Mom buried her face in her hands. Dad moved closer and took her in his arms. “It’s all right, Angelique. It’s all right.” He stroked her hair.
“If you do exactly as I say, we’ll let you keep the four sacks of ore. If Pops here is right, you can come out of this with a little over a million dollars. That should motivate you not to be difficult. But if you cross me, you’ll have nothing. Not even your life. ¿Está claro? Is that clear enough for you?”
I believed him. And I think Dad did too, because he said. “Yes, I understand.”
At that moment, Grandpère gave my leg a hard knock with his knee. Then he stood up. “Well, I don’t,” he shouted. He started toward El Cobra, fists clenched. “This is an outrage! What right do you have to—”
Instantly, the others sprang into action, moving in to cut him off, rifles jerking up and pointing at his chest. Grandpère pushed right into them, jaw tight, head jutted forward. Gordo lifted his rifle and slammed it into Grandpère’s back. He went sprawling.
Mom screamed and was at his side in an instant. The other members of the gang closed in around them both, weapons ready.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought I might faint, but the instant I saw that all the attention was focused on Grandpère, I leaped up, grabbing Cody’s hand. I yanked him to his feet and headed for the back of the house, half dragging him behind me.
Chapter 22
We shot out of the family room and into the hall, took three running leaps to the left, and burst out the back door into the night.
“No, Danni!” Cody cried, trying to pull away.
I gripped his hand tighter and raced toward the back of the garage.
In gratitude for Mom’s willingness to move to Hanksville, Dad promised her that once his consulting business was up and running, we would add a major addition to the house. A year later, we added a new two-car garage and converted the old garage into a new kitchen, family room, and dining room. Dad’s original intent was to turn the space above the garage into an office, and so he had installed a door and an outside set of stairs. But by the time the garage was done, Dad had ended up converting a downstairs bedroom into his office. We used the attic only for storage now.
Behind me, I could hear shouts and what sounded like furniture crashing. I had to get around the side of the house and up those stairs before anyone came outside. If they didn’t see us immediately, they’d have to stop and figure out which way we had gone.
“Run, Cody! Run!”
He finally stopped fighting me, and we rounded the side of the garage a couple of seconds before we heard the back door slam open with a loud crack. More shouts. Rapid Spanish. A woman cursing bitterly in English.
I gave Cody a shove. “Up the stairs,” I hissed. “Don’t make any noise.” Not waiting for him to comply, I ducked under the stairs, reached my fingers into the crack between the cement and the bottom stair, and retrieved Dad’s key. Moments later I was beside Cody, fumbling frantically to get the door unlocked. We ducked inside, closed the door softly, and I locked it behind us.
Just in time. Through the window I saw a figure come running around the house and pull up at the sight of the stairs. He looked at the darkened doorway above him, then took the stairs three at a time. I pushed Cody down, and we dropped out of sight.
The man grabbed the doorknob, rattling it noisily. A flashlight beam lit up the attic, sweeping back and forth. He rattled the door again and then turned and ran back down the stairs. “Nothing up here,” he cried.
“Quick,” I said in an urgent whisper. “Into the fort.”
“I can’t see,” Cody said, his voice high-pitched and frightened.
“We can’t turn on the lights. Here, take my hand.” Holding my other hand out in front of me, I carefully made my way toward what we affectionately called “Fort McAllister.”
Once it became clear Dad wasn’t going to be building an office up here, Cody and I petitioned for permission to build a playhouse. We used leftover plywood, wooden boxes, sheets of cardboard, old blankets, and anything else we could scrounge up, creating a space about twenty feet square, which butted up beneath the steeply pitched roof.
It had been Cody’s idea to make it into a fort. We had battlements, tube cannons, a flag that Mom helped us design, and a mixed population of “civilians”—Barbie dolls and Harry Potter characters—guarded by G.I. Joe action figures. We were the envy of all our friends, and the other kids begged us to let them play up here.
