Spell Robbers (19 page)

Ben just shook his head.

The first explosion flashed in front of them, blinding, deafening, and then a second ripped through the fog behind them. That was Meg and Lykos, taking out the other cars.

“AMBUSH!” Poole pounded on the driver’s shoulder. “GO, GO!”

The driver slammed down on the gas, throwing Ben back against the seat. But the SUV didn’t get far before it jolted and slowed.

“Our tires are out!” the driver shouted.

That was Polly, blowing their valves, and that was supposed to be Ben’s cue. His and Ronin’s. But Ronin wasn’t there, and Ben didn’t have his Locus. There was only one thing to do. He unbuckled and heaved himself over the seat into the back. Poole tried to grab him.

“What are you —?”

Ben kicked him away and flipped the lid off the crate. There was the gun. He grabbed it and aimed it at Poole. “Move and I’ll shoot! Try to actuate and I’ll shoot!”

Poole snickered. “It doesn’t work, you stupid, stupid boy.”

“It does for me.” Ben went for ice, just like he had the first time he’d used it. It was easy, with all the water in the air from Argus’s fog. The temperature inside the car plummeted. Poole’s breath became visible in the cold, and Ben sensed the force of his own actuation. “Can you feel that, Poole?”

Poole’s cheeks reddened. His whole face quivered with rage around his wide, bloodshot eyes.

“Dr. Hughes,” Ben said, “get out of the car. Don’t be afraid of the big guy.”

Dr. Hughes sat there for a minute, and then did what Ben said, disappearing into the fog.

“The big guy?” Ben could almost see Poole’s thoughts racing to the realization of how he’d been played. “The Paracelsus crew?”

Ben kept the gun trained on Poole, the actuation poised at the edge of reality, and reached behind him with his other hand. “It’s easy to get someone to believe something they want to believe.” He felt for the handle, popped it, and the back of the SUV lifted open with a whiny hiss.

“You’re still on borrowed time,” Poole said. “You and the Paracelsus crew.”

“Actually,” Ben climbed out onto the street, “once your rival hears about this, I think you’re the one on borrowed time.”

Poole’s face blanched.

Ben turned and ran into the fog.

BEN
stumbled ahead, unsure of where he was going. He didn’t think Poole would come after him, not if he thought the Paracelsus crew was out there somewhere in the fog. But Ben had to find the safe house and get off the streets before the air cleared.

“Polly!” he whispered. “Dr. Hughes! Argus!”

Suburban homes loomed out of the mist around him, looking even more haunted than they had before. Ben ran down uneven sidewalks that seemed to heave up under his feet, in and out of cul-de-sacs, over lawns left to dry up and die.

“Meg! Lykos!”

“Ben!”

He stopped and oriented toward the voice. That sounded like Argus, and not too far away. Ben cupped his hand to his mouth. “I’m here!”

“Ben, this way!”

Ben ran toward the voice, between two houses, through a backyard, and almost tripped over a child’s abandoned tricycle. He came to a low picket fence, and climbed over it.

“You’re almost here.” Argus sounded very close now. “Hurry.”

Ben ran another few yards, and the back of a house materialized. Argus stood on the cement patio, near an open sliding door.

“Come,” he said.

“Dr. Hughes?”

“She’s inside.”

Ben slowed down and walked through the door. He froze as Argus slid the door shut behind him. In the middle of what was once a living room, Polly held Dr. Hughes by the arm, and she looked even more terrified of the giant than she had of Poole. Meg and Lykos held Ronin between them. He’d been beaten, both eyes blackened, a busted and swollen lip. His head lolled, and he seemed barely conscious.

Argus snatched the portable augmenter from Ben’s hand. “I’ll take that.”

Ben spun around. “What’s going on?”

“We’re taking the gun,” Argus said. “And we’re going to sell it to the highest bidder.”

“We?” What was Argus talking about? Ben shook his head. He looked again at Ronin and realized why he hadn’t come. “But —”

“Ronin thought he could use you to cross us,” Meg said. “But we knew from the moment he brought you to the safe house.”

After everything Ben had done. Working the Paracelsus crew, working Poole. He had rescued Dr. Hughes, had the gun in his hand. They were so close. “How …?”

