Psi Another Day (Psi Fighter Academy) (12 page)

“No exceptions!” Rubric shoved Chuckie aside and drew back his huge fist. “I’ll collect.”

I grimaced and tightened my stomach, hoping I was strong enough to take his punch. Suddenly, I felt a powerful arm around my waist pulling me backward.

“Maybe you’d like to collect from me,” a quiet voice said. “Yeah, that’s a dandy idea. Because, you know, collecting from her could really hurt your life expectancy.”

“Egon.” Rubric raised his hands and backed away. “What up, bro?”

Forcing me behind him, Egon pulled a huge wad of cash from his pocket. He slapped Rubric across the face with it, and tucked it away. “Oh, terribly sorry. I don’t seem to have any money either.” His emotionless face dared Rubric to disagree. “Whatever shall we do now,
bro
?” Egon slammed Art into the lockers. They banged like thunder.

“Dude!” Chuckie sputtered, apparently amazed that anyone could slam Rubric. He squirmed like a little girl on a candy binge. “I heard you’re the secret informant!”

“Is that the rumor?” Egon crossed his arms. “If I admitted it, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?”

Chuckie’s eyes opened wide, like he just had an epiphany. “No, I guess not. Dude!”

Rubric stared, seemingly unsure what to do. Then he turned and grabbed Chuckie by the shoulder. “No problem, man. We gotta go.”

Egon stood motionless, radiating a cloud of gorgeous.

“That’s the second time you saved me,” I said.

He turned toward me. His eyes became bright and he smiled. “We should make this a regular thing.”

“Every girl needs a hero.” And he was absolutely mine. A regular thing—the thought made me gooey.

“Are you up for anything tonight? I have a night off from practice, and thought maybe we could study together.”

“Egon, we don’t have any classes together.”

He nodded slyly. “I know.”

In my swiftly clouding mind, I saw the most beautiful fireworks display lighting the midnight sky. Alluring music played in the background. Birds and bunnies formed a circle and began singing like we were in a Disney movie.

Then Kathryn opened her big mouth.

“She’d love to, but she can’t. She has
very
strict parents. Not allowed out on school nights.”

I wanted to scream. “Oh, Egon, I ree-ally wish I could. Maybe another time?”

Egon’s eyes narrowed, but the smile stayed in place. “My loss.” He did a little wave and slipped away.

When Egon rounded the corner, I proceeded to bang my head against the locker.

“I’m asked out by the hottest boy in the galaxy, and I have to go to work. What’s wrong with my life?” I looked at Kathryn and sighed. “Strict parents? That’s the best you could do?”

She patted my cheeks. “I suppose I could have said you have a building to stake out and a kidnapper to capture.”

Chapter Thirteen

The Shadow Passage

Ten o’clock. The air was unusually mild for a spring evening. Of course, this part of the country was used to weather patterns that stubbornly ignored the calendar.

I stood on the rooftop of the Shadow Passage, gazing out over the thriving metropolis of Greensburg like Batman overlooking Gotham City. Except he did it from buildings that were a thousand feet tall, and the Shadow Passage was, like, two floors.

Andy and the Kilodan were preoccupied with some big covert operation, so they told me to take care of Mason myself. Sweet! I waited there watching the street like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Good thing I peed before I left.

At the front of the building, a heavily traveled street went up the hill to the Court House. Behind it lay an alley. Dead End Alley, the place where my parents died. I had only a vague recollection of that alley, but knowing it was right below me left me with a very uncomfortable knot in my stomach. I instantly put it out of my mind and concentrated on the mission.

I thought it might be a long night, so I chose style over safety. Instead of armor, I wore a reversible hoodie—dark burgundy outside, light green inside, complete with secret agent pocket for storing important things like high-tech weaponry and lip gloss. I accessorized with a blunt-billed cap, also dark burgundy, complete with pull-down face mask, wafer thin night-vision lenses, and the full array of Psi Fighter psitronics. Fashionable enough for hunting bad guys, yet practical enough for a night out with Kathryn afterward.

The rooftop was flat and gritty, surrounded by a low brick wall that blocked the already dim light from the street below. A noisy air conditioner sat droning on the street side of the roof. On the alley side lay the unobtrusive trapdoor I would use to make my entrance. According to the plans, a ladder ran from the trapdoor down to the top floor of the Shadow Passage. The building layout was pretty simple. The top floor was all attic. The arcade room, with its bathrooms, utility closets, and furnace, took up most of the lower floor. The SSA was in the back corner of the building, but there was also a small room next to it, inaccessible from the main arcade. I would have to go through the SSA to get to it—or I could take a staircase that led down from the attic.

On the street below, I recognized two of my finest classmates walking into the front entrance of the Shadow Passage. Chuckie Cuff and Art Rubric.

My watch said ten-fifteen. No Mason. Must bad guys always be fashionably late? Scallion (or his slimy alter ego) would already be hidden deep in the bowels of the Shadow Passage. Since I didn’t know who I was looking for, I needed Mason to lead me to him, but Mason obviously didn’t care about
my
priorities. A man in a trench coat approached the front door. He kept his hat pulled low over his head. If he was trying to be inconspicuous, it wasn’t working. The “Secret Agent Man” song started playing in my head, and I couldn’t help but dance a little.

