When the others leave, Eight and I linger, putting the last few items back into our Chests. I put the Loralite stone that I created in there as well, but Eight plucks it out. He squeezes it tightly in his fist and concentrates.

“What’re you doing?”

He opens his eyes and sighs. “I wanted to see if I could use this to teleport to one of the other Loralite stones. I’ve tried using my pendant before and that didn’t work either. They must not be big enough chunks.”

“What? You wanted to take a quick jaunt to Stonehenge? Maybe Somalia?” I take back the stone and put it in my Chest, locking it up.

“Things are going to be moving fast now, that’s all. I just wish we had more time to do some of that exploring.”

“We?” I reply, feeling a sudden heat rising in my face. “You were going to teleport me away with you?”

Eight flashes me that disarming smile. “Just for a quick breather. You telling me you couldn’t use one?”

Eight’s right, obviously. After getting woken up before dawn by Ella’s screaming and witnessing that horrific vision of Chicago, I could definitely use a time-out from Loric business. But there’s no time for that now. I touch Eight on the arm.

“Sorry,” I tell him. “We’ve gotta be serious. Like Nine said, no time for gallivanting off to foreign lands or even the waterfront.”

Eight sighs with good-natured disappointment. “Ah well,” he says, “we’ll always have pizza.” He pauses for a moment, looking like he wants to say something more, but then Nine bursts into the room. He’s already changed into workout clothes.

“You suckers ready to work?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“LET’S GRAB FIVE,” NINE SAYS GRUFFLY, AFTER EIGHT and I have gotten changed. “That dude could use a workout.”

We find Five stretched out on one of the couches in Nine’s living room. He’s fired up some video game from Nine’s collection on the big-screen television. I don’t have any experience with the things and watching Five play makes me sort of dizzy. The game is in first-person perspective, Five’s character running around a battlefield with a machine gun, mowing down soldiers. Five doesn’t even acknowledge us entering the room until Eight loudly clears his throat.

“Oh, hey guys,” Five says, not bothering to pause the game. “This thing is freaking amazing. We never had anything like it on the islands. Watch this.”

On screen, Five’s character launches a grenade. A group of enemy soldiers hiding behind a pile of sandbags explodes in a shower of dismembered limbs. I look away. After seeing into Ella’s dream this morning, the video game just seems a little too realistic.

“Cool,” Eight says politely.