Power Revealed (The Elementers) (29 page)

“How do you know so much about the stock market?” Justin asked.

“Mom has lots of boring cocktail parties at the house and she always expects me to attend. There’s nothing to do but listen. It’s surprising what you learn when you listen.” Raven paused for a moment. “Justin, what is the date of the article about the company’s stock?”

“Last month. Why?”

“Let me Google the company.” Raven pulled out her phone, typed quickly, scanned the contents, and then held out her phone for Justin to view. “Look at this. The price has risen quite a bit over the last month. I’m not seeing anything that would suggest the company’s stock will drop and those articles don’t seem to suggest a drop. If Alexei is an investor, he would know better than to short a strong company.”

As Raven spoke, Justin scanned through the remaining documents Henry had taken photos of. “After the article about the oil company whose refinery exploded, Henry’s next photo is of a chart showing the drop in stock price for the oil company.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Raven said.

“Wouldn’t what?”

“What if Alexei could do something to make the company’s stock fall? He could make a lot of money. You said that the company suffered a natural disaster, right?” Raven said.

 “You think he wants to blow up the factory to make the stock price drop and make some money?” Justin asked.

“Not some money. A lot of money. It’s a large international company and if the notes on his documents truly reflect all of the short buys he’s placed under different names, he could make millions if the stock price plummets.”

“Even if you’re right, after what happened today and the fact that Steven must have told him we saw his documents, he’ll probably cancel the sabotage,” Justin said.

“I don’t think so. Steven knew we just thought they were business documents. Besides, Alexei bought a huge amount of short buys. Unless he has millions in the bank, which I doubt, he probably bought them on margin.”

“Margin?”

“Basically, he borrowed part of the money to short that many stocks. It’s a common practice. But the risk of going on margin is that if the stock price rises, you’re required to put more money in your account to maintain a certain minimum percentage of the growing stock price.” Raven held her phone out for Justin to see the screen. “It shows here that the company’s stock price has been rising significantly for the past few weeks. If he’s on margin, he can’t afford to let it climb much higher. He’ll have to do something and soon. But how do we find out when and where?”

Justin was determined to catch Alexei. It was the only way he could help ensure Henry’s safety. But what did he have to go on? All he knew—all he suspected—was that Alexei planned to blow up Lannix. The documents showed that the headquarters were in Seattle, but the company was international so the sabotage could happen anywhere. But Alexei had once said that he had been coming up to Seattle for business. Maybe Lannix was the business. Unfortunately, that was only a guess, and they needed more evidence than that. Justin tried to remember if Alexei had unintentionally dropped any other clues.

He shook his head in frustration. “I don’t have any idea.” Justin slammed his hand on the desk he was sitting on. “We need to find him now.” None of them would be safe until they stopped Alexei. Memories of the fight in the meadow surfaced. He remembered the fear he had felt when he woke up after being knocked out and overheard them talking about killing him. He had to admit that the words had sent a chill through him. The words insisted on replaying in his mind again and again, but by the third or fourth time, he recalled the first part of the conversation. Boris had been asking one of the others about going somewhere on Friday.

Wait! He must have meant this Friday. That was tomorrow. But where had he said he wanted to go? Justin tried replaying that part of the conversation over and over in his head. The words seemed to be just beyond the grasp of his memory. He reached out mentally trying to grab the words each time he replayed it in his mind. An image of a boat or dock came to mind, but he couldn’t recall the words. “The water? A dock?” he said out loud. Irritated, he pushed himself off of the desk and paced back and forth.

“A dock? What are you talking about?” Raven asked.

Justin barely noticed Raven. He was absorbed in his thoughts trying to mentally return to the meadow and what he heard that day. A picture of a dock continued to be stuck in his mind. The recording playing in his head was barely recognizable as if it came through a thick layer of fog and static. “A Pier? Pier...pier...pier twenty-seven?” He stopped and looked up at Raven. “Have you even heard of a pier twenty-seven?”

Raven bit her lip and shook her head slowly. “No. But Seattle’s Pier fifty-seven is fun to go to.”

“Pier fifty-seven? That’s it!”

“What’s it?” Raven asked.

Justin explained what he had heard Boris say. “Alexei said he is doing business in Seattle and Boris said he could go to Pier Fifty-seven before two thirty PM on Friday, they must be planning to attack the Lannix factory in Seattle tomorrow.” Justin stopped and grinned triumphantly at Raven.

“We’ve got to go tell Mr. Hamilton right away,” Raven said starting to get up from the desk.

“Wait.” Justin halted Raven. Last night’s discussion replayed in his head. “There’s no way they’re going to approve going down to Seattle tomorrow.” After some convincing, Raven finally had to admit that Justin’s was probably right about the adults not condoning the trip to Seattle. Anya was in no condition to do much of anything. Rex and Grant were obligated to the Council to keep a close eye on their prisoners. And there was no way they’d approve Mr. Hamilton and Selena going to Seattle with two teenagers to confront Alexei and who knows who else. Besides, they’d continue to say the evidence was insufficient, but Raven agreed that she felt the information made it pretty clear that Alexei planned something bad at Lannix’s factory in Seattle tomorrow. She didn’t like the idea of just the two of them going alone, but she couldn’t just stand by and let who knows how many people be hurt or killed at the Lannix factory. After a long discussion she finally agreed that telling the adults about the plan was too much of a risk since they would most likely refuse the plan and do all they could to stop Raven and Justin from going.

She raised the question about transportation to Seattle, but Justin explained his plan for that. When she said she was impressed with the plan, Justin pointed out that he could strategize when necessary. It could work, but both of them would have to do some convincing to make the plan have a chance of success.

