“Distra!” I shouted, as if the volume of the focus word had anything to do with the strength of the action. Like in the hardware store, my hand went numb as energy flowed into the sigil on the ring, lighting it up as if I were a Green Lantern. The numbness didn’t stop there. It traveled up my arm to the elbow, even as the trees suddenly shook with unnatural violence, the force first causing limbs to crack off before beginning to uproot the tree trunks themselves.

  My arm fell limply at my side, pain radiating from my shoulder as the entire copse of trees toppled, sending a group of helmeted Niflin scrambling from among them. A tree branch broke and fell onto one of them, pinning him down, while the others dove aside to be caught vulnerable, out in the open.

  I wanted to cry out in victory, but my concern for the Frasiers overrode my elation that I had successfully used the sigiltech ring. However, the Niflin sent sprawling when I hit the trees were recovering, starting to get back to their feet.

  I almost forgot about the gun in my other hand.I aimed and fired at the nearest attacker. His armor absorbed the hits, leaving me running for cover while the opposition regrouped.

  The roar of an engine brought me to a stop. I turned as Keep finally reached the scene, spotting the glow of his sleeve through the windshield. He tossed the Niflin I had shot into the burning car, where he writhed and went still. The others opened fire on the van, energy bolts putting holes in the sheet metal before they too were thrown aside.

  I tried to lift my numb left arm, but it still didn’t respond. A wayward thought that my body would never recover and I would be stuck with a useless limb sent a wave of panic through me, until I remembered how my hand had gone numb the night before, the effect temporary. I ran to the van as Keep jumped out, shaking the limb in hopes of bringing the feeling back sooner.

  “You said Sedaya couldn’t follow us here!” I shouted at him.

  “Do you really want to have that discussion now?” he replied, expression grim. He glanced at the fallen trees. “You did that?”

  “Yeah, and now my whole arm is dead.”

  He raised an eyebrow in confusion, but didn’t look overly concerned. “Nice. Let’s take care of this mess before they completely ruin the rental van. Stay close.”

  I moved in right behind him as he confidently rounded the front of the van. The five remaining Niflin were getting back to their feet for a third time. They flinched when they saw the sigils alight beneath Keep’s skin but didn’t give up the attack.

  Energy bolts poured toward us, vanishing into nothingness before reaching Keep as he used the same action I had seen on Sedaya’s ship. Only it seemed so much easier for him now that his energy levels had been restored. The Niflin didn’t relent, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t get past the barrier to reach us.

  The moment they stopped firing, Keep dropped the defenses and threw out his hand. Energy crackled from his fingertips, branching out and lacing into all of the Niflin save one. The afflicted shuddered and collapsed, leaving only the single combatant upright.

  “Do you surrender?” Keep shouted.

  The Niflin’s helmet shifted left and right, looking at his fallen comrades. His gun didn’t waver, and he fired a few more shots at Keep, which vanished harmlessly ahead of him before he pulled the weapon from the enemy’s hands. The rifle covered the distance between us, coming right to me. I reached up and caught it one-handed, dropping my handgun so I could point the better weapon at our opponent.

  “Do you surrender now?” Keep asked.

  The Niflin began convulsing as the interior of his helmet sparked and smoked. He dropped to the ground and didn’t move.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Damn,” Keep said, staring at the dead Niflin before turning to me. “Any sign of the Frasiers?”

  “No.” I pointed at the house. “I hope they weren’t in there.”

  Keep raised his hand. I heard him whisper, “viversa.” Almost immediately, the flames engulfing the farmhouse died out.

  “How did you do that?” I asked.

  “I pulled all of the oxygen out of the area,” he replied. “No oxygen, no fire.”

  “Smart.”

  “Not smart enough. I don’t know how Sedaya followed us here. And I hate that I don’t know why. What I do know is this is a lot worse than I already thought if he or anyone loyal to him has the skill to make the transit. It shouldn’t be possible. We need to find the Fraisers.”