I had outgrown the fort four or five years ago and hadn’t been up here since. I had to cover my nose to stop from sneezing as we kicked up dust, even moving as slowly as we were.
Below us pandemonium reigned, and it was rapidly increasing in volume. The only thing that gave me any comfort was the fact that I kept hearing El Cobra shouting, “No shooting. I don’t want them hurt.” That and Grandpère’s words in my mind: TRUST ME. Moments later, Cody and I were huddled together in the fort, two old, musty blankets pulled over us.
We could hear them hunting for us. Sometimes, the voices drew nearer, and we held our breath. Other times they moved away. I could tell they were searching out near the barn and the equipment shed. We jumped when the garage doors rumbled beneath us, but a moment later, the woman called out something in Spanish, and her footsteps left again.
Just as I was beginning to dare hope that we might get away, I heard Doc’s voice.
“Where do these stairs go?” he demanded.
To my utter shock, Grandpère answered. “To the attic. We use it for storage, but the kids have a playhouse up there.”
No, Grandpère! We’re up here. You told us to come here. I heard footsteps on the stairs, and I immediately understood what was going on. If Dad and Grandpère didn’t cooperate . . . I didn’t finish that thought in my mind.
“It’s locked,” another voice said.
“I have a key,” Dad said after a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m scared, Danni.” Cody’s voice was soft, almost a squeak.
I felt for the pouch, suddenly wanting to have it in my hand. I pulled it close to my chest with one hand, then gripped Cody’s hand with the other and squeezed tightly. “We’ll be all right, Code. We’ll be all right.”
Inside my mind, there was a maniacal laugh. You have at least six armed people looking for you. They hold your mother, father, and grandfather captive. They’re demanding twenty million dollars in ransom. Tell me, Danni—what part of that makes you feel like everything is all right?
A moment later, we heard the door open and footsteps enter. We heard a click as someone flipped the light switch. Nothing happened.
Click. Click. Click.
Dad spoke. “The light’s not working. Must have tripped a circuit breaker in that last thunderstorm.”
I felt Cody’s hand squirming in mine and realized I was holding him so tightly I was hurting him. Let it be the woman. Please, if someone has to find us, don’t let it be Doc.
El Cobra spoke. “Give me your flashlight.” A gleam of light appeared beneath the blanket. “All right, señor Luke. Call your kids out. Now.”
Chapter 23
Knowing it was over, I reached for the blanket and started to pull it back. But at that instant, I felt a white-hot stab of pain in my chest. No. Not pain. More like an electric shock. And while it jolted me hard, it was not altogether unpleasant. It shot through my chest at the exact spot where I held the pouch against my shirt. Stunned, I realized that the pouch was hot. And not just from body heat. It was actually hot to my touch.
“Danni. Cody. If you’re in here, come out now.” Dad’s voice was quiet.
“Danni?” It was Mom this time. “It’s over. Show yourselves.”
The footsteps moved closer. Talk about a jumble of emotions and thoughts! One part of me was terrified, but in my mind, I was still thinking clearly. Maybe not calmly, but clearly. I felt Cody move beside me.
DON’T MOVE! STAY WHERE RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!
The words came
into my mind with piercing surety. My hand shot out and grabbed Cody’s elbow. I yanked him back down. “Stay down!” I said, pressing my mouth against his ear.
Footsteps were all around us. “Where is this playhouse of theirs?” El Cobra asked.
“There, in the corner,” Grandpère said.
The flashlight beam swept back and forth, probing the darkness. They were almost to us. I could hear the sound of their breathing. My heart was banging so hard I was sure it would give us away.
LET GO OF THE BLANKET!
Again, the abruptness of the thought startled me. It wasn’t a voice I heard, or even a voice inside my head. It was just a feeling, a powerful feeling of clarity and sureness. I leaned over, putting my mouth to Cody’s ear again. “Let go of the blanket, Code.” I released my own iron grip on the wool fabric.
“And what have we here?” a voice said gruffly.
