[Some context: Teo’s father was convicted of murdering AJ’s mother a few years ago. Teo has always believed his father guilty, until one night he sees a feral man with glowing blue eyes, just as his father had always warned about. Teo works the autoshop his father founded, Al’s Garage.]
[*Chargers: a type of rock that’s mined exclusively in Gale City, where our story takes place. These glowing, bright blue rocks naturally form with an electric charge and are used as a power source, though little is known about how they’re formed and what other affects they may have.]
TEO
The afternoon hours whizzed by for Teo. He was only vaguely aware of the sunlight outside taking an orange cast, of the fact that he’d already heard the radio play this song twice today, of the insistent gurgle in his stomach.
The longer he worked, the worse the workload became. There was too much to do, and it would take too much time to charge a good price for it—not unless he did a lousy job, which he was not willing to do. He knew better than to ask for help from Johnny’s men for that reason.
He couldn’t do much for the Miller Speedster or the Sutra until he ordered parts—something Johnny could’ve done the day they received the order. Teo was definitely going to have to field angry phone calls in the near future.
He forced himself to take a break and took a long drink from the sink. There was nothing here in the way of a kitchen, but a shelf in the back sometimes served as a pantry. Currently, there was only a moldy loaf of bread and a half-finished jar of jam missing its lid. He sighed and resigned himself to a jam sandwich.
Belatedly, he remembered his father’s letter and slipped it out. It was warm and damp from being in his pocket all day. He should’ve found a place to put it, but he never knew when Johnny was going to show up again. Mindlessly, he opened it and read it again.
It was definitely his father’s handwriting; he didn’t know why he kept questioning that. Something about certain words looked off, or at least inconsistent. Some of the letters weren’t capitalized. Like the S in confused, but the S in upset was.
“Teo!”
Teo jumped and whirled. Charlie stood behind him, grinning widely, his face and red hair smeared with grease.
“Sparks, Charlie,” Teo grumbled, stuffing the letter back in his pocket. “What are you doing here? How long have you been here?”
“A couple hours. Look!”
Charlie shoved something big in his face—the gauntlet.
Teo pushed it away on instinct. “Don’t mess with that thing,” he snapped.
“But I fixed it,” Charlie said.
Teo was about to complain that Eloise was going to chew them both out for Charlie being here again, but the genuine crestfallen look on the boy’s face stopped Teo short.
He held out a hand. “Let me see.”
Charlie handed him the gauntlet. Teo turned it around, noting how the fingers didn’t flop around as they had before. He pulled at the digits and found they moved more easily, like a real hand.
“How’d you unbend the metal here?” Teo pointed to the plating around the thumb.
“I warmed it up with your fire thing and moved it around a bit,” Charlie said. w
Teo should probably be alarmed about a twelve-year-old messing with his soldering iron when he wasn’t looking, but the work was undeniable. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it was functional.
“Where’d you learn to do this?” he said.
Charlie shrugged, looking shy now. “I don’t know. I just kind of figured it out.”
Teo nodded and handed him the glove. “That’s pretty good.”
Charlie beamed, then tried to hide his expression. “It’s no big deal. Just a job. I mean—I still can’t figure out what goes here.” He pointed to the hole on the back of the glove. “I tried putting a charger in there, but it didn’t work.”
“Okay, that’s dangerous. Don’t do that.”
“I wore gloves, I’m not stupid. These things here.” Charlie leaned forward and pointed to the veinlike webbing that led from the back of the glove to the fingers. “They look like they’re supposed to conduct electricity or something, but the charger doesn’t read it.”
Teo paused. “Wait, say that again. The charger doesn’t do anything?”
“No. Even if I press the charger to the connector here”—Charlie pointed to the little circle inside the hole—“nothing happens.”
Teo took the glove back and turned it around. It was clearly designed to do something, but if it couldn’t conduct charger energy—
The sound of an approaching engine cut them off. An off-white pickup truck started to pull into the garage but stopped when the driver inevitably saw there was no room. The truck backed up and parked on the street.
