The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge Page B

this over. I had to do something outrageous and unexpected before Seth found out that my abilities were coming back.
This
qualified as pretty outrageous, I figured. The question bouncing around my head was whether outrageous equaled really dumb or really ingenious.
    I scanned the already weakened base of the building that was tilted toward us. I did some quick calculations in my head. Checked the math. Then I unleashed everything I had at the thinnest part of one of the bent girders.
    Here goes nothing. Or, I guess, everything!
    The landing party of horse-skulls turned as the girder sheared with the loudest imaginable
crack.
    There was a deafening groan as the tower shuddered, then—
TIMBER!
—it collapsed against the side of the ship’s landing shaft. Actually, it disintegrated the shaft.
    Seth’s cigar went flying. Next I shattered my shackles with a violent flex of my shoulders. And because I couldn’t resist, I threw a roundhouse punch into Seth’s snout. He. Didn’t. Even. Flinch.
    Then I leaped off the ramp, hitting the rubble at a run. Or should I say,
dead
run?
    I turned into the nearest alley, then skidded to an immediate, lifesaving stop.
    I was right at the edge of one of the strip-mining pits, a chasm at least three or four hundred feet straight down, maybe a city block wide. I had missed falling into the pit by inches!
    My chest was heaving as I spotted what appeared to be a tunnel opening on the opposite wall of the chasm, twenty or thirty yards across. I backed up and yelled—for extra strength, and to distract me from my fears. And common sense, maybe? Then I ran forward and jumped off the edge, using every ounce of energy I had.
    I made it by inches—and then I heard Opus 24/24 gunfire from above.
    Bullets rained down everywhere, burrowing into the ground like steel fists.
    I turbo-crawled maybe twenty feet into the darkness and waited an eternity—until the thunderous gunfire finally stopped.
    Then I heard the cackle of Seth’s laughter. It echoed against the walls of my planet’s version of Death Valley.
    “Go ahead, run-
un-un,
” Seth yelled, echoes trampling all over his slimy words. “You’re a cockroach in a dump-
ump-ump.
Fall on your face! Stay here in this graveyard if you like-
ike-ike.
Does it matter? You’re just one more useless slave-
ave-ave!
Welcome home, loser-
ser-ser!
”
    I took the time to yell back, “Kiss my butt-
utt-utt.
”
    Then I ran until, finally, I was a blur.
    Chapter 67
    I DON’T KNOW how long it was that I ran, then jogged, then stumbled through the totally unfamiliar semidarkness. Unfortunately my stomach wound was bleeding again.
    I found some kind of monorail track thing and followed it for at least a couple of hours. You wouldn’t think that a city could be so big, but Bryn Spi seemed to go on forever.
    I think I actually fell asleep walking at one point.
    The next thing I knew, I was waking up as I heard somebody, or some
thing,
breathing in the darkness above me.
    “Hey!” a kid’s voice came as I reached up and grabbed a head of longish hair.
    A flashlight came on next.
    “Lay off! Let me go!” a dirty-faced kid yelled, waving his flashlight. He was emaciated, dressed in filthy rags, and furious with me.
    “And what do you think you’re doing, hovering over me like that?” I asked him.
    “I practically tripped over you lying like a rotty corpse in the middle of the tunnel, you idiot. Leggo my hair now!”
    I released my grip.
    “Smart move, sucker,” the kid said, frowning and rubbing his scalp. “Nobody messes with Bem. Even the Outer Ones better watch their step with me.”
    “Oh, I’m sure they do, Bem. They would never mess with the likes of you.”
    I stood for a moment just gazing at the boy. I couldn’t believe I’d finally come into contact with one of my people!
    “Quit staring,” he said. “You’re creeping me out.”
    Okay, then,
I thought.
I guess all of us aren’t telepathic.
    “Is your mom or dad around?” I