The Chase Page 0,62

have, because they're gone. It was a stupid, stupid thing to do, going off alone like that"-she squeezed his hand hard-"but I'm glad you did, because if you hadn't I wouldn't be here. I had to jump over a hole-a vortex or whatever you call it-and if they'd been around, I'm sure they'd have chased me back in."

Dee looked interested. "So just where was Julian when you were jumping?"

"In the vortex. I pushed him."

Dee stared at her, then snorted with laughter. In a minute they were all laughing hysterically. Even Zach was chuckling. Dee punched Jenny in the arm.

"He's gonna be mad," Michael hiccuped weakly as the hysteria subsided.

"He is. What difference does it make?" Jenny said coolly. "I found the base. I won." She waved a hand at them. "All you little lambs are free." Then she looked around and waited.

Nothing happened.

Everyone settled back. The joyful frenzy showed the first cracks as they stared around them, waiting for some change. Tom's eyebrows were drawing together darkly. Dee's beautifully sculpted lips lifted to show teeth.

"Oh, you would, would you?" she said softly and dangerously to nothing. "You cheat."

"Maybe we have to yell," Michael said. "Oly-oly-oxen free!"

"Don't be stupid," said Zach. "We are in. We want to get out."

"And he's got to let us out," Jenny said. She stood up, looking at the hole in the ceiling. "It's the rules of the Game. Unless he is planning to cheat," she added loudly, feeling reckless and bold with Tom's hand in hers.

"I never cheat," Julian said, from behind them. "I practice Gamesmanship-the art of winning games without actually cheating."

Jenny turned. Julian was standing just in front of the door-which was now open. The red Exit sign blinked and glowed madly above it, looking as if it would blow a fuse at any moment. That should have been a good omen, but the look on Julian's face wasn't encouraging at all. His eyes were glittering like blue glass, and there was something cruel and predatory about his mouth.

"Then you'll let us go," Jenny said, not quite so boldly as before. She steadied her voice and made herself meet his eyes, lifting her chin proudly. "I got in myself, Julian," she said. "I found the base."

"Yes, you did." Even here, in the well-lit cafeteria, it seemed like twilight around him. A strange, enchanted twilight that was somehow brighter and more real than any daytime Jenny had ever seen. "You found the base. You won the Game. Now all you have to do is walk out."

"While you block the door," Dee said scornfully. "Looks like you'll have to do it yourself this time, since your animal friends aren't here to do it for you."

"Block the door?" Julian widened his cat-tilted eyes innocently, somehow looking more disturbingly beautiful than ever. And more triumphant. "I wouldn't dream of it." He stepped away from the exit, gesturing with languid, careless grace, as if to usher them in. "Go on. All you have to do is walk through there, and you'll be outside the photograph. In Zach's garage. Safe and sound."

"I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him," Michael whispered in Jenny's ear. But Dee, always eager for a challenge, was already moving toward the door. She flashed an ebony glance toward Julian as she passed him, and he bowed gracefully. Then he lifted his head and smiled at Jenny, who was standing in the protective circle of Tom's arm.

"I told you once not to mess with me," he said. Under his heavy lashes his eyes were blue as flame.

Alarm spurted through Jenny. "Dee- " she began. But it was already happening.

Just as Dee reached the door, there was a tremendous sound-a sound that was both loud and soft at the same time. It was almost like the sound a gas burner makes when you turn it on and the gas ignites. A muffled whompf.

Only this was a hundred times louder, and it came from all around them. Jenny's ears popped. Heat struck her from every direction at once, and a blast of burning air sent her hair streaming straight upward.

Dee was thrown backward by the force of the explosion, breaking her fall by striking the ground first with her forearms and palms. The next instant Jenny was holding her, her voice hard with anxiety.

"Are you okay? Are you okay?"

Dee's sooty lashes fluttered. Her slim chest was heaving, and her neck, long and graceful as a black swan's, lay arched back on Jenny's arm.

"Dee!"

"I'll give him