Game Over

Chapter 36





THE FACT THAT Number 7 and Number 8 had put my mug shot into the device meant, at a minimum, they wanted to warn the hunters of my presence in Tokyo. Quite possibly, it also meant I was the next target in their hunting “game.”

I suffered through lectures, worried warnings, and a firestorm of pleadings from my friends to call the whole thing off. But either I acted now, or I let the universe’s last living Pleionid die. So—after my friends were done saying every discouraging thing they had to say—I politely thanked them for their concern and waved them out of material existence.

Now that I had the hunter’s tracking device and we had pored over every piece of its data that we could unlock, there was only one lead left to pursue in the hours before the hunt began—Kildare Gygax.

I’d learned he was going to participate in the Pleionid hunt. I also knew he was the child of my two immediate foes. But my most compelling interest in Number 7 and Number 8’s kid had to do with an unshakable hunch that he wasn’t as simpatico with his parents as they might have hoped. Besides, I knew something about feeling distant from your parents.

Of course, it still took quite a lot to psych myself up and go to his school to find him. Never mind the obvious risks, there was also the matter of that horrible, soul-scarring school uniform, the seifuku, I had to wear. I swear, even the ever-kind Emma would die laughing if she ever saw me in it. And Willy, Joe, and Dana—forget about it. They’d probably call me Sailor Boy until the day I died.

I choked down my last shred of dignity and put on the ridiculous thing.

Having spent the morning stealing and analyzing the hunt transponder, I didn’t arrive at school until lunchtime break. Unlike most of the other kids, Kildare was not out on the playing fields; I found him alone in the science lab intently studying ants in a glass terrarium. With all my senses on high alert—ready to fight or take flight as the circumstances dictated—I approached and cleared my throat.

He whipped around so fast, I swear, even the ants in the terrarium jumped in surprise.