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  Anya nodded. “Good. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me. I almost decided to leave for real this time when I realized what had happened.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I suddenly wished Joe was there. Okay, so he’s nowhere near the girl magnet he thinks he is. But at least he’s comfortable talking to them. I had no idea what to say to make Anya feel better.

  Then I noticed that she actually looked calmer than before. “Almost decided to leave?” I echoed.

  “Yeah. I even called Vivian to ask if she could help me book me a flight back to Minnesota tonight.” She shrugged. “She does that stuff for Harmony all the time. Plus, I knew if I asked Jaan, he’d try to change my mind.”

  “So what did Vivian say?”

  Anya played with the phone in her hand. “She said everything was up to me. She reminded me that I’m the one in control of my life and that I’m not really Deathstalker. I’m not trapped by circumstances and forced to become a creature I barely recognize. I’m free to walk away anytime, to go back to my happy hometown life and forget all about being a movie star … if that’s what I want.”

  “Uh, so is it?” I asked uncertainly.

  She smiled. “No,” she said. “Hearing her say that made me realize I really do want to be an actress. That’s why I let my friends talk me into going to that audition. It’s why I’ve been working so hard to get better and learn everything I can. I want to be Deathstalker—I know I can do it. I’m not going to let some creep ruin it for me. Or hurt my friends, either!”

  “Um, okay.” She was actually sounding kind of empowered all of a sudden. Jaan would be thrilled to hear that Vivian’s little pep talk had worked.

  But I had other things on my mind. Like Joe. Had he and Janice found Myles yet?

  “Listen, let’s get you back to Jaan and the others,” I said. “Joe and I think we may have figured out who’s behind all the trouble. Joe’s trying to find him right now.”

  “Really? Who is it?” Anya exclaimed.

  “One of the Deathstalker superfans,” I said. “His name is Myles. He asked the first question at the morning Q & A session.”

  “I remember him. He seemed really intense.”

  “That’s putting it mildly. We found out he may have visited the movie set in Manhattan. And he’s got a history of overreacting to Deathstalker-related stuff.” I shrugged. “Plus, well, you heard him at the Q & A. He’s not crazy about your casting.”

  “Oh.” For a second she looked upset. Then she squared her shoulders. “I want to come with you to find him.”

  Huh? I definitely wasn’t expecting that reaction!

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said. “He’s acting kind of erratically, and we don’t know what he’ll do once he knows we’re onto him.”

  “I want to see him.” Anya sounded determined. “If he’s the one who’s been trying to scare me, I want to face him. I want to show him that I’m not scared anymore.”

  Wow. It was as if she was transforming into Deathstalker right in front of me. Kind of impressive, considering how she’d been before. That must have been one heck of a pep talk.

  I still didn’t think it was the best idea to let her tag along. But I didn’t have time to talk her out of it either.

  “Okay,” I said. “But be careful and follow my lead, okay?”

  She nodded. “Got it.”

  I sent a quick text to Jaan, letting him know that Anya was with me. Then I called Joe to find out where he was.

  He didn’t answer. That was weird.

  “What?” Anya asked, seeing my face.

  “Nothing. Just trying to figure out where my brother went.” Suddenly remembering that class ring gadget, I flipped open the top. “This should lead us to him.”

  I peered at the readout. It was a little hard to decipher. The gadget was new to me, and I hadn’t had a chance to practice with it yet.

  “I think he’s this way,” I said at last. “Come on.”

  We headed down the hall and out into the main room. The lights were still off, and people were running around in the dark.

  “This is creepy,” Anya said as a group of ogres rushed past us.

  “Look on the bright side,” I said with a wry smile. “At least you won’t get recognized.”

  She actually laughed. “True,” she agreed.

  I smiled. Score! Maybe I wasn’t so hopeless at talking to girls after all. All I needed was a blackout and a tense situation to do it.

  We continued on, following the gadget’s readout. I checked our position every few yards. The ring pointed us across the way and down another hall. I realized we were heading for the ballroom where Janice had sliced up that other girl.

  “Where are we?” Anya asked as I stopped in front of the ballroom door. “Is he in there?”

  “Myles? I don’t know,” I said. “All this thing tells us is where my brother—”

  BZZZZZT!

  I squeezed my eyes shut, blinded by the sudden glare as the power returned. Ragged cheers erupted from the direction of the main room.

