The 13th Sign Part 6

He'd crushed one of them! Cancer's horoscope came barreling back to me: The pressure thou placest upon thyself is too intense. We began stomping and crushing crabs as quickly as we could to defeat them, to find that cursed birthstone. Dillon was a champion crab crusher. But squashing crabs is difficult; it takes far more force than simply stomping a c.o.c.kroach. And it was slippery work. Each of us fell several times, and each time we got up, we had dozens of pinchers embedded in our skin.

One of the Ellies had managed to climb on top of a small metal electrical transformer. Although the crabs couldn't climb the slick metal box, they had figured out that if they stacked one upon the other, they could reach their prey eventually.

There were too many crabs, and we were tired. I whipped around, trying to hop on one of the larger crabs in my vicinity, when the bulldozer again caught my eye.

Please let the keys be in it, I thought. Then, Please let bulldozers even have keys. I ran, I slipped, I skidded the dozen or so yards to the bulldozer and climbed aboard.

Maybe someone up there heard my prayer because the keys dangled in the bulldozer's ignition. I cranked the engine, and the bulldozer snapped forward like a dinosaur awakened.

I soon figured out that the lever in the floor was how to steer the thing, like a joystick in a video game. The dozer lurched herky-jerky forward, left, right, slinging me around in its metal cab, swaying the crane, swinging the seafood cage like a wrecking ball.

But it was working! The crabs popped like pimples under the weight of the bulldozer's tread. I crunched as many as I could and scanned the dark area for my friends.

Brennan, Dillon, and the other Ellie had joined Ellie One on top of the transformer. The two Ellies clawed at each other like one would surely push the other off into the nest of crabs. And the crabs were almost high enough to reach them. I steered the bulldozer as best I could toward the box.

Brennan looked at the rapidly approaching bulldozer with wide eyes. I leaned out of the cab and yelled, "Jump! On one!" I held up three fingers as high as I could outside the cab in case he hadn't heard me. Oh, please-let him have heard me.

Brennan saw my fingers and nodded.

"Three!" I yelled. Three fingers. The bulldozer ground forward, crushing crabs, swinging the crane hook behind me.

"Two!" Two fingers. Mere feet away from my best friends. They were now not only timing the approach of the bulldozer but were also swatting away the crabs that had managed to stack up high enough to attack their feet and legs.

"ONE!" One finger. Brennan and Dillon and Ellie and Ellie hurled themselves to my left, and the bulldozer plowed into the transformer, which was now festering with crabs. The transformer cracked open and sparks of electricity sizzled and spit. Crab parts flew everywhere, and every light for as far as we could see went out.

Beware lest thou explode.

The bulldozer was pushed back by the force of the impact, but the electrical box had been too small to cause such a ma.s.sive machine much harm. I couldn't say the same for the crabs, however. They were electrocuted, their tiny crab parts twitching with shock.

I climbed out of the cab. "Ellie? Brennan? Dillon?"

I heard their voices in the dark night, a night even darker now. "We're here."

I choked on a sob and ran to the sound of their voices. We hugged as a group for a minute, both Ellies panting and sobbing, both with gashes on their cheeks, glop in their hair. Dillon pulled away.

"You guys stink," he said with a grin.

We all breathed out. We did stink. We were slimy and wet and covered in muck and a little blood. I looked around. "How in the world are we going to find the birthstone in the dark?"

One of the Ellies wiped a chunk of crab goo off her face and flung it aside. She pulled the birthstone, a ripe red ruby, out of her sweatshirt pocket.

"You're welcome," she said. She glared at the other Ellie.

I held the birthstone aloft and said my chant, "Sic itur ad astra." If I hadn't just been attacked by these creatures and then blown them to bits, I'd have thought that the sparkling trails skittering into the skies were what took my breath away.

Two Keepers down, ten to go.

And there we stood, watching Cancer ascend into the heavens, reforming into a crab constellation, when a click sounded behind us.

I jumped and whirled around, terrified that we'd missed a crab. A flashlight beam blinded me.

"There you are, Jalen Jones. I think you better come with us."

"The men from the car," an Ellie whispered.

The men with the arrows, I thought. The tip of my ear throbbed.

"Jalen Jones." The second man stepped forward into the edge of the light.

"Can I help you?" I asked, squinting at him. I felt one eyebrow arch up, punctuating the question. Cool! I'd always wanted to be able to do that. Now, apparently I could.

