Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (85 page)

“Hey, any of you guys want to learn how to play Junkyard Derby?
”

“Junkyard Derby?”

“It’s a game wh
ere you crash cars into your opponents’ cars until they fall apart
.
The last car
still
running
wins.
”
She held the screen
under the
nearest Wybbil
’s nose
—Bone. “See
.
It’s really fun.”

She muted the volume
.

He watched her play a couple of minutes and started to yawn
.

“
Shameful how
Tullah
ns
waste
the
little time they have on
frivolous games.”

“
Before ye stone
napped
the
Elboni,
” Needle said
.
“We
hadn’t been
called
to Tullah for
over
five hundred years. Society still relied on fire for light
,
and animals for
transportation
.
Y
e have progressed faster than expected, but
your planet
still has a long way to go
.
Advanced t
echnology in the hands of moral infants be a dangerous thing.”

“How
be
your ankle?”

She stood, let out a yelp, and fell down.

“I’ll carry ye,” Bone said impatiently.

“No way,” she shook her head. “At least let me spend my last moments with some dignity.” She twirled her ankle slowly. “Once it stops throbbing, I’ll be able to walk on it. Just a few more minutes.”

She resumed with Junkyard Derby.
“Either one of you want to give it a try?” she held it up for Needle and White Feather
.
Both declined
.
“How about you
Clash
—a game of Junk Yard Derby before I die?”

Clash
’s palms shot to his
ears
.
“Don’t talk like that—you’re freaking me out.”

“Please
,
one last game?”

“I can’t,” he said, shaking h
is
head
.
“It’s just too sad.”

“I so NEED you to do this for me.”
C’mon Clash, take the hint.
His head titled to the side. An inquisitive rais
e
of the eyebrows followed.
“
It will help take my mind off of what’s coming,” Glory said. “
Please
, star guys, tell him it’s okay.
It’s the least you can do before you murder me.
”

She looked to White Feather, who looked at Needle, who looked at Bone, who
grumbled,
“I guess it can’t hurt anything.”

Bone watched the screen as
Clash
linked the two Sliver’s together. Junkyard Derby’s title screen rolled across the display
.
Glory picked her vehicle of choice—a purple pickup truck with shark teeth painted on the side of the hood, while
Clash
picked a black racecar with fire painted on the side
.
The checkered race flag dropped and the game began.

“A few more minutes, then we go,” White Feather said
.
The three
W
ybbils began to talk amongst themselves, while the
friends
played
their game
, and as soon as Glory thought it wa
s safe
, she
employed the Sliver’s chat feature
:

Mr. Gundisalv
, you have 119 messages.

Whoa, that was a lot of messages.
Slivers could communicate with other Slivers within a five mile radius.
Now that
they were on their own world, they had all come in at once.
Most of them were from Olivia Wingfield and Daniel Cloude. Daniel was Matthew’s younger brother. Hmmm, why would Olivia and Matthew’s brother try to contact Clash?  She opened the first one from Olivia.

Clash
or
Glory—
Everybody’s
looking
4 u.
We c
an’t figure out how to explain
where u are,
so we
have
n
’t said anything
.
Let me know as soon as u
r back
.
~Olivia

That’s not the information Glory was after
.
She went through a few more message
s
until she found what she wanted in a message from
Daniel
Cloude
’s Sliver
.

c
lash
/
g
lory
,
i
m
so
confused about
what  happened
.
i
thought
Glory was on
Wybb but
people say
she was at
 
at
home
the night of the shooting
.
t
ell glory I’m sorry about her dad.
i
’m praying he’ll pull through.
c
all me
asa
p
.
—
m
att

Aha. Matt must have borrowed his brother’s Sliver to
deliver
the message. Considering the fact
Clash had Matthew’s
Sliver,
now
it made total sense.

The Shooting
—
s
he stared at the words. The
blue
Sliver quivered in her hands.
Dad was alive, but he would go to jail. The Alley family was as
good as split
.
What was a girl to do
?
Strategize—that’s what
.
Time for a live chat
. She instructed the Sliver to search the area for another communication device.
It found just the one she was looking for:

Hello
Besnick Gundisalv, Matthew
Cloude
is
in range
.
Would you like me to ask if if he’s available for a chat?

She pressed the
Y
ES
. The message came back
.

Matthew Cloude accepted your invitation to chat.

As far as the Sliver was
concerned
,
Clash was Matthew, and she was
Besnick Gundisalv
—
Clash
.
However,
none of that was important. All that mattered was t
he strategy
. And it
was unfolding as
planned
.
The
phony
twisted
ankle had been a set-up for t
his very important private chat. Not wasting any time, she got down to business.

Clash,
I need u 2 do something 4 me.

Scared 4 u. Glo, plz just give them the stone.

Don’t want to lose my BF.
If I
give up the stone
, we’ll lose each other for sure.

???

Crenshaw is back.

Oh,
#%@!