Chapter 26

chapter twenty-six I leap back. Way back. I might have just created a new Olympic event: the backward long jump. I stammer. "You said that, right? That came from your mouth? It wasn't delivered through the hand, or, like, from within my own brain? I mean, I saw your mouth move—but I wanna clarify, because—" "Yes..." Ghazt says. A shiver runs through Rover, and he nuzzles into me. I inch forward. "So, you're... alive?" "Not for long." "Hey..." I start. "That sounds like something I should be saying to you. Like a cool hero quip just before we square off or something." "There will be no more 'squaring off' between you and me." His voice is rough, like he's been eating rusty nails and washing them down with bubbling acid. Which is actually not out of the realm of possibility in this nightmare fortress. "But... you were dead." Ghazt's whiskers flick again. "No. I was only... dying. It is a slow process for a Cosmic Terror." Hope soars through me, and I clutch the table.

You tricked Wracksqw, didn't you? That stuff he took from your brain wasn't really the secret to finishing the tower, Was it Ghazt You won't rascal you. I pat myself on the back—we didn't lose at all! We can still win, still gonna win, still— "The Tower Schematics were real, Jack," Ghazt says. "The Tower was my weapon! But now... it is Thrull's. He has all he needs to complete and activate the Tower." Well, shoot. Talk about whiplash. "Then what... I don't understand... What am I doing here??" "Come closer," Ghazt says, and it feels like a trick. Suddenly, it seems like all of this has been a trick... I take a step forward—but the ground rumbles beneath my feet. Behind Ghazt, a section of the floor

is cracking open like an egg. Something is forcing its way up through the floor. Some creature... I gasp. One of the Sentinels—but different. This one has been horribly augmented and brutally altered by Wracksaw. It's like... -THE MEGA-SENTINEL spike covered hull, three cannons instead of one extra shooting, an arm taken from something big, A sound that is simultaneously gooey-wet and razor-sharp blares through the theater.

Another searchlight lowers—this one covered in a hundred jagged spikes and blades. Dirk won't be doing any swashbuckling swings off of that one... The light flashes over us. Whatever Ghazt and I are supposed to talk over, hash out, work through—we can't do it now. Because the Mega-Sentinel is stalking forward, about to— "MUSCLE BUDDIES!" Three figures suddenly burst from the shadows, appearing at the bottom row of stadium seats surrounding the operating floor. My friends leap from the overhang, sailing and crashing onto the Mega-Sentinel. The monster makes a creaking sound as it staggers to the side.

Whatever you are going to do, Jack, do it quickly like yesterday. Don't even go there with the time travel talk June Rover snarls and gets low, eager to leap into the fight—but I grab him by the scruff. "No, Rover. Stay by my side for this... Please, buddy. I'm... scared." Behind us, the Mega-Sentinel screeches. I hear Dirk's sword clang to the floor. "OK, my friends and I gotta move. It's escape time," I say to Ghazt, trying to catch my breath. "But we'll bring you. Somehow..." "NO!" Ghazt roars, crashing against his restraints. The fury in Ghazt's voice causes me and Rover to jerk

back. A dying Cosmic Terror is still a Cosmic Terror. One of Ghazt's mangy paws shoots up, grabbing me, pulling me close. His eyes are cloudy—but they flash with urgency. Like he has a lot to tell me but there's not enough time to tell it all. His paw tightens, balling around my coat collar. "Jack, you think stopping the construction of the Tower will end this," Ghazt says. He doesn't quite smile—but there's something almost taunting in his voice. Like "look how much I know and how much you don't." "But you are wrong," Ghazt says. "The Tower will be completed—"