This seemed to hit home with Mitch.e.l.l. Mark realized it might be his one chance to gain some real leverage over the bully.

"There are only three people who know about these pages," Mark continued. "Me, Courtney Chetwyndea and now you."

"Chetwynde knows?" shouted Mitch.e.l.l in disappointment.

This was good for Mark. Mitch.e.l.l was just as afraid of Courtney as Mark was of Mitch.e.l.l. Mark was beginning to realize he had more tools to work with than he thought.

"Yes, Courtney knows everything," continued Mark. "This is a serious thing. If you start telling people about it, then you might get in just as much trouble as we will. There's a lot at stake here. You want to go public with it? Go ahead. But your life will never be the same."

Mark felt as if he had laid that on pretty thick. He wasn't at all sure whether Mitch.e.l.l would get in trouble if he revealed the journals, but he counted on the fact that Mitch.e.l.l was dumb enough tothinkhe could get in trouble. Mark knew that was the one weapon guys like Mark had over guys like Mitch.e.l.l. They were smarter.

"Don't be an idiot, Mitch.e.l.l," said Mark. "Give me the page, forget you saw anything, and I promise never to tell anyone that you know."

Mitch.e.l.l stared at the ground, thinking about the offer. Mark knew that Mitch.e.l.l was over his head. This was way too much for his brain to process.

"I'll make you a deal, Dimond," said Mitch.e.l.l tentatively. "I'll give you the page, and I'll shut up about what I saw. But you gotta do something for me too."

"I asked you before,what?"

"This isn't before," said Mitch.e.l.l. "This is now. Before I didn't see the hocus-pocus stuff. My offer is this: I'll keep quiet as long as you let me read what Pendragon sends you."

"What?"

This was probably the worst thing Mark could imagine. He didn't want to share Bobby's journals with anybody, let alone lame-wad Andy Mitch.e.l.l. What was he going to say to Courtney? He didn't know what to do.

"That's my offer, Dimond," said Mitch.e.l.l, suddenly sounding more confident. "Either you start showing me those letters, or I start blabbing to everybody about what's going on. I might get in a little trouble, but nothing like what you and Chetwynde will catch."

Uh-oh. Mitch.e.l.l was being smarter than Mark thought possible.

"Okay," said Mark, though it killed him to do it. "But I can't let you read it before me and Courtney. The letters are being sent to us, not you. After we read *em, I'll let you have a look. But the letters stay with me, and if you tell anybody and I meananybodyabout what's going on, I'll make sure you get in every bit as much trouble as we do."

Mitch.e.l.l thought a second, then handed the lost page to Mark. Mark grabbed it like it was his most valuable possession in the world. And at that moment, it was.

"Deal," he said. "When do I get to read what you got?"

Mark started for the door. He was feeling bold and lost at the same time. He no longer cared about Mitch.e.l.l's bully tactics. Their relationship had just been kicked into a higher gear. It was a dangerous gear that was way beyond petty bully stuff.

"I'll let you know," declared Mark, and opened the door.

"You better, Dimond," threatened Mitch.e.l.l. "We're partners now."

Mark stopped and looked back at the creepy Andy Mitch.e.l.l. He was right. Theywerepartners now, sort of. The thought made Mark's stomach roll.

A short while later Mark met Courtney near the gym, just as they had arranged the night before. Courtney was all sorts of excited to know if Mark had found the missing page.

"Well?" she asked impatiently.

Mark's mind raced. What was he going to tell her? He knew he was going to have to tell her the truth, but right now he felt as if he had failed her, and failed Bobby. It started when he left the page in the bathroom and continued when he didn't have the guts to stand up to Andy Mitch.e.l.l. He felt like such a loser. Yes, he was going to have to tell Courtney the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to do it just then.

"I got the page," he said. "And this."

He pulled Bobby's newest journal from his pack. Courtney's eyes lit up.

"Double score! Excellent! See, I told you it was going to work out."

"You were right," said Mark with absolutely no enthusiasm.

Courtney didn't sense this. She had enough enthusiasm going for the both of them.

"That's weird," said Courtney.

"What?" Mark shot back, hoping that she hadn't sensed something had gone terribly wrong.

Courtney took the newest journal from Mark and looked at it.

"This isn't like the last one," she said with curiosity. "The last journal was written on that green, waterproof paper. This isa different."

She was right. Mark had been so nervous about Andy Mitch.e.l.l, he hadn't even noticed it himself. This new journal was much more like Bobby's first journals that he wrote on Denduron. The pages were brown and crusty looking like parchment.

