Midnight City (35 page)

“Can’t you just … make another one of those gravity things?”

“I need magnet shavings for that, and there’s none here.”

“There has to be
something,
we’re surrounded by Strange Lands stuff!” he yelled.

“It’s not that simple!” she yelled back. “The combinations do very specific things—you can’t just make them do whatever you want!”

The kids continued pounding on the black force field, trying to weaken it. Holt shook his head in frustration, looking for anything that might help. “Well, what
can
you make?”

Mira quickly canvassed the contents of the shelves that circled them, mentally taking inventory. “Um … I can do a Vortex, a Gravitron, another Grid—”

“I don’t know what any of that is!”

“I can make something freeze in time,” Mira started over in frustration. “I can make something that increases gravity in a certain area, I can do another of those force fields—”

“None of that helps us, what else?” Holt asked, looking back to the black force field. The kids kept pounding on it, and some of them were using bats and crowbars and other things against it. It was starting to flicker.

Mira’s voice was nervous. “I can … I don’t know! I can do a … an Accelerator.…”

“What’s that?” Holt asked.

“If you throw something, it accelerates whatever it is to a much higher speed.”

At the description, Holt looked at her. “How fast?”

“It depends on the coins you use, but if I can find quarters, it’ll be pretty damn fast,” she replied. “The speed of sound.”

Holt eyes widened. “The speed of
sound
?” That was incredibly fast … but was it enough? They were talking about solid rock here. It was a long shot, but at the moment, he didn’t see any other option. “Make it,” he said, ripping the pack off his back.

“Why, what are you—”

“Just hurry!” he shouted, taking off the thick black bracelet he always wore, then pulling out a small harness from his pack. Holt looked up at Zoey as Mira bolted for one of the workbenches. “Zoey, I need your help.”

The little girl ran to him and he handed her the harness. It was too small for a person, but it would fit a dog perfectly, and it had a metallic clip on top of it, woven into the fabric. “I need you to put this on Max for me, okay?” Zoey took it from him and nodded. “He hates wearing it, so you’ll have to convince him, and we don’t have a lot of time.”

“I can do it, Holt,” Zoey said with confidence.

“I know you can, kiddo—get to it.” Holt reached for his corded black bracelet. When he started unwinding it, it became apparent what it actually was: about fifty feet of 550 mil spec paracord that had been tightly coiled into the shape of a bracelet. They were called Survival Straps, and Holt always wore one. You never knew when you might need a length of really strong rope.

When it was unwound, Holt grabbed Marcus’s knife. He quickly slipped one end of the rope through the hole at the bottom of the handle, pulled a length of it through, then tied a knot called a buntline hitch. It was a strong knot, though it had a tendency to jam. But since Holt didn’t plan on ever untying it, it didn’t really matter.

“Girls, how’s it coming?” he asked as he finished the knot.

Mira was hurriedly piecing things together at the workbench, while Zoey was wrestling with Max on the ground, trying to force his head through the harness’s main loop. The dog was having none of it. Holt looked back to the lab’s entrance. There were so many Gray Devils in the tunnel beyond the shield now that they completely filled it, and most were yelling threats as they beat against the shield. Others just glared at him, eager to rush inside when the barrier finally collapsed.

They were running out of time.

“Got it!” Mira exclaimed, and ran back to him. In her hand was another combination, made of two quarters, a piece of copper tubing, and a round gear that looked like it used to power a bicycle. It was all wrapped with rubber bands, and Holt stared at it skeptically.

“It’s Interfused, it’ll hold together, and it works fine,” she said impatiently. “What do you want to do with it?”

“Can you tie it on the knife handle?” he asked back. “I need the blade to be free.”

It was Mira’s turn to look skeptical as she figured out what he intended. “
This
is your idea?” she asked as she wrapped the artifact combination to the knife’s handle with her duct tape. When it was done, it looked like a gray tumor sticking off the side of the blade, and Holt examined it without much enthusiasm.

“Okay, then,” he said, holding the knife by the rope it was attached to. “How does it work?”

“The copper pipe is the Focuser,” Mira explained quickly. “It’s straight, which means the artifact will accelerate motion
only
in a straight line.”

