‘And take care of all our stuff,’ Nine grumbles. He’s standing a few paces off, watching Marina
mess with her Chest, his eyebrows furrowed. ‘I want some of those gems back, if possible. You
know, for after. Need to buy a new place to live thanks to my shitty house-sitter over here.’
I shoot Nine a look. ‘Are you serious right now?’
He shrugs. ‘What? Gotta plan for the future!’
Marina looks up from her Chest and, with a sigh, tosses Nine a pair of dark gloves. ‘Here. I never
figured out what to do with these.’
‘Sweet,’ Nine says, and pulls them on immediately. He flexes his fingers inside the leatherlike
material, then violently thrusts his palms out towards John. ‘Did you feel anything, dude?’
John ignores Nine, looking at Marina. ‘Can we be sure those aren’t important? What if they’re a
Phoenix Stone?’
‘They’re gloves, Johnny,’ Nine says, not taking them off. ‘You ever heard of an ancient ritual that
involves burying a pair of stylish-ass gloves? Come on.’
John shakes his head, giving up. His eyes linger on Henri’s ashes until Marina closes her Chest,
and then his gaze drifts towards the Skimmer. ‘I wish I could come with you. I’d like to be there for
… for both of them.’
Eight’s body is already on board the Skimmer, strapped securely to one of the seats.
‘After,’ Marina says, and she reaches out to squeeze John’s hand. She’s still walking around with a
lot of sadness – we all are – but I’m slowly seeing signs that the old, gentle Marina is melting all that ice. ‘Eight would understand. Once we’ve won, there will be time for us to pay our respects
properly. All of us, together.’
Nine stops screwing with his new gloves and gets serious for a moment, looking at Marina. ‘I’d
like that,’ he says.
‘Ready?’ I ask Marina.
She nods and uses her telekinesis to float her Chest into the Skimmer’s entrance. ‘Be safe, all of
you.’
One by one, Marina hugs the boys, and I do the same. Sam is last for me, and when he wraps me up
in a big hug, I get the same feeling that I did before when we were all assembled in the Mogadorian
tunnels, that everyone is watching us and tittering about how precious we are. I bristle a little bit, but before I know it the hug has lasted way longer than the others’, and our friends have drifted a few
steps away as if to let us have a discreet moment.
‘Six –,’ Sam says quietly against my ear, and I pull back enough to look at him, cutting him off.
‘Don’t make this weird, Sam,’ I whisper, and tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear, glancing
surreptitiously towards the others.
So, we spent last night together. Maybe that wasn’t the wisest move on my part. I love Sam, in my
way, and I don’t want to string him along or hurt his feelings. I’m just still not sold on having any kind of relationship until this is all over, especially with how stupid and complicated things got with John after just some flirting. But, after everything that happened in Florida, I needed something good for a change – something warm and safe and approaching normal – and that was Sam. I thought he
understood that I didn’t want to get into some dopey John/Sarah-style, star-crossed-lovers thing with
him. But here we are, having a moment, and blunt as I’m trying to be, I’m not exactly pulling away
either.
‘I’m not making it anything,’ Sam says, screwing up his face at me. ‘I just – I don’t get why you
didn’t want me coming with you.’
‘You’ll do more good here, with your dad,’ I tell him. ‘And you’ll need to keep John and Nine in
line.’
‘The last time I went on a mission with John, he left me inside a mountain,’ Sam says, not buying it.
‘Come on, Six. What is it really?’
I sigh, simultaneously wanting to strangle him and kiss him. For a second, I’m not sure which
instinct will win out. I want something more with Sam, I think. Eventually. I just don’t want to think about it right now. Last night was one thing, but now I’m back to fighting a war.
‘I don’t want the distraction, Sam. All right?’
‘Oh,’ he says, looking like I’ve just murdered his pride. ‘You mean, like you’d have to keep saving
me from Mogs or stop me from stepping on some ancient Mayan spike trap or whatever. Because I
thought we were past that. I can handle myself, Six. And I only accidentally shot you that one time in practice and –’
I kiss him. Mostly just to shut him up and illustrate my point, but also because I just can’t help
myself. I hear Nine make an oohing noise off to the side and make a mental note to destroy him the next chance I get.
‘ That’s the distraction I’m talking about,’ I say quietly, my face still close to his.
Sam is blushing again, and his mouth is still working like he wants to say something more. He’s
probably trying to come up with some smooth way to say good-bye, but I’m sick of these drawn-out
moments, so I take one last look at his sweet, dumbstruck face and turn away. A few seconds later,
I’m strapped into the Skimmer’s seat next to Adam, ignoring the raised eyebrow and smirk Marina’s
fixing me with.
‘Shall we?’ Adam asks.
We nod and Adam throws some switches, handling the Skimmer’s controls with much more
confidence than I did. As we slowly rise up, I look out the window to see Sam and the others below,
waving good-bye to us. I wonder if my life will ever be without these moments – the painful good-
byes before we all go off to risk our lives. John always talks about how much he can’t wait for some
boring normal life, but would I be happy like that? We gain altitude, trees zipping by beneath us, and I think about Sam. If it wasn’t for this war, the constant chaos, we’d have never even gotten together.
What would it be like for us without the looming threat of Mogadorian destruction?
I’d like to find out.
1 9
Nine leans across me so that he can get a good look at Sam, saying to him in a stage whisper, ‘All
right, dude. What’s the deal with you and Six?’
Sam pointedly looks out the window of the van. ‘What? Nothing.’
‘Psshh,’ Nine snorts. ‘Come on, man. It’s like a four-hour drive to New York. You gotta give up
some details.’
In front of us, in the passenger seat, Agent Walker clears her throat.
‘Fascinating as I find the sex lives of teenage boys, maybe we could use this time to go over our
operational parameters,’ she says dryly.
‘Agreed,’ I say, shoving Nine back in his seat so he can’t leer at Sam anymore. ‘We need to focus
on the mission.’
Nine frowns at me. ‘All right, John. I’m gonna focus my ass off for the rest of this car ride.’
‘Good.’
Sam flashes me a grateful smile and I nod. Part of me really does think we should be thinking about
the impossible odds we’re facing, but another part of me just doesn’t want to hear any details about
Sam and Six. I’m happy for them, I guess. Glad they could find some comfort together. But I can’t get
over the feeling that Sam is going to end up with his heart broken. I remember my vision of the future, the way Sam screamed right before the Mogadorians executed Six. Maybe that’s why I get the sinking
feeling this is going to end badly.
Or maybe I’m just jealous. Not because Sam hooked up with Six, but more because the love of my
life is miles away. Of course, there’s no way I’m expressing any of that in front of Nine, or Walker
and the silent FBI-guy driving the car. Yeah, let’s focus on the mission.
We’re driving up I-95, from Washington to New York. Malcolm stayed behind at Ashwood Estates