I continued to scan the street. The single streetlamp at the front of the Shadow Passage didn’t illuminate much. By eleven o’clock, a zillion people had come and gone, and by midnight, my eyes drooped and I was bored out of my mind. There was no way I was seeing Kathryn tonight—Mason was way late and it was way past my bedtime. Real missions were just not as exciting as the ones in the movies. There should have been a boat chase by now. Or a romance scene. Egon popped into my head at the thought. He asked me out to ‘study.’ How hot was that? I sighed. Just as I was about to call it a night, Mason appeared in the streetlight.

How totally inconsiderate, making me wait. No more inconsiderate, I suppose, than causing my birth parents’ death. I knew it was wrong to feel that way—but I felt that way. I didn’t care that he was only six when it happened, a victim of Nicolaitan. So was I. But I went on to fight the Knights. He joined their fan club. Mason’s Friday night bonus points plummeted even deeper into the negative digits.

Mason went straight for the door and disappeared inside.

I decided to give him a few minutes to get settled in. It seemed polite to allow him to do all the things evil villains have to do before the good guy takes them down with amazing panache. Just as I started toward the trapdoor, something caught my attention. A dark figure moved cautiously down in the alley beside the Shadow Passage. Scallion? No way! How lucky could a girl get? He kept to the shadows, right where you’d expect a vomitous mass of loathsome troglodyte to be. Not that I’m judging. Innocent until proven guilty, as they say. This was better than extra points during a pop quiz. I powered on my night-vision zoom. I
had
to see if this creep looked like he did in my memories.

Wow. Personage dressed in skull mask and black leotards. Andy would have been thrilled. Change of plan. I would still pound Mason on general principle, but first—OH MY GOSH! If I captured Scallion, he could lead me to…

Nicolaitan.

An outrage that I never knew I had coursed through my veins. I was one step closer to my parents’ killer. My hands tingled as psychic energy concentrated into my fingertips.

A whole new level of determination flooded over me. I crawled to the roof’s edge and crouched. Scallion stood perfectly still, seemingly at ease in the darkness. I tensed, ready to leap down to the street and take him. I had to see the face under that mask.

He hesitated, then slunk through the alley and stopped below the Shadow Passage’s fire escape. I pulled back just as he tossed a line at the fire escape ladder, which ended a good fifteen feet above the ground, and swung effortlessly up to the first rung. Looked like I wouldn’t have to chase my masked bud after all. He was coming to me.

I hurried to the air conditioner unit, ducked behind it, and laid flat on the gritty rooftop, my head out just enough to see, relying on the darkness to hide me. Scallion peeked over the edge of the building, then nimbly rolled his body over the low wall. Nice moves, very agile. I would have given it a ten, but the guy had no fashion sense. My taste in music was trailblazing compared to that black onesie. I had to deduct points. Haute couture he was not. I immediately felt sorry for Scallion, and considered letting him go. The shame of that getup was punishment enough.

Scallion kept to the shadows. He moved soundlessly across the roof, lifted the trapdoor, and gazed back in my direction. I crouched lower, suddenly overcome by an eerie feeling that he was looking right at me, wishing I had worn my uniform with its Shimmer mode. Then Scallion disappeared through the open door.

Relieved, I slipped across the rooftop to the trapdoor and listened.

No footsteps. No breathing.

I slowly peeked through the open trapdoor into the attic below. The attic glowed a spidery green through my night vision. Arachnophobia threatened to end my mission.

A narrow access door on the far end of the attic squeaked and moved. A shadow disappeared through it and down the stairs to the little room beside the SSA. I lowered myself silently through the roof and slid down the ladder.

The air smelled of mildew and dirt. Paper, debris, and unidentifiable glop littered the filthy wooden floor. Muffled voices and muted music floated up from the Shadow Passage below. I looked toward the narrow door Scallion had disappeared through, and thought about following him. That would be the easiest way to get into the little room. And the most dangerous.
Hi, I’m looking for a man who’s dressed in Low Budget Kung Fu Movie attire. He’ll likely try to kill me when he sees me. Can you tell him I’m here, please?

I looked around the attic, searching for Plan B, when a tiny streak of light caught my eye. I moved toward it, stepping softly to keep the ratty floor from creaking under my feet.

At one time, the Shadow Passage must have had an apartment above it. In the corner of the attic stood a bathroom sink. Beneath it, a sliver of light shot through a bit of dry-rotted duct tape covering an old drainpipe. I knelt, reached under the sink, and touched the pipe. It wiggled. I tugged slightly and it moved. Slowly, quietly, I removed the pipe from the floor, leaving a two-inch hole in its place. Thick dust floated in the pale light that burst through the opening and the music got louder. I pulled a small device from my secret agent pocket and lowered it into the hole, then tapped a switch. I gasped as my mask’s lens filled with a scene I was not prepared for. I wasn’t looking at the arcade. I was staring into the Star Ship Angel.

