Still flying through the air, still attached to the cord, he didn’t wait, didn’t allow himself even a second to enjoy the swell of pleasure. He threw everything he had at the object holding him captive.
This time he didn’t hear the thunderclap at all, just felt it. A thump of violence that jarred his bones and rattled his skull. The blinding light around him brightened even more, intense with heat and pressure. The rope around his waist jerked forward, pulling his body along with it. A sprinkle of pain cut through the numbness, making him reach for his back. But his fingers were numb too, and he felt nothing there. All was blunt and dull and lifeless. Nothing made sense anymore. His brain began to shut down.
His hearing came back just long enough for him to hear that clicking sound again. Then everything exploded in a rush of movement, and darkness engulfed him.
Chu needed a break from his run-down excuse for a temporary office. Maybe a permanent break. He hated the little place, and he missed the power of being in charge, of being seen as the man in charge.
Reginald Chu stood in the newly built laboratory, leaning against the railing as he stared down at the massive chamber. It was seven or eight football fields wide and at least three tall. Big. Really, really big. Even larger than the chamber inside the mountain palace, which Atticus Higginbottom had brought crumbling down right before Chu was sent to the Nonex. Tick. The little rat.
But Chu’s people had already been working on this new facility and had even picked up the pace, hoping that someday their leader would return. They were loyal and smart. Benson led the security details, but the real geniuses were Chu’s engineers and scientists and physicists. He’d gathered more brain power into one place over the last thirty years than anywhere else in all the Realities. His men shared his goals. Most of them didn’t care what the end result might be—let Chu rule the world, other worlds, whatever—as long as they kept getting the funds they needed to do the research that kept their old hearts ticking.
And now they’d built the largest research facility in history. This chamber was only a small part of it. It went on and on and on. And the most amazing thing about it was that the complex had been built entirely underground. It was simply awesome.
And it was time for Chu to finally move back in. He’d had his moments of reflection and his moments of appreciating what had been taken from him. But things were going to move, and move fast, now. Below him, his workers were finalizing the very device he planned to use to harness the immense power of the Void that had escaped the Fourth Dimension.
Right on cue, his earpiece buzzed. It was Benson.
“We got him, sir. The Bagger worked like a charm.”
“Excellent,” Chu replied. “Let Mistress Jane know at once.”
Chapter 40
A Pulsing Light
Sato picked his way along the top of the rubble, knowing that he could slip to his death at any second. The ruined stone and brick and wood and whatever else Jane had used to build the place lay stacked on top of each other like some kind of fragile toy, ready to collapse at any second. Something shifted with every step, and Sato kept thinking he couldn’t possibly feel his heart leap any stronger, but it seemed to do so every time.
The gray mass of spinning air was only a few hundred feet to his left, and that certainly wasn’t helping his nerves. Cracks of thunder shook the air and made the debris beneath his feet tremble, and as hard as he tried, he couldn’t stop himself from looking over every few seconds at the brilliant displays of lightning. The Void itself was downright creepy. It had a steady roar and a chilling movement to it that made Sato feel as if it were alive and hungry.
And it was growing steadily. Half of the castle ruins had been swallowed by the entity, and its pace of expansion seemed to be increasing. If they were going to learn anything about what had happened to Mistress Jane’s creatures, they’d need to figure it out fast.
Tollaseat tapped him on the shoulder, making him almost jump out of his skin. “What if that blimey thing decides it wants to take a bit of leapin’ at us?” Mothball’s dad asked. “Takes a fancy at throwin’ a lightning bolt or two our way?”
“Then duck,” Sato replied. “You’re welcome to go back if you want.”
Tollaseat laughed, a booming sound that drowned out the thunder and rush of wind for a few seconds. “You make a grouchy grump, you do. Or is it a grumpy grouch?”
“Just keep looking.” Sato had enjoyed the tiny reprieve from the noises of the Void, but knew he couldn’t admit it. He needed to keep his game face on now. Be a leader. “You go that way, and I’ll go this way. But not too far off. We need to be off this big pile of rocks in an hour.”