He extended a huge hand, handshake-style. I didn't shake it.

"I'm Agent Cygnus. And this-" he shoved his partner with his elbow, causing the flashlight beam to lower at last. "This is Agent Griffin. I hope we didn't scare you three too badly? Griffin here has been sneaking around like a spy on steroids ever since the personality shift. Stupid rookie."

My eyes adjusted back to the night. I couldn't decide if the red spots I saw were from the blinding light or the blinding anger. But I'd caught one thing he'd said: "you three"?

I stole a sideways glance. Dillon had snuck away. Over the shoulder of the guy with the flashlight, he signaled me, jumping and waving. Shhhhh, he gestured, finger over lips. I tried not to nod at him; he was obviously up to something, and I didn't want these guys to see. But still-three?

This guy couldn't see the other Ellie! Then, suddenly, I realized-neither could I. The other Ellie, the second Ellie-gone. Disappeared, like Gemini.

If Ellie Part Deux was gone, these people had to be human. It was too risky for her to stay around humans who hadn't touched the book; we'd easily discover which was Fake Ellie and which was Real Ellie based on who was overlooked. I practically tackled my Ellie, I hugged her so hard. As I did, she whispered into my hair.

"Jalen. They know something about a personality shift."

They do? Yes-they do! The agent. He'd said, "Ever since the personality shift."

Hope glowed inside me. Others-other humans, apparently-knew about the shift.

How much did they know? Did they know I'd caused it? Would I be in a world of trouble? Based on the looks of these men and the fact that they'd launched arrows at my back, my best guess was that they knew quite a lot.

But they said they were agents. FBI? They might be able to help us. Maybe they could even take us to Nina!

Agent Cygnus had been rambling on about protocol when approaching a suspect and that Agent Griffin was obviously not following said protocol and, hey, what do you expect from a rookie and well-gosh-sorry. He crossed to the car and opened the back door. "Come with us, Jalen. You look like you could use a hot shower and a warm meal."

My stomach rumbled, placing its vote.

Ellie grabbed my hand and shook her head. The events of the night had left her distrustful. And I had to agree-the slice in my ear hadn't just appeared there.

Ziiiiip! I flinched. As if my thoughts had made it happen, an arrow zippered by me and planted itself in the ground just in front of Agent Cygnus, the staff waggling. Ziiiiip! Another, just in front of Agent Griffin. The sound of those arrows slicing the air so cleanly made me shiver, but neither agent recoiled. The warm smile never left Agent Cygnus's face.

They obviously couldn't see the arrows. Who had fired them before?

Sagittarius. The archer. And my former sign.

I took a step forward, fearing that another arrow might slice open our skin at any moment. We had to get out of here. Into the car-that'd be safe. "Okay," I said. "Let's-"

But the bulldozer engine roared to life, drowning out the rest of my sentence. I turned to see Dillon steering the dozer straight for the agents' car.

Agent Griffin ran at the thing, leaving a wave of curse words in his wake. The bulldozer plowed straight toward him.

That was enough for Ellie; she took off running along the dark riverbank. Brennan and I exchanged a glance before we followed.

As the night swallowed us, we heard the bulldozer crush the car.

After running for eight or nine blocks, we paused at an intersection. There was light here, but we chose to catch our breath in the shadows. I felt bad-we'd left Dillon behind. Had they caught him? Or had he escaped? Would he catch up to us? Nah, surely not. Surely, he'd bail. I know I would. We'd have to keep going without him. Our time was ticking away.

I finally sucked enough air into my lungs to look up from the tips of my tennis shoes- -and there were two Ellies.

"No!" I yelled. "No, no, no!" Why hadn't I held on to Ellie's hand? Watched with eagle eyes for the other Ellie to reappear? I spun and kicked the brick wall behind me. Stupid. Now my toes hurt, too. One of the Ellies looked positively sick at seeing her twin, her skin paling under the crusty blood on her cheek, compliments of Cancer. The other just bit her lip while silent tears mixed with her cut. One of these two was an excellent actress. Which one?

Gemini, our guide, was there now. She handed each Ellie a sc.r.a.p of cloth, telling each to hold it to the cut on her face.

"How did they find us?" an Ellie asked, dabbing her cheek.

Brennan plucked the cell phone out of one of the Ellie's back jeans pocket and held it up. The screen showed seven new texts from Ellie's mom.

"You don't even have to make a call, you know," Brennan said. "It just has to be on." He tossed it onto the sidewalk and raised his foot, ready to crush it.

