SYLO

SIXTEEN

“That root cellar!” Quinn declared, taking off on a dead run for the house. “We’ll all hide down there.”

Tori started right after him.

“No!” I shouted. “The truck!”

Dad’s pickup was sitting right in front of the house, a dead giveaway that we were there. Seeing that, SYLO would tear the place apart looking for us. Tori put on the brakes and changed direction.

“The barn,” she declared.

There was no need for her to explain. I sprinted back to the truck and jumped in the cab while Tori went for the barn and swung the doors open. The engine fired quickly, though I could still hear the sound of the rapidly approaching chopper over its rumble.

“Hurry, man,” Quinn urged through the driver’s window.

I hit the gas, spun the wheel, and drove straight for the barn. There was no way of knowing if they had already spotted the truck. All we could do was hope they couldn’t see this far ahead. And pray. Tori had barely gotten the doors open when I tore through, careening toward the back wall. I jammed on the brakes, skidded across loose hay, and crashed into a stack of lobster traps that came crashing down onto the hood. Racer and Derby reared up and whinnied at the sudden intrusion. Tori went right to them and calmed them down.

We were in, but was it too late? I killed the engine and jumped out in time to see Quinn swinging the big barn doors closed.

“Did I leave tracks out there?” I asked, breathless.

“Too late to worry about that now,” he replied.

Quinn and I leaned against the door, listening intently as the roar of the helicopter grew louder. Tori stayed with the horses, petting them and getting them to relax as best as she could. I couldn’t say which was beating faster, the rotors or my heart. The ground trembled as the powerful chopper flew closer. I wanted to peek out of the window next to the door but was afraid I’d be seen, so all I did was close my eyes and wait. A shadow moved across the sky, blotting out the sun that streamed through the glass. The helicopter was hovering directly overhead. The sound was so deafening that Quinn put his hands over his ears. The shadow remained for a good thirty seconds. Did they spot the tire tracks? Had they seen us scramble to get inside? Were soldiers dropping down on zip lines?

The shadow finally moved off and the sound of the chopper lessened. I held my breath. They might be gone, or they might have been drifting further down the driveway to find a safe landing spot.

The sound grew fainter. They weren’t landing. They were leaving.

I looked toward Quinn. His wide, frightened eyes asked the same question I had: Are they gone? It took several seconds for the sound of the helicopter to disappear altogether and that answered the question. They were gone. But had they left any soldiers behind? None of us moved for a solid five minutes. Once the ringing in my ears from the monstrous engine dissipated, I listened for any sounds of movement outside. There was nothing.

Tori was the first to move. She left the horses, grabbed a long, wood-handled boat hook, and tossed it to me. What was I going to do with that? Skewer a soldier? I wasn’t about to do that…but I didn’t give it up either. Tori raised her shotgun back to her shoulder and motioned for Quinn to open one of the barn doors.

He slowly eased the big door open, the squeaking of the hinges tearing through the silence. We all peeked out, fearing that we would be faced with a squad of armed soldiers.

The property was empty.

“Let’s go to the house,” Tori whispered. She still had the shotgun up and level to the ground.

The three of us moved quickly across the stretch of gravel between the barn and the house while constantly glancing around to see if any of the SYLO soldiers had been left behind. We made it inside and Tori quickly closed and bolted the door. It seemed silly to lock it, but if it made her feel better, I wasn’t going to criticize. Once we were in and feeling relatively safe, we had to face the reality of the situation.

“What is this thing that’s going to happen?” Tori asked. The wild look in her eyes was gone. She was back in control of herself.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Granger called it an event…whatever that means. They don’t want anybody on Pemberwick to know about it for fear there’ll be a riot.”

“They don’t want anybody anywhere to know about it!” Quinn exclaimed. “Why else would they cut off communications with the mainland?”

“Is it about the virus?” Tori asked.

Quinn and I exchanged looks.

“There is no virus,” I announced. “We hacked into the hospital database. There’s no record of anybody having been treated for the Pemberwick virus.”

Quinn added, “And we heard Granger admit it, so that pretty much is that.”

“And that’s why they’re after us,” I added. “They know we know the truth and don’t want us to blow the lid off the deception.”

“So then, what about the Ruby?” Tori asked. “And the people who died?”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying not to sound defeated. “I don’t know how any of this fits together.”

We let that frustrating thought hang in the air.

Tori broke the silence by asking, “Your parents are with them?”

I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or Quinn. Didn’t matter. We both had the same answer.

“Yes,” we answered simultaneously.

“How?” she asked. “Why? I mean, are they just going along with Granger or is it something more than that?”

“I don’t know!” I yelled with frustration. “I’m suddenly questioning everything I ever knew. Why did we move here? Why this island? My parents talked about moving someplace safe but it sure didn’t seem all that dangerous in Greenwich. Whatever the truth is, my parents haven’t been honest with me for a long time.”

