THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

ahead.
    Tony hurried, closing the distance to fifteen feet and tucking in behind a sprawling tree. He scanned the wide-open space beyond the tree line.
    No towering pod, transender or other transport unit out there. Crapola. This might’ve been a big mistake.
    Phen stood in knee-high, weedy grass, clearly looking for something, then must have found it. He ran two steps and shoved his hand into a...pink flower!
    Tony had no time to yell a warning.
    But even though the flower looked just like the one that had attacked him earlier, it made no threatening move toward Phen.
    In fact, in the next five seconds, a holographic screen appeared chest high in the air near the scout who stood up, withdrawing his hand from the flower.
    The screen lit up and a hot feminine voice announced, “ One hour, twenty-eight minutes left to request transender return from Sphere .”
    Tony’s heart rate soared. There was a time limit for calling up a transender. He had to find Gabby and Rayen fast.
    Lifting his hand, Phen placed his right palm against the translucent screen. A red line streaked around the outline of his hand then started blinking until it turned bright green. The minute that happened, the scout yanked his hand back and the woman said, “ Request acknowledged .”
    Then the screen vanished without a sound.
    When Phen hurried toward the open space, Tony took off right behind him. Cobra dude was going nowhere until he told Tony how to get out of this hellhole.
    A high-pitched whining started.
    He knew that sound and increased his speed.
    Bursting from the trees, he noticed a gigantic burned croggle–had Rayen fought that ?–lying dead fifty yards away, and closed to within three steps behind Phen who’d been jogging along. Phen must have heard Tony’s footsteps. He cast a ragged glance over his shoulder. “What the–”
    Phen kicked up his speed.
    You don’t grow up on the streets of south Jersey and not be fast in a sprint.
    Tony raced ahead, cringing as the whining grew louder.
    On the far side of the clearing, dirt and other particles spun an orange-red tornado in one spot. The whirling image of a huge bullet-shaped metallic object started taking shape .
    The spinning stopped at once. There stood the pod again. 
    Busting a gut, Tony growled and powered forward with everything he had. He went airborne, body tackling Phen, taking them both down hard and rolling.
    Just like back home when an a-hole kid had pushed over Tony’s little brother and tried to run.
    Sucking gulps of thick air, Tony jumped on Phen’s back while he was still face down, shoving his knee hard and wrenching one of the guy’s arms behind his back. He saw the rest of the guy’s cobra tattoo that wrapped around a triangular shape like an A with three circles worked into the design and a small barcode beneath it.
    “Let me go!” Phen yelled, pounding the dirt.
    “Not gonna happen until you tell me what I want to know. Asked you nice back in that hut. Not askin’ this time.”
    “I’ve only got minutes to embark since the transender is here. Or it returns without me.”
    Good to know. But even better was the panic in Phen’s voice.
    Tony growled, “Then time’s of the essence, right, buddy? Stop wasting seconds. What happens if you don’t get inside in time?”
    Phen slapped his free hand on the ground again. “ You can’t make it work.”
    “Pay attention, dweeb. I’m not a MystiK and I can sit here for hours. Won’t take the others long to figure out we’ve both escaped. They’ll be here soon.”  And Tony had to have information before that happened.
    “Okay. I’ll tell. I’ll tell.”
    Tony loosened his grip, but only a bit.
    Phen continued, “Doesn’t matter anyhow since you can’t travel without an authorized scout. Once a transender is called up, you have to get inside in three minutes or it’ll leave without you.”
    Tony leaned down close. “Letting you go depends on how well you convince me that you’re tellin’ the truth. I’ll know the second you start lyin’. One lie and you’re stayin’ here with me. Understand?”
    “Yes. Just hurry. What do you want?” 
    Nothing like fear to loosen a tongue. Another Jersey lesson learned early and well. Tony started firing questions. “Saw you call it up with your hand on a screen. I’m guessin’ it works for more than one hand print.”
    Phen expelled a pained noise as if he’d made a grave error by allowing Tony to see him activate the holographic panel,