Van Bender and the Burning Emblems (The Van Bender Archives #1) (18 page)

“Are we in a rodeo ring?” she said.

Marti climbed back over the fence with such ease, she must have done it a thousand times or more. She wore cowboy boots, tight jeans, and a red button-up shirt with blue triangles on the front.

She spread her arms wide and smiled. “This is my personal arena. After my first single went big, I had it built for me and my parents.”

“No one will find us here?” I said.

She shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m supposed to be at home, and this is just a few miles away.” She must have seen the question in my eyes, because she added, “We’re in Oklahoma.”

She reached me and my friends, and we headed for the bleachers.

“So,” Marti said, “what’s going on? Where did you get brink and where did you learn to cast the spell to contact me?”

Such a change had come over her since we’d parted two hours before that I’d forgotten how violent she could be. I remembered quickly, however, when I confessed that I’d actually seen Nick back in his cabin. Her face darkened, and she hit me on the shoulder. Hard. When I told her I’d seen her in the security camera, she shoved me so I stumbled in the thick dirt and whacked my jaw on the fence. She didn’t even say she was sorry.

I’d like to say her anger passed quickly, but it lingered. I sat on the third row of the bleachers—well out of her reach as she perched atop the fence, the heels of her boots locked over the lower bar. Sandra and Kurt sat next to me. Marti glared at us from across the way as we talked. Well, as I confessed everything and rubbed my jaw.

Even though Sandra and Kurt had gotten some of the story, they listened closely. I filled in more details for them.

“Well,” Marti said when I was done. Her eyes narrowed. “At least you being at the cabin kept
me
safe. Otherwise I’d say you were a complete loss.”

“Glad to be of service.”

“So what’s your plan, now?”

“Well,” I said, “I figure we can do one of two things. Actually, three—but one isn’t really an option.”

She arched her eyebrows. “Let’s hear your ideas, rookie.”

“Yeah,” Sandra said. “I’m interested in hearing what you’ve come up with. I’m still not convinced that leaving your house was the best idea, ever.”

“Of course it was,” Kurt said. “How could he possibly stay there, locked away?”

Sandra just shrugged, as if they’d had the discussion a hundred times and she knew it wouldn’t do any good to argue with him. How had they talked about me, my parents, and my career when I wasn’t around?

Kurt kept going. “If he stayed, he might have his memory wiped again.”

“You’ve had your memory wiped?” Marti said.

I nodded. “Apparently, at least six times.

Her eyebrows shot up. “Wow. I would leave, too. That’s brutal. Let’s hear these genius plans of yours.”

I cleared my throat, trying to decide which to tell first. May as well start with the stupidest.

“We can tell Agent Maynerd and my parents everything.”

“I hate that idea,” Marti said. “I’m on probation. If we went to them, they’d just take over and we’d never have a chance to prove ourselves.”

“Plus,” Kurt said, “you just fled from your parents. You can’t really go back to them. They might erase your memory again.”

I nodded. He was right. I’d moved forward. I’d put myself on this path of making my own decisions. I certainly couldn’t go back to them for help, now. I already dreaded the next time I would see them. Only success would do any good toward helping me feel better about the entire affair.

“That,” I said, “is why I said we really only have two options. We can either get the multiplier and take it to Nick, or we can try to capture him for SOaP.”

She shook her head. “You’re crazy if you think we can give him the multiplier.”

“He talks a lot of sense to me,” I said. I felt more inclined to trust him than my parents or Agent Maynerd or anyone else—except Marti. He at least seemed open. “He said he’s changed. He’s not like he was, before.”

“Of course he says that. He wants you to think he’s good.”

“Maybe he is.”

“He’s not. His history proves it.”

“Maybe he’s changed.”

“Listen, Richie, he hasn’t changed. He’s lying to you. Don’t fall for it.”

If he was lying, he was really good at it. He’d maintained the same story through multiple encounters, and had acted quite worried about the entire thing. In fact, I felt a little fear for him because he seemed to be putting himself in harm’s way if everything he said was true.

“Look,” Marti said, “I may be a rogue agent, but I’m still SOaP, and I can still access information you can’t. I know things about him that would make you cringe.”

