The Witch Hunter's Gauntlet (32 page)

“So you found him?” Zack pressed.

The fake smile disappeared from Agent Sampson’s face.

“Actually,” he said slowly. “He found us.”

Sam couldn’t believe it. She looked from Agent Sampson to Amy to see if this was true. For a second they locked eyes
, and Sam could tell that it was true; but then Amy looked away, almost ashamed.

“A couple months
ago-,” Agent Sampson said, breaking the stunned silence. “Victoria Nero contacted our agency to report that her son had been kidnapped from his English boarding school by his bodyguard. She was afraid that he had been brainwashed. We’ve been looking for him ever since.”

“No way-
,” Zack and Tasha yelled at the same time. They gave each other nasty looks as if they couldn’t believe the other had dared to have the same exact reaction.

Agent Sampson ignored them. “We were all quite surprised to see him in the casino tonight. According to the reports I’ve recently received
, Alexander woke up from his brainwashed state when his hand was cut off. Scared and confused, he used the gauntlet to teleport to the only place he thought was safe, his mother’s estate in New York, where she found him bleeding and unconscious a mere three hours ago. After calling her private physicians to stabilize his condition she alerted the BEA.”

“Do not tell me you’re falling for this?” Tasha yelled. Mr. Beaumont held her shoulders to keep her calm.

Sam felt Doc Frost’s reassuring hand on her shoulder as well.

“Right now
, the BEA is looking into all possible explanations,” Agent Sampson said in his official government-agent voice. “The bodyguard we arrested backed up the story. He claimed he found out about the gauntlet from Alexander Nero Sr. and used a combination of medication and psychological manipulation to brainwash Alex into stealing the item for him.”

“Wow, that’s a pretty brilliant lie,” Zack said as if he was actually impressed.

“Agreed,” Deputy Colver said coldly.

Sam was certainly glad to see that at least someone in authority knew a lie when they heard one.

Then Zack brought up another important question. “What about all the technology he stole?”

“We don’t know. The official story is that
, due to the severity of the brainwashing technique used on Alexander Nero Jr., he has no memories of what happened. And unfortunately, shortly after confessing the bodyguard ingested a memory-wiping pill he had hidden in one of his teeth,” Agent Sampson said.

“Oh, what a load-,”
Tasha started but Mrs. Beaumont gave her a warning look.

Agent Sampson cleared his throat loudly.

“Possibly,” he said. “However, fortunately for us, most of the technology that was stolen would have been damaged by the very same EMP that was used to take down the school’s security systems. It would take months for someone to recover all the damaged data and a considerable fortune for them to begin production on anything they discovered.”

“A fortune?
Well it is a good thing that Nero is dirt poor then isn’t it? Oh wait, his family owns a giant billion-dollar international corporation,” Zack said with a cocky bob of his head.

Agent Sampson nodded.
“A company which the BEA will be monitoring closely.”

“As will the ISG,” Deputy Colver added.

Agent Sampson looked directly at Sam. “I must remind you all that, while the BEA has overlooked freelance investigations in the past, we cannot allow anyone to interfere with our investigation. Anyone found harassing the Nero family will be arrested.”

He looked away before Sam could decide if he was warning her, or challenging her.

“Agent Rosenberg, I believe it is time to escort our young heroes back to their rooms.”

And with that
, the meeting was clearly over. It was decided that Amy would escort Sam, Tasha, Zoey, and the Beaumonts back to Cooper Hall, Agent Sampson would escort Zack and his mother back to his dorm, and Doc Frost would escort Lucas and Natch back to their dorm. Sam waved at Lucas as they parted company. He waved back, but it was a short, half-hearted wave.

Campus was cold and empty in the wee early hours of the morning. Everyone was either too angry or too tired to talk. Sam pl
aced herself solidly in the too-tired category.

As they reached the dorm
, they caught the sound of voices approaching from behind a cluster of frosted spruce trees. Everyone but Sam snapped into action. Tasha and her parents formed a protective triangle around Sam and Zoey while Amy stepped in front of the entire group, her hand in her suit jacket, ready to draw her gun on whoever came around the corner. Even Zoey had taken some sort of karate stance.

Sam imagined they all looked pretty foolish to Dean F
uturo and the tall, thin man in the fancy suit and bowler hat walking with him. From his posture and expensive briefcase, Sam was not only positive that this man was a lawyer, but she suspected that he could have been the real-life lawyer that all cartoon lawyers were based on. He gave her a passing glance, as if appraising how much money she could be worth as a client and deciding she wasn’t worth the precious seconds it took to evaluate her.

“M
ay I introduce, Mr. Ellis,” Dean Futuro said with a feeble wave of his hand.

“Hello,” the lawyer said. “I represent
the interests of Nero Industries and the Nero family.”

Sam instantly tensed up. She did not like the way he was smiling; it looked like a kid who had just eaten the last cookie while no one was looking.

“This is Samantha Hathaway, and a bunch of other people,” Dean Futuro said, pointing at Sam with a long crooked finger.

“Ah, yes, I have been personally charged by Veronica Nero herself to thank for your help
in locating her son Alexander,” the lawyer said in a very polite New England accent. “And to assure you that she will not be pressing any charges over the unfortunate loss of limb.”

He pursed his lips and chuckled to
himself over what he must have thought was a funny joke.

“In fact,” the lawyer continued,
“Mrs. Nero is so grateful that she has agreed to cover the expenses to repair all of the damages and replace all of the personal belongings destroyed by Carlson’s horrific and regrettable assault on your lovely academy.”

