Connors crept into the silent equipment room.
Forgoing the lights, the big man wasted no time as he beelined for his rack. He hefted Oathbreaker with a satisfied smile.
I slipped from the shadows a dozen paces behind him. “Hey, Frank.”
Connors spun, dropping into a fighting stance.
I winked. “Had a feeling Lord Mace wouldn’t abandon the Sword of Despair.”
“You’re a very stupid girl,” he hissed. “Get lost, or you’ll meet this blade personally.”
“Tut-tut,” Hi chided, stepping out of the darkness at the opposite end of the aisle. “Threatening an unarmed girl, Lord Mace? What would the Brotherhood say?”
“You think I won’t bash the both of you?” Connors’s head whipped back and forth, eyes narrowing, his whole body quivering at the prospect of impending violence. “You’re quick, fat boy. But not quick enough.”
Connors took a step down the aisle toward me.
“Hiram and I will take a pass,” I said airily. “Unfortunately, we’ve already spent our strength for the day.”
Ben ghosted to my side, eyes blazing with golden fire. Startled, Connors pivoted, eyes darting back down the aisle toward Hi. Shelton’s gleaming irises stared back.
“These guys, however, have plenty of punch left in them,” I said softly. “You probably shouldn’t test them.”
“Stupid parlor tricks!” Spittle flew from Connors’s mouth. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“Yes, actually.” Ben cannoned forward and shouldered the lummox in the chest.
Caught by surprise, Connors flew backward onto the concrete floor. Shelton swooped in and slammed an iron helm over his fat head. Then Ben’s foot connected with a thunderous clang, spinning the big man sideways.
“Booyah!” Shelton fired two shooters at Connors’s prone form. “Pow-pow, yo! That’s why you don’t mess.”
Connors lurched to his feet, tree-trunk arms flailing. One elbow caught Shelton in the shoulder, careening him into a nearby rack. Then he kicked out blindly, catching Ben’s shin and dropping him to the floor.
Connors tore off the helmet. “Pathetic cretins! You will never defeat Lord Mace!”
He spotted Hi, who heroically dove under a table. Oathbreaker slammed its surface as my friend scurried into the next aisle.
Regaining his feet, Ben shoved Connors halfway down the aisle.
Connors stared in surprise. I doubt many people had knocked him off balance before.
But he’d never tangled with a flaring Viral.
Ben stalked forward, eyes burning with yellow light.
“Y-your eyes,” Connors stammered. “I’ve never . . . what’s that . . .”
“Silly knight,” Ben hissed. “We’re the real Wolf Brotherhood.”
A look of horror filled Connors’s face. Abruptly, he flung the helm at Ben, forcing him to dodge. Then he charged, knocking me to the ground and disappearing out the door.
“Crap!” I sprang to my feet. “After him!”
As one, we fired in pursuit, out the door and down the stairs to the field below.
I was sure he’d flee to the battlefield, but Connors surprised me by racing along the outer wall of the convention center. After bullying through a line of Hello Kitty freaks, he vaulted a security fence and bolted toward the marina.
“After him!” Ben tore after Lord Mace, making no effort to conceal his flaming eyes. Several girls dressed as Power Rangers stopped to applaud. Shelton was a step behind, with me trailing as best I could.
Hi fell behind, wheezing and sweating. “I requested no sprinting.”
Connors raced down a concrete quay bordering the waterfront. Spotting a couple at an access door to one of the marina’s secure docks, Connors bashed into them, waving his ridiculous sword, then snatched up their pass card and opened the gate. He slammed it shut behind him, then jogged down the pier out of sight.
The couple ran toward the hotel in a panic. Ben reached the security gate and tested the handle. It wouldn’t budge. He shook the bars in frustration.
Shelton arrived at Ben’s side just before I did. “Can we climb over?”
Hi was still twenty yards behind, moaning in agony.
“No. There are spikes on top.” Ben glanced to the side. “But this fence only extends ten feet each way. It’s only meant to block off the dock.”
Shelton grabbed an ear. “So?”
Ben smiled grimly. “Time to get wet.”
He hurried to where the fence ended, took a breath, then leaped into the placid water eight feet below. Shelton and I watched him swim over to the dock and drag himself up.
“Come on!” Ben wiped saltwater from his long black hair. “It’s easy.”
“Jump into that?” Shelton’s golden eyes narrowed with distaste. “You don’t swim in a harbor! We could get tetanus. Or rabies. Something bad.”
“Quit whining.” I vaulted down after Ben, disturbing a family of ducks sunning by the water’s edge. Ben helped haul me up onto the dock. I heard a splash behind me. Moments later Shelton sputtered up and over the side.
Shelton spit out a mouthful of ocean water. “Damn, I lost my flare.”
“Oh, great!” Hi called down from the quay, red-faced and sweaty. “Wonderful. The hotel pool’s not good enough for you guys?”
But he launched himself over the railing anyway. “Cannonball!”
Sopping wet, Shelton and Ben dragged him from the water.
