“We could, Mistress, but then we might lose our chance to capture any Realitants who may have escaped George’s Command Center before your attack. If Annika is not there with the Barrier Wand, they might suspect something and flee before we arrive.”
“Frazier Gunn,” Jane said with a sneer as she leaned forward in her throne, dropping the plate and cup onto the floor with a wet crash. She took off her lemon-decorated hat to reveal the shiny bald scalp underneath. Frazier shivered, knowing she did this only when she wanted to threaten someone. “This is your chance to redeem your pathetic failure of not bringing me those kids the first time I asked you to. If you fail me again . . .”
“You have nothing to worry about, Mistress. I’ll have eyes on the Barrier Wand at all times and the army of fangen are ready to attack. Once the Realitants meet up with Annika, we’ll charge in and take them all. They’ll have nowhere to go.”
“Are you sure the fangen are reliable? Last time I checked, they were still developing, still blind as bats.”
Heat pulsed through Frazier’s veins. “They’re not at full strength, that’s true. But they’ll be plenty tough to take care of a few Realitants, I promise.”
Jane paused a moment, staring him down as she considered his plan. “Fine, Frazier. But I want you personally to check and double check that the Chi’karda Drive in the Wand is disengaged before tonight. In fact, take the thing out altogether and give it to me so I can sleep with it under my pillow. Without it, they won’t be able to wink away.”
“And Master George’s Wand? What if he tries to wink them back?”
Mistress Jane laughed as she placed the lemony hat back on her shiny head. “Oh, don’t worry about him. He’ll be far too occupied to do any rescuing.” Her face flashed to red as she screamed, “Nitwit! Clean up this mess!”
By the time Mothball finally stopped next to an oak tree the size of a small building, Tick was desperate to throw up. After all the dodging and weaving through the maze of trees in the forest, his insides felt as if someone had shaken them like a maraca. When Sato pulled to a stop and lowered the Windbike to the mossy floor, Tick jumped off and ran over to a clump of bushes, where he spewed out every last morsel remaining in his stomach.
Paul made a wisecrack, but by the looks of his green face, he didn’t feel much better. Sofia and Sato seemed fine—as did Mothball—and Tick wondered if it was because they’d been driving.
Mothball removed her backpack and started pulling out all kinds of stuff. A tarp, some blankets, a little stove, packets of food.
“I thought we were in a hurry to meet our spy lady?” Paul asked, still walking off his nausea.
“What’s that?” Mothball asked, concentrating on setting up the stove. “Oh, no, that be tomorrow morning when we meet Annika.”
“Then why all the rush?” Sofia asked.
“Wanted to get far away from the deadies, I did.” Mothball shivered. “The battleground where all those people died is downright spooky if ya ask me. Thought it best to be away a bit before we set up camp.”
“So what do we do all night?” Paul asked as he leaned over Mothball’s shoulder, not bothering to hide his interest in whatever she planned on cooking.
“Eat up, we will. Rutger prepared some right tasty dinners. Rest a bit, get some sleep. We’ll be meetin’ Annika just as the sun comes up, down by where the river that flows through Mistress Jane’s fortress comes out and hits the Forest of Plague.”
“How do we know for sure she’ll be there?” Sato asked, still sitting on his Windbike. “Maybe she’s turned on you.”
“She’ll be there, Mister Sato, no worries.” Mothball ripped open a silvery pack of goop and poured it into a pot on her small stove. “One of our finest, Annika is.”
“What if she’s been captured?” Sato persisted.
“Then ya better be prayin’ Master George survived his little battle and brings us back.”
Tick sat down on a fallen log, unhappy that they had hurried to get here only to sit and wait for tomorrow. It was going to be a long night.
“Here you are, Mistress.”
Frazier handed over the cylindrical pack of wires, nanochips, and instruments that made up the Chi’karda Drive, the heart and soul of her Barrier Wand.
Jane took the odd-looking package through her open bedroom door, examining it as though she suspected it wasn’t the real thing. “You put the Wand back where it always rests for the night?”
“Yes, I did. The trap is set.”
“I can’t wait to find out why Annika has betrayed me,” Jane said with a nasty smile. “How fun it will be to remind her why it’s best to be on my side of things.”
“Loads,” Frazier muttered, almost forgetting himself. “The fangen are ready, Mistress, and are already moving into their hiding positions.”
“That should be an interesting sight to watch—them sniffing along, bumping into things.” Jane pointed a finger through the crack of the door. “Remember, we need the Realitants alive. This is the perfect opportunity for me to learn what that weasel George is planning.”
“Yes, Mistress Jane,” Frazier said. “The fangen will be very . . . eager, but I’ll do my best to restrain them.”
The night was dark and cool, and Tick slept surprisingly well until Mothball shook him awake a couple of hours before dawn. He jumped at first, but his senses came back to him quickly.
“Time to be movin’, it is,” she whispered, then moved on to the next person.
They’d all slept on a wide blue tarp, each one of them given a single blanket to make it through the night. Tick had never felt too cold, and the soft undergrowth of the forest floor made for a nice mattress. All in all, he felt well rested once he got up and his blood started flowing.
After a quick breakfast of granola bars and apples, a unified hush settled on everyone as they helped Mothball pack up her things and stuff them into the backpack. The forest was mostly quiet, the occasional buzz of an insect or howl of an animal in the distance the only sounds.
Tick didn’t know if he’d ever felt butterflies so intense as he did at that moment, waiting to hop back on his Windbike and fly off to meet Annika the spy. From what he’d heard about Mistress Jane, he doubted she would be very merciful if they blew the mission and got captured. What if Sato was right? What if this was all a trap? What if something went wrong? Tick tried not to think about his fears, putting his trust in Mothball and Master George.