Break The Ice (21 page)

Shindrow bursts through a set of unmarked doors. He makes it halfway across the room before his eyes fall on us. “What are you still doing here?” he says.

“We can’t go back alone,” Dan says. “Sam is strong, but we’ll get crushed.”

“I already found you some men,” Shindrow says. He looks around behind him. “But I lost them somewhere.”

“Open a portal to the last place you saw them. We’ll take it from there,” Dan says.

Shindrow diverts his eyes from Dan. “Run back through those doors,” he says. “You’ll find them behind me somewhere.”

“Or you can speed up the process,” Dan says, slowly, stressing the words. “Unless you–”

Shindrow raises a hand. “I don’t know what you think you figured out, but now is not the time to argue it. Find Tinjen, he has the others. Stop Tinjo. Make it back here alive, and I’ll answer your questions.”

“Deal,” Dan says.

“You expect us to trust Tinjen?” I say.

“Do you have a better plan?” Shindrow says. “He volunteered.”

I can’t stop myself from chuckling. “Of course he did. We’re trying to kill his dad.”

“This way,” someone yells behind me. The door to the dining hall left standing opens again and two Dinmani run out. They both spot me and stop in their tracks. If they made it through the door, that means they got past Striker. And the only way he’d let that happen…

The Dinmani on the left snarls, bearing yellowed teeth that don’t match his dark blue skin. He shakes his right arm, letting loose a chunk of ice two feet long. Wielding it like a javelin, he lobs the attack straight at me.

Someone grabs the cuff of my shirt and yanks me backwards. I stumble and lose my balance. Rather than dropping to the ground, I fall into someone else. Two blue arms slide under mine and help me stand up. From my propped up position, Tinjen stands in front of me.

He pulled me out of the way, letting the attack hit him instead. The tip presses into his chest but never breaks through the other side. It crumbles, inch by inch, until only a small sliver is left, hanging off of his shirt.

Tinjen’s eyes twinkle like the attack amped him up. He licks his lips and an actual smile spreads across them. Puffing up his chest, he lets out a battle cry that gives me chills. Springing forward, he runs across the open lobby and straight into the middle of the two attackers.

One hand on the Dinmani’s collar, the other at his waist, Tinjen lifts the javelin thrower straight up and throws him across the room. The second Dinmani fights back, swinging a cheap shot that lands across Tinjen’s right cheek. While he’s dazed, the Dinmani grabs hold of Tinjen’s leg and flips him to the ground.

I want to help but can’t move my feet. Something about almost getting skewered locked up my legs.

Dan must notice my paralysis. He pushes off my shoulder, charging Tinjen’s attacker. The standing Dinmani kicks a defenseless Tinjen repeatedly. Dan doesn’t waste any time. He leaps in the air, heat shimmering off his body, and strikes the Dinmani square in the nose.

The blow sends the Dinmani onto the floor, a trail of smoke rising above him and a bald patch burned into his hairline. Shirt singed and face burned, the Dinmani lies on the floor, unmoving.

Tinjen pushes himself off the ground. He staggers to the side and catches himself on a knee. Dan offers a hand, but Tinjen swats it away. “Get away from me, Sunjin,” he says.

“You going to be okay?” The voice comes right next to my ear.

I turn around to see Loch standing beside me. “Thanks for catching me,” I say.

“Not a–” Loch stops talking when he sees me look at someone over his shoulder. “About time you made it,” he says.

“Shut it and give me a hand.” Ti staggers into the room, Fly’s arm slung over her shoulder.

“Did you get it?” Loch says.

Ti throws him a small paper bag. “That’s all they had.”

Loch opens the bag and pulls out a handful of something white and grainy.

“Is that salt?” Dan says, no longer by Tinjen’s side.

“Yeah. You only got enough for a few shots,” Loch says, glaring at Ti.

“They did not have any more, skulga sen.”

The door they came through opens and an already beat up Dinmani falls through. He looks around until he finds Loch. “You. Get back here.”