Teo groaned and glanced at the clock. It was way after five o’clock. He should’ve closed the garage door hours ago. “Charlie,” Teo said. “Will you get me burgers from Tastytown if I give you money?”
“Ew, Tastytown?” Charlie said.
“I know, but it’s closer than Tai’s, and I’m starving.”
“Can I get fries?”
“Sure, great.”
Two people stepped out of the car: a tall black guy maybe in his late teens, and a shorter girl with almond-shaped eyes and long black hair. Teo’s attention caught on the girl for some reason. She was definitely not from around here with those cargo pants and boots, but he thought she looked familiar.
The girl glanced between him and the other guy. “Um, hi. Are you Al?” she said.
Definitely not from around here. “No. Sorry, but we’re closed.”
“We’re just dropping it off,” the guy said.
“We are?” the girl asked.
Teo gestured at the rest of the garage. “Not really a place to put it, but if you come back tomorrow—”
“How will we get back without the truck?” the girl asked.
“We’ll walk,” the guy said.
“What?”
“Or,” Teo said loudly. “You can take your truck back and come tomorrow.”
“We’ll leave it on the street,” the guy said.
“I really wouldn’t do that around here,” Teo said. He kept glancing at the girl, trying not to look like he was staring. The familiarity was driving him nuts.
“Teo,” Charlie shouted from the back. “Did you want me to get you a burger?”
“Yes,” Teo called back. “I thought you left already.”
“You didn’t give me money.”
“Right.” Teo reached for his wallet in his back pocket. “What are you doing back there?”
“Nothing.”
“Why would we leave the truck here?” the girl said to her companion. “We’re miles from the mines.”
Teo froze.
The mines. They were from the mines.
She was Kaya Nakamura’s daughter.
Teo turned away to hide his face. This was Nakamura’s daughter. How did he know that? Why was he so certain? He had to retrace the steps in his logic. Mines, meaning she was a worker at the mines, though she definitely wasn’t a miner. That meant geologist. Had the city hired a new geologist? Had they hired Nakamura’s husband? Why wouldn’t he know that? Why hadn’t Maria said anything?
He glanced back at her, though she was still talking to the driver in that worried, polite tone. She looked familiar because he’d seen her photo in the paper two years ago, next to a man’s. The family that Nakamura had left behind.
What did he feel—embarrassed? Ashamed? Hopeful that she wouldn’t figure out who he was? Because she definitely didn’t know. How did he know that? She’d assume that he was Al. She wouldn’t have asked that if—
“Excuse me?” the daughter asked. “Can you tell me how far we are from, uh…Brickwall Street?”
“I really don’t know,” Teo said. There were dozens of streets with the work brick in them.
“Fries!” Charlie called from the back.
“Then come here and get the money,” Teo yelled back.
“It’s not a far walk,” the black guy was saying to Nakamura’s daughter. “An hour or so.”
“An hour?” she cried. “My father’s gonna go nuts!”
Something metallic crashed on the floor. “Sorry,” Charlie called as he picked his way towards them.
Teo ran a hand over his face, then realized he’d probably just smeared grease all over himself. “Not sure how this could get more irritating,” he muttered.
“Charlie,” a voice called from outside.
“Uh oh,” Charlie said.
Eloise marched through the garage door and barely sidestepped a tire. “I’d really like to limit my trips here to about once a week, if we could.” She glared at Charlie. “Grandpapa made dinner.”
“Uh,” Charlie said. “I was just leaving.”
“You certainly were.” Eloise noticed the other two and paused. “Akiko Hatsuhashi?” she said, more as a question than a greeting. “Uh, hello.”
“Hello,” the girl said, her tone surprisingly icy. “You’re one of the reporters from today.”
Eloise smiled sheepishly. “Secretary, actually. I was just helping out. I’m Eloise.”
“I go by AJ, actually.”
