Planet Heist (The Dunham Archives Book 1) (29 page)

“I’m sure we can manage.” Rowan said. He took a step closer to Iesleen, and looked her in the eyes.

Ross and I awkwardly look at each other.

“Be careful.” Iesleen whispered to my brother, and kissed him. When she pulled away, Rowan looked extremely flustered, but then steeled himself.

“You too.” He told her, and then walked into the shack by the door as if nothing had happened.

I shot Rowan a look, and Ross copied.

“What was
that
?” Ross asked me so quietly that Row wouldn’t hear.

“I have
no idea
.” I replied just as softly.

“So…” Ross said, obviously ready to say the most clichéd line in the history of every universe, “Should
we
kiss now?”

He said this louder, so he knew it would bother Rowan.

“Don’t be a doofus.” My brother snapped.

“Maybe some other time.” I smiled flirtatiously at Ross, “Oh!” I exclaimed as the door behind us shut itself, and locked a hundred times over.

“Get ready for the monster.” Rowan chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest.

We watched out a window in the wall.

Iesleen tensed for battle, her eyes darting around nervously. She pulled off her shoes and tossed them to the side, holding the sword out in front of her.

In seconds, huge, black spiders came crawling out of the walls and dropping down from the ceiling. Most of them were only a foot of so long, but one was bigger than Iesleen by four feet. It had eight, bloody red eyes and two sets of snapping fangs, coated in dripping poison. It snarled like a dog when it saw Iesleen, gnashing its foamy fangs angrily.

A look of pure terror filled Iesleen’s eyes, and I heard her whimper. She backed up until she was against the window, and all we could see was her red dress. She put her face to the window, and I saw tears in her eyes.

“Spiders.” She cried, and then whispered, “What do I do?”

A grief-stricken look crossed my brother’s face, “We can’t help you. Just…kill it.”

“Listen, Iesleen.” I told her, cutting off my brother, “
You can do this
.”

She nodded shakily, and turned to face the advancing spider, her sword at the ready.

She closed her eyes, and it looked like she said a prayer, and then she attacked. She jumped onto the spider’s back, masking her fear with a vicious yell. She smacked the butt of her sword into the spider’s head, crushing it in on itself. The spider bucked, thrashing Iesleen around. She whipped back and forth, grasping to hold onto the writhing spider. It jumped up, folded its eight legs in the air, and crashed down. It was unscathed, but Iesleen was in a crinkled heap on the ground.

An audible snarl escaped my brother’s lips, and I heard the wall next to us groan. The wall was going to fall apart.

“Rowan.” I breathed, holding onto his arms, “Calm down.”

He took a deep breath, but still had a look that would strike fear into the hearts of millions in his eyes.

“You
know
Iesleen can do this. Her only problem is that she’s so afraid that her fear is preventing her from killing it. All she has to do is overcome her fear – that’s the whole point of this exercise.” I told him, “We both know that the
only
reason you’re angry is because the person out there is
her
. If it was Ross or me out there, you’d be fine right now. You know we can’t do anything for her, so cool it.”

Rowan nodded and locked his jaw.

Outside, Iesleen slowly got to her knees. Her eyes were full of vengeance as she stood up to face the spider. I swear the spider was smirking at her, directly in front of the three of us. She ran at it, a piercing war cry filled with rage ripped out of her. Her sword flashed as she charged the spider. In a spectacular show of strength, she cleaved off two of the spider’s back legs with one strike.

The roar the came out of the spider was reminiscent of a prowling lion. It jumped over Iesleen, and she whipped around. It came at her, flinging out its six remaining limbs. She dodged each of them expertly, ducking and weaving through the maze of legs. But, the spider was more cunning than I’d anticipated. It turned around when Iesleen tried to stab her sword through it. It snapped out its poison covered fangs and bit her arm, shredding her skin apart. Iesleen let out a heart-wrenching scream that was killing Rowan.

He groaned and put his head between his hands.

The spider leapt up and Iesleen saw what she had to do. With tiny spider running all over her body, she held up the sword. The spider didn’t see it and continued to thrust downwards, and the sword went straight through its abdomen clear to the other side.

Life left the spider’s eight eyes, and its legs curled up around its body in death.

The door next to me unlocked itself, and I ran out.

“Ross!” I yelled, “Grab my bag!”

I ran to Iesleen. Her arm was ripped open, blood gushing out. Yellowy spider blood was seeping into her dress, and tears steamed down her face. Rowan came up next to me.

“Get the spider off of her. I'll take care of her arm.” I whispered, and my brother got to work on moving the spider. Ross tossed me my bag and helped out my brother as much as possible as the spider turned out to be extraordinarily heavy. Rowan yanked the sword out of its abdomen and tossed it to me. I collapsed it quickly and shoved it into my bag after cleaning it off.

Iesleen was limp on the ground as I held her arm in my lap. Her breath came in ragged gasps while I healed her arm. In a few moments, though, she was feeling better.

“That was amazing.” I told her quietly.

“Thanks. It was nothing.” She said, shrugging it off.

“Seriously, though. I wouldn’t have been able to face whatever it thinks I’m afraid of.”

“Don’t be like that. I knew it had to be me the second you read the sign. Now, go on and finish this. Don’t let Ross get killed, alright?”

I laughed, “Never.”

She took a deep breath and I helped her up. She stumbled into my brother’s arms, and I looked away as he held her.

“Is that not the weirdest relationship you’ve ever seen?” Ross whispered, suddenly next to me.

You haven’t met my parents,
I thought, forgetting for a moment that we had recently discovered his mind reading abilities.

He smiled, “I suppose they’re not
the
strangest couple.”

“It’s out there, all right. Rowan’s always been
so
against me being in relationships with accomplices. Who would’ve thought he’d be the one to break his own rule?” I laughed.