We both jumped as the blanket was ripped away and tossed aside. I threw my hand in front of my face as the brilliant light was shown directly into my eyes. Then it moved to Cody’s face. I could see the outline of several dark figures standing behind the light.
I tensed, half expecting a blow, but to my astonishment, the light beam moved past Cody and probed the length of the attic. “So much for that idea,” Doc muttered. “Where else might they be?”
“Uh . . .” Dad was looking directly at us, his eyes like saucers. “This is their fort. Uh . . . I thought this is where they’d be.” The beam turned and caught him and Mom in the light. Both of them were staring at us, their mouths agape in astonishment.
I was pretty much in shock myself. Doc had been no more than six inches from my face. I could even smell the cigarettes on his breath. He had looked straight into my eyes. I thought I had seen a flash of something, but then it was gone. And he had backed off, shaking his head in disgust. I had never known such stark terror before. Now I was equally filled with amazement and wonder.
The light flashed across us again without stopping. “Well, they’re not here,” El Cobra snapped. He turned to Dad. “Is there another way into or out of this the attic?”
Dad glanced at us again, his eyes filled with warning. Then he turned to El Cobra. “Uh . . . yes. Down at the far end, there’s an access hatch through the garage.”
As they started away, El Cobra moving out in front with the light, Mom stepped back, moving directly in front of us, blocking us from view.
Suddenly El Cobra stopped, muttering something in Spanish.
“What?” Gordo said.
“Look at the floor, idiot.” That was Doc. The flashlight beam pierced the darkness of the attic.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to see what was going on. I leaned forward just enough that I could see past Mom’s legs to where the light was probing farther into the attic. A thick layer of dust covered the floor. There were no footprints down the rest of the attic, and fortunately, they couldn’t see where we had come in because their own footprints had trampled ours out.
“They haven’t been in here. Which means they’re somewhere outside.” I could tell from Doc’s voice that he was seething.
“So why aren’t all of you outside looking for them?” El Cobra snapped. They moved away, heading toward the door.
I shrank back as they passed, holding my breath. Mom waited until the men had passed her, then stretched out her hand toward us. I reached up and touched it. Her fingers clasped around mine for a brief second, and then she let go and followed after the men. No one so much as glanced in our direction. A moment later, we were in total darkness again.
For at least fifteen minutes we sat there mostly in silence. Occasionally, we’d lean over and whisper in each other’s ears, but mostly we just listened to the sounds of the search going on outside. After everyone had finally left the attic, I was shaking so hard I had to lay the pouch on my lap and sit on my hands to get them under control. What had just happened? How could this be? I could have poked Doc in the eye had I chosen to, and he wouldn’t have even blinked. It was like we were . . .
Now, with the time to think about it, I finally finished that sentence. It was like we were invisible. I shook my head at the sheer impossibility of that, then picked up the pouch and laid it against my cheek. It was still warm, but not hot any longer. Thoughts coursed through my head in a bewildering tumble. I thought of a birthday candle that wouldn’t go out. Of a speed limit sign that toggled back and forth between 65 and 75 miles an hour. Of a sudden, horrible premonition of danger.
And what about that jolt of power I’d felt? Had that come from the pouch? My mouth fell open. Was that what had made us invisible?
“No way!” I said out loud.
To my surprise, Cody burst into tears beside me. I pulled him into my arms. His sobs were like great shudders racking his body. “It’s all right, Code,” I said over and over, rubbing his back.
I felt awful. Here I was, trying to figure out what was going on, and I hadn’t given a second thought to what Cody must be feeling. In the last hour, he’d seen armed men take over his house, and his entire family had been held at gunpoint and threatened with abduction and possible death. As if that weren’t enough, I had dragged him off without warning, and we had come within a cat’s whisker of being caught.
Had he even comprehended yet what had just happened to us?
I could feel him pulling out of my embrace a little. He was sniffling more than crying, and his body was only trembling a little. I put both hands on his shoulders and turned him so he faced me in the darkness. “I’m sorry, Cody. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this. But—”
“How come they didn’t see us, Danni?” he cried.