"You're right," was all Mark could say.

"Okay, we gotta wait till after school to read," she said, handing him back the pages. "Meet me out front after last period and we'll get back to my bas.e.m.e.nt. Okay?"

"Sure. Sounds good."

"Man, I hope I can wait that long. I'm dying! Don't peek, all right?"

"No problem. I won't peek," said Mark, wondering how he was going to keep Andy Mitch.e.l.l from peeking all day.

Mark and Courtney then separated and went about their normal school day. Mark did his best to immerse himself in school-work to get his mind off his dilemma. A few times while cla.s.ses were pa.s.sing, he caught sight of Andy Mitch.e.l.l. Mitch.e.l.l wouldn't say a word. He'd just give Mark this exaggerated wink as if to say: "We've got a secret, right, pal?" Mark would just turn away and cringe.

After school Mark and Courtney met up just as planned. They barely said anything to each other as they walked to Courtney's house. A dozen times Mark started to tell her about Andy Mitch.e.l.l, but couldn't find the right words. He saw how excited Courtney was about reading the new journal, and didn't want to crash her mood.

When they got to the house, Mark decided that he wouldn't say anything about Mitch.e.l.l until after they read Bobby's journal. In spite of all the extra stuff that was going on, Mark was excited to find out what happened to their friend. So without Courtney realizing that a momentous decision had been reached, the two sat down on the dusty couch to jump once again into the world that had become Bobby's.

"I'm shaking," said Courtney as she held the pages.

"Yeah, tell me about it," countered Mark, though he was shaking for a whole bunch more reasons than Courtney.

Luckily for him, the time for talking was over. It was time to read.

Oh, man, I gotta apologize to you guys. I didn't mean to leave you hanging like that. It's just that things are happening fast now and I haven't had many chances to write. That last journal was getting pretty long and I wanted to send it before something happened to it, or to me. I wasn't thinking. Sorry.

I'm writing this new journal from a place where I finally feel safe. At least for now, anyway. I won't tell you where it is yet because the events that led me here were pretty wild. I'd rather recount things as they happened and not jump ahead. It's easier that way. But I'll tease you a little by saying you're not going to believe where I am. Now let's get back to where I left you hanging.

When Magorran hit Grallion, I felt it rather than saw it. The impact sent a giant Shockwave throughout the habitat that knocked most people off their feet, including me and Uncle Press. The habitat shuddered and shook and a horrible grinding sound filled the air as the two giant ships collided. I couldn't see it, but I could imagine the destruction that was happening at the point of impact. I could only hope that it wouldn't be so devastating as to send both habitats to the bottom.

Moments before the collision the aquaneers had thrown off most of the lines that secured Grallion, so that when the habitats. .h.i.t, we would be pushed back instead of holding firm. If not for that move, there would have been way more damage. Also, the pilot of Grallion threw the engines into full reverse, which helped to soften the blow. Still, that wasn't enough to avoid the crash. Even after the collision, Magorran kept coming. The big habitat was powerful and moving fast. It pushed Grallion across the surface of the ocean like a toy. A really big toy. The only way to stop it was to stop Magorran.

Once we realized we weren't going to sink, Uncle Press helped me to my feet. There was a strong vibration from the force of the charging habitat and it was difficult to stand. Up till now I never even felt like I was on a ship. Now I felt like I was on thet.i.tanic,and it was banging against the iceberg.

But there was one other thought that made me even more nervous. When something this huge and bad happened it could only mean one thing: Saint Dane was in the house. The look on Uncle Press's face told me he was thinking the same thing. This accident was cla.s.sic Saint Dane. I could almost hear the wheels turning in Uncle Press's head as he calculated what the crash might mean to Grallion, to Cloral, to Halla, and to us. Finally he announced, "We're on the wrong habitat."

"You're kidding, right?"

He wasn't. Uncle Press took off running toward the impact point. This was insane. The safest place to be was far away from where the two habitats had collided. But being safe wasn't usually high on Uncle Press's To Do list. He was headed right for the most dangerous place on board, and I was right after him. We ran past several vators who were fleeing from the bow to a safer part of the habitat. There was a name for those guys. Smart. We weren't being smart; we were headed toward disaster.

The closer we got to the bow, the more damage there was. The deck had buckled and split. I could look down through jagged tears and see below to the pipes and struts that held Grallion together. It got tricky dodging around these open fissures. One wrong step and we could have fallen a few stories into the guts of Grallion. It was like running over a rickety old footbridge where the bottom could fall out at any moment. Still, Uncle Press wouldn't stop.

