The Shadow City by Dan Jolley

Author:Dan Jolley
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

12

“I don’t understand,” Noriko Smith said for the fifth time. “You’re an . . . an elementalist, like your friends, and you’re facing a doomsday cult that wants to combine San Francisco with some . . . other dimension called Arcadia? And that’s supposed to end the world? Kaz, I don’t understand!”

She and her husband, Taylor, sat perched on the edge of the couch in their living room, while Kaz paced back and forth in front of them, rubbing the stubble on his scalp and making repeated false starts in his efforts to explain what was going on. Kaz’s younger sisters, after loud and lengthy protests, had been sent upstairs to their rooms.

“I don’t know what I can do to help you with that, Mom.” Kaz stopped and knelt in front of his mother, taking her hands in his. “Listen, nobody knows better than I do how totally, utterly bonkers this all sounds. But you’ve got to believe me. You’re in danger. The whole city’s in danger. You need to take Kira, June, and Carlie and go somewhere a long way from San Francisco. Like Chicago. Or maybe London. Do you know anybody in Australia?”

“But it’s just ridiculous!” Mr. Smith shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re asking us to believe things that are patently impossible! I don’t know what that thing was that looked like you—I suppose it must have been some kind of, of robot, and yes, that was very impressive when you hit it with rocks, but—son, you’re talking about other dimensions! If even the scientists at the Large Hadron Collider haven’t been able to prove anything like that, do you see where it’s a little difficult to just take the word of my twelve-year-old son and his friends?”

“Right.” Mrs. Smith sniffed. “It could’ve been holograms. I know about holograms. They’re getting very advanced these days.”

“It’s not holograms or robots or even mutants or clones, okay? Trust me on this!” Kaz looked desperately from his mother to his father.

“Well, whatever it is, why are you involved?” Mrs. Smith asked. “How could this have happened? And if the city really is in danger, then you have to come with us! You’re just a child, Kaz!”

Lily watched from the doorway of the dining room as the Smith family tried to make sense of what their son was telling them.

Good luck. I barely understand it myself, and I’m a way bigger part of it than you guys. She’d volunteered to help explain the situation to the Smiths, but Kaz had said he spoke the same dialect of science nerd as his parents and thought he’d have a better shot at doing it himself. Lily certainly understood how important it was for Kaz to convince them, but impatience was about to eat her alive. Who knows where Gabe is now? Who knows if he’s hurt? They needed to be out looking for him, not having a family meeting.

Brett sat at the dining room table, about as far from Jackson as he could get while still being in the same room.

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