“He didn’t ask about the jewels.” Lykos looked down at Ronin. “Not once. We’d just done a job, and he never even asked about his cut. We knew something was wrong.”

Ben lost feeling in his arms and legs. He thought he might go down, but he refused. To these people, he was still the kid capable of anything. “So what now?”

“Now,” Argus said, “we take the gun and we leave.”

“What happens to us?” Ben asked.

“Well, Polly has insisted you go free,” Argus said. “You and your professor. And the thing is, kid, we like you. So we’re good. Bygones be bygones.”

“And Ronin?” Ben asked.

“He played you,” Meg said. “He played us, he played Poole, and he played the League.”

“Worst thing we can do to him now is cut him loose,” Lykos said. “Throw him to the wolves.”

“There might be one more thing.” Argus walked up to Ronin and reached inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out Ronin’s keys. “I think we’ll take his car. Conveniently parked right outside.”

“You —” Ronin lifted his head and tried speaking for the first time, his voice raspy and weak. “You’ve always wanted my car.”

Argus slipped the keys into his pocket. “It’ll look better on me anyway.”

He nodded to Meg and Lykos, and they threw Ronin to the ground. He didn’t even try to catch himself, and went down hard. Polly nudged Dr. Hughes toward Ben and handed her off.

“Take it easy, kid,” the giant said.

The Paracelsus crew moved to the front door. Lykos and Meg went out first, and then Polly ducked through the door. Before Argus left, he turned back. “Word of advice, kid. Leave Ronin and clear out fast. It won’t take Poole long to find this place.” Then he was gone.

Ben dropped to his knees beside Ronin. “Are you okay? Get up, we gotta move.”

Ronin shook his head. “Wait.”

“Wait?” Ben said. “Wait for what?”

Another second passed, and then Ronin staggered to his feet. He straightened, both hands on his lower back, wincing, and then trudged toward the front door. Ben felt an actuation forming.

“Ronin, you can’t go after them,” Ben said. “They’ll kill you.”

Ronin smiled back at him, a confident glint in his eyes, and stepped outside.

Ben followed after him, and Dr. Hughes came behind. The fog had started lifting, and out in the driveway, the Paracelsus crew had climbed into Ronin’s car. Argus sat in the driver’s seat, Polly beside him, Meg and Lykos in the back. But they were just sitting there, looking around, confused. Ronin laughed and shambled over to Argus. He leaned his shoulder against the car and motioned with a twirl of his finger for Argus to roll the window down.

Argus did. “What did you do, Ronin?”

“A little upgrade.” Ronin knocked on the roof. “Call it an antitheft device. My car is now equipped with the latest actuation suppression technology, courtesy of the Quantum League.” He held up his hand. “And you’ve no doubt felt the actuation I have all warmed up. A little Class One, and this car blows sky-high.”

Ben wanted to laugh. That was what Ronin had wanted with the plans. He had said they were for Poole, but really, they were for his own crew. Had he known they were going to double-cross him?

“Hand it over,” Ronin said. “I will not ask twice.”

Argus didn’t look quite as angry as Poole had, but almost. He passed the augmenter gun through the open window.

Ronin took it and limped away from the car. “Be grateful I’m not the type to hold a grudge and treat you in kind.” He walked up to the house’s garage door. “Help me with this, Ben?”

Ben didn’t know what was going on, but he walked over and lifted open the garage door. Inside, he saw another car. Ronin opened the trunk and put the augmenter gun inside. Then he walked to the driver’s side and unlocked it. “Get in, Ben. You, too, Dr. Hughes.”

Once they were all inside, Ronin turned the key, and the car rumbled to life. He put it in reverse and inched out of the garage, right past the Paracelsus crew trapped in his old car. Ben couldn’t resist, and he waved good-bye to them. Argus, Lykos, and Meg all glared at him, but Polly waved back.

“I’m going to miss that car,” Ronin said as he reached the street. “But this’ll do.” He threw the car into first gear, and Ben heard the tires squeal as they launched down the road.

During the drive back to the city, Ben filled Ronin in on what had happened with Poole and the Dread Cloaks for the past two days, while Dr. Hughes had somehow fallen asleep in the backseat.

