Unstoppable: Breakaway Part 9

"Going to discos," Amy said.

There was a click as the man pulled the gun's hammer back and pushed the barrel hard into her skull. Amy flinched and bit back a scream. Her skin throbbed where the gun touched her. Her knees went weak but she refused to go down. There was another rustle in the dark of the alley and Amy motioned frantically behind her back to warn the others to stay hidden.

"You do not want to joke with me," the man with the gun said. He stepped to the side, keeping the gun pressed to her skull, and Amy caught sight of him for the first time.

She knew him. His eyes were cold and blue. Amy glanced behind him. One of the other men was holding not a gun, but a pair of handcuffs. The other had what she thought was a Taser. Something about that seemed strange. Amy struggled through her fear to grasp what was bothering her. Only one of them has a gun. There's no one around. Nothing to stop him from pulling the trigger. So why am I still alive? And then it clicked.

"If you were going to kill me," she said, "you would have done it already."

She expected a reaction, but the blue-eyed man didn't speak, didn't move. Amy decided to test the theory. She stepped away from him, finding her breath without the ring of steel against her temple.

"You have to make it look like an accident," she said, terrified but taking another step anyway. The man tracked her, also stepping toward the mouth of the alley.

"Don't you?" Amy insisted. "Like on the bridge in New York. Cahill Kids Murdered doesn't make a good headline, does it? Raises a lot of questions."

Amy kept moving backward and the man followed, his gun falling almost imperceptibly. His team followed, too. Amy prayed that some shred of her and Dan's old teamwork still existed, that her brother would guess what she was trying to do.

Amy was just a few feet from the back of the alley. She moved to take another step back, but this time the gun rose again, pointing at her forehead, dead center. The man's finger curled around the black trigger and Amy's heart missed a beat.

"How about this headline?" he said. "Cahill Kids Wander into Dark Alley. Shot by Local Criminals. Bet people will believe that."

"Please," Amy said, raising her hands, trying to control her breathing, trying to stay calm. "Whatever you do with me, just let Dr. Rosenbloom go. He doesn't have anything to do with this. I swear. If you want a hostage, let him go and I'll take his place."

"Take whose place?"

"Mark Rosenbloom!"

The man's eyes narrowed and his head tilted to one side. "Who's Mark Rosenbloom?"

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

Jake exploded out of the alley, swinging a plank of wood. It smacked into the man's wrist and the gun fell. Jake didn't miss a beat. He swung again, hitting the back of the man's head with everything he had. The board shattered and the man went down to his knees. Dan and Atticus were right behind him, a heavy steel trash can between them. They hurled it through the air and caught one of the others in the stomach. He doubled over and the Taser clattered to the street.

Amy dove for the Taser and jammed it into the third man's side as he came at her. There was a crackle and spark and the man hit the ground, flopping like a dying fish.

"Run!" she yelled.

The others joined Amy as she took off down the street. She looked over her shoulder. The three men were groggy but already starting to pick themselves up.

"This way!"

Dan jerked to the right, leading them down another twist. Amy's mind raced. Pierce's men were so much faster. They had only minutes before her energy gave out to the point that running became stumbling and falling. Maybe she could distract Pierce's men for a few seconds with a surprise melee, but fighting them head-on was hopeless.

A cramp tore into her side as she ran. Amy gasped and her hand went to it, under her jacket. She felt something stiff and square in her pocket. The idea hit her with the impact of a gunshot.

"We need a place to hide," she yelled up to Dan.

Dan turned through road after road in the dark until he came to another alley and ran into it.

Thank G.o.d for that memory of his! thought Amy.

The kids fell to their knees in the dark, out of breath. Amy listened but didn't hear the pounding of the mercenaries' boots. They had lost them, but she knew it wouldn't last. They had bought themselves seconds. If that.

"Dan," she said. "What's the fastest route back to the Bab el Bahr?"

"But that's right out in the open!" Jake said. "Amy! What are you doing?"

