“Fight Caine?” Turk said blankly. He took an unconscious step back.
Zil grinned. “We don’t have to win. We just have to make it look real.”
Turk nodded. “That’s really smart, Leader. Everyone will think Caine used us and then we managed to chase him off.”
Zil doubted everyone would believe that. But some would. And that doubt would slow down Sam’s reaction as the council tried to make sense of everything.
Each hour of chaos would leave Zil stronger.
Would his big brother, Zane, have figured it all out this well? And would he have had the nerve to pull it off? Not likely. Zane would have been on Sam’s side.
It was almost a pity he wasn’t here.
TWENTY-FIVE
14 HOURS, 2 MINUTES
EDILIO HAD WATCHED Sam go with a feeling of doom. What chance was there if Sam had lost it? What chance did Edilio have to fix anything?
“Like I could,” he muttered. “Like anyone could.”
It was very hard for him to see what was happening around him. He heard screams. He heard shouts. He heard laughter. He saw only smoke and flame.
Gunshots rang out. From where, he couldn’t say.
He glimpsed kids running. So brightly lit, they looked like they were burning. Then they were obscured by the smoke.
“What do I do?” Edilio asked himself.
“Too bad we don’t have marshmallows. This is an amazing fire.”
Howard emerged through the smoke behind Edilio. Orc was with him.
“This sucks,” the monster growled. “Burning everything up.”
Ellen, the fire chief, showed up with two other kids. And Edilio began to realize that they were all looking to him for answers. “Fire chief” was a mostly empty title now. There was no water in the hydrants. But at least she had a clue, which was more than Edilio had.
“I think the fire is moving toward the center of town. Lot of kids live between here and there,” Ellen said. “We need to make sure kids get out of the way.”
Yeah,” Edilio agreed, grateful for any useful suggestion.
“And we got to see if anyone is still inside any of these houses that are already burning. Anyone that we can save.”
“Right. Right,” Edilio said. He took a deep breath. “Okay, good, Ellen. You and your guys run ahead of the fire, get people out. Tell them either go toward the beach or cross the highway.”
“Right,” Ellen agreed.
“Orc and Howard and I’ll see if we can save anyone.”
Edilio didn’t bother to ask Howard or Orc’s opinion on that. He just started moving. Straight back down Sherman. He didn’t look back to see if they were following. Either they were, or they weren’t. If they weren’t, well, he couldn’t really blame them.
Down the burning street.
The fire was on both sides now. It made a sound like a tornado. The roar rose and fell and rose again. There came a loud crash as a roof collapsed and sparks like an eruption of fireflies billowed into the sky.
The heat reminded Edilio of sticking his face into his mother’s oven when she was baking. A blast of burning air first from one side and then the other, buffeting him back and forth.
Glancing back Edilio saw Howard lose his balance and fall. Orc grabbed him and propped him back up.