Cass winced painfully. “Ouch.”
“Sorry!” Aly said, springing back. “Are you all right?”
“I feel like gnicnad,” he groaned.
Aly shot me a smile. Cass, we knew, was going to be fine.
“I brought you some clothes,” I said, laying out a T-shirt, pair of shorts, underwear, and flip-flops I’d bought in town. “Greek sizes. I hope they fit.”
“Anything’s better than what I had,” Cass said. “It was embarrassing flying over the KI in Simpsons boxers.”
Aly looked around. “Where’s Marco?” she asked.
“Was Marco here?” Cass asked.
“Marco brought you here,” I said. “With the Loculus. And now we have to go. Torquin’s waiting outside.”
I stood and glanced around the room. The only sign of Marco was a plate with chocolate crumbs and three candy wrappers. I figured he was out getting a soda or something.
“Jack?” Aly said. “Where’s the Loculus?”
My body stiffened.
I looked under the bed. I pulled open every drawer. I checked the bathroom.
No Loculus.
“What are you guys talking about?” Cass demanded. “We have a Loculus?”
As Aly explained what had happened, I sank onto the bed. Marco’s words were spinning in my head. How do you know I won’t take it for a spin back to Ohio?
Could he have done it?
Marco the Immortal…the Kid Who Faced Down Death…
“Jack…?” Aly said. She and Cass were both staring at me now.
“Marco thinks he’s okay,” I replied. “Immortal. He doesn’t believe what Bhegad said about the finger prick. He isn’t scared about missing the treatments anymore.”
“You think he…?” Aly said.
“Gamed us,” I said, staring out the window into the blue Greek sky. “Yes.”
“I don’t believe it, Jack,” Aly said. “What if he just decided to fly back to the Karai Institute on his own? To race us. That’s his style.”
“How would he know where the island is, Aly?” I asked. “Even Cass couldn’t find it.”
“Maybe I could,” Cass said. He sat up, the washcloth falling from his head. “Oww.”
“Get dressed, brother Cass,” I said softly. “We have a long ride back.”
CHAPTER FIFTY - ONE
SOLDIER, SAILOR, TINKER, TAILOR
“HE’S WHAT?” PROFESSOR Bhegad was ashen in his wheelchair. I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye. Tired and sweaty, I stared at the tarmac.
“Gone,” I said. “With the Loculus.”
“Why did no one tell me?” Bhegad demanded. “Why the radio silence until now?”
Torquin glanced guiltily away. “Technical difficulties.”
“Our difficulties have just begun. All of us.” Bhegad spun around and began wheeling himself back toward the campus, ignoring the hospital orderlies who scurried along on either side of him. “Come.”
“We’re…glad you’re feeling better, Professor,” Aly offered weakly.
Bhegad looked over his shoulder. “Thank you,” he said. “And I’m glad Cass is alive and well. How are you feeling, my boy?”
“Peachy,” Cass said with a weak smile.
“Good,” Bhegad snapped back, “because I am going to need all your brainpower to track down Marco. If he is indeed headed home, it could destroy us. It could undo centuries of work.”
“This is my fault,” I blurted out. “I lost Marco. It was my plan to leave him in the hotel room while we went to get Torquin out of—”
“HRRRMMMM!” Torquin belched.
“I’m the wrong guy for this,” I barreled on. “You picked someone who had no talents, Professor Bhegad. I don’t deserve to be here, because I can’t contribute like the others. I will volunteer to go find Marco. If I miss a treatment and drop dead, what’s the difference? I’m no help here, anyway. I only mess things up—”
Professor Bhegad stopped short and stared at me coldly. “Do you really believe that?” he asked.
“That’s ridiculous!” Aly said, stepping in front of me. “You were the one who brought the Loculus to life, Jack. And you rescued Cass. And defeated both the griffin and the Colossus. You gave me good advice—which I didn’t follow. And whenever the rest of us couldn’t figure out what to do, you were the one who made a plan.”
