United as One by Pittacus Lore Page A

not!”
    â€œYou did it, Sam!” I say, squeezing his leg. I’m thrilled for him, my own grin almost the same size as his.
    Ella opens her eyes to watch the scene, a small smile on her face. “Congratulations, Sam.”
    â€œDid it feel different?” I ask. “Do you remember how you did it?”
    â€œIt’s hard to explain,” Sam says, looking down at the video game almost like he still doesn’t believe what just happened. “I tried to picture the circuitry. At first it was just, like, a made-up picture in my head. I don’t knowwhat the inside of a Game Boy looks like or how it works. But then, I don’t know, the visual started to get clearer and clearer. Like a blueprint was forming in my mind. At first it was all made-up nonsense, but gradually it changed into something . . . I don’t know. Something logical? Like I was learning the machine. Or the machine was telling me how it works. Does that make sense?”
    â€œNo,” Daniela replies immediately.
    â€œIt sounds kinda similar to how I use my telepathy,” Ella says.
    I shrug at Sam. “Whatever works. Do you think you could do it again?”
    â€œI think so,” Sam says, and once again concentrates on the video game. This time he raises his voice like he’s scolding a badly behaving pet. “Turn off.”
    The Game Boy blinks off.
    â€œNice,” Daniela says. “You really are doing it.”
    Instead of congratulating Sam, I tilt my head to the side. Something isn’t quite right. The wind outside the ship is suddenly much louder. It takes me a moment to realize the reason why.
    â€œWe’re falling,” Ella observes.
    The ship’s engines have stopped humming.
    â€œGuys!” Lexa’s voice comes from the cockpit, a slight note of panic there. “I’ve got some kind of malfunction up here! My systems just went dead!”
    From the cockpit, I hear Lexa slamming levers andslapping buttons, cursing when they don’t do anything to turn her systems back on. Sensing trouble, Bandit scurries beneath a seat and puts his paws over his head. We’re gliding now, and a quick glance out the window shows me that we’re losing altitude fast. A golf course zooms by beneath us, a small town, a river.
    Daniela and I stare at Sam in unison. His eyes are wide. He swallows hard.
    â€œOops.”

CHAPTER NINE
    â€œYOU’RE SURE WE SHOULD BE DOING THIS?” Nine asks me.
    â€œWe don’t have a choice.”
    The two of us walk down one of Patience Creek’s many nondescript hallways. While the military presence has most of these hallways humming with activity as they get their operation running, this part of the facility has been left pretty much alone. We’re in the small section that was built to hold prisoners, and, at the moment, we’ve only got one of those.
    â€œAll these new Garde popping up around the world, you’d think one of them would have the flying Legacy,” Nine says.
    â€œMaybe one of them does,” I reply. “But we don’t have the time to find them.”
    â€œAll right, all right,” Nine finally concedes, shaking his head. “Just let it be known, for the record, I’m against this.”
    â€œYeah, I get that. You put a signpost through his chest just a couple of days ago.”
    â€œAh, that’s a nice memory.”
    â€œYour reservations are clear.”
    â€œI’ll kill him if he tries anything.”
    I glance at Nine. “I know. Why do you think I made you come along?”
    Nine and I stop talking when we reach the padded room where we’re holding Five. The reinforced steel door only has a small porthole for a window and opens with a heavy-duty wheel like you might find in a bank vault or on a submarine. There are two guards posted in front, grim-looking marines clutching automatic assault rifles that wouldn’t do them a bit of good if Five managed to