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I sped around people as fast as I could, all the while trying to call Roland. The west exit was the nearest. It would put me on Wabash, the street where the elevated trains ran.
I raced out the exit doors and found Roland running toward me from the south. Two Segways were waiting for us.
“Quick! Hop on!” he yelled.
“What? Why?”
He threw his machine into the sidewalk pedestrian traffic.
I followed. Good thing I’d taken a few Segway rides before. Otherwise I’d have instantly fallen off.
Roland pointed at the elevated tracks above us. A train was heading north.
He shouted, “He’s on that train. Can you slow it down? We have to get to the Randolph Street station in time to intercept them.”
A tall order. I was supposed to hold onto the steering stalk and not hit any pedestrians while going north as fast as possible. I grabbed the Dimensional Diamond and rubbed it. The el train slowed.
“We have to go faster!” Roland cried.
“No way. Too many people,” I yelled back. The sidewalk was full of people who did not like us weaving in and around them.
“Stop them,” he yelled.
“No, that won’t work. Better idea coming up.”
I took a deep breath and pushed the jewel to stop all the cars and buses.
“Onto the street!” I yelled. Suddenly I was zipping ahead of Roland, crossing the intersection of Monroe and Wabash. We weaved around the cars frozen on Wabash and continued to Madison Street. There we hit construction.
“What’s happening here?” I asked.
“They're building a new Washington and Wabash station. They closed the old one and tore it down.”
The train slowed as it passed through the construction zone, and we gained on it a little.
“Almost there,” I said, wincing from the scorching my hand was receiving despite the silicone inserts. “Then what?”
“We’ll jump through fare control and grab him when the train pulls into the station.”
It didn’t happen as smoothly as Roland hoped. I almost fell off my Segway about three times as I maneuvered around vehicles on Wabash and then around people on the sidewalk near the stairs to the el. I’d forgotten how much leaning controls a Segway. Plus, I was holding onto the Dimensional Diamond the entire time, trying to keep the traffic frozen and the people on the sidewalks frozen as needed and not forgetting the el train above us that was moving anyway.
Expending so much power to freeze the whole street had let the train move. The el got ahead of us. It blocked the light as it passed above us and sped beyond toward Randolph Street.
“We’re going to miss it!” I cried.
“Can you freeze it now?”
I yelled back, “Not and keep the street frozen. I don’t have that much juice.”
We watched as the train stopped, let people off, and started again.
Roland yelled, “Can you slow it down? We have to check to see if they got off at Randolph.”
Roland moved his Segway to the farthest exit, and I covered the near one. I let the street traffic move again, concentrating on slowing the el train.
People streamed down the exit stairs. I didn’t see Jerry. Finally, they stopped coming.
Roland waved his arm, signaling that we should continue to State and Lake.
I had to let the train speed up a little so I could stop traffic. The midday throngs on the sidewalk were too dense to penetrate. I didn’t try to stop everything, though. I’d learned my lesson.
“Roland,” I yelled. “What if they took him down via elevator?”
“The elevator was out of service.”
We made the turn onto State Street, going west now, still behind the train but gaining.
My hand felt scorched. When we finally reached the stairs to the el at State and Lake, I threw caution to the wind and unfroze traffic while slowing the train to a crawl.
We hopped off. “Leave the Segways,” Roland said, and he took the stairs two at a time. I couldn’t match his pace, but I ran up the steps as fast as I could. We both vaulted the fare control barricade.
The train slowly pulled into the State and Lake station.
“Which car?” I asked.
“The first one, but the kidnappers probably moved him to the other end to facilitate either transferring trains or running down the steps to get to the subway station below us.”
“They could have taken him off at Randolph.”
“True. But if we'd tried to intercept them there we’d have missed them here.”
“What happened, anyway?”
“Two men pulled the handlers out of Jerry’s golf cart—you know, the kind that transports people who can’t walk far. Then they took off out of the center, heading south. I ran after them, but they got way ahead of me. They abandoned the cart at the elevator. I ran all the way up the stairs until I realized I couldn’t catch them.”
“This is nuts,” I said. “What kidnapper uses the el?”
“It wasn’t Mistress Miraculous. Two guys,” Roland said. He gestured at the train door that was about to end up opposite us. “As soon as the motorman fully brakes and the doors open, freeze everything and we’ll search the whole train.”
“I can do that,” I said, ignoring the cramping pain in my hand.
I waited for the train to brake to a stop.
“Now!” Roland said, as the doors opened.
I caught the train perfectly. We dashed into the front car. No Jerry. We ran outside and into the next car. Again no Jerry. “Are you sure he’s on this train?” I asked.
“I saw those two guys practically hoist him inside. That’s when I texted you.”
We were at the fourth and last car now. Jerry was standing in the middle, holding a pole. No one was near him.
I unfroze everything.
“Jerry, time to get off,” Roland said, as the elderly icon flipped back to awareness. I stood in the door in case the motorman tried to close it before we could get Jerry out and onto the platform.
“What happened?” Jerry asked. “How did you two suddenly pop up?” He looked at me. “Chloe, are you using a new superpower?”
I held up the Dimensional Diamond.
“Ahh,” he said, nodding. “Now I understand. One of his better ideas.”
“Where are the kidnappers?” I asked. No one in the train car objected as we escorted Jerry off. We stood on the platform as the doors closed and the train pulled out of the station at normal speed. People leaving the train went about their business.
“They left at Randolph Street. Told me I should stay on one more stop.”
“What did they want? Why did they grab you?” I asked.
Jerry said, “No idea. One of them claimed he was a fan of my artwork. He said he wouldn’t have helped if he’d known it was me. Then he and the other guy got into an argument about who I was. Next thing I knew, they hopped off.”
“Can you give me a description of the kidnappers?” Roland asked.
“They were ordinary-looking young guys, no older than thirty.” Jerry shook his head. “Sorry. I meet so many people. Faces blend.”
“I guess it’s pointless to ask if you recognized either of them,” Roland said.
“If anybody comes up to me saying we’ve met before, I smile and pretend I remember.” Jerry shrugged. “It makes them happy.”
“What about Mistress Miraculous?” I asked. “Did they say anything about her?”
He said they didn’t. Jerry asked more about what I was doing with the Dimensional Diamond. While we chitchatted about it being invented for a CP Comics storyline involving the White Mask, we got Jerry down to ground level, where our Segways were still waiting. We contacted Jerry’s limo driver to come pick him up. We could have bundled him into a cab, but Roland was trying to convince Jerry to go to the hospital and get checked out.
Jerry refused. “I see enough doctors already. I’m fine.”
Roland looked upset. “Then why not return to your hotel and rest?”
Jerry said no to that idea, too. He intended to sign autographs as promised. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint the fans.”
Game guy. He got kidnapped and he brushed it off.