Pittacus Lore - The Search for Sam

I look around. The floor beneath the cell has fissured, warping the cell bars enough that I think we can squeeze through them. I push Malcolm forward, but he struggles to get through the bars.

Mogadorians have completely swarmed the complex now—there must be at least thirty of them, with more coming, and they’re already making their way up the stairs to the gangway we’re standing on. We have thirty seconds, max.

Malcolm finally squeezes through into the cell, then turns to me.

“Hurry!” he pleads.

I look back at the approaching Mogadorian swarm. In the rear, in commander’s attire, I see Ivanick. The only person in this world I fear as much as my father.

The General said he had been promoted, that he was working in the Southwest. And here he is.

My blood runs cold.

I step to the bars, about to squeeze through. Then I stop.

“What are you doing?” Malcolm begs. “Adam?”

I realize I’m not going through those bars. If Malcolm and Sam are going to have a shot of escaping the Mogadorians, one of us is going to have to hold them off. They won’t stop chasing Malcolm and Sam unless someone makes them stop.

Besides, I don’t want to run from my own people anymore. I want to kill them.

“Go,” I say.

“What? Adam, no.”

“Go with your son. Now.”

I can see from Malcolm’s eyes, from the dawning horror in his face as he realizes what I’m saying, how much he cares about me.

But I also know he has a greater responsibility to his son than he has to me. After one last moment’s hesitation, he turns and disappears through the hole in the cell’s wall.

I turn back to the approaching Mogs. They’ve slowed down, but their swords are raised. They’re coming from both ends of the gangway, surrounding me.

I scan the complex. The stairways are full, the first floor is swarming with Mogs, and both routes down the gangway are blocked.

I have a choice: be captured, or go out swinging.

I aim my Legacy at the corner of the room behind one group of Mogadorians, and blast. The entire room shudders, and the gangway breaks free from the wall, knocking several Mogadorians to the ground below.

I grip onto the gangway as tight as I can. Whirling to the other side of the room, I blast again.

This time I almost flip over the gangway myself as the struts supporting it give out completely and it tips out towards the center of the room. There’s no way back into the cell now. I’m flat against the railing, but still safe.

The floor below is teeming with Mogadorians. I look both ways down the gangway. Some Mog soldiers are merely struggling to stay on the precarious, creaking structure, but those with a firm grip are still coming, sliding along the railing towards me like acrobats. Getting closer.

I could blast the gangway again to hurt the Mogs still clinging to it, but that’s not nearly enough to get me out of here safely.

My situation is so hopeless I almost laugh.

“Adamus,” I hear. I look down to the floor, to the massed Mogadorians, weapons all pointed at me. Among them stands Ivanick, staring up at me.

His expression is cold, mock-pitying. Nothing about his manner betrays any surprise at seeing me here, under these circumstances.

“Long time no see,” he says.

I know I’ve only bought Sam and Malcolm a minute’s lead on the Mog scum, but I hope it helps. I’m ready to deal with whatever comes my way next.

“You’ve got some power, Adam. It’s impressive. I’m sure Dr. Zakos or one of our other scientists would love to study you, to learn from your ability. Give up now and maybe we can work something out. You can be a test subject or something. I know how you like that.” It’s strange to see Ivanick promoted to a leadership role. He doesn’t really have the brains for it. But brains never counted for much among the Mogs.

“I mean,” he says, letting out a little laugh, “of course we’ll still have to kill you when we’re done.”

I cling to the bars. The Mogadorians are sliding closer, just waiting for the order to take me out.

“You suck at bargaining,” I say.

Ivan laughs. “Well, what else are you going to do? From what I can see, you’ve run out of options. It’s surrender-or-be-killed time.”

There’s no way I’m letting myself get captured.

Go out swinging .

I look to the wall perpendicular to the half-fallen gangway. The armory is behind it. I get an idea.

“That’s not exactly true, Ivan.”

I reach forward with my mind: one hundred yards, two hundred yards, three hundred yards. I stop.

There it is.

I see Ivan, staring up at me. His face has changed from mocking to suspiciously fearful. There’s no way he can know exactly what I’m about to do, but he knows me well enough to read my expression: I’m going to wipe us all out.

“That’s right,” I say. “The armory.”

“No way,” he says. “You wouldn’t. You’re Adamus. Son of the great General Andrakkus Sutekh. You can’t bring yourself to kill one of us, let alone all of us.”

I grin at him. Watch me .

I let rip another seismic pulse, aimed at the ground right below the armory.

Only a moment after the impulse leaves my body, my blast triggers a massive explosion.

There is a deafening boom, steel and concrete flying.

All around me I see Mogadorian bodies getting riddled with shrapnel.

The whole thing begins falling apart around me. The gangway collapses and I go flying, landing so hard on the ground that I’m almost knocked unconscious.

My ears ringing, my eyes half blinded by dust, I crane my neck to see tumbling concrete knocking out Mogadorian after Mogadorian. The whole cave is coming down around us.

On the ground by the fallen gangway I see Ivanick, his head nearly severed from his neck by the collapsed steel. Dead.

Mogadorians scream all around me.

To my own surprise, I like the sound.

Something heavy lands against my shoulder, slamming my head against the floor, pinning me in place. I can’t move, and am too stunned to know if it was a minor wound or a fatal blow.

Why keep track now? I think. There’s more where that came from .

Indeed there is: concrete keeps falling, all around me.

As the entire structure gives out and collapses onto us, I know I only have a few moments of consciousness left. But I’m not afraid.

I survived my fall down the ravine. I survived the implosion of Ashwood Estates. I wasn’t even conscious then, and Malcolm said something kept us from being crushed, that it was as if some force kept us safe as the world fell down around us.

Third time’s the charm.

It may just be exhaustion, it may just be delirium, but I’m overcome by a deep, sweet certainty that I was meant to survive. That my ultimate purpose lies somewhere beyond these tumbling walls, sometime beyond this frenzied moment. That the best of me is yet to come.

I will live.

EXCERPT FROM THE RISE OF NINE

THE LEGACIES CONTINUE IN

CHAPTER 1

6A. Seriously? I look at the boarding pass in my hand, its large type announcing my seat assignment, and wonder if Crayton chose this seat on purpose. It could be a coincidence. The way things have gone recently, I am not a big believer in coincidences. I wouldn’t be surprised if Marina sat down behind me in row seven, and Ella made her way back to row ten. But, no, the two girls drop down beside me without saying a word, and join me in studying each person boarding the plane. Being hunted, you are constantly on guard. Who knows when the Mogadorians might appear?