“No!” he screamed. But it was too late. The chamber vanished around him.
Sofia barely had time to notice they’d winked into the Grand Canyon sitting room, barely had time to feel the relief of solid ground under her feet, when Sato and Mothball appeared right in front of her. The two of them looked like zombies, filthy and scratched and worn.
“No!” Sato yelled, twisting around on his feet, as if looking for something. “Send me back! There were ten more! Ten more!”
Master George appeared through a doorway, his face cramped with a tight smile. “The children should be down in the valley. Ah, Sato, Mothball, thank goodness you’re—”
Sato ran to the man and grabbed him by the shirt. “Send me back! The whole place is falling down—they could die! There were ten more of them!”
Master George shook his head back and forth. “I’m . . . I’m terribly sorry, Sato. It’s far too late—everything was set up back in the Bermuda Triangle station. I simply can’t send you back from here. I’m very sorry.”
“You have to!” Sato’s arms shook with fury or exhaustion. Probably both. “You have to send me back! We didn’t get them all!”
“It’s impossible,” Master George whispered sadly. “Quite impossible.”
Sato slumped to the floor. Sofia looked over and saw Mothball had collapsed on a couch, her eyes closed, tears leaking out from beneath their lids. Paul moved to crouch beside Sato and put a hand on his back.
Sato shook it off. “We left ten kids! Ten!”
Sofia joined them, sitting on the other side of Sato. “But think of how many you saved. And the others might escape in all the chaos.”
She and Paul pulled Sato into an awkward three-
person hug. He resisted at first, but then finally collapsed into Sofia’s arms, sobbing.
“Think of how many you saved,” she repeated.
Chapter 61
Collision
Tick stumbled away from the collapsing Factory, sucking the power of Chi’karda back inside him. He felt the flaming heat of it burn his insides. It had taken only three waves of it to destroy the complex. The sounds of crunching and cracking and splintering filled the air as the ground sank, swirling like a whirlpool of mud. He’d begun the chain reactions of destructive entropy that would leave the place as nothing but sand within minutes.
The earth began to give beneath Tick. There was no way he could outrun the collapse. With a thought, he quickly winked back to the forest where he’d thrown Jane’s body just minutes ago.
She still lay in a heap at the bottom of the oak tree, but her arms were moving, and Tick heard her groan. His heart sank. He’d hoped she would be dead from the collision, because he dreaded the prospect of having to do anything more to her. His initial anger and adrenaline had subsided, and the reality of the situation was hitting home. If he finished what he’d set out to do, it meant he would have to end it, right here, right now.
He had to do it, no matter what. Unchecked, she could and would murder millions and billions of people. She’d already proven that. Tick had to finish it.
He stepped toward her.
The ground exploded under Tick, a wave of invisible force lifting him off his feet and throwing him backward. Before he could gather his wits, his back slammed into the soft ground, knocking the air out of him. He pushed himself up onto his knees, gasping for breath. If the mud had been dried and hard, he could very well have broken his spine.
When a rush of air finally filled his lungs, he jumped to his feet. Jane stood a few yards away, both of her hands outstretched, palms facing him. Tick reached for the Chi’karda that still churned within him.
“Wait,” she said. “Wait. If we keep at this something really bad will happen.”
Tick didn’t waste time with words. He pushed a surge of Chi’karda straight at her, hurling it like a volley of sun flares. The power hit her, twisting her body up into the air and back down to the mud where she slid thirty feet and smacked into the base of a tall pine.
Tick switched gears, concentrating on the trees around her. Using his mind as commander, willing what he wanted to happen, he made a dozen trees around her dissolve, the wood bursting into a swirl of tiny particles. They flew around her in a brown tornado, encircling her like a swarm of muddy bees. Then he made them collapse, sealing the wood back together like he’d done before several times now, though unconsciously.
With a loud smacking sound, followed by cracks and groans, a large mass of twisted wood formed around Jane, trapping her inside. Crushing her.
Tick doubled over, his hands on his knees, pulling in rapid breaths. The mental effort of doing such a thing made him feel as though he’d run ten miles in a sprint. He glanced back up at the hideous structure of coiled tree parts. No way she survived that. No way.
The thought had barely formed when the entire formation exploded, chunks and chips of wood flying out in all directions. Tick fell to the ground and covered his head with both arms. He felt the prick of splinters, the whoosh of bigger pieces flying right over him. When it seemed as though the worst had passed, he looked up and saw Jane standing there, her arms once again outstretched.
“Atticus, we have to stop this!” she yelled.
Tick jumped to his feet. She was trying to trick him; he knew it. He threw another blast of Chi’karda at her; she blocked it with a visible bubble of solid air tinted orange. The concussion wave bounced back and knocked him to the ground, jolting the breath out of him once again. As he struggled for air, he clawed to gather another pool of his power, knowing she’d probably finish him off while he was down.
But when he staggered to his feet, she only stood there, her mask surprisingly showing concern, not anger.
“Atticus, stop,” she said in her scratchy, painful voice. “Give me five minutes to explain!”
Tick felt a rush of anger just as he pulled in a long, blissful breath. “It’s too late, Jane! I can’t let you go one more day killing and hurting!”
A ball of power filled him, almost bursting his chest. He unleashed it, threw it all at Jane.
Her shield formed again, resisting his attack. Tick was ready for the rebound of force this time, and he leaned into it, fighting it with his own strength. He let all his fears and inhibitions fall away, all his caution. She seemed to be getting stronger, and he knew he had to go for it. Screaming, he searched and probed his inner mind and body for every last trickle of Chi’karda, channeling it and throwing it at Jane.