“That is very generous,” Dean Futuro said, laying it on a bit thick. “While she is in such a generous mode you may want to mention to Mrs. Nero that Miller’s Grove could benefit greatly from the addition of a new genetics laboratory.”

Without even excusing himself, Dean Futuro walked straight through their little group with the lawyer trailing him.

“Come this way.
I’ll show you the perfect place for Nero Hall.”

Mr. Ellis
tipped his hat. “A pleasure meeting you all.”

Nero Hall?

If Sam needed another reason why she should leave Miller’s Grove, that was it. She could put up with her token underachiever status at the school, with the irrationally vindictive pop star, and even with the occasional zombie dinosaur, but living near a building named in honor of a family that had done so much to ruin her life was surely more than anyone could expect from her. If she was leaving anyway, she might as well give Dean Futuro a piece of her mind. She found herself marching toward Futuro and the lawyer with no idea what she was going to say when she reached them.

“Stop
, Sam,” Tasha urged, grabbing her hand and pulling her back.

“I know how angry you are,” Mr. Beaumont said
, stepping in Sam’s way. “But yelling at Dean Futuro will only make things worse.”

“You do not want to be on Futuro’s bad side. He could expel you without a second thought,” Mr
s. Beaumont added in that stern-but-sympathetic mom tone. It was exactly like the tone Sam’s mom had used on her.

“Fine, let him.” Sam yanked her arm ou
t of Tasha’s grip. “First Nero gets off scot-free for trying to take over the world, and now he is getting his own building? Why would I want to stay here?”

“Believ
e me Sam, no one believes Alex is innocent,” Mr. Beaumont said calmly. “But claims of brainwashing and mind control are very difficult to disprove. I’ve encountered at least four types of mind control in my life, and two of them are untraceable. It will take time for the BEA to determine what really happened.”

“But-
”

“Just give it time
, Samantha,” Mrs. Beaumont said. “There’s no need to make any rash decisions. Sleep on it.”

“You can’t leav
e,” Tasha pleaded, fear and loss in her eyes.

“Yeah, you can’t leave now,” Zoey chimed in. “We have that English test on Monday. I need someone to study with.”

The truth was, Sam was very tempted to just go home. Getting expelled for standing up to the Dean would be a great way to do it. She could feel good about it, and Helen and Harold would understand.

It certainly would be nice to go back to her nice quiet life in Presl
ey; but that was not what Samuel Hathaway Jr., would do; it wasn’t what Joanne Hathaway would do; and it was not what Samantha Hathaway was going to do. She had to stay. If she ran, Nero would win.

It was as simple as that.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sam reassured everyone. Tasha in particular looked relieved. “I’m not giving Nero the satisfaction. He can’t chase me away from my friends or my rightful place at the school my grandfather founded just by buying some silly building. Besides, if I went home, how would I stop the stupid thing from being built?”

Tasha’s hand shot up in the air
, waiting for a high five. “Yes!”

Sam slapped her hand. Before she could lower her arm
, Zoey rushed forward and pinned her in a tight bear hug. Sam awkwardly bent down her free arm to pat Zoey’s shoulder.

“Thank you for not leaving me alone in this crazy place,” Zoey said
, clinging to Sam like she was a life preserver on the Titanic.

“Never,” Sam said. “We’re in this together.
Whether we like it or not.”

The
Beaumonts offered to buy the girls breakfast, but all they wanted to do was sleep. Sam had already decided against changing out of her costume. That was just precious sleep time that she would be wasting. But she had one more task to perform before she could go to bed.

She slipped into the bathroom, telling everyone that she needed to examine her new lock of golden hair for a minute. In reality she just needed a few minutes alone. But
she was going to have to work fast; girls were going to be waking up and staggering in at any minute. She could not risk letting anyone see what she was about to do.

Pulling on the loose thread on Mr. Hopscotch’s belly released the flap of fur on his right side just the way she hoped it would. Doc Frost had returned Mr. Hopscotch to his original condition
, including the tesseract controller hidden inside of him. Gently she retrieved the controller, making sure not to remove any of the bear’s stuffing. She then took the necklace from the bear’s neck and set it on the counter next to the sink.

When she hit the button
, she saw a tiny spark of light wink into existence right above the anvil piece. Without hesitation she put her hand into the light, which expanded to the size of her arm, forming a glowing bracelet. Everything past the bracelet had vanished. It was quite disconcerting to look down and not see her hand, but she could still feel her fingers wiggling inside the tesseract.

For some reason she had expected the inside of the tesseract to be cold, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t warm either. Aside from the movement of her skin over the
tendons in her hand as she wiggled her fingers, she couldn’t feel anything.

Once she removed her hand and gave it a quick inspection to make sure it hadn’t been damaged somehow
, she retrieved the remains of the gauntlet from her pocket and slid it into the light. She pulled her hand back out and hit the button to close the tesseract.

After putting the controller back inside Mr. Hopscotch’s belly and doing
her best to close up his side, she slipped the anvil necklace over her head. From now on, the most powerful weapon in the world was going to be near her at all times. If Nero was going to come looking for the other half, he was going to have to go through her first.

Sam returned to her room to find Zoey already asleep. She hadn’t changed out of her costume either; in fact
, she hadn’t even managed to get under the covers; she had just sprawled out on her bedspread. She was even drooling onto her pillow already. Sam wished she had a camera.

After
yanking off her boots and nestling Mr. Hopscotch into a comfy nest between the pillows, Sam curled up on her bed beside him. But before letting her heavy eyelids close, she took one last look at her new necklace. It would serve as the perfect reminder of her brand-new responsibility.

Despite Mr. Beaumont’s kind words
, Sam knew the truth. There might never be another Heroic Age because of her. Somehow she was going to make this one count.