Seven Wonders Book 2: Lost in Babylon (4 page)

“Thank you, Mr. Einstein,” I said, scanning the horizon. Directly ahead of us, across the yellow-brown desert, was a line of low pine trees that stretched in either direction. The heat-shimmer coming up from the ground made the trees look as if they were rippling in an invisible current. “That's where Marco's signal is coming from. The Euphrates.”

I checked over my shoulder. Torquin and Nirvana were struggling to lift Professor Bhegad out of the chopper and put him in a wheelchair. “This is going to take forever,” Aly said.

She darted toward Torquin, pulled the tracking-signal detector from his gadget belt, and bolted toward the river. “Come on, let's start!”

“Hey!” Torquin cried out in surprise.

“Let them go, we have our hands full here!” Nirvana said.

Our footsteps made clouds of yellowish dust as we ran. Closer to the river, the ground was choked with scrubby grass and knots of small bushes. We stopped at the thicket of pine trees that stretched in both directions.

The ground sloped sharply downward. Below us, the Euphrates slashed a thick silver-blue S like a curved mirror through the countryside. To the north it wound around a distant settlement, then headed off toward mountains blurred by fog. To the south it passed by the Babylonian ruins before disappearing into the flatness. I scanned the riverbank, looking for signs of Marco.

“I don't see him,” Aly said.

I held up the tracker. Our blue dot locator and Marco's green one had merged. “He's here somewhere.”

“Yo, Ocram!” Cass shouted. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Rolling her eyes, Aly began walking down the slope toward the river. “He might be hiding. If he's playing a prank, I will personally dunk him in the water.”

“Unless he throws you in first,” I said.

I glanced quickly back over my shoulder to check on the others. Nirvana was struggling to push Professor Bhegad's wheelchair across the rocky soil. He bounced a lot, complaining all the way. Torquin had taken off his studded leather belt and was trying to wrap it around Bhegad like a seat belt, causing his own pants to droop slowly downward.

They were going to take a while.

I started through the brush. It was dense and maybe three to five feet high, making it hard to see. As we moved forward, we kept calling Marco's name.

We stopped at the edge of a rocky ridge. None of us had seen this from the distance. It plunged straight downward, maybe twenty feet, to the river below. “Oh, great,” Aly said.

I looked north and south. In both directions, the ridge angled downward until it eventually met the riverbed. “We'll be okay if we go sideways,” I said.

I went to the edge and looked over. I eyed the tangle of trees, roots, and bushes along the steep drop. Since Marco had taught us to rock climb, steep embankments didn't scare me as much as they used to. This looked way easier than climbing Mount Onyx.

“Maybe there's a shortcut,” I said. Quickly I stepped over the edge, digging my toes into a sturdy root. I turned so my chest would be facing the cliff. Holding on to a branch, I descended another step.

“Whoa, Jack, don't,” Cass said.

I laughed. “This is ea—”

My foot slipped. My chin hit the dirt. I slid downward, grasping frantically. My fingers closed around branches and vines. I pulled out about a dozen, and a dozen more slipped through my hand. I felt my foot hit a root and I caromed outward, landing at the bottom, hard on my back. “—sy,” I continued.

“I think I'll look for a path,” Cass called down.

Aly's face was going in and out of focus. I could have sworn she was trying to hold back a smile. “Are you hurt?”

“Just resting.” I closed my eyes and lay still, my breath buzzsawing in my chest. I heard a dull moan, and I figured it must have been my own voice.

But when I heard it again, my eyes blinked open.

I sat up. Aly and Cass were just below the crest of the ridge, trying to make their way down. They were both shouting. But my eyes were focused on a thick, brownish-green bush, maybe ten yards away.

A pair of shoes jutted from underneath.

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HarperCollins Publishers

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N
EW
B
ALANCE BASKETBALL
shoes. Size gazillion wide. With feet in them.

