Armageddon - By James Patterson Page 0,39

closed and summoned up every ounce of my level-three strength. I was ready to rumble.

I heard another board squeak and my brain did a quick sonar ping. The intruder was very close, almost on top of me.

Fine. This bedroom would be our final battlefield.

I would fight Number 2 to the death, right here, right now!

Chapter 54

A SPLIT SECOND before Number 2 leaped in for the kill, I sprang up out of bed and attacked him.

I went at him with a double haymaker. Both of my arms whipped sideways with the slightest bend at the elbows and met his head smack in the center. It was pitch dark in the room, so I couldn’t see the look of shock on Abbadon’s face when both my fists slammed into his temples. I imagined his blood-red eyeballs must’ve nearly popped out of their sockets.

I activated my night-vision ocular lenses (they’re just another handy feature of my Alpar Nokian anatomy) so I wouldn’t be fighting totally blind. At least I now had a greenish-gray blob to target.

But as I was lining up my next blow, the blob came down at me with a hammer fist to my head.

I tucked and rolled off the bed and immediately jumped up into a flying scissor kick. Locking my legs around my attacker’s torso, I twisted sideways in midair and took him down, hard.

When the intruder hit the deck, he wrapped his arms around my legs and yanked me down to the floor with him. Then, bouncing up to his feet, he grabbed me by my ankles so he could spin me around and around like I was his figure-skating partner and he was going to neatly dump me on the ice in an elegant death spiral.

Before he could let go and send me sailing, I fought against the centrifugal force as he swung me around in a dizzying circle and sat up in midair by executing the most amazing abdominal crunch I have ever grunted through. When I was in a locked and upright position, I gave him another double wallop to both sides of his skull.

“Blows to the head are illegal!” my attacker shouted through his pain.

I was too shocked to land another hit. I flopped out of the sit-up. My arms fell limply to my sides.

“Dad?”

“Never lower your guard, son!”

He let go of my ankles and sent me flying into the far wall. I slammed into it so hard I shattered a couple of picture frames, slid down fast, and crash-landed with a bang on my butt.

“Gravity,” said my attacker. “It’s always putting people down.”

Yep. It was definitely my father. I recognized his penchant for corny puns.

Just so we’re clear, as I’ve already told you, my real parents are dead thanks to The Prayer, the mantis-looking freak who still holds the number one spot on The List Of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma, as well as on the unofficial Daniel X List of Creeps in Serious Need of Extermination. My imagined parents are probably just mental projections built on a neural framework of memories and sensory recall, but when I manifest my dad, he’s as real as you or me. His punches, kicks, and body blows are extremely real, too.

He always shows up exactly when I need him most.

See, I don’t need to summon my father. Some part of my brain (maybe way down deep in its fight-or-flight reptilian stem) knows when I need some serious parental guidance. Call it my survival instinct.

“So,” my father said, rubbing his temples, where I could see (now that he had removed whatever blackout blinds he’d materialized over the bedroom windows) two red welts rising where my knuckles had collided with his cranium. “You let me get the drop on you, but you think you’re ready to take on Number 2?”

“I have to, Dad. He’s destroying the entire planet. Plus, he nabbed Agent Judge’s daughter. You remember Agent Judge?”

“Yes, Daniel. Martin Judge was a good friend to your mother and me. And I know all about what Number 2 is up to, how he kidnapped Melody. Xanthos filled me in on everything.”

“What?”

“My former spiritual advisor and I were recently reunited. Right after his immortal soul slipped free of his lifeless body.”

“I’m so sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to get him killed.”

“You didn’t, son. It was his time. His destiny. Just like it was your destiny to finally meet up with my wise old friend. I hope you’re doing everything Xanthos advised you to do.”

I lowered my eyes. “I’m trying.”

“Good.