Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ hole in the roof, it seemed, and I landed on my hands and knees on the ledge a moment later, now coughing up blood, the beating I’d taken from the Tommys earlier beginning to take its toll. Instead of leaving me there, though, Lena jumped and grabbed the edge of the ledge, pulling herself up onto it and smiling at me.

      “Just us now, no interruptions, and you can’t get away without jumping down,” she murmured.

      I looked past her and realised that she was quite right; there was nothing up here but a dead-end, and I would have to jump to get back to the floor. In my current state, there was no way I could do that without really hurting myself. And Lena was blocking the edge of the ledge in any case. I would have to push her over if I hoped to get down myself—something else I wouldn’t have dared do to the real Lena. Given the way she was behaving, it was easier to tell myself that this wasn’t real than it had been with Natalie, Peter, Serena, or any of the others I had faced since entering the box. I glanced at her, wondering just how much force it would take.

      “Oh no you don’t,” she said, crawling towards me and smiling as she pinned me against the wall. “You won’t push me down. You’re too nice to do that to me.”

      “God, I’m supposed to be resisting you!” I snapped, struggling against her hold. “And you’re not making it possible.”

      “But why resist?” she asked. “When I can give you pleasure such as you’ve never had—”

      “Don’t give me that crap!” I snapped, managing to push her away from me, but still not over the edge. I staggered to my feet and looked around for a solution. I couldn’t see any way out without hurting her, and the instinctive, illogical part of me still felt uncomfortable doing that to a girl. Then I spotted something lying in a dark corner. It looked like a controller of some sort. Completely forgetting that I was supposed to resist temptations, I lunged at it and picked it up. It had two buttons—one large one in the centre and a smaller one in the centre of the larger button, so that the two of them looked a bit like a doughnut. It also had a silver knob, which looked like some sort of laser.

      Remembering that this Lena wasn’t real, I turned on her and pushed the smaller button, pointing it at her. An orange laser beam did indeed shoot from it, hitting Lena squarely in the chest. She froze, her whole body shining orange, but a split second later the beam was gone, and Lena was taking deep, steadying breaths, clearly wondering what had just happened. I pushed the button again and held it down, and this time Lena was completely frozen by the orange beam, unable to move a muscle.

      I took the chance and moved around her, looking down at the drop. If I hung on the ledge and lowered myself down, I would only have to drop a few feet. It was worth a try. I replaced the controller in my pocket and began to lower myself, but just as I was about to let go, Lena grabbed my wrists.

      “No,” she hissed. “Whatever that was, it won’t work on me again. Wherever you go, I’m coming with you.”

      But the laser had apparently weakened her, because my wrists slipped from under hers and I dropped to the ground, landing on my feet and staggering only slightly. Lena swore from above me and immediately jumped down, landing catlike behind me. I shot at her again with the laser, but this time I pushed the button hard enough to push in the larger button as well. I could see no difference in what the laser did to her, but as I went to lower it into my pocket, the beam had shot upwards, and this time Lena was lifted high into the air, still immobile. Curiously, I moved the beam around and realised that I was moving her body with the beam, while keeping her stunned. I directed her body back onto the ledge above and then, releasing the larger button but not the smaller one, I hurried away.

      I darted back down the corridor, through the room containing Natalie’s swimming pool, and into the next corridor. I ran as best I could the whole way, not knowing how long Lena was likely to stay frozen in place. When I reached the next door I put my ear to it, but once again heard nothing. Deciding that I was far enough in front of Lena to stay away from her, I released the button and put the stunner away in my pocket. Then I pulled the door open and edged inside, quickly shutting the door behind me.

      When I looked around, I blinked. There was nothing in here but total, impenetrable darkness, although I could hear scuffling sounds somewhere to my right. I opened my eyes to their fullest extent, trying to see what the temptation in here would be. The only time I had ever experienced darkness as solid as this was in the room that had contained the Sien-Leoard Crystal. Suddenly lights flickered on, so bright that I was forced to cover my eyes with my arm. Then I heard a familiar voice.

      “John! Thank God, I didn’t know what to do for the best.”

      I squinted towards the voice and spotted Marc, standing near a door that was clearly the exit. I blinked and realised that I was indeed back in the room that had contained the Sien-Leoard Crystal. The conveyer belt at the back of the room was up and turning slowly.

      “What are you talking—”

      “He’s got my Hero Crystal,” said Marc. “I can’t do anything.”

      “Ah, how much more perfect can this get?” asked another familiar voice, this time coming from the right, where I had heard the scuffling before.

      I looked around and saw Marc’s father, a Hammerson henchman, who had given us so much trouble over the last couple of weeks. The last time I had seen him was in this very room the previous week, and on that occasion he had cut off his hand in order to follow us. Now, however, both his hands were whole and undamaged, as they had been the first time I met him. As in our previous meeting, Moran was flanked by three ghosts: Hal and Pol Maivis, relatives of Harry and Simon’s who had been Hammerson supporters, and a young woman ghost who I didn’t know. Seeing her reminded me of how I had felt about her the first time – an odd kind of sadness. I remembered how she had seemed to recognise me, though now I came to think of it, that was probably just because I was the only one other than Fewul (the Beast of Magic) who could see her. Still, though, there was something odd about her, this time was no different.

      I panicked. Moran and his ghosts had magic, I was sure; how was I supposed to get past them? The door near Marc, which last week had required a special key to open, was now identical to every other door in the place. I made toward it.

      “Where do you think you’re going?” asked Moran, starting forward, and holding what I recognised immediately as an agonator out toward me. “I haven’t finished with you, Playman.”

      “Come on, John,” said Marc, grabbing my arm. “I can’t do this alone, but I reckon together we can get that crystal back off him.”

      I looked at the desperation in his eyes, and back at Moran and his gang of ghosts. This was just another temptation; the first was my feelings for Natalie, then my friends, and then—I supposed—my teenage lust. This was surely my need to do good and stand up to people like Moran, but that didn’t change the fact that it was just another temptation. Decided, I grabbed the door handle, but I didn’t have a chance to pull it open before I was lifted off my feet and slammed into the wall. I hadn’t felt anything touched me, so I could only assume it had been telekinesis performed by one of the ghosts—they had done that a bit on camp. I raised myself onto my elbows and looked up at Moran, who was standing over me, sneering.

      “I have plans for you two boys,” said Moran. “But first I should introduce you to my friends here. This is Hal, and Pol, and this young lady—”

      “We know who they are,” snapped Marc, but I felt annoyed as I staggered to my feet. Moran had been about to tell us who that woman was, and I desperately wanted to know.

      Moran СКАЧАТЬ