The Merchant of Death (22 page)

“I got it!” she shouted.

The train was right there. Its horn blasted. Courtney held on tight to Mark's hand and dove for what she hoped was the gate. She pushed against the dark recess and it gave way. Courtney and Mark tumbled inside just as the train flashed by. In seconds it was gone and all was as quiet as it had been only a few moments before. Courtney and Mark lay on the ground, totally out of breath. It took a minute for them to get their heads back together, and when they did they both looked up and saw it at the same time.

“Whoa,” was all Mark could say in awe.

It was the rocky gray tunnel. With their eyes fixed on the craggy portal, they both stood up. Courtney then hurried back to the wooden door they had just come through and poked her head outside.

“It's here,” she announced. “The star, just like Bobby said.”

She came back inside to join Mark, who kept staring into the tunnel.

“This is it,” he said with growing excitement. “It's all true. Everything Bobby wrote is true.”

This was as far as Bobby's instructions took them. In his letter, he wrote for them to come to the gate and wait. But wait for
what? They stood there for a few minutes, not exactly sure of what to do next. Finally Courtney looked at Mark with a mischievous smile and said, “I'm gonna try it.”

She took a step toward the mouth of the gray tunnel, but Mark pulled her back.

“Don't!” he yelled nervously.

“Why not? If Bobby can do it, I can do it,” was her typical Courtney-esque response. She shook Mark off and stepped into the mouth of the flume. Mark backed away and watched nervously as Courtney faced the depths of the endless, dark tunnel. She stood up straight, gave a quick glance to Mark, then turned back toward the darkness and said, “Denduron!”

Nothing happened. Zero. They could hear the word echo back from the tunnel, but besides that, nothing.

“It's gotta be the same as the ring,” said Mark. “If you're not a Traveler, you don't have the power.”

Courtney backed out of the tunnel with a look of definite disappointment. She was psyched to take the magic carpet ride of light that Bobby had described, but it was not meant to be. “So why is it that Bobby has the power?” she asked, a little bit peeved. “What makes him so special that—”

“Shhh!” Mark held his hand up to quiet Courtney.

“What?” asked Courtney.

“Do you hear that?”

Courtney listened and then said, “It must be another train coming.”

“No,” said Mark as he strained to listen harder. “It's not a train. It sounds like . . . like . . . music.”

Courtney listened harder, and soon she heard it too. It was music. Far off music. But it wasn't a tune. It was more like a jumble of sweet, high notes.

“I've heard that before,” exclaimed Mark. “When the ring
opens up.” He glanced down at the ring on his finger, but the gray stone wasn't glowing. No, this music wasn't coming from the ring. Courtney looked into the tunnel, and what she saw made her jaw drop open in surprise.

“Uh, Mark,” she said numbly. “You looking at this?”

Mark was also looking down the tunnel and what he saw made his jaw fall open as well, for there was something coming toward them. It was a pin spot of light, like the headlight on the front of a far-off train. As it drew closer, the light grew larger and the sweet music grew louder.

“D-Do we want to run?” asked Mark with a shaky voice.

“Yeah,” answered Courtney. “But we can't.”

As the light came nearer, they saw that the gray walls of the tunnel were beginning to change. It was like they were disappearing. The gray, craggy rock walls were transforming into clear crystal, just as the gray stone of the ring had done. Beyond the clear walls was a vast star field. The light grew so bright that Mark and Courtney had to shield their eyes. The music grew louder as well. Without thinking, the two backed away until they hit the far wall. They were trapped. It was too late to find the door and get out of there. All they could do was cover their eyes, crouch down, and hope that it would soon end.

With one final burst of light, the room fell dark and the music stopped. All was quiet and calm. Slowly Mark and Courtney lowered their arms from their faces to see what had happened. What they saw seemed more impossible than anything they had seen so far. Yet there he was, plain as can be.

It was Bobby. He stood at the mouth of the tunnel looking a little dazed. He glanced around to get his bearings, then saw Mark and Courtney cowering against the far wall. Nobody knew what to say. They all just stared at each other for a good long time. Finally Bobby let out a simple, calm, “Yo.”