Tori gave a questioning look to Quinn.

“Don’t look at me,” he responded with a shrug. “I don’t get it either. But it makes me think that this started long before last week.”

“What do you mean?” Tori asked.

“How could our parents suddenly be up to speed so fast? Whatever it is that’s got this island in its grip, it stands to reason that they’ve known about it for a while. Before SYLO showed up. Before people started dying. Probably before either of us moved here. Heck, for all we know it may be why we moved here! I have no idea. The implications make my head hurt.”

Quinn’s logic was flawless, as usual. But if he was right, my parents had been keeping a huge secret from me for a very long time. A secret that changed our lives. I loved Pemberwick Island. Unlike most of my friends, I expected to live there the rest of my life. Now I had to accept the fact that I might not want to live here for another minute.

Tori walked over to a window that looked out onto the lagoon behind her house. It was getting late in the day. Shadows were growing long. Her father’s two lobster boats bobbed gently against the dock. Under other circumstances I would have thought it was the perfect postcard image of Maine.

“We’re prisoners on this island,” she finally said. “All of us. What we don’t know is why.”

“The three of us are worse than prisoners,” Quinn said. “We’re fugitives.”

Tori kept staring out at the lagoon but her mind was somewhere else.

“What will happen if they catch us?” she asked.

“Who knows?” I replied. “They don’t want us telling anybody what we know, so I guess they’ll lock us up until, well, until the event happens that they’re talking about. That’s the best we could expect.”

“And the worst?” Tori asked.

I didn’t have an answer for that.

“People have to know,” she said flatly. “Not just here on Pemberwick. On the mainland. They have to know what’s happening. The only way to stop it is to shine a light on it.”

“We don’t have a light that big,” Quinn said. “Or a cell phone that works. There’s no way.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Tori said and pointed out of the window.

She was pointing at her father’s lobster boats.

I didn’t understand. Did her father have radios on board? That didn’t seem to matter. If SYLO could disrupt cell service, they could definitely jam radio signals.

It was Quinn who put it together first. “Are you serious?” he asked, stunned.

“About what?” I asked, stupidly.

“This is a small island,” she said. “We can’t hide forever. God knows what they’ll do once they get us. We’ve seen what Granger’s capable of. If he’s going to hunt us, I say we make it as tough for him as possible.”

“And how do we do that?” I asked.

Tori looked me square in the eye and said, “We escape.”

The idea was so far-fetched that I actually laughed.

“Why is that funny?” she asked, dead serious.

“It’s not,” I said. “It’s just…it’s just…dumb. How would we do that?”

“We’ll take one of my father’s boats. There’s no moon tonight and the sea is calm. I’ll bet we can slip past those warships without anybody even noticing.”

I couldn’t believe what she was suggesting. I looked to Quinn, who stood next to her, gazing out at the dock.

“Tell her,” I ordered. “It’s crazy.”

“I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully. “Maybe crazy is a good thing. They’d never expect us to try something that was so totally nuts.”

“What?” I screamed with surprise. “It’s not nuts, it’s suicide. You didn’t see what happened to that cigarette boat. They blew it out of the water.”

“That boat made a run in broad daylight,” Tori said. “At full throttle. Those are some big ships out there. If we go quietly, they might not even notice us.”

My mouth hung open in shock for several seconds before I declared, “You’re both crazy.”

Tori whipped away from the window and stalked toward me.

“So what do you want to do?” she said in a tone that was more accusing than questioning. “Sit around and wait until we get arrested and locked up? You can’t even go home or your parents will turn you in.”

“I…I still don’t believe that,” I said, though I wasn’t so sure.

“She’s right, Tuck,” Quinn said. “There’s nothing right about what’s going on. Granger’s a murderer and whatever the deal is with our parents, they’re cooperating with him. We’re alone here.” He turned to Tori and added, “It’s about five miles to the nearest landfall. We can ditch anywhere, then flag down a car and head for Portland.”

Tori said, “We’ll go to a local TV station. Or radio. I want to go on Big Hits Y100.9 and tell the world what’s happening.”

“Chris Mac!” Quinn declared. “I love that DJ. Can you imagine if we went on his show to blow the lid off this thing?”

“Stop!” I shouted. “You guys are talking like this is some big adventure. I know you both hate living here but you can’t use what’s happening with SYLO as an excuse to go looking for a little excitement.”

“I think the excitement came looking for us,” Tori said flatly.

“But this is serious,” I argued. “People are dying and I don’t want to be next.”

“Neither do I,” Tori said coldly. “That’s exactly why we have to get out.”

“No,” I shot back. “My parents wouldn’t let anything happen to us.”