“Shhh!” I said, putting a finger to his lips.
He reached up and took my hand away. “They couldn’t see us, Danni,” he whispered. “It was like we were invisible.”
“I know.”
“But how—?” He stopped. “We’ve got to call the police.”
“No,” I cried. “We do that and those men will hurt Mom and Dad. Or Grandpère.” I could feel tears hovering just below the surface. I pulled Cody close. My hand ran across the pouch as I tried to think of what I could say to comfort him. There wasn’t much, but there was one thing. “Cody, something just saved us. And so we have to save Mom and Dad and Grandpère now. Do you understand?”
“But how, Danni? What saved us?”
“I don’t know, Code,” I said, my voice curt with frustration at all his questions. “We’ll have to figure that out later.” My mind was off and running again, and instead of fighting it, I let it have its head. “We’ll go out through the garage,” I said. “They will have looked there by now, so they’ll be gone.”
“But what if they see us?”
“Code, listen to me. They can’t see us. We know that now. We’ll be all right.”
“What are we going to do?” he wailed.
“I don’t know yet, but we’re not alone, Code. We’re being helped. We’ll go to Dad’s truck. I want to get my rifle. Maybe we can drive away if they’re not looking. After that, we can decide, okay?”
“Can I go with you?” he asked. His voice held such pleading that tears instantly came to my eyes.
“Oh, Code, I won’t leave you. Not ever. Let’s give it another five minutes. See what they do. Then we’ll make our move.”
“I’m scared, Danni.”
“So am I, Code, but remember, we’re not alone. We can do this.”
Chapter 24
We waited another ten minutes just to be sure, then felt our way across the attic and to the access hatch for the garage. We could hear Mom and Dad and Grandpère still occasionally shouting our names, but the sound was sporadic now. It wasn’t hard to find the hatch in the dark because there was light coming through the cracks around the edges of the hatch. Not good. That meant the garage lights were on.
After listening for a moment, I carefully lifted the hatch cover a crack, hoping I could see enough to tell if anyone was guarding
the garage. I jumped as I heard three soft pops in quick succession. One by one the bulbs in each light fixture exploded, and the garage went dark.
We shrank back, expecting someone to start yelling. It didn’t happen. Maybe the garage doors are shut, I thought, and no one can see that the lights just went out. Whatever it was, we couldn’t wait around to see what developed. I removed the cover completely. “Okay, Code. Down you go. Get under Dad’s workbench until we can see what’s going on.”
The pitch-black of the attic was replaced with the soft glow of moonlight coming through the side window. With that, we could see the ladder mounted to the wall that provided access to the attic. Cody scooted through the hole and down the ladder. I followed right behind him. Once my feet hit the concrete, I groped my way to the bench as quietly as I could. I felt Cody touch my leg and then dropped down beside him.
“What now?” he whispered.
“I’m going to peek out the side door. If the coast’s clear, we’re heading for the truck.” Not waiting for his answer, I moved. When I opened the door a crack, it was like turning on a light. The moon was nearly full and shining directly on the door. I opened it another inch, peeking through the crack, listening intently. From my angle I could see the front of our house. The moonlight was bright enough that I could see two figures standing on the front porch—one tall, one much shorter. Probably El Cobra and the woman, but I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t see anyone else.
I started to turn toward Cody to signal him to come, but as I did, I saw a dark shape coming toward me. Just as it registered that it was Cody, a cold hand grabbed me by the arm. My reaction was instantaneous and instinctive. I gave a low cry, fell back, and swung my right arm in a horizontal arc. I connected with something hard.
“Ow!” Cody cried.
“Shh!” I hissed, then reached for him and pulled him to me. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, Code. You scared the heck out of me.”
“Well, you about took off my ear.”
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” I turned back to the door. “There are two people on the porch. Unfortunately, the minute we step out, we’ll be in bright moonlight and clearly visible.” I reached for the pouch and brought it around in front of me, holding it up for him to see. I grinned. “Except for the fact that we happen to be invisible right now.”