Project X-Calibur (15 page)

32

074:53:06

WHEN I GOT BACK
to the room, the lights were off and the others had gone to sleep. I slipped into bed and stared up at the countdown clock, wishing Ivy would call again.

I looked over at Malcolm, lying on his side, his back to me. In my heart, I didn't think he was all that different from Tyler or Kwan or Ivy. Their parents were trying to make them be what
they
wanted them to be. Pellinore wanted Ivy to avoid danger at all costs, Kwan's parents wanted him to quit something he loved, and Tyler's parents wanted him to be a kid who'd already reached his potential. If I had to bet money on it, I'd say the medal Malcolm carried around with him was a burden more than anything else, a reminder of a legacy he had no choice in.

Malcolm stirred and turned over to look at me, his face hard to read in the darkness. “What did Merlin want with you?”

“Oh, just . . . a pep talk. I guess he figured I needed it,” I muttered.

There was a moment of silence. “Can I ask you something, Ben?” he whispered. “If we succeed in defending Earth, do you think people will find out about it? Do you think it'll be in books, just like King Arthur and Percival Pellinore?”

“I'm not sure.” It was the only answer I had. “But hey—no matter what happens, you're already a hero for saving everyone in the hangar. Thanks again for that. I owe you.”

He shifted forward just enough for the light of the window to catch his face. He smiled, but I thought his eyes looked sad.

“Good night, Ben.” He retreated into the shadows of his bed.

33

065:14:57

THE HANGAR WALL
looked good as new. About two dozen techs still stood guard around the hangar's perimeter. A few of them glared at me.

“Knights, this is it,” Pellinore boomed. “Today's training will be longer than yesterday's training in the BSR. Your time in the pods honed your firing, but today is all about flying. Later,
five
of you will finally be given a chance to pilot X-Calibur.

“One of you, however, will be sent home,” he continued. “Or, if you'd prefer, stay on and aid us from the ground.”

This was my final chance.

“Ben and Darla—you'll race first,” Pellinore announced.

Darla was easily ahead of me already after her BSR performance. If I was going to turn this around, I'd have to find a way to beat her. Badly. I'll admit, taking the helmet back from her crossed my mind.

Pellinore gestured to two prototypes parked in the center of the hangar. “Your ships await.”

“Rock and roll, Earnhardt. Kick her butt!” Kwan called. I guess there were no hard feelings between us—or at least he liked me better than Darla.

“Good luck,” Ivy added. “To both of you.”

I strapped myself into my pilot seat. The hangar darkened, and the glowing pyramid-shaped course markers descended from the ceiling.

“Three . . . two . . . one . . . begin!” Pellinore shouted, and we both rocketed into the underground course, flying neck and neck. My heart pounded as we roared around the first curve and onto a straightaway. Darla came around the curve on the outside; I could see her to my right, keeping level with me. I remembered Barrington growling about making use of vertical airspace, so as we soared into the next turn, I pushed forward on my steering controls and dipped down, cutting down the distance I had to travel. My ship tilted until it was almost on its side, but I kept control and grabbed the lead.

My adrenaline was off the charts—I might actually win!

Beep. Beep-beep.

My countdown watch. I dared to look down at it, fearing the worst. Had we lost more time? How much? One of the numbers had bizarrely been replaced by a dollar sign.

I shook my wrist a few times. “Is anybody else seeing this?”

“Seeing what, Ben?” Pellinore replied.

WHOOOSHHH!!!!
Darla soared past me. The watch now read
0X4:*X:0%.

“I think there's something wrong with my—” I began, but the watch suddenly corrected itself. Had I imagined it?

“Something wrong?” Pellinore pressed, but before I could answer, his voice blared through my earpiece again. “Well, that should do it. Excellent flying, Darla. Come back down.”

My face fell. Darla had beaten me.

• • •

“That was close,” Darla offered as we exited our prototypes. “You did really well.” She said nothing about her countdown watch flashing random symbols.

I mustered a small smile. “Thanks, but you did better. Congratulations.”

She hesitated a moment, then suddenly came at me, arms open, and hugged me. “Thank you, Ben. Thank you so much. For everything.” She was already saying good-bye.

As Darla and I walked over to the others, I considered telling them about my countdown watch debacle, but decided against it. Without proof, it would seem like I was just making excuses for the loss.

