Mystics 3-Book Collection (28 page)

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Stacks of cards were littered across his
desk. Zoey leaned over and read:

Get out of jail free—This card may be kept
until needed or sold

“I feel like I’m in a game of Monopoly,”
said Simon with a weird smile on his face. “Love that game.”

The old man jumped when he saw them.
“Leaping lizards! What’s going on? Who are you? What are you doing
here?”

He adjusted his glasses. “You’re not allowed
in here! Get out! Get out!”

He wiggled out of his chair and came
shuffling up to them, pointing a long crooked finger. “I will
report you! This is a direct violation of agency rules—”

The man in the coat backhanded him with the
handle of the gun. With a frightening
crunch
, the elderly
man crumbled to the floor. Blood seeped through a large wound on
the back of his head. Zoey stared in shock—it had happened so
fast—she didn’t even have time to react.

She turned around and faced their captor.
“How could you kill him? He was an old man just doing his job.
You’ll pay for this! I swear you will.”

The suited man was unimpressed.

“He saw me. I can’t have anyone identifying
me.”

“But what about us? We see you?” said Simon.
When he realized he had stuck his own foot in his mouth, he
paled.

“You know, I only have 20/200 eyesight.” He
continued. “Technically I’m legally blind. I couldn’t recognize you
in a lineup if my life depended on it—honest.”

Their captor gave Simon a small smile, a
smile that killers give their victims before they die.

“Stay,” ordered the man, as though they were
little puppies.

He stepped over the body and then leaned
over the computer. When he had finished typing, he took a step
back.

And an alarm blasted throughout the
chamber.

Zoey and the others winced and pressed their
hands on their ears. She was certain the entire north continent
could hear it.

But the suited man didn’t cover his ears—he
just looked at them unsympathetically.

“Since you love mystics so much,” he shouted
over the alarm. “Why not make it a
permanent
thing? I
thought you’d enjoy a little get-together with your best
friends
.”

He moved away from the desk, but kept his
gun pointed at them.

“If you move from that spot, I’ll shoot you.
And don’t think I won’t, because I will. Your lives mean nothing to
me, but I’d rather not kill children,
if
I don’t have
to.”

He crossed the room swiftly, smiled at them
one last time, and closed the doors behind him.

Zoey ran after him. But when she reached the
doors, they wouldn’t budge.

“He’s locked us in!” she yelled over the
alarm, her words thick in her mouth.

An automatic message suddenly sounded in the
chamber.

Systems shutdown
…
commencing in ten
seconds…nine…eight…”

Simon ran over to the computer. “It’s locked
with a password!” he yelled as he typed on the keyboard.

“I can’t do a system’s reboot without the
password. I can’t stop it!” He hit the keyboard with his fist.

Tristan ran over to the desk, reached under
it, and pulled out the power cable. He tossed it to the ground and
then stood still, waiting.

“…
seven…six…
” said the voice. The
alarm still thundered across the chamber.

“It didn’t work,” said Simon. He covered his
head with his hands. “What happens after ten seconds?”

Tristan looked around frantically. “I don’t
know—I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“…
five…four…
” continued the
voice.

“But I don’t want to find out!” squealed
Simon. “I want to
live
!”

Zoey ran back to the others. “I don’t like
this! What’s going to happen?”

“…
three…two…
”

The three of them stared at each other,
petrified.

“…
one
.”

Zoey stopped breathing.

“
System shutdown
.” The alarm
stopped.

And then the worst thing that could happen,
happened.

A series of
clicks
sounded, and then
one by one the doors to all the cells opened.

S
imon pinched his
own arm. “Wake up, Simon. Wake up! Ouch!”

Zoey punched him on the arm. “You’re awake
like the rest of us. Snap out of it! I need you
focused
.”

They watched aghast as the mystics slowly
crept out of their cages. With a beat of her wings, the winged
woman flew to the ceiling where she attached herself upside down
like a bat. Her snake hairs hissed at them.