  But I hardly heard them. Another yell had just met my ears from inside the ballroom: “Joe, look out!”

  My eyes flew open. “That was Janice!” I exclaimed.

  I rushed forward, bursting into the room. Almost immediately, I skidded to a stop.

  “Joe!” I shouted.

  He was at the other end of the room. Myles was behind him, holding one of those alien sword things to his throat. It had to be one of the ones with the razor blades attached.

  “Frank!” Janice cried. She was standing about ten feet from Joe and Myles. “Do something!”

  “Stop right there!” Myles yelled as I took a few steps forward. He sounded on the verge of hysteria. “Don’t come any closer, I mean it!”

  “Take it easy.” I came to a stop and raised both hands in front of me. “Let’s not do anything crazy, okay? We just want to know why you’re causing all this trouble.”

  Myles’s eyes were wide and panicky. He looked like a cornered animal.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” he cried. “Not really. I never thought Dalton would end up jumping off the roof like that. It wasn’t my fault!”

  “So you set up that Scorpion booby trap?” Joe asked.

  I had to hand it to him. He sounded pretty calm for a guy with a knife to his throat.

  “Well, yeah,” Myles said. “But I never thought he’d jump! I was just trying to take him down a peg, you know? I wanted to show him he’s not the high and mighty king of all Deathstalker fans just because of his stupid blog. He had to see that he doesn’t control everything.”

  “So you really did destroy the Slater Scorpion over your petty, stupid, pathetic little rivalry?” Janice spoke up, sounding disgusted. “Some fan you are!”

  “Whatever.” Myles glanced at her. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  That was true. We didn’t. But that was the least of my worries right now. I needed to figure out a way to get Joe to safety and then capture Myles before he could hurt anyone else.

  Before I could come up with anything, Anya stepped past me. I’d almost forgotten she was there.

  “You’re right, Myles,” she said in a clear, strong voice. “I don’t understand.”

  Myles goggled at her. I guess he hadn’t noticed her standing back in the shadows by the door.

  “A-Anya?” he blurted out.

  “That’s right.” Anya took another step toward him. “I hear you think I’m a terrible Deathstalker. So why don’t you come say it to my face?”

  That seemed to confuse him. As he gaped at her, the arm holding the sword slipped slightly.

  That was all the opening Joe needed. “Hi-ya!” he shouted, grabbing the arm and twisting it so that Myles dropped the sword.

  “Hey!” Myles blurted out.

  I was already sprinting forward to help. But Joe didn’t need it. By the time I got there, he had Myles on the ground.

  “Nice work, b
ro,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Joe replied breathlessly. “Good call to have Anya distract him like that.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him it wasn’t my idea. “Go find a security guard,” I told Janice. “We need to get this guy into custody.”

  Ten minutes later, several guards were dragging Myles away to wait for the police. Joe, Anya, Janice, and I watched until they were gone.

  “Wow,” Janice said. “That was pretty cool. Now I really do believe you guys are secret agents!”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I just wish we could’ve convinced Myles to confess to everything.”

  While waiting for the guards, Joe and I had questioned him some more. Quite a bit more, actually. He’d admitted to planting the swords to try to get Dalton in trouble. He confessed to writing the note in the flowers in that morning’s Q & A and to being the slushy-throwing hoodie guy. And of course he had no hesitation about owning up to his various online rantings when Janice brought that up. He actually seemed proud of those.

  But when we mentioned the two fires—the one in Anya’s trailer and today’s poster burning— he claimed to have no idea what we were talking about. It was the same with the texted threats, the vandalized photo from Anya’s trailer, and the electrified microphone.

  “Don’t stress, dude,” Joe advised me. “The cops will get him to spill his guts about that other stuff.”

  Anya nodded. “Maybe he realized he was in big trouble and decided to clam up before he made things worse for himself. Anyway, I’m just glad things can go back to normal now.”

  I bit my lip, still feeling troubled. But I didn’t say anything. For one thing, I didn’t want to ruin Anya’s happy, empowered mood.

  “Back to normal,” Anya echoed thoughtfully as we all headed toward the door. “I guess maybe my life won’t ever be totally normal. Not the way it used to be. But maybe that’s okay. There are different kinds of normal, right?”

