Free Barcode: Cavern of Youth by Kashif Ross Page A

tell the rest of the story once I’m back in the room. “Drinking all that water was damn hard, but stopped my joints from hurting.”
    Antonio looks at Carmen. She’s sitting neatly on an adjacent couch with her arms folded. “I keep forgetting she’s here.”
    “Boring, I know. She was definitely more exciting when I first met her.”
    “I just don’t want to interrupt. You’re already protecting me, and that’s a horrible invasion of your space as is,” Carmen gushes without a breath or pause between any of her words.
    “Whoa. I can understand you, but can you slow that down some?”
    “Nervous habit. Sorry.” Clearing her throat she says, “But Antonio’s avoiding helping you find Monte. You’ve asked him like three times, and he smoothly changes the subject.” Antonio glares at Carmen. Unable to maintain eye contact with him, she turns to me as though I’ll save her. “I’m just trying to help you out since I’m here and all.”
    “She’s right, you see-through-nerd. Why are you avoiding the topic so much? Just to let you know, I will threaten you with a deathnote. I know your ISP and that encryption crap doesn’t work with me.”
    The drama king releases an incredible sigh and confesses, “I’ve known about the trouble Monte’s gotten into for some time.”
    Carmen barges into the conversation. “So spill the beans!” Her initial response was perfect, but she covers her mouth as though she regrets saying anything at all.
    “Stop that submissive woman shit! I want you to say whatever you want. Drop your hands.” Turning to Antonio, I motion for him to speed up the story. “You’re stalling. Seth is on his way. He just entered my radius. He has a mile left to jog, and you can’t avoid me that long.”
    Seth’s moving at more of a sprint, and Antonio could hold out if he tried.
    “Fine. But first you have to tell me why you want this information so badly.”
    “I need to know what he’s doing to determine if he’s working for someone.”
    “Who?”
    “You said I had to answer your previous question.”
    Several projections appear in front of me displaying images of destroyed buildings, video clips of slain gladiators on rooftops, and articles about the massacre of mafia members in Southern California. “Monte’s been seeking various thrills since you’ve disappeared. I know all about the Cavern of Youth adventure Mr. Jules sent you on last year, but that’s nothing compared to the things Monte’s gotten himself into. I think you were his better judgment because he’s been nothing but trouble since you vanished .”
    “I know about the bank robbery. What are these?”
    “It’s not just one.” Antonio holds his palm out and swipes his hand to the left. A projection of an article about four violent bank robberies moves the other screens out of the way. “He robs them and sends the money to a foreign account that I can’t trace. He’s a serial killer that targets high ranking gang members, but knows a lot of East LA residents. He’s also attacked several student gladiators on rooftops.”
    Seth bursts through the door.
    His armor changed with his name. The epic gear that once graced the genius now resembles a densely padded leather jumpsuit. The gear is dark blue with red outlines. This armor looks like casual clothes with heavy, dark-blue shoulder pads.
    Seth examines us while drinking a half-empty bottle of X-Eyes. The two black X’s on the front have been scratched off. The smile and tongue sticking out were left in order. Other parts of the bottle seem damaged, as though they were scraped repeatedly by bullets.
    His eyes remain welded to Carmen while taking a sip of the alcohol. Then, he walks over to an empty chair and plunges his weight into it.
    “Who the hell are you?” He wipes sweat from his brow and takes another sip.
    “I’m Kay and that’s Carmen.”
    Seth observes the both of us with his barcodes lit. Since I was forced to inhale fog and water, I’ve