A spider the size of a couch scurried out of
its booth and froze in the middle of the room. It surveyed the room
with its large, black eyes, as if it were waiting to pounce on its
next victim.

Some mystics ventured out confidently, while
others preferred to stay in the safety of their prisons. The fire
horse was one of them. It backed away from its open door, neighing
and trembling. Its eyes were wide with fear. Zoey started forward,
as if she were going to comfort the fire horse, but Tristan held
her back.

At the other end of the chamber, the
Krakenite waddled out of its pen like a giant alligator finally
escaping from the years of confinement of a zoo. It tested the open
space carefully, as though it needed to make sure it was real. Its
dull gray eyes seemed surprised.

All the mystics that came out had one thing
in common—their eyes burned with hate. Like convicts about to
pounce on their prison guards—their malice was pure and simple.
They had been imprisoned by the agency, and now they wanted
revenge.

“Is it me, or do you guys feel like we’re on
the mystic menu?”

Simon looked around and then pointed to
himself and said in a very loud voice, “I have a
medical
condition called IBS—irritable bowel syndrome—if you eat me, you’ll
suffer
severe
intestinal failure for the
rest
of your
life. Now think about that, before you go all table d'hôte on
us!”

He turned back to Tristan and Zoey and added
in a low voice. “I don’t think they care. What do we do now?
They’re like a hundred, and we’re like—
three
.”

“We’ll have to fight our way out. Grab your
weapons and get ready to use them.” Tristan drew his S9 and grabbed
a chair. He smashed the chair on the ground, and it exploded into
pieces. He stooped over the pile, picked up a metal chair leg and
waved it around like a baton.

“Zoey, stay close to me.”

“Yes,
Agent
Price,” she teased with a
little smile that failed to disguise her fear.

“If we get out of this alive,” said Simon,
“I promise to stop stealing Billy’s chips from his school bag and
eating them.”

Following Tristan’s example, Simon yanked
his slingshot from his pocket and armed it with a metal ball. Zoey
clasped her boomerang securely. With their weapons brandished
before them, they stood close to each other—ready.

The fairies who watched them never blinked
their eyes.

“It was a pleasure serving with the two of
you,” continued Simon, in a melodramatic voice. “May the force be
with us!”

And then the attack began. The fairies
dive-bombed them.

Using both arm ambidextrously, Tristan swung
his metal baton at the deadly fairies. With mighty swings, he
batted them skillfully like a seasoned baseball player. They
ricocheted off the bat and smashed against the wall with loud
crunches
.

Zoey was so impressed by Tristan’s maneuvers
that she was nearly taken by surprise by three fairies who had
sneaked up behind her. She turned just as they went for her face
with their sharp teeth. She ducked, turned, and with a powerful
strike, whacked the three fairies with the end of her boomerang.
They went sprawling. Something hit her on the back of the head like
a brick. She went down and rolled, struggling with the dizzy spell
that threatened to take her over. But she got up and blinked the
black spots from her eyes.

The rock creature came at her again. She
ducked and hurled her boomerang. It spun and hit the mystic, but
the rock creature was like a brick wall. The boomerang ricocheted
back. She caught it and backed away slowly. She couldn’t see if it
had any eyes, but the gaping maw under its belly dripped with
anticipation. It came at her like a cannon ball. She went spinning
and fell to one knee, amazed that she had still held on to her
boomerang. The rock mystic leaped at her as she struggled to her
feet—but this time she was ready. She whirled and kicked, putting
all her strength into it. She hit it with upwards momentum and
flipped the creature on its back. The rock thing wailed desperately
and flailed its limbs in the air like an upside-down spider. But
its rock carapace was too heavy, and it wasn’t able to flip itself
back upright.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Simon fire
his slingshot at a hairy creature with two heads and large rabbit
ears. At the same time he was struggling to kick off the fairies
that were feasting on his calves.

Tristan had moved away from them, closer to
the opposite side of the chamber, and was fighting a giant white
beast that looked like the abominable snowman’s cousin.

