We crouch low to the ground, figuring there are surveillance cameras surrounding the fence. We've approached at the rear edge of the compound, far away from the base's entrance. Malcolm thinks security might be a little more diffuse at this end of the base.

For all of Malcolm's knowledge from old newsletters, not to mention the tiny bit of preparatory research we did at an internet cafe en route, there's only so much you can find out about a secret government base through public channels. We're mostly going in blind.

Malcolm pulls out a c.r.a.ppy pair of binoculars we bought at a truck stop and scans the facility.

After a moment he taps me, pointing out a watchtower a few hundred yards down the fence. Squinting through the evening's half-light, I can see a generator a few paces off from the watchtower. We can only hope that generator powers the fence. If I can hit it with my Legacy, it's our one chance of getting inside.

"Tower's got to be three hundred yards ... no, four hundred yards away."

"Yeah," I say. I start pounding my fist into my hand, a little pre-Legacy ritual I picked up. It doesn't make any sense that warming up my hands would help with my accuracy-the power comes from deep inside me, from my core, not from my hands-but it's become habit by now.

"That's like three regulation football fields, Adam. We never trained for that."

"I got it," I say, confidently.

I don't actually feel confident, but figure acting confident can only help my odds.

I reach deep into myself, eyes focused tight on the area encompa.s.sing the watchtower and generator.

The trick, I've discovered, is anger. And it has to be my own. The first few weeks I was able to channel One's rage at losing Hilde to access my Legacy, but its efficacy quickly waned. I needed to find my own rage.

So now I think of Kelly, too ashamed of me to even speak to me. I think of my mother, leaving me to rot in the Mog lab. I think of Ivanick, his hands at my back, pushing me down the ravine. Mostly, I think of my father: delivering the killing blow to Hannu. Sentencing me to death. And a million other, smaller injustices, perpetrated over my entire life.

I hate them. I hate everything they stand for.

And then I feel it, my power, my rage, coursing below the ground, in search of the watchtower. Like a giant stone hand, its fingers curl upward, fondling the earth, feeling.

There it is.

I let it rip.

The ground beneath me and Malcolm remains still, but I can see the watchtower rumble, erupting with tremendous force. The generator, sundered from the ground, shoots sparks. Then the tower collapses.

Malcolm turns to me, shocked, amazed. Proud.

He smiles. "Touchdown," he says.

CHAPTER 14.

We creep over the fence, no longer electrified. We know that the generator's explosion and the collapse of the watchtower must've attracted the attention of the base's perimeter guards, and in fact we're banking on that to be able to run aboveground without interference. If they're too distracted by the explosion to maintain sufficient ground cover along our path, we've got a shot.

Our optimism pays off. We make it close to the compound without anyone seeing us. Most of the guards have been drawn to the watchtower; if they're even aware of a breach in their perimeter, they probably think it's all the way over there.

Then I stop. On the other side of the sprawling compound, over the horizon, there is chaos. Noise. Explosions. Smoke. Weaponry firing.

I turn to Malcolm. "Weapons testing?" I ask.

Malcolm shakes his head.

Something is going down at the base. Something big.

I have a strange hunch. Something inside of me says the Garde is here.

"What do you think it is?" I ask Malcolm, wondering if he has the same feeling I do.

"I don't know. But I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. The base is ma.s.sive. If some kind of battle is going down on the other side of it, that means they might be spreading their resources a bit thin on this end to compensate. We might be able to catch 'em off their game, even once we're inside."

He resumes his march to the rear of the compound. I follow.

We position ourselves behind a parked Humvee at a side entrance. We can still hear the distant sound of chaos, erupting half a mile away at the other side of the compound. We lie in wait as a young soldier flies out of the door, running towards the Humvee. I wonder if he's been dispatched to the other end of the base, like Malcolm guessed.

In a flash, Malcolm ambushes him.

I've never seen Malcolm in combat before. Clearly he's not trained for it, but he has two things going for him. First, the soldier was distracted, in a hurry. But even more important, Malcolm knows he's getting closer to his son, and his determination to save Sam lights him up. Malcolm swings wildly, an uncoordinated a.s.sault that nevertheless catches the young soldier off guard.

Malcolm manages to knock him out. We drag the unconscious soldier behind the Humvee. Malcolm rips an access card from his chest, then takes the soldier's gun for good measure.

"Just in case," he says, awkwardly wielding the gun. I can read the hesitation on his face: he doesn't want to kill anyone. I know he's relying on me to use my Legacy skillfully enough that he won't have to.

We creep to the side door. Malcolm swipes the card through the access panel. After a second, a green light flashes and the lock disengages. We take a deep breath and open the door.

It's worse than I'd imagined. A long corridor opens up before us, leading to a small alcove with a desk clerk. There are at least five soldiers in the area and six or seven other military personnel. And they've all turned in unison, seeing us at once.

One of the soldiers shouts. "They're coming from both sides!" They think we're part of the same invading force attacking from the front of the compound.

I have no time to consider that, and send a blast out in front of me, shredding the concrete floor of the hallway. And another one. And another one.

Soldiers and workers are knocked off balance or thrown against walls as we rush forward through the fresh rubble.

I know I'm causing pain and injury; I can only reason that at least I'm saving them from gunfire. More important, I'm keeping Malcolm safe.

We round the corner by the desk alcove, only to be confronted by three more soldiers. I let loose another seismic wave, sending them hard against the walls behind them, knocking the wind out of them, breaking bones.

