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"Of course you do," I pretended to agree before I uttered, "Law enforcement."
He couldn't hold his act any longer. His face twisted as he pointed towards the entrance of the maze, his voice seething with menace. "You have thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to run, and then my loyal companion will be released upon you."
I glanced at Klinn. I think we both uttered the same curse word. Without wasting a second, I sprinted towards the entrance of the maze. He was two paces behind me. The deafening barks of Hydra spurred us on.
Why did alien dogs have to be so vicious?
Just as we were making our way through the twisting paths, a sudden cacophony shattered the air. The ground beneath us trembled. I stumbled. Klinn hauled me to my feet. Dust and debris filled the air.
We busted out of the maze. With each step, I felt the ground quaking beneath my feet, the echoing reverberations of a forceful impact growing louder. It was clear something powerful was occurring nearby in the energy fields.
"He’s siphoning the energy from the field," Klinn’s shout was nearly drowned out by another noise.
Before I turned around, Hydra’s bark answered my question. "Can you calm it down?"
"I can't sweet talk every creature we come across, Faye."
I saw why he made the statement. Hydra’s canine fangs lengthened, and her mouth widened. Her soft fur grew coarser along her back, forming keratin spikes as she grew to twice her height and weight.
Bartie had unleashed a monstrous creature, his own twisted rendition of the mythical labyrinth guardian. "What kind of dog is that?"
"Not trying to let it get close enough again to find out." Klinn’s skin took on a bright luminescence as he stood in Hydra’s path. The mass-changing canine growled as it had to look away from the increasing brightness. I also had to blink in order to see. "Let’s go." He took the lead, grabbing my arm.
We continued racing through the chaos. Hydra pursued us, her claws turning up soil and her big body pommeling into the statues, leaving them in broken, scattered pieces on the grass.
I pushed myself to keep sprinting, my mind also racing to find a solution. With every passing second, the creature drew closer, its monstrous form threatening to consume us.
Klinn carted me with him as he veered towards an old, weathered garage at the edge of the garden. "We're almost there. Keep going."
"I don’t even know what ‘there’ is." I struggled for air as my feet pounded the dirt. "Didn’t we come here a different way?"
"It’s not how we’re leaving. Bartie collects old cars, too."
We reached the garage. He fumbled for the latch on the manual door. Finally, with a desperate twist, he freed the latch and shoved the door up, revealing a half-rusted hovercar on cinder blocks. Could the thing even get off the ground?
We hopped into the vehicle, slamming the doors shut. Klinn wasted no time as he activated the hovercar's engines, the vehicle squeaking in protest before it lifted off the ground with a series of ragged coughs and sputters.
Hydra performed a running jump, her large maw hanging open to snatch onto the hovercar as though it were a giant frisbee. I heard a metallic screech and the hovercar rattled as her teeth scraped the undercarriage.
The windows and doors muffled her owner’s shouts at us from the ground. I refused to breathe until we flew down the path away from the house and I could watch the residence recede into the distance.
I wiped sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. "Once we reach Kajal, we have to show Bartie’s journal pages to the Wanderstar Fleet. He’s part of a crime organization called Nexus Spiral. He’s messing with the entire planet by playing with those energy fields."
"After we see who’s all going to the opera." Klinn nodded, his grip tight on the hovercar's steering controls. "I bet Nexus Spiral is that rival organization Quixar told me about. Looks like Riven’s got too much on his plate after all."
We heard another tremor outside. Klinn peered out the front window. "I wonder how Gravix and Zorbluk handled those ground tremors. It can't be good for the ship."
"Can you try the car’s com link system to reach them?" I was concerned for them, too.
He tried to make contact. I leaned forward, listening as static filled the airwaves, mocking our attempt.
"It might be interference from the energy fields," I suggested.
He put on the jets, making the hovercar zip past the fields where we floated happily in a stolen moment of what seemed ages ago.
We arrived at the ship’s landing point. The spacecraft, along with Klinn’s friends, were gone.
His brows furrowed in frustration. "They took off. They didn’t wait for us."
