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“Agent Murray,” he introduces himself. “Never got a chance to say thank you. For the other day.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell him, then turn to Agent Walker. “We don’t need the backup. Just the boat.”
“Sorry, John. Can’t let you two go out there alone. You’re government assets now.”
I snort. “Oh, we are?”
“You are.”
I’m not going to waste time arguing about this. They can come if they want. I start towards the docks, Sam next to me, and Walker and her agents fanned out around us like bodyguards. As usual, I get a lot of stares from the soldiers milling around. Some of them look like they want to help, but I’m sure they’re under orders not to get involved with us. Agent Walker and what’s left of her splinter group of ex-MogPro agents are all the help the government’s willing to grant us at this point. At least they upgraded their weapons, the agents having traded in their usual standard-issue handguns for some heavy-duty assault rifles.
“Hey! John Smith from Mars! Wait up!”
I turn in time to see Daniela squeeze her gangly body through a group of soldiers and trot towards us. The agents surrounding us immediately raise their rifles and, seeing this, Daniela skids to a stop a few yards away and puts her hands up. She eyes the FBI agents with a cocky grin.
“It’s all right, calm down,” I tell Walker and her bunch, waving Daniela over. “She’s one of us.”
Walker raises an eyebrow. “You mean . . . ?”
“A human Garde,” I say, keeping my voice low. “One of the people Setrákus Ra wants turned over to him.”
Walker sizes up Daniela. “Great,” she says dryly.
Daniela just amps up the wattage on that smirk. “You guys heading off on an adventure or something? Can I come?”
I frown at how lightly she’s taking this and exchange a look with Sam.
“Did you find your mom?” Sam asks her, and Daniela’s smile falters a bit.
“She’s not here, and she never checked in with the Red Cross,” Daniela replies, shrugging like it’s no big deal. Even though she tries to keep her tone light, her voice is shaky and I can tell she expects the worst. “Probably got out of the city some other way. I’m sure she’s all right.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Sam replies, forcing a smile.
“We’re on our way to confront a rogue Garde,” I tell her bluntly. Walker gives me a look, but I see no reason to lie. All hands on deck.
“Whoa. You guys, like, go rogue?”
I think about Five and how he turned on us and I think about Setrákus Ra and the uncountable horrible acts he’s committed. He used to be a Garde too, maybe even something higher than that, if Crayton’s letter to Ella can be believed. Then, I look at Daniela and consider her and the other humans with new Legacies who we haven’t met yet. Will they all fight for good? Or will some of them turn out like Five and Setrákus Ra?
“We’re people, just like anyone else,” I tell her.
“Except with awesome powers,” Sam adds.
“Like anyone else,” I continue, “we can go bad without the proper guidance.”
Daniela turns on that sly smile again. It’s almost infuriating, but I’m starting to realize it’s just a defense mechanism. Whenever she feels uncomfortable, she tries really hard to return the favor. “Yeah. Got it. You going to be my guide, John Smith? My sensei?”
“We called them Cêpan, actually. Our trainers. But they’re gone. Now, we pretty much figure stuff out for ourselves.”
Agent Walker clears her throat. I think she wants me to get rid of Daniela, but I’m not turning away any help. No way.
“You can come with us,” I say. “But you should know, the guy we’re going after is extremely dangerous.”
“Unhinged,” Sam adds.
“He’s already killed one of us,” I continue. “And I don’t think he’ll hesitate to do it again. When we’re done with him, our friend Agent Walker here is going to get us on a plane somehow, and we’re going to find a way to kill the Mogadorian in charge before his invasion goes any further.”
“You trying to scare me off?” Daniela asks, hands on her hips.
“I just want you to know what you’re in for,” I reply. “Along the way, I can try to help you with your telekinesis. Maybe figure out what else you can do. But you’ve gotta be up for it . . .”
Daniela looks over her shoulder. I realize that, more than anything, she wants to get out of here. She wants to keep busy and avoid confronting the very real possibility that she lost her entire family during the attack on New York.
“I’m in,” she says. “Let’s save the world and shit.”
Sam grins and I can’t help but smile a little bit too, especially when I notice Agent Walker rolling her eyes. With Daniela incorporated into our little bubble of secret agents, we continue on to the pier.
“Hey,” Sam says to Daniela, keeping his voice low. “Just so you know, the Mogs were taking prisoners in New York. They weren’t, like, killing everything that moved.”
“Yeah, I saw them pull that shit in my neighborhood,” Daniela replies. “So what?”
“So, just because she’s not here doesn’t mean your mom’s . . . you know.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Daniela says this gruffly, but I think she actually means it.
The coast guard boat is ready and waiting for us, a chain-smoking captain in a wrinkled uniform prepared to take us wherever we need to go. I let Walker fill him in and a few minutes later we’re off, bouncing hard over the waves. Across the water, I can see flashing lights from the New Jersey side, helicopters bobbing in and out of view. Looks like the military set up a perimeter over there too, really trying to make sure the Mogadorians stay contained in Manhattan. I look towards the city and find the place frighteningly calm. There are still Mogs there, I’m sure, patrolling the streets and maybe setting up a stronghold. I hope most of the residents managed to make it across the bridge and, if not, then I hope Sam’s right about the Mogs keeping them as prisoners instead of killing them. That means they can still be saved.
As Liberty Island grows larger in front of us, Daniela nudges me in the ribs.
“You’re meeting this dude at the Statue of Liberty?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Man, that’s some real tourist shit.”
Pretty soon, we pull up at the Liberty Island docks. A half dozen ferry boats float there, empty, one of them with scorch marks along its side. The entire place is deserted; no one’s spending the invasion checking out the Statue of Liberty. It’s almost peaceful here. As we hop out of the boat, I try to get the lay of the land. I force myself to think like Five, wondering where the best place for an ambush would be.
I have to tilt my head up to take in the statue. We’re coming at her from the side holding the book. The gold-plated torch gleams in what’s left of the daylight. The big green lady sits atop a huge granite pedestal that in turn sits atop an even bigger stone base that takes up almost half the island. To the right, there’s a small park that looks perfectly maintained. He won’t be hiding in the park—that’s just not how Five operates.
The boat captain stays behind, but the rest of us stride along the dock towards the statue. I think about when I first met Five, how he picked some creepy monster monument in the backwoods to reveal himself. I guess the guy has a thing for landmarks. Or maybe that crummy wooden monster statue was a clue, a stand-in for the monster hiding inside Five. If that’s the case, I wonder what his choice of the Statue of Liberty means. Probably nothing, I think, reminding myself that Five’s a total nutcase.
Next to me, Daniela snickers. “You know, I’ve never actually been here. Lived in the city my whole life.”
“Yeah, it’s like a field trip,” Sam says. “A field trip where at the end a dude made of solid steel tries to stab you to death.”
“No one’s getting stabbed to death,” I say.
As we enter the plaza that stretches around the statue’s base, I
keep my gaze centered on the upper pedestal. That’s where I’ve decided Five is most likely to be. He can fly, so it’d be easy for him to reach that area, and it would allow him to keep an eye out for our arrival. I don’t see any movement up there, though. Maybe he isn’t here yet. Or maybe he’s hiding inside the statue. I crane my neck more, trying to glimpse inside the statue’s crown, but it’s impossible. We’ll have to go inside to make sure the statue is clear.
“Look,” Sam says, lowering his voice. “Over there.”
