They were scrunched into the back of the van. Sam brushed past them to claim the only seat, which swiveled as he slid into it. There was just enough room for Blair and her brothers to crouch on the floor.
The vehicle’s walls were covered with gadgets. Blair saw several screens of various sizes. Panels covered in buttons and dials. Cords and wires snaking everywhere. Next to the chair stood a contraption that looked like a beaten-up robot. Its metal body extended up into the bubble-shaped skylight overhead—the hump on the roof.
The wind was howling at a pitch Blair had never heard.
“I’m dropping it down!” called the purple-haired driver.
“Right here?” said Sam.
“I don’t think we have time to get a better spot. If we don’t drop now we’re gonna get rolled.”
“Okay, go ahead!”
Blair felt something shift along the sides of the vehicle. “What’s going on?”
The driver glanced back at her. “Hydraulic panels. They can extend down to the ground. Blocks the wind. If wind can’t get under the vehicle, we’re less likely to flip over.”
“Oh. Sounds good to me.” Be calm. Be cool. Be like David.
Like David usually is.
“Show time,” said Sam, grinning again. He grabbed the robot-device under the skylight. As he pressed his face against the gadget, Blair realized it was some sort of camera. “Here we go! Yeah, baby, come to papa! This is gonna be a good one, J.J.!”
“Should I launch a probe?”
“Yeah, launch it now! Right now!”
Blair couldn’t see anything out the windows. Or at least, she couldn’t make sense of what she saw. It was all just whirling darkness. But she could feel the wind blasting against the side of the vehicle. She could hear the bangs and pops of random objects hitting the armor.
Logan grabbed Blair’s arm, and Blair pulled him against her. At the same time, she leaned into David. It finally sank in that they were all wet and shivering. Not shivering from cold. Not on a day as hot as this.
“We’re in it!” shouted Sam, sounding like a kid on a rollercoaster. “Fantastic!” He swiveled in his chair, and the robot-camera-thing swiveled with him.
Blair’s ears popped again. She didn’t even remember them un-popping after the first time. The whole vehicle seemed to rattle, but it didn’t lift off the ground. Those panel things must really work.
Then suddenly everything went still. Blair hadn’t registered how loud the wind was until she heard it quiet down.
Logan opened his eyes, which made Blair realize she hadn’t closed hers. It hadn’t even occurred to her. She’d wanted to see what was happening.
“Yes!” whooped Sam. “That—was—awesome! We were right inside it! Good work, J.J.! That turned out to be a great position!”
“Don’t thank me,” said the driver. “Thank these random people. They’re the reason we stopped here. If we’d kept going, we would’ve overshot.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Sam. For the first time he seemed to remember that he had guests. He flashed a smile that reminded Blair of Theo, her mom’s new husband. People with that kind of smile weren’t just in a good mood. They assumed you were in a good mood too. “Nice to meet you, folks. I’m Samir Chaudry—call me Sam. And that’s J.J. Lyman in the pilot’s seat. And our radar wizard is Silent Ron.”
Blair hadn’t even noticed the guy in the front passenger seat. He turned around long enough to give a quick nod. Silver hair, glasses, no smile. That was all Blair saw before he turned back around.
“Um,” said Blair. “Hi. I’m Blair O’Neill. And these are my brothers, Logan and David—”
“What is wrong with you?” David cut in sharply. It felt like ages since he’d said anything. At first Blair thought he was talking to her, but then she realized he was glaring at Sam. “What kind of stupid stunt was that? We all could’ve been killed!”
“First of all, that ‘stupid stunt’ was part of our job,” said Sam. His voice was calm, almost dismissive. “We’re professional storm chasers. Not amateurs. We know what we’re doing.”
“No sane person would get that close to a tornado! Not even a storm chaser!” David was shouting now. Blair couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost his temper like this.
“Most chasers wouldn’t,” Sam replied smugly. “But we’re not most chasers. And secondly, you guys probably would’ve been killed if we hadn’t come along. Care to see what shape your own vehicle is in now?”
He unlocked the side door and pushed it up.
Blair crawled over some wires and hopped out of the vehicle. David and Logan followed.
No more rain or hail now—just quiet air that smelled of wet dirt.
The tornado was moving away from them. Even as Blair watched, the funnel transformed—narrowing from a thick V-shape to a stringy, skinny coil. Slowly it started to curl up from the ground. As if someone had tossed a rope out of the sky and was now pulling it back up. The tail danced in the air as it retreated upward.
The road was littered with trash. Hay bales, wooden fence rails, roof shingles. Where had this tornado been before it reached them?
A power line lay in the grass, its wire snapped.
David’s car was gone.
Blair swore. She thought of her purse, tucked under the front seat. The snacks in the glove compartment. Her bridesmaid’s dress in the trunk. And then: How are we going to get home?
She fought the urge to cry. Instead she looked at David. “Dave, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Her brother shook his head, his expression numb again. “Not your fault, Blair. Not your fault. We’re all here. That’s what matters.”
“Ahem.” Sam cleared his throat loudly.
Blair turned to him. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Our pleasure,” said Sam. “Can we give you folks a lift somewhere?”
“No need,” said David coldly. “We called for an ambulance a little while ago. We’ll just call again.”
Blair had forgotten about his arm. She looked at the bandage. To her relief, no blood was seeping through it. Then she thought about her own cuts and bruises—from the shattered glass, the giant hail, the debris that had hit her. She and Logan should probably get some first aid too, just to be on the safe side.
“Gonna take a while for emergency responders to get out here,” Sam pointed out. “Closest town is Aura. And this area’s crawling with supercells. Another vortex could form any minute.”
“Seriously?” said Blair. “After we already had two tornadoes that close together?”
Sam laughed. “You’re not from around here, are you, sweetheart?”
Blair gritted her teeth. “One: don’t call me sweetheart, or anything else in that category. Two: yes, you can give us a lift.”
“Blair—” David started.
“Dave, we can’t just stand here in the middle of the road for the next half hour. It’s not safe. And at least their ride has, like, metal plating.”
Sam’s eyes flashed with pride. “Ten thousand pounds of steel armor. Bulletproof windows. All-wheel drive. Best place to be in bad weather, aside from underground.”
David closed his eyes briefly, then looked at Sam. “Fine. You can drop us off in Aura.”
“We’re not going to Aura,” said Sam cheerfully. “We’re heading where the action is. Where to next, Ron?”
Inside the vehicle, a booming male voice said, “Hatchville.”