Smoking Power

Chapter 23

I don't even think. Turning in a semi-circle, I leap and spear tackle Amber to the ground, away from the fast approaching sword. How could Marco hide something like this behind his back?

Rolling off Amber and onto my back, I look back up at Marcos furious expression. The blade of swirling green doesn't stop slashing madly, desperate to get its first taste of blood from us.

"Little bit of an over-reaction don't you think?!" I yell up at Marco, while doing a roll to dodge his latest swipe.

Marco merely grunts and continues to advance towards me. I crawl back, ducking behind desk chairs and other pieces of furniture when I can. Before long I can feel the hard pressure of the brick wall behind my back. I'm cornered.

Frantically I analyse everything in the room quickly, but still thoroughly. It's a big room as far as offices go. There's a large wooden desk next to me on my left. On the desk there is a collection large, porcelain pots. A metre or two down there's a set of grey filing cabinets. In the far right corner of the room is the medical bed, with an unconscious Declan on it. Beside Declan there is a bench with a heap of different equipment you would expect to find in a normal doctors office.

Apart from that the room is mainly empty and open. There's a couple of plastic chairs spread out across the room, but it's mainly empty space. Finally my eyes wander over to Amber.

She's on her hands and knees like me. Instead of backing straight up like I did, she's moved in a diagonal position. When she's just out of sight she transforms into her bird. Marco either doesn't notice, doesn't care or goes for me since I'm the easier target than a tiny bird.

Inside, I'm glad that she's slipped out of Marcos mind. She's the pilot and brains of our team. It's me and Declan that normally handle situations like these. The bad thing about that is that I'm practically on my own now, since Declan is still unconscious and oblivious to what's going on around him.

Swoosh!!

I blink in surprise as the long blade swings in front of my face, only just missing it. I roll onto my stomach and do a quick commando-crawl until I reach a misty grey, plastic chair. Grabbing one of the chairs legs, I swing the chair up to meet Marcos oncoming strike of the blade, still swirling in the shades of green.

The loud clunking noise of chair on blade ends almost as quickly as it happens. I watch the spot of impact on the chair. Immediately the chair turns black around where the blade is. Soon the black on the chair, crumbles away, onto the cold floor below.

Straight away, I freeze. I've seen this before. It all clicks now. The swirling green is the same that the Hogmers fired at us when we first met them back in Ireland. It's the same green blob that the Hogmer back at the Big Banana shot at us and eventually hit himself with.

Still clutching the chair's leg, I slowly raise my eyes up to meet Marcos. A million thoughts swarm around my brain in one huge wave. Marco has a Hogmers weapon. Marco's trying to kill us, like the Hogmer back at the Big Banana tried to. Marco wants to stop us because we're the only ones that can put the lavapick back together. Marco referred to the Hogmers as his, doing a mission for him.

Does this mean that he was behind the attack in Ballincolla, Ireland? Is Marco a Hogmer? Finally the most disturbing, nerve racking thought enters my mind. Marco works for Gareth. Does Gareth know about Marcos true identity? Or is he just as oblivious to it as we were from the beginning?

My mind flashes back to the plane where I found the green blobs in the test tube. It's the same stuff, the same weapon. Is Gareth in on it?

Before I can think about it any more, the blade is swinging, only centimetres in front of my face. I may need answers for the amount of questions that have piled up in my brain, but the need to survive is stronger.