“Whoa!” he exclaimed and backed off, nearly falling over a stadium seat.
The two soldiers went for the dark batons that hung from their belts.
Tori spun and fired, hitting one of them in the leg. He screamed and fell to the cement floor, clutching his shattered knee. The other soldier held his hands away from his body to show he wasn’t going for his weapon.
“Don’t worry,” Tori said with surprising calm. “A little of that magic potion and you’ll be as good as new. Right?”
“Put it down, Tori,” Feit pleaded. “I know this is a lot to get your head around, but it’s the only way. We’re the good guys.”
Tori turned the gun on Feit, gripping it with both hands.
“There are no good guys,” she snarled. “This is insane.”
“But it isn’t!” Feit cried. “It’s not just about today. We’re fighting for future generations. Without us millions more will die. No, billions.”
“Then so be it,” she said, taking aim. “As long as you’re one of them.”
Feit held his hands up in a futile attempt to protect himself.
I braced myself for the shot.
Tori squeezed the trigger…
…as the gun was torn from her hand. It clattered to the floor between the seats.
Tori squealed in pain and grabbed at her hand.
The injured soldier on the ground had his black baton pointed at her. It was a weapon that let loose with a charge of invisible power, much like what the black planes fired in daylight. It was yet another example of impossible technology.
Tori and I stood together, totally exposed. The second soldier had already grabbed his baton and leveled it at us.
“Wow,” Feit exclaimed. “You almost had me there.”
His casual way of reacting to everything made me hate him even more. The burning in my gut returned. The enemy once again had a face. I didn’t think for a second that we could change the course of the war, but I knew whom I wanted to make pay for his crimes.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Feit said. “I was going to give you two a choice. I mean, we go back a long way. I feel bad for you, Tori. Especially since your father got such a raw deal.”
His words were like a punch to Tori’s gut. I saw her waver as if she might fall back, but she held it together and stood firm.
“What are you talking about?” she asked in a small voice.
“He thought he was staging some major revolt to take back his little island. He had no idea we were using him to get to Granger.”
“You… what?” Tori asked, stunned.
“Oh yeah. Your father thought he was leading a bunch of local rebels, but half of them were my guys. He was fighting back against SYLO, which is exactly what we wanted.”
Tori winced. It suddenly became clear to me why there were so many strange faces in Mr. Sleeper’s rebel group. They were Air Force infiltrators working for Feit. There were dozens of strange faces on Pemberwick. I had thought they were tourists who stuck around because of the late summer. Could they all have been Air Force agents?
“It’s why we were on Pemberwick Island,” Feit continued. “SYLO was there to make a stand. We couldn’t allow that. Like I said, we’ve been planning this for years.”
Tori fought back tears and straightened up defiantly.
I realized that I was going to have to get in line to take revenge against Feit.
Assuming we got out of there alive.
“You said something about giving us a choice,” I said, desperate to buy some time.
“Right. I was going to let you out of working here. You could have joined my personal team. I don’t see that happening now.”
“How could you think we would help you?” Tori said with disgust.
“To save your own lives of course,” Feit said with a shrug.
He waved to the uninjured soldier and said, “Take them down to the medical unit.”
“Medical unit?” I asked.
“Somebody has to replace those two workers who just fell. It’s Ruby time!”
Boom!
A huge explosion erupted out on the field. The entire stadium rocked, nearly knocking us off our feet. A plume of fire grew from the center of the steel structure.
The soldiers fell to their knees to brace themselves.
Feit spun around toward the field, looking as stunned as we were. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t part of his plan.
Boom!
Another explosion erupted next to the first.
An ear-splitting shriek signaled the arrival of two dark shapes that tore across the sky.
It was an all-too-familiar experience.
They were fighter planes, and not the singing black marauders.
They were U.S. Navy fighters.
SYLO was back.
ELEVEN
Fenway Park was under attack.
We had a short window of confusion to try to get the hell out and away while Feit and his soldiers were focused on something other than us.
The steel structure was doomed. Multiple fighter jets screamed overhead and dropped their explosives before blazing off to make way for others to follow. Dozens of missiles hit the field and exploded, turning the framework into a twisted, melting hulk. The sounds of the explosions and the screaming jets made it impossible to think, let alone hear.
The field was ablaze, its heat turning the mezzanine into an oven. Terrified workers fled for their lives. Ironically, many of them survived because the Ruby gave them the speed and power to escape the inferno.
I pushed Tori to get moving, but instead of running she dropped to her knees to retrieve the gun. I wanted to scream at her to leave it but didn’t want to risk turning Feit’s attention back to us. It was a frustrating few seconds…
…that ended when the injured soldier looked our way. “Stop!” he screamed and lifted his baton gun.
I yanked Tori to her feet and pulled her toward me as the soldier fired. The charge from his gun missed us and blasted the back off one of the stadium seats. It was a far more powerful charge than the one that had knocked the gun from Tori’s hands. They were now shooting to kill.
The shot got the attention of the others. When the second soldier went for his own weapon, I thought we were done.
But Tori had found her gun. She unloaded on them, blasting shot after shot, sending Feit and the soldier down behind the first row of seats.
I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her backward as she continued to shoot, pinning Feit and the soldiers down.
We were nearly at the doors leading outside when I heard a sharp click. Tori had fired her last bullet.
“Move!” I shouted.
I slammed the door open and jumped outside. As soon as we were out, the glass door next to us exploded, sending a spray of glass shards our way.
The soldiers were up and shooting back. The only choice we had was to run.
The bombardment on the field continued. Fenway was rocking, and not in a good way. As each missile hit, the stadium shivered. It felt like we were in a violent earthquake, which made it hard to stay on our feet. We struggled to head back the way we had come, running down the stairs to street level. We were several steps from the ground when a streaking missile tore out of the sky, headed directly for us. “Jump!” I shouted.
We vaulted over the handrail and fell the last few feet to the sidewalk as the missile hit the stairs above us. The force of the explosion threw us forward in a shower of pulverized steel and cement. I hit a light pole with my shoulder and crumbled to the ground. My ears rang, and I had trouble catching my breath, but we weren’t dead.
A cloud of dust swirled, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I was so surprised I jumped. Turning quickly, I saw Tori’s tear-streaked face inches from mine. Her long, dark curls were caked with the gray dust of what used to be Fenway Park.