“Oh, sorry.” Eloise glanced at Teo, an alarmed question in her eyes. She pointed between Teo and AJ. “Do you two know each—”
“All right, that’s enough.” Teo forged his way towards the front and hit the button. The automated garage door came down with a creaky roar of gears. “We’re closed. Everyone get out!”
“But what about the truck?” the black guy said.
“Come. Back. Tomorrow.” Teo noticed AJ staring at him quizzically and ducked away. “I got too much to do.”
“Did you still want a burger?” Charlie asked.
“No, forget it. Just go—”
The lights flickered out.
Eloise cried out in surprise, but the yelling finally stopped. With the garage door closed, the whole garage was pitch black.
“I didn’t do it!” Charlie said.
“Of course.” Teo patted his belt for a flashlight, but he’d taken off his belt to work under the car. “Hold on, nobody move.” The last thing he needed was for someone to trip and fall. He carefully felt his way to the bench and blindly searched his drawers.
“Why am I missing so many wrenches?” he said loudly. “Charlie?”
“Uh, they’re in your room. Probably.”
Teo took a breath and kept rummaging until his hand caught a cylindrical handle. He flicked the flashlight on, and a faint yellow light sputtered on the floor. “All right, I’m going to check the fusebox.”
“How about a flashlight for us?” Eloise said.
“Only found one,” Teo said over his shoulder as he picked his way to the back door. “I suspect Charlie has a idea where my other one is.”
“Uh . . .”
Teo walked outside and looked around the wall, trying to remember where the fusebox was. Not on the alley wall, as far as he could tell, though it was tough to see around the discarded parts and heaping piles of trash that lined the alley. He picked his way to the back corner.
A scraping noise caught his attention.
He paused just before rounding the corner and turned. Nothing behind him that he could see. Maybe an animal? He heard it again—a dull thumping sound. It was coming from the other direction, around the corner. The close walls of the alley were throwing the sound.
He looked around the corner.
A man stood hunched, facing away from him, his hand hitting the fusebox. Teo thought he heard mumbling but couldn’t make out any words.
“Hey,” Teo said sharply, hoping to scare him. “What are you doing?”
The man kept scraping and mumbling, unaware or unbothered.
Teo started towards him. “I’ve called the police, you’d better scram.”
The man kept scraping, his other hand clutching his head. Teo inched close enough to make out the words.
“Make it stop,” the man muttered, his voice low and guttural. “Make it stop. Get out. Get—out.” He slammed his fist on the fusebox.
Teo paused. This man wasn’t the first unstable person to wander back here, but Teo’s heart was pounding with the terror of last night. Maybe he really should call the police.
“Get out get out get it out.” The man slammed both fists on the fusebox, hard enough that something sparked dangerously.
“Hey,” Teo said, reaching a hand for his shoulder.
The man whirled to face Teo.
His eyes glowed blue.
Teo stumbled back so hard that he fell back into a trash can, knocking it over behind him. It wasn’t real—all day he’d been hoping, in a small corner of his mind, that he’d been wrong, that there was some other, more logical explanation to last night’s events, that this had nothing to do with everything painful about his life—
There are people with strange abilities.
The man turned slowly, back hunched, mouth twisted in a feral snarl. Electricity crackled from his hand still on the box.
But this was a different man than the one from last night—stronger features, hair shorn close to the head. He wore baggy demin overalls over a dirtied white shirt. A miner?
Teo pulled himself up, trying to get his feet under him. The man stared at Teo but didn’t move.
“Make it stop,” the miner wheezed, mindlessly hitting the box. Electricity crawled around the machine like spider legs, but the man didn’t seem to notice. “Make it stop.”
Teo got up into a crouch and braced against the wall. He wanted to run, but he didn’t want to provoke an attack. He tried creeping backwards, one hand against the wall to keep himself from tripping.
“Get it out,” the man hissed. He stared at Teo, but his hand didn’t leave the fusebox. The glow in his eyes brightened. Something in the fusebox buzzed, electricity crackling around his hand. “Let it out.”
