Titan Base (14 page)

There was only one way so much mental power could be coming from her, only one way a Ch’zar I.C.E. would recognize her as its master.

Emma Blackwood had been absorbed by the Collective.

   
15
   
YOU
TRY IT

“I’M NOT PART OF THE COLLECTIVE,” EMMA SAID
through clenched teeth. “I’m
using
the Collective to control this thing.”

“Using the Collective?” Ethan echoed, not understanding.

Ethan glanced over at Madison to see if she had a clue what Emma meant. She’d only gotten to her hands and knees, though, and still looked dazed from the ant lion swatting her aside.

This had to be a Ch’zar trick to get his trust. There was no way Emma was controlling an ant lion.

But then Emma flashed him a look only his sister
knew—that
why is my brother such a complete idiot?
look.

Ethan wanted to believe she was still in control, still his sister, Emma … but he didn’t know. If she’d been absorbed, the Ch’zar would know everything she did, including that look.

Emma held up her other hand to stop any more questions. “There’s no time,” she told him. “There’s an ant lion.”

“I can see that,” Ethan said, exasperated, pointing directly over his head.

“No,” she hissed, and pointed past Ethan. “There.”

Ethan whirled around. He didn’t see anything.

But he did
feel
it.

There was a tremble under his feet. Cracks appeared in the asphalt. Long silver legs the size of telephone poles then stepped over the rubble pile that used to be Tidy Laundry.

It was a
second
ant lion.

“Move out of the way,” Emma whispered.

The voices in Ethan’s mind turned into screams as Emma held a trembling hand toward the ant lion she had under control.

The insect opened its maw and hissed as loud as a steam whistle. It scrambled toward the other ant lion.

How was she doing that? The noise in Ethan’s head
felt like it’d crack his skull. It was like the whisper he got when he connected to his wasp I.C.E., only with the volume cranked up to maximum.

The ant lions clashed. They scrambled to find purchase on one another’s bloated bodies, jaws sparking off armor, thrashing legs knocking aside nearby cars as if they were toys.

Ethan pinwheeled back, spotted Madison, and dragged her to the alley.

Madison got to her feet and shoved away Ethan’s steadying hands. She took in his bloody face, then glanced at Emma, who had her hands outstretched, mentally directing one ant lion to attack the other.

Madison’s gaze locked back on Ethan … and her eyes narrowed.

“What is going on?” she demanded.

Ethan heard the accusation in her voice. All things considered, it was hard to blame her. But this wasn’t the time or place to explain anything.

The ant lions tumbled into the
Santa Blanca Review
newspaper office and reduced the building to rubble with a tremendous crash. They nearly crushed Madison and Ethan in the process.

Ethan and Madison dodged a landslide of concrete and shattered timbers.

He grabbed his sister’s hand as they ran past and dragged her along with them.

Emma stumbled but still kept her other hand outstretched and maintained eye contact with the giant insects.

They got half a block before Madison made a fist and held it up, the signal to halt.

She pointed to the shadows by the side of a building. They ducked into the dark and pressed flat.

Ethan poked his head out and saw a dozen adults in those bright green Neighborhood Watch jackets rounding the corner of Pine Street. They looked normal, like they could’ve been anyone’s parents—if not for the batons they carried and the way they swept their gazes back and forth, heads moving in a synchronized motion, controlled by a single mind.

“We’re trapped,” Madison whispered. “We can’t sneak past those guys.” She waved back the way they’d run. “And we’ll get squashed if we head that way.”

The ant lions stood on their hind legs, wrestling, balanced against one another, jaws snapping, pushing back and forth, turning the entire city block into a disaster zone. Broken fire hydrants sprayed water into the air. Fires erupted from gas pipes. Concrete and asphalt buckled as if they were rumpled cloth.

Ethan snapped his fingers in front of Emma, trying to get her attention.

If only she could make the ant lion run this way. It would scatter those mind-controlled adults, and they could escape.

But Emma ignored him. Her focus on the fighting bugs was absolute.

Ethan looked around and then up.

There was a ledge on the second story of the brick building at their backs. It was Dr. Horatio Ray’s medical office. In another life, Ethan had gone there to get vaccines and checkups.

“Madison,” he said, “I’m going to give you a boost up to that ledge. See if you can make it to the roof, get a better view, and find a way out of this mess.”

Madison looked up, assessing her chances. She chewed her lower lip. Fire reflected in her eyes. “You owe me an explanation, Blackwood,” she said.

“You’ll get one,” he promised her. “But not now.”

Ethan meant what he said. He didn’t want to keep secrets from Madison—even about his parents. Madison had saved his life more times than he could count. She deserved the truth … but more than that, Ethan had to know if she liked him for himself, even the weird parts.

He just couldn’t begin to explain it all, not in the middle of a combat zone.

