فصل چهل و پنجم

Chapter 45: Shock Waves

The Ampere rocked from the explosion’s shock wave. At first I thought the massive blast was from our own explosive, but when I realized that we were all still there, I figured that something else must have happened.

“Holy crap!” Jack shouted. “What was that?” Sirens from the dock began wailing.

Ostin ran to the portal and looked out. “It’s the Watt!” he shouted.

I ran over to look for myself.

From the light of the fires I could see that the top deck of the Watt was mostly blown off and smoke and fire was billowing up into the black sky. What was left of the boat was disappearing into the sea.

“It’s sinking,” I said.

“Michael, you’re glowing,” Taylor said.

I looked down. My skin was glowing a pale white and electricity was sparking between my legs and arms and fingers. “What’s happening?” “What should I do with the bomb?” McKenna shouted. She had cooled down, but her arms were still wrapped around the explosive.

“Hold on,” I said. “Jack, where are the guards?” “Mostly on their faces!” he shouted.

Suddenly a massive bolt of lightning burst past our door, illuminating the engine room like the flash of an arc welder. Then there was another.

“The corridor’s clear!” Jack shouted. “The guards are down.” Suddenly someone pounded on the engine room door. Tessa’s face appeared in the window. “Come on, you idiots!” she shouted. “Let’s go!” Jack opened the door. “Where’d you come from?” “Someplace a lot better than this,” she said.

Then Zeus stuck his head in the doorway. “Hey, where did you get the nifty sailor duds?” “You came back,” I said.

“You thought we’d let you have all the fun? Let’s get out of here.” “Wait,” I said. “McKenna, how much time do we have on the bomb?” McKenna pulled back the flap. “Eighteen minutes and twelve seconds.” “Hide it!”

“I’ll do it,” Ostin said. He took the pack to the back of the engine room and shoved it behind the engine, then returned. “We’re good.” * * *

Outside the engine room door a handful of guards started to rally.

“Tessa!” I shouted. “A little help.”

“You got it,” she said.

“I’ve got them,” Taylor said.

I looked back out and the guards were standing in the corridor, looking around in different directions. I made a lightning ball about the size of a watermelon and threw it down the hall. It blew up around them like a grenade, scattering them like bowling pins.

“Vámonos!” Tessa said.

We followed Zeus and Tessa out of the engine room, then back up the utility stairway to the deck, which was crowded with sailors who had been woken by the Watt’s explosion and had rushed to the deck to see what was happening. In the darkness and commotion, few of them even noticed us, and Zeus and I easily took care of those who did. We ran to the side of the boat where we had left our rope.

Zeus looked over the railing. “I hate water,” he said.

“Someone better go down first,” I said, “and make sure our raft’s still there.” “We brought a boat,” Tessa said.

“I’ll go first,” McKenna said. “I’ll flash if it’s okay.” She grabbed the rope and slid down into the darkness. A moment later we saw a flash of light.

“That’s your cue,” Jack said. “Go!”

Zeus climbed over, followed by Tessa, Ostin, and Jack, leaving just Taylor and me.

“Your turn,” I said to Taylor.

“No,” she said. “I’m not taking another chance of you staying behind.” There was no time for discussion, so I climbed over the railing. I grabbed the rope and slid down a few yards, then looked back up. “Coming?” Taylor grabbed the railing and was throwing her leg over the side when someone grabbed her. It was one of the Elgen guards. Taylor tried to reboot him, but he was wearing a copper helmet. “Caught you,” he said.

“Catch this,” I said. I threw a lightning ball at him, striking him on the copper of his helmet. Electricity sparked and sizzled around on his head, then he fell forward unconscious, dropping Taylor over the side of the boat.

“Michael!” she shouted.

I jumped out and grabbed her—both of us free-falling in the dark. Then I reached out toward the Ampere and magnetized, which pulled us up against the boat’s metal hull. I amped up my magnetism until we came to a sliding stop about twenty feet from the water. Below us was an idling speedboat with all our friends. Jaime was at the wheel.

“That was cool,” I heard Ostin say.

“I think my heart just stopped,” Taylor said.

“Come on!” Jack shouted. “We only have four minutes to get clear!” I reached over and grabbed the rope, and handed it to Taylor. “Go.” She slid down the rope until she was low enough that Jack reached up and grabbed her, helping her into the boat. I reduced my magnetism and slid down the hull until I was just a few feet above the boat. Jack grabbed my hand and pulled me in, then shouted to Jaime, “We’re all here! Go, go, go!” “Everyone hold on,” Jaime said. He leaned on the throttle and the boat shot forward out to sea. By the time Jaime cut back on the throttle the Ampere looked like a toy boat in the distance.

I looked around the crowded speedboat. Everyone was there except for Abigail. I smiled at Ian. He just shook his head. “Michael, my man, you know how to make trouble.” “And you know how to find it,” I replied.

“We have thirty seconds,” Jack said.

We all looked back to watch the explosion. Jack started counting down and we all joined with him. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one . . .” Nothing.

“It didn’t blow,” Jack said.

“Did you set the timer right?” Ostin asked.

“I did exactly what Dodds told me to do,” Jack said. “You saw the detonator, it was counting down.” “Maybe they disarmed it,” Taylor said.

Suddenly there was a massive explosion. Even as far away as we were, the sound made my ears ring, reverberating throughout the bay and throwing up tons of shredded debris that showered down on the shore and water. The sky turned orange and yellow as a giant fireball engulfed the Ampere. There were two more explosions; the third one was even larger than the first, and the ship broke in two and collapsed into the sea.

“We did it!” Taylor shouted.

“Veni, vidi, vici!” Ostin shouted. “We came, we saw, we kicked Elgen butt!” He shook his fist at the boat. “You’re shark chum now, Hatch. You stinking, maniac, sicko freak of nature. You’re shark chum.” He turned to me, out of breath. “Man, I hated that guy.”