I lay my hand on the door and close my eyes. I can feel it inside, a warm presence calling to me. “It’s not.”
I wrap my hands around the trigger of the pistol and fire into the door, just below the handle. The lock blasts away. We slip inside.
The light from the hallway outside is eaten by darkness. The floor to the station is illuminated by thin, orange diamonds running along the sides, a sign that we’re close to the reactor. A metal door lies closed at the far end of the corridor. It’s likely more than a foot thick-too much for my dinky little blaster.
I rush forward, jogging down the hall until I feel the buzzing energy of the door under my fingers.
Avery moves behind me. “I don’t like this, Jesse. He’s coming.”
“I can do it,” I whisper. “There’s Pearl energy on the other side, funneling in the reactor.” The hair on the back of my hand stands on end. “The Drifter’s gone. It’s halfway drained already, but I can use what’s left.”
She turns, surveying the dark. Her gaze shifts toward the ceiling. “This place is like a tomb. If you’re wrong…” She can’t finish the sentence.
I run my hand along the surface of the door, feeling for cracks or holes. Anything. Already, my body feels stronger. I lay my cheek against metal, pulling.
My heart swells. I feel a waft of air brush against the back of my neck. I’m surrounded by energy. I could bathe in it if I wanted. I take a step away, furrow my brows, and grasp on with everything I’ve got.
“Jesse.” Avery turns. “Did you hear me?”
I don’t need to respond. Strands of green light coil from within the doorway, escaping through microscopic holes and cracks in the metal. They flower around me, winding above our heads. Trails of light swirl in the darkness. Some wind underfoot, curling beside my feet until they find refuge with a neighboring strand. The door rattles and hums, on the verge of pulverizing into dust. The hallway flashes a brilliant green. I close my eyes and become one with the energy, letting it wash over me like a wave of soothing bathwater. It encircles my body, cleansing cuts and bruises from the day. My lungs expand with the freshest, most revitalizing air imaginable. I feel whole.
A door slams off its hinges. The sound pulls my eyes open once more. I spin around to see the silhouette of the Drifter at the opposite end of the hallway, still and menacing. Both fists glow with a vibrant red-violent Pearl Energy ready to kill me if I don’t act soon.
Avery backs into my shoulder. The Drifter holds out a hand. The corridor rattles. The scars on my chest burn, though it’s quickly countered by the bolstering cocoon around me.
Before he can make a move, I let it all go. I thrust my hands forward and feel everything leave me. The green wave shoots through the hallway in a turbine, twisting and swirling so fast that the strands blend together, one undecipherable from the next.
I watch the energy slam into the Drifter. It knocks him back in a violent pulse. He flies across the connecting corridor and slams through the neighboring wall, pushed faster and farther by the oncoming energy.
The ground drops beneath us as the Skyship lurches downward. The thick metal of the door cracks behind me. Avery slips. She holds her head in her hands, protecting herself from oncoming rubble. The rows of orange lights blink frantically before settling. The ground stabilizes as the ship corrects itself. One power station deactivated. If I hit all of them, we’re going down.
I watch the last of the Pearl energy dissipate through the distant hole in the wall. The Drifter’s gone, knocked way off course. I pushed him away, maybe even killed him.
I help Avery to her feet. “Are you okay?”
She nods, visibly shaken. “I thought what you did last spring was something. That… that was amazing, Jesse.”
“Yeah?” I take a deep breath. “There’s more where that came from.” I glance behind me. I can see the empty generator through the cracks in the thick door. Scraps lay at my feet. “Come on,” I say. “Let’s go break some Pearls.”
37
Cassius gunned the accelerator, arcing the Academy ship high into the stratosphere, far enough from Skyship Altair that it seemed a distant dot below him. He’d never driven an agent’s ship before. The controls were remarkably similar to those of a cruiser, but the speed was amplified. He could work wonders with this. He’d need to.
Last time he’d engaged Theo, the boy had the upper hand. He had control of the environment, even in his unstable mental state. The trick this time was to hit him first, draw blood before he could react. He knew precious little about Ridium, but it was certainly dangerous, especially under Theo’s control.
Cassius took stock of the weapons available to him. Cannons, mounted on the front underbelly. Tractor beams-useful only if he had the chance to pull Theo into the ship with him. A pair of missiles, though he doubted that human weaponry would be of much use against an alien substance like Ridium. If the black vessel was anything as strong as the bracelet around Cassius’s arm, he’d be fighting against the indestructible.
As he piloted the ship, his mind kept coming back to one thing. Pearls.
Matigo obviously feared them, or feared how they could be used. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have went to the trouble to send his own son to Earth as some sort of sting agent. He wouldn’t be after Fisher, either. If Fisher succeeded in finding more Drifters, Cassius hoped they knew what to do.
He took a deep breath and began to bring the ship down. Theo’s vessel appeared on the radar as a dark blotch, like a storm cloud ready to belch thunder and lightning. Cassius was directly on top of it now.
First, he’d unleash a volley of cannon blasts. If that didn’t work, he’d have to get closer. One way or another, he needed to engage Theo directly. If he couldn’t kill him, he’d hurt him. Weaken him until the Drifters could finish him off.
The ship gained speed as it cut through the air, descending like a dagger piercing the sky. The black, spherical vessel neared closer. Cassius waited until he could see it clearly before letting loose.
He fired a round right into the surface, spinning sideways to avoid crashing into the vessel. Explosions lit up the atmosphere around the sphere of darkness but left no mark. As soon as the smoke faded, Theo’s ship remained untouched, floating silently in the sky.
He rounded in a wide loop, ready to test the missiles. He doubted they would be any more effective, but he had to try everything before risking a closer encounter.
As he turned to approach the vessel, he noticed a quiver of movement from the darkness. He pulled a pair of specs from the cabinet overhead and slipped them onto his eyes, magnifying his vision twofold.
The blackness stirred in front of him like a monster ready to attack. He slowed his approach.
Out of nowhere, the vessel developed a long, snakelike arm. It flew from the darkness, extending a winding tendril through the sky, directly toward his ship.
Cassius cursed. In one motion, he released the missiles and pulled up, cutting a vertical climb back into safe territory as the black extension wound after him.
The missiles detonated along the shell of Theo’s vessel with little effect. Cassius brought the Academy ship upside down, spinning so that he could make a quick escape.
Too late.
The black tendril grabbed onto his stern with an awful clamp. Metal squealed behind him. He laid on the accelerator. It was no use. Within seconds, the entire ship yanked backward.
He slammed into the console, then forced a glance over his shoulder. He was expecting to see the entire ship tear away from him. Instead, a violent thud on the windshield sent him flying with enough force to snap his seatbelt. He hit the ground sideways and rolled to catch a glimpse of the windshield. A black film of Ridium blots out the sky.
All at once, the backward pull intensified. He tried to grab onto something, but it was too quick. He flew forward through the air and collided with the console again. The speed of the movement forced him into the windshield, dangerously close to the Ridium outside.
His bracelet clamped onto the wall of black, craving to rejoin the element. He stared at the doorway to the cabin, wishing he could escape. Theo had hold of the entire ship now. He could do anything he wanted. He could
