The Power by Michael Grant

Author:Michael Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

The Cornucopia was a pretty big sailboat, with vast triangular sails pulling at a mast that seemed to go up a long way. Grace was pretty big herself, a seafaring sort of woman with salt-bleached blond hair and a face that had seen a few storms.

She had no crew at the moment, so Stefan had been drafted. On her orders he raced back and forth, cranking this and hauling that and tying off something else, all resulting in the boat moving pretty fast toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge is like the Eiffel Tower in that both are very well-known, no surprises, but both are still very cool. It’s a suspension bridge, which means that the road part basically hangs from wires. The wires hang from massive cables, which are in turn sort of draped over two very tall towers.

Some people think those wires and that cable are just there for show. They aren’t. If you started cutting those wires, or worse yet, one of the two cables, the road and the cars on it would go plunging many feet down into the swift current of the Golden Gate.

Mack thought uneasily about this as the boat passed beneath the bridge. It was both big and fragile, somehow. You could imagine some giant with a giant pair of scissors cutting through those wires.

Mack was unfortunately very good at imagining terrible things. It was probably related to his many phobias. Imagination is great, but it can also torture you.

The deck of the boat was already tilted but it heeled over much farther once they passed beyond the shelter of the bay. It was pitched now almost like a roof.

“One hand for yourself and one for the boat!” Grace yelled as Charlie and Sylvie slid like out-of- control skateboarders. Then, “Stefan! Take up the slack in that line.”

It was a beautiful thing, Mack realized: a beautiful boat in a beautiful place under a beautiful blue sky dotted with scudding white clouds.

In fact it might be the most beautiful place he’d ever been. This fact just filled him with longing for home. He missed his mom and dad even if they didn’t realize he was gone. He missed his boring teachers, and even more the good teachers. He missed lying around playing games online. He missed being dragged to Target to buy underwear or whatever.

None of that was ever going to happen to him again, he thought. His life was permanently messed up. Even if he somehow survived, he would always be Mack of the Magnifica.

Would he end up like Grimluk? Would he live on and on somehow? End up in some cave somewhere talking via bright chrome toilet objects to some kid in the distant future?

Sylvie came and stood beside him as he stared pensively toward the rising volcano with its plume of ash.

“What are you thinking?” Sylvie asked him.

“Me?” His first instinct was to deny that he was thinking at all. But that wouldn’t do. “I’m thinking that one way or the other we’re finally getting to the end.

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