No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) (7 page)

We’re
screwed. How many times have I heard that before? I stare at X, waiting for him to continue. He walks over to his shelf and pulls out a stack of notebooks and papers. After throwing them on the floor, he sits down near me and crosses his legs. “Read.”

I open one of the notebooks and see scribbling. X has one of those handwritings where I can’t read a thing. “What’s all this?”

“You keep a diary?” Stretch asks, laughing. I give him a kick and his body stretches to the other end of the room. He doesn’t say anything as he slowly retracts his arms and legs and adjusts his shirt.

“Talk,” I tell X.

“I couldn’t sleep one night. Went downstairs to play some Xbox. That’s when I saw him.”

“Him?” Stretch asks.

X nods. “The bastard infiltrating the League, pretending to be one of us.”

Pretending to be one of us?
What’s he talking about?

“And I’ve been watching him for a while, recording all my findings in these notebooks. You don’t need to be a telepath to spy on him. All I got are these that work wonders.” He points to his eyes. “He doesn’t know I watch him every night.
I see him on his laptop, writing all those emails. See him talking on the phone. Watch him go out the back entrance and meet with a guy dressed in black. They exchange papers. He breaks into the security room and erases the footage from the tapes. We need to take the bastard down.”

I can’t believe this. I don’t
want
to believe this. “Who is it?” I ask.

“Light
ning.”

Lightning?
! “You serious? He’s Dad’s second.”

“He’s a spy
.”

Man, X really
is
serious. I hold up my hands. “Hey, I’m not calling you a liar. I believe you.”

“Me
, too,” Stretch adds as he gathers the last bit of chips into his mouth. “What are we gonna do about him?”

“Who’s he spying for?” I ask.

“The ShadowBlades.”

As in our former arch nemesis?
I can almost feel my eyes pop out of their sockets. “What? There are no Blades anymore. The League took them out four years ago. Killed Vlad, their leader.”

X shakes his head. “Yeah, we did. He
must have a successor. I’ve seen their logo on the emails and documents. A curved silver blade cutting through the center of a black V. It’s them.”

Stretch
’s face pales and he grabs another bag of chips. “We gotta tell Samson.”

“No,” X says. “We keep this to ourselves.”

“X, this isn’t something we can figure out on our own. We need to tell my dad.”

X is quiet.
He doesn’t seem too happy.

“I’m with Kale,” Stretch says.

X shrugs. “Fine.”

The room gets so quiet. I can feel the fear and tension growing and getting stronger.
“This is starting to freak me out. We’ll talk to my dad after dinner. I just hope we’re not too late.”

***

I can’t sit at the dining room table during dinner pretending to be okay when Lightning’s on Dad’s left. He has the look on his face that he always wears—loyalty and trust. Screw that. I want to wring his neck, but that’d be stupid.

“It’s ridiculous,” I mutter to X and Stretch, keeping my voice down so Pri
zm on my left won’t overhear. “The way he’s smiling to my dad and nodding and being ‘his most trusted man.’ What a fake!”

Stretch doesn’t say anything as he gobbles down his plate of mashed potatoes. X nods. “
Watch your back. No one is safe here.”

“I wonder how long he’s been undercover,” Stretch says. “He only joined the League four years ago.”

“Right after we defeated the Blades,” I realize. “We’re such idiots. They must have wanted revenge right from the start. The question is: why are they taking so long?”

“The
Blades need to gather an army,” X says. “Most of them died that night or fled, didn’t they?”

It makes sense. Lightning’s been spying on us for four years, trying to learn anything he can about us. He knows how to breach security and all our secrets.
Man. We really
are
screwed.

I bend closer to them. “We need to
tell my dad fast. The longer we wait the stronger they get.”

X is staring at the table. He’s got that intense look on his face.

“You okay?” I ask.

“They’re planning something,” he says in a monotone. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s going to be big.”

“An attack,” I say. “They want revenge. Or maybe they want Lindsay.”

X shakes his head. “It’s more than that. I can feel it.
I doubt it’s Lindsay. That’s too easy.”

“Yeah,” Stretch says. “Lightning
has known about her for a while and they would have taken her by now.”

“Maybe they want a war between the humans again,
” X says. “Although, I don’t think they’d need to spy on us for that. I don’t know. It must be about revenge.”

My heartbeat accelerates. “
So we’ve got Lindsay blowing up the world, and an attack by the Blades.”

I don’t know which is worse.

***

After dinner, the guys a
nd I head to Dad’s office. X isn’t so thrilled with telling him about Lightning because he doesn’t think Dad will believe us. But I’ve got this feeling he will. I mean, my father trusts me, now that I’m proving myself with Lindsay. He’ll know I’m not fooling around or looking for attention or whatever.

Dad’s on the phone and motions
for us to come in and sit down. Stretch and I do while X leans against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

We
wait. Stretch twists his fingers around each other, which is completely disgusting to watch. X’s eyes roam around the office, focusing on all the pictures and plaques on the walls and shelves. I listen in on Dad’s conversation. Something about recruiting a new member to the League. Apparently the guy on the other end of the line doesn’t feel that recruiting the dude would be a good idea. Dad’s trying to convince him.

