Toys

“Watch out!” Lucy gasped, dodging as an iron bar bashed through the windshield. One of the Smashers had somehow gotten on the roof.

I threw open the car door, leaned out, and touched off a point-blank round that blew away the hitchhiker.

There must have been fifty more Smashers though, the nearest ones using their crowbars like grappling hooks to smash through windows and pull themselves up onto the car.

“Sticks and stones! Break your bones!” they screamed. As they swarmed onto the car like ants on a cricket corpse, rocking it to turn it over, Lucy pulled us out of the screeching U-turn and rammed the accelerator to the floor. The car lunged forward, with me still hanging out the door and snapping kicks at several snarling Smasher faces.

A second later, the car lurched free of the howling mob and streaked away from their fiery trap, reaching one hundred miles per hour by the end of the block.

I jerked loose a crowbar that was jammed in a window and raised it in front of the two Smashers who were still hanging on like leeches.

“You have one thing right,” I yelled. “Breaking bones is fun!”

They let go and tumbled away into the London fog.

Chapter 71

“I am afraid that the invasion by the Elites, the premeditated annihilation, is almost upon us,” Sir Nigel said. “I’ve decided you two must continue your operations elsewhere. I’m sending you to a location in France. An emergency meeting is in progress there now. Nothing could be more important. Perhaps nothing in our history has ever been more important.”

The poor, maimed man was lying in a military hospital bed, and his speech was slow and labored, but still full of passion. During the Tower of London attack, Sir Nigel had been struck in the face and chest by laser fire. I had seen this kind of wound before. I knew he would die from it.

Lucy touched his arm lightly, her face tense with concern. “I’m so sorry for your pain, sir. It’s my fault. I brought Hays Baker to London.”

“Nonsense!” Nigel raised his voice with visible effort. “It’s essential that he’s here with us. Hays Baker may be our only chance to survive this terrible ordeal. He and Lizbeth Baker. Seven-four Day was just a warm-up round for this abomination. This is the fault of that monster President Hughes Jacklin.”

“When do we leave?” I said.

“That’s the spirit. There’s a stealth jet waiting for you now. You’ll parachute into France. When you get to the world summit meeting, pay special attention to the memory-purge sessions. Remember-memory purge!”

“Have there been any breakthroughs?” Lucy asked anxiously. “Sir Nigel?”

“I know that our finest scientists are working on it-feverishly. Your recent contribution was a great help,” he said to Lucy.

I glanced at her. “What contribution was that?”

“Elite brains,” Lucy said, as calmly as she’d say a box of chocolates. “You remember those headless Toyz Corporation executives in Baronville?”

I’d hardly thought about that in the turmoil of the past days, but Lucy’s words brought back shocking images of the executives.

“This is a war,” Sir Nigel reminded me. “We are trying to stop a holocaust that could actually eliminate the human race. You must go to France, first. Then move on across Europe-Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. Then on to Asia-if there’s time. Sound the warning loud and clear.”

He offered his hand. I clasped it gently, and Lucy leaned over to kiss his cheek. We suspected that this might be the last time she and I would ever see Sir Nigel Cruikshank.

“Bonne chance,” he whispered as we left.

Chapter 72

The military stealth jet shot across the English Channel like a dark arrow cutting through the heart of the night. Lucy and I sat at the plane’s rear, both of us silent, brooding. We had plenty to think about, trying to prepare ourselves for whatever might be coming next: probably a world war.

“I have to make an important stop along the way,” Lucy said, standing up abruptly. “Sorry I didn’t tell you before, Hays.”

I nodded, though not completely following her. “Where are we stopping?” I asked.

Then I saw that she was readying a parachute-and that the red jump light was starting to flash.

“I thought we were going to the southeast of France,” I said. Even at the jet’s terrific speed, we couldn’t have made it there already.

“You are. I have some other business to take care of first. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can. Godspeed. If there could possibly be a God. What was that old song-‘God Bless This Mess’? I always liked that sentiment. Good-bye, Hays.”

I stared at her in complete disbelief. “Wait a minute-you’re just leaving me?”

“There’s no time to explain a couple hundred years of European history to you. But don’t worry, Hays. You’ll be met at your drop zone.”

“Met by who?”

“The eminence grise of Interpol.”

“The what? The who?”

“The person behind the scenes who’s the real power here in Europe. Hays…” She looked at me earnestly, and I thought she was about to tell me something important, or maybe even personal. For some odd reason, I wanted her to. But she only said, “I wish it didn’t have to be like this. But it does. As Sir Nigel said, we’re in a war. A war of the worlds. This is the Big One.”

Lucy waved as she stepped into the jet’s parachute airlock and the door slid closed. Ten seconds later, no more than that, it reopened with the chamber empty.

Strangely, I felt incredibly alone with her gone. Maybe I had begun to think of Lucy as my only link between two hugely different worlds, Elite and human. Or maybe I just enjoyed her company. She seemed to know about everything, and she could make me laugh, even at times when I shouldn’t.

But I didn’t have long to ponder Lucy and myself before my own jump light started flashing. I immediately sealed myself into the airlock. Seconds later, I tumbled out into the cold, dark sky and was batted around like a feather by the jet’s furious turbulence.

The whipping air got less fierce as I raced farther in my plunge toward earth. At an altitude of approximately three thousand feet, I popped open the chute. There was the satisfying shock of the harness seeming to yank my body upward.

Now I had some control, and I was able to study the landscape below.

Far to the south, I could see the long, glittering curve of the Cote d’Azur and the black emptiness of the Mediterranean Sea. Eastward lay the majestic Alps-huge, craggy, and mysterious shadows in the moonlight.

And directly underneath me-an impossibly small circle of flares marked my target.

I started furiously working the parachute cords to make sure that I landed close by. I was completely trusting Lucy now-and the humans of course. That was still unsettling to me-trusting them. But what other choice did I have?

My acute night vision didn’t pick up any signs of hidden enemies. Just a single vehicle waiting midway inside the circle of flares. It sure wasn’t a military transport.

It was a limo.

And the eminence grise? Where was he? Inside this fancy car?