‘Why do these guys want to kill Number Eight?’ I ask Commander Sharma, the barrel of my shotgun bouncing off the frame of the back window.

‘The Lord’s Resistance Front does not believe he is Vishnu. They believe we are blasphemous, accepting this mountain boy as the Supreme God. They want to kill us in his name.’

‘Six!’ Ella yells. ‘Incoming!’ She’s still wearing the glasses.

I look out the back window in time to see something fire out of the helicopter. It’s a missile of some sort heading straight for us. I use my telekinesis and send it directly into the desert floor, where it explodes. The helicopter fires two more missiles.

‘Time to take these dudes out!’ I yell. ‘Let’s do this one together, Marina.’ She nods and instead of directing the rockets into the ground this time, we loop them so they’re heading directly back at the copter. We watch grimly as the helicopter explodes in a giant fireball. We never try to kill; but, given a choice between killing versus being killed, I will pick us every time.

‘Awesome work, Six,’ says Ella.

‘Yippee-ki-yay, and all that,’ I reply with a grim smile.

‘Do you think they’ll leave us alone now?’ asks Marina.

‘I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,’ says Commander Sharma.

‘She has all the same type of powers as the boy you call Vishnu,’ says Crayton, motioning towards me. ‘Will that be enough to dissuade them? Do you think they’d still try to fight him?’

‘They would if they could find him,’ says the commander.

‘How many are there in the Lord’s Resistance Front?’ I ask Commander Sharma.

‘In total? Thousands. And they have wealthy donors who support them in any way they need.’

‘Hence the helicopters,’ Crayton says.

‘They have worse than that,’ the commander adds.

‘The best plan for us is to outrun them,’ Crayton says to the commander. ‘I’ll drive as fast as I can. If we have to fight, we’ll fight; but I’d like to avoid it.’

Five minutes pass in tense silence. Marina and I monitor the brigade in the distance, and whenever we pass something large enough, we use our telekinesis to drop it in the path behind us. The tall trees that have begun to dot the sides of the road quickly form a thick line of defense. The car dips into an extremely narrow valley before beginning to ascend the mountain. We have just come to the base when Commander Sharma tells Crayton to stop. I lean forward in my seat and see dozens of small mounds in the dirt.

‘Land mines?’ I ask.

‘I’m not sure,’ the commander says. ‘But they weren’t there two days ago.’

‘Is there another route to wherever we’re going?’ Crayton asks.

‘No, this is the only path,’ Commander Sharma says.