Teo took another step back.
They are dangerous, they’re like animals—
“LET ME OUT.”
Teo launched himself down the alley, barely clearing the trash can he’d knocked over. He caught himself against the wall and vaulted for the door.
A crash behind him, footsteps following.
He threw himself around the corner and through the door. Eloise was there, barely visible by the outside light. “You could at least—hey!”
He shoved her back and threw the door closed.
“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded.
“What’s happening?” AJ asked, sounding close.
Teo fumbled blindly for the lock. This door had a deadbolt, right? There—he nearly pinched his hand sliding it in place.
Bang. The door shuddered from the impact.
“What is that?” Charlie said, also close by.
“Is someone outside?” AJ said.
Teo opened his mouth to explain, but no words came to him. The pounding continued with more force than Teo would’ve thought possible.
“How many people are out there?” Eloise said.
“Just one,” Teo said, but there was no way to be sure of that, either.
“What’s wrong with him?” AJ said.
The pound continued, almost rhythmic. Teo heard the shuffling of several people behind him.
Should they run? Should they try to call the police?
“Where’s the flashlight?” Eloise said.
Teo still held it in his hand. He flicked the switch, then hit it a few times. Yellow light sputtered from the end.
More banging. Teo handed the flashlight to Eloise, instinctively freeing up his hands, though he wasn’t sure he could fight this man. Not someone that could withstand putting his hands directly on a fuse box.
He thought he saw a flash of light around the door hinge. A spark?
“What was that?” Eloise said, her voice high with real panic now.
“Back up.” Teo held out his arms and pushed the group away from the door.
The banging grew louder, more insistent. It sounded as though the man were throwing his whole body against the door.
“Shouldn’t we barricade it?” Eloise said.
“No, don’t touch it.” Teo felt a deep, bone-chilling certainty that this man was dangerous in a way they couldn’t face, certain that his nightmares had somehow all been piled into one moment.
Beware the ones with glowing eyes.
The door flew open with a crash and banged against the wall.
Teo flinched as blue light flooded the space, almost obscuring the form of the man. The light was just like that of a charger but far brighter, his pupils obscured in his irises.
Teo turned, the entire group huddled behind him, staring open-mouthed.
“Run!” he shouted.
The tall guy moved first, darting for the shadow of the nearest car. Eloise stumbled back, nearly tripping but not taking her eyes from him. AJ just stared, jaw slack, her eyes reflecting the blue light. On impulse, Teo grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. “Move.”
For a brief moment, he thought the man—miner, creature, thing—wouldn’t attack. Maybe it wanted something else. Teo risked a glance behind him and saw the man creeping towards them, a hand outstretched towards Charlie.
The boy darted for the stairs, but Teo yanked him away by the arm. The man lunged where Charlie had just been and caught the railing. The whole staircase blazed with light as blue electricity crawled through the whole railing.
“Charlie!” Eloise called from somewhere, the light of the flashlight streaking on the floor ten feet away.
Teo looked to the yawning blackness of the garage. Even he couldn’t navigate the space blindly, and the whole place was full of metallic tools and cars.
“In the room,” Teo shouted, shoving Charlie toward the open door under the stairs. “Everyone inside!”
The miner released his grip on the railing and stumbled back, as though surprised himself. He looked from his hand to Teo and started forward again.
Teo backed up, but there was nowhere to run, no way to avoid touching him. The man raised a hand, winding up to strike.
Teo knew he couldn’t touch him without risking electrocution. He ducked into a crouch and aimed a kick at his stomach. The man’s hand caught Teo’s pants for a moment as he stumbled back. Teo felt the tingle of electricity through it, despite the thick cloth.
The man raked a clawed hand at his face. Teo leaned so far back that he lost his balance, barely catching himself with one hand to the floor, but now he had no leverage to maneuver. The man was upon him, hands raised, eyes bright, breathing so hard through clenched teeth that he made a hissing sound.
Something flew at the man’s face.
