* * *
“Manny!” Amanda yelled.
Manny had been standing with his back to the group, facing the locked door at the top of the stairwell, when he suddenly collapsed. Amanda shouldered her way past the others and dropped to her knees at his side. Grabbing his arm she began shaking him and calling his name, but he lay there totally limp.
“What happened?” Shay asked as she knelt on his other side.
“I don’t know. He just fell down. Is he…?”
Shay rolled him onto his back. He was still breathing.
“He’s alive,” Shay said. She checked his pulse then lifted an eyelid to study his pupil. His breathing was deep and regular, pulse strong, pupil reaction normal. “As far as I can tell he seems to be okay. He’s just unconscious.”
“But why? What happened to him?” Amanda asked.
Shay shook her head. “I don’t know.” She cast a questioning look at James who had been standing behind him when he collapsed.
“He was fine,” James said. He glanced at the door. “He said there was someone on the other side of the door. Then he just fell out.”
Amanda started looking around the landing suspiciously. “Did they shoot him with one of those tranquilizer darts?”
Shay ran her hands along his arms and body. “I can’t find any darts.”
“And I’m not sensing any kind of mechanism in the walls,” Reed said.
“There’s a camera up there,” Danny said, pointing up in a corner where an unobtrusive lens was aimed down at the landing. None of them had noticed the camera until Danny pointed it out.
Of course there would be a camera here, Tom realized. That’s how the guard would know to open the door to let people in and out. He should have realized it, but he hadn’t been thinking. Then another thought struck him. They had discussed their plans in front of that thing.
“Can you kill it?” Tom asked.
A moment later there was a soft buzzing sound from the camera and a wisp of smoke curled up from the housing.
“Done,” Danny said.
“Any other types of surveillance in here—another camera, microphones, anything?” Tom asked.
Danny waved his hand around slowly, then shook his head.
“I’m not sensing anything else.”
“Then we should be okay for now.” Tom folded his arms in thought for a moment. “We have to assume they know what we’re planning,” he said finally. “We were going to head back down to find a way around to the main elevator. I still think that’s our best move.”
“But that was before Manny passed out,” Reed said. “If we have to carry him with us it’s going to slow us down.”
“We’re not leaving him!” Amanda snapped.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Reed said quickly. “Amanda, you know I would never suggest anything like that.”
“I know,” Amanda said in a subdued tone. She began stroking Manny’s arm. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried.”
“No one is leaving anybody behind,” Tom said. “We’re all in this together and we don’t abandon our friends—no matter what. But Reed does have a point. We’re going to have to change our strategy. Not only did we lose Manny’s ability, but at least one of us is going to have to be responsible for him.”
“I’ll look after him,” Amanda immediately volunteered.
“Actually, I was thinking you should be near the front,” Tom said. “If we run into trouble that shield of yours would come in handy. That would be the best way for you to protect Manny and the rest of us. I can carry Manny.”
Amanda bit her lip. She didn’t say anything but she wasn’t sure that she could repeat what she had done to put up that shield. It was like it had happened all by itself. But as she thought about Manny and the others relying on her to protect them she realized that she would try. She had done it before so she could do it again.
Tom took a moment to study the others. “Matt, you should go first because you’ll know if anyone is waiting for us and what they’re planning. Amanda will be with you in case you need cover. James, you back them up. You can make things get hot for them before they get close.”
James nodded, a grim expression on his face. For once, he didn’t have a snappy comeback. He didn’t care if he needed to set the whole place on fire. They were getting out of here and Dr. Brooks could burn in hell.
“The rest of us will follow,” Tom continued. “Depending on the situation one or more of us can jump in as needed. Any questions?”
Everyone looked at him with determined expressions.
“Then let’s go take the fight to these guys.”
Tom was just bending down to hoist Manny onto his shoulder when they heard the door at the top of the landing beginning to open.
Amanda crouched protectively in front of Manny as the rest of the teens got themselves ready to face whatever came at them.
When the door opened wide enough a man stepped through. They all recognized him immediately as the fake security guard they had encountered in the warehouse. The man hesitated when he stepped onto the landing, staring at the group of teens.
“Am I glad to see you guys,” the man said. He paused as his eyes fell on Manny’s limp form.
“What happened?” the man exclaimed. He seemed genuinely worried to find one of them unconscious.
Everything happened at once. Amanda waved her hands and the man’s belt unbuckled itself and his pants dropped to his ankles. This caught the guard by surprise and he stumbled backward. Even as he was tripping over his own pants, Tom leaped at the guard, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and driving him backward through the door, slamming him against one of the office partition walls. Behind him, the rest of the teens piled through the open door. Reed, Shay and Amanda were the last ones out. Between the three of them they were carrying Manny’s body.
“What did you do to our friend?” Tom demanded and heaved him into the air by the front of his shirt.
“Geez, Tom, it’s me!” the guard said, his eyes bulging.
Tom narrowed his eyes at the guard. “I don’t know you, man. And if you know what’s good for you you’re going to tell me what you did to our friend.” Holding him easily in the air with one hand, Tom drew back a fist and punched him in the gut.
The blow drove all of the air from the man’s lungs and he alternated between gasping and coughing for the next minute as he struggled to breathe. When he was finally able to get enough air into his lungs to talk he turned his head to Amanda.
“Pigeon, it’s me!”
Amanda stared at the man. “How do you know that name?”
“I gave it to you last year,” the man said, his eyes pleading with her. “You remember, after that party at the Albright’s when that bird flew over and pooped in your hair.”
Amanda’s mouth dropped open. “Manny’s the only one who knows about that.”
The man nodded. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys. It’s me.”
Amanda looked down at Manny, then up at the stranger who claimed to be her boyfriend.
“But how—?”
“I don’t know,” the man said. “It happened when I tried to take control of the guard. One second I’m with you guys on that landing and the next thing I know I’m on the other side of the door.”
Tom lowered him to his feet but kept hold of him with one hand. He squinted and stared hard into the man’s eyes. “Manny?”
The guard patted his chest with both hands. “It’s me. I’m in here.” He waved the guard’s ID badge which he had managed to hold onto. “I used the guard’s ID to let you guys out.”
Tom turned to Matt.
“It is Manny!” Matt said. “I don’t know how, but those are his thoughts coming from the guard.”
Tom released him. The man rubbed a hand across his abused stomach then bent down to pull up his pants.
“We can’t stay here,” the guard said as he fastened his belt. When he finished he looked up
to see the others staring at him. “What?”
“Aren’t you going to, you know, go back to your own body?” Tom asked him.
A worried look crossed the guard’s face. It was a typical Manny expression. “I tried, but I can’t. Something’s wrong. I don’t have my powers in this body.”
James spoke up, “Look people, can we figure all this out later? Right now we need to make serious leaving behavior. Those guys with the machine guns are going to be showing up any second now and the last time we saw them they weren’t exactly in the mood to talk.”
Tom nodded and moved to pick up Manny’s body.
“I’ll do it,” the guard said. “It’s my body. I should carry it. I’m not good for much else like this anyway. Besides, you’ll need to have your hands free if we have to fight.” The guard bent down and took Manny by the wrist—