Live and Let Shop (13 page)

I came to a few minutes later. I could smell smoke coming from somewhere. Alex and Brent were looking down at me from the hatch above and hollering for me to wake up. Miraculously I had landed on some packing material and it had mostly cushioned my fall. None of the crates fell on me either, which was incredibly lucky. I had reinjured my wrist, though, and I was going to have a major headache. Ever since I’d come to this school, I’d had nothing but bumps and bruises. I couldn’t wait for spring break. Did Blackthorn even have a spring break?
They probably sent everyone out west to climb the Rockies.

“Are you all right?” Brent called down to me.

“Yeah, I think so.” I stood up and shook my head. “What’s going on? What was that explosion?”

“Something is burning on the back of the ship. Looks like some containers or something exploded. Hang on. Alex went to look for some rope to try to get you out of there,” he said.

But I couldn’t wait. Smoke was pouring into the room from the open hatch, and the only door out was locked. I started to push one of the big crates back toward the hatch, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get them stacked up by myself.

I was thinking that maybe this wasn’t going to turn out well, when the door screeched open and Blankenship came in. He paused to glance at the open hatch and the crates that had fallen all over the place. Then he strode over to me and grabbed my arm.

“Let’s go,” he said.

He started dragging me toward the door. I reached for the little crowbar I had stuck in my pocket, swung it around as hard as I could, and brought it crashing down
on his elbow. He screamed in agony and grabbed his left arm. Score one for Rachel Buchanan. I started to run for the door when I heard a whirring sound behind me. Brent hollered for me to look out, and I turned to see Blankenship advancing on me with a whirling nun-chukka in his right hand. It was going around and around faster than I could see. I screamed and ducked as he flicked the weapon toward me and it whizzed right over my head. Blankenship was about to launch another strike when his legs suddenly went out from under him and he landed on his back.

It was Mr. Kim! He had swung down through the hatch on a cable harness attached to his belt, right into Blankenship, sending him sprawling. Mr. Kim disconnected the cable from his belt and stepped between me and Blankenship as Simon scrambled to his feet. He was still clutching his sore arm. I have to admit that made me feel kind of good.

“Enough, Simon! It’s over,” Mr. Kim shouted.

Simon lunged at Mr. Kim with a roar. At the last second he stopped, pivoted, and launched a spin kick at Mr. Kim’s head. Mr. Kim grabbed his foot and kicked him twice in the rib cage. Blankenship went down
momentarily but jumped to his feet. He feinted a punch with his good arm and then managed to get off a kick at Mr. Kim’s chest. It caught Mr. Kim square and sent him to the ground.

That startled me. I was used to seeing Mr. Kim in practice at the
do jang,
and the thought that he could be taken down by anyone was a shock. But then I remembered that Blankenship was in the Special Forces too, and he probably knew his way around the martial arts just like Mr. Kim. The smoke was getting thicker, stinging my eyes and making it harder to see what was going on. Not to mention that whole death-by-smoke-inhalation thing. I coughed and backed up against the wall to make sure I wasn’t in the way.

Mr. Kim got back to his feet and Blankenship came at him again. Faster than I could see it, Mr. Kim launched a back kick that took Blankenship in the jaw. It sounded like it hurt. Blankenship went down, but not all the way down. He landed half in and half out of the doorway. He jumped up, stepped back, and slammed the door shut with his good arm. We heard the latch fall into place. Uh-oh. His footsteps echoed away down the hall.

More and more smoke was pouring into the room from the deck above.

“What’s burning?” I asked Mr. Kim

“I needed to create a little diversion. There were some containers of highly flammable magnesium on the back of the deck. But the wind has shifted and this hold is filling with smoke. Let’s pile up the crates again—and while we do that, tell me how you got here.”

Mr. Kim grabbed a box and moved it back to the spot below the hatch. He gestured for me to do the same. We started to restack the boxes, and while we worked I filled him in. It wasn’t easy, because it was getting harder and harder to breathe. But I told Mr. Kim everything about how I’d seen him talking to the FBI agents, and found his secret hideaway—and how it needed an elevator, by the way—and how we got to D.C. and ran into Blankenship and got on the ship and were now fighting for our lives. I figured that Mr. Kim was going to find this out anyway, so I might as well tell him while he was preoccupied with the whole defeating a supervillain and the smoking fire and stuff, so he’d be too busy to yell at me.