“Rules are meant to be broken.” Ross said playfully, his caramel eyes flitting between my eyes and my red lips.

“You’re right, as usual.” I replied with a sly smile.

I turned back to Rowan. Iesleen walked back to the shack, and sat down, exhausted.

“Ready?” Rowan asked, anxious to get out of here.

“Are
you
?” Ross asked, a little irritated.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rowan asked, not taking well to a challenge.

“Not again.” I rolled my eyes, “C’mon, Row, we all know you’re attached to Iesleen and don’t want to leave her here, all by herself. And Ross, please refrain from provoking my brother. I’m extremely tired of playing referee. Let’s go.” I ushered them through the now unlocked door at the other side of this level.

Instead of stairs, the side of the wall was jagged, like a rock-climbing wall. I shook my head and smiled.

“Only one way down, I suppose.” I grinned at Ross, knowing he would be terrified of going down this way, “Row, why don’t you go first. I’ll help Ross get down safely.”

My brother jumped across the gap and effortlessly grabbed onto a large rock. He climbed down easily, and jumped into a bright level.

“Alright, Ross, here we go. I’ll jump across first, and help you down from there.” I told him and then leaped across. My right hand clung to a smaller rock, my left on a ledge. I held on with my left, and let my right arm dangle.

“Be careful, Kai!” Rowan yelled below me.

“I’m fine, Row!” I called back with a laugh.

Ross gulped nervously.

“All you have to do is take my hand, okay?” I said comfortingly. My hand reached out to him, and he leaned over to take it. The moment he had a firm grip on my hand, I jerked him off the ledge. He looked terrified, but then grabbed the wall with his other hand.

He gasped in a breath, “Why the hell would you do that?!”

“Calm down. You’re fine now. I knew that the worst part for you would be jumping, so I eliminated that problem.” I half shrugged, trying not to fall down.

He let go of my hand, and grabbed another rock.

“Just get a strong foothold, and go down one limb at a time. Make sure you always keep a good grip with one of your hands. I’ll go down first, so if you fall, someone will catch you.” I said, attempting to be reassuring.

“Thanks…I guess.” He sighed.

I quickly climbed down, ending up next to my brother.

He gave me a look that I couldn’t interpret on the spot.

Ross took shaky steps, descending towards us. When he had gone down a few feet, his right foot slipped and he was hanging by only his left hand.

An image of me, just a few weeks ago, gripping the gray arch of Anacapa Island, racing Cal to the top, flashed into my head. I shook it out and continued to watch Ross. He regained his hold, and climbed down steadily.

He walked towards me, his face bright red.

“See?” I smiled, “That wasn’t so bad.”

He shrugged and cracked his knuckles.

For the first time, I took in the room we stood in. On the floor were hundreds of multi-colored square tiles, all leading up to a checkered door. We stood on a white platform, and across the room was a matching platform. A metal rope led across the ceiling. There were no signs anywhere, and I wondered what the challenge was.

I searched for a sign until a great groan came from the ceiling. Down from the rock came a huge projector, hanging from the metal rope on the ceiling, and it stopped at the center of the room. A bluish hologram stood in front of us. It was a projection of Dmitri Ivanov, the dead police chief.

“Congratulations, you’ve completed the first two levels of the tunnels. In this challenge, each of you must get across this room, one at a time, in three separate ways. The catch is that your feet may not touch any of the squares. If you do touch a square with your feet, a hole will open up in the ground, and you, along with everyone else in your group, will be killed.” The projection said.

“Simple enough.” Row said, “I’ll go after…Ross.”

Ross gulped nervously, “Well, I suppose this is where ten years of being pushed around like a wagon by my older brothers pays off.”

He jumped onto his hands and made it across on his palms, somehow getting up onto the white platform across the hall.

I was immensely impressed, as even I can’t walk very far on my hands.

“Alright Row, top that.” I challenged.

Rowan rolled his eyes and smiled.

He assessed the room, looking for a creative way across. He jumped up and brushed his hand on the ceiling.

“Perfect.” He whispered to himself.

Rowan leapt up again, this time grabbing the metal rope. He began swinging across the ceiling. Towards the end, there were a few feet of space between the rope and the white platform. So, he swung back and forth a few times and jumped onto the platform, landing next to Ross.

“Your turn Kai!” Rowan called across the room, “Top
that
!”

I stared at the floor tiles for a few minutes, and then strode across. When I stepped onto the platform, Ross gawked at me, but Rowan just shook his head and smiled.

“How?” Ross breathed.

“Two reasons. First: the hologram said that my
feet
couldn’t touch the ground. My heels touched the floor, not my feet.” I said, and then grinned, “Second: the tiles on the ground aren’t squares, they’re rectangles. You were too busy figuring a way over than noticing the obvious.”

Ross looked dumbfounded, “I can’t
believe
I didn’t notice that. I notice everything.”

“Wrong.” Rowan smiled, “
Kairee
notices everything.”

“Come on, let’s-”

I was cut off by a bone-shattering roar. It rumbled through the entirety of the tunnels, and chunks of rocks fell from chipped away from the ceiling.

“Sounds like the Beast has awakened,” Ross said devilishly.

The next three levels were simple challenges – a brain puzzle that Rowan figured out instantly, a word problem in four languages that Ross made quick work of, and a shooting challenge that I mastered immediately – all leading up to our fight with whatever monster the Beast was. Each level down, the roars from the Beast became louder and louder, until I finished the shooting test and opened the door to the stairs. The three of us walked down what seemed to be an endless staircase. We had trotted down hundreds of steps, and yet we still hadn’t made it to the door. When I was so frustrated I almost gave up on the whole thing and turned around, we reached the door.