I ran to them, grabbed the ankles, and pulled. The legs slid out—Ohio State Buckeye sweatpants—and then a ripped-up KI polo shirt.

From above, Fiddle shouted at me to give him CPR. How did you do CPR? I wished I'd taken a course. All I could think about were scenes in TV shows—one person blowing air into another's lungs.

As I lowered my mouth toward his, he snorted, swatted at me, giggled, and snored before his eyes flickered open from a deep sleep. “Jack? Hey, bro. I didn't know you cared.”

“What the—how—you were—we thought—” I stammered.

“Spit it out,” Marco said, sitting up. “I've got time. I've been waiting for you. It gets boring here all alone.”

He was in no harm. He'd just taken shelter for some rest. I helped him up and bear-hugged him. “Woooo-hooo!”

Footsteps pounded the dirt behind me. Aly and Cass ran down a path from the lower side of the ridge. They had taken the long way around.

“Dudes!” Marco yelled. “And dudette.”

As they jumped on him, laughing, squealing about how happy they were to see him alive, I stepped back. My initial jubilation was wearing off as quickly as it had come. Our reaction seemed somehow wrong.

I watched his face, all pleased with himself, all happy-go-lucky returning hero. Everything we'd been through, all the hardship in Rhodes, the abandonment, the awful visit to Ohio—it all began to settle over me like a coat of warm tar. I flashed back to the last time I saw him, in a room at a hotel in Rhodes. With Cass lying unconscious on a bed.

He'd skipped out on us. As if flying off with our only chance of survival was some kind of game. He hadn't cared about anyone at the Karai Institute. Or how many lives he'd turned upside down.

“Brother Jack?” Marco said curiously, staring out at me from the hugfest. “'Sup? You need a bathroom?”

I shook my head. “I need an explanation. Like, when did you come up with the idea to find a Loculus by yourself? Just, whoosh, hey, I'll go to Iraq and be a hero?”

“I can explain,” Marco said.

“Do you have any idea what we've been through?” I barked. “We just got back from Ohio.”

“Wait. Did you—go to my house?” he asked, his eyes widening,

I explained everything—our trip to Lemuel, the visit to the house, the expressions on his mom and dad and sister's faces. I could see Marco's eyes slowly redden. “I . . . I can't believe this . . .” he murmured.

“Jack, maybe we can talk about this later,” Aly urged.

But Marco was sinking against the trunk of a pine tree, massaging his forehead. “I—I never wanted to go home. I remember how painful it was for Aly when she tried to call her mom.” He took a deep breath. “Why did you go there? Why didn't you just follow my signal here? That's what I thought you'd do.”

“Your tracker malfunctioned,” I said. “It was off for a couple of days.”

“Really?” Marco cocked his head. “So you risked everything and went to the States? For me? Wow. I guess you're right, I do owe you an explanation . . .”

“We're all ears,” Aly said. “Start from Rhodes.”

“Yeah . . . that hotel room . . .” Marco said. “It was hot, the TV shows were all in Greek, Cass was asleep. All I wanted to do was take a break. You know, hop on the old Loculus, maybe scare a few goats and come right back—”

“Goats?” I said. Cass was in a coma!”

“Dumbest thing I ever did. I know,” Marco said. “I'm a moron. I admit it. But it gets worse. So I'm flying around, and I get distracted by this little island called Nísyros. Looks like a volcano from the air, hot girls on the beach, you know. I swoop in close, make people scream. Fun times. Only when I get back, Cass isn't in the room anymore. You guys are probably already flying away. I figure, great, you've abandoned me.”

“Did you actually say ‘hot girls'?” Aly said, her face curdling with disdain.

“So I figure I'll race you back,” Marco went on. “But how do I get back to the island of the KI Geeks? It's halfway between nowhere and the Bermuda Triangle. And then I hear something. This voice. And here's where it gets complicated. And awesome.” He paused, looking around.

“Ahoy, there!” came Professor Bhegad's voice. Fiddle was pushing him down a sandy path, about forty yards away.