That broke the ice. Mark and Courtney jumped up, ran to him and all three threw themselves into a tight group hug. They didn't need to say anything. This one unplanned action said it all. It was a release from all the fear, uncertainty, and sadness that had been building up in them since the adventure began. They stayed this way for some time, until Bobby finally said, “Okay, I'm choking here.”

Reluctantly they all let go and took a step back from each other. They waited a second and then all three ran at each other again for another hug. This time they all started to laugh.

“You guys are the best,” said Bobby, but then something dawned on him and he pulled away from the group. He looked right at Courtney and said, “Wait, what are you doing here?”

“I showed her the journals,” admitted Mark. “I'm sorry. I couldn't deal on my own.”

Bobby had to think about this. He thought that he was writing to Mark and Mark alone. But it was a big responsibility that he threw at his friend and Bobby realized that maybe sharing it was a good idea. If there was anybody who could help him deal, it was Courtney. So he smiled reassuringly at his friend and said, “It's cool, Mark. I'm glad you did. Does anybody else know?”

Courtney answered, “No, just us.”

“That's good,” said Bobby. “At first I was thinking everybody should know, but now I'm not so sure. This is all pretty heavy.”

“That's what we thought,” said Mark.

Bobby added, “There's gonna be a time when everybody should know, but not yet, okay?”

Courtney and Mark nodded. There were all on the same page.

“Are my parents freaking out?” Bobby asked.

There it was. The question they didn't want to answer. Mark and Courtney gave each other a quick glance. They had already decided it wouldn't be a good idea to tell Bobby that his family had
disappeared. He had enough to worry about as it was. But they didn't want to lie to him. Mark didn't know what to say, so Courtney jumped in, saying, “Everybody's real worried about you.”

It wasn't a lie; people were definitely worried about him. It just wasn't the whole truth. But it was the right thing to say because Bobby then said, “I hate to keep them in the dark, but I think they'd be more worried if they knew what was really going down. So don't tell ‘em anything, okay?”

Both Courtney and Mark nodded quickly. Whew. They just dodged a bullet. Bobby then spotted the L.L. Bean pack that Mark and Courtney brought.

“Did you get everything?” he asked as he quickly poked through the contents.

“Every bit,” answered Mark.

“Any trouble getting here?” Bobby asked.

Courtney answered, “No sweat.”

Bobby looked back to his friends as if he were seeing them for the first time. What he saw were two people who came through for him in a big way when they really didn't have to. “I don't know how to thank you guys,” he said sincerely. “I don't deserve friends like you.”

Courtney and Mark answered with smiles.

“Bobby,” said Mark sheepishly. “Is it true? I mean, what you've been writing about?”

“Yeah,” was Bobby's answer. “Weird, huh?”

Courtney and Mark started to ask more questions but Bobby cut them off by saying, “Guys, I don't know any more about what's going on than what I wrote. I don't know why I'm a Traveler. I don't know where Denduron is. I don't know
when
Denduron is. I've got a million questions and no answers. And I'm scared as hell.”

Yes, there were many questions but none of them had any
answers. Finally Courtney took a step toward Bobby. She hesitated, as if what she was about to say would be difficult. She finally gathered the strength and said, “Don't go back. That's not your world back there. It's not your life. You belong here. All you have to do is walk out that door with us. Nobody would know. Please, Bobby, stay here.”

Bobby looked at Mark. Mark nodded to him as if agreeing with Courtney. “You're home now, Bobby,” he said. “Stay here.”

Bobby hadn't thought about the possibility. It would be so easy. All he had to do was walk away. He was home now. He was safe. It was so tempting. He didn't answer at first because this was the most important decision he ever had to make in his life. He looked around him, looked down into the dark tunnel, and then to the L.L. Bean pack full of stuff his friends had brought him. He had made up his mind.

“There are a ton of things I don't know,” he said soberly. “But there's one thing I do know for certain. Uncle Press is going to die unless I do something.”

The others dropped their heads. Bobby was right. If he stayed, Uncle Press was doomed.

“But there's more,” Bobby added. “I'm not the guy to help those people fight their revolution. I don't know why they think I am, but I'm not. The guy to help them is Uncle Press. If he dies, they don't stand a chance. I gotta go back and get Uncle Press for the sake of the Milago, too.”