  We hurried to the farmhouse.

  “George!” I shouted. “Gloria! Kyrie! Can you hear me?” The entire top floor of the house was gone. The whole back half had collapsed. I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving in there. “I really hope they’re in the barn.”

  The mention of the barn brought Keep to a stiff halt. “I’ll go check it out," he said.

  “What if more of Sedaya’s goons show up?” I asked.

  “You have a gun that can pierce their armor now,” he replied. “Kill them.”

  “Right.”

  Keep ran back to the van. Climbing in, he peeled away, racing to the barn.

  “George!” I shouted again. “Gloria! Can anybody hear me?”

  I approached the porch, cautiously climbing the singed steps trying to get to the charred front door. The numbness in my arm had started to subside, becoming more of a sharp tingle like it had fallen asleep. I kept shaking it out, convinced the action was speeding the recovery.

  “George! Gloria!” I shouted a third time. “Kyrie!” I didn’t know whether to be happy or horrified about not getting a response. I had no proof they had been in the house. Looking to the barn, I saw Keep stop the van and jump out, running to the closed front doors. I really hoped they had found refuge in there. “George! Gl–”

  “Help!” a muffled shout said from somewhere nearby. “Help us.”

  I recognized George’s voice. “George, where are you? It’s Ben.”

  “Ben!” George cried back. “Help us. Please.”

  “Where are you?” I repeated.

  “Basement. Tied up.”

  My stomach dropped. I had caused this by landing Flippy on their farm. But how was I supposed to know Sedaya would follow? According to Keep, it should have been impossible.

  “I’m going to get you out of there,” I yelled. “Hold on.”

  I reached the top of the steps, turning to shove the front door open with my shoulder. A series of cracks and pops from just ahead brought me to a stop, and then I dove backward, falling down the porch steps as the house started moving. I landed on the grass, burned beams giving way and the rest of the building collapsing in on itself. Dust and ash billowed down around me.

  “George!” I shouted, worried he and Gloria had been crushed.

  “What happened?” George shouted back, coughing. “So much soot.”

  I had to get them out of there. But how? They were in the basement, surrounded by the cement foundation. I had to get the debris off the stairwell so I could get down to them.

  I shook my numb arm a little harder. “Come on, damn it,” I cursed, as if I could will it back to life. With a big enough push, I could clear everything from the foundation.

  I froze suddenly, feeling like an idiot. Dropping the rifle, I used my freed hand to press on the stone on top of the ring, which released the needle jabbed through my flesh. I pulled the ring off and struggled with it for a few seconds to slide it onto my right hand, using my chin to activate the needle and sink it into my finger.

  I took a few steps back, exhaled, and lifted my hand, the sigil on the ring already glowing. In my mind, I saw the remains of the house picked up by a tornado and dropped a short distance away, leaving the cement base of the home clear. I still couldn’t begin to fathom how any of this actually worked, but right now all that mattered was that it did.

  “Distra!” I hissed, putting all of my guilt, anger, and frustration into the action.

  The energy flowed down my arm and into the ring. It flared brightly as a massive invisible force slammed into the remains of the farmhouse, sending it all flying as if it were hit with a fifty ton wrecking ball. The debris scattered everywhere, some of it launched more than twenty feet into the air. I spotted the fridge tossed nearly thirty feet from the slab, crashing to the ground along with some of the other detritus, all of it swept away as if by a giant invisible broom.

  The action sent a wave of pain up my right arm, leaving it dead and numb like the left had been immediately after knocking down the trees. Able to compare the two limbs, I could tell my left was recovering. At least I could feel the pins and needles and wiggle my fingers of that hand.

  I ran to the first floor, a few feet above the ground. I rolled onto it and stood up, finding the opening for the stairwell. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the van coming back down from the barn.

  “George, are you okay down there?” I shouted, rushing to the steps and looking down. The outside light penetrated to the bottom of the stairs through a cloud of dust and ash, but nothing was immediately visible.