“He's
here?” Marco said, looking confused. “Wait. Four Karai peeps?”

“This is a big deal—
that's
why they're here!” Aly said. “You could have died, Marco. Or been abducted by the Massa. Besides, aren't you due for a treatment?”

“I don't need no stinkin' treatments,” Marco said, his voice rushed and agitated.

“This is no joke, Marco, you could die,” Cass reminded him.

“We need to take you back,” Aly said, glancing around. “Where's the flight Loculus?”

“I had to hide it. People here saw me flying. There was a crowd with cameras.” Marco reached out, gathered us into a huddle, and spoke fast. “I screwed up and I owe you all bigtime. But I'll make it worthwhile, I promise. Look, there's some stuff I have to show you, okay? I've been here awhile, and I've found out some amazing things. Like . . . hold for it . . . Loculus Number Two.”

My jaw dropped. “You found it already?”

“Not exactly, but I know where it is. Interested? I thought so.” Marco began running toward the river, and of course we followed.

He paused by the bank. Heat shimmered off the water and dragonflies flitted along the surface. Near the opposite bank, a boat floated around a bend with two people lying lazily, their fishing rods slack. “It's there,” Marco said.

“In that boat?” Cass said.

“No,
there
—in the water,” Marco replied. “You're Selects, just like me. Can't you
feel
it? You know, that weird music thing that Jack talks about?”

Aly scrunched her eyes. “No . . .”

The music
.

I'd felt it in the center of Mount Onyx, when I found the Heptakiklos. It wasn't a song, really, even a sound that you heard through your ears. It was a kind of full-body thrum, as if my nerves themselves were the instrument, being playing by invisible fingers like a harp.

Somehow, I was always the one who felt this most intensely. But right now it was there, but only a suggestion, barely a tickle. It surprised me that Marco felt it, too.

Marco smiled. “No offense, Brother Jack, but you're not the only one who senses this stuff. It's in there, guaranteed. The closer you get, the more you feel it.”

“You went into the water to find it?” Cass asked

Marco nodded. His face was glowing with excitement. “Yup. I haven't located it yet, but what I found down there will blow your mind. For real. I'm not even going to try to explain. Trust me. You have to see it.”

Cass's blotchy face was turning a uniform shade of white. “I—I'm happy to wait here. Swimming and I don't really get along.”

“I'll hold on to you, brother,” Marco said, taking his arm.

Professor Bhegad's voice shouted from behind us: “My boy—come here, this wheelchair doesn't do well on wet sand!” He was close to the bottom now. His wheelchair wasn't liking the dry sand, either.

Cass struggled to wrench himself away. “We can't just jump in, Marco! We have to clear this. You may be cool about breaking the rules, but you know the KI.”

“Why are you worried about them?” Marco asked.

“Maybe because they're the ones in charge of our lives?” Aly said.

Marco groaned. “They'll require a chaperone, or an official KI submarine, whatever. That'll take the fun out of it. We'll do this fast, I promise. You will thank me!”

I stepped closer to the water. Toward the sound.
An hour ago we had no Loculi, and now we have a chance at two. Two of seven
.

But I stopped short. Bhegad was shouting now. Freaking out. He must have been completely confused by what was going on. Why we were standing by the bank of a river, looking like we were about to go for a swim? Were we nuts?

I stepped back, shaking my head. We needed the KI's support. Marco's flight was a huge complication. A good plan was better than chaos. Just because the Song of the Heptakiklos beckoned, I didn't mean we had to listen right this instant. “Just give me a couple of seconds, Marco,” I said.

As I turned toward Bhegad and the others, I felt a beefy hand land on my shoulder. And I was flying back toward the water.

“Banzaaiiiiii!”
Marco had us all in his grip, our feet off the ground.
“Take a deep breath, hang on—and most of all, trust me!”

We had no choice. Together, we fell into the darkness of the Euphrates.

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