The sudden loss of light left Teo blind, but he heard the man fall with a startling clatter of metal. Teo couldn’t be sure, but he thought someone had just thrown his tool belt at the guy.
A hand grabbed Teo’s arm. “Get up!” AJ yelled in his ear.
Teo scrambled to his feet and lunged for the bedroom door, spotting the glow of the flashlight in Eloise’s hand. The tall guy shut the door behind him. Teo fumbled blindly for the lock.
They all stood back for a few moments, waiting, their panting loud in the small space.
Thump. The door rattled with a strike. Thump thump. Thump—
“What do we do?” AJ asked.
“Now we’re trapped,” Eloise said. “There’s no other way out.”
“Is there a phone in here?” AJ said.
“No,” Teo said, though he doubted it would work anyway. As terrified as he was, there was a small relief that he wasn’t alone this time.
“Barricade the door,” the tall guy said. “Wait him out.”
The others broke into action, grabbing things to push in front of the door. Teo tried the lights on instinct, but nothing happened. He looked around, trying to figure out what that glow was on the far side of the room. He waded his way across the room.
“What are you doing?” Eloise said.
“Getting some light,” Teo said. “Maybe we can find something.”
The charger sat on the floor by his bed, abandoned by Charlie but still in its glass case. It wasn’t the best light source, but it was better than nothing. He knelt down to pick it up and felt paper crinkle in his pocket. His father’s letter.
He slipped it from his pocket absently, trying to preserve it, then paused and stared at it. He’d been thinking something about the letter. His father’s writing had been odd . . .
His father, the only one who might know what was happening.
Teo unfolded the paper and held the charger over it like a flashlight. Yes, the capitalization was inconsistent. He found one E that wasn’t capitalized, then one that was, then two that weren’t. Definitely odd.
Was it on purpose?
“I need a pen,” Teo said.
“What? Why?” Eloise said.
“Just give me a pen!”
Eloise slipped one from her skirt pocket and tossed it to him. Teo started writing the letters at the bottom of the page.
S . . . E . . . A . . . Already it was a real word. Something near the coast? That wouldn’t help them now.
L . . . Seal? Like for a car door?
More banging at the door.
“What does he want?” AJ cried. “Is he mad at you?”
“I don’t think he wants anything,” the tall guy said, his voice eerily calm.
Teo agreed, but he stayed focused on the letter. F . . . T . . . C . . . What if he was wrong? What if it was a scramble? He would never figure it out in time.
E . . . R . . . And that was the end of it. He didn’t see more. His eyes scanned back a few lines and found an E—or had he already found that one?
He looked at his scrawl.
S E A L E R S L E F T C O R N E R
Seal Ersle—Sealer Sleft—
Sealers left corner.
A message. A real message, even if it didn’t make any sense. Left corner—what left corner? What were sealers?
He looked in the left corner of his room—under the bed, where his secret box was hidden. He shoved it out of the way and swept his hand as far as it would go. He blindly hit the wall and floor but only touched grit and crumpled papers and small, round things that felt uncomfortably soft.
Nothing.
The pounding continued. He dove for the other left corner, the one by the door, and starting shoving parts and boxes aside.
“What are you doing?” Eloise said.
This didn’t feel right anyway. Teo had only started living in this room after Alberto had left—he shouldn’t be looking here.
There was only one place he could think of.
“I have to get upstairs,” Teo said.
Four faces turned to look at him.
“What? Why?” Eloise said.
“I need something.”
“Right now?” Eloise flinched at another pound on the door.
“I think it can help,” Teo insisted
“What is it?” Charlie said.
“I don’t know but—” More banging at the door interrupting him. “He’s gonna break through anyway!” This door was less protective than the one that had just been kicked open.
The group tensed as the thumping sounded worse, a voice snarling on the other side. He realized how stupid he sounded. None of these people had any reason to trust him—
“I’ll help,” AJ said, stepping forward. “I have an idea.”
****
AJ
AJ thought she was handling the situation quite well.