Bhegad sighed. His eyes softened. “You know, here at the KI we have nicknames for you four. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor. Marco was—is—the Soldier, the bravest and most fit. Cass is the Sailor, who can navigate in a blind fog. Aly is the Tinker, the one who can understand how anything works and fix it.”
“And I’m…the Tailor?” I asked. “I sew?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Bhegad said. “You, Jack, are the one who puts it all together.”
I laughed. But when I looked up, no one was laughing with me.
My headache was coming on strong. I needed sleep badly. The sky was pitch-black but I had no idea what time it was.
Cass. “What time is it?” I blurted out. “Cass is due for his treatment!”
“Yes, we know. It’s ten forty-five,” Professor Bhegad said calmly. He glanced up at the orderlies. “Please take the young man to the hospital. And make sure he gets to bed immediately afterward. We need him, rested and ready.”
Aly and I gave Cass a hug. “Thank you,” he said softly to me. “You are my oreh.”
As the workers escorted him away, Bhegad began to wheel himself back toward his cottage. “As for you two, I trust you slept on the plane,” he said as we followed along. “Because I expect you in my office in a half hour for a planning session. So change, shower, do what you need to do. We must find your friend immediately and bring him back before he’s done any damage.”
“And if he has?” Aly asked fearfully.
“Eliminate,” Torquin growled.
We stopped. As Torquin padded after the professor, the old man didn’t say a word.
Aly crumpled to a small bench against the airport building.
I couldn’t look at her. My blood was running cold.
Soldier, Sailor, Tinker, Tailor.
The night was cloudless and moonless. Stars spread across the sky like spattered blood. My thoughts raced. Somewhere up there, I knew, was Marco.
I scanned the horizon, looking.
BACK ADS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PETER LERANGIS
is the author of more than 160 books, which have sold five million copies and been translated into twenty-eight different languages, including books in two New York Times bestselling series: The 39 Clues (Book 3: The Sword Thief, Book 7: The Viper’s Nest, and Book 11: Vespers Rising) and Cahills vs. Vespers (Book 3: The Dead of Night). He wrote the popular Spy X and Drama Club series; the two-book adventure Antarctica; and the Watchers series (winner of Children’s Choice and Quick Pick awards). With Harry Mazer, he co-authored the YA novel Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am. Peter’s novel Smiler’s Bones, based on the true story of a polar Eskimo boy orphaned in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century, was selected as a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2006, a Bank Street Best Books of 2006, and a Junior Library Guild pick. He is also author of the hilarious, edgy YA novel wtf. Peter was one of three authors, along with R. L. Stine and Marc Brown, invited by the White House to represent the United States at the first Russian Book Festival in 2003. He is a Harvard graduate with a degree in biochemistry. After college he became a Broadway musical theater actor. He has run a marathon and gone rock climbing during an earthquake, but not on the same day. He lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their two sons, Nick and Joe. In his spare time, he likes to eat chocolate. Lots of it. Seriously, he loves chocolate.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
CREDITS
Cover illustration © 2013 by Torstein Norstrand
Cover design by J
oe Merkel
COPYRIGHT
SEVEN WONDERS BOOK 1: THE COLOSSUS RISES
Copyright © 2013 by HarperCollins Publishers
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lerangis, Peter.
The colossus rises / Peter Lerangis. — 1st ed.
p. cm.—(Seven wonders ; bk. 1)
Summary: Teens Jack, Marco, Aly, and Cass begin a quest to find seven pieces of Atlantis’s power that were hidden long ago and that will, if returned to Atlantis, save them from certain death due to the genetic abnormality that also gives them superior abilities.
ISBN 978-0-06-207040-1 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-06-224939-5 (international edition)
[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Ability—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Atlantis (Legendary place)—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L558Col 2013
2012025334
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
* * *
12 13 14 15 16 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition © JANUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062070425
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Peter Lerangis, The Colossus Rises
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