The Slice Read online

  “See, isn’t this fun?” Strobe said. “Tobe? Would you like to show Calanthe where your people are from?”

  “Sure.”

  Strobe made way for Toby to sit at the computer. Within seconds, the camera was flying around the world and zeroing in on the British Isles. Its final destination …

  Scotland.

  “My dad’s dad was born in Newcomnick, Scotland,” Toby announced, freezing the camera on a close-up of a small Scottish village.

  “I thought you might have some Scot in you,” Annabel said.

  “That wouldn’t be because I flush red as a beet every time I’m nervous or embarrassed, would it? I’m not sure where my mom’s from. But my dad … yeah, he wears the kilt from time to time.”

  “A kilt?” Calanthe asked as she reached over for the mouse that Toby had abandoned when he swiveled around to talk to Annabel.

  “That’s a dress,” Strobe said.

  “It’s not a dress, you imbecile,” Toby said derisively.

  “A skirt, then.”

  “It is not a skirt.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “Scottish men do not wear skirts. They wear kilts.”

  “They look like skirts to me. They’re open at the bottom. They ain’t pants, that’s for sure.”

  “Boys…” Annabel interrupted.

  “Yeah, well, my ancestors could whip your ancestors, whatever they are, skirts and all.”

  “How lame a comeback was that? Seriously. Please show me you can do better than that, Tobe.”

  “Oh, boys…”

  “While I’m searchin’ for something, chew on this. At least I don’t think a kilt is a skirt!”

  Strobe had seen a dictionary on a nearby bookshelf and was quickly paging through it. He smiled when he found what he was looking for. “Kilt…” Strobe read gleefully. “A pleated skirt reaching to the knees, especially the tartan skirt worn sometimes by men of the Scottish Highlands!”

  Strobe raised his arms in triumph.

  “Guys! You need to check this out.”

  Strobe grinned at Toby, Toby glared defiantly back at Strobe—trying to preserve some shred of dignity from his humiliating defeat—then they both looked at Annabel, who nodded toward Calanthe. The image on the screen was no longer of the Scottish town of Newcomnick. The camera had returned to the northern part of the United States.

  “Calanthe didn’t do that, did she?” Strobe asked.

  Annabel nodded.

  “Wow,” Toby said. “That’s really impressive, Calanthe.”

  Calanthe didn’t seem to be listening to Toby. Instead, she was concentrating on moving and clicking the mouse.

  “I knew this girl was sharp, but this is beyond beyond,” Strobe observed as he and Annabel and Toby watched Calanthe move the focus of the image on the screen from the northwest U.S. to the Canadian province of Quebec. The POV of the camera took a sudden nosedive toward a large expanse of forest.

  A large lake became visible as the camera moved closer and closer to the earth, finally freezing on a close-up shot of the fall-colored trees, brilliant in their red and orange and yellow hues.

  The trio was silent as they stared at the computer. Calanthe stayed rooted where she was, then she slowly spun around in her chair. Looking at Annabel, Toby and Strobe, in turn, she said …

  “Home.”

  13

  “You had it all planned out, didn’t you? That’s why you did the Earth Map thing. To get Calanthe to show us where her village was.”

  Walking with Strobe down the crowded school hallway, Annabel waited for Strobe’s response. Strobe took a sudden right across the hall and stopped at a locker.

  “I don’t know what the big deal is,” Strobe said as he exchanged his morning books for his afternoon ones. “It’s important to know where Calanthe’s from, right?”

  “So you admit it. You didn’t do Earth Maps for educational reasons. You wanted to trick Calanthe into showing us where she used to live.”

  “Listen, Annabel, there’s something you should know about. I was talking to Harvey yesterday. Before our boot-camp session with Calanthe?”

  “Why were you talking to Harvey? Why weren’t we all on the line with him?”

  “Harvey thinks you’re too protective of Calanthe. I agree with him. This nightmare Calanthe had the other day? The skin episode? You never said a word about that to her, did you?”