It was almost like a dream. A nightmare, technically, but the kind that had a clear rule set. A crazy man was trying to kill them. He glowed with electricity, like a giant, feral charger in the shape of a person. They couldn’t let him touch them or they would probably die. They needed to insulate him. Clear rule set.
Besides, AJ was not creative enough to be dreaming this.
The boy called Teo stared at her, eyes wide. His face had been nagging at her since she arrived. She had no reason to trust this boy, but this wasn’t the time for twenty questions. “We need something to insulate him,” she said. “A blanket—something thick.”
Teo whirled and ripped off the blanket from his bed. It looked smaller than she wanted, and it smelled, but it would have to do.
“And some rope,” AJ said.
“Rope?” Eloise said.
“I don’t have rope,” Teo said.
“Or something like that. Something to tie him in the blanket.”
The group looked around and rummaged, only aided by a flickering flashlight and a single charger in a glass case.
Ray pulled something from the chest against the wall. “Here’s a belt,” Ray said.
The belt felt like a risk because of the buckle, but ideally he wouldn’t have a chance to touch it. “Okay, that’ll work,” AJ said. “Ray, can you and Teo get ready to throw the blanket over him. Eloise and—what’s your name? Charlie. You two hold the belt and get ready to tie him in it. Eloise, can I have the flashlight?”
“What will you do?” Ray said.
AJ walked to the door and fumbled to find the locks in the dim light. “I’m going to let him in.”
“Whoa whoa,” Teo said.
“No,” Ray said.
“You can’t be serious,” Eloise said.
“If this doesn’t work now, it’s not going to work when he breaks in,” AJ said. “Right?”
More banging at the door.
Teo threw his arms up. “I guess.”
“You’re all insane,” Eloise said, but she took half the belt and stood behind Teo and Ray.
AJ tucked the flashlight into her pocket and felt for the lock with one hand, then covered her other hand with her sleeve before grabbing the doorknob. “On three,” she said.
“Oh,” Eloise moaned. “We shouldn’t do this.”
AJ took a breath. “One.”
“We shouldn’t do this.”
AJ unlocked the top latch. “Two.”
“We really shouldn’t—”
“Three.”
She wrenched the door open and hid behind it. Blue light flooded the room as the man stumbled through, clearly not expecting it.
The boys lunged and threw the blanket over him, obscuring the light of his eyes only slightly as they shone through the material. The man stumbled a few paces, as if trying to back himself out from under the covering, but each boy grabbed an arm through the blanket to keep him in place.
“He’s strong,” Teo grunted. “The belt!”
Eloise and Charlie rushed forward and lassoed the belt around the man’s chest. Eloise struggled to connect the ends behind him.
“Keep him still!” she cried.
“We’re trying!” Teo pulled his weight on the man’s arm to keep it straight.
AJ came forward, grabbed the man’s head, and pulled it down.
The man stumbled, likely more from surprise than her strength, but it was enough—Teo tripped him with a leg, and the man fell forward on his stomach.
“Hey!” Eloise leaned down to keep her hands on the belt, she managed to thread the buckle and pull, pinning the man’s arms to his side at the elbows.
The man screamed—feral and guttural and full of frustration. He thrashed even harder, the belt straining, but Ray put a knee on his back to keep him in place.
“Is that going to hold?” Eloise asked, panting.
“Hold him here,” Teo said as he darted from the room.
AJ watched him go, noticing that he had no light. She snatched the flashlight from the floor and hurried after him.
The stairs rattled loudly as they hurried up, AJ clinging to the railing like a lifeline. Metal—everything was metal—but it was too dark to go blindly.
She followed him into a room—a bedroom it seemed, though the only light was from the yellow flashlight. Teo glanced back at her.
“What are we looking for?” AJ said.
“I don’t know, just check the left corner!”
From the perspective of the doorway, there were technically two left corners. AJ scrambled to the other side of the room, pushing things out of the way. There was no time for questions, though she might come to deeply regret not asking them.
