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  “Who are you?” Bavaro asked Ty as he lined up with the remaining kids.

  “Ty Lewis.”

  “Oh, you’re Tiger’s kid brother. Yeah, he said you were fast. Okay, let’s see. On your mark, set, go!”

  Ty took off with the others. His legs seemed to fly and his feet barely to touch the turf. From the corner of his eye, he saw Strahan’s son flying too. Ty ached to win. Something told him that if he didn’t, he wasn’t going to make this team. He was so much smaller, he knew he’d have to stand out as the fastest.

  Ty leaned forward and dug deep for just a little more, some tiny reservoir of speed he hadn’t tapped into yet.

  Chapter Seventeen

  TY FOUND IT, JUST a spark, and he pulled away from the rest, ever so slightly, winning the race.

  Bavaro made some notes on his clipboard, then looked up. “Okay, Lewis is our fastest man and you other three are right behind him, but the rest of you guys, don’t worry. It’s not always about speed. You got to be able to get open; that means being physical with the defensive backs. And then, most important of all, you gotta catch the ball. We can’t win if we have guys who drop passes.”

  Mark Bavaro’s son was named David. He was a thinner version of the father, but their faces were almost the same. David was tall for a twelve-year-old and he could throw the ball like a rocket launcher. A man Ty didn’t recognize, but who he heard one of the kids whisper was a former Giants wide receivers’ coach, gave them patterns to run. One thing the kids didn’t have to worry about was catching a bad pass. David hit every receiver right in the hands, and Ty thought he knew why Bavaro senior wanted to get his son to the Super Bowl tournament. People would be impressed.

  When Ty’s turn came, the coach told him to run a twelve-yard post. Ty took off with automatic precision. Between games and practices, he’d run the pattern hundreds of times. He turned on his speed to impress both father and son. In his excitement, Ty forgot about the cut in his palm, so when the ball hit home, the shock of pain made him gasp and pull back. The ball skittered across the turf, and Ty shook his stinging hand like a wet rag.

  He looked up only to see Bavaro shake his head and make a note on his clipboard. Ty retrieved the ball and examined his hand. Blood had soaked into the gauze. The ball must have split the skin wide open again. Ty wanted to show the former NFL star but remembered Agent Sutherland’s words about Bavaro being old-school. He imagined Bavaro would not want to hear a kid whining about a cut on his hand. He’d never make the team if he complained.

  They did a series of one-on-one drills with the defensive backs, running patterns and trying to get open. The defensive backs were quicker than anything Ty had seen in his ten games at Halpern Middle, and he wondered again if they could truly be just twelve years old. They knocked Ty and bumped him. When the ball got close, the defensive backs slapped it away. Ty knew he had to somehow get them to let him run a go route, just speed, straight down the field. He could dodge the first jam by the defensive cornerback and then leave him in the dust.

  Instead of slumping toward the back of the line, Ty jogged right for the quarterback.

  He stopped in front of David Bavaro. The quarterback blinked. Ty glanced around and lowered his voice.

  “No matter what they tell me,” Ty said, “next time I’m gonna run a go route. It’s my only chance. Will you do it?”

  “David!” the old player yelled. “Let’s go!”

  The young Bavaro gave only the slightest of nods. Ty wasn’t sure whether he imagined it or not, but the next time he had a turn, he wiggled his cleats down into the turf, ready to take off like a rocket. The cornerback across from him settled his hips and let his arms hang loose. He wore a white sweatband and slick-looking black leather gloves. His limbs were knotted with muscles, and a vein pulsed in his neck.

  “Give me ten yards square in,” the receivers’ coach said with a bark.

  Ty swallowed and looked over at the quarterback, wondering if he’d throw it deep after the coach had called for a short pass.

  “It’s all or nothing.” Ty spoke to himself, but the defensive back gave him a questioning look.

  The quarterback barked the cadence, and Ty burst from his stance. The cornerback’s hands sprang up like dueling mousetraps. Ty feinted one way and dodged back the other. One hand hit his shoulder and spun him slightly off balance, but Ty fell forward and was able to keep his feet. He dug in and churned forward. The effort at speed made his body ache, but the separation between him and the cornerback widened.