  “We’re okay,” he shouted back. “I can see daylight.”

  I ran down the steps, quickly finding George and Gloria bound to a pair of old chairs next to their washer and dryer. George had a rag around his neck. Gloria’s was still shoved in her mouth.

  “George,” I said, rushing over to them. “Where’s Kyrie?” I leaned forward over Gloria. “My arms are temporarily out of commission. I’m just going to get that out of your mouth.” I used my teeth to pull the rag away before straightening up.

  “Ben,” he replied, relieved but not completely. “I don’t know. She was playing outside when they came.”

  “You have to find her,” Gloria cried.

  “We will,” I said, hearing the van door close. “Keep! Down here!”

  He joined us in the basement, eyes narrow, face tight.

  “Kyrie,” Gloria said. “Have you seen Kyrie?”

  He nodded. “

  "She’s okay. I found her in the barn. She’s waiting upstairs in the van.” He walked over to them, crouching to look at their bonds. It appeared to be some kind of wire. He put his hand out over it, lips moving. The wire turned brittle, and a quick hit caused it to shatter, freeing the pair. He stood and looked at me. “You know what I didn’t find in the barn?”

  “Don’t tell me,” I replied, heart sinking anew.

  “I don’t need to. It’s gone, kid. They took Flippy.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “Flippy's gone?" My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. “Why would they take her?”

  “Damned if I know,” Keep replied, glancing at the Frasiers. “But you might be able to help us find her.”

  “I just want to see Kyrie,” Gloria said.

  “She’s upstairs. You can get up whenever you want. The bindings are gone.”

  “What?” George said, moving his hands from behind his back. “I didn’t feel a thing.” He and Gloria got to their feet. She rushed past us and up the stairs. “They came here looking for you,” George continued.

  “I know,” Keep said. “I’m sorry.”

  “You owe me an explanation. But first, I want to see my daughter.” He pushed past us too, climbing the stairs.

  “This is bad,” I said.

  “Tell me about it,” Keep replied. “We’ll figure it out.” He noticed I had switched the ring to my other hand. “Numb?”

  “Yeah.” I held up my left hand, wiggling my fingers more easily. “This one’s almost back to normal though.”

  “It’s a good thing you’ve got two.”

  George and Gloria were still hugging Kyrie when we emerged from the basement. All three had tears in their eyes, more relieved by their collective health than the loss of their home.

  “You know we have to pay for this,” I said.

  “Bennie, we need the money for the ivory.”

  “This is our fault,” I hissed back. “We’re responsible.”

  “I’m sure they have insurance,” he replied.

  “Probably. But it won't cover everything. They lost their car and their house.”

  “They’ve still got each other. Badabing badaboom.”

  I shook my head in disbelief, but I dropped the argument for the time being as we hopped to the ground and went over to the Frasiers.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said. “We had no idea—”

  “Who the hell are you?” George growled, straightening and positioning himself between us and his family. “And who the hell were they?”

  “Who did they say they were?” Keep asked.

  “They didn’t,” he spat back. “They stormed into the house while Gloria and I were cleaning up breakfast. They scared the hell out of my wife and separated us from Kyrie. I had no idea if they were in the barn too, or if they would hurt her.” His eyes began welling with tears. “I’ve never been so afraid of anything in my life as I was that they would hurt my girls.”

  “It’s okay, Daddy,” Kyrie said, taking his hand in hers. “I’m fine. They came to the barn, but I saw them coming and I hid in the loft under some hay.”

  “You’re such a smart girl,” George said, his eyes softening as he looked down at her, resting his hand on her shoulder. His look hardened again when he returned his gaze to us. “They took us down to the basement and tied us to those chairs, and then started asking us questions about you two. How well did we know you? Where were you going? When were you coming back? Did we know we were harboring an intergalactic fugitive? Intergalactic? What the hell is that?”

  “Their leader,” Keep said. “What did he look like?”