  “If you had been there, you might have second thoughts about saying anything—”

  “No, I wouldn’t. This is exactly what I’m talking about. I would have shown her those pictures Toby took and asked her what it was all about. That girl is stronger than you think she is.”

  “Is she? How can you know that, for sure? I’m with Calanthe practically around the clock, remember. And I can tell you, sometimes when I look at her, she seems so vulnerable to me.”

  Strobe closed his locker door and started off down the hall. Following him, Annabel had to use two steps to every one of Strobe’s to keep up with his long, lanky gait.

  “So what did Harvey want to talk to you about?”

  “He got word about an incident at the Central Park Zoo a couple nights ago. The news media will never get hold of this one. It’s totally hush-hush.”

  “What happened?”

  “From the intel Harvey got, he thinks the rukh made an after-midnight visit to the zoo. He didn’t tell his source that, but that’s what he thinks went down.”

  “Why the rukh?”

  Strobe explained what the guard at the zoo had reported about his terrifying nighttime smackdown. “Remember when we first met Calanthe? In Central Park? She said that she thought the rukh had rediscovered her scent. Her scent, Annabel.”

  The two had arrived at the top of a stairway. Strobe was going one way, Annabel another. “It’s like that thing is some kind of supernatural bloodhound. It managed to track Calanthe from the wilds of Canada to New York City. Why not from New York City to here?”

  Annabel frowned at this news. “Is Harvey sure the rukh survived? That it’s alive?”

  “He can’t be positive, but he thinks it’s a good bet that’s what hopped over the fence at the zoo. We’ve seen the range that thing has when it comes to the big jump.”

  “So what can we do about all this?”

  “The best defense is always a good offense. I’m flying to Montreal tomorrow morning, meeting up with a group of MCOs, and heading off to find Calanthe’s village.”

  Annabel was so surprised at Strobe’s revelation that she wasn’t sure how to respond.

  “It’s a fact-finding mission. Harvey doesn’t like being so ignorant about a monster species, especially one so close to home. It’s possible the rukh has gone back to its village. If so, we’ll deal with it.”

  “But what if the rukh is alive? What if it’s heading right here and—”

  “Plan B is we grab a dekayi or two up there,” Strobe revealed. “It might be helpful to have a couple of these dudes. Get some info out of them. Use ’em as hostages, maybe, a bargaining chip to wrangle Calanthe’s freedom, if it comes to that.”

  “I can’t believe this.…”

  “Don’t freak, okay, Annabel? We’re gonna deal with this. But first things first. I need to talk to Calanthe before I leave tomorrow. We can’t just babysit her anymore. It’s time to get down to it. The more I know about what to expect up there, the better.”

  Annabel gave Strobe a reluctant nod. “Why don’t you come over after dinner tonight.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there around sevenish?”

  Annabel nodded. “Are you sure you have to go up there?”

  “C’mon, Annabel. You know I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Besides, I know more about the dekayi than the dudes I’m going up there with. That kind of puts me in charge of the operation, is the way I look at it.”

  “How are you pulling this off, anyway? What did you tell your mom?”

  “She thinks I’m going to New York. Harvey gave
her a call, said I made such an impression on Killer Pizza executives during my weekend training session that they want me back for an extended weeklong immersion class for future Killer Pizza managers.”

  “And she bought that?”

  “You gotta understand, my mom’s been through a lot with me. She’s thrilled I’m apparently doing well in a business that’s, shall we say … legal. So she’s more than happy to have me miss a week of school for this.”

  “Just be careful, huh?”

  “Always.”

  * * *

  As Strobe’s airplane approached the Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport at 8:36 the following morning, he found himself once again thinking about the scene at Annabel’s house the night before. Calanthe had given Strobe, Toby, and Annabel detail after detail about the dekayi species.

  The revelation that the dekayi were descended from an ancient race of serpent people hadn’t come as much of a surprise, nor the fact that their serpent alter ego’s bite was extremely poisonous. But when Calanthe had told the trio about how a dekayi serpent could swallow a person whole … well, that caught Strobe’s attention. He’d have to be on the lookout for that neat little trick.