Vintage video games filled the sidewall. No exercise equipment. I panned around the room. A food counter ran the length of the SSA, and a little girl sat at one of the stools with her back to me. I could put two and two together with the best of them. Mason was in the building. Scallion had just joined him. A little girl had been kidnapped and LaReau was awaiting delivery. Coincidence? Psi Fighters know that there is no such thing.

Behind the counter, an old fashioned jukebox blasted the same hard music I had heard when I was in the other room with Mason. At the end of the counter, another door. It was closed. Had to be the one that led to the back room where Scallion waited. I panned back to the little girl, and noticed that the top of the food counter was mirrored. My hunch was confirmed. Christie Jasmine’s reflection stared up at me.

Christie was trembling. Her skin was nauseatingly pale. She seemed to be talking to the mirror, but I couldn’t hear her over the noise of the jukebox. “Pinpoint,” I said into my mask. “Isolate.” My mask’s sound filters focused on Christie, and her words nearly broke my heart.

“…please, God, please bring me home. Don’t let him sell me.”

Sell her? What kind of psycho sells children? Then I remembered that Andy said LaReau was into human trafficking. Christie was Scallion’s delivery. And Mason was helping. Anger burned in my chest as I searched desperately for a plan. Suddenly, the arcade door opened and the man in the trench coat entered the SSA. He closed the door and flipped the deadbolts, locking it behind him. Then he slithered onto an empty stool next to Christie. She tried to squirm away from him, but he snaked his arm around her, forcing her back onto the stool. I glared down at him, wishing I could reach through the hole, rip off his arm, and beat him over the head with the bloody stump. He removed his hat, and turned to talk to her. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw his face.

Dr. Captious.

The clues leading up to this suddenly made perfect sense. Scallion worked for Nicolaitan, but LaReau thought Scallion worked for
him
. Christie Jasmine was the “gift” that Scallion told LaReau about in the memory I absorbed. And the SSA was Scallion’s distribution center, compliments of Mason. With or without Tammy Angel’s knowledge, I couldn’t tell.

That meant Scallion, not LaReau, took Christie Jasmine. Even though I had let LaReau escape, I saved another little girl from becoming his next victim that night. That mission wasn’t a total failure after all.

So where did Captious fit in? Mr. Munificent’s words at the assembly explained it all.
Ten years ago, I hunted a masked kidnapper who terrorized the city…Now he’s back…He’s using you kids to do his dirty work.
Nicolaitan had both Scallion and Captious kidnapping children for LaReau. One probably didn’t know about the other. And LaReau no doubt believed he was taking children for the trafficking ring, but in fact, they would be delivered to Nicolaitan. The Knights were masters of deception, and Nicolaitan was the best of the best. Munificent said he would lure kids into his scheme. It seemed that he had also lured a teacher. He was building an army of kidnapped children, just like ten years ago, but this time, he was laying a trail that couldn’t be traced to him. LaReau would take the fall. Or Scallion. Or Captious.

Captious’s black eyes gleamed. He tapped his finger to the beat of the blaring music, and said to Christie, “Your prayers have been answered, sweetheart. It’s time to go.”

Christie’s face filled with panic.

Just then, the double deadbolts on the door to the arcade rattled. I heard a key scraping against the lock, and the door burst open. Mason appeared. He re-bolted the door and moved behind the counter with the sleek stride of a hunting cat.

He cranked up the already loud music, then retraced his steps and took a seat next to Captious. “Funny you should show up just when Christie does. What’s the deal?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Mason. I thought we had no secrets between us.”

Confirmed. One didn’t know what the other was doing.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.” Mason slammed his fist onto the countertop. “So what about her?”

Christie cringed.

“I’ll be taking this one with me,” Captious said.

Mason’s face twisted in anger. “I don’t think so.”

“Pulling rank, are you?”

“You got it.”

“Might have to fight you for it, Mason.”

“Oh, get real. You’re not in school. This is my world. And this is
not
how I treat little girls.”

Dr. Captious stood and wrapped his coat around Christie’s shoulders. He helped her to her feet. She moved like a puppet, staring with unblinking eyes.

“Have a good evening,” he said, looking up at Mason. He started to lead Christie away when Mason grabbed him by the shoulder.

Captious was surprisingly fast for a fat little man. He whipped a revolver from his belt and placed the barrel against Mason’s forehead in one fluid movement, hammer cocked. “It’s past my bedtime, Mason. I get cranky when I’m tired.”

Mason backed away, glaring. “Don’t do this. You know all I have to do—”

“I know, report me to your daddy.” Captious’s tone said he didn’t care. “I think our friendship means more to you than that. See you in class tomorrow. Don’t forget, you have a test.”

My stomach churned in disgust as Captious led little Christie through the door to the arcade. Mason continued to glare. The instant the arcade door closed, the door at the end of the food counter slowly opened. A skeletal face appeared, hissed the word, “Come,” then pulled back inside. It took all my strength and concentration to slow my heart.