held tight and backed away. Brother Dimitrios chuckled again. “So shy now. And yet you were the one who generously showed us the way to the island, which we’d been seeking for decades.”
Once we left the protected area around the island, the Massa could pick up the signal, Aly had said.
“You planted that phone!” Aly accused him.
Brother Dimitrios raised an eyebrow. “You mean, the phone you stole?”
I couldn’t read his expression. Was he mocking us? Was it possible Mom had played us?
I thought about what she had done—left us a high-res close-up of her own eye, which we’d used for the retinal scan. That was how we’d gotten access to the Loculi. That was how we were able to escape. She had risked her status to help me. To help us.
At least I’d thought so.
Dimitrios barked a dry laugh. “You know, the timing couldn’t have been better. You see, we were looking for a new headquarters anyway, since you betrayed the location of our old one to your Karai Institute friends. So this gave us the opportunity to eliminate the competition, so to speak.” He looked around with a satisfied smile. “Not to mention upgrading our location at the same time.”
A distant explosion made me flinch. The KI was being destroyed. This reality was squeezing me like a fist. The Scholars of Karai had built the island on centuries of research, on land that no one could ever find. Now all of it—the labs, the healing waterfall, the Heptakiklos, the space-time rift—was under new ownership. Because the Massa had found the one person dumb enough to leave a trail. Me.
“As you can hear, we are already in the process of a … gut renovation,” Brother Dimitrios said. “We will rebuild here, more gloriously than you can imagine. If you keep the Loculi, you will die, Jack. Or you can choose to give them to us. And we will save your lives.”
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, trying to shape some kind of plan, something that made sense. I concentrated on the McKinley family motto, which had always gotten me through tough times: a problem is an answer waiting to be opened.
All my life I’d thought that mottoes were dumb. Just words.
Opening my eyes, I stared at the two canvas bags.
There was only one possible answer.
“All right,” I said, slipping my hands under the sacks. “You win. Take them.”
“JACK, NO!” ALY cried.
Torquin let out a roar. He turned and lifted Brother Yiorgos off the ground like a toy soldier, but the sound of a gunshot made him freeze.
Brother Stavros stood with one arm raised high, a revolver in his fist. Smoke wisped upward from the barrel, from where he’d shot in the air. His other arm was locked around Aly’s neck. “Don’t make this hard for us,” he growled.
Torquin let Yiorgos fall to the ground.
“Vre, Stavros, this is not a movie,” Brother Dimitrios said. “Let go of the girl.”
Aly pushed herself away from Stavros’s grip. Yiorgos rose, grimacing. They all stood, bodies angled toward me. In the dim light I couldn’t see anyone’s face clearly, but I gave a sharp warning glance to Aly and Torquin. I did not want them to get hurt.
Lifting the sacks, I curled my hands underneath. The material was worn and ripped, and my fingers felt for the holes.
There.
Quickly I slipped my hand inside the brown sack. I felt the warmth of the Invisibility Loculus. That was all I needed. Just to touch the surface.
I knew I was fading from sight by the look on Brother Dimitrios’s face. Utter shock.
He lunged forward. I leaped aside, spinning to the right. I untied the top, pulling out the entire Loculus. Tucking it under my arm, I held tight to the other sack.
Brother Stavros scooped his gun off the ground, where it had fallen.
Anything and anyone you touch becomes invisible.
I grabbed Aly’s uniform. With a grin, she turned toward Stavros. “Face, meet foot.”
He looked around, baffled at the voice coming from nowhere, and he never saw the swift kick Aly planted on his jaw. As he fell unconscious, Aly hooked her hand into Torquin’s belt. “Your turn.”
“Time for Whac-a-Massa,” he said.
Together we moved toward Brother Dimitrios, angling from the side. He stood, trembling, staring in the direction we’d just been. “This is the biggest mistake you can possibly make. Trust me. Also, striking a man while invisible is ungentlemanly conduct.”
“A little to the left,” Torquin replied.
As Brother Dimitrios flinched, the red-bearded giant delivered a haymaker to his jaw. Dimitrios’s feet left the ground. He flew back into Brother Yiorgos, and both men hurtled backward, smacking into a tree.
The three men lay there, inert. Torquin flexed and unflexed his fists. I could practically see smoke coming from his ears. “Good day, gentlemen,” he grunted.
I took Mom’s cell phone from my pocket. It had betrayed us. It was the reason they’d found this place. And I was not going to be taken advantage of again.
I reared my arm back and threw the phone into the jungle.
“Let’s get out of here before more of them come!” Aly said. “We have what we need.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
Aly smiled sheepishly. She threw her arms around me, nuzzling her head on my shoulder. “Jack, you’re the best.”
“Mush,” Torquin said.
I pulled the Loculus of Flight from its sack. We would use both Loculi to get to the beach quickly, airborne and unseen.
But all I could think about was the phone. And its owner.
I don’t even remember the flight back to the beach.
* * *
I do remember seeing the shining hull of Slippy from high in the air. And Fiddle’s relieved smile as I let go of the others’ hands, making them visible as we touched down on the sand. “Where’s Jack?” he shouted, running to greet us.
Aly nudged me in the side. As I put my Loculus down in the sand, Fiddle jumped back. “Aaaghh! Don’t scare me like that!”
“Sorry, it’s the Invisibility Loculus,” I said. “It makes you invisible. Which is useful when you’re flying over enemy territory.”
He nodded. “You got them both—awesome! Cass, Bhegad, and Dr. Bradley are on board. We’re ready to book.”
I slipped the Invisibility Loculus into its sack, grabbed them both by the canvas tops, and ran after the others toward the jet. “How’s the professor?” Aly shouted.
“Dr. Bradley’s doing the best she can. They’re in the back of the plane. We managed to get a lot of equipment from the hospital—for him and for you.” Fiddle slowed. “Dr. Bradley can continue your treatments for a while. If you guys die, our dream is over. The KI really goes down in flames.”
“Sorry to spoil things for you,” Aly remarked.
Fiddle blushed. “Plus I care about you guys. Seriously. We all do. Now come on. They’re going to find us. While you were gone, more Massa flew into the compound. Top brass, I think. Huge plane.”
As we