“So I can spin it around before I throw it?”

“Right,” Mira answered. “But once it gets moving straight …
look out.
”

Behind them, Max whined, struggling against Zoey’s attempts to get the harness around the dog’s head. “Go see if you can help her,” Holt said, looking up at the ceiling and the dark tunnel inset into it. He’d get only one shot at this.

Mira ran to Zoey and Max, tried to shove the dog into the harness, but he growled and snapped at her. “You’re working on getting left behind, you stupid mutt!” Mira shouted, struggling with the dog.

Holt surveyed the ceiling a moment more … then began spinning the artifact and the thick knife it was attached to in a circle next to him, like he was priming a sling. There was nothing to indicate that the artifact was even working, but he didn’t have a choice now. When he thought he had the aim right, he slung it all straight upwards …

… and there was a flash and a loud, deep explosion of sound so thunderous, it almost knocked him to the ground.

The Gray Devils pounding on the energy field fell back, stunned. Mira held her ears, and Max scampered backwards, frightened. As he did, Zoey pulled the dog’s head all the way through the harness and secured it to his waist. “Got you!” she yelled at the distracted canine.

Holt’s ears were ringing, his equilibrium was all wrong, but he looked up anyway … and saw the knife impaled straight into the thick rock of the cavern wall right above. The speed at which the blade had flashed through the air was enough to puncture the rock, but it wasn’t a bull’s-eye. The rope dangled downward to the floor a foot or so away from the opening in the ceiling. It would have to do.

“That’s a big climb,” Zoey said as she brought Max to him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry you just like in the Drowning Plains, remember?”

Zoey nodded. “But who’s gonna carry the Max?”

“We’re gonna pull him up last,” Holt said, passing the end of the rope through the clip in Max’s harness and tying the same knot he’d made before. “Get on my back, kiddo.”

Zoey climbed onto Holt, and he stood up, feeling the little girl’s weight. She was getting heavier every day. His gaze moved up the rope to the ceiling above. It was going to be one hell of a climb.

“You sure you can do this?” Mira asked with her hand on his arm.

Holt looked back at her. “Don’t have much of a choice.” He smiled and felt his tension melt away. It would work or it wouldn’t; either way, it would be over soon. “Wait till I make it inside before you start climbing, I don’t know how much weight this will hold.” Holt grabbed the rope and started hauling himself up.

From the tunnel, where the kids were still blocked, came cries of anger as they saw their prey now had a chance to escape. With renewed effort, they went back to pounding on the field of energy. It was wavering badly.

Holt felt his arms start to burn as they pulled both he and Zoey toward the ceiling.

He kept climbing, pulling himself up, groaning with each effort. His hands ached, but he felt a sense of relief knowing he would at least make it to the ceiling, and also a sense of dread as he realized he still had to find the strength to crawl into the tunnel once he did.

Holt reached the top and looked to the tunnel entrance a foot away from him. It was dark inside, but mercifully he could tell it leveled out quickly, making a ledge they could scamper onto. Barely.

“Zoey,” Holt said. “Can you reach that ledge? If I swing you over?” It was dangerous, for both of them, but they were running out of options fast. The shield below was almost down—he didn’t need to be a Freebooter to see that—and Mira hadn’t even started to climb yet.

“I think so,” Zoey said with nervousness in her voice. “But we’re so high, if I—”

“Just don’t look down. We have to do this fast, and I know you can do it, okay?”

“Holt, no!” Mira exclaimed under them. “She’ll fall, she’s not strong enough!”

“She can do it!” he yelled back.
She has to,
he thought. “Can’t you?”

Zoey nodded.

“Okay, get ready.” Holt used his weight to swing them both toward the hole in the ceiling. “Now!” As he did, Zoey reached up, grabbed the ledge, and let go of him.

Her feet dangled precariously in open air for a moment.

“Zoey!” Mira called out in terror below.

Then the little girl pulled herself up into the dark tunnel, twisting and wiggling until she disappeared inside.

Holt smiled in relief. This just might work.

He grabbed the rope below him in his hand. “Zoey, take this!” He handed it up to the little girl. When she had it, he swung back over, and reached up with one hand to grab the ledge.