“I see,” said Mr. Kim when I finished. “Anything else?”

“Nope, that about sums it up,” I said.

“All right. Let’s get out of here.”

He started climbing up the boxes. I was up on the first box when I remembered something.

“Wait!” I said. I jumped down and ran across the room to where the pedestal stood. The book was still lying there. It was big, and it was going to be tough to hold on to. But we needed to get it away from that madman.

Mr. Kim shouted, “Rachel. Leave the book! There’s no time!” But I was already there.

When I reached down to pick up the book, the strangest thing happened. I heard this deep and guttural evil laugh echoing through the room. It seemed like the air around me started to glow and the pedestal began to pulsate under my hands. I dropped the book back onto the pedestal. The laughter got louder and louder, and it sounded so horrible that I was frozen with fear. The smoke around me started to thicken, and for a moment I thought I saw a bull standing on human legs in front of me. The bull-man-thing put its head back and roared. It was the most horrible sound I’d ever heard, and it felt like it cut right through me to the center of my soul. The creature looked at me and its eyes turned red. Flames
shot out of its mouth and it roared again. It took a step toward me and reached out its arms as if to grab me. I screamed, and all at once the laughter stopped and the creature, if there was a creature, disappeared in a flash of blinding light. I fell to my knees. I couldn’t see, and the smoke was getting thicker and I couldn’t breathe very well. I struggled up and grabbed the book and stumbled my way back to Mr. Kim.

“Did you see that?” I yelled.

“See what?” said Mr. Kim. He was standing on the pile of boxes, waiting for me.

“That bull-man-thing? Over there, when I went to get the book? Didn’t you hear it?”

Mr. Kim looked at me, and his face was stricken. But he tried to hide his reaction.

“I didn’t see anything,” he said. “Probably the smoke is playing tricks with your eyes. Come on.” Smoke playing tricks. Yeah, that must be it. Either that or I’ve just gone completely insane.

We started our climb toward the hatch, with smoke billowing down around us. Alex and Brent were still waiting for us. We were about halfway up the pile when disaster struck. Another explosion rocked the ship, send
ing us falling to the floor. More smoke rushed into the hold.

“What do we do now? I can hardly breathe,” I said, coughing.

The cable that Mr. Kim had ridden down into the hold was still hanging from the hatch above. He grabbed it and fastened it into a little black gizmo that was attached to his belt.

“I don’t know if this will hold both of us, but we have to try,” he said.

He locked his arms around my waist and flicked a little switch on the cable thing. There was a whirring noise and we started shooting up the cable to the hatch. I held on to the book with one hand and Mr. Kim with the other. When we got almost to the top, our ascent slowed and it sounded like the motor in the gadget was losing power. I could see Alex and Brent waiting for us, arms outstretched to grab us when we got close enough.

We were almost there when the cable snapped and we started to fall. I screamed and felt myself floating in the air for a second. Then I stopped with a lurch. Alex and Brent had managed to grab Mr. Kim’s free hand, and he still held me with his other arm. They pulled us
through the hatch and onto the deck.

I lay there, trying to get some fresh air. It was better air than what was in the hold, but it was still smoky. Pilar helped me to my feet.

Off at the end of the ship I could see several containers in flames. It was pretty clear we needed to get off the ship. In the distance I could hear sirens; it sounded like fire trucks were on their way.

We cut across the deck toward the gangway. Suddenly Blankenship and his guards burst out of the smoke in front of us.

“Give me that book,” Blankenship snarled.

Mr. Kim moved in front of me.

“We’re leaving, Simon. The police and the FBI will be here in moments. It’s over,” Mr. Kim said.

“Oh, it’s not over, Johnny, not by a long shot. That book is mine. Every great religion needs its messiah, and Mithras has called me to be the one. You know it, Johnny. You saw it with your own eyes.” His eyes were glazing over. In my head, or maybe it wasn’t in my head, I thought I heard that laughter again. I looked around, but nobody else seemed to hear it.
Okay, I guess Rachel is now the mayor of Crazy Town.

“It’s wrong, Simon. You’re wrong. All you’ve done is cause death and sorrow, ever since we found this book,” Mr. Kim said.

