Exciti

Chapter 46 (Adam)

They took them back through the building, then down the hall where they took the Key maker, to a rectangular room with nothing but a black hole in the ground down at the far end. One of the Crimsoners opened the hatch, "Him first," he said in a gruff voice, pointing at Adam.

Adam dug his feet. His stubbornness was now fueled by his hopelessness. It will be all over for Tam if they went into that hole. In fact, he was sure it was the end when one the guards attempted to carry him.

He was still struggling, when a voice filled the chamber. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!"

Everyone was startled. The voice came from the outside of the room.

"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."

Adam saw that Lucy was trying to keep from smiling. He frowned to try and recognize the voice. Why is this familiar?

"The evil that men do lives after them."

His eyebrows shot upward. "Dramatic tendencies?!" he mouthed to Lucy. She nodded, and Liam grinned.

One of the men holding Lucy let go of her and moved to look out the door, "What the..." His question was interrupted with a jingle before he fell motionless on the ground.

Dr. Little appeared at the door, carrying his staff. Barb, in eagle form, zoomed over his head and went straight to the closest Crimsoner. She rid him of his consciousness just as Lago and Kerman, who was armed with an oversized drum rattle, charged into the room. Lago went straight to the remaining guard that held Lucy with a well-aimed kick that sent him head first into the hole. Adam was dropped to the ground after Kerman swung the rattle at his captor's head with a loud BONG that sent him to oblivion. Barb came swooping back and plucked one of Liam's guards and flung him against the opposite wall.

The last of the Crimson men held on to Liam in a choke hold. "If any of you moves, I will snap his neck." Liam gasped for breath then whistled. The long, clear sound was cut when the Crimsoner tightened his grip on Liam's neck, "I mean it...I will..."

A whoosh interrupted the Crimsoner as Liam's ball came sailing through the door and hit his head with a loud smack, knocking him, too, out cold.

Lago and Adam rushed forward to help Liam breathe. He signed, looking more irritated than shaken, "Why am I always being choked!"

Lucy, Monsieur Kerman and Dr. Little extracted Berta and the Key Maker from the Hole. Adam looked over at Berta and found himself asking, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, then started crying. "Berta did really bad things! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

Adam didn't have the time, or the heart, to hold a grudge against the kid. "We'll talk about this later, okay?"

"You don't hate me?" she hiccupped.

"Right now, I just want to save my sister and get us all out of here alive, truce until then?" He offered his hand, and she took it.

He took a good look at her, she was shivering and looked too terrified and traumatized to be in any shape to use her powers. He looked at the Key Maker, "You need to get out of here, take her and hide somewhere safe."

"But..." Berta started.

"it isn't safe for you here...Go!"

The Key Maker hesitated for a second before he grabbed Berta and ran out the way they came.

Adam turned to Dr. Little, "How did you find us?"

The doctor was examining Lucy's shoulder. "When we realized that you were gone, along with the doll house, Barb here just...knew." He told Adam.

Barb, who had morphed into her human form and was now searching through the robes of one of the unconscious men, "I followed my coin. A Tail can always find her coin." She then found what he was looking for. "Here, I knew I saw them under his robes when I knocked him down." She handed Lucy her doll and sword.

"Come on, we need to go." Adam was already striding to the door.

Dr. Little started, "Adam, where ..."

Lucy shook her head and pulled the doctor by the arm, "Just come with us. You won't believe what's going on."