I wish my father would hang up so we
could tell him about Lightning. It’s much more important than this guy who can shut the light by whistling.

“Dad,” I hiss. “We
need
to talk to you.”

He must see the urgency on my face because he tells the guy he’ll call him back
, hangs up, and folds his hands in front of him. Smiles that smile he gives all the League members. All proper and business-like. “How may I help you, boys?”

I look over at X. He grunts and folds his arms tighter. Stretch’s gaze is on his intertwined fingers. I guess it’s up to me to let
Dad in on this. Clearing my throat, I raise my eyes to him, not sure exactly how to say it. “Uh, Lightning’s a spy for the ShadowBlades and we need to stop him before they attack us or kill the normies or kidnap Lindsay or whatever they have planned.”

Dad sits back and gives me a funny look. “Excuse me?”

“It’s true,” Stretch says. Now Dad looks at him funny. “Tell him, X.”

X pushes off the wall. He tells Dad everything he told Stretch and me
. How he kept an eye on Lightning for a while, saw suspicious things. The more X talks, the more Dad shakes his head. I know what he’s thinking—that Lightning’s his most trusted guy—but even the Great Samson can mess up.

“Dad, you have to believe us.”

“No, Kale. There are a lot of things you don’t know or understand. Lightning runs top secret missions and errands for me. What you saw confused you, X-Ray, but I assure you it’s completely legitimate.”

“No,” X says in his deep voice. “I saw the documents
and the emails. He’s spying for the Blades.”

“Ray—”

“I saw their logo,” X says, his brown eyes intense.

Dad stares at him.
His face gets serious. “Are you sure that’s what you saw?”

X doesn’t answer.
His lips are set in a firm line. Then he says. “I saw it on one document. It wasn’t clear, but I’m pretty sure it was their logo.”

Dad looks from X, to me, to Stretch. He sighs. “
Lightning’s many operations can be confusing to you, Ray. But I’m not a fool to disregard suspicious behavior, even from my officers. I will keep a close watch on him and ask Robert to scan his mind periodically for suspicious thoughts. Unorthodox, but necessary, I’m afraid. If he finds anything out of the ordinary, we’ll take further action. Is that all right?” He directs the last bit to X. X shrugs.

“Yeah, Dad,” I say, getting up.
“Thanks.”

After school
on Monday, Lindsay and I go to my fake house to work on our project. My “parents” aren’t home from work, so it’s just the two of us. Lindsay spends a few minutes taking the place in. It’s not much, but it’s more lavish than hers. I give her a quick tour before we sit down at the dining room table.

The research is boring, but I entertain us with lame jokes, which makes it bearable. She’s the only girl
to ever laugh at them. That’s kinda awesome.

“Okay, I think we did enough for today,” Lindsay says, packing away the papers and
exiting the webpage on the computer. She takes out a notebook from her backpack and places it between us on the table.

“
What’s that?” I ask.

“
My notes from this semester. I want to help you catch up in your classes.”

I
gape at her. Seriously? She’d do that? “Why? I mean, why would you help me?”

She keeps her gaze on the table before raising it to me. “I don’t know. I don’t want you to fall behind.” She shrugs. “I guess I love helping people.”

“You do? That’s cool.”

She smiles. “
Yeah, I want to help people when I’m older. Like, maybe a social worker. I want kids to have happy lives. There are so many who are treated badly or run away from home or are stuck in terrible families and foster homes. I want to make a difference.”

I stare at her.

“And you know, just this morning I heard on the news about a girl—she has powers—who got kicked out of her home. She was living on the streets for a few days. Then last night she killed ten people and herself.” She lowers her eyes to the table. “I wish she had someone to talk to. All that wouldn’t have happened.” She looks at me. “I want to make a difference in kids’ lives.”

I continue to stare at her.

“What?” she asks.

“Nothing
. That’s just...that’s really cool.”

She cares about other people. She’s not th
e pissed-off, negative girl I thought she was. Underneath her cold, hostile front, she’s sweet and kind. And she cares about people with powers. Most normies don’t mix with us because they’re scared we’re too dangerous. But Lindsay wants to help kids with powers. She’s willing to risk her life.

“Thanks,” she says. “You never know, maybe the Keepers will hire me to help with all the troubled kids
with powers who aren’t ready to trust them yet.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Totally.”

“Let me help you catch up with school, okay?” she asks.

I nod.

***

An hour later, we
stroll toward the park a few blocks away from my “house.” Lindsay’s hand is inches away from mine, and I’m not sure if I should take it. I mean, girls like that, don’t they?

She shoves her hand into her pocket. Never mind, I guess.

“You never talk about your family,” she says as we enter the park. There’s a group of kids chasing each other, yelling so loud their vocal chords might burst. One of them is about to charge right into Lindsay. I grab her and hold her close to my chest. Maybe a little too close. She slowly looks up at me, her gray eyes so deep. They’re all I see—not her zits or red face. Heck, my eyes are finding their way to her lips. They’re smaller than I first thought. Tiny, really. And pink. I quickly let go.

“Kids.” I force out a laugh. “Coulda killed us.”

