Rivals (2010) (16 page)

“RUN!” JADEN SCREAMED.

Josh didn’t think, he jumped, and when his feet hit the ground they took off like three jackrabbits running for cover. The blast of the shotgun only made him run faster. He felt the hot rush of pellets swooshing overhead and hissing on through the night. He glanced left and right as he tore through the trees and down the grassy lawn, following Jaden and seeing Benji over his left shoulder moving like he’d never seen him move before.

All three of them careened down the hill toward the river. Their momentum and their instincts carried them, running straight away from the house and the dark woods and the graveyard and the crazy umpire with the shotgun. But when they reached the dock, they clustered together in the shadow of the slat-board boathouse.

Josh peered around the corner, his hands on the trim and breaking off flakes of paint brittle with age.

“Is he coming?” Benji asked. “What do we do? Swim?”

“He is coming,” Josh said, terror clutching his insides, “but he’s moving slow.”

Josh turned, forced open the door, and stepped into the boathouse, which smelled of dead fish and tar. The moon in the open sky above the river shed enough light through the wide opening for them to see.

Josh pointed and said, “There’s a boat.”

Actually there were two boats, a small aluminum rowboat with an outboard motor in the nearest slip and a long, thin wedge of a speedboat with fat chrome pipes suspended in a lift above the water of the second slip.

“Are you nuts?” Benji said. “This guy’s trying to kill us. He
shot
at us.”

“So, we’ve got nothing to lose,” Josh said, crouching down beside the nearest slip and loosening the lines that held the small motorboat in place. “Come on.”

Jaden hopped down into the boat, and its aluminum side clanged against the pier. As Benji scrambled in, the boat tipped and Jaden almost toppled over the side.

“Easy!” she said, but Benji paid no attention as he fiddled with the motor.

Josh ducked back outside and peeked around the corner. The ump was halfway down the lawn, coming along, slow but steady, the shotgun nestled in his
arms. Josh darted back inside, slammed the door shut, then leaped into the boat. Benji pulled the cord, but the ancient motor only sputtered. Jaden threw up her hands and turned to Josh with a look of exasperation and fear.

“Benji,” Josh said, “yank that thing with all your might.”

Benji tottered but gripped the rubber handle and pulled the cord hard. The motor sputtered, then died.

Outside, the old guy shouted, “You thieves! I’ll kill you!”

A shotgun blast roared and a spray of pellets thrashed the side of the boathouse. Benji flew into the bottom of the boat.

“Oh no,” Benji whined, squirming. “I’m hit. I’m swimming in my own blood.”

Josh hauled him up and said, “It’s motor oil. He hit the wall. Get us out of here!”

Benji turned and yanked the cord again.

They heard the thump of the old guy’s footsteps outside on the dock and the distinctive clatter of a fresh round being pumped into the shotgun’s chamber.

The motor sputtered and coughed.

Benji hammered the choke lever, up and down.

Blue smoke erupted from the motor.

The door kicked open.

The motor caught and roared to life.

BENJI FUMBLED WITH THE
controls. Josh shoved him aside, taking over and slamming the outboard into reverse. The boat lurched backward. Jaden spilled over the seat and fell, her arms pinwheeling. Benji grabbed the back of her collar and tugged hard, keeping her from going over the edge while the boat shot backward out into the river. They swerved back and forth, rocking wildly, but Josh kept the boat moving and heading away from the crazy old guy with his shotgun.

Jaden gripped the boat’s sides and steadied herself in the bottom beside Benji. Josh looked back at the shrinking shape of the boathouse and saw the sudden flash of orange light in the mouth of its dark opening. The shotgun blast followed it an instant later, as did the eruption of water off the starboard side of the motorboat.

Josh swerved suddenly, backing around but nearly tipping the boat. He glanced down at Jaden, then slammed the gear lever into forward. It clanked and roared and they took off like a rocket, down the narrow river outlet and out toward the lake. When they reached the open water, even though the boathouse had already disappeared from sight, Josh kept going. The moon had ducked behind some clouds, and he drove straight for the empty darkness in the middle of the lake for another five or ten minutes before he slowed the boat and let the motor idle.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked.