  “They all look the same. Dark helmets that hid their faces. You could line them all up, and I wouldn’t be able to pick one out from the other.”

  “You didn’t see anyone who wasn’t wearing a helmet?”

  “No.”

  “I did, Daddy,” Kyrie offered.

  “You did?” Keep said, his voice going up a couple of octaves while he crouched to her level. “What did he look like?”

  “Don’t answer that, honey,” George said. “Not until he answers my questions.”

  “Sorry, Mister Murdock,” Kyrie said.

  Keep’s face twisted in a tight, frustrated smile. “Ask me a specific question, and I’ll give you a specific answer.”

  “Who are you…really?” George said.

  “My name is Avelus Keep.”

  “Not Murdock?”

  “No.”

  “You aren’t his father, or his name isn’t Murdock either?”

  “His name is Ben Murdock. I’m not his father.”

  George paused. “Which one of you is the intergalactic fugitive?”

  “I am,” I said.

  “But intergalactic means—”

  “I am,” I repeated, interrupting.

  “How?”

  “That’s a long story,” Keep said. “But you aren’t an intergalactic fugitive. You’re wanted in the Manticore Spiral, not the Milky Way. There’s certainly no extradition policy in play here.”

  “What?” George said.

  “You’re really from outer space?” Kyrie asked.

  “Yes,” Keep said.

  “No, not me. I'm from Earth,” I said at the same time.

  George shook his head. “I don’t have the first idea of what’s going on here. You lied to me about your airplane. You lied to me about your name and occupation. You put my family in danger.”

  “They weren’t supposed to be able to follow us here,” Keep said. “If I had any idea they could, I would never have put your family in danger.” I wasn’t sure I believed him after his earlier lack of empathy for the loss of their home. George didn’t look convinced either. He looked away from Keep, refocusing on me.

  “You aren’t from outer space,” he said.

  “No. I’m from Modesto. About a month ago, my best friend and I bought a starship from Mister Keep here.”

  “So the aircraft they took doesn’t just look like a starship; it is a starship. And you bought it from him?”

  “Technically, Flippy is a starfighter. It was on board the bigger starship we bought.”

  “And where’s that one? Mars?” George asked incredulously.

  “No, we left it in the Spiral.”

  “What’s the Spiral?”

  “The galaxy Keep is from.”

  “This is all ridiculous,” George said. “What’s the real story? Did you steal that airplane from the CIA or the Russians or something? Did they come to take it back and kill you in the process?”

  “I’m sure they came to take it,” Keep said. “And kill us. But they’re not CIA or Russians. They’re Niflin mercenaries.”

  “Mercenary I know. What’s Niflin?”

  “It’s their species.”

  “You mean they’re extraterrestrials? Aliens?”

  “Bingo! Give the man a prize.”

  George looked to his right, where the nearest dead Niflin lay on the ground. “Bullshit. They look human to me.”

  Keep sighed and walked over to the corpse. “Does this look human to you?” he asked, using one hand to pick the dead mercenary up by the collar of his armor and the other to pull off his helmet.

  “Yeah,” George said. “It does.”

  “Definitely human,” Kyrie confirmed.

  George quickly turned Kyrie around. “You shouldn’t be looking at that.”

  “What?” Keep hissed, looking at the revealed head. A very average looking, very human face stared back at him with glassy, dead eyes. He let go of the body, letting it thump back in the dirt. “That’s not right.”

  He walked over to the second closest mercenary, bending over to remove their helmet. I couldn’t see the corpse’s face, but Keep’s reaction was enough. The second body had to be human too. He ran to the third, shaking his head in disbelief after removing the helmet. His eyes found mine.

  “Bennie, I’ve been around the block more than once. I’ve never seen Sedaya use an entire unit of human mercs before.”

  “You’ve never had to deal with him on Earth before,” I pointed out.

  “I’m still waiting for aliens,” George said. “Otherwise, maybe you want to try telling us the truth.”