Armageddon - By James Patterson Page 0,26

the rest of us ran to help Dana.

But Granny didn’t want comforting. “Where two are fighting, third should not interfere!” she hissed at Emma before scuttling off through the logjam of tanks and rocket launchers to join the crowd of Muscovites mauling one another at the entrance to a nearby subway station.

Emma dashed back to see how Dana was doing. Blood was dribbling out of the gash on her cheek.

I felt sick. I’d sworn I’d never let my friends get hurt again—especially Dana.

This was a failure I wasn’t prepared to accept.

Chapter 36

“WHAT’S THE MATTER, Daniel?” Dana said, gritting her teeth to smile through the pain.

“I’m so, so sorry, Dana! I-I don’t know what happened. My response time is lousy right now… my brain must be out to lunch….”

“Chya,” Dana said, chuffing out a nose laugh. “Whatever, Dr. Danny. Can you just focus on fixing up my face?”

“You got it.”

I was able to stanch the blood without lifting a finger.

“She still has a scar,” whispered Emma.

I focused on it, tried to erase it from her face, to imagine it away.

But I couldn’t.

It was still there.

“Um, are you okay, Daniel?” asked Emma. “Maybe you shouldn’t have tried that being-in-four-places-at-the-same-time trick.”

“Or whipped up all the heavy artillery,” added Willy.

“Yeah,” said Joe. “Maybe you left a few of your superpowers back in London or Beijing.”

“Just fix Dana, will you?” blurted Willy.

“I’m trying,” I said, sounding way more defensive than I ever want to sound again.

“You can do it, Danny,” said Joe. “Since Dana’s a product of your imagination, just imagine her looking the way she’s supposed to.”

“Is it bad?” Dana asked, trying to check out her reflection in the lenses of Joe’s glasses.

“Nah,” said Willy. “It’s just a tiny little nick. But, well, I always think of you as being, you know, totally perfect.”

When Willy said that, Dana fluttered her eyelashes. She might’ve even blushed. “You do?”

“Well, yeah,” Willy said very shyly, slightly embarrassed. All of a sudden, I got the funny feeling that some of my more personal opinions about my dream girl had seeped out of my mind and found their way over to my imagined guy friend, because Willy sure sounded like he had a mad crush on Dana, too.

“Well, that’s sweet, Willy,” Dana said, smirking. “But I have news for you: it’s just a little scar. No big deal. I’m still perfect for you, Willy!”

For you. I gulped even though I knew Dana was trying to make me feel jealous about her and Willy the way I had made her feel jealous about Mel and me. Yep, even for Alien Hunters, being a teenager is one big, complicated, boy-girl, he said/she said mess.

“Okay, so if Danny boy’s not working any miracles here, then let’s go grab some cheese blintzes and shish kebab–flavored potato chips,” urged Joe. “Moscow’s famous for ’em—and I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse. Even that gnarly green nag Number 2 was riding.”

That’s when it finally struck me: Xanthos had told me to be on the lookout for strangely colored equestrian creatures….

Know this: a red horse shall be a sign, he had advised, adding that the red horse would be a sign of all that is written, of all that must be.

The red horse had been in New York City, not Moscow.

I had pulled myself together in the wrong location!

Chapter 37

I FLEW SOLO to New York City.

Actually, I teleported there, a skill my dad had taught me a while back. But to pull it off, I need to fully grok the topography of where I want to go and do some serious GPS mental gymnastics. As you might guess, such intense grokation requires a ton of focus, so, typically, I don’t bring along any excess cargo, like my four best friends.

I sort of wished I had at least tried to bring Joe, Willy, Emma, and Dana. For a couple of reasons.

Reason one: I felt horrible about abandoning Dana before I completely healed her. Joe and Willy were right: Dana is a hundred-percent pure product of my imagination. I should have been able to erase any trace of the wound simply by imagining Dana the way I always imagine her. But, for whatever reason, it wasn’t working.

This logic problem made me wonder: Did I subconsciously want to leave Dana slightly “flawed” as I kept falling deeper and deeper for Mel? I might need to check in with Dr. Phil or Xanthos on that one.

Reason two for wishing I had brought the gang: I sure could’ve used some