“Okay,” Madison said.

She took one last look at the approaching adults and made a motion at Ethan to cup his hands.

He laced his fingers together.

Madison made to step into his offered hands, hesitated, and then leaned forward and kissed his cheek. Her hand touched his face and she lingered.

Her skin was hot. His skin blushed as if she’d set it on fire, burning from the tips of his ears to his toes.

Ethan wanted to pull away, confused … and he also wanted it to last for as long as it could.

Madison moved away, though.

She looked somehow happy, worried, and sad all at the same time, and then she stepped into his hands.

Ethan did the only thing he could: gave her a boost up.

Madison grasped the ledge and pulled herself onto it. One last glance down at Ethan and she edged deeper into the shadows.

Ethan touched his cheek.

It was still wet. Her lips had been so soft. Not what he’d expected.

He got a queasy feeling that the kiss was a kiss goodbye.

One of the ant lions screeched with a titanic nails-on-blackboard
sound as its rear legs lost purchase. It rolled backward, crashing to the ground, and flattened a parked minivan.

Ethan’s mind snapped back to reality.

The other giant insect was on its opponent, tearing where the legs met the armored abdomen, snapping and cracking the exoskeleton. The ant lion pulled away and blasted the wounded creature with its artillery.

Ethan flinched at the flash and thunder. The downed ant lion was reduced to chunks of chitin and goo.

Emma collapsed to her knees and cradled her head. “No, no,” she whispered. “Ethan … 
you
have to try.”

“What do you mean
I
have to try?”

She pointed at the remaining, living monster ant lion.

As if the creature heard them, its multiple eyes scanned the destroyed city block and spotted them, and then it galloped toward Ethan with amazing speed.

Ethan got it.

The ant lion that’d died was the one Emma had had under her control.

Now they had one living,
very
angry, gigantic ant lion coming to tear them into chunks.

The ground trembled.

So did Ethan.

He tried to gather his courage, but this was way
beyond anything he’d had to face before. He didn’t need to be brave to take on this thing—Ethan needed to be
crazy
.

His sister was practically helpless, though. She couldn’t run away this time. Madison was safe, but he couldn’t count on her staying that way. One stray swipe from that ant lion could destroy the building she’d climbed.

Ethan raised his hand at the charging monster, gritted his teeth, and concentrated for all he was worth.

The ant lion plowed through rubble, snapping power lines and lampposts like they were matchsticks.

Ethan felt the murderous insect mind. It was red-hot, pulsing, and screaming.

But he couldn’t get a grasp on it. It was one scream lost in a sea of other screaming voices. Human voices. The voices of a dozen alien races. The Ch’zar Collective.

Ethan mentally recoiled and slammed shut the connection.

He couldn’t do it.

The ant lion was close—almost on him and Emma. A hundred feet more and it’d trample them.

Ethan hucked a chunk of asphalt at the thing and jumped to the side of the street.

The insect skidded to a stop and turned on Ethan,
snapping its jaws and hissing. Its breath smelled of gunpowder, blood, and hydraulic fluid.

It was a miracle, but Ethan didn’t freeze. Somehow. Either he’d found that courage he needed or he’d gone crazy.

He looked for something to use as a weapon. He almost laughed.

What was he going to use? A stick? A rock?

A bulldozer wouldn’t be enough.

His gaze, though, landed on a power line the ant lion had knocked over. The cable sparked and lashed back and forth on the ground like a water hose on full stream.

Ethan didn’t think—he leaped, landing right in front of the insect.

He grabbed the power cable. His flight suit gloves were rubberized and insulated against electricity, but not the ten thousand volts pulsing through
this
line. The power made his hands itch and the hair on his arms stand up.

The ant lion was quick, too. As Ethan grabbed the power line, the insect grabbed him.

It scooped Ethan up in its jaws, crushing him around the chest.

Ethan struggled. He couldn’t breathe.

The ant lion drew him to its open maw.

Ethan wanted to throw up he was so scared … but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He had only one shot.

The pressure on his chest grew. His ribs flexed and creaked from the stress. The edges of his vision dimmed.

A bit more pressure and Ethan would black out … or burst.

The ant lion lifted Ethan up to its inhuman face. A half-dozen silver eyes, each with a tiny black dot of a pupil, tracked him. Its inner jaws opened wide, revealing a million serrated teeth spiraling down its throat.

Worse, Ethan could no longer block the screaming from the insect’s mind into his brain.

Ethan screamed back at the thing.

He thrust the electrical cable down the monster’s throat.

Ten thousand volts crackled into the ant lion. Lightning arced along its teeth, up its armor, and back to Ethan. Electricity coiled around his flight suit, through the open rips and tears, and made Ethan dance like a shaken rag doll.

All Ethan could see were white stars.

Then nothing
but
white.

Then nothing.

   
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