Virals(92)

"Police!" Hi hit the ground.

We all dropped.

"Oh crap!" Shelton whimpered. Then his eyes flashed golden.

Hi rose, brushing dirt from his belly. "You can thank me later."

He squeezed his lids shut. When they opened, two more gold irises burned in the darkness.

"Jerk!" Shelton shoved him. "How can you do that so easily?"

"I just think about how crazy this all is. Bingo. Wolf-time." Hi shrugged. "It doesn't always work."

My turn.

I closed my eyes and reached for my anger. I thought about Katherine's murder. The bunker attack. The experiment on Cooper.

Nothing. No flare.

So I thought about Chance. The winks. The smiles. How he'd held me tight while dancing, touched my hand, and kissed me on the cheek.

Made a fool of me.

Fury spread through my body like wildfire.

Sparks exploded in my brain.

My eyes sharpened. I could hear slugs crawling through mulch in the garden, waves crashing the seawall blocks away. My nose read the air like a roadmap.

I felt amber blaze from my sockets.

"I can't." Ben clenched his fists. "It won't come!"

"Ben?"

When he turned, I slapped him full across the face.

The force of my blow knocked Ben sideways.

He grabbed me with both hands, fingers digging into my arms, eyes blazing with yellow fire.

I held my breath.

"Thanks." Ben spoke through gritted teeth. "Good job."

"No problem. You can let me go now."

He did.

Gripping the rope, Ben scaled the wall, one step at a time. At the top, he grasped an iron spike in each hand, flexed his knees, and pushed off. His feet swung up over his head. His wrists rotated, and for a moment, he balanced in a handstand, biceps straining under the weight of his body. Finally, he flexed, pushed off with his hands, completed the back flip, and dropped from sight.

Beyond the wall we heard his Nikes hit the ground.

"Whoa," Shelton said.

I agreed. Most Olympians couldn't have pulled that off.

Metal clanked, then the gate swung out. I led Hi and Shelton through without a word.

I listened. Nothing but leaves and insects.

Moving quickly, I guided the Virals though the gardens. With the kick-ass moon and my eyes in hyperdrive, the yard was noontime bright.

Surprise. The same door was unlocked. Chance hadn't been careful enough.

The service corridor was as dark and empty as before. At the Alice door, I poked my head through to take a peek. The grand foyer was silent as a tomb.

"Wow," Hi whispered. "Nice digs."

Shelton's eyes were looking everywhere at once.

Ben remained quiet, vigilant.

I led the way. We scurried down the hallway, up two flights of stairs, and into Hollis Claybourne's study.

I started to sniff-search the chamber, but Hi was ahead of me.

"That-a-way." He pointed to Hollis's desk.

Unbelievable.

Everything was there. The fingerprint report. Heaton's journal. The dog tags. Karsten's deposit slip. The evidence lay on the desktop, garbage waiting to be curbed.

Chance had been lazy. And had underestimated me. Badly. He'd pay for his overconfidence.

I stuffed the documents into my bag and pocketed the tags.

"Let's get out of Dodge," Shelton hissed.

"This isn't enough," I said. "We have to find Heaton's bones before Chance destroys them."

"Where?" Hi whispered. "This place is the size of an airport."

"If you had an ancient mansion, where would you hide a skeleton?" I asked.

"The cellar?" Hi guessed.

"Exactly! This house was built before electricity and refrigeration. It must have lots of underground storage areas."

I shouldered my backpack. "We need to find the kitchens. A cellar entrance would be there."

Ben checked the hallway. "All clear."

As I descended the stairs, my eyes pierced the shadows with ease. My ears picked up dozens of ticking clocks. My nose sorted an array of strange scents. None of it was helpful.

The mansion felt empty and we encountered no one. I prayed for that to continue.

On the first floor I detected a storm of food smells.

"Over here." We slipped into the dining room, then down a short hallway to a tall white door. Through it, we entered an enormous kitchen.

Gray floor and wall tiles reflected moonlight pouring through two bay windows. Modern stainless steel appliances circled a butcher block large enough to dismember an elk.

"Psst!" Shelton pointed to a doorway barely visible in one corner.

I tried the knob.

It turned in my hand.





CHAPTER 68


We scurried down a narrow passage to an iron gate. Through the bars we could see an ancient stone staircase disappearing into darkness. A dank musty smell wafted up from below.

"The cellars must be down there," I said.

The gate rattled and squeaked as it opened. We slipped through, leaving it wide, fearful more noise might sound an alarm.

Testing with our feet, we slowly worked our way down the stairs. Blind. Even flaring, I needed a few light pixels to see.

The staircase seemed impossibly long. By the time I reached bottom, my hand was ice from sliding along the wall. And I was shivering.