Ollie joins in. “Priya’s right, Josh. Give up. It’s fascinating to see you being put through your paces. But I’m sure your little girlfriend won’t enjoy watching you being truly beaten.”
I can’t help losing my cool. “You lying cow.”
“Don’t take it so personally. I had a job to do.”
“‘Don’t take it personally’?”
I hurl the statement at Ollie. I’m flushed with a violent anger. In a flash I realize it’s Ollie I want to hurt, not Priya. I don’t even think about it. Out of the blue I launch an attack on Ollie.
Before my kick reaches Ollie, Priya takes me down with a forceful slam to my back.
I lie on the floor, gasping. The wind’s knocked out of me. I decide not to move, wonder if they’ll believe I’ve passed out.
Ollie stoops to check me out. Priya warns, “Take care!” That’s when I grab Ollie’s head, go for the mask. She drops the flashlight. Priya swoops to defend Ollie, but it’s too late. I have a solid grip on Ollie’s mask. Struggling against the two of them in the dark, I manage to pull it away from her face. Ollie shouts in protest. When the mask comes off, her jaw is clamped tightly shut.
I fling the mask across the cave, into the gloom. Priya’s torn between retrieving the mask and guarding Ollie.
Priya and I race for the mask. I grab it. We struggle, but when we hear Ollie’s voice, we stop.
Smugly, she says, “Too bad, Josh. Looks like your magic weapon just wore off.”
I’m amazed to see that nothing’s happened to Ollie. While I’m distracted, Priya grabs me in an agonizing arm-lock. Behind my back, I try to stretch my fingers to touch the Adapter. Each time I budge, Priya gives a sadistic twist to my arm, bringing tears to my eyes.
I just stare back at Ollie, my cheeks blazing.
“You’re weak,” Priya mutters against my ear. “No killer instinct. You’ll never get anywhere as a fighter.”
Her patronizing comment makes me angrier. I kick backward, feeling my ankle connect with her shin. I’m astonished—Priya hardly even reacts. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Ixchel in the shadows, watching. Ollie and Priya seem to completely ignore her. To them, she’s irrelevant.
To me, Ollie says, “You’re wondering why I’m not bleeding to death? The poisonous gas eventually runs out.” She turns to Priya. “Simon told me. If the surface coating of the Adapter is in permanent contact with something—like your pocket, Josh—it keeps releasing the gas. Until eventually, the gas fizzles out. And after a while it isn’t dangerous.”
“So I can remove my mask?” Priya asks.
“The effect isn’t permanent. It’s like a car battery—it can recharge. We’ll be safe now for a few minutes, maybe twenty. But to be on the safe side, we’ll get him to put the Adapter in a nice, safe, airtight bag.”
Ollie takes a Ziploc bag from her pocket. She fetches her mask from the other side of the room and picks up the flashlight. In the tunnel, I notice a blur of movement.
Ollie opens the bag. “Come on, then, Bakab boy. Use your special powers, pop the Adapter in here for me, there’s a good kid.”
“No.”
Ollie’s voice hardens to steel. “Do it. Now.”
“Make me.”
“Or the little girl gets it.”
Softly, I ask, “Which ‘little girl’?”
Ollie shines the flashlight into the mouth of the tunnel, where Ixchel was standing.
Ixchel has vanished.
“Oh, how sad, she left you. Didn’t even try to help. What kind of friend is she?”
I don’t answer.
“Is she one of them, Josh? From Ek Naab? I bet she is. Is she your betrothed? Have they matched you up like a pair of racehorses?”
Ollie’s taunts are almost more than I can bear.
I find my voice. “You can’t make me get the Adapter out of my pocket. And you can’t touch it yourself, can you? Maybe there isn’t enough to kill you, Ollie, but even a whiff of that gas will make you pretty sick. I know; I’ve seen what it can do.”
Neither Priya nor Ollie says anything. There’s tension in the air, like a class waiting for the school bell.
I continue. “If you think I’m getting back into that chimney, you’re out of your mind. You’re not getting the Adapter back. You’ll have to kill me first.”
Priya tightens her hold, twisting so hard that a bolt of pure agony zaps through my shoulder. I bite my tongue, trying not to let them see how much it hurts.
“He’s got a point,” Priya says to Ollie. “What are we going to do? I don’t even think we could climb back up to the chimney. Not without gear—the walls of this chamber are too smooth. Seriously, Ollie, I don’t know how to get out of here—do you?”