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‘Ready?’ I ask him.
Next to me, Adam pulls on an over-the-shoulder holster, a silenced handgun now hanging under each of his armpits. He nods.
‘Whoa, hold on,’ Sam says. ‘Check out this guy.’
Adam and I turn back to the laptop, watching as another Mogadorian emerges from the house the salvage team is currently unloading. He’s tall and broad shouldered, bigger than the others, and with a more regal bearing. Unlike the others, he has a huge sword strapped across his back. While we watch, he barks some orders at the engineer, then disappears back into the house. When I glance over at Adam, his face is somehow more pale than usual.
‘What is it?’
‘Nothing,’ he says, too quickly. ‘Just watch out for that one. He’s a trueborn general, one of Setrákus Ra’s most trusted men. He …’ Adam hesitates, watching the spot on the monitor this general just occupied. ‘He has killed Garde before.’
I feel heat rushing to my hands. If I wasn’t ready for a fight already, I definitely am now.
‘He’s dead,’ I say, and Adam merely nods, opens his door and gets out of the van. I look to Sam and Malcolm. ‘We’ll approach on foot, take out the guards and then you pull up to cover our back.’
‘I know, I know,’ Sam says. ‘I’ll watch the monitor and shout in your ear when I see trouble.’
Malcolm has already started unpacking his sniper rifle from its case. I saw him use that thing in Arkansas – he saved my ass. There’s no one I’d rather have watching my back than the Goodes.
‘Be careful,’ Malcolm says, raising his voice so Adam can hear. ‘Both of you.’
Sam and I slap hands. ‘Give them hell,’ he says.
And then I’m out of the van, moving at a brisk jog towards the Mogadorian stronghold. Adam keeps up alongside me.
‘John,’ he says, our feet crunching in the gravel on the side of the road. ‘There is something else you should know.’
Of course. Just when I was beginning to let my guard down around this guy, right when we’re going into battle together, he’s going to spring something on me.
‘What is it?’
‘The General is my father.’
8
I almost skid to a stop, but Adam doesn’t seem to be slowing down any, so I keep pace with him.
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘No.’ Adam frowns, focusing on the road ahead. ‘We don’t exactly get along.’
‘Are you going to …’ I don’t even know how to phrase this. ‘Will you be able to …?’
‘Fight? Kill?’ Adam replies. ‘Yes. Show him no mercy, because he won’t show any to us.’
‘Your own father, man? I mean, even for a Mogadorian, that’s pretty cold.’
‘At this point, defeating him in battle is likely the only way he’ll ever feel pride for me,’ Adam replies, adding weakly, ‘not that I care.’
I shake my head. ‘You guys are so screwed up.’
We fall silent as the entrance to Ashwood Estates comes into view. The Mogadorian in front of the gates spots us and shields his eyes from the sun, trying to get a better look. We keep up a steady pace and don’t make any attempt to conceal ourselves. We’re separated from the gates by about fifty yards and closing fast, but to the Mog we might look like just a couple of joggers. He won’t notice the guns strapped to Adam just yet.
‘Wait until we’re a little closer,’ I say through gritted teeth, and Adam nods.
At thirty yards, the Mog turns his head, saying something to his two buddies in the gatehouse. Warning them that something might be up. I see them stand up, silhouetted in the window, peering out at us. The Mog in front edges back a bit, his fingers inching towards the blaster surely hidden under his coat. But he hesitates, probably still thinks he’s being paranoid.
They really never thought we’d come for them. They aren’t prepared.
With twenty yards to go, I fire up my Lumen, flames roaring across my hands. Next to me, in stride, Adam draws both his guns and takes aim.
The closest Mog tries to pull his blaster, but he’s way too slow. Adam fires two shots, one from each gun, both of them muffled by silencers. Struck twice in the chest, the Mog teeters for a moment and then explodes into a cloud of ash.
I launch a fireball at the gatehouse. The Mogadorians inside are scrambling around but, like their friend, are also too slow. The fireball explodes through the window, sending glass everywhere, and causing one of the Mogs to go up in flames. The other one manages to throw himself out the door, flames dancing up his back. He’s standing right in front of Ashwood’s locked entrance, so I reach out with my telekinesis and tear the wrought-iron gate off its hinges, crushing the Mog.
‘Think the others heard us?’ I ask Adam, as we step around the bent metal gate and into Ashwood Estates.
‘Our entrance did lack subtlety,’ Adam observes.
Sam’s voice crackles in my ear.
‘Four of them running up the access road,’ he warns. ‘Blasters ready.’
The access road is uphill with a slight bend at the top after which we’ll be at the housing development. There isn’t a whole lot of cover on the way.
‘Stay behind me,’ I tell Adam.
Just then, the Mogs come around the bend. They don’t ask any questions before unleashing a volley of blaster fire. Adam leaps behind me just as my shield deploys – it’s like a parachute exploding out of my arm, the rippling crimson material spreading to absorb the blasts. Adam grabs hold of the back of my shirt.
‘Go forward,’ he says.
I do, the shield absorbing more blaster fire as I press towards the Mogs. The bracelet is now a steady, numbingly painful buzz against my wrist. Carefully following my steps to keep from getting shot, Adam pops around the edge of the shield, gunning down two of the Mogs in one go. Realizing they’re not making any progress, the other two try to retreat. I lower my shield and launch a fireball that explodes between them, knocking them both to the ground. Adam finishes them off with some well-aimed gunfire. Out of danger for now, my shield retracts back into my bracelet.
‘Not bad,’ I tell him.
‘We’re just getting started,’ he replies.
We run down the access road around the bend, and the opulent homes of Ashwood Estates finally come into view. There’s no one out and all the windows are dark; the whole place feels like a ghost town. To our right, I see Adam’s old house, and a
few houses down from that is the trash truck and the high-tech chair the engineer was inspecting. The salvage teams, the engineer and the General are nowhere to be seen.
‘They’re coming from the backyard!’ Sam yells.
Both Adam and I spin around in time to see a squadron of Mog warriors sneaking towards us between two of the houses. It would’ve been a pretty good ambush if we didn’t have scouts perched in their trees. As they raise their blasters, Adam is ready. He stomps the ground and a concussive wave of force rolls in their direction, pavement and chunks of grass rippling upward. The closest Mogs are completely thrown off their feet, others stagger and one of them accidentally discharges his blaster into another’s back.
‘I’ll finish them off!’ I tell Adam. ‘You go make sure they aren’t calling reinforcements.’
Adam nods, then sprints across the lawn towards his old house. Meanwhile, next to the stunned Mogadorians, I notice a metal tank that had come unmoored from where it was attached to a house. With my hearing focused, I can hear a faint hiss emanating from the tank. I almost laugh at my luck.
It’s a gas line.
I launch a fireball at the Mogs before they can collect themselves. It whizzes right by the lead Mog, who I think actually smirks at me, thinking that I’ve missed in those two seconds before the propane tank explodes, incinerating the lot of them. The windows of the two adjacent houses are all blown inward from the force, large black singe marks forming on the outside, grass burning. I have to stop myself from appreciating the destruction – it feels almost cathartic to destroy this place, to tear down what the Mogs have built, after how many times they’ve torn down my attempts at a normal life.
‘Damn, dude,’ Sam says in my ear. ‘We felt that over here.’
I yank my walkie-talkie off the back of my jeans. ‘What’s it look like, Sam?’
‘You’re clear,’ he says. ‘It’s weird. I thought there’d be more of them.’
