I ran the entire way to Troy's house. It wasn't that far, really, but it seemed to feel really far away. When I got there, I banged on the door until my fists turned red, but nobody answered. I looked in the windows and went around to the back door, but no one was there. I peeked in through the garage window and saw that Troy's car was missing, too. That really sunk my hopes of talking to him. Had he run off? Did he know something about Adam and decide to skip town? Could he be the one responsible for Adam's disappearance? Troy didn't seem like the violent sort; he acted too dumb to be a criminal. But maybe some of his friends weren't . . . if they'd done anything to Adam, I'd spend the rest of my life plotting revenge.

While my thoughts were pretty heroic, I really was feeling like a big loser. The first actual tip I'd gotten and I couldn't do anything about it. Briefly, I thought about going back to Adam's house and telling those front-porch cops about what Elaine had told me. Then I rethought that idea. If Troy was involved, he'd probably hush up quick if cops started asking him questions. It was better if I did it myself. At least Troy knew who I was, even though I never talked to him much. Adam had always been the one to arrange our rides to Sloppy Soldiers.

Sloppy Soldiers! That had to be it. Troy was probably just at work. When he got home, I'd talk to him. He hadn't skipped town. What a stupid idea that was. I was actually thinking he might have gone to Mexico or something. I considered sitting on his doorstep until he returned, but the longer I thought about that, the more I just wanted to go to my own house until he got back. The weather was looking pretty weird, to be honest. It was starting to creep me out: charcoal-colored skies, rumbly clouds, strong winds picking up. I didn't like the looks of it, so back home I went.

Before I even reached my house, the weather sirens started going off. They were loud and squealing and could be heard all over town. Usually they only went off in the spring, because that was when tornadoes were a real problem. In our area, tornadoes came often. But this was the dead-end of summer, so to hear the sirens was weird. Just being outside, though, I knew that this weather – off-season or not – was definitely something to be worried about.

Bursting through the front door of my house, I hurried down the hall into the kitchen. My mom and dad and Corey were sitting at the table, and all of them jumped up when they saw me. "Oh Cole!" said my mom. "Thank goodness you're here."

"Good," said my dad, pulling a backpack onto his shoulders and grabbing the car keys off the counter. "Now we can head over to the high school."

I knew why. Whenever there was a weather warning, people without basements or tornado shelters went to the high school. The gymnasium there was built half underground, so it was the safest place to be in Goldenrock. Safer even than a basement, so a lot of times practically the whole town went to the school.

"What is it?" I asked breathlessly. "A tornado?"

"Yeah!" cried Corey almost excitedly. "Isn't that weird? It's headed this way! Who heard of tornadoes in the summer time?"

I was angry. "This is the worst time in the world for this to happen!" I snarled at no one in particular. "It's the stupidest thing I ever heard of."

Thunder rolled across the house and rain started peltling against the windows. "Well, Cole, we can't really help the weather, can we?" My mom was a little irritated with my small outburst. I could tell. "Now hurry up. Let's get in the car and go before the rain gets harder. Corey, get a flashlight from the cabinet just in case. You never know what problems can pop up. And Cole, put your rain jacket on. You don't want to be soaked to the bone by the time we get to the school, do you?"

Personally, I didn't care if I got soaked. But I didn't say that. I got the coat just so she wouldn't yell at me. The only thing on my mind was the fact that I needed to talk to Troy McDermott. If Adam was somewhere outside in this coming storm, he'd be in some trouble. Nobody could search for him during a tornado. It would be a night of absolutely no progress . . . unless I could find Troy!

We left the house. Dad locked the doors and we piled in the car. The sky was purple-black. It was pretty freaky-looking. Rain was falling, and the wind whipped it around real hard so that it was like hail smacking the windows of the car. Dad drove through it pretty slowly. "I'll bet there's a flash flood," he said to the rest of the silent car. "Anyone down by that creek will be in trouble."

"Hope there's no kids playing in the pipe," Corey threw in.

I kicked the back of my mom's chair and fell back roughly against my seat. My elbow pressed against the water-running window and I stared out at the street, trying my absolute best not to lose my patience. The information I had in me felt like a time bomb waiting to go off if I didn't act on it. My foot kept kicking at the chair in front of me, but my mom didn't complain. I had to close my eyes for a minute and just concentrate on my own breathing. I had never been more frustrated in all of my life.

"Whoa! Check it out!" cried Corey, making my eyes pop back open. He was pointing out the front window. Between the swishing wipers, the four of us could see that the stoplight we were approaching had been totally ripped out of the ground and was lying in the middle of the road. "Guess we don't have to stop!" Corey added cheerfully.

He might have been having a great time, but I was about to explode with restlessness. Dad just drove around the light and went the rest of the way to the school. Driving through town was like being in an obstacle course. There were rolling trash cans and branches falling. Streetlights were going nuts and the rainwater was several inches high in some ditch areas. I didn't pay attention to too much of it because I had a one-track mind at the time. Gotta find Troy. Gotta find Troy. That was all I could think.

"Looks like the whole town is already here!" said dad when we reached the high school building. The parking lot was full to the brim and cars were parked all along the nearby roads. People were bolting from their cars and toward the gymnasium doors. Goldenrock and the surrounding counties were pretty known for tornadoes because we were sort of out in the middle of nowhere, so when they built the high school, they made it halfway underground on purpose, knowing that it would be a good spot for everyone to gather during the warnings we got all the time in the spring. This was weird because it was in the summer. A freak tornado at the end of August? It was unheard of. People weren't really prepared for it, and that was easy to tell just by looking at all the rotten parking jobs. Even dad parked in someone's driveway. During the spring, we all had tornado neighbors. Those were people living next door that we agreed to carpool with when emergencies came so that the parking lot would fit everyone. Well, nobody appeared to have carpooled this time. I'd never seen so many cars. I felt like we were in a maze just trying to wind through them and get to the gym.

And then I saw something that made my lungs stop breathing for a second. Troy McDermott's beat-up old car was parked in the lot, looking miserable and in need of serious repair. I didn't think I'd ever be so happy to see that piece of junk. It meant Troy wasn't at Sloppy Soldiers after all—he was here, in the high school gym, and I was going to find him first thing.

Right when we got in and walked down the stairs leading underground, I saw that finding Troy was going to be harder than I thought. The gymnasium was very full. People were everywhere, some sitting on cots or setting out sleeping bags, some with little radios listening to the weather, some arguing over floor space. It was nuts. These sort of tornado emergencies always were. There were cops there trying to organize things and the mayor was there too. Everybody was just trying to settle down. My mom and dad wanted to do the same thing. They immediately started scouting out some floor to sit on. The good spots against the walls and in the corners were taken, so we found a little area next to the bleachers on the far side, away from the entrance doors.

Right when they settled in, I told them I was going to look for a friend. When my mom asked who, I lied and told her it was Dylan. She told me as long as I didn't leave, she didn't mind. "Yeah, good riddance!" I heard Corey snigger at my back as I walked off.

I knew I wasn't coming back. The minute I found Troy, I was gone. They couldn't keep me in the building with chains.

I wove my way around the people, searching and searching for Troy, asking kids if they'd seen him. The thunder was so loud outside that when it sounded, girls squealed and babies started crying. Once or twice, the enormous fluorescent overhead lights flickered. Luckily, there weren't windows. Otherwise people would've probably been freaked by the rