The Ables (46 page)

“Look,” I tried again, “all we need to do to defeat this guy is trap him in an NPZ. That’s it.”

“You make it sound easy,” Henry scoffed.

“I admit the Chelsey plan is a little bit of a long shot. But it’s the only thing I’ve got, Henry. Unless you know a better way to find an NPZ we can control, we have to try the one method we’ve seen work before.”

“There’ll be no cavalry, Phillip,” Chad warned. “No rescuers. Bentley couldn’t call Goodspeed, and now that he’s been captured, he can’t rescue your dad and the other prisoners. It’s just the three of us.”

“It only needs to be one of us,” I said somewhat angrily, “If we can get his ass in an NPZ. I’ll take him down myself if I have to.” I softened a bit but only a bit. “Now, you two can stay here if you want. But I’ve had it. I’m done. If this is all about me, then it ends with me out there, win or lose. I’m not going to turn and run after all that this jerk has put me through. I’m either going to defeat him, or I’m going to die trying. I can’t ask you to make that same decision, but if you’re going to go … you go now, okay?”

They looked at each other, both a bit surprised at the edge in my voice.

“I’m staying, Phillip. I’m with you to the end, buddy.” Henry smiled as he said it, and so did I.

“I’m in, too. I’ve got nothing better to do,” Chad said. He smiled too, but it was a nervous smile, and I could tell he wasn’t completely sure of himself. But he’d been given a chance to back out. And besides, I needed him for my real plan to succeed—he was kind of essential to it, actually.

We had to walk all the way around the interior fence line to the other side of the yard to find a gate in the fence we could push Henry’s wheelchair through. But after that, the terrain before us was all grass.

Chad turned on his invisibility as soon as we closed the gate behind us. Slapping a hand on each of our shoulders, he turned Henry and me invisible too. It was maybe the ninth or tenth time I’d seen him do it, and it never got any less cool. If I was a normal kid, I would dream about using that kind of power to sneak into a girls’ locker room or pull off some other mischievous task. Instead, I was using it to try and take on maybe the most powerful evil to ever exist. I wasn’t a normal kid, not anymore. There would be no going back to a normal life after what I’d been through.

We made our way across the field without a problem, going in a wide arc around Believers standing guard on the perimeter. Soon enough, we were nearing the area where Finch himself stood. As it turned out, we would have to go right by him in order to get to the school’s entrance. This was, in part, because of the arrangement of his Believer guards and henchmen, but it was also because of the terrain. The shortest and safest route—the quietest route—just happened to take us very close to the one guy we were still currently trying most to avoid.

We were invisible, but not silent. So we couldn’t hurry. We couldn’t make much noise at all. And as dangerous as it was to go near Finch, it was probably still safer than trying to push a wheelchair past a grouping of six men without one of them hearing a noise. It was just basic math: better odds. But it sure made for the most nail-biting fifty steps of my entire life.

We practically tiptoed through the grass, moving at roughly one-sixth the speed of a normal person’s walk. We drew closer and closer to him until we reached the closest we would be while passing him … about twenty feet. We stared at him as we passed, searching his body for some sign that he could see us, but there was none. He really could have been a statue. There was no movement at all in his eyes or his posture. He was totally still.

Behind him, there were burning embers and charred soil from his challenge to me spelled out in the grass.

Whatever emotions had propelled me here in the first place—anger, revenge, heroism—they were all gone now, replaced by a suffocating fear. Fear of being discovered too soon and fear of failure and death.

I’m not sure any of us breathed at all as we inched slowly by, covered only by Chad’s camouflaging power. We didn’t want to make a peep.

After a near eternity, we finally passed Finch’s position unscathed and began moving away from him. The main entrance to the school was only a few yards away, with no bad guys in between. We were almost home free, at least temporarily.

I glanced back at Finch again, but he remained unchanged.
Did he really think I was just going to waltz up to him out in the open?

A bit of my nervousness faded with each passing step. There was an entire list of things that needed to go right for us to prevail, and getting by Finch unseen was just the first one. But we’d done it successfully, so I mentally crossed it off the list. One challenge down, one success in the books. It built a little confidence in me, and it was probably just the amount I needed to do what I had to do.

