hit the water. It quickly got deep, first covering our ankles, then our knees, our hips, and then finally became so deep that we had to start swimming. We popped on our air globes, triggered our water sleds and submerged into the waters of the tunnel.
Luckily the lights were still on so we could see where we were going. It would have been tough trying to find our way in the pitch black. We sped along, back through the tunnel, without saying a word. I can’t speak for Spader, but I knew where my thoughts were. Though it looked as if we were about to escape the destruction of Faar alive, we were about to enter another mess. No doubt waiting for us in the ocean outside were Saint Dane and his raiders. I only then realized that once the dome cracked, the explosions had stopped. I guess Saint Dane had done all the damage he needed. He had destroyed Faar and kept the haulers from saving the underwater farms. His mission was complete.
The sad truth was that we had failed Cloral. Saint Dane’s plan for pushing the territory into chaos was about to succeed. Food would grow scarce, people would fight to get whatever safe supply was left, and who knew how many thousands would die from either starvation or poisoning.
And still, we had to face Saint Dane. He was out there, waiting for us, I was sure. All we could hope to do now was escape to fight another day.
We swam back to the large rock door that led to the open ocean. The door was wide open, and why not? This wonderful city was history. Why bother to close it? Spader and I shot out into open water, not really sure what we would find.
“Gotta be careful, mate,” said Spader. “Don’t want to get sucked back into that hole in the dome.”
Good point. There were millions of tons of water flooding into that hole. It was like a giant, open drain. It would be easy to get sucked in. I hoped that the Faarians realized this and were keeping their distance.
As we rode our water sleds away from the tunnel to get away from the dome, I actually felt a slight tug, as if we were swimming against a strong current. I knew it was the pull of the water being sucked into the hole in the dome. Luckily we were far enough away that our water sleds kept us moving forward and safe. Did I say safe? Yeah, right. Real safe. I looked ahead and began to see shapes. They were hard to see at first because they weren’t much different than the color of the water, but the closer we got, the more distinct they became. In a few moments I realized what they were.
It was the people of Faar. There were thousands of them, all floating in the water, looking back at the coral reef dome that had protected their city and kept it hidden. It was gut wrenching. These people were now all homeless and stranded in the middle of the ocean.
And we were stranded right along with them. I began thinking about how we could find the closest habitat and get the word out to the aquaneers to start picking up these people, when something caught my eye.
At first I thought it was a shadow. But it was really big, like a shadow from a cloud when it crosses the sun. It was far away and blurry, so I couldn’t tell what it really was. What I could tell for certain was: It was coming toward us.
“You see that?” I asked Spader, and pointed toward the moving shadow.
Spader spun around and looked.
“Never seen any fish that big,” he said.
“Maybe it’s a school of fish, or a whale… or…”
The words stuck in my throat. As the shadow drew closer, it became very clear how Saint Dane had attacked Faar. I also knew why Spader hadn’t seen it coming when he was on the surface.
Saint Dane was in a submarine. It was a huge, black, monstrous-looking craft with a flat bottom and rounded body. My guess was that it fired underwater missiles, just like the battleship he used to attack Grallion. There was no doubt about it, this was a weapon of war, and it was at Saint Dane’s command.
“About time you two showed up!” came a voice from behind us.
Spader and I both spun around to see four raiders floating there, each with a water sled and holding spearguns on us.
“Looks like you were the last to leave the party,” one laughed. “There’s somebody wants to see you.”
Two of the raiders moved to either side of us, while the other two trailed from behind, guarding us with their spearguns. They motioned for us to swim along with them. There was nothing we could do. We were trapped and on our way to Saint Dane’s submarine. The phone rang next to Mark’s bed.
“Don’t answer it,” ordered Courtney. She was too involved in Bobby’s adventure to stop reading, even for a moment.
“I have to,” answered Mark. Though he didn’t want to. He was afraid of who might be calling.
“Hello?” Mark answered tentatively.
“Mark Dimond?” came a familiar man’s voice over the phone.
“Yes,” Mark answered. He wasn’t giving up any more information than necessary.
“This is Captain Hirsch, Mark. Stony Brook Police.”
Mark’s heart instantly started beating faster. This was it. This was the call he was dreading.
“Hi, Captain, how are you?” Mark asked, trying to sound more together than he felt.
At the sound of the word “captain,” Courtney’s ears pricked up.
“Mark, you’re aware that there’s a reward out for any information that would lead us to finding the Pendragons, right?”
“Yeah. Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“That’s right. Do you know where Courtney Chetwynde is? I called her home but her parents said she was out.”
“Well, yeah. She’s here with me.”
He looked at Courtney. Courtney raised her eyebrows as if to say, “He’s asking about me?”
“That’s good,” Hirsch said. “I wonder if you two would mind coming down to the station. There’s something here I’d like to show you.”
Uh-oh. Mark thought he knew exactly what Captain Hirsch wanted to show him.
“Uhh… I guess. We’re kind of in the middle of something now though.”
“How about an hour?” asked Hirsch. “We could send a car for you.”
“An hour? Uh… y-yeah, okay. I guess we could be finished in an hour. You have my address?”
“Yes, I do,” answered Hirsch. “Oh, Mark, one more thing. Do you know a guy named Andy Mitchell?”
That was it. The door holding back Mark’s fears was blown wide open. Andy Mitchell had stolen Bobby’s journals and it took him all of one day to take them to the police, figuring he’d collect the reward money. The only thing that truly surprised Mark about it was that he’d thought it would take Mitchell a week to read those first four journals.
“Mark, you still there?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m here.”
“Do you know Andy Mitchell? Is he a friend of yours?”
Two completely different questions. Mark wondered what Mitchell had said to the police about their relationship. He wondered if Mitchell admitted that he was a bully who had blackmailed Mark into showing him the journals, only to steal them and turn them in for a reward. No, Mitchell probably didn’t go into that kind of detail. ”Yes, I know him. But he’s not exactly a friend of mine.”
“Okay then, we’ll see you in an hour.”
“Bye.” He hung up the phone.
“That was Hirsch? What did he want?” asked Courtney.
“He wants us to come down to the station to show us something.”
“Did he say what it was?”
“No,” answered Mark. “He’s sending a car here in an hour. I figured we’d be finished reading by then.”
Mark’s mind raced. The drama with Andy Mitchell was going to end in an hour, one way or another. But as anxious as that made him, it didn’t even come close to the drama that was playing out on the pages of Bobby’s journal.
Courtney said, “I don’t want to think about the police until we finish. My mind’s not there. That okay?”
That wasmorethan okay with Mark. His mind wasn’t there either. He didn’t want to have to discuss Andy Mitchell or the missing journals or his being an idiot who got blackmailed until they found out what happened to Bobby and Spader and Uncle Press.