“Only thanks to my extra padding that broke the fall,” Benji said, smacking his backside.

They all laughed and realized that while none of them was hurt, they were all trembling.

“You should have seen your face,” Josh said to Benji.

“You should have seen yours, dude,” Benji said.

Josh pointed at Benji’s yellow bathing suit and said, “Dude, did you pee your pants?”

Benji looked down, and even in the weak light of the stars his face clearly went red as he slapped at his suit.

“I got splashed by motor oil,” Benji said. “You know I did!”

“I don’t know anything,” Josh said, teasing.

“Dude, you so do.”

“I know,” Josh said, patting Benji on the back as he turned his attention to Jaden and the envelope she held clutched to her chest. “Well, we got the proof. What now?”

“Let’s get this thing into the marina and get the shuttle bus back to the camp,” Jaden said, pointing toward the lights of town. “Bob Costas gave me his card when I met him the other night. If someone big like him breaks this story, the rest will take care of itself.”

Jaden’s face grew somber. “Once we do, though, they’ll know it was us who took the money. Technically, we broke into that guy’s house.”

“And technically,” Josh said, “he tried to kill us.”

“There was nothing technical about it,” Benji said. “He flat-out tried.”

“Maybe he was shooting over our heads,” Jaden said. “Either way, everything that happened back there is gonna be a wash. He’s not going to press charges if we don’t.”

“That guy should be locked up!” Benji said, his voice cracking.

“Relax,” Josh said. “Jaden’s right. Let’s go for the wash. We don’t need any trouble either.”

The distant drone of an engine buzzed toward them like a wasp caught in a curtain.

Josh froze. “Hey, what’s that?”

They all looked back in the direction they’d come from.

Surging up out of the mouth of the river was another
set of lights, one red and one white—the lights of a boat. In seconds it became a roar, and Josh remembered the boat with the chrome pipes suspended in the boathouse. The piercing scream of the speedboat’s chrome pipes were the source of the noise. A sharp beam of white light burst suddenly from the nose of the speedboat and swept back and forth across the lake’s rippled surface, heading their way.

“Hurry!” Jaden shouted above the scream of the speedboat. “He gets us in that light and we’ll never get away!”

JADEN POINTED TOWARD THE
marina and shouted, “Go!”

Josh opened the throttle as wide as it would go, willing the small boat to move faster. He scowled at the spray the bow plowed up in front of them, then grabbed Benji by the collar and tugged him toward the stern, allowing the nose to rise higher above the water’s surface so the boat could go even faster. Wind whipped their ears and the lake slapped the metal skin of the boat.

Jaden shouted for Josh to hurry, pointing back at the lights of the speedboat, racing toward them and closing a lot of distance.

The lights of town and the marina grew closer, but not fast enough.

“Hurry!” Benji yelled.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Josh shouted.

“He’s going to get us!”

The white light darted across the water, close enough now for Josh to see the storm of bugs in its beam. The rodent of fear in his stomach morphed into a snarling pit bull and he thought he’d be sick. When the light hit them it blinded Josh, and he automatically fell into the bottom of the boat, plastering his arm across his face to shield his eyes, crying out in pain and shock. Unmanned, their boat swerved. Josh heard the distinct earsplitting pipes of the speedboat. He peeked out from under his arm to see the speedboat taking a new angle, one that would cut them off from the marina.

When their boat lurched again, Josh was shocked to see that Jaden had gotten behind him and grabbed the controls. But, instead of heading for town, she was going directly for the Otesaga.

All Josh’s fears and suspicions came back to him in a gush. He blinked in confusion and horror. He couldn’t make sense of it. Why would Jaden take them right into the thick of the Mullens? They needed to get as far away from Myron and Mickey and his entourage as possible, but here she was, going straight for them and their big barbecue.

Above the noise he yelled, “What the heck are you doing?”