“We have to be careful,” I cautioned, surveying the dock. It stretched fifty yards ahead of us, both sides packed with pleasure boats of all kinds. “Connors had a gun before.”
Ben was still flaring, but Lord Mace was the size of an ox. We needed to utilize our numerical advantage.
With Ben in the lead we crept down the dock, scanning each slip as we passed. In moments I spotted Connors hastily untying a twenty-foot yacht named My Second Wife. Nice.
“How’d he get a boat like that?” Shelton whispered.
“He’s stealing it, dummy.” Ben looked to me. “Plan?”
“What, seriously?” I snorted a nervous laugh. “Distract him. Then someone whack him with something heavy, and hope he falls down.”
Shelton grabbed both ears. “Not good, guys.”
“No, wait!” I waved the boys close. “How about this?”
? ? ?
My Second Wife had been backed into a slip with its stern facing the dock. Connors was kneeling on the vessel’s bow, his back to the pier, grimly untangling a knotted line.
I snuck aboard, then crept up three steps to the flying bridge. Connors was visible on the foredeck below me.
“Hey, Frank,” I called down from above. “Where you headed?”
He flinched, then glared up at me, eyes filled with pure hatred. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
Connors moved for a slender, foot-wide walkway along the boat’s port side, which allowed access to the stern. He found Hi there, wielding a long hooked pole. “Come at me, bro. I bet your balance sucks, since you’re the size of a tanker truck.”
Connors growled, then reversed himself and hurried to the starboard side of the vessel.
Found Shelton blocking that way with a spear gun. “Feeling lucky, dude?”
Connors stepped back, frustration painted on his face. “You kids are done. I’m through playing games.” He stepped to the center of the bow, grabbed a crossbeam, and began hoisting himself up toward the flying bridge. Toward me.
“No way to stop me now, little girl.” Connors slapped one hand over the railing. “Which one of you wants to drown first?”
Then he noticed Oathbreaker’s tip, an inch from his eye.
“You were saying?” Then I whirled the broadsword overhead. Slammed the flat of the blade down on his fingers.
Connors fell back with a yowl, landing hard on the bow and shaking both hands in pain.
He failed to notice a dark shape slip from the water onto the deck behind him.
Ben, eyes glowing, lifted the boat’s anchor.
Connors rose, furious eyes locked on me. “You never should’ve touched my sword.”
The anchor took him in the side of the head.
I winced. “Night-night, Lord Mace.”
? ? ?
Palmer opened the back of a squad car. Connors, in handcuffs, grunted as the young officer “accidentally” smacked his head against the doorframe in the process.
“Oops.” Palmer slammed the door with a satisfied smile.
I hoped Lord Mace’s headache lasted a week.
I returned my attention to Flanagan, who’d just finished reading us the riot act.
Schooling my face, I tried to look chagrined, nodding in the right places, expressing contrition for our reckless behavior. But the truth was, I couldn’t help feeling a bit smug.
We’d tracked a suspect, foiled a robbery, and even run the bad guy down.
Pretty solid day’s work.
Tempe walked over to where the four of us were sequestered on a stone bench, dripping wet, trying to hide our smiles. She sighed. “I’ve no idea what to tell your parents.”
“As little as possible?” I suggested.
“Undoubtedly. How’d you track him down?”
“The weapon.” I gestured to the giant scarlet broadsword tucked under Flanagan’s arm. “No way Connors was leaving without mighty Oathbreaker. It’s his whole identity.”
Tempe shook her head. “You know we have to give statements at headquarters tomorrow.”
“I figured.”
“Connors claims Ben and Shelton are possessed.”
“Crazy.”
Tempe seemed about to say more, then shrugged. “Good work, Tory. All of you. They wouldn’t have solved this one without your help. Fernandez would’ve paid the ransom.”
I felt a stab of concern. “He okay?”
Tempe nodded. “Just a little too much excitement. He’ll be fine.”
“You were great, too, Aunt Tempe.” I was attempting to cover the fireball of pride burning inside me. The boys stayed quiet, drying contentedly on a warm San Diego afternoon.
A gentle breeze blew across the marina, stirring my hair into tendrils. The sun hung at its apex as gulls chirped all around us, dive-bombing the surface of the bay in search of food.
The day simply couldn’t get any better.
“My iPhone is toast.” Hi shook the waterlogged device, then shoved it back into his damp pocket. “But if I recall correctly, the Game of Thrones panel starts in an hour.”
Shelton smiled ingratiatingly at my aunt. “Think Director Ahern could score us some more VIP passes? We missed Bones while saving the day.”
Tempe snorted. “I’ll ask. I’m not sure where she stands on you guys. You broke about a hundred rules.”
Ben flashed a rare grin. “Tell her she can keep the sword.”
“Will do. Hang tight.” Tempe headed over to the cluster of suits, leaving us alone.
I looked from Hi to Shelton to Ben. Didn’t know what to say.
Decided nothing was needed. Instead, I stuck out a fist.
Three more appeared. Banged mine.
Then I leaned back on the bench, lacing my fingers behind my head.
“Not bad, boys. Not bad.”