Pellinore was consulting a clipboard given to him by Barrington. “Next race: Ivy and Kwan.”

Merlin, who had crept over to me and was watching everything, whispered, “Don't fret, Benjamin. There'll be plenty more races.”

I nodded. “Sure.”

And he was right. There
were
dozens of them over the next six hours, but the results were practically a carbon copy of the day before. Malcolm beat everyone he raced against, except when he raced Ivy, and the others also proved their piloting skills. But even though my countdown watch didn't act up again, I only beat Ivy and Darla once—and I'm pretty sure they had conspired to let me win so I didn't look entirely pathetic.

• • •

When the day had ended, we all gathered by the hangar door, and Pellinore gave Merlin an expectant glance. Merlin sighed and held out a hand to Pellinore:
I can't. You do it.

I swallowed as Pellinore clasped a hand on my shoulder, his grip impossibly strong.

“Ben Stone, you are hereby relieved of your duties as a knight. There is but one decision for you to make now. You may leave, or you stay as a grounded member of the RTR.”

I felt like I had a million eyes on me. I didn't dare look at the other knights, but I did glance in Merlin's direction. He had his head lowered, eyes shielded. My heart sank.

“I think . . . I'll go home,” I answered, but it wasn't easy.

Pellinore nodded. “Very well. Merlin will escort you. I only ask that you respect our code of secrecy.”

I hesitated a moment, but only because I was trying to make sure my voice wouldn't crack too much when I spoke.

“Of course,” I managed.

Pellinore looked directly into my eyes. “I wish you well, Ben Stone.”

“Thanks for the opportunity,” I told him, then found enough courage to give everyone else a wave. “Kick butt when the aliens come, okay?”

Malcolm stood tall, gave me a crisp “Affirmative,” and smiled a little bit. It was a smile that said he had come to realize I wasn't all that bad, and that maybe, in some other life, we could have been friends.

“Keep on drivin', Earnhardt,” Kwan said with a grin.

I couldn't help but laugh a little. “I don't drive.”

His grin only got bigger. “Whatever.”

“See ya, Ben,” Tyler offered.

Right before I turned away, Darla once again mouthed “Thank you,” and Ivy and I exchanged one last glance. Her face looked exactly how I felt inside: confused, conflicted, sad, scared. I couldn't help feeling like our lives had been changed somehow by meeting each other, even if I wasn't exactly sure how yet.

She took a deep breath, then turned away, so I did too.

“C'mon, Merlin,” I said softly. “Take me home.”

34

059:01:03

MERLIN SAT
on Malcolm's bed as I packed my few belongings into Dad's fire-department duffel bag. I had already changed back into the regular clothes I was wearing when I arrived.

“I'm sorry about this, Merlin,” I said without looking at him.

“Don't be.”

“All that star stuff is . . . well . . . maybe you read it wrong. No offense.”

He shot me a concerned glance and handed me my jacket. “None taken. Are you sure you don't want to stay?”

I nodded. “I don't belong here.” I picked up the duffel bag and stood in the center of the room. It was hard to believe I was leaving. I took a deep breath. “Let's get outta here.” I reached out so he could take my hand and whisk me back to Texas.

“Wait. What about this?” I still had a countdown watch installed on my wrist.

Merlin sighed. “Curses. We can't have you walking around with that on. We'll tell Percival. He can have it taken off right away.”

Five minutes later, Merlin and I stepped into the gym. Nobody saw us at first because they were so busy working out against the spar-bots. Pellinore was walking among the knights, offering advice and encouragement as they each battled an opponent.

“Keep it up, knights! You've got to take everything your opponent does into account!” He weaved between the matches effortlessly. “A battle is a battle, whether against a spar-bot or a fleet of alien ships. Don't give up, Tyler! Use your brawn to overpower him! Fantastic, Malcolm—nice advance! You too, Kwan! Parry! Parry! Darla, use your small size to frustrate him!”

Not a word to Ivy.

Merlin held up a hand. “Percival?”

When Pellinore looked over, he was plainly shocked to see me. He pulled a remote out of his pocket and froze the spar-bots in place.

“Benjamin can't leave yet.”

“Why not?” Pellinore asked impatiently.

Merlin simply lifted my wrist to reveal my watch. Pellinore sighed and snapped his fingers to a couple of techs who were watching from the corner. They dutifully rushed to get whatever they needed.