Amy pulled out her phone and then dug in her jacket pocket.

"Throwing our dog a new bone."

Dan watched as his sister made a half dozen phone calls and then stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

"You sure this is going to work?" he whispered. Amy looked over at him but didn't say anything. Dan swallowed. He could see it in her eyes. This was a Hail Mary pa.s.s. He had trusted his sister without question, but she'd been so erratic lately. Was she acting rationally?

"Here they come," Jake whispered.

Every muscle in Dan's body tensed as Pierce's men turned the corner. Dan held his breath as they ran past. They were like Greek statues in motion, tireless, invulnerable. The instant their footsteps faded, Amy nodded to Jake and he sprang into the road.

"Hey!" Jake shouted. "What's the matter? You jerks can't catch a couple of kids!?"

"Go," Amy said.

Dan burst out of the alley with Amy and Atticus right behind him. He turned a sharp right and headed up the street, following the map in his head to the Bab el Bahr. There was a crash behind him as Jake pushed an empty merchant's cart into the street. It would only slow the men down for a second. Once again, he prayed his sister knew what she was doing.

Dan took another sharp turn. The plaza surrounding the Bab el Bahr was in sight. He rocketed toward it but then there was a clatter on stone and a deep oof behind him. Dan turned to see Jake sprawled out on the pavement, Pierce's men breaking over him like a wave.

"Jake!" Dan cried as he skidded to a stop. "Amy!"

Dan started for Jake but Amy's hand clamped onto his arm, holding him back.

"What are you -"

"We have to keep going!"

"We can't leave him!"

She yanked Dan back toward her. "Go! Now!"

Amy grabbed Atticus's arm, too, and pulled them all down the street. Dan looked back and saw the blue-eyed man hauling Jake off the ground. The Bab el Bahr and the plaza surrounding it were dead ahead. Behind them, Pierce's men were in pursuit, dragging Jake along with them. The moonlight glinted off the gun in one of their hands.

Amy didn't stop until they were at the foot of the gate. She searched the empty streets around them, her eyes wide, desperate. "They didn't come!" she said, her eyes frantic. "Why didn't they come?"

"This little chase is over."

Amy, Dan, and Atticus turned to find Pierce's men in a semicircle around them, with Jake on his knees beside the blue-eyed man. The man had the jet-black automatic pointed at the back of Jake's head.

"A quick surrender will be the easiest for all of you," the leader said.

"And then what?" Amy asked, stepping forward. "We fall off a building? What makes the best news?"

The man lifted his gun from Jake's back and pointed it at Amy's chest. "No more time for games."

His finger tensed on the trigger but before he could fire, the sound of voices came from all directions. The square was dark, but the voices got louder and louder, as if there were a stampede on the way. Floodlights pierced the darkness.

"Amy! Dan! Over here!"

Amy pulled a stack of business cards from her pocket and threw them at the man's feet.

"Nope, it's just time for a new game," she said. "Hope you like it."

Seconds later they were surrounded on all sides by jostling reporters, nearly thirty of them, pushing and elbowing their way forward. Flashes went off like firecrackers over their heads. In the distance, Dan could see vans with spotlights tearing into the square.

Pierce's men were surrounded. Their muscles tensed and nostrils flared as guns, Tasers, and handcuffs disappeared in their jackets. One of them even pulled Jake back up to his feet and threw an arm around him, like they were old friends.

My sister's a genius, Dan thought. My sister is an unbelievable genius.

"Amy! Dan!" one of the reporters shouted. "Tell us what you're doing in Tunis!"

"Any response to the Tolliver interview?"

"Is Jake Rosenbloom your new boyfriend!?"

"Dan? Why do you do whatever your sister tells you?"

The reporters fell into silence as Amy stepped into the harsh lights.

