The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore Read Free Book Online

globe went all fuzzy and we heard someone who sounded panicked yelling the name Adelina. We assumed she was another member of the Garde. That’s when Six decided to go to Spain, to try to find her. I figured this was how you planned to contact the others, but I guess not if you’ve never seen it before.’
    Nine’s eyes go wide. ‘Wait. Oh my God, man. I haven’t seen this thing before, but I think Sandor told me about it. To be honest, when we opened my Chest the first time, the silver staff and the yellow porcupine ball were so amazing I only half listened to anything he said after. But now I remember, he told me some of us had a red crystal – which I do, and that’s what I thought I’d use to communicate with the others – and some of us have the solar system.’
    ‘I don’t get it.’
    He turns to his Chest, grabs a glowing red crystal the size of a cigarette lighter, slams the lid of his Chest, and turns back to me. I glance at the solar system and gasp. One of the blue dots in West Virginia has disappeared.
    ‘Whoa, hold on. Open up your Chest again. I want to see something.’
    Nine obeys and a second blue dot reappears on the globe in West Virginia.
    ‘Okay. Now, close it.’
    He closes it and the dot disappears again. ‘This is boring,’ he says. When Nine speaks, the Earth globe grows fuzzy and vibrates with a half-second delay of his voice. ‘Wait, what was that? Why is my voice echoing?’ The Earth vibrates again.
    ‘This is not boring. This is incredible,’ I say, staring at the globe. ‘The reason we don’t see all six of the Garde members on the globe is because the orb only reveals the members of the Garde who have their Chests open at that exact moment. Watch.’ I lift the lid of Nine’s Chest.
    Nine whistles. ‘Very cool, Four, very cool.’ Half a second later we hear his voice through the globe again. Nine puts his crystal down, having figured it out.
    ‘But judging by the speed of this guy here,’ I say, pointing to the dot in motion, ‘whoever is in South America has to be on a plane. It’s covering too much ground too fast to be doing anything else.’
    ‘Why would they have their Chest open on a plane?’ Nine asks. ‘That’s stupid.’
    ‘Maybe they’re in trouble. Maybe they’re hiding in the bathroom trying to figure out what all this stuff actually does, just like we are.’
    ‘Can they see us right now, too?’
    ‘I don’t know, but maybe they can hear us. I think if you hold on to that red crystal, any of us with this macrocosm Earth can hear you.’
    ‘If half of us have a crystal, and the other half have the power to get this big glowing globe up and running, then –’
    ‘The only way for us to actually communicate back and forth would be if a couple of us teamed up first,’ I interrupt.
    ‘Well, now that we’re together, maybe we should try to talk to the others. You know, in case their macrocosms are going,’ I say. ‘Maybe another pair has gotten together like us.’
    Nine grabs the red crystal and holds it near his mouth like a microphone. ‘Hello? Testing one, two, three.’ He clears his throat. ‘Okay, if any of you Garde members are out there standing in front of a glowing ball, listen up. Four and Nine are together and we’re ready to meet up with you. We want to train and end all this bullshit and get back to Lorien. Pronto. We’re not going to say exactly where we are in case any Mogs are listening in, but if you have your macrocosm going you’ll see two dots together, and they are, uh, us. So, um . . .’ Nine looks at me and shrugs his shoulders. ‘That is all. Over and out and stuff.’
    The skin on my wrist suddenly feels numb under the bracelet. I shake it and my arm begins to tingle. ‘Wait. Say we’re about to get out of here and for them to make their way to the United States. That’s where Setrákus Ra, the Mogadorian leader, is. Tell them we’re going after him and we’re going to rescue our friends as soon as we