  From the corner of his eye, Ty sensed the ball being launched far and deep, almost like a punt, almost too far for him to get to. Somehow, he did. As the ball fell, Ty stretched, wide open now. If he wanted even a chance of making it to Super Sunday, he had to make this catch. When the spinning leather bullet hit his hands, Ty saw sparks behind his eyelids and couldn’t keep from hollering with pain.

  Chapter Eighteen

  THE FBI CAR PULLED out of the Giants practice facility in the dark. Instead of sitting beside Sutherland, Ty got into the back, his head hung low. He almost didn’t care about the mob anymore. Ty took a deep breath and let it out. Agent Sutherland’s head shone like a boiled egg.

  “Didn’t you hear what he said about the guys who didn’t make it forming another seven-on-seven team?” Agent Sutherland spoke over his shoulder. “You could play with them.”

  “They won’t be the ones going to the Super Bowl in Miami,” Ty said. “You need a big-time quarterback to win the qualifying tournament that gets you there, and that’s David Bavaro. The other team won’t even be worth lacing up my cleats for.”

  “Well, you tried.”

  Ty ground his teeth and flexed his stupid hand, remembering the day before and Sutherland snatching him from the hospital. “What the heck were you doing anyway, just showing up in Ian’s car at the hospital last night?”

  “Now it’s my fault?” The agent spun his head all the way around to grimace at Ty. “No good deed goes unpunished, right? We make a decision to try and protect you, and I’m the bad guy? Come on, kid.”

  “I’m not your kid.”

  “You ran fast. You looked great.”

  “I dropped it.”

  “For a reason. Don’t get down on yourself.”

  Ty sat silent with his arms folded. Agent Sutherland called someone and muttered into his phone, but Ty didn’t listen. When they pulled to a stop in the driveway, Agent Sutherland hurried out and scanned the area.

  “Don’t worry, kid,” the agent said as he followed Ty inside. “You won’t have to see my face too much longer. When your brother gets back, I’ll stay out in the car. Yeah, I called the doc on our way here. Thane’s fever broke and he’ll be getting out of ICU in the morning, so he’s apt to be out in a day or two.”

  Ty had to smile at that news.

  “I’m sorry,” Ty said. “It’s not your fault.”

  “That’s part of my job, but I accept the apology.” The agent set his briefcase down on the kitchen table. “Really, you looked great out there. You run like greased lightning.”

  “Have you seen anyone who even looks like a mobster following us?”

  “Happy to say I haven’t.”

  “You want to have a soda or something?”

  “You guys got a coffee machine?”

  “Sure.”

  “That, I’ll take.”

  Ty pointed at the machine on the kitchen countertop. Sutherland examined it, then pushed some buttons so that it crunched and whirred, and then a spring popped and hot coffee soon began to hiss into the pot. Ty took a sports drink from the fridge and turned on the big-screen TV in the great room, turning it to SportsCenter. Sutherland soon joined him with a steaming mug.

  “How about that kid?” Sutherland raised his mug toward the TV, where Stuart Scott talked about some twelve-year-old who was supposedly helping the Falcons make their playoff run toward the Super Bowl. “You kinda look alike.”

  “I saw that the other day,” T
y said. “They had his picture in the Post. I don’t look like him, and I don’t believe that ‘football genius’ stuff. They had a picture of Bigfoot in there one time, too.”

  “I don’t know,” Sutherland said. “You got the same shape face, something about the nose, and the same hair. Anyway, I heard your brother’s team was signing him to a really big deal for next season, the football genius.”

  “Rumors.” Ty flipped the channel to Discovery to watch a cave full of bats. “It’s some stunt, that’s all. His mom’s in the Falcons PR department. My brother said that’s probably where the whole thing came from.”

  “Teams use those tendencies, though, right?” Agent Sutherland said.

