmitri replied, “But I wonder what she’ll think if we bring back yet another Salah to her company,” He chuckled.

“My father? What do you know of my father?” Salah yelled, forgetting himself.

“Your father? I know that he was killed by the very girl you’re holding.” Dmitri replied quietly.

Salah feigned shock expertly. This was, of course, common knowledge to the entire universe.

“You’re lying!” Salah jabbed the gun out in their direction, frightening the men who did not know what it was.

“Boys, stay calm,” Dmitri informed them, “if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t shoot. I assume you know what that is, little boy, and you know what’ll happen if you shoot it.”

“Back the hell off!” Salah commanded, and some of them stammered backwards. “Who are you working for?” Salah yelled again.

“Her identity is a secret even to me.” Ivanov lied flawlessly, but I could tell with him. We had met quite a few times in the past – thirty seven times in the past six years if my memory isn't failing me. And my memory is never wrong.

“Tell me!” I burst suddenly, wavering in Salah’s arms. He pressed the gun to my head, but I saw his finger was nowhere near the trigger, “Is it
Zenda
?” I spat the word with malice.

They were shocked, and I had my answer.

In the chaos of the police gathering their bearings, Salah sidestepped slowly about thirty feet, until he was parallel with the man at the edge of the force.

“Are we far enough?” He whispered to me.

I nodded and he pointed the gun at them.

Dmitri, more quick-witted than I thought, lunged backwards and pulled out his own Rizer, one about ten times the size of mine.

I heard Rowan curse, then run, as Salah pressed his finger onto the trigger.

“Run!” I screamed, and I did my best to help as he dragged me towards where Rowan was standing fifty feet from us already. I looked back and saw the explosion.

Electric blue light was escaping towards the police force at a mile per second, but it all happened in slow motion. The light cracked and popped, shooting out blinding beams of light. The air was suddenly hot as the ball of blue flame hurtled towards its target, taking out everything. And, at the last millisecond before he should have been vaporized, Dmitri Ivanov vanished into thin air.

“He’s gone,” I breathed to Salah when we had reached Rowan.

“I know, they’re all gone,” He swallowed.

“No!” I told him urgently, “Dmitri! When the ball shot out, he disappeared into thin air.
He’s gone
. And he’s working for Zenda. She’s got the whole police behind her. Boys – it looks like we’ve found ourselves a formidable enemy.”

“So this Zenda woman…who is she to us?” Rowan asked, taking one of my arms. I lean on him more now, as he’s stronger than Salah. He supports me like I weigh nothing.

“She wants the Xeron, and she knows to get it, she’ll have to get rid of us by whatever means possible. So, basically, we have to get her before she gets to us. Either way, someone’s dying…and soon.” I explained.

“But what about your leg?” Salah asked.

“We’re going to Ireland,” I said, shrugging it off because, if you know anything about the universe, you’ve got to know what Ireland has.

“What’s in Ireland?” Salah asked obliviously.

Rowan snorted out a laugh, and Salah looked genuinely offended.

“Are you kidding?” My brother asked.

“Yeah!” I piqued up, “how do you not know what’s in Ireland? And you call yourself a criminal!” I scoffed.

“So…what is it?” Salah continued on stupidly.

“They have Nucleic Doctors in Ireland, duh.” Rowan explained.

“Nucleic Doctors?” Salah looked utterly puzzled by this relatively well known concept.

“Yes…they’re the only people in this or any other dimension that can RH any person for only a…reasonable fee.” I explained.

“RH someone?” He asked.

“You’re so clueless, aren’t you?” I sighed, shaking my head, “RH as in Relazine Hyperlative. And this means, in case you don’t know, that they can heal your cells, every one of them, in seconds, so they can heal my broken leg as soon as we can get there – that’s what a Nucleic Doctor does, and that’s why we’re going to Ireland.”

“Oh.”

“And Salah, stay away from my sister. She’ll kill you if you try anything.” He threat-ened maliciously.

I grinned, “He’s right you know. Even though Rowan could easily destroy you, it would be more fun for me to, and I’ve seen more insides than a surgeon,”

“You guys are scary.” Salah chuckled.

“Don’t I know it,” And with that, Rowan was off. He receded into the sky while Salah stood, looking at me.

“Let’s go sit on the porch of that building over there,” I pointed.

He held me up almost fully as I put no pressure on my leg, and I tumbled over. As I tripped down, in the clumsiest moment I’ve had in years, Salah caught me. I landed in his tanned arms and struggled to get out of his grip.

“Oh come on,” He smiled, standing up and holding on to me tighter. He carried me over to the porch and set me down gingerly on the wood floor.

“Congratulations,” I told him quietly.

“For what?” He seemed truly surprised at my notion.

“For earning my trust,” I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. His skin was suddenly flushed russet, making me wonder a little. Of course, he probably didn’t know that on my home planet, a kiss on the cheek is the international sign of friendship, like in many European countries on this silly planet.

“What was that for?” He asked once his face had returned to its normal shade.

“You’re not wearing an earpiece.”

“I know. You’ve got a cut on you ankle,” He informed me, and I checked it out.

He was right – there were a few scrapes on the leg I hadn’t broken from tripping earlier.

“Are they recent?” He wondered.

“I guess they are.”

“What’d you get them from?” He implored.

“I got them falling for you.” Was my nonchalant reply.

For a moment or two, I had no clue what I had said, presuming nothing had come out of my mouth but my previous assessment. And then his dark eyebrows rose until I could’ve sworn they were going to touch his hairline. He was still smirking a bit at this point, which alerted me to what had come out of my mouth.

“Oh!” I worried, capping my hand over my mouth, “Sorry! I…uh…didn’t know what I was saying…”

“Look at this – Kairee Dunham at a loss for words. That
must
be a first,” He smiled, “and all over someone as useless as me.”

I mock slapped him on the chest, simply trying to alleviate the awkward tension now settled between us, “You’re not just another stupid human. I need you – at least for now.” I said, turning serious.

I’ll need you to defeat Zenda
.

Zenda.

The name was continuingly racking my brain, making my nerves heat up. It was unfathomable what endless power she has to posses to secure her position at the top of the police, even as a criminal. And she pretty much has to be a criminal. No regular being can have that much real prowess – oh, sure, presidents and Prime Ministers think they have power by commanding a country. But the real supremacy comes with fear. Fear is the strongest emotion and the easiest passageway into a person’s mind. Without unobstructed trepidation from the masses, you cannot rule them. Nobody can gain dominance besides the criminal world.