"Wait!" I yelled. "I want to try my mom again first."

I called. It rang and rang and rang and went to voice mail. Finally on my fourth try, my mom's wailing ripped through the phone.

"Jalen?" she said through sobs.

The fist around my heart clenched harder. "Mom, where are you? I've been trying to-"

"Jalen, honey, I'm sorry, but I can't stay. I can't. Where's your father? Where is he?"

"Dad? What are you talking about? Mom, you have to stay! Please stay with Nina! Where are you?"

My mom retched from all the crying. "N-Nina?" she said at last.

"Aren't you with her? Mom!"

"Jalen," my mom choked out. "I have to find him."

The line went dead.

I knew it. I knew Mom always believed Dad's disappearance meant that he walked out on us, left when I got so very sick. She had never believed he was dead. And now she was planning on trying to find him?

Did her personality shift make her want to search for him, instead of shutting him out?

And then, for the first time since I was nine years old, I wondered, Is he still alive? Could he have just...left?

"No!" I yelled. I smashed the phone down on the sidewalk, but instead of shattering into satisfying pieces, it bounced and skidded against one of the Ellie's sneakers.

She stooped and picked it up. "That won't help us at all."

She pulled a matching cell phone out of her pocket. Of course-two cells. Twice as dangerous. She pointed to a taxi sitting at the red light in the intersection.

"You walk in the crosswalk, in front of the taxi," she told us. Brennan looked at me and shrugged.

I took a shaky breath but nodded. We crossed-Brennan, Gemini, the other Ellie, and me. As we did, the Ellie with the phones cut behind the taxi and discreetly tucked both cell phones in the gap between the back window and the trunk.

The light turned green. The taxi took off with both phones, heading in the direction opposite ours.

"What are you doing?" the other Ellie shrieked.

I watched as contact with my mom rolled away. My stomach knotted.

I spit through gritted teeth, "I don't think my friend would do that."

"I was just trying to help," Ellie said, her voice wavering. Then her eyes narrowed. "Are you saying I'm a Keeper, Jalen? Do you really want to make that kind of accusation?"

The shadows in her statement tamped down my anger a notch. Was I certain? Our cell phones rolling far away from us was a good idea. Could it be Real Ellie, trying to help?

I sighed. "We needed those phones."

"Yes! We did!" the other Ellie shrieked.

"For what?" Ellie asked. "So those agents could hunt us down?"

"We might've been able to trust them, you know," I said.

Ellie placed her hands on her hips. "No, I don't know. Those guys could be lions or scorpions or some other kind of awful creatures. I only know I can trust the two of you." She glared at Gemini, at the other Ellie, and whipped around. She headed what I guessed was west, toward Algiers.

I glanced at Gemini. If she knew which Ellie was real and which was fake, she was offering no hints. Which one was it, walking away?

If it was my friend, if it truly was...well, then, my heart ached for her. Scared, distrustful Ellie. I remember how lonely distrust feels. I should-it was only hours before that I was steeped in it.

We followed the stomping Ellie for a block or two before Brennan said with a wrinkled forehead, "Hey, is this the right way? Without those phones, we don't know where we're headed." I wished Dillon was still with us. He'd know what to do.

The Ellie closest to us stopped. She pointed at a tiny convenience store ahead, the only business open on this side of the river at this time of night. "Ever hear of a map, guys?"

I gritted my teeth.

The neon signs in the window threw red and blue and yellow light onto the sidewalk. I swung open the door. A buzzer screeched with our entrance. The teen behind the counter didn't even look up. I doubted he heard us over the punk music blasting through his earbuds.

Maps of New Orleans were up front, stuffed into a teetering circular metal rack with postcards and snow globes of the city-like it ever snowed in New Orleans. Brennan looked at a few maps and picked one.

At the counter, one of the Ellies leaned over the clear gla.s.s and pointed at a lottery ticket.

"Hey!" she shouted to the guy. His eyes opened just a slit.

"We want one of those!" She jabbed her finger at the case. "And this." She took the map from Brennan and placed it on the counter.

My heart sped up. She was buying a lottery ticket? We weren't eighteen. I'd never done something like that before. Surely, we'd never get away with it. But it reminded me about the hospital rules and the mom rules and all the rules. Forget the rules-forget them! Maybe this was the Ellie who had insisted we take The Keypers of the Zodiack out of Madame Beausoleil's shop.