She cleared back a couple boxes, some clothes—trying not to look at them too closely—until she reached the corner. Dust bunnies and cobwebs clung to the space.
“Nothing!” Teo said from across the room. “Am I crazy? What did he mean?”
AJ heard more thudding from downstairs. “Do you have something or not?”
“I don’t know!”
AJ stared back at the corner. Reason was finally starting to catch up with her. What was she thinking? She was about to die, and rather than be rationally scared of the danger, she was possibly running straight toward it. Perhaps she could make it to the front door before the man broke from his bonds. She pushed herself to her feet.
The wall shifted slightly under her weight.
She froze, staring at her hand. Did the wall just move? She threw her weight against it, and it shifted more, a rumbling coming from the wall. An outline of a small compartment appeared, sprinkling dust and dirt on her hand.
“Here!” AJ called. “There’s something here.”
She pushed harder, but it wouldn’t go farther than about an inch. Teo came behind her and pushed, then slid the makeshift door sideways. The piece of wall rolled away and revealed a small cabinet.
Light bloomed in front of them. AJ blinked away, tensing, but the light wasn’t blue—it was bright white.
She blinked furiously, trying to see it.
The compartment was small, just large enough for a wooden crate the size of a breadbox. On top of the box sat a bright, glowing gem.
It was far too large to be a charger: roughly the size of a cookie. Rather than blue, it glowed a bright white, with veins of yellow woven inside. AJ leaned closer, her eyes watering from the brightness. The lattice structure wasn’t right either, though she’d need a microscope to be sure.
“What is it?” AJ said.
“I don’t know,” Teo said. He reached out a hand.
“Don’t touch it!” AJ said.
Too late—his hand closed around it, and he held it up. “It doesn’t hurt,” he said, marveling at it. “It feels…warm.”
AJ looked between him and the gem. He wasn’t particularly handsome—bushy eyebrows, straight nose, narrow eyes—but she caught herself staring without knowing why. Did he seem familiar?
Something crashed downstairs.
Eloise cried out.
Teo ran out of the room.
“What are you doing?” AJ called, getting up to follow him.
“I don’t know!” he called back, but he sounded weirdly excited.
She hurried from the room and ran down the stairs, careful not to touch the railing.
Blue light flashed against the garage walls. The man had broken from the room, his face peeking out from the corner of the blanket even as the belt was still strapped around his middle. Eloise huddled against the wall. Ray stood a few paces away from her, poised to run.
“Hey!” Teo yelled. He held up the glowing stone in front of the man’s face. The man paused staring, his eyes crackling with electricity.
He strained against his restraints with a roar.
The belt snapped.
The blanket fell away.
Too quickly, the man whirled on Teo and grabbed his arm.
AJ sucked in breath to scream, realizing what would happen. She thought of the lab where her mother had been found. She imagined the zap leaving a hand-shaped scar.
Teo remained standing.
He ripped his arm from the man’s grip and punched him in the jaw. The man staggered, though maybe more from surprise than pain. Teo pushed the advantage and shoved the gem up against his face.
The man slapped Teo’s hand away, nearly knocking the gem from his grip.
The gem wasn’t doing anything.
“Teo!” Charlie yelled from the bedroom as he tossed something in the vague, bulky shape of a hand. A glove?
Teo caught it and slipped it on his hand. The man lunged, but Teo ducked just out of the way.
He slammed the gem into the back of the glove.
White-yellow light streamed from the gem around the fingers of the glove, following some kind of built-in circuitry. The room brightened further, throwing Teo’s face into stark relief.
AJ sucked in a breath.
She knew this boy.
This was Alberto Gonzales’s son.
He lunged forward and grabbed the man’s arm.
The man cried out in pain as if he were being electrocuted. Blue warred with yellow in his eyes, light surging for a brief moment before fading to normal. The man stared at nothing, swaying, Teo’s grip keeping him in place.
The man slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Jennifer San Filippo 