Holt let loose of the rope and forced himself to grab the ledge with his other hand. His weight pulled him downward, and he almost fell, but Zoey grabbed his hand, pressing it into place on the rough rock. Desperately, Holt started pulling himself up onto the ledge, groaning with the effort. With the last bit of his strength, he climbed into the tunnel with Zoey.

“Holt!” the little girl cried, wrapping her arms around him.

“Hi, kiddo,” he said, breathing hard. “Back up for me—we have to get the others up.”

He took the rope from Zoey, held it in his hand, and pressed his back into the wall of the tunnel, bracing himself with his feet.

“Mira, go!” he shouted down.

The rope pulled tight in his hands as her weight hit it and she began to climb. She was lighter and wasn’t carrying anyone else, so she made much better time than he had. Max stared up at them all, whining softly.

When Mira reached the tunnel, Zoey helped pull her inside and over Holt. Then they all started pulling the rope upward, end over end. There was a yelp as Max’s feet left the floor, and he dangled helplessly as he rose in fits and starts.

And then came a flash as the black energy field finally collapsed below. Dozens of kids poured inside, looking furiously up at them. They had slings, and rocks quickly flew through the air, sparking all around the tunnel entrance.

But it was too late. Holt and Mira pulled Max up and into the tunnel, free and clear.

“Mira!” an intense, feminine voice yelled from underneath them. Holt watched Mira lean out over the tunnel and peer down to the floor far below.

Lenore stood there, glaring up at them, a purple bruise on the side of her head.

Mira gazed down at her. “It was good seeing you, Lenore. But I think this’ll be the last time.”

“If you do this, Mira, if you steal what’s mine”—Lenore replied—“I
guarantee
it won’t.”

“The artifact isn’t yours. It never was.”

“What belongs to one Gray Devil belongs to them all,” Lenore stated.

“Yeah, it’s like you said, though,” Mira answered. “I’m not a Gray Devil anymore.” And then she pulled away from the hole in the ceiling, and they all quickly crawled into the dark.

Even with all the thick rock between them, Holt could still hear Lenore scream Mira’s name.

38.
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

TO ZOEY,
the unmapped parts of the cavern seemed beyond massive. They were frightening, twisting pathways of darkness that opened and closed, widened and shrunk, and the only details she could make out were what was revealed by Holt and Mira’s flashlights.

Max walked next to her, which made her feel better. He didn’t seem bothered by all the jagged rock and the strange, eerie shadows the lights projected onto the walls. If he could be brave, then so could she.

Holt made sure they wound through as much of the cavern as possible before stopping, so that even if the Grey Devils did manage to follow them, the odds of them finding the four would be slim. That was the plan anyway, and Zoey hoped it would work. Mira’s old faction hadn’t seemed very friendly at all.

The cavern they finally stopped in was oval shaped, and a hole in one of its walls provided an overlook to one of the city’s main areas: the Scorewall—the strange, massive collection of names and numbers Zoey had seen before. They were situated far above it, staring down into the room from a corner of its ceiling.

Zoey wondered just how many little caverns and entrances there were that blended unnoticed into the walls all throughout Midnight City.

They all laid on their bellies at the edge of the cavern, studying the Scorewall room underneath them, trying to stay out of sight. Even though it was early morning, people were already gathering below.

“Why do they get here so early?” Zoey asked.

“For the best spots,” Mira answered. “It fills up quick. Give me your binoculars.” The last part was meant for Holt, and he handed them to Mira.

The calls of large horns of some kind, dozens and dozens of them, suddenly blared all throughout the city, echoing against the thick, black rock. The sounds seemed angry to Zoey, angry and urgent. She saw the people below stop as the sounds bounced everywhere, continuing for a few more moments before shutting off. Even then, it took a long time for the noise to dissipate, ricocheting back and forth between the thick cavern walls until it was finally drowned out by angry murmurings and yells from the kids below. Zoey watched them turn away from the Scorewall in disgust and head away.

“What was that?” Zoey asked.

“The Gray Devils just sealed the city,” Mira said. “No one comes in, no one goes out.”