"You're asking the wrong questions!" Amy announced to the crowd of reporters. "It doesn't matter who my boyfriend is and it doesn't matter how I feel about what the Tollivers said. What matters is what's happening right here and right now. What matters is these men!" She threw an accusing finger at Pierce's men, and the reporters' heads swiveled in their direction. Pierce's men fumbled around, clearly unsure what would make their boss more angry - fighting or running.

"You need to ask yourself why men with guns are chasing a bunch of kids in the middle of the night!" Amy went on, her voice ringing out over the clicking cameras. "You need to ask why, when barely anyone had ever heard of any of us before, we're suddenly in the news every single day! Who benefits from that, and why?"

"Who, Amy?" a reporter shouted. "Who's after you!?"

Amy stood tall in the glare of the lights. Dan could feel the tension building around them until it felt like it was going to explode. He took his sister's arm and started to draw her back from the cameras, but she pulled away from him.

"The person you need to be investigating is their boss!" she said. "The man who pays them to chase us all over the world. The same man who kidnapped an innocent scholar named Dr. Mark Rosenbloom!"

"Who!?" a woman in a red suit cried. "Tell us who!"

"J. Rutherford Pierce!" yelled Amy.

It was as if a bomb went off in the middle of the plaza. Every reporter began to shout, surging forward in a tidal wave. They blew past Dan and Amy and went right for Pierce's men. Dan almost laughed to see the look of abject terror on the blue-eyed man's face. Pierce may have turned him into the most lethal killing machine the world had ever known, but nothing could prepare him for an onslaught like this. Jake shook off the man holding him, and Pierce's muscle ran like they had an army after them. The reporters didn't let up, going after the men like a pack of starving piranha. Within a minute, the plaza was empty.

"Are you INSANE!?" Jake was standing in the middle of the square, face red with anger.

"You told them about Pierce? About my father?"

"I was trying to save your life!" Amy said.

"What about my father's life? What do you think Pierce is going to do to him now that you outed him?" Jake yelled.

"Jake, I -"

"You do not get to make decisions for my family, Amy!"

"We can't just keep waiting," Amy said, her face hardening. "If we act, maybe we can force Pierce to make a mistake."

"And what if that mistake is killing my father? Do you even care?"

"Of course I care!"

Dan forced himself between Jake and Amy. "Guys! Hold on. Let's just calm down. We'll find your dad, Jake. I promise."

Jake glared at him. "And what if you don't? You going to stick up for her then, too, Dan? Those reporters were right about you. When are you going to get a mind of your own?"

Dan felt his own rage ignite. "Amy's doing her best!"

"For herself! Not for Atticus and me!"

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!"

Dan, Amy, and Jake wheeled on Atticus, their chests heaving. Atticus stood beneath a streetlight, Olivia's notebook open in his hands.

"Atticus," Jake said. "What? What is it?"

"I figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

Atticus took a deep breath, like he was steadying himself before going off a high dive.

"I know where Dad is," he said. "And I know where the silphium is, too."

Atticus refused to say another word until they were deep in the stacks of the Tunis library, where Dr. Rosenbloom worked. It was still well before dawn, but the night security guard recognized Jake and Atticus and let them inside. Atticus guided them down narrow corridors of books that got older and older the farther they went. Every few seconds, Atticus stopped to examine a book, hauling a few into his increasingly heavy backpack.

Finally, they found themselves in a cramped reading room with an antique table and a few rickety chairs. Atticus pulled the books out of his pack and arranged them on the table, going through each one in turn.

Amy was standing across from Jake, but neither of them came close to looking at the other. They glowered at the dark table, their lingering anger filling the room like a black cloud. Dan felt suffocated by it and by Jake's words in the plaza. Amy was his sister. They always stuck together, no matter what. And she did the right thing. Didn't she?

"Att," Jake said. "Seriously. We don't have a lot of time here. If you know where they're keeping Dad -"

"No one's keeping Dad anywhere," Atticus said, his eyes meeting Jake's.

"What do you mean? Where is he?"

Atticus closed the book in front of him and took a deep breath. "This is going to sound crazy."

"Atticus, would you just -"