  Ty turned up the volume as thousands of bats streaked across the jungle sky. “My brother studies the defensive formations so he can tell what coverage they’re going to run. Some people say you can narrow down which plays an offense will run by a bunch of different things, like down and distance and formations and field position and all that, but they use computers to figure that out. That kid is my age.”

  Ty fished the cell phone from his pocket. “I’m going to order a pizza. What do you like? Pepperoni?”

  “Sounds good.”

  As he wrapped up his order, Ty got a call waiting on his phone. He didn’t recognize the number, but knew it was a New Jersey area code. His heart pumped fast. Would the Blade or Pete Bonito call him up?

  Ty looked at the FBI agent, then clicked over.

  “Ty Lewis?”

  Ty swallowed. “Yes.”

  “This is Mark Bavaro.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  TY’S FACE FELT HOT. He knew he hadn’t made the team, but it was somehow more painful to have to hear the news from the former star player.

  “Hello,” Ty said.

  “Listen,” Bavaro said, “you got great speed. You remind me of your brother.”

  Ty flexed his injured hand and felt the words building up in his throat and he had to say them. “I can catch better than I did. I’ve got great hands. I just . . . had a bad day. Really.”

  Bavaro began to chuckle.

  “Why is that funny?” Ty was unable to keep the annoyance out of his tone, even though Bavaro was a football legend.

  “I saw the blood all over your bandage. I thought it was pretty cool that you didn’t even say anything about it. That had to hurt, right?”

  “Pretty much,” Ty said, feeling better about being laughed at.

  “I heard you had good hands. Caught a bunch of passes for your team this season, right?”

  “Sixty-seven.”

  “Nice. So. Okay, normally you got good hands?”

  “I really do.”

  “But tough enough not to whine about it,” Bavaro said. “And fast as—”

  “Greased lightning?” Ty burst out.

  Bavaro laughed. “So, you want to be on the Raptors? There’s gonna be a lot of long, hard practices.”

  Ty’s heart pounded wildly. Excitement rushed into his chest. “You bet I do.”

  “Great. We start tomorrow, back at the Giants facility. Seven thirty.”

  “Thanks, Coach Bavaro,” Ty said. “I’ll be there.”

  Ty hung up the phone and grinned at Agent Sutherland. “I really did it.”

  “No excuses.”

  Ty’s smile faded. “My brother will be happy. If he hadn’t told the doctor, there’s no way I would have gone.”

  “He’s a good brother.”

  “He’s everything. You know these guys, Bennie the Blade and Bonito? I’m scared of them, but the thing that scares me most is them doing something to Thane.”

  “Who’s Thane?”

  “My brother, Tiger. I call him Thane. That’s his name.”

  Tiger was what most people called Thane, but it still sounded funny to him because his brother always insisted that Ty call him by the name their parents had given him, even if it was a bit unusual.

  Sutherland’s face grew serious. “You’ll be fine, Ty. Your uncle will be in and out of town by Thursday, and I’ll be watching you the whole time. We’re not worried about them getting at your brother. It’s you we’re pretty sure they’re talking about.”

  Ty nodded and turned his attention back to the cave bats on TV. The pizza came. They ate and watched a college basketball game before Ty turned on the ten o’clock news. When the sports anchor led off his broadcast with news about Tiger Lewis’s hospitalization, Ty sat on the edge of his seat.

  “Oh, no,” Agent Sutherland said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  The agent pulled a phone from his pocket and hit a speed dial.

  “What?” Ty said. “He’s saying Thane should get out the day after tomorrow. That’s great news. It means it really must be true.”

  Agent Sutherland seemed not to be paying attention. Instead, he spoke into the phone.

  “Sutherland here. Yes. No. Did anyone see the news? I thought we had a lid on that. No, everything is fine, it’s just I thought the hospital agreed not to say where he was one way or another.”

  Ty could just hear the buzz of a voice on the other end as Sutherland listened.

  “I still think—” Sutherland shook his head in frustration. “Of course I can handle it. I thought we should take precautions, that’s all. Yes. I understand. No, sir. Good night.”