“We'll have that off of you in no—” But he didn't get to finish the sentence. Everything happened in a flash.

“Look out!” Ivy screamed as, with a
THWUNK,
Pellinore was nearly knocked unconscious. Behind him, a spar-bot held its sword high.
“Win! Win! Win!”
it repeated, its voice changing pitch and speed like an old cassette player munching on a tape. Its eyes flickered on and off like mini strobe lights, clearly malfunctioning.

Pellinore's eyes rolled up in his head as he went to his knees and wobbled. Darla screamed, and Kwan and Tyler yelped in surprise. If that sword had been real, it would have sliced Pellinore's head in half.

THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
Malcolm lunged at the spar-bot, pummeling it with sword strikes, but it whirled and effortlessly knocked the sword out of his hand. It grabbed Malcolm by his jumpsuit and tossed him like he was a half-empty bag of potato chips. Tyler managed to catch him, but the two toppled backward.

“Get away, knights!” Merlin shouted, waving his arms in a panic as he pushed Darla and Kwan aside.

Pellinore was just getting to his feet when the spar-bot went for him again and grabbed him in a one-armed choke hold from behind. Pellinore kicked and flailed, gasping for air. He threw a few backward elbows into the spar-bot's chest.

Ivy screamed and rushed the spar-bot when it grabbed her father. She tried smacking it with her sword, causing it to throw aside its own weapon and grab Ivy's neck as well, lifting her off the floor.

“En garde!”

I stood on the other side of the gym, holding a practice sword, crouched in a fighting stance. The crazed spar-bot turned to look at me, its eyes clicking and blinking.

“Benjamin, don't!” Merlin cried, but I ignored him.

“Are you deaf?! I said
en garde,
you overgrown toaster!” I yelled at the spar-bot.

Thankfully, the spar-bot's programmed response to
en garde
remained intact, and it dropped both Ivy and Pellinore to engage me in a fight. It swooped up its sword, yanked a second one from the fist of a frozen spar-bot nearby, and charged at me, wildly swinging both like a psychotic spar-bot zombie ninja.

WHOOSH!!
It tried to slice me in half vertically, from head to floor. I dodged the first swing, and then another. Both swords hit the floor hard and their protective casings shattered, exposing the sharp tips underneath. I spun away, once, then twice,
fast,
barely avoiding the blades as they sliced past me and tore through the padded walls.

I backed up alongside the wall, eyes never leaving the spar-bot. When I got to another wall and had nowhere to go, I fought back, my one plastic sword whacking against the spar-bot's two metal-tipped ones. We traded dozens of swings in mere seconds—parry, parry, lunge, fleche, lunge, neither of us making contact with anything but each other's swords, everything moving fast and furious. When I noticed that the tip of my sword had been cracked by the many blows, I had an idea.

I spun sideways again, and with two hands on my sword, I smashed it down on the ground as hard as I could. It worked. The entire plastic casing broke away to expose the metal underneath. The spar-bot lunged for me, and I ducked and drove my sword upward through the spar-bot's torso. The tip found a seam between two of its metal panels and the sword continued all the way out of its back. It fell to the floor with a lifeless clang.

“You lose,” I breathed, catching my breath, every nerve in my body zinging.

The gym door opened, and the two techs hurried in with a countdown watch machine.

“Sorry for the delay, sir. We're ready to remove the . . .” The tech trailed off, eyes wide at the sight of Pellinore on his knees, still trying to collect himself, while a very worried Ivy stood by his side.

I looked to the faces of the other knights. I had honestly forgotten that anyone else was even in the room while I was fighting; all else had been blocked from my mind. Kwan, Darla, and Tyler gaped at me, and Malcolm looked utterly baffled. And Merlin? A smile played on his lips, like he'd just seen the greatest magic trick in the world.

The two techs rushed over to assist Ivy in helping her father to his feet. There was only silence until he flapped a hand at the countdown watch machine.

“Get that out of here,” he told the techs. Then he looked from me to Merlin. Merlin gave him a wide-eyed shrug. Across the gym, my duffel bag sat, still packed and ready to go home.

“Change of plans,” Pellinore announced, his voice raspy from almost being choked to death. “Nobody's going anywhere yet. You're
all
going to get a chance at X-Calibur tomorrow.”