OUT ON THE HOTEL’S
sloping back lawn, hundreds of people sat at rows of tables under the flickering glow of oil lamps on posts stuck into the grass. The grand hotel rose up in the background, muting the star-filled night with row after row of twinkling windows. The closer their boat got, the more people rose up out of their seats and migrated toward the shore as if drawn to the incoming beam from the spotlight like a colony of half-human moths.

Above the seating area, on a small stage, Mickey Mullen stood in an open collar shirt and jeans, holding a microphone.

“What are you doing!” Josh bellowed again, grabbing Jaden by the shoulder only to be swatted away. “We’ll crash!”

Jaden’s mouth seemed frozen in a maniacal grin, her teeth flashing in the beam of light. Josh yelled for Benji to hang on as he gripped the sides of the boat himself. No sooner did he have a hold than they ground up onto the stony beach with a screech of metal. The impact jarred his spine, and his teeth clacked. Finally they jerked to a halt. Just off the shore, the earsplitting speedboat roared in after them. At the last instant it cut the white light, swung about, and rocketed back out onto the empty lake, leaving a three-foot wave in its wake.

Before Josh could say anything, Jaden jumped out of the boat and raced up the hill toward the stage with the envelope in her hand. Josh followed, with Benji close behind. As Jaden neared the steps to the stage, Myron’s apelike figure appeared from the gloom of the lawn above. In his hand was a cell phone. He shouted into it as he pointed toward Jaden.

Josh stumbled, unable to believe what he saw.

Myron reached out for the envelope and said, “Good job, Jaden. I’ll take that.”

JADEN LOOKED AT MYRON
and said, “Oh no you won’t.”

She clutched the envelope and stepped back. Benji bumped into Josh and Josh into Jaden. He put his arm in front of her, stepping between her and Myron.

“Leave her alone,” Josh said.

“You stole this!” Myron shouted.

Josh felt Myron’s other hand grip him by the collarbone and probe beneath the bone for a jujitsu pressure point. Josh saw stars when Myron hit the nerve and he crumpled to the grass, paralyzed with pain. Myron ripped the envelope from Jaden’s hands.

As Josh’s eyes adjusted and he struggled to get up, he saw Benji grab a plastic bottle of something off the nearest table and run toward Myron.

“Have some hot sauce, Myron!” Benji shouted,
squirting the fiery red liquid into Myron’s face.

Myron screamed and pawed at his eyes, dropping the envelope, spinning and tripping and going down hard on the grass. Jaden grabbed the envelope and leaped over Myron. She sprinted to the stage, landing on the third stair and continuing on up the stage and into the floodlights around the podium. Josh skirted around Myron and followed. Benji stayed behind to blast Myron’s face with another dose of red-hot sauce. Myron screamed so loud that Mickey Mullen’s jaw dropped.

Jaden snatched the microphone from Mickey and, before he could react, retreated behind Josh, using him as a shield. Then she turned to the crowd that now gawked up at the stage.

“I have to tell everyone that this is the money Mickey Mullen gave to the umpire of tomorrow’s championship game!” she shouted, holding the envelope up high for everyone to see. “We’ve got a video, too, of Myron Underwood handing the cash to Justin Seevers, the umpire. We can prove it!”

The crowd murmured in shock.

Mickey Mullen stepped forward and took hold of the envelope. Jaden dropped the microphone and tried to hang on, but the Mick yanked it free. He hadn’t taken another step before Josh got a grip on it, though. Josh and Mickey Mullen tugged back and forth until the envelope tore and stacks of money spilled to the stage. Josh knelt and grabbed a stack, only to have Mickey
Mullen step on his hand, pinning it to the floor. When Bob Costas rose from his seat at a table in front and stepped up onto the stage, Josh felt as if he’d been in a dream.

“That’s it,” Bob Costas said, holding up his hands. “Let him go or you’ll all be front-page news.”

Josh watched, fascinated, as Mickey Mullen’s snarl transformed into a slick, toothy smile.

“OF COURSE I’LL LET
him go,” Mickey Mullen said, lifting his foot and broadening his smile before he picked up the microphone and spoke to the crowd. “This is an outrage, and I want to know what happened as much as anyone else.”