“Watch this.” Loch winds up and pitches the salt. Instead of spreading apart, the grains stick together in a dense cluster. The baseball sized lump of salt pegs the new Dinmani in the jaw, knocking him down. “Stay down this time,” he says. “You lose, admit it.”

“What are you waiting for?” Shindrow says, pulling everybody’s attention to him. I almost forgot he was still in the room with us. “Do you want to save your planet or not?”

“It’s not the planet I’m worried about,” I say. And it’s true. I only care about a handful of people on it. The thought frightens me, but I shove it away. I should care about everybody, or at least about saving them. After all, they’re all important to someone. But when I close my eyes, I only see Kaitlyn and mom. Mel and Ted haven’t even made the cut yet.

“What’s the plan?” Ti says.

“Give him to me,” Shindrow says, taking Fly from Ti. “He’s in no shape to fight.” Shindrow supports Fly but has trouble keeping him up due to the difference in height. As soon as he finds the right combination of shoulder and knee bending, the doors leading into the palace burst open. Dozens of Dinmani storm inside, every one of them wears a black hood like the men in the dining hall. “You better figure it out on the move.”

Two Dinmani in front take off in our direction. They don’t make it far before an explosion blasts a hole into the wall next to them. When the dust settles, Fa stands on top of them both, tearing off an arm.

“Go!” The voice booms throughout the lobby. It’s unmistakable: Striker finally made it back.

Thoughts of home fill my head, and I let an uncontrollable power surge outwards. A portal opens, dividing our group in half. “Everybody through.” I wait for each of them to jump in before I follow, letting the portal close behind me and shutting out a handful of different screams.

“What is this torture?” Loch says, his hand raised, covering his eyes.

“I can’t see,” Ti adds.

Tinjen sighs, a heavy sound. “You two are miserable,” he says. “Where did you take us?”

“Earth,” I say. “Lake Shore. Your dad holed his army up in that building.” I point a finger at the only building still standing. “And we’re taking it back.”

“We should do a little recon before charging through the front doors,” he says.

Dan clears his throat. Even he squints a little at the sun. It’s hard to blame him. Compared to the three moons, adjusting to a late summer sun takes time. “I hate to say it, but I agree with him. We have no idea how many they have inside. Or if they put up any traps at the entrances.”

I rub my eyes, all of a sudden tired. The day of training finally caught up to me. “Dan, take Ti and Loch around the side, look for any other door besides the main one. Tinjen and I will check out the front.”

“I work better alone,” Tinjen says.

“Like hell if I’m letting you out of my sight,” I say. “Meet back here in five minutes.”

Dan leads the others around the rubble, disappearing into a side alley. It’s smart, taking a longer route instead of chancing himself by getting close to the front.

I wish I had that luxury. “Come on,” I say, heading straight for the building. It’s not very big, only three stories. Compared to the parts of Lake Shore I saw, it’s practically a skyscraper.

Tinjen and I walk side-by-side. He’s not taller than me, even if he has twice the muscle mass, so our strides match up. “How did you do that?” he says. “The portal. How did you make it appear where you wanted it to be?” He struggles to get the words out.

If he didn’t care so much about his pride, I’d think it was because of envy.

“What do you mean?”

“I have studied under Shinmar since I was a child. Together, we created hundreds of portals between worlds. But not one of them ever in the same place, never exactly where I wanted to go. How did you do it?”

“I have no idea,” I say, shrugging off the question as we get closer to the front doors.

“You will tell me how some day,” he says, quieter now, almost a whisper.

“Your dad’s done it a dozen times to me. Why not ask when we find him?”

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even acknowledge that I said anything. Instead, he runs ahead a little to stand on the opposite side of the front doors. He studies the inside, scanning every inch of the glass from top to bottom.

I try my best to focus on what’s inside but thoughts of Kaitlyn keep distracting me. Is she in this building? Safe? Did they hurt her? Or worse. Which would be worse, death or prisoner of the Dinmani for five days?