She doesn’t say anything, just keeps her head down. Tugs on her hood. I clear my throat and continue walking. Lindsay follows.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she says.

I stop. “Question?”

“Yeah.” S
he leads me toward a small lake where some little kids are feeding the ducks. Animal is one of the ducks. She quacks at me. “How many siblings do you have?” Lindsay asks.

“None. Just me.”

“Why won’t you tell me anything?”

I sit down
on one of the empty, bird-poop-covered benches. Lindsay stands in front of me. She doesn’t sit down when I motion for her to join me. “Got some bread? Maybe we can feed the duckies, too.”

She crosses her arms over her chest and taps her foot. “You keep dodging my questions.”

Yeah ‘cuz I can’t remember what Dad and Dr. Evans told me about my fake life. It feels like so long ago and I didn’t think it was important. Crap, how can she trust me? I guess I can quickly make stuff up now, but what if I forget them? All my lies might make things worse.

“I told you so much about me. About my first boyfriend, my aunt and uncle, my parents—”

“You didn’t tell me about your parents. And I never asked you to tell me about your ex-boyfriend. And I didn’t know I owe you my whole family history, like you tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.” Now I fold my arms over my chest. “You gonna sit down?”

“I have better things to do than sit
here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Name one.”

She stares at me. Her hood’s sliding off her head, and she doesn’t stop it. “What?”

“What else would you be doing right now?”

She looks around, at the kids giggling as the ducks waddle closer to them, at the couple walking down the road, arms wrapped around each other, at the guy peddling his bike like he’s in a race. She turns back to me. Doesn’t open her mouth.

“I thought so,” I say. “You like hanging out with me.”

She lowers her arms, then crosses them over her chest again. “It’s...um...it’s not like
you
have anything better to do,” she says.

Fine. Maybe
I don’t. I mean, spending time with my friends is cool, but maybe I like being with Lindsay, too. Wait, huh?

“You’re right,” I say. “I don’t. Hanging out with you is the highlight of my existence.”

Her eyes narrow like she doesn’t believe one word of that. “I know we’re stuck together because of the project. Don’t torture yourself. Just go home.”

“We’re not going through this again,” I say. “Is it so hard for you to accept that I like hanging out
with you?” Why did I say that?

Lindsay stares at me. Really stares. Like I told her I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Why did I say that? I need
to get out of here. A hot dog stand down the road is calling my name. Hey, that’s another League member. They really are all over. Geez. “How about a hot dog?” I ask Lindsay.

She shakes her head, avoiding me. Her right leg kicks some
dirt around. She nervous or something? It’s kind of cute when she does that.

Huh, what?

“Uh, pretzel?” I ask.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You sure? It’s almost five and we haven’t eaten since lunch. It’s not good to starve yourself for five hours.”

She doesn’t say anything. Shakes her head again.

“Okay. So what do you wanna do?”

She shrugs. “Go home, I guess.”

I should be relieved that I’m free. But I’m not. I want to spend some more time with her and have her laugh at my jokes, like she did at my “house.” Wait, what’s wrong with me today?

“That’s a good idea,” I tell her. “Want me to walk you?”

“No, that’s fine.”

“It’s no biggie. Come on.”

We’re quiet as we head to her house. I want to say stuff to her, but I also don’t want to. It’s like I’m being pulled by both sides of me and none of them are winning.

I clear my throat.
“Sorry. About before. What I said.” I half turn my head to see her reaction, but her body’s hidden in her winter coat. I can’t even see her chin because she’s got her scarf wrapped tight. “We cool?”

“I guess.”

I smile, but I’m not sure if she sees it. “Cool.”

Quiet.

I clear my throat again. “So, um...”

“You don’t have to make small talk. You suck at it.”

“But I like talking to you. I mean...” Oh, man. She finally looks at me and I can see her eyes clearly. Light in them. Like I’m the first person to say something positive to her. “Um, it’s dark out.”

She nods. “And freezing. I should have brought a
warmer coat.”

“No biggie. We’re getting closer to your house.”

“I’m
really
cold.”

“Five minutes tops. I’m sorry. Wish I could drive.”

Lindsay’s quiet for a little bit. She slowly moves closer to me, almost crashing into me. I see her watching the man and woman walking ahead of us, all snuggled and probably warm. Does she want me to...?

Eh, what the
heck. I snake my arm down her back toward her waist.

“
Don’t touch me!” she yells. I flinch, quickly pulling my hand away.

“S—sorry, I thought you wanted me to—”

“What? Touch my butt?”

“No, I wasn’t...
no, that’s not what I meant at all! You were cold and I thought you wanted me to keep you warm. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Just go.”

“Linds, don’t be like this.” She flattens her hands on my chest and pushes me. Shoves so hard I fall back. What the hell? My hands fist, and I want to set her straight and tell her she can’t treat me like I’m a piece of crap. But getting her pissed will kill Earth faster. I can take a few beatings for the sake of the planet. It’s just three months, anyway. Then I’m gone and I’ll forget about her.

“I’ll email you our report,” she says. “Now get lost.” She growls and stomps toward her house.

I follow a few steps behind to make sure she gets there safe. Then I go to the Tower.