“Have you ever actually talked with him? Or are you just trusting the ‘intelligence’ SOaP has provided you?”

“Don’t be a moron. We’re not helping him. He’s bad news any way you slice him. I know the wrong thing to do when I see it.”

“Yeah, like going to get my emotion earlier tonight.”

Her face twisted in anger, and she hopped down from the fence, her fists balled. “You’re ticking me off.”

I jumped to my feet and leaped backward, up onto the fourth row. I wasn’t about to brawl with a girl. Especially Marti Walker. She would kick my trash.

Sandra and Kurt, however, were willing to take that task for me—which I attribute to their ignorance. They’d spent much less time with Marti, and didn’t entirely understand what they were fooling with. They stepped between Marti and I.

“Easy, cowgirl,” Kurt said.

Sandra said, “Put another hand on him and I’ll break your neck.”

“Get down here, you coward,” Marti said.

“Just calm down,” Kurt said. “If you can.”

“Listen,” I said. “Our other option is to try and redeem ourselves. We can set a trap, capture Nick, and take him in.”

She shook her head. “One second you want to help him, and the next you want to capture him.”

Still standing well away from her, I raised my hands in confusion.

“If my parents had their way, they’d wipe my memory of everything that’s happened tonight. They don’t want me to be involved, but I’m sick of being sequestered from everyone and everything.”

She shook her head and sat on the lowest bench, facing away from us. The rest of us settled down, not too close to her.

“I always wondered why you were such a hermit,” she said. “I thought you just thought you were better than everyone else.”

“Nah,” Kurt said. “Turns out the bloggers are right—his mom is just a paranoid lunatic.”

“Stop it,” Sandra said. “She is not.”

Kurt raised his forefingers and twirled them around his ears, tilting his head back and forth. “Plum loco.”

I didn’t know he thought that way about Mom—of course we’d never had a chance to talk about it. It rather bothered me. She wasn’t crazy. Not exactly. Just over-protective.

Sandra hit him with the back of her hand, and looked at me as if to gauge my reaction. I shrugged.

“It’s true?” Marti said. “Your mom has kept you locked away?”

I grunted. “Isn’t that what the bloggers say?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t believe them. Of course, they’ve gotten everything right about me.”

“Really?” Sandra said.

Marti nodded.

Back during the month when I’d had that iPad, I’d studied up on Marti a lot—as part of my research on the competition. People talked a lot about how her father continued to ride the rodeo circuit and couldn’t ever go to her concerts. He’d even missed an important awards ceremony the winter before.

Her mother was apparently torn between her little girl and her husband. The bloggers said she vacillated between Marti and Marti’s dad, trying to be supportive of both.

And Marti said they were right.

“Well,” I said, “at least your parents are still together.”

She grunted and rolled her eyes. I didn’t know whether or not to acknowledge the tears gathering in her eyes. It was always awkward when someone started to cry.

“Let’s not talk about that,” she said. “They’d just better be at the awards ceremony Sunday night. So they can watch me win.”

“I’m going to win.”

“That award is as good as mine.”

I raised my hands defensively. “Only if it automatically goes to the craziest nominee. Look, let’s just worry about Nick. What to do about Nick.”

Kurt raised his hand, as if he had a glass in it. “Here, here!”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Marti said. “We try to trap him and take him in to SOaP.”

“Right,” I said. “No problem. Uh—can we do that?”

“We’ll get the multiplier, and then you’ll contact him and tell him to come get it. I’ll set traps so when he comes we can nab him.”

“What if he wants me to zip to him?”

She squinted. “He would have to tell you his zip code for that, and he won’t. When people know your zip code, it’s too easy to trap you. People don’t share it often.”

“You shared it with him,” Sandra said, pointing at me..

Marti shrugged and gave Sandra a sly look. “That’s because not only is he harmless and clueless, but he’s also interesting to me.”

Sandra raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to one side. “Oh, really? That so?”

“Yeah.” Marti stood back up and turned to face us, hands on her hips. “I’m rather intrigued by the hermit rock star.”

Sandra stood, her face burning up.

My face was on fire too.

