“Hit zoom. Duh.”
“Oh. Right.” I double-tapped the screen and the note grew in Andy’s hand. Soon it was the size of a suitcase, and covered Andy completely. Smooth cursive writing jumped out at me. I pushed myself up on my elbows to read.
There once was an old high school robber, Who over a young lass did slobber, But the Passage was home,
And it caused him to roam,
Which led to one fine Danse Macabre.
“Whoever the bad guy is, he can’t spell. Dance has a C, not an S. He murdered the poem, but that’s the only crime I see.”
“Do you know what the Danse Macabre is?”
“Yeah, it’s like macramé, right? You knit little quilts and scarves and things when you’re old and senile.”
“Remind me never to interrupt your sleep again.”
“Didn’t I already make that clear?”
“Let’s make something else clear. Think back to the events of the past few weeks. Somehow, Nicolaitan got into Munificent’s head and saw the Morgan girl that he had kidnapped ten years ago. That would be you. He rightly assumed that the girl had been placed in the Academy’s version of a witness protection program with a new identity. There’s no way he could make the connection to you and your new family, but he deduced that the girl was a student at the Greensburg High School. So he planted Scallion, disguised as Egon, to learn her identity. He told Scallion to cause pain and suffering to innocent victims, because that would draw any Psi Fighter into the open. Hence the Psychedone 10.”
“And what does this have to do with dunce macabre?”
“Danse Macabre is a play where Death summons people to follow him to the grave. Nicolaitan has a twisted sense of humor, and loves theatrics and poetry. The heat is officially on. He’s taunting us and making no bones about it. His little scheme at your school failed. His plan was to find out if the little girl he kidnapped ten years ago is indeed back and enrolled in Greensburg High School. Thanks to Egon’s massive ego, he didn’t learn anything useful. So now, he plans to murder people and leave us clues to the identity of his next victim. He wants to find us. He wants to find you. Now, who in your school fits this description?”
“Description? How can you get a description out of such a lousy limerick?”
“Let me ask this, O Sleepy One. Who in your school could be described as a robber?”
“Oh, that’s easy. The Red Team, every one of Mason’s former cronies, and three or four hundred others.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. And who, out of that group of Greensburg’s finest, hangs out at the Shadow Passage?”
“All of them, Andy.”
Andy’s hologram banged its head off the garbage can. “You’re not trying.”
“Andy, it’s three a.m. in the morning.”
“Three a.m. is always in the morning.”
“Ugh!” I pulled the pillow back over my head and mumbled, “Good night, Andy.”
“Let me ask you this. Which of them had a crush on a young girl?”
“Well, Chuckie Cuff liked Tish, but Tish was with Whatsisface, so that went nowhere. Rubric’s main squeeze was Psychedone 10, so there were no girls that I know of, thank goodness. Mason had a crush on me, which I wanted nothing to do with.”
“I noticed you used past tense, darling.”
“Did I?” I got warm at the thought, but a disturbing idea popped into my head. “Andy, the Shadow Passage was Mason’s home away from home before he turned into a good guy.”
“I know. And he tried to steal Christie Jasmine from Scallion.”
“He thought he was saving her from Captious. Oh, Andy, no…” I sat up in bed.
“Afraid so. I believe Mr. Draudimon is the target, and unless you want to attend his funeral, you’d better get your butt out of bed and down to the Academy.”
“I’m on my way,” I said, and I leapt from beneath the covers.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank all the wonderful people who helped produce this book.
To my Agent Extraordinaire, SuperNic Resciniti, for taking a chance on me simply because of the “birds have smooth brains” line.
To The Publisher Who Will Change the World, Liz Pelletier, for her visionary mind.
To my Amazing Editors, Stacy Abrams, Guillian Helm, and Nancy Cantor, whose brilliant ideas and very hard questions really whipped the story into shape.
To my Incredible Publicity Team, Morgan Maulden, Katie Clapsadl, Debbie Suzuki, and Heather Riccio, whose awesomeness will make the Psi Fighters a household name.
To Every Author’s Go To Girl, Sarah Weiss, who can answer questions we haven’t even thought of.
To my family, for putting up with me.
And most importantly, to God. He made me, and I’m happy about that.