  Calanthe had relayed other details about the dekayi, one of the most interesting being the physical change they called the Altering. This was the momentous event that delivered a teenage dekayi to adulthood, after which they possessed the ability to transform into their serpent alter ego. The Altering had not yet come to Calanthe, but she expected it to very soon.

  As Strobe’s plane touched down and taxied to the terminal, he pushed aside all thougts about Calanthe and looked out the window. He was confident that he had done all he could to prepare for this mission. He was ready to go.

  After being subjected to a customs search, Strobe was met by three Killer Pizza MCOs. Thanks to Harvey’s contacts, the MCOs had been able to bypass their customs search, which is why they had been able to bring along a KP backpack for Strobe, stocked with all the necessary items for battle that Strobe hadn’t been able to pack.

  The MCOs led Strobe to another, smaller terminal. They had flown from New York in a private KP plane, which would also be taking the quartet to a landing strip in the forest area that Calanthe had pointed out to Strobe, Annabel, and Toby. From there, a helicopter would take them on a tour of the area. And hopefully to the village where Calanthe once lived.

  Strobe was pleasantly nervous as he followed the MCOs out onto the tarmac, where the Cessna 206H six-seater was idling and waiting for them to board. This is what really thrilled Strobe. The hunt, the promise of battle. This is what he had signed up for when he had agreed to enter the KP Academy training program.

  Yep, this is more like it, Strobe thought as he walked up the steps of the airplane behind the other MCOs. As far as he was concerned, he was one of them now. He was their equal. And he was ready for whatever they would find out there in the woods.

  * * *

  The forest was an unbroken swath of maple and oak trees, brilliantly red, orange, and yellow in their fall colors. Leaning out of the helicopter, Strobe studied the area below through a set of high-powered binoculars.

  “Couldn’t your little snake-girl be more precise about where to find her village? I mean, what’d she say again? It’s somewhere in this area, like, sort of?”

  Not for the first time, Strobe felt like giving Holt, the sarcastic MCO, a hard jab to the ribs. Obviously unhappy that Strobe had been invited on this trip, the guy had been riding him ever since they left Montreal a few hours earlier.

  “I guess you weren’t paying attention when I explained the first time,” Strobe yelled edgily over his shoulder at Holt. “The girl left her village in the dead of night. It was the first time she’d ever been outside of the place.”

  “Yeah … so?”

  “So sue her for not being able to remember the name of the first town she passed through. She gave me an excellent idea of where to look for her village. It’s down there somewhere, and we’re gonna find it.”

  “Yeah, if the storm doesn’t hit first. We only have till tomorrow to track this place down, you know. That’s direct from Harvey. He needs us back in the Apple by tomorrow night.”

  Eyeing the line of dark clouds that had appeared on the eastern horizon, Strobe was definitely worried about the approaching storm. The forecast was for snow. If the cold front hit before they had zeroed in on Calanthe’s village, that could very well shut down the aerial proceedings until the following morning.

  So the time was now, or return at daybreak for a second and final search. Definitely a “now” kind of guy, Strobe scoured the forest below through his binoculars, determined to find his needle in the haystack.

  14

  As Strobe was airborne up in the Canadian wilds, Calanthe was at school, at her locker, taking out a couple of books and putting them into her backpack. Toby had hit the restroom before the two headed off to history class.

  “Hey, there.”

  The greeting had come from behind Calanthe. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a tall, preppy teen approach her, a huge smile on his face. Calanthe wasn’t sure if his words had been directed to her or not, so she looked around to see if there was someone else nearby.

  “No, I’m talking to you,” the guy said with an amused laugh. Amping up his dazzling smile even higher, he added, “My name’s Adam.”

  Adam held out his hand. Calanthe looked at the hand for a moment, then reached out and shook it.

  “And your name is?”

  “Calanthe.”

  “That’s a beautiful name. Where are you from, Calanthe?”

  “Egypt.”

  “Egypt. That’s way cool.”

  Calanthe studied Adam curiously. This was the first time anyone had come up to her and introduced himself.

  “So you’re a foreign exchange student, huh?”

