D. MacHale - The Never War

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out an old-fashioned brass key. He waved it at us, taunting us.

“But no fear,” he said. “I’ve got the key.” Saint Dane walked out on the balcony. “Do you think you can stop it, Pendragon?” he asked. “If I let you out of here, do you think you can stop Spader? And Rose? Could you let theHindenburgcrash?”

“We can try,” I said.

“Of course you can,” Saint Dane said as he backed toward the edge of the balcony. “And I want you to. I want you to come close. I want you to feel as if you’ve beaten me one more time, because that’s when victory is the sweetest…when your opponent feels as if he actually has a chance to win, just before it all comes crashing down.”

He looked out over the city and said, “I think I’ll return to Veelox and see what trouble I can stir up. That little girl Traveler is even more sure of herself than you, Pendragon. She’s in for a big surprise.” He was at the edge of the balcony now.

“Good-bye, my friends. Enjoy your afternoon.” Saint Dane gave an exaggerated bow, and in one graceful move, jumped up and off the balcony!

Gunny and I gave each other a quick, unbelieving glance, then ran for the railing. Just as we were about to look over the side, a huge, black raven rose up from below. I swear, it was the biggest crow I had ever seen in my life. It was more like the size of an eagle. The bird rose as if riding on thermals. Then with one quick snap of its wings, it turned and sailed off. But the instant before it left, I saw that it was holding something in its curved beak. It was only a quick flash, but I was certain I had seen it.

It was an old-fashioned brass key.

“You don’t think-?” Gunny asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I don’t care. We’ve got to get outta here.”

I ran back into the apartment and over to the door. I tried the knob to make sure it was locked. It was. I took a quick look around and saw another door. I ran to that one. Yeah, it was locked too. Those two doors were the only way out of this room.

“We’ll have to break ‘em down!” I announced.

I was all set to put my shoulder to the door and start bashing away, when Gunny warned, “Don’t!”

“We have to!” I shouted.

“We’ll never break those doors down,” Gunny said. “Max Rose had them reinforced with steel. This was his fortress. You couldn’t knock them down with a battering ram.”

I quickly scanned the living room, looking for another way out…and saw the telephone. I grabbed it, only to find it was dead.

“He cut the phone lines,” I announced. I then looked at my watch. It was almost noon. “Gunny, we’re running out of time.”

TheHindenburgwas going to arrive in nine hours.

This is your hotel!” I shouted. How do we get out of here? There must be some kind of emergency way to let people know we’re in here.”

Gunny looked around the fancy living room, then shook his head. “Not if the telephone’s out.”

This was insane. The world was about to collapse and we were locked in a dumb hotel room.

“I got it!” I shouted. “We can start a fire. It’ll set off the smoke detectors.”

Gunny gave me a strange look. “What’s a smoke detector?”

Oh yeah. 1937. Ilooked around the room, then ran out on the balcony. Looking over the edge, I hoped to see Saint Dane’s smashed body lying on the pavement below. It wasn’t. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t surprised. I thought about that big raven. How weird was that? But I couldn’t obsess about it. We had to get out of there.

I looked down to see if there was a ledge we could crawl out on. But the closest foothold was thirty floors down. On the sidewalk. I looked up, thinking we might be able to climb onto the roof. No go. It was out of reach. We really were trapped.

I have to admit, I even stood there for a second and tried to change myself into a raven. What the heck? If Saint Dane was a Traveler and he could do it, maybe I could too.

I couldn’t. But just the fact that I tried showed how desperate I was.

I ran back into the room to see that Gunny had come up with a brilliant plan. A dangerous plan, but a brilliant one. He was pulling down the drapes that hung on either side of the balcony doors. With his pocketknife he cut a small tear on one end to get started, then ripped off a long strip of fabric. I knew instantly what he wanted to do. We were going to make a lifeline.

“You keep cutting strips,” he ordered. “I’ll tie the knots.”

I set to work with his knife, tearing off long strips of fabric. Gunny expertly knotted the ends together.

“There’s another balcony below us, about thirty feet down,” Gunny explained. He then pulled on the fabric, testing its strength. “I’ll tie one end onto the railing up here, then lower myself down.”

This was a plan. As good as any. But as I cut the pieces of fabric, I knew there was only one thing wrong with it.

“This is gonna work, Gunny,” I said. “But you’re too heavy. This won’t hold you.”

“It’ll have to,” Gunny said quickly. “Because I’m not sending you over the side.”

We continued working for a few minutes, until Gunny had fashioned a rope that looked plenty long enough. I tugged on it. It was strong, but still had a little play. Gunny was six foot four and probably weighed 220 pounds. I was five foot five and weighed half that much.

“Gunny, if you go, this’lltear,” I said.

Gunny tested the rope himself. I could tell by his expression he didn’t think it would hold his weight either.

“I’m light,” I added. “It’ll hold me.”

I didn’t wait for his response. I started tying one end around my chest and under my arms. I had to do it fast, not because I thought Gunny would stop me, but because I was afraid I’d chicken out if I thought too much about it. We were thirty floors up. My mind flashed on the horrible sight of Mr. Nasty Gangster falling through the air.

Note to self: Stop thinking.

“No, Pendragon, I can’t let you-“

“We don’t have a whole lot of choices,” I interrupted. “Either I go, or we hang out here until the housekeeping staff finds us tomorrow morning.”

Gunny looked at the floor. If there were any other way around this, he would have taken it. But he knew I was right.

“Let’s do it,” I said, and carried the makeshift rope out on the balcony.

Gunny tied the loose end securely around the balcony railing. He knew what he was doing. Maybe it was his army training. I trusted that his knots would hold. It was the drape material I wasn’t so sure about.

“You’re in control,” he instructed. “Grab on to the rope near the railing, face the building, keep your feet against the wall and walk backwards. Let the rope move through your hands as you go down. I’ll handle the slack.”

“I’ve done this,” I said. “It’s sort of like rappelling.”

Uncle Press had taught me how to rock climb. It seemed like things kept popping up that Uncle Press had prepared me for. I always thought he took me on those great adventures because he was a fun uncle. I had no idea he was training me for life as a Traveler. Because we had gone on a rock-climbing trip when I was twelve, I knew how to rappel down the side of a sheer rock face. The only difference here was, I wasn’t secured by a solid climber’s rope. I was trusting my life to a raggy piece of drapery. Gulp.

I sat up on the railing and swung my legs over. I made sure not to look down. I didn’t need to see how far I would fall if things went south, so to speak. So while pretending I was only a few feet up in the air, I carefully turned around. I stood with my toes on the balcony, holding on to the rail, looking back at Gunny. It all seemed so natural, except that he was standing on the safe side of the railing and my butt was dangling over midtown Manhattan.