United as One (Lorien Legacies #7)(53)

Next to her is Sarah. She pulls at Six’s arm, tries to get her to retreat from the whirlwind of shrapnel around them.

Mexico.

I flinch at the memory—all this floods into my brain in less than a second—and Six stops talking to look at me funny.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I reply, and brace myself telepathically, close off my mind. I need more practice with a lot of these powers, but there’s no time for that.

Six frowns at me but doesn’t press. She reaches into her pocket and produces an old-looking flip phone that she pops open to check the display. “What’s that?” I ask, wanting to change the subject.

“Sam’s attempt to mimic the cloaking device,” Six replies, holding up the phone. “He wants me to try it out before the battery dies.”

I didn’t realize Sam had made progress with that. The phone doesn’t look like much, but Sam’s never let me down before. I touch the Mogadorian cloaking device hooked to my vest. “Should we use that instead of this?”

“Uh, let’s not experiment while we’re flying through the air,” Adam says, joining us. “If all goes well, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to test Sam’s device.”

Six nods in agreement and puts the phone away. I look between the two of them. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Adam replies.

Six eyes us. “How exactly are we doing this?”

It takes a little work to get us arranged. Six gets on my back in a piggyback position, her legs hooked around my waist. I hug Adam from behind, my hands locked across his chest. From there, Six is able to reach past me and put a hand on Adam’s shoulder, in case she needs to take over and make us invisible. I feel BK and Dust squirming around in my chest pocket trying to get comfortable. We must look pretty ridiculous; I can see some faint smiles and raised eyebrows on the faces of the nearby Special Ops, and I’m pretty sure I hear Nine catcall us from Lexa’s ship.

The embarrassment is only temporary because we quickly turn invisible.

“Are you doing that or am I?” Six asks.

“Better that we both do it,” I tell her. “I’ve only had the Legacy for a few days. I could make a mistake.”

“Oh, that’s heartening,” Adam says.

“Don’t worry,” I tell him. “It’s really only flying that I’m still a little shaky with.”

“But we’re about to—”

Before Adam can finish that thought, I launch us up in the air. It’s not the most graceful takeoff. It’s a lot more forceful than necessary; but it does the trick; and soon we’re soaring above the treetops at high velocity. I remember what Five taught me—basically not to think too hard about what I’m doing and trust my instincts. That means going fast and forward. Adam’s hands grab my forearms hard, and I can hear Six laughing against my ear as the wind whips across our faces.

“This is so weird,” she says. “I feel like a ghost.”

“Let’s hope not literally,” Adam yells back.

It’s definitely strange: being invisible, flying through the sky, like we’re the breeze itself. I wish I had more time, or maybe the capacity, to appreciate this. All I can think about is what’s ahead, and soon that comes into view.

The steel-gray bulk of the scarab-shaped warship looms over Niagara Falls, casting a dark shadow on the rushing water. This warship isn’t as big as the Anubis. But it is still a frightening sight to behold.

“There’s the Loralite stone,” Six says. “That, uh, nondescript gray one down there.”

I glance to a patch of wilderness level with the start of the falls. I can’t pick out the stone from this height, but I can easily make out the crowd of Mogadorians securing the area. I can also see the three downed Skimmers that were taken out by the human Garde. More of the little ships zip through the air around the warship, patrolling the nearby woods in slow circles. I fly us closer to the warship while looking down.

“John,” Adam says as I survey the Mog patrols. “John!”

I look up just as I first hear the vibrating hum of a Skimmer’s engine. It’s practically right on top of us, the scout ship headed back to the warship. The pilot can’t see us, but he’s flying dangerously close all the same. I bank us hard to the right and narrowly avoid getting clipped by one of the Skimmer’s slender wings.

“Shit!” Six yells. Her nails scratch my neck as she almost loses her grip.

We do a barrel roll. The spinning disorients me, and for a moment we’re plummeting towards the rapids below. My fingers loosen, and Adam slips a few inches away from me. I grasp him hard under the armpits.

Gritting my teeth, I stabilize us and get myself flying straight again. Everyone’s holding on a little tighter now.

“Sorry,” I say.

“I take back any misgivings I had with your plan,” Adam says breathlessly. “If it means never flying with you again, I’ll steal a dozen warships.”

The Skimmer that shook us up leisurely flies into the docking bay of the warship, the doors left open behind it. Despite the scare, that’s perfect timing. I pick up speed, intending to get us through those doors.

As we near the warship, the force field finally becomes visible. You can’t really see it until you’re rushing right towards it. Once you’re within a hundred yards or so, the air around the warship seems to bend like heat lines rising from pavement on a hot day. I can make out a faint grid work of energy, like a net surrounding the warship, which gives off a faint red hue. It reminds me of the aura that surrounded the mountain base in West Virginia, the one that made me sick for days after I ran headlong into it.