I cringe inwardly at what I've done, even as I feel a creeping exhilaration at my own power. I didn't realize I was capable of such tremendous force.

Malcolm dives forward to the overturned desk, scrabbling through its scattered contents, all while struggling to keep his gun-wielding arm raised. I circle Malcolm. He searches for a compound map, or something to give us a clue as to where Sam is being held, while I keep an eye on the fallen soldiers, ready to blast anyone who manages to get to their feet.

"Got it," he says, leafing through a large binder. "Compound directory."

"Hurry," I say, still scanning the fallen soldiers, my fists raised.

A soldier clambers to his feet, hugging the wall, out of breath. We lock eyes as his hand drifts to his gun.

I shake my head. No.

He looks at me, confused, helpless.

He's seen what I can do. To my own shock and amazement, he puts one hand up and then tosses his weapon aside with the other.

"There's a cell cl.u.s.ter in Wing E, this way," says Malcolm, pointing in one direction. "But there's another cell cl.u.s.ter at the other end of the compound."

Malcolm tosses back and forth through the pages. He's torn, unsure of which way to go. I can see him beginning to melt down, to lose his cool. The closer we get to Sam, the higher the stakes, the more likely it is that one false move could mess everything up.

"There are also interrogation rooms in Wing C. He could be there." Malcolm clutches his forehead. "He could be anywhere."

Watching Malcolm on the verge of a breakdown, I know what I have to do.

I leap at the soldier, grabbing him by the collar. He whimpers at my touch.

"We're looking for a captive. Sam Goode. Where is he?"

The soldier bites his lip, closes his eyes. Surrender is one thing, but to give up information to an invading force is a step farther than he is willing to go.

"Tell me," I say, with menacing calm. He keeps silent.

I will a seismic rumble, right beneath our feet.

He gasps.

"Tell me," I say. I increase the rumble's force as the concrete beneath us goes liquid, waving and rocking and cracking beneath our feet. I maintain an even intensity, but it's a terrifying sensation, for me as well as for him. "Tell me now or I'll make this floor rise up, chew us up, and drag us straight to h.e.l.l."

He whimpers again, tears streaming down his cheeks.

I increase the intensity.

"Wing C!" he screams, giving up. "He's in Wing C! He was kept away from the others. He's the only prisoner being held in those cells."

I release my grip, and the soldier falls to his knees, crying.

I know I've done a terrible thing, completely humiliating an adversary who had already surrendered. But there's no time for guilt.

I turn to Malcolm. "Wing C," I shout.

Relieved, he tosses the binder aside and races through a door to our right. After doing one last sweep of the fallen soldiers, I join him.

We enter another long hallway.

"Wait!" I yell.

I turn back to the door we've come through. The last thing we need is for any of those soldiers to follow and a.s.sault us again. So I target the doorway with my Legacy, and knock out the stone structure. The doorway collapses in a noisy heap of rubble.

That should keep them.

We race down the pa.s.sage for what feels like a mile. The tunnel gets narrower and narrower, darker and darker, the farther we get.

We finally arrive at a locked door. Either the soldier whose keycard we swiped didn't have clearance for this area, or some kind of security override has kicked in in the wake of our a.s.sault.

"Stand back," I say, an idea quickly forming.

I reach deep into the earth below the compound. I've never had to use this much precision with my legacy, and the amount of focus it requires is going to create an excruciating headache. I force the earth upwards, up against the door frame. The stone floor erupts and the steel door is blown from its hinges.

It's not an ideal entrance-we have to climb up the rubble and then crawl through the half-blocked doorway-but it works.

We get up off our knees on the other side of the door.

We're in the base's armory, a warehouse-like s.p.a.ce filled with shipping containers and crates. Judging by the warning signs emblazoned on the crates, they contain powerful explosives. I never would've used my power in such close proximity to explosives if I had known what was on the other side of that door. We are lucky.

Malcolm grabs my arm, leading me forward through the armory. We come to another set of double doors. Malcolm tries the keycard: this time it works. "Lucky swipe," he says. "That soldier must've had access through another route than the one we took."

We step through the doors and enter a ma.s.sive, multistoried prison-like structure, cold and oddly damp.

Now that we know there's another way in, we're certain that more soldiers will be coming soon. We have to hurry.

We race along the corridors, past rows and rows of empty cells, and start calling out Sam's name at the top of our lungs.

I hear something, a rustle from above, off the second-story gangway.

I run ahead of Malcolm, up a stairwell, and along the gangway, running past cells.

I arrive at Sam's cell. His hands grip the bars of his cage, eyes blinking against the light of the complex. He looks like he's been through h.e.l.l.

I'm speechless.

"Who are you?" he says, eyeing me suspiciously, backing into his cell. "What do you want?"

He senses it. He knows I'm a Mogadorian.

"We're here to help," I start. But explanations aren't necessary: Malcolm appears behind me and plunges his hands through the bars towards his son.

Sam stares at him, speechless. "Dad?" he says, incredulous.

"I'm here, Sam. I'm back."

This reunion isn't about me: it belongs to Sam and Malcolm.

I slowly back away from the cell. Alone again.

That's when I hear it. Something Malcolm and Sam are too caught up to hear: the sound of marching soldiers.

Staring out over the gangway, I see soldiers pouring in from multiple shadowed doorways, from every corner of the complex.