When we got near the bow, we saw the full extent of the devastation. Each of the two habitats were crushed where they impacted. It was a twisted mess of beams, girders, and decking. This no longer looked like a habitat. It looked like a vast, floating junkyard.

"Now what?" I asked.

Uncle Press pointed to several aquaneers who were leaping on board Magorran. They were led by Wu Yenza, the chief aquaneer. It was a daring jump because even though the decks of the two habitats were only a few feet apart, they were both still moving and grinding against each other.

"Follow them," said Uncle Press, which was the last thing I wanted to hear. But he didn't give me time to think. He ran to the edge of the deck, hesitated only a second, then leaped from Grallion onto Magorran.

"Let's go, Bobby!" he yelled.

Imagine standing on an ice floe as it hurtled down a river and you had to jump onto another ice floe that was going just as fast. That's pretty much what this felt like. The gap between the two decks was only a few feet, but it felt like a mile. I looked down. Big mistake. I could see through four stories down of twisted wreckage to the frothing white water. Falling would really, really hurt.

"It's cake, Bobby!" shouted Uncle Press. "C'mon!"

Cake. Yeah, right. I inched as close as I could to the edge without getting dizzy. The deck lurched under my feet. This was definitelynotcake! I waited until Grallion settled, took a breath - and jumped.

I cleared the chasm by a good five feet. Okay, maybe itwascake.

"Now what?" I asked, trying to sound as if I were more in control of myself than I really was.

"The pilot house," answered Uncle Press. "Let's find out who's driving this bus."

The pilot house where the habitat was controlled wasn't far from which we boarded. Like the pilot house on Grallion, this was an enclosed structure where the pilot, the first mate, and a few other aquaneers would send the commands that controlled the habitat. Whatever the problem was with Magorran, the logical place to start looking for it was the pilot house.

We took off running, but it wasn't any easier over here than it was on Grallion. This deck was torn up from the impact as well. The whole habitat shuddered and heaved as it bounced against Grallion. It was like trying to run across a minefield during an earthquake.

The goal was to stop Magorran. I feared that when we got to the pilot house, we'd find none other than Saint Dane standing at the wheel wearing an aquaneer uniform and an evil, leering smile. But that would have been too easy. Saint Dane may have been responsible for this, but he wouldn't have done something as obvious as piloting the habitat himself. No, Saint Dane didn't work that way. He was a manipulator. This was an epic disaster that was worthy of him, but the cause of it would be far more diabolical. This was only the beginning. It wasn't just about two habitats colliding. There had to be something grander at stake. So as much as I feared seeing Saint Dane at the wheel, it was his overall scheme that I feared more.

Before we got to the pilot house, the habitat suddenly stopped shuddering. The aquaneers who boarded ahead of us must have reached the controls and shut down the engines. There was a strange calm. The horrible cracking sound of the two habitats grinding against each other stopped. The drone of the engines stopped. The rush of the water crashing between the two wrecked habitats stopped. The aquaneers must have slowed Magorran because after one last loud, twisting crunch, I saw Grallion pull away. The two habitats were once again separate.

As Grallion drifted away, I saw the extent of the damage, and it was pretty nasty. The entire bow end of the farm barge looked like a car after a head-on collision. Decking was bent and cracked. Geysers of water shot from burst pipes. Pieces of beams and struts floated in the water. The dock area was destroyed along with most of the small boats that were kept there. In a word, it was mangled. I'm sure that Magorran looked the same, though I couldn't tell because I was standing on it. The big question now was, why had the aquaneers on Magorran lost control? If our aquaneers could stop it so easily, what prevented the Magorran crew from doing the same?

Uncle Press and I reached the pilot house that was about a hundred yards back from the damaged bow. I was glad to see the collision hadn't destroyed it. It was a solid structure that was probably built that way in case something hairy like this happened. This was the first good news we saw. Magorran could still be controlled from here. The question was, why did it go out of control in the first place? The moment we opened the door, we had the answer. There were two aquaneers from Grallion at the controls. Yenza was at the wheel, the other worked the array of toggle switches for the many water-powered engines that controlled the habitat.

The aquaneer crew from Magorran was there as well. There was the pilot, the first mate, and three other aquaneers. I recognized their rank because they wore the same uniforms as the crew from Grallion. But there was one big difference between this crew and our crew.

These guys were all dead.

