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Tommy looks a bit deflated. “Grab the girl.”
Dr. Gold and Martinez lunge for me.
I slip down, almost like I’m fainting. Martinez’s arms grapple with Dr. Gold’s as I slither out beneath them. I make a wild grab for the fire extinguisher. I fumble it, it’s too heavy, but it trips Martinez.
He lands hard against the desk. I’m still trying to grab my only weapon. I can’t get the handle, but I can get my hands around the middle of the thing and with a desperate effort I slam it back.
I aim at Dr. Gold’s midsection. It misses but hits his knee.
“Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Hey, that hurt! Oh, that hurts!”
“Sorry,” I say. Because I’m not really thinking clearly. Then I get a better purchase on the extinguisher and swing it wildly.
It misses, unbalancing me, and I plow forward.
“Just get her, you idiots,” Tommy yells. “Anapura, help!”
“That’s Dr. Anapura!” she snaps. She grabs for me.
I know it’s a silly cliche to suggest that all scientists are nerds or dorks. But if this was a group of, say, football players, I’d be so dead by now.
“What the hell!” It’s Aislin.
Her cry distracts everyone, and I slip past Dr. Anapura. I drop the extinguisher because it’s just slowing me down and I know what I have to do now.
I catch sight of Adam out of the corner of my eye. He’s looking to Aislin for instructions. Aislin, bless her crazy heart, reaches out with one hand, snatching Tommy’s hair and yanking it like she’s planning on stuffing a pillow.
“Dammit!” Tommy cries.
I climb the sculpted redwood. It isn’t easy. You’d think something made of steel bands interlaced like some overly ornate Eiffel Tower would be easy to climb, but no, I’m slipping and my knees are skinned and I’m only helped by the fact that Anapura and Martinez are baffled by my move. And by the fact that Dr. Gold is acting like a scared monkey, clutching his injured knee while he howls and hops in a circle of pain.
I scrabble up and Aislin yells, “Look out!”
Just in time, I realize I’m about to jam my head into one of the “branches.”
It’s high up here, really high.
But it’s nothing like the height Solo and I rappelled together.
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“Get that guy!” Aislin orders Adam.
But Adam, I notice with a sort of distant awareness, is frozen.
Oh. Courage. I gave him everything else. I guess I forgot that.
Tommy has had enough of the chaos. He pushes the barrel of the gun into my mother’s chest, and I know what she’s thinking: huge dry-cleaning bill.
“Die, you cold bitch,” Tommy says.
Adam shrinks back, but Aislin yells, “Get your hands off the cold bitch, asshole.”
I reach the uppermost part of the steel redwood. I turn, my ankle twists, and I half-fall, half-leap onto the fat end of the thunderbolt.
“Mom!” I cry.
The lightning bolt swings forward. The point will hit my mother right in the back of her head.
