Cass was pacing back and forth. “Forget that now, Brother Jack. Really. It’s okay. Actually, it’s not.”
“Need to counterattack,” Torquin added, looking back in the direction of the compound.
“You and what army?” Fiddle asked. “You got zombies hidden away? Because the Massa are all over the explosives supply now. I say we run. However you got here, let’s get out the same way.”
When Torquin turned, his face was lined and his eyes moist, as if he’d aged a few years. “Never leave Professor Bhegad behind.”
“Or the Loculi,” I said. “Where are they?”
Torquin and Fiddle both looked at each other and shrugged.
“We gave them to Bhegad,” Aly said. “He didn’t tell you where he put them?”
Cass sagged. “There goes that plan.”
“Okay … okay …” I said, rubbing my forehead as I tried to think this through. “Bhegad probably kept the location of the Loculi to himself—one person only, to avoid a security leak. So we find him first, and he’ll lead us to them.”
“Unless the Massa get to him before us,” Cass said.
“Bhegad tough,” Torquin said. “Won’t crack under pressure.”
“We need to find his EP assignment,” Fiddle said. “Emergency protocol. We all get one. It’s where we have to go in case of an attack.”
“These EP assignments,” Aly said. “Are they stored somewhere?”
Fiddle shrugged. “Must be. The assignments are changed randomly from time to time. We’re notified electronically.”
“I’ll need to get to the systems control building.” Aly looked up. “The sun is setting. We have maybe an hour before it gets too dark to see outside. That’ll help us.”
“But the control building will be full of Massa,” Cass said.
“We clear it,” Torquin declared.
Fiddle looked at him in bafflement. “How? With darts? You guys are out of your minds. We need an army, not a sneak attack with a half-blind geek, a caveman, and three kids barely out of diapers.” He looked toward the water.
Aly’s jaw hung open. “Did you say … diapers?”
“Caveman?” Torquin added.
Fiddle backed away slowly. “Oh, I forgot—feelings. Guess you guys want sensitivity. Fine, it’s your funeral.”
He turned, lurching into the jungle.
“Hey!” Torquin cried.
As he lumbered after Fiddle, I followed. Aly called me back but I kept going. “Torquin, let him go!” I cried out.
After a few turns, deeper into the dense-packed trees, I felt my foot jam under a root. I tripped and landed a few feet from Torquin’s pack. I guessed he must have dropped it to lighten his load. But I couldn’t leave it there. Not with those tranquilizer darts inside. We could use those.
Wincing, I sat up. I could hear movement—footsteps? I wasn’t even sure from which direction the sound was coming. The sky was darkening. I looked over my shoulder, but the jungle was without paths, and even my own footsteps were lost in the dense greenery. “Aly?” I called out. “Cass?”
I waited. High overhead a monkey screamed. It dropped from a branch and landed on its feet, jumping wildly up and down. Eeee! Eeee!
“Go away!” I said. “I don’t have any food.”
It was slapping its own head now, gesturing wildly back into the woods.
“Do I know you?” I said, narrowing my eyes at the creature. During my first escape attempt from the island, I’d been lured to Torquin’s helicopter by an extremely smart chimp. Who looked very much like this one. “Are you showing me which way to go?”
Oooh, it grunted, darting straight for the backpack.
So that was its game—distracting me so it could steal the pack! “Hey, give me that!” I shouted.
A loud crack resounded, followed by a familiar scream.
Aly’s voice!
Ignoring the branches and vines that slashed across my face, I ran back toward the noise. In moments I saw the dull glow of the clearing.
Silently I dropped into the brush. I had a sight line. Cass and Aly were where I’d left them. Aly’s arm was bleeding. Cass was holding a branch high like a spear. Around them were four helmeted Massa, armed with rifles. They grinned, jeering, taunting my friends in some language I didn’t know.
My muscles tightened, ready to spring.
No. No way you can jump in there alone.
Where was Torquin?
I felt something jam into my back and nearly screamed aloud.
Whipping around, I came face-to-face with the monkey. It was holding out Torquin’s backpack to me.
I grabbed it and spun back toward the clearing. Shaking, I pulled out the blowpipe. My hands were sweaty. As I reached for a dart, the weapon slipped out of my hand. It clattered onto a rock. Behind me the monkey screeched in surprise.
From the dense jungle, a rifle emerged, pointing directly at my face.
“YEAAAGHHH!”
Torquin’s roar blotted out all sound. He leaped from the brush into the clearing, about twenty yards to my right.
The four soldiers wheeled around. Torquin landed full body on the one who’d found me, squashing the guy to the ground. Behind him, another Massa soldier was trying to take aim at Torquin, but the two bodies were too close. Instead he raised his rifle high and brought it down on Torquin’s head. Hard. It hit with a solid thud.
Aly ran toward Torquin to help, but the assailant backed away, the weapon still in his hand.
Its barrel was now bent, forming the shape of Torquin’s skull.
Torquin stood, scratching his head in puzzlement. Then, grabbing the rifle, he flung it against a tree, with its owner still holding tight. The guy folded without a whimper.
“Two down,” Torquin grunted.
As the other two men maneuvered in the confusion, I snatched up the blowpipe, jammed a dart down the tube, and blew. It sailed into