Bobby picked up the pack and swung it onto his back.

“What're you gonna do with that stuff?” asked Mark.

“I'm not exactly sure,” answered Bobby, “but I better think of something fast.” He tightened up the straps on the pack and took a step back toward the flume. “I'm no big hero,” he then said. “I'm gonna try to save Uncle Press and then get out of there. I'd just as soon not stick around for the real fireworks.”

“We'll be waiting for you,” said Mark.

Everyone looked at each other, not entirely sure of what to say. It was time for Bobby to go.

“There's nothing I can say to thank you guys for doing this and for hanging on to my journals,” Bobby said.

“Just keep ‘em coming, dude,” said Mark with a smile.

Bobby smiled and then the three once again joined in a group hug.

“I'll write as soon as I can,” said Bobby and pulled away. Everyone was holding back tears. Bobby had turned to the flume when Courtney asked, “Is Loor really as gorgeous as all that?”

Bobby winced. Busted. “You weren't supposed to see that,” he said sheepishly. “She's not my type.”

“No?” said Courtney with a sly smile. “I think she and I have something in common. We can both kick your ass.”

Bobby laughed at that. Of course she was right.

“Get home safe,” she added.

“Soon as I can,” was his reply. Mark gave him a wave and Bobby turned back to the flume. He stepped in, took a breath, and said, “Denduron!”

Instantly, the flume reactivated. The walls started to shimmer, the musical notes grew loud, and bright light blasted out from somewhere far inside.

Bobby turned back to them and gave a quick wave. “Later!” he said.

Then, in a flash, Bobby was gone. The light and the music trailed away inside the tunnel, transporting Bobby to his far-off destination. Soon all was quiet once again. The two stood there, staring into the dark, empty tunnel. There was nothing left to do now except to start the long journey home.

“Uh-oh,” Mark said.

“What?” asked Courtney nervously.

Mark held out his hand and they both saw that the gray stone in the ring was starting to glow. Mark quickly took it off and placed it down on the ground. They each took a step back and watched as the ring grew larger and light blasted out of the stone. The familiar musical notes were heard again as the light built in intensity. There was a flash, and just as quickly as it started, it was over. The ring lay still on the ground. Next to it was another rolled-up parchment.

“How could he have written so fast?” asked Courtney.

Mark picked up the pages and started to unfurl them.

“Something tells me that time here and time there aren't relative,” said Mark.

“Huh? English please,” demanded Courtney.

“I think Denduron might not only be in another place,” explained Mark. “It might be in another time. It could be thousands of years ago, or a million years from now. The flumes not only travel through space, I'll bet they travel through time as well.”

Courtney didn't quite get this, but then again she didn't get much of anything that was happening. Mark unfurled the pages, gave them a quick glance, then looked up at Courtney with a smile.

“I was right. It's from Bobby.”

I
messed up big time, guys.

I tried to take charge and do the right thing, but I'm afraid I only made things worse. It's been a wild ride since I saw you two in the subway, but the bottom line is that as I write this journal, we are on the verge of a catastrophe that could rip Denduron apart. It's not all my fault, but I'm afraid I pushed it closer to the edge. First I gotta backtrack to what happened since I wrote last. I finished my last journal before I saw you two, so I should tell you what happened before the trip I took to Second Earth where you gave me the backpack. As much as I was over-the-moon psyched to see you guys, I wish I had never made that trip, because that trip is one of the reasons we're on the edge of disaster.

When Osa was killed, something snapped in my head and I was able to think clearly. It wasn't anything dramatic like I suddenly realized I had to fulfill my destiny as a Traveler and lead the Milago to victory or anything like that. No way; gimme a break. It was about Uncle Press. I was ashamed of myself for not trying to help him. My only defense is that I had a whole lot of wild stuff thrown at me
all at once and I was having a tough time keeping my head on straight. But when Osa died, it was like a wake-up call. And my loss wasn't even on the same scale as the loss was for Loor. Osa was her mother. I imagined what it would be like to lose my own mom. I take that back. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose my mom. The thought was just too horrible.