Nightfire Warriors (Remastered)

37.

"Noah's team was already waiting for us here when we left the cryogenics chamber. I stole one of their oxygen masks," Luka continues. "They're teleporting all over the universe on their own somehow."

"Without a trace?" Ryan is horrified.

"Precisely, Son," Luka replies, mumbling from fear. "Noah is collaborating with a whole other team. They were well-prepared and had bought helmets to breathe. His squad right now is very lethal."

"How many of them are there?" Ryan demands at his father.

"Four, total. One of them is someone Abigail rejected years ago, Ryan!" Luka swears. "Maxwell is going to find us here any minute. Our arrival alerted his military." He finishes with that.

The story is putting my head in a spin. Deep down, I know he's telling the truth, but I just don't want to believe it. During the staggering silence, I'm supposed to say something at this moment. But what can I possibly say after hearing the overwhelming truth? That my dad staged his own kidnapping to keep himself hidden. But something else troubles me. The fact my dad—I should call him Noah at this point—was willing to betray Isabelle because she tried to kill me gives me uncomfortable assurance that he still loves me.

Ryan's pager starts to ring. "Ryan! Ryan, come in!" It sounds like Alex is in complete distress.

Ryan urgently picks up the pager. "What's wrong?"

"We got the Orichalcum! The Orichalcum is safe! But they destroyed the Athena! I repeat! They destroyed the Athena!" There's chaos happening on the other end of the pager: bullets firing, things exploding, and people screaming.

"We stick to the plan!" Ryan orders. "Meet back at Maxwell's palace and get to the warp gate!" He turns off the pager and hastily stuffs it back into his weapons belt. "We gotta go," he says to us. "Now!"

"But we can't leave here without Noah!" I worriedly say.

Ryan opens his mouth to reply, but he's cut off by a horrible sound of shots firing through the wooden, planked walls. It doesn't take long for the entire wall to blow up. Out and beyond, I can see a whole military—full of reptilians, dracos, and inhumans wearing helmets—raging closer on the docks. Maxwell is standing on top of a giant tank, behind a missile and ready to fire.

I run for cover, dropping to my knees and hiding behind a pillar. The floor starts to break, and rubble falls like dust rain. A giant rocket blasts straight through one or two floors below us, and we begin to wobble. Whatever arduous work was put into this ship is going to be in vain.

We're going down!

"We gotta go!" I hear Ryan scream.

"No!" I decline. "My dad was just here!"

Ryan runs from where he is and grabs me by the shoulders. While looking directly at me in the eye, he says calmly, "Listen to me. There's no time."

"But this was the last place someone has seen him!" I argue back.

"Forget it." Compassion and sympathy are evident in Ryan's tone. "We gotta leave him. You know he can take care of himself. Okay?"

Somehow those words offend me. It's hard to accept the truth that he's more corrupt than I realized. That he's rarely in a hostage situation, that's he's someone to look out for. He's a threat everybody wants to kill. But I must put those feelings to the side and make a vast decision. "Okay," I finally say.

Ryan grabs my hand and helps me off the floor. The super-strength in his entire body protects me like a shield from the rapid, firing bullets. We run to grab Luka. In a matter of two seconds, Ryan takes out his space helmet from his backpack and hands it to his father. "Here," he tells him. "Put it over your head."