  Sutherland tucked the phone back into his pocket.

  “What’s wrong?” Ty asked.

  Sutherland looked at the TV for a moment, then sighed. “They weren’t supposed to be giving out any information.”

  “They didn’t talk about me.”

  “Well, if the mob hears your brother is in the hospital, they’ll know the best chance to get to you is during all the confusion,” the agent said. “You don’t want them knowing anything they don’t already know. Anyway, I asked for some backup on the street.”

  “Oh.” Ty didn’t know what else to say. He shut off the TV. “Well, I guess I’m going to go up to bed.”

  “You sure are used to being on your own,” the agent said, forcing a laugh. “I got nieces and nephews, and they’d stay up all night if my sister didn’t make them go to bed. I’m impressed.”

  “I’ve got to do well in school,” Ty said. “My brother always talks about that. And he says that you need to get sleep if you want to be good in school and especially to be a good football player. I want to be both, so it’s just something I learned to do.”

  “You’re definitely older than your age.” Sutherland stood and headed for the kitchen table. “Okay, I’ll be right here, so no worries.”

  “You don’t have to stay awake all night, Agent Sutherland. I’ll put the alarm on, and that’s a big couch.”

  “Don’t worry about me.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.” Ty went upstairs and got ready for bed. On his desk sat the computer. Ty was afraid to even turn it on, let alone get on Facebook. He felt like the computer somehow connected him with the mob, and that once he turned it on, they’d know his every move. He was happy to have the big FBI agent downstairs, but even so, sleep didn’t come easy.

  There was lots to worry about.

  Ty had no idea of the time when he awoke. All he knew was that there had been a tremendous crash. Ty peeked out from beneath his covers. Only the faintest light spilling into the room from the stars gave ghosts of shape to the furniture, closet, and clothes on the floor.

  The door to his room swung slowly open.

  Ty gasped, unable to move or even breathe as the dark shape of a man stepped inside and stood hovering over his bed.

  Chapter Twenty

  TY FELT THE SCREAM jammed up in his throat.

  “You okay?” It was Sutherland, hunched over, ready for a fight.

  “What are you doing?” Ty asked.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “That crash?” Ty asked.

  “Sh.” Sutherland moved to the window, gun in his hand, and opened a seam in the curtains. “There’s a ladder
down there in the grass, right below your window.”

  Ty shivered.

  Sutherland stood straight and dialed his phone. After a moment, he said, “What’s going on out there? Did you guys see something?”

  Ty heard the buzz of a voice on the other end.

  Finally Sutherland said, “Okay, keep going. I’ll stay here with the kid, but let me know.”

  “What is it?” Ty asked.

  Sutherland flipped on the light in the corner. “They were here. They must have come through the back. I had two guys on the street. They said they were sitting there keeping an eye out for a vehicle when one of them happened to look at the house and saw someone with a ladder. They got out and started running for the house, but whoever it was saw them. He ditched the ladder and ran.”

  “Who? Bennie the Blade?”

  “Maybe it was.” Sutherland muttered, as if talking to himself, before he said, “They’re gone now, though. Don’t worry.”

  “Some professional killer just tried to break into my room, and I’m not supposed to worry?” Ty’s voice rose like howling wind. “You said I’d be okay.”

  “You are, aren’t you?”

  Ty sat up in bed and looked down at his hands. “Yes.”

  “See? They’re not going to just try and sneak in your window again. They know now.”

  “Know what?” Ty asked.

  “That we’ll be watching the front, the back, and everywhere in between until your uncle is out of town. Once that happens, you’ll be completely safe. We were right about their code. Your uncle is definitely the cake they’ve been talking about. I’ll let you get back to sleep, buddy. Don’t worry, I’ll be down there.”

  “Sleep? I can’t sleep.”

  “You said you could before.”

  “That was before someone tried to come into my window and grab me.” Ty stared at Sutherland until the agent turned up his hands and shrugged.

  “This is crazy,” Ty said.