But my welling pride was harshly interrupted by the sound of Chad tripping on a rock. A dull, loud thud. Then came the physical contact, as Chad lurched forward into my left shoulder and Henry’s wheelchair. I was knocked to the ground, and Chad tumbled after me. His contact with us severed, his concentration broken, Chad’s invisibility simply quit working for all three of us.

We’d just gone two hundred yards in the quietest manner possible, only to trip all over each other and cause a scene within sight of our goal.

Instinctively, I turned to look at Finch, but all I saw was the ground—Henry hadn’t yet recovered enough from the jostling to put his gaze back on the computer screen. He started to move his head to look around, still not remembering how badly I needed his eyes.

“Well, well, well,” came an all-too-familiar voice. “It looks like we have some unexpected visitors. Or should I say, expected visitors. I did write your invitation in fire, after all.”

“Henry!” I shouted.

It worked, jogging his memory and snapping him back to reality. He looked at Finch, then turned sharply to the laptop and my camera’s video feed.

I jerked my head to my left and finally saw my enemy. He was dressed the way he usually was, the way he had been on the night we’d first encountered him. A long tweed jacket. His customary matching hat. His cane. He was as distinguished-looking as ever.

“I knew you’d come,” he said gently. “I knew you’d see my message. You know, Phillip,” he continued, bringing his left hand out of his pants pocket to gesture with, “you will have to give my regards to your pal Bentley for me. Those cameras of his have been a godsend.” He pulled his cane out from under his right arm, placed the tip in the grass in front of him, and stacked both hands on top of the handle. I’d wager it was the most casual evil-villain pose in history. “They were very easy to spot and even easier to hack. And I cannot tell you how much they helped us plan this very mission to take over and destroy the mighty hero city of Freepoint.”

He looked out over the huge field. “We knew exactly where everyone would be, you see. I mean … sure, we would have taken this ridiculous little town either way. The cameras just made it easier.”

My heart sank a bit at his words. To know that a system we’d put in place to give ourselves an edge had helped lead to the death, injury, and imprisonment of hundreds was a weight I was not prepared to feel.

“But, no matter,” Finch continued. “You’re here now. Which is all I really wanted anyway. The rest of it is just … icing on the cake, I suppose. Fringe benefits. You’re the real reason I ever came to Freepoint in the first place. And I think you’re ready to embrace your true destiny.”

Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer, and the twelve-year-old in me just had to have his say. “Are you crazy, old man? Do you somehow seriously think I have all the powers in the world?” It was the stupidest-sounding sentence that had ever come out of my mouth, of that I was sure.

“I don’t think you have all the powers in the world, Phillip,” he said softly, almost lovingly. “I
know
you do. There’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind.”

I hung my head, wondering how to go about reasoning with an obviously crazy person.

“I know you’ve heard the prophecy.” I didn’t give him the courtesy of an answer; he didn’t give me the courtesy of waiting for one. “And by now, you have to have read the original texts I gave you.” The cane was flipped up onto his right shoulder now, another in his seemingly endless supply of cane-poses. “I have it memorized, as you might presume:

“‘He shall return again, an outcast, one who is not like us, who does not see the world as we do, and he shall have all abilities. Where once he used his gifts for death and destruction, his second life shall see them used for life and protection. This one shall not know of his own true depth of power until he suffers great loss and injury, and he alone stands as the last protector between the world and a great power. Only then shall he truly see. Only then shall he embrace his true purpose. ’”

He’d given the whole speech like it was an audition for a play, with plenty of gesturing and emotion. I had to admit, the rest of the prophecy did sound a bit like me. I had recently suffered great loss. And here I was: basically, the lone protector between the world and this great evil.

And yet, those things were all Finch’s fault. All the work of his manipulative hand. Several emotions spun together inside me like a tornado: anger, sadness, pity, confusion, and finally, rage, as a new revelation hit me. “You killed my mother just so your stupid prophecy could fit me?!” I was shouting and nearly sobbing. “You killed all these people here tonight … all this misery … just so I’d be a better candidate for your little utopia? You’re sick, Finch! You’re a sick bastard, you hear me?”