“Jaden,” Bob Costas said, “can I see the video you’re talking about?”

Jaden stepped forward, punched up the video, then held out her cell phone as she asked, “If you write a story, can I help?”

“Sure,” Bob Costas said.

“Please,” Mickey Mullen said politely, speaking into the microphone as he looked over Bob Costas’s shoulder. “I had no idea about any of this. If it’s true, then Myron Underwood is finished.”

Josh got to his feet as Bob Costas looked up from the video and said to Mickey Mullen, “It looks pretty clear that your man tried to fix the championship game.”

“Unbelievable,” Mickey Mullen said, shaking his head sadly. “It’s despicable, but we stopped it, thank goodness.”

Bob Costas studied the actor’s face before nodding slowly. “Yeah, thank goodness.”

“I think this girl deserves a reward,” Mickey Mullen said into the microphone, appealing to the crowd. “What do you think, everyone? How about a college scholarship from the Mickey Mullen Foundation for Kids for the young lady who preserved the integrity of this great event?”

People cheered, and Mickey Mullen nodded with satisfaction, directing his grin now at Jaden and Josh. Benji appeared with a rib in one hand, licking the other free from hot sauce.

“Man,” Benji said, “this stuff is smokin’. I think it’s got chili peppers in it.”

“Where’s Myron?” Josh asked.

Benji jerked his head in the direction of the hotel. “He took off, but I don’t think he’s getting very far.”

Josh heard an enormous splash from the direction of the pool.

“One way to rinse the hot sauce out of your eyes,” Benji said, biting into the rib.

“Mickey,” Bob Costas said in a low tone that Josh could barely hear, “why would your guy have done this?”

Mickey stood with his mouth open for a minute, and Josh could practically see the wheels turning in his brain before he leaned toward Bob Costas’s ear and said, “He wanted a part in my next movie. He was desperate to be an actor. Really desperate. When I told him I didn’t think it could happen, he gave me this funny smile and said he had some information that he knew would make me change my mind. I hate to say it, Bob, but now I see the guy was obviously going to blackmail me into getting a part.”

Bob Costas studied the baseball legend for a few moments, then cleared his throat and, nodding slowly, said, “I think I understand.”

Then he turned and walked off the stage. Josh and his friends caught up to the announcer as he ascended the grassy lawn toward the hotel.

“Mr. Costas,” Josh said, “you don’t believe him, do you?”

Bob Costas stopped and gave Josh the same thoughtful stare he’d given to Mickey Mullen. Finally he shook his head and said, “No, I don’t.”

“Then we’ll write the story?” Jaden asked.

“No,” Bob Costas said, “I don’t think we will, Jaden.”

“But you
have
to,” Josh said. “You have to expose
him for the phony cheating rat that he is.”

“I know how you feel,” Bob Costas said, “but he’s got a pretty tight story that explains all this away. As much as I’d like to take a cheater down, a good reporter won’t go out with a story unless he or she is a hundred percent certain.”

Josh hung his head.

“But don’t worry,” Bob Costas said, patting Josh on the shoulder, “most times guys like him get it in the end. Trust me, you can’t do things like that forever without getting caught up in your own lies sooner or later. And when he does, maybe Jaden and I can write that story together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a radio show I need to get to. Good luck to you guys tomorrow. I’ll be there.”

They watched the announcer continue on toward the hotel.

“At least you got a scholarship out of it,” Josh said in a mutter to Jaden.

“Ha!” Benji said, tossing the chewed-up rib bone over his shoulder. “Fat chance of that. I bet your scholarship goes the way of my Mickey Mullen ice-cream cone. All talk.”

“Did I hear my name?”

They turned to see Mickey Mullen standing there in the grass, talking heatedly to his PR lady, Ms. Simmons. Josh could only glare at them.

“Doesn’t matter, really,” Mickey Mullen said,
lowering his voice. “You chumps are still going to finish second tomorrow, umpire or no umpire. Now, get out of here before I call hotel security. This is a private party.”