“Neither would mine,” Quinn said. “But you heard Granger. Whatever’s going on is serious enough that he’s killing people to keep it quiet. You think our parents can stop that guy? Hell, he’s part of the United States Navy. He’s got the president on his side, which means he’s got the whole freakin’ government behind him. You think any amount of pleading by our parents would stop them from doing whatever they want to us?”

“There’s only one thing that can stop them,” Tori interjected. “They have to be exposed. This whole mess has to be exposed. We can do that.”

I looked from one to the other. They totally believed in what they were saying.

“Exposed,” I said. “What if that’s the exact right word? What if we’re mistaken? What if the virus is real? We could be carriers. If we left, we could spread it to the rest of the population.”

“You’re reaching, Tuck,” Quinn said dismissively. “You don’t believe the virus is real any more than I do. Not anymore. There’s some other reason we’re being held captive here. If you want your life back, the only way to do that is to let the rest of the world know too.”

Quinn looked at Tori and added, “I’m with you. We’re outta here.”

“I don’t think so,” came a strange man’s voice.

We all spun around to see a soldier standing in the doorway that led to the back porch. His right hand was at waist level, holding a pistol—aimed at us. He wore the dark red fatigues and red beret of SYLO.

The chopper had left someone behind after all.

The three of us stood frozen for what seemed like an eternity.

“We’re leaving,” Tori finally said. “You can’t stop us.”

The soldier flicked his gun to the right and calmly fired a shot that was as loud as it was shocking. The three of us flinched as an old vase on Tori’s mantle exploded.

“My orders are to bring you in,” he said coldly. “Ideally it would be alive, but that isn’t a requirement.”

He was an older guy with a cold look in his eye that made me believe he had seen more than his share of mayhem. Or caused it. I didn’t see a drop of sympathy or concern for us. He had his mission and I didn’t doubt that he would do anything necessary to carry it out.

It was over. They had us. To be honest, I felt a touch of relief. At least we wouldn’t be making an insane escape attempt in an ancient boat, trying to sneak past the U.S. Navy.

“Let’s all step outside,” the guy said coolly as he reached for a small walkie-talkie that was clipped onto a web belt.

“No,” Tori said.

Both Quinn and I shot her a surprised look. What was she doing? The soldier shifted slightly, aiming his pistol on her.

“Don’t be stupid,” was all I managed to say to her.

“Listen to your friend,” the soldier said, smiling condescendingly.

Tori was wearing a navy blue peacoat. She put her hands into her coat pockets and took a step toward the soldier. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to reach out and grab her to keep her from taking another step, but with somebody pointing a gun on us, I didn’t want to risk things getting out of control.

“You’re not going to shoot,” Tori said with confidence. “Unless you’re a murderer.”

The soldier raised the gun and with his eyes still locked on Tori’s, he fired, blowing out a ceiling light. The explosion made Quinn and I jump again. The ringing in my ears was painful.

Tori didn’t flinch.

“Stop!” Quinn shouted.

I wasn’t sure who he was talking to.

Tori kept walking toward the soldier, who brought the gun back around to her.

“You are making a very big mistake,” he said.

Was his voice cracking? Was Tori right? Was he going to be the first to blink? He didn’t step back but he didn’t seem as confident as he had a moment before.

Tori stepped right up until the muzzle of the gun was pressed against her chest.

“The only mistake here would be if you hurt any of us,” she said, her cool unshaken. “Is that what you want? You want to be known as a kid killer? Your picture would be on the front page of every newspaper in the world.”

The soldier laughed. He actually laughed. It wasn’t maniacal or condescending. It seemed oddly…sad.

“Would it?” he said. “That would be good news.”

Quinn shot me a curious look.

“That’s good news?” he asked the soldier. “You want to be known as a kid killer?”

The soldier looked at him, then at me. His eyes focused like he was seeing us for the first time as something other than prey. He then spoke in a voice that was so soft I could barely hear him.

“It would mean people still cared.”

As he looked me straight in the eyes, I saw a brief glimpse of a real person. A person with a family and history and friends. It didn’t last long. His eyes quickly turned cold.

He looked back at Tori while reaching for his walkie-talkie. “Do us all a favor,” he ordered. “Take a step back and—”

Tori thrust her right hand forward, the hand that was in her pocket, and hit the soldier square in the gut. It wasn’t exactly a punch, but the guy reacted dramatically. His back went straight, he let out a pained gasp, and fell to his knees. Tori stepped out of the way and the guy fell flat on his face. She quickly kicked the pistol out of his hand.

Quinn and I didn’t move. I can’t speak for him, but I was in shock.

“There’s line on the porch,” Tori shouted at me. “Get it.”

I didn’t move. I couldn’t even think.

“Go!” she demanded.

That kicked me into gear. I ran out to the back porch, found two hanks of heavy-duty line, and brought them back inside to find Tori kneeling on the soldier and twisting both of his arms behind his back. Quinn hadn’t moved.