It was a creepy scene for obvious reasons, but it was made all the more so because the crew looked soa natural. It wasn't like there was a violent fight or anything. Just the opposite. The pilot sat in his chair, still looking forward with sightless eyes. The first mate was hunched over a map with a pen still in his hand as if he were in the middle of plotting a course, probably to rendezvous with Grallion. The other aquaneers were sitting on the deck near their stations as if they had simply fallen asleep. But these guys were definitely not asleep. Their eyes were wide open. There was something else. Uncle Press saw it first and pointed it out to me. Each of the poor dead aquaneers had a trace of something on the corners of their mouths. It was dry now, but it looked to have been a trickle of green liquid that had dribbled out of the corners of their mouths and crusted there.

They were dead all right. The mystery of the collision was solved. These guys died at their posts under full power. But the idea of five guys suddenly dying was tough to comprehend. It was then that I was. .h.i.t with a thought that was even more horrific than the sight in front of me. It was like an alarm rang in my head. I reached out to Uncle Press, grabbed his sleeve and pulled him out of the pilot house.

"This wasn't a sudden crash," I croaked out through my dry mouth. "I mean, we saw it coming, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So if we saw it coming, how come n.o.body else on board Magorran did?"

Before I got all the words out, I saw in Uncle Press's face that he knew exactly where I was going with this. The crash happened because the pilot and his crew were dead. But somebody else on Magorran should have seen the crash coming and tried to stop it. That is, if anybody else on Magorran were alive to see it. The horrible realization hit Uncle Press just as it hit me. If n.o.body else tried to stop the crash, did that mean more people were dead? We both did a quick scan around and saw the same thing - nothing. There was no movement. No life. The sickening truth was setting in. There was a very good chance that everybody on Magorran had met the same fate as its crew.

This may have become a ship of the dead.

I turned away from Uncle Press and puked.

(CONTINUED).

CLORAL.

Spader!" shouted Uncle Press.

I had my hands on my knees while tossing my lunch. I looked up to see Spader booking across the deck several yards away. He was headed deeper onto Magorran and I knew why. He was going to find his father.

Behind us Wu Yenza came from the pilot house and saw him too.

"Stop right there!" she commanded. "Donotgo onto this habitat!"

Spader didn't even glance at her. There was nothing stopping him.

"We'll stay with him," said Uncle Press to Yenza.

"You are not authorized to be here," she said sternly.

"We're civilians," countered Uncle Press. "You can't stop us."

"We can't protect you either."

I didn't like the sound of that. Whatever caused this horrible disaster could still be out there. On the other hand, chances are it was Saint Dane, and that bad boy was our department.

"Understood," said Uncle Press. "We'll bring him back."

Yenza wanted to argue, but Uncle Press had already started to jog after Spader. I looked to the chief aquaneer and shrugged. She scowled at me and I turned and ran after Uncle Press.

Spader had a head start on us and it was tough keeping up with him. It didn't help that he knew exactly where he was going. We had to keep him in sight or he'd be gone. As we ran across the deck of Magorran I tried to keep an eye on him while taking in the new surroundings. This was a manu habitat, but the factories must have been toward the stern because the area we were running through seemed more residential. There were several tall structures that looked like apartment buildings surrounding a big park. This could have been a normal, downtown neighborhood back on Second Earth. It was strange to think that we were floating. Stranger still was the fact that the place was deserted. There wasn't a soul to be seen - living or dead. It gave me hope that everyone had evacuated Magorran before they met the same deadly fate as the crew.

Up ahead Spader hurried into one of the apartment buildings. When we entered after him, all my hopes that the habitat had been abandoned came crashing down. Sitting in the lobby were three more bodies. Like in the pilot house, it looked as if death touched them quickly and with complete surprise. They were three men who must have been factory workers because they all wore the same bright blue coveralls. They sat around a table that was covered with multicolored tiles. My guess was they were playing some kind of game when they met their fate. One still held a tile as if ready to make a play. He never got the chance. The whole scene was creepy and I didn't want to look too closely, but I did see that all three men had the same trace of dried green liquid on their chins. Whatever it was, it must have had something to do with the way they died.

I didn't want to be there anymore. This was getting dangerously gross. I was all set to turn and bolt back for Grallion, when we heard a crash coming from deeper in the building that sounded like breaking gla.s.s. Either it was Spader or somebody was still alive. Uncle Press took off toward the sound and as much as I wanted to run the other way, I stayed with him.

As we ran down a long corridor I tried not to think about what horrors lay behind each of the closed doors we pa.s.sed. It was like running through a tomb. We finally came to a door that was open slightly.