“Give me that book or you’ll die right here,” he said.

He reached behind him with his good arm and pulled out a pistol, which he pointed right at Mr. Kim.

“Give me the book, lassie, or he dies.” Blankenship’s two guards moved around us, one of them behind Alex and the other behind me to my right.

Alex hissed at me to give him the book. That was when I started laughing again. Yep. That whole nervous-laughter thing, just like in the car that night with Boozer and the others. I was laughing away like a lunatic. It was several seconds before I could pull myself together. Not my fault; I rattle easily.

“What’s so funny?” Blankenship said.

“You, bull breath,” I said. “You’re full of it. You shoot that gun and this book is going right over the side and into the water. I’m done listening to your mystical hoo-hah. I’ve had enough.” That evil laughter I’d heard down in the hold started in my head again, louder than ever. I had to concentrate to force it down so I could continue.

Mr. Kim spoke. “Rachel, calm down. Go ahead and
give the book to him.” But I shushed him. I was on a roll.

“For the last few months I’ve had nothing but people telling me what to do. I’ve been shipped across the country and bossed around and forced to start exercising regularly. I have to work in a kitchen and I’m not allowed to get on the Internet and there’s no TV. To top it all off, I’ve had to listen to your Mithras ‘conquer this’ and ‘invincible that’ crapola. I’m done. From now on, Rachel Buchanan is in charge.” I took the book in one hand and held it out over the railing of the ship.

“Now, you are going to back up and we’re going down that gangway, or I’m going to turn your precious book into a personal flotation device. Got it?”

Blankenship looked at me and laughed. But it was a nervous laugh. I could tell. He clearly didn’t want me handling the book like this.

“Rachel,” Mr. Kim said, “the book is not important. I don’t want you or my other students to be hurt in any way. Please. Give Simon the book.”

“No!” I shouted.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Put the book down,” Blankenship said. He made a move as if to lunge at me, but I jumped back and held the book farther out over
the rail. He screamed at me to stop.

“You stupid girl! That book is priceless. You’ll ruin it!”

“Yep. That’s the plan.” I took a step toward him. “Now, back up or this book sleeps with the fishes! Move it!”

Just then there was a loud hissing sound and one of the containers at the rear of the ship made a loud popping noise as it exploded. It sent a rumble through the ship, and we all fell to the deck. Blankenship tried to scramble to me and grab the book, but with his bad arm, he missed and I seized it back and jumped to my feet. We all stood back up and he pointed the gun at me this time. I was still near the rail of the deck, holding the book over the side.

“Go ahead, shoot me and you lose the book,” I said. To be perfectly honest, I was really hoping that he wouldn’t shoot me. I was hoping that a lot. But control of the book was the only way out of this alive, as far as I could see.

“Simon, harm one hair on her head and I swear…,” Mr. Kim said.

“Shut up, Johnny, you small-minded simpleton!” Blankenship yelled at Mr. Kim. “Now, give me that
book!” He pulled back the hammer on the gun and pointed it straight at me.

“No!” I yelled.

Blankenship screamed a scream of anger and frustration. For a moment I thought he was really going to kill me. I was scared and started to shake with fear. I was afraid I was going to drop the book anyway and then he would shoot me. I could hear the laughter in my head again, louder now, and I saw Blankenship scream and clutch at his head with his damaged arm, while the other arm held tight to the gun. Then Alex saved the day.

“Rachel,
chwa dwi chagi
!” Alex shouted. Without even thinking, I went into a fighting stance and kicked back with my right foot. This was the Tae Kwon Do move where I was supposed to kick with my left foot, but, as Alex knew perfectly well, I still didn’t have this technique quite right. My kick connected solidly with the guard sneaking up on my right, and he went down with a thud. Ha!

When I did that, Alex launched a back kick at the other guard that hit him square in the chin, and before anyone could do anything, Mr. Kim dropped to the floor and swept Simon’s legs out from under him.
Blankenship crashed to the ground.

“Run!” yelled Mr. Kim. We took off, scrambling right over Blankenship and his men as they struggled to get to their feet. I’d almost made it when Simon reached out and grabbed my foot. I tripped and went down hard. The book skittered out of my hand, slid across the deck, and over the side.