“Hurry!” she ordered. “He won’t be down long.”

I fumbled with the line, unfurling it as quickly as I could and feeding it to her as she expertly tied the stunned guy’s wrists together.

“What the hell was that?” Quinn finally managed to say.

Tori reached into her pocket and pulled out a black device that she threw on the floor.

“Taser.”

“Where did you get that?” I demanded to know.

“Dad gave it to me before I went into the root cellar.”

She continued to truss the soldier.

“Why does he have a Taser?” Quinn asked.

“Same reason we have a shotgun. Those boats are his life. We protect them.”

The soldier moaned. The electric shock had stunned him but he wasn’t unconscious.

“Help me,” she said. “We’ll put him in the cellar.”

I was operating in a daze. The three of us half-dragged, half-lifted the heavy man into the kitchen. Inside the pantry was a trap door in the floor that opened onto stairs that led down to a dark, damp chamber. We wrestled him down, feet first, until he hit the dirt floor.

“Lean him against the stairs,” Tori commanded.

The guy was still too stunned to resist. We sat him up while Tori looped the line under his arms and around the frame of the stairs. Her last move was to lash his legs together so he couldn’t kick. The entire operation had taken less than two minutes.

He was our prisoner.

“I told you,” Quinn said to me.

“Told me what?”

“It’s all about the knots.”

The guy couldn’t move. Tori had trussed him like a Thanksgiving turkey.

The soldier shook his head, trying to pull himself back to reality.

“That was incredible,” I said.

Tori began to tremble. It was as if the reality of what she had done had finally gotten through to her.

“You okay?” I asked, rubbing her shoulders.

She nodded quickly. “Yeah, I just gotta breathe.”

“We should gag him,” Quinn offered.

Looking around, I saw a worn rag that was draped across a work bench. It was filthy. I didn’t care. I grabbed it, rolled it up, stretched it across the soldier’s mouth, and tied it behind his head.

“The walkie,” Quinn said.

I snatched the walkie-talkie off his belt and jammed it into my back pocket.

“Can you hear me?” Quinn asked the soldier. “Do you understand?”

The guy focused on him. He was back with the living. He heard.

“We didn’t hurt you,” Quinn said. “Remember that.”

The anger in the soldier’s eyes told me that if he had the chance, he would not extend the same courtesy to us.

Tori leaned down and locked eyes with him. “And make sure somebody takes care of my horses. I’m holding you responsible.”

I think the guy wanted to take her head off, but she had trussed him so well that all he could do was shake with rage.

“Let’s get outta here,” I said and led them up the stairs.

Once the others were up, I slammed the trap door shut and Tori clipped on a padlock.

“That won’t keep him forever,” Tori said, “but it buys us some time.”

Quinn said, “Hopefully enough for us to get to the mainland.”

“Whoa, stop,” I said quickly. “You can’t still be thinking of escaping.”

Quinn looked me right in the eye and said, “Wake up, Tucker. They’re coming after us. They sent that guy for Tori, and I have no doubt that he would have shot us if she hadn’t saved our butts. There’s another guy at your house right now and I’ll bet you anything that somebody’s at my house too.” He reached down and picked up the soldier’s pistol. “They’re not going to stop until they get us, one way or another.”

I looked at Tori. She still seemed shaken.

“There’s no place to hide,” she said in a small voice.

The two of them stared at me, waiting for a response.

“I’m not like you guys,” I said. “We’re talking about changing our lives forever. I like things the way they are.”

“You mean the way they were,” Tori said.

“Yeah, the way they were,” I said wistfully. “I don’t want to believe my parents are doing anything wrong.”

“You think I do?” Quinn asked. “I’m their only kid. Same as you. You think I like knowing they’re part of some villainous plot? I can’t even begin to get my head around it. But people are dying, Tuck. That’s real. We can’t pretend like things are going to be okay.”

“They took my dad,” Tori said. “I’d do anything for him, but I can’t go blasting into that SYLO compound with a shotgun looking for him. I want to find people who will. I’m going—with or without you guys.”

Quinn looked me straight in the eye and said, “You promised me you were going to start taking care of the little things, remember? Well, sorry, we have to deal with a few big things first.”

I truly didn’t know what to do—other than to run home and demand that my parents tell me the truth. They had to have answers that would make sense and bring us back to normal. They were my parents. They watched out for me and complained when I wasn’t trying hard enough in school. My mother didn’t even want me to play football because it was too dangerous. How could they be part of a plot that could lead to my murder? I wanted answers and I wanted them to come from my mom and dad. That’s what I wanted. More than anything.

“So where does that leave us?” Tori asked.

I took a deep breath and said, “It leaves us in the dark and I don’t like being there. I want to know the truth…and I don’t believe we’re going to find it here.”

“So?” Quinn asked.

“So let’s get the hell off this island.”