Crayton picks up Marina’s Chest, walks towards Eight and puts his arm around him. He starts speaking quietly.
‘What do you think he’s telling him? What can he tell him that would make him feel better?’ Marina whispers, turning to me.
Just as I’m about to go join Crayton in comforting Eight, an explosion rocks the cave, and a wave of fire enters the door. Marina grabs my arm as I hear Ella scream across the room. The jagged columns holding the ceiling up crack up and begin to sway and break. A large section falls towards Ella, and I use my mind to shield her, propelling the crumbling stone away from her. I look over at Crayton and Eight just as Eight disappears.
‘What’s happening?’ Marina screams, using her telekinesis to shield the two of us from the falling debris while I protect Ella.
‘I don’t know,’ I say frantically, trying to see through the smoke and dust. Suddenly, Eight reappears in the middle of the room. Blood flows from a wound in his side, his face ashen. ‘The Mogadorians!’ he shouts. ‘They’re here.’
16.
I’m lying in bed, enjoying my choice of room and the amazingly comfortable pillows I found there. I’m just drifting off when I hear the front door open and then Nine speaking to someone in a low tone. I sit up in alarm, my heart pounding in my ears. Then I realize – it must be the doorman bringing the boxes up. I lie back down. Bernie Kosar licks the bottoms of my feet and says he’s going to get something to eat.
‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ I tell him. I stare at the ceiling, hands folded behind my head.
The ceiling has a faint texture to it. My eyelids grow heavy again. The next thing I’m aware of I’m no longer looking at the ceiling. I’m outside and it’s snowing.
‘Concentrate, John!’ I hear someone say from behind me. I turn to see Henri holding an armful of kitchen knives. He has one cocked above his shoulder.
‘Henri! Where are we?’ I call out to him.
‘Did you hit your head?’ Henri asks. He’s wearing jeans and a white sweater, and both are torn and tinged with blood. There’s a blue light somewhere behind him, but when I try to see what it is, craning my neck to peer around him, Henri gets angry. ‘Come on, John! It’s like you’re not even here with me. I need you to start concentrating! Now!’
Before I can argue, Henri whips a knife at me and I’m able to slap it away from my face at the last second. He throws a second one at me, then a third, and a fourth. I block each one, but Henri seems to have an endless supply. I am keeping up, but it’s getting harder. The knives are coming faster and faster; too fast.
‘We didn’t have to keep running!’ I yell at him, dodging two knives at once.
Henri throws the next knife with such velocity that, when I slap it away, my hand starts to bleed. He yells, ‘We can’t all live in Chicago in the clouds, John!’
When the next knife comes, I snatch it by its handle and whip it into the snowy ground. The snow around it turns black. I catch another knife and slam it down, too. ‘If we had found the right place, we could have had a real home! We never even tried! And you picked Paradise? Of all places?’
‘I did my best! And that’s where Malcolm Goode was! You found the tablet, John! You haven’t even used it yet!’ Henri shouts. The blue light behind him disappears, and the darkness in the snow starts to seep outward and spreads, until it’s like we’re wading in a black sea. Henri pulls a large knife over his head and wings it at me. When I try to defend myself, my hands feel stuck to my sides. I’m watching the knife fly through the air, flipping, end over end, and I know it’s about to hit me right between the eyes. Once it’s a couple feet away, a huge hand reaches out and snatches it out of the air. It’s Setrákus Ra. In one fluid motion he has the knife firmly in his grip and whips it over his shoulder and back down again, swinging it at me.
As the tip of the knife plunges into my skull, Setrákus Ra yells, ‘Your pizza’s getting cold!’
I sit up and I’m back in bed, in the Hancock tower. I’m drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Nine stands in the doorway with a whole pizza on a platter. His mouth is full and he continues to chew while he says, ‘Seriously, man, you got to eat it while it’s still hot. And I still want to get some training in before our double date.’
‘I saw Setrákus Ra again,’ I say. I know my voice sounds flat. My tongue feels sticky. ‘And Henri.’
Nine swallows and waves his hand in the air, still holding half a slice. ‘Oh, yeah? Forget about it, they’re just dreams. That’s what I tell myself, and it usually works out just fine.’
‘And how, exactly, do you make that work?’ I ask, but he’s already gone. I slide off the bed and stumble down the hallway. I see Bernie Kosar attacking a defrosted steak on the kitchen floor. My pizza sits steaming on the table. I haven’t dreamed about Henri in so long, I’m having a hard time shaking the vision off. While I eat my pizza, I think about the flying knives, the snow, how we were yelling at each other – when it hits me. Henri mentioned the tablet. I haven’t done anything much but look at it. What little time I’ve spent with it, I’ve been annoyed by the fact that it doesn’t seem to work. I grab my Chest off the chair and open it, taking the tablet out.
It looks as frustratingly blank as every other time I’ve looked at it. It’s nothing but a white metal square with a screen; blank, dead, useless. Nothing I do brings it to life. I turn it over and examine its few ports. They’re triangular, unlike any I’ve seen before.