“It is clear,” Tinjen says. “Go get the others, I will secure the entrance.”

I hold the door next to me shut while he tugs on the handle. “You’re not leaving my sight, remember? We’ll wait together until Dan and the others get back.”

“And give the rebels inside a chance to spot us? That is amateur.”

“Safety in numbers,” I say. “Besides, if they’re inside waiting, you’ll get killed before you reach the second floor.”

“Maybe you should let him go in alone, then.” Dan’s voice startles me. “We didn’t find anything accessible. Found a wall that looked like it led into a backdoor, but no easy way to get over it.”

“Which is why I did not ask you,” Tinjen says, taking the phrase literally.

Dan licks his lips, holding back some choice words. “Definitely let him go in alone,” he says.

“Are we going to have to put up with this the whole time?” Ti says, looking from Dan to Tinjen. Neither respond, so she says, “Sam, any ideas?”

Truthfully, I haven’t a single clue what to do next. Storm inside and attack? Unless they have a room full of men. It’ll be a death trap. Or they spotted my portal earlier and abandoned the place, making this entire effort a waste of time.

Of course, neither of those are the worst case scenarios. They might have Kaitlyn and the others locked up inside. Any attack on the building might result in them getting hurt. Can I take that chance for some low level Dinmani in Tinjo’s circle? I wouldn’t even risk her life if it meant finding Tinjo on the top floor.

No
. I can’t let Tinjo get wind of our attacks, not until I’m one hundred percent certain that he can’t hurt Kaitlyn or mom. Or Mel and Ted. My throat tightens a little, and I kick myself for having to add them into my thoughts a second late. Their safety means as much as anyone else. I swallow, hard, trying to convince myself that I believe those words.

“Yoo-hoo, Sam?” Ti waves his hand in front of my eyes. “You in there?”

“Are you sure the Dinmani aren’t spying on humans?” I say, not thinking clearly.

“We learn a lot of slang from Shindrow,” Loch says. “He knows more about the human race than most humans.”

“Does he know the secret on how to make them concentrate long enough to infiltrate a building?” Tinjen says.

“What do you want from me?” I say, fed up with everybody staring at me for the plan. “There’s only one door. Look in the lobby. Through the glass doors, I can see a front desk and two hallways behind it. One has a plaque on it, probably says stairs. An elevator sits off to the right, directly opposite of the doors. I can’t even see around the first corner right there. Maybe a dozen rebels stand guard, waiting for us to walk in. Maybe it’s a window or some vents.” I get the entire rant out in a single breath.

“He has a point,” Dan says. “Follow me.” He jerks the handle but the door doesn’t budge. Using both hands, he pulls back. Nothing. “Did you two not even try the door while you waited here?”

“Somebody blocked it,” Tinjen says, his eyes accusing me as much as his tone. “Step aside, I will get us in.”

Tinjen gets ready to blast through, and Dan steps in the way. “Woah, woah, woah. I have an idea. Bear with me. If it doesn’t work, you can use all the force you want.” Approaching the glass door, Dan drags his fingers through his hair. It slicks back from a combination of sweat and grease. “Ready?”

Dan’s hands glow as he rubs them together. Dull, like fresh sunburn. His speed quickens and the shade darkens. By the time he touches the glass, his skin nearly ignites.

I don’t expect anything to happen. And at first, nothing does. After ten seconds, the glass bows in a few inches. I shake my head, amazed. I never imagined I’d see him melt glass with his bare hands.

“Damn, Sunjin,” Ti says. “You have skills.”

Dan reaches through the hand-size hole and flips the deadbolt. “That’s nothing. Later, I’ll show you…do you guys feel that?” He yanks the door open and a gust of cold wind blasts out at us.

“That’s amazing,” Ti says. “This planet is way too hot.”

“You should have been here last week,” I say, walking across the threshold and into the building. “Dan and his people caused a record heat wave.”

“It was that or usher in the next ice age,” he says. “Besides, we never thought the heat made it this far east.”