  “Sure,” Janice said.

  We stepped out into the hallway. Now that the lights were back on, the convention seemed to be going back to normal too. Lots of people were still milling around.

  One of them, a skinny guy in his twenties dressed as a zombie, stopped to stare at Anya. “Deathstalker!” he blurted out. “Oh, wow! I’m your biggest fan!”

  “Thanks.” Anya smiled at him. “I really appreciate that.”

  “Cool,” the guy said. “So, like, can I have one of your eyelashes for my collection?”

  Anya’s jaw dropped. “Um …”

  Janice scowled. “Beat it, you freak!” she said, shooing the guy away.

  I traded a look with Joe. Normal? Yeah, maybe that was pushing it.

  Loose Ends

  “Okay, that’s another mission tied up in a day. Are we the world’s most awesome ATAC agents or what?” I leaned back in my chair and grinned at Frank.

  We were sitting in Jaan’s office back on the movie set. The limos had dropped us off a few minutes ago. It had been a long day at the convention, but now it was over.

  “So, how about that beach idea?” I added. “We’ve still got plenty of time before we have to be home.”

  Frank didn’t answer. I’m not sure he even heard me. The dude had been totally distracted since we’d captured Myles. Right now he was staring fixedly at that stuffed croc on Jaan’s wall.

  “Frank?” I said. “Earth to Frank!”

  “Huh?” Frank finally snapped out of it. Sort of. “What did you say?”

  “Nothing. Just that I think real aliens are landing right outside this trailer. They’re probably planning to take us all back to their home planet and eat our spleens for dinner.”

  “Oh … Listen, Joe,” Frank said. “I can’t stop thinking about how Myles reacted when we asked him about the fires and stuff. What if he really didn’t do all that?”

  Typical Frank. He always had to dot every i and cross every t. “Leave that to the cops, dude,” I said. “They’ll figure it out.”

  “But if it wasn’t Myles …” Frank shrugged. “I’m just wondering if maybe we should stick around here for another day or two. Just in case.”

  I grinned. “Hey, if you want to hang out and watch the pretty girls, just admit it, bro!”

  “It’s not that.” Frank frowned at me. “I just—”

  He stopped talking as the door opened. Jaan walked in with Anya.

  “Thanks for waiting, my boys,” the director said. He pulled over another chair for Anya, then sat down himself. “I thought we should talk. What do you call it in your business, eh? A debriefing?”

  “Sure,” I said. “I guess.”

  “Did the police get Myles to confess?” Frank asked.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. He told them that he had two purposes to his mischief at the convention,” Jaan said. “To make that other fellow look foolish—”

  “You mean Dalton,” Frank said.

  Jaan nodded. “—and to express his displeasure with our lovely Anya, and I suppose with me for casting her. Apparently he had another note waiting in the wings for me at the second Q & A, telling me I was a blight on the face of the movie industry and no better than a blind monkey with a camera. From what I understand, he even drew a picture to go along with it.” He shrugged. “Sadly, the police said the note was vital evidence and wouldn’t let me have it. I was planning to frame it for my collection.”

  Anya giggled. “Oh, Jaan!”

  I chuckled. That did sound like something Jaan would do. At least based on seeing the rest of his office.

  Frank didn’t even crack a smile. “So did he own up to the other stuff?” he asked. “The fires, the texts, the microphone?”

  Jaan hesitated. “Not yet,” he said. “He still insists he knows nothing about those matters. The police are still working on it, though.”

  “Hold on.” Anya sat up straight, looking nervous. “Myles didn’t confess to the fire in my trailer? Or cutting up that photo?”

  “Well, not in so many words,” Jaan said. “But—”

  The buzz of a cell phone cut him off. We all automatically reached for our phones. But it was Anya’s.

  I saw her face go pale as she looked at the screen.

  Uh-oh.

  “What is it?” Frank asked, suddenly on alert. “Another text?”

  She nodded wordlessly and held it out for all of us to see.

  U WILL NEVER B DEATHSTALKER! GO HOME B4 EVERYTHING U CARE ABOUT GOES UP IN FLAMES—JUST LIKE WHAT HAPPENED 2 HER!

  “Oh, dear,” Jaan whispered.

  Frank glanced at me. “I think we’re going to have to postpone that beach trip a little longer.”

  “Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I guess we are.”