***

Justin hurried to the cafeteria anxious to catch Lewis before lunch period ended. He’d persuaded Raven. Now he needed to convince Lewis to help with his plan. He waited until the group finished lunch and then he walked with Lewis back to his locker. Justin tried to sound casual as he brought the subject up. “So remember when your Mom drove us to the restaurant and was talking about wanting to visit Seattle?”

Lewis turned to Justin and looked at him strange. “Yeah. Why?”

“My science project with Raven isn’t working out like we planned and it’s due next week. So we need to start over, but we don’t have much time. Raven had a good idea, but it requires us to go to the Museum of Flight in Seattle tomorrow afternoon. Her mom’s out of town and my parents are busy. Do you think we could get your Mom to take the three of us? It could be fun.” Justin tried to sound upbeat.

“Doesn’t it close around five?” Lewis asked.

“Yeah, we’d need to leave after fourth period to get there by two o’clock to have enough time to do our research. Would your mom mind us missing a couple of classes?”

“Probably not. She believes my education should happen just as much outside the classroom.” Lewis suddenly stopped talking and raised his eyebrows. “Wait. Raven Ashley asked you to go to Seattle with her?”

“Yeah. It’s for our science project.”

 “Raven Ashley asked you to go with her to another city? She has a boyfriend. A rather large one,” Lewis said.

The reminder of Eric and his goons made Justin clench his teeth, but he didn’t care what Eric or his buddies thought about him spending time with Raven. He beat them up before and he’d do so again, if necessary. But he didn’t need to get into that with Lewis. “It’s not like that. Raven and I are just friends.”

“Right. I’ve seen how you look at her. I’d be a total outsider.”

“I don’t look at her different than anyone else.”

“Whatever.” Lewis smirked.

“We could do something fun after going to the museum,” Justin said. Lewis just looked at him skeptically, but Justin saved the best carrot for last. “What if Raven invited Nikki to come with us?”

Lewis’ eyes opened wide and a huge grin spread across his face. “What time do you want my mom to pick us up?”

***

Raven stood along the sidewalk waiting for Nikki’s mom to pick her up. “Nikki, I need you to come so that Eric isn’t jealous about me going with Justin,” Raven said.

“Should he be jealous?” Nikki asked.

“No. Of course not. Justin and I are just friends.”

“So you haven’t noticed that Justin qualifies under the tall, dark, and handsome category?”

“What? No.”

“You don’t think Justin’s cute?”

“Well, maybe. But we’re just friends.”

“And on top of cute, he risked his life to rescue you from a burning building. You’ve never thought about why he did that?”

“He did it because we’re friends.”

“Raven, you’ve only known him for a couple weeks. A guy doesn’t run into a burning building to rescue someone unless he’s a fireman or he really likes you.”

“Some guys do. Justin’s just that kind of person.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

“So, you’ll come with us?” Raven asked.

“Sure. What fun will it be around here with you gone?” Nikki said.

Raven gave Nikki a big hug. “Thanks!”

“Besides, since the two of you are just friends, I could have some fun getting to know our cute hero.”

The smile disappeared from Raven’s face and her forehead crinkled. Nikki laughed. “I’m just kidding. Say what you want, but I can tell he’s interested in you and I think you’re more interested in him than you want to admit.” A black SUV pulled up in front of them. “What time on Friday?” Nikki asked.

“After fourth period.”

Nikki opened the passenger door and climbed into the vehicle. “Okay. See you tomorrow.”

Raven waved goodbye and looked down the road for the gray rental car Selena would be driving to pick her up.

“Raven!”

Raven turned around to see Justin coming down the front steps of the school. Once he reached her, he asked, “So what did Nikki say?”

The words, “tall, dark, and handsome” came to mind, but she certainly wasn’t going to repeat those to Justin. Raven looked at Justin and tried to find a reason he didn’t match Nikki’s description, but she couldn’t. Instead, she noticed how his biceps flexed as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Raven?”

She shook her head to clear her mind. “Oh. She’s coming. Now we just need to plan what to tell Mr. Hamilton and the others.”

“He’s going to know something is up by last period since we won’t show up for science class. We’ll send him a text message while we’re on the road letting him know that we’re okay so that he doesn’t worry. They’ll be upset with us, but there will be nothing they can do to stop us as that point. We’ll get chewed out by them. I hope you don’t mind.”

“So will you.”

Justin chuckled. “Yeah, but I’m used to it.”

“Well, then I guess at least you won’t be alone when you get in trouble this time.”

 “Are you okay with all of this?” Justin said as he rubbed his neck.

Raven noticed the cute curls that formed at Justin’s neck because he’d allowed his hair to grow a little long. She wanted to touch them, but she forced herself to refocus. “We have a plan for getting down there, but we don’t know what to expect when we arrive.”

“We’ll improvise— together. That’s what friends are for right? Helping each other stop evil madmen from blowing up factories?”

Raven shook her head and smiled. “Only friends like you, Justin.”

Chapter 41

Despite Nikki’s attempts at match making, Raven succeeded in placing Nikki between herself and Justin in the back seat of Mrs. Johnson’s car. While Raven wanted to sit next to Justin, she definitely did not want to accidentally make a connection with him and have the kind of reaction she had experienced before, but this time in front of Nikki, Lewis, and his mom. Besides, she couldn’t risk draining much of her energy before facing the dangers she expected at the factory in Seattle. Lewis would definitely have loved switching spots with Raven, but Mrs. Johnson expected Lewis to sit up front so she could ask him about his day.

Mrs. Johnson then moved on to interrogating everyone and telling stories about all the crazy adventures she and Lewis’s dad had before Lewis was born. Raven was so nervous about the upcoming confrontation, she wasn’t fit for small talk, so she was relieved that Mrs. Johnson and the others carried the conversation during the two hour drive to the museum.