I was enraged. I wasn’t the second coming of Elben. I wasn’t the one who could do all. I knew it before, but now it was obvious that he knew it too. All this time he’d just been delusional to the point of forcing real-world events into his preconceived visions.

“To be fair,” he said in his own defense, “the prophecy doesn’t really say anything about the specifics of how these tragic events come about … merely that they do. And now they have. Can’t you see it, Phillip? You’re the one. It’s all there. There’s no one else alive that text could be talking about at this point. All you have to do is embrace it … know it deep down within your being. Believe in yourself, and you will see how little limit there can be to our power!”

This villain was starting to become less scary by the second. The crazier he grew in my eyes, the less frightened of him I became. “Our power, eh?” I scoffed. “Our power? I know what you are, Finch. I know what you are, and I know why you need me to be ‘the one who can do all’ … because without ‘the one who can do all,’ you can’t do all, can you? You’re just like me, a one-power hero. So you may have a hundred invisible henchmen behind you, each one feeding you another amazing or impressive power. But that’s all you got. You top out there. You don’t have them all, you never did, and you’re completely reliant on the loyalty and service of other empowered individuals to do any single thing!”

His smile had slowly faded during my speech, uncurling into a sinister straight line. “You think you know me, kid?” A new edge had appeared in his voice, and his volume began to increase. “You think you know who I am, what I’m about? You don’t know a thing, you little punk!”

I looked at him square in the eye, lifted my right hand to the side of my glasses where the radio button was located, and said, “Let’s find out.”

I pressed the special button Bentley had created for me, which mimicked the school’s frequency, gave a deep breath, and then said, “Chelsey.”

But nothing happened. I glanced at Henry, who looked up at me in return. He looked nervous.

After several seconds, Finch broke the silence. “Was … something supposed to happen there, little Sallinger? Who’s Chelsey, your girlfriend? Is she supposed to show up with the cavalry and save the day?” I’d been around twelve-year-olds who were more mature than Finch was in that moment. “Let me teach you the first lesson you need to know as a hero, young man,” he carried on, taking a few steps forward. “Never go into battle without knowing something about your enemy’s plans.” He stopped walking and leaned again on the cane. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Burke?”

I jerked my head toward Chad, but Henry had done the same, so instead of my angle of Chad, I saw Henry’s. Chad’s head hung low, and he refused to look up at either of us.

“You see, when I heard about a brash young hot-head hero who’d been in a fracas with the blind kid at Freepoint High, newly sent to Goodspeed as punishment … I started cooking up my little surveillance plan right then and there. See, I knew that if I could make you feel sorry for young Chad here, you’d welcome him into your group with open arms—you have a big heart like that, don’t you, Phillip? And then, once he gained your trust, he could relay back to me everything I’d need to know to stay one step ahead of you.

“And it worked, too, didn’t it? Because I knew about your foolish little Chelsey plan—it wouldn’t have worked anyway, though, son, because we killed her a couple hours ago. And I knew your plan to walk past me using Chad’s invisibility. And I know your poor little friends were unable to place a call for help and were eventually captured by my men. How do I know all this? Well, because you’re just gullible enough to believe that the biggest jerk in school could turn over a new leaf just because he lost his arm.” He turned his eyes to Chad, who was still looking at the ground. “You see, Chad? I told you it would be a sacrifice worth making.”

A shiver ran through my body as Finch’s words were processing in my brain. He had taken Chad’s arm off? And Chad had gone along with it?!

“So, now what?” I asked, only a trace of defiance left in my voice. I’d been betrayed, and I was out of cards to play.

“Now you spend a few seconds making the biggest choice of your life. Do you want to join me? I’m willing to wait for your powers to blossom and show themselves, and you can pick some of your friends to join you if you want. Or do you want to choose willfulness … stubbornness … doubt? Oh, and certain death. That’s it … that’s your two choices: join me or die. I can give you a few seconds, but honestly … it’s been a long night, and I’m tired.”