Zoey knew that they were outnumbered. If
they didn’t somehow get out soon, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
They really would become items on Simon’s mystic menu.

What she saw next lifted her spirits
slightly. Six fairies dove towards her, but when she lifted her
arm, ready to throw her boomerang, they flew over her head and
landed on the island of computers and monitors behind her. In fact,
most of the fairies seemed to turn their attention to the
electronic equipment. Although at least fifty other nasty mystics
were still ready to skin them alive, the threat had lessened
slightly.

And then something strange happened. The
mystics started to attack each other.

In a cacophony of flesh tearing flesh and
earsplitting wails, the chamber became a bloody battlefield. The
mystics fought one another with more hatred than they had showed to
Zoey and her friends. They clawed and ripped at each other
savagely.

She watched as a troll-like mystic used its
nails to slash a green skeletal creature. It flailed wildly,
choked, and finally collapsed. Crimson fluid poured in streams from
its gaping maw and spilled onto the marble floor. Zoey was
disgusted at their savagery—it was a horrible sight. Warm bile rose
in her throat. She had never seen anything so terrifying and so
real
. She knew that there must have been some history
between the fighting mystics, but she didn’t know what.

Then she felt a new premonition electrify
her skin. There was flash of green, and suddenly a spike stuck
through her arm. She cried out in pain—the spike burned her flesh
like acid. Then the spike was wrenched back out of her arm, and she
could see that it had left a bloody gash.

She caught a glimpse of her attacker. It
watched her with large, yellow eyes. It was humanoid with long
gangly limbs and sharp black talons. It had no neck, and its large
oblong head had a mouth full of pointed black teeth. The smell of
decay from its filthy green skin burned into Zoey’s nose. It cocked
its head and looked at Zoey. Then its skin started to bubble and
change. The thing pulled and twisted itself like dough. Slowly it
morphed into a distorted version of Zoey herself. It was a shape
shifter.

The creature laughed at Zoey’s shock, and in
a parody of Zoey it brushed its red hair and admired itself. It
smiled at her, but not with Zoey’s perfect white straight teeth,
the creature’s teeth were rotten and pointy like a cat’s.

The shape shifter lunged at Zoey

Zoey hit it in the stomach with the sharp
end of her boomerang. The creature stumbled back, but before she
could react, it had grabbed her boomerang. The creature twirled the
boomerang in its hand and laughed. It was much stronger than her.
It leapt at her again, and Zoey fell to the ground on her back. The
shape shifter snapped its mouth at her, inches from her neck.
Desperately, she tried to push the thing off of her, but it was too
strong. Its weight crushed her chest, and she couldn’t breathe. Her
other self was going to kill her. She felt its rough lips brush her
neck.

But suddenly the shape shifter was jerked
backwards into the air. Blood escaped from its mouth, and then its
body snapped in half with a hideous
crack
. The Krakenite
tossed it to the ground. Satisfied that it was dead—the Krakenite
turned its attention to Zoey.

She backed away slowly. Desperately, she
looked for her boomerang. It was still clutched in the hand of dead
shape shifter. Instinctively, she raised her right arm, hoping that
her gold bracelet would draw the boomerang back to her. It shifted
slightly, lifting its wing in the air. It twisted on itself, trying
to break free from the hold of the dead shape shifter. But it held
on too tightly, and the boomerang wouldn’t break free.

The Krakenite advanced slowly towards her,
its muscles rippling under its wet raw skin. It was stalking her
and it licked its lips in anticipation.

Zoey couldn’t see Tristan or Simon. She
couldn’t even manage to scream to her friends for help. Her jaws
were frozen in terror, and the words died in her throat.

Zoey stared death in the face. There was no
way out of this one.

The beast reared, and then bounded towards
her again.

But Tristan arrived with a flash of blue
light. He forced the great beast’s maw closed with his bare hands,
and then stuck one of his metal poles into its head and pushed it
down into its brain. The Krakenite stiffened and then crumbled to
the ground.