Mason Draudimon moved quietly through the piles of garbage, talking to himself, gently picking up crates and stacking them. Scallion was nowhere to be seen. Mason seemed to be searching for something.
Then suddenly, he shouted, “Here we go!” He picked up a long crowbar and started prying at one of the crates.
I saw the crowbar and lost it. A picture of the note taped to my broken locker flipped through my mind. “Where is my sister?” I screamed, running at Mason.
“You came,” he said, smiling, ripping the crowbar from the crate.
I was on him in an instant, and grabbed the crowbar with both hands, twisting it from his grasp. With a flick of my wrist, I threw it across the alley. It clanged against the brick wall and fell ringing to the street.
“I asked you a question,” I said, slamming a side kick into his gut.
Mason grunted and doubled over, holding his stomach.
“What did you do with my sister?” I dropped and swept Mason’s legs out from under him. He landed hard on his back.
“Rinnie, please, don’t.” Mason pulled himself to his feet, gasping for breath. “She’s here. I’m trying to help.”
“Then help.” My hands shot out like twin vipers, clamping on Mason’s jaw and the back of his head. I was prepared for a struggle, but Mason never moved. Big puppy-dog eyes locked on mine, then slowly closed. As his memories entered my mind, fear took me.
“Leave me alone,” Mason said. “I told you I want out.”
“There is no out,” Scallion said. He held up a sealed envelope. “Deliver this. No questions.”
Then Scallion was gone. Mason opened the envelope and read the note. He dropped to his knees. I have to find her, he thought. I have to stop him. He studied the picture. He took a pencil and started to doodle on the note. Think, think, where would he keep her?
Then despair overcame him.
A terrible foreboding washed over me. I pulled away from the scan, beyond panic now, almost beyond any feeling at all. I was no match for the Knights. I felt so tired, so utterly defeated.
“You can’t help me.” I sobbed quietly, my fingers caressing Mason’s cheek as I released him. “This time it really is my fault.”
Mason took my hand. “Rinnie, it’s okay, Susie is—” Then his eyes focused behind me and narrowed. His mouth twisted into a grimace. “You!”
I turned to see what Mason was glaring at, and hope filled my heart.
“Egon!”
I pulled away from Mason and flew into Egon’s open arms.
“I’m here,” Egon said, cradling my face in his hands. “You needed me, and I came.”
“Get away from her!” Mason growled. He stalked toward us, his sledgehammer-sized fists balled.
Egon snarled, pushing me behind him. “Go home, Mason.”
“I know who you are. I believed you. I trusted you.”
“Shut up and go home.”
“I don’t take orders from you anymore. Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out? Get away from Rinnie, or I’ll rip you apart.”
Mason grabbed Egon by the arm and jerked him away from me, tearing his jacket open. Egon turned and caught Mason’s wrist in a lightning-fast lock. He twisted, and it snapped loudly. Egon was good, much better than I had expected. But it was Mason who genuinely impressed me. He shoved Egon away and shivered a little. He rubbed his wrist, and pulled it straight with a sickening crunch.
I almost heaved.
“Let’s see how tough you really are, Judo Boy.” Mason attacked like a panther, leaping straight for Egon.
Just when Egon was about to be slammed to the ground, he simply stepped aside and used Mason’s momentum to hurl him face first into the alley wall. Mason hit hard and slid to the ground, leaving a bloody splotch on the bricks.
“Tough enough,” Egon said.
Mason was out cold. Panic started to set in again, and I looked quickly around the alley. No Susie. I grabbed Egon by the jacket. “Please help me.”
Egon stood glaring down at Mason, hair wild like he had been in a wind tunnel. The buttons of Egon’s blue denim jacket had popped off. I noticed a secret agent pocket inside.
“You shouldn’t have run away,” he said.
He was right, and I felt awful about it. But I had to. “I know. I’m sorry. Please, I need—”
“Please help me,” Egon said mockingly, waving his hands and shaking his head. “Now that your sister’s missing, you need me. And you see I came. I dropped everything for you. I make time for you, Rinnie. I always make time for you.”
“Egon, you—”
“You’re into something that got your sister kidnapped.”
“I know, and I need your help.”
“And I want to help. But you don’t trust me enough to tell me what’s going on. How can I help if I don’t know what kind of trouble you’re in? What will it take for you to trust me? I came. Doesn’t that prove anything to you?”