How to handle this? It was awesome, yes—if I was reading it properly. And maybe I wasn’t. I mean, you know. Girls. Who can understand them? But it sure seemed like a fight was brewing over me between the girl I’d had a crush on for years, and the biggest country star around—who was obsessed with me. How could it get any better? How could it get any worse?

I gave Kurt a helpless look.

He grinned at me. “Personally, I like Sandra.” He mouthed his next sentence.
I hate Marti Walker!

“Look,” I said. I stood. “Stop this. We have work to do. I can’t have you arguing. Remember Nick Savage? What if he wants me to zip to him?”

The girls stared at each other for another few seconds, jaws clenched, eyes practically spewing flames.

Was there a spell for that—for spewing flames from your eyes? If so, I totally wanted to learn it.

Marti broke off the staring contest and turned to the railing. She leaned on it, and looked into the arena.

“He won’t ask you to zip to him. He won’t trust you with his zip code, and you haven’t drawn the receiving side of a zip-door, have you?”

“No. I don’t get that, by the way. You’ve only ever drawn one portal to zip.”

“Dummy, it’s a two-part spell. You can’t just zip to anywhere you want. You have to draw the first part of the spell at the destination. Later, you draw the second part of the spell and open the zip-door.”

I hadn’t known that. How much more didn’t I know? How much in over my head was I?

No matter. At least I was in, and not locked away in my bedroom while my parents decided to erase my mind and plan my fate until I turned eighteen.

“Okay, then,” I said. “We trap Nick. Then turn him over to SOaP. That will redeem you with Agent Maynerd, and prove that I’m capable enough for my parents to not keep me sequestered from the world.”

She gave me a skeptical look, as if she hadn’t outlined the same basic plan a few minutes before. “It’s going to be hard.”

“I don’t really care. I’m not willing to let my parents decide for me. Not anymore.”

“Richie,” Sandra said, “don’t do anything stupid.”

“Bah!” Kurt said. He waved a hand as if dismissing a ridiculous argument. “Do what you have to do to live your life—even if it means putting up with freaking Marti Walker. That’s what I always say.”

“And look how far it got you,” Sandra said. “You could have been in Richie’s band. Instead you spend half your days playing video games.”

“Take it easy, now,” he said, looking offended.

I kept my gaze on Marti’s as we silently fought over what to do. Her eyes locked with mine for so long that I wondered if she might turn me over to SOaP and my parents. But eventually—finally—she nodded.

“Okay. Fine. We’ll capture Nick.”

“We don’t have much time. My parents saw me with you.”

“Then let’s get on it.” She pointed at my friends. “These two can’t come along.”

Chapter 33: Laying groundwork

Richie contacted me way sooner than I’d anticipated. What a good kid.

-Nick Savage

I objected, of course. So did Kurt. Vociferously—with many dirty looks at Marti and several suspicious comments about her. Yet she prevailed with simple logic. I hate it when someone makes so much sense you simply can’t argue with them.

Her winning point was that even without them it would be hard enough to get to the Archive at Intersoc. Beulah would have a fit if we brought two more people. And what would she say when she saw them? “Nice to meet you. Can I buy you a cheeseburger and fries?”

They simply couldn’t fit in the rest of the plan. They had to stay behind.

Our plan was simple.

I would contact Nick to receive his instructions. Then Marti and I would go to Intersoc and get the multiplier—we had to do that, in case he asked to see it. Then I would contact Nick again. He would have to zip to me, and Marti would set traps for him. She planned on a “ring of fire” trap, as well as another that would make him drop any brink he held. It seemed like a diffuser would have been easier, although we didn’t have access to one, anymore.

I also rather wished for a gun or two to threaten him with, but none of us had access to any.

Once we finished planning, we got to work. If I contacted him while in the arena, he might find it suspicious, so we went to the bathroom, figuring it was the only part of the arena that looked like it could be anywhere in the world.

To minimize the chances of something going wrong, Kurt and Sandra stayed outside.

It felt strange being in a bathroom with a girl. She put the lid of the toilet down and sat on it, next to the sink and mirror, and watched me draw the oval for the spell to call Nick. She would be behind the spell, so Nick couldn’t see her.