“Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice.” I gave him a hard look. “If we don’t get Beach’s subway car to work, we’re dead.”
Chapter 57
What the hell are you doing?
As I stepped out of the mechanical room and back into the maintenance tunnels, doubts flooded my head. And by the time I reached the station, those doubts had grown into a full-blown crisis of confidence.
My plan involved taking the equivalent of a small hydrogen bomb, hauling it into a one hundred and forty-year-old subway car, and then transporting it via a technology that was ordinarily used to deliver mail. The whole thing was ludicrous and I would’ve laughed if the stakes weren’t so damn high.
I jogged across the station and boarded the Omega. As I passed through the aisle, I saw traces of dried blood and grime. The Omega’s cursed history immediately came to mind.
I’m stuck in an underground subway station with ShadowFire on my tail and nowhere to go. I don’t have to worry about a curse. I’m already cursed.
I tossed the blanket aside and gazed upon the Bell. It continued to float in mid-air, undeterred by the impossibility of it all. Shaking my head, I walked to the right of the wide-open space and stopped in front of the two metal doors.
Holding my breath, I grasped the rubber edge on the nearest door and pulled. To my surprise, it opened easily.
As I opened the other door, I heard a loud thump. Taking out my flashlight, I pointed it across the station at Beach’s car. I didn’t see anything.
Suddenly, a resounding smash pierced the air. I shifted my beam and saw a large wooden crate on the ground. Looking up, I noticed Beverly standing on the roof of the car. She bent down, momentarily disappearing from view. Seconds later, a short metal beam hurtled through the air, crashing against the bedrock.
I scrambled out of the Omega and sprinted over to her. “Stop that.”
She peered over the edge. “What?”
“You’re making too much noise.”
“I was just trying to —”
“Forget it. Look, I need a favor. There’s a door in the rear of this thing. Can you get it open for me?”
“But what about all of this debris? The car won’t fit in the tube unless we get rid of it.”
“The Bell’s the priority. After we move it, we can focus on everything else.”
She nodded. “Help me down.”
Beverly knelt on the car’s roof and lowered herself off the edge. I grabbed her waist. As she let go, I scooped her into my arms. I stood still for a second, cradling her.
She gave me a sly look. “Admit it. This is the most fun you’ve had in days.”
Shifting my arms, I propped her unceremoniously on her feet. “That’s not saying much.”
She grinned. “Say what you want but we both know you enjoyed that.”
“The only thing I’m going to enjoy is watching you open that door.”
I jogged back to the Omega. Once inside, I walked around the Bell, examining it from every angle. The particle accelerator buzzed at me, like a swarm of angry bees ready to attack. Tentatively, I reached out to touch it.
The bell vibrated as my finger approached its surface. It struck me that my action was foolhardy at best, suicidal at worst. But despite my better judgment, I couldn’t help myself.
At the last second, I saw something poking out of the Bell. Shifting my hand, I managed to steer my fingers away from the surface. Instead, they closed around a high-voltage cable.
Cartwright said this thing could last without electricity for a few hours. Let’s hope he wasn’t exaggerating.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Abruptly, I yanked the cable out of the socket.
The Bell hissed angrily at me.
But after a moment, the noise died down. And as more moments passed, it seemed to grow quieter and calmer. Emboldened, I quickly removed the other cables.
There could be no more stalling. It was now or never. I touched the Bell’s metal surface. Instantly, a small jolt of electricity flowed through me. My mind cleared. I felt a strange sensation in the base of my skull. The experience only lasted a second. But I knew I’d never forget it.
I looked at the Bell, not knowing what to expect. Part of me thought it would remain motionless to my touch since it obviously weighed a lot. Another part of me figured it would move like a balloon since it floated in the air with ease.
I shoved it.
How about that? Wrong on both counts.
It moved. Not far, but it still moved. Yet, it wasn’t weightless. In fact, it felt surprisingly heavy to me, as if my touch temporarily brought the strange object back into the real world.
I pushed it downward. It moved in that direction before floating up again to its original position. Crouching down, I pushed it upward. It moved a few inches before drifting back down again. It was completely, utterly bizarre. The Bell seemed to sit on some kind of imaginary shelf. And yet, it still managed to maintain its mass. How was that even possible?
I desperately wanted to understand it, but that would have to wait. I pushed my body against the Bell and slowly maneuvered it out of the Omega. Hopping down to the ground, I directed it toward Beach’s pneumatic car. As I got closer, Beverly stared at me, wide-eyed.
“Did you get the door open?” I called out as loudly as I dared.
“Sure did. Do you need help?”
I stifled a fake yawn with one hand while propelling the Bell forward with the other. “I think I can handle it.”
“Show-off.”
Looking past her, I studied the car. The garbage that covered its rear had been stripped away, revealing a set of two small doors. A new potential problem formed in my head. “Is the opening wide enough?”
She jogged over to the Bell and eyed it. Then she returned to the doors and studied them for a moment. “Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s going to be close.”
I pushed the Bell all the way to the rear of the pneumatic car. As I neared it, I snuck a peek. The space was larger than I’d initially thought but not by much. Beverly was right. It would be a tight squeeze, if indeed it fit at all.
She joined me and together, we pushed the Bell forward. Abruptly, metal scratched on metal. I jolted as the Bell bumped into something.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled. “Of all the lousy…”
“We’re hitting there.” I pointed to the top right corner. “Let’s try pulling it down.”
Reaching up, we directed the Bell downward. It dropped a few inches. Before it could settle, I shoved it into the car. It came to a halt a few feet into the interior before slowly drifting upward again.
“Should we reconnect the cables?”
I shook my head. “We have more important things to do.”
“Aren’t you worried about an explosion?”
“That won’t happen for a few hours. We’ll get the cables from the Omega and put them in here. But after that, we need to work on our escape plan.”
We spent the next few minutes detaching the cables and piling them into the pneumatic car.
Afterward, Beverly cleared her throat. “What now?”
“We need to finish clearing off the car,” I replied. “But first, we should focus on removing the explosives from the tunnel.”
“I can do that.”
“How? By blowing yourself up?”
She shrugged. “I’m trained to handle unexploded ordinance.”
“Really?”
“Sort of.”
My ears perked. The air started to crackle with tension. Swiftly, I made my way to the mouth of the pneumatic tube.