  Calanthe nodded. Her eyes shifted from Adam, down the hall, and back again. She was wondering where Toby was.

  “You know what, Calanthe? I’m really glad we met. Actually, I’ve been meaning to introduce myself since the first day I saw you.”

  Adam was obviously expecting a response from Calanthe. When he didn’t get one, he said, “Right, well … the reason I’ve been meaning to introduce myself is ’cause I was wondering if you would like to go to the dance next Friday with me.”

  “No.”

  Calanthe had just seen, not Toby, but Annabel appear in the crowd of students, walking in her direction. Without another word to Adam, she walked off down the hall to meet Annabel.

  Adam looked completely shocked and a bit puzzled by Calanthe’s one-word dismissal of his invitation to go to the dance. Shaking his head in wonder at Calanthe’s odd behavior, he followed her confidently down the hall.

  “Hi, Calanthe,” Annabel said as Calanthe walked up to her. “Where’s Toby?”

  “He said he had to go to the bathroom.”

  “Well, let’s go find him.”

  “Hold up a sec,” Adam said, big smile back in place as he planted himself in front of Annabel and Calanthe. “So … what was that, Calanthe, a playing-hard-to-get kinda thing?”

  Annabel looked at Calanthe with a frown.

  “No,” Calanthe replied, returning Adam’s somewhat-threatening smile with a cool, calm look.

  It wasn’t hard for Annabel to guess what was going on. Her immediate instinct was to get Calanthe away from Adam, quickly, so she returned Adam’s smile and said, “If you’ll excuse us, we need to get to fifth period.”

  “And you are?” Adam asked.

  “Annabel Oshiro.”

  “No, I mean, what are you?”

  Annabel wasn’t sure what Adam meant.

  “Let me answer the question for you. You’re a freshman, right?”

  Okay, this guy’s an idiot, Annabel thought. “I am a freshman, yes.” Annabel tried to hit just the right tone of humility. She had not yet experienced any bullying from upperclassmen since
starting at Triple H, but knew that Toby had.

  “So let me ask you something. What makes you think you can talk to a senior like that?”

  Annabel frowned. “I wasn’t aware that I was talking to you with any kind of—”

  “I just need to have a little discussion with your friend here, Calanthe,” Adam said, cutting off Annabel. “Then you and I can deal with the more important stuff.” Calanthe stared curiously at Adam as he turned his attention back to Annabel. It was hard to read in her expression just how she felt about the unpleasant little scene that was developing in the middle of the hallway.

  “This is what I suggest,” Adam said in a threatening tone as he stepped closer to Annabel. “Since you seem to be so concerned about getting to your fifth-period class, why don’t you go on ahead, and I’ll walk Calanthe to her class. That way she and I can finish what we started before you came along and so rudely interrupted … OOOOOWWWWW!!!”

  Annabel wasn’t sure at first why Adam was suddenly grimacing in pain, but then she saw Calanthe’s hand on his bicep. The pressure Calanthe was able to apply with just one hand had caused Adam to literally sink to his knees.

  “Calanthe, that’s enough!” When Calanthe didn’t respond to Annabel’s command, Annabel grabbed her hand and pried it away from Adam’s arm. Still on his knees, Adam stared in disbelief at the foreign exchange student from Egypt.

  “What was that all about?! Look at my arm, man!”

  Adam had rolled up his shirt sleeve. Indeed, his arm had already started to swell and turn black and blue.

  “I’m totally reportin’ you to the principal, girl. You’ll be on the next plane to Egypt so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

  “Go to the nurse, get a little ice on that, you’ll be fine,” Annabel said dismissively. “As for the principal, I’d rethink that if I were you. Do you really want more people to know that a girl half your size brought you to your knees by just grabbing your arm?”

  Adam looked around at the crowd that had instantly gathered to watch the odd spectacle of one of Triple H’s main studs in obvious agony as he knelt on the linoleum hall, clutching his injured arm. Wanting to get Calanthe away from the unintended spotlight that had been suddenly beamed on their little scene, Annabel led her off down the hall.