Ignite Me

SIXTY-SEVEN

Kenji grabs my arm.

Everyone else is going up and out of Warner’s room, but Kenji and I will head out the back way, alerting no one to our presence. We want everyone, even the soldiers, to think we are in the midst of battle. We don’t want to show up only to disappear; we don’t want anyone to notice we’re missing.

So we stand back and watch as our friends load into the elevator to go up to the main floor. James is still waving as the doors close and leave him behind.

My heart stops for a second.

Kenji kisses James good-bye. It’s an obnoxious, noisy kiss, right on top of his head. “Watch my back, okay?” he says to James. “If anyone comes in here, I want you to kick the shit out of them.”

“Okay,” James says. He’s laughing to pretend he’s not crying.

“I’m serious,” Kenji says. “Just start whaling on them. Like just go batshit.” He makes a weird fighting motion with his hands. “Get super crazy,” he says. “Beat the crazy with crazy—”

“No one is going to come in here, James,” I say, shooting a sharp look at Kenji. “You won’t have to worry about defending yourself. You’re going to be perfectly safe. And then we’ll come back.”

“Really?” he asks, turning his eyes on me. “All of you?”

Smart kid.

“Yes,” I lie. “All of us are going to come back.”

“Okay,” he whispers. He bites down on his trembling lip. “Good luck.”

“No tears necessary,” Kenji says to him, wrapping him up in a ferocious hug. “We’ll be back soon.”

James nods.

Kenji breaks away.

And then we head out the door in the gun wall.

The first part, I think, is going to be the hardest. Our trek to the port will be made entirely on foot, because we can’t risk stealing vehicles. Even if Kenji could make the tank invisible, we’d have to abandon it in its visible form, and an extra, unexpected tank stationed at the port would be too much of a giveaway.

Anderson must have his place completely guarded.

Kenji and I don’t speak as we move. When Delalieu told us the supreme would be stationed at the port, Kenji immediately knew where it was. So did Warner and Adam and Castle and just about everyone except for me. “I spent some time on one of those ships,” Kenji said. “Just for a bit. For bad behavior.” He smiled. “I know my way around.”

So I’m holding on to his arm and he’s leading the way.

There’s never been a colder day, I think. Never been more ice in the air.

This ship looks like a small city; it’s so enormous I can’t even see the end of it. We scan the perimeter, attempting to gauge exactly how difficult it’ll be to infiltrate the premises.

Extremely difficult.

Nearly impossible.

These are Kenji’s exact words.

Sort of.

“Shit,” he says. “This is ridiculous. I have never seen this level of security before. This is backed up,” he says.

And he’s right. There are soldiers everywhere. On land. At the entrance. On deck. And they’re all so heavily armed it makes me feel stupid with my two handguns and the simple holster swung around my shoulders.

“So what do we do?”

He’s quiet a moment. “Can you swim?”

“What? No.”

“Shit.”

“We can’t just jump in the ocean, Kenji—”

“Well it’s not like we can fly.”

“Maybe we can fight them?”

“Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think we can take on two hundred soldiers? I know I am an extremely attractive man, J, but I am not Bruce Lee.”

“Who’s Bruce Lee?”

“Who’s Bruce Lee?” Kenji asks, horrified. “Oh my God. We can’t even be friends anymore.”

“Why? Was he a friend of yours?”

“You know what,” he says, “just stop. Just—I can’t even talk to you right now.”

“Then how are we supposed to get inside?”

“Shit if I know. How are we supposed to get all those guys off the ship?”

“Oh,” I gasp. “Oh my God. Kenji—” I grab his invisible arm.

“Yeah, that’s my leg, and you’re cutting it a little too close there, princess.”

“Kenji, I can shove them off,” I say, ignoring him. “I can just push them into the water. Will that work?”

Silence.

“Well?” I ask.

“Your hand is still on my leg.”

“Oh.” I jerk back. “So? What do you think? Will it work?”

“Obviously,” Kenji says, exasperated. “Do it now, please. And hurry.”

So I do.

I stand back and pull all my energy up and into my arms.

Power, harnessed.

Arms, positioned.

Energy, projected.

I move my arm through the air like I might be clearing off a table.

And all the soldiers topple into the water.

It looks almost comical from here. Like they were a bunch of toys I was pushing off my desk. And now they’re bouncing in the water, trying to figure out what’s just happened.

“Let’s go,” Kenji says suddenly, grabbing my arm. We’re darting forward and down the hundred-foot pier. “They’re not stupid,” he says. “Someone is going to sound the alarm and they’re going to seal the doors soon. We’ve probably got a minute before it all goes on lockdown.”

So we’re bolting.

We’re racing across the pier and clambering up, onto the deck, and Kenji pulls on my arm to tell me where to go. We’re becoming so much more aware of each other’s bodies now. I can almost feel his presence beside me, even though I can’t see him.

“Down here,” he shouts, and I look down, spotting what looks like a narrow, circular opening with a ladder affixed to the inside. “I’m going in,” he says. “Start climbing down in five seconds!”

I can hear the alarms already going off, sirens wailing in the distance. The ship is steady against the dock, but the water in the distance goes on forever, disappearing into the edge of the earth.

My five seconds are up.

I’m climbing after him.