“When you didn’t come back,” Ben said, “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

“Sorry, kid,” Ronin said. “I had to let the crew think they’d gotten the jump on me. But I knew you could handle it. I’ve seen you actuate.”

“But that’s just it,” Ben said. “I couldn’t actuate. One of the Dread Cloaks destroyed my Locus.”

“You use a Locus?” Ronin asked. “How did I not know that?”

Ben shrugged. “Never came up.”

“So, wait.” Ronin crinkled one eye at him. “You were in the car with Poole during the ambush, and you couldn’t actuate?”

“Right,” Ben said.

“What did you do?”

“I grabbed the augmenter gun.”

“That thing works, huh?”

“It does for me.”

The sun was just coming up as they approached the League headquarters, the tip of the steeple lit by a slice of golden light, while the rest of it lay in shadow. Ronin suddenly jerked the steering wheel and pulled them over to the side of the road. The jostling woke up Dr. Hughes.

Ben looked over at Ronin. “What —?”

“Get out of the car, kid.”

Ben pointed up the road. “But it’s just —”

The air stirred with an actuation. Ben froze. He didn’t know what was happening.

“I’m not gonna kill you,” Ronin said. “But I’ll hurt you if I have to. Now get out of the car. You, too, Dr. Hughes.”

Dr. Hughes hurried from the backseat onto the sidewalk.

Ben stayed where he was. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking the portable augmenter. What else?”

“But …” Ben didn’t know what to say. Ronin had coached him, taught him, saved him. Even if Ben had had his Locus, he was so confused right now, he wasn’t sure he could actuate a thing.

“Look, kid. I could have left you back by the refinery. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to risk the chance of Poole finding you. You’re safe now.”

“Ronin, please —”

“GET OUT OF THE CAR!”

Ben flinched. He opened the door, hopped out, then turned to ask, “What about your daughter?”

Ronin laughed. “Mr. Weathersky doesn’t have my daughter. Remember what I told you? The easiest way to play someone is to tell them what they want to hear. Anytime somebody is telling you what you want to hear, you’d better pay attention to what they’re
really
saying.”

“But …” Tears came to Ben’s eyes. A sob caught in his throat. This was too much. This, of all things. “Ronin — my mom.”

Ronin looked away, down the road. He cleared his throat. “Sorry, kid. Now shut the door.”

Ben shut it.

Ronin sped away.

“This isn’t your fault,” Agent Spear said. “You hear me, son?”

Ben stared at the agent. They were sitting in the library with Agent Taggart, Dr. Hughes, and Mr. Weathersky. The director had filled Dr. Hughes in on the League and its mission, and she’d seemed a lot less shocked by it than Ben would have thought. But then, she’d already been kidnapped by a gang of Actuators, so a self-appointed police force of Actuators probably made perfect sense.

Then it was Ben’s turn. He told them everything he had done, even the part about stealing the plans for the prison cells. But to make his report without breaking down, he’d had to empty himself of all thoughts, all feelings. Like a damaged jet fighter dropping its missiles harmlessly before it crashed. Fewer casualties that way.

“You’re right,” Mr. Weathersky said. “It isn’t Ben’s fault. I’m the one who trusted Morrow. I authorized the mission.”

But it wasn’t the director’s fault. Ben had helped Ronin do things the League had known nothing about. Ben had lied, because he’d been angry with the League, and now he was paying the price. It was Ben’s fault, too.

“Ben,” Mr. Weathersky said. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, I want you to stop. You couldn’t have known. You did what you thought was best.”

“I should have —”

“Stop,” Mr. Weathersky said. “There is no point to it. There is no actuation for changing the past.”

“That’s right,” Agent Taggart said. “We just need to go after Morrow.”

“But what about my mom?” Ben asked. It didn’t seem fair that he would lose everything because of what Ronin had done. “I did everything you asked.”

“You did,” Agent Spear said. “But the mission isn’t complete. You remember our deal? We need you. All your time with Ronin might yield something useful. You can help us bring him in.”

Ben felt his rage returning, and took several deep breaths to keep from losing it.

“Something isn’t adding up, here,” Agent Taggart said. “It almost seems like this is what Ronin intended all along. As if he wanted to be caught, knowing we would send him undercover.”