Dane is a Traveler who wants to control Halla. In a word, he is evil. But simply calling him evil is like saying Tiger Woods is a good golfer. Saint Dane is the Tiger Woods of bad. He enjoys causing pain and suffering. I’ve seen what he’s capable of. It isn’t pretty. If he gets his way and somehow takes control of Halla, well, I don’t even want to think about that.
The only thing standing between Saint Dane and his wicked plans are the other Travelers. That’s us. Every territory is reaching a critical turning point. Saint Dane is doing his worst to influence these important events so that each territory will fall into chaos. If he succeeds, then all of Halla will fall to him.
We’ve got to make sure he doesn’t succeed.
So far we are 2 and 0. Denduron and Cloral were wins. But it’s going to be a long war.
As we stood staring at the hologram of Saint Dane, every fear I had about the guy came screaming back. He was one bad dude. I watched as his recorded image turned back toward the flume.
“First Earth,”he commanded.
An instant later the light and music swept him up and carried him into the tunnel. The image then faded out and the flume projection was gone. We were back in the dark.
“Now do you understand?” the girl-head’s voice boomed out of the darkness. “He was here. He left. End of story. Now go away.”
“Who are you?” I called out to the girl-head. “Why should we believe that?”
Another hologram appeared before us. It was the same view of the flume as before. Again, the tunnel activated with light and music. Who was going to arrive this time? A second later Spader and I watched as…
Spader and I stepped out of the flume in the hologram!
“I’ve gone totally off my nut,” Spader said in awe.
“Whoa, Veelox is dark,” the projection of Spader declared.
“Yeah, no kidding,” the projection of me said. “Let’s wait a second for our eyes to adjust.”
It was exactly what had happened a minute before.
“My name is Aja Killian,” boomed the head voice as our holograms disappeared.
Spader and I spun around to see the big head had returned. It hovered over us like a blond cloud.
“I’m the Traveler from Veelox,” she said. “I’ve got the flume monitored and I record everything that happens. That’s why I know Saint Dane isn’t here anymore. Any more questions?”
“Yes,” I said. “Would you please stop with this giant-head thing and show yourself? If you’re a Traveler, then we’re all friends here.”
I was feeling a little more bold now, and getting tired of staring up at this girl.
“I would,” Aja answered. “But I’m nowhere near you.”
Spader said, “So you’re telling us that Saint Dane flumed in here for a second, then flumed right back out again?”
“I’m not telling you,” she said curtly. “I justshowedyou. Don’t you believe what you see?”
Spader looked at me and asked softly, “Why did he leave so fast?”
“Because he’s wasting his time here,” Aja answered quickly. “Veelox is totally under control.”
I laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought about Cloral, until people started turning up dead.” ”Look,” the Aja-head scolded. “Nobody comes or goes through the flume without my knowing. He’s not here. So go chase him to First Earth where you can be more useful.”
Spader and I shared looks. “I guess she toldyou,”he said with a raised eyebrow.
I looked back up at the Aja-head and said, “If you think he’s dumb enough to be controlled by your little home movies, then you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
That seemed to strike a chord. The big head floated down closer to us and stared me right in the eye. It took all I could do not to back off.
“And what makesyouthe expert on all things Saint Dane?” she asked with disdain.
“I’m not,” I answered. “But I’ve battled him twice and both times been lucky enough to win. How about you?”
Aja-head blinked. I don’t think she liked being challenged. She floated back up higher.
“If you take him on alone, you’ll lose,” added Spader. “He won’t get spooked by a big floating head…like us.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” she said sarcastically.
Aja Killian was the Traveler from Veelox, and she thought she was smarter than Saint Dane. That was dangerous. I knew we’d be back on Veelox sooner or later. I just hoped that when that time came, we wouldn’t have to fight both Saint DaneandAja Killian.
“Go to First Earth,” Aja-head scolded. “Have fun, play your little games. Don’t worry about Veelox.”
With that, the giant head disappeared. Spader and I were once again alone.
“Fun?” Spader said. “I can think of a lot of things to call the tum-tigger we’re headed into. Fun isn’t one of them.”
“Should we believe her?” I asked.
“I’m not sure we have a whole lot of choice,” Spader answered. “Looks like Saint Dane came here to throw us off, and the big-head girl caught him.”
“Then we’re on the wrong territory, again.” I said.
“He went to First Earth,” Spader said. “That anything like Second Earth?”
“I think we’re about to find out.”
The two of us then stepped into the mouth of the flume.
First Earth.
Being from Second Earth I couldn’t help but think I would be going home. At least that was what I hoped. I didn’t know that we were about to flume into the laps of two murderous gangsters who were waiting for us with machine guns.
Yes, the real fun was about to begin.
(CONTINUED)
FIRSTEARTH
“You’re lucky,” Mr. Nasty Gangster chuckled. “It’ll be quick. You won’t feel a thing.”
“How wouldyouknow?” asked Spader nervously.
The two gangsters held their machine guns on us, keeping us from moving off the subway track. To our right, a subway train was barreling along, headed our way.
This was not a happy homecoming.
“Trust me,” the gangster answered. “There won’t be enough of you left to feel nothin’.”
How’sthatfor a grim thought?
“We were just supposed to scare ‘em,” the nervous gangster said. “Not splatter ‘em.” The guy looked like he was having second thoughts. I liked this guy. At least I liked him better than the guy who wanted us dead.
“They’ll be scared all right,” the nasty gangster chuckled. “Just before they catch the train.”
Or the train catches us.
“But-” the nervous guy protested.
“Hey, we’re on our own now,” Nasty shot back. “I’m calling the plays.” The track beneath our feet was now shaking from the imminent arrival of the death train. The headlight was shining on us. The horn shrieked. The trainman must have seen us, but it was too late to stop. The express was coming through whether we were on the track or not.
Believe it or not, in spite of what Mr. Nasty thought, I wasn’t scared. That’s because I knew how we were going to escape. It was going to be pretty simple. The tricky part would be timing.
“I think we should move, mate,” Spader whispered to me. “This could be a messy-do.”
“Wait,” I said.
“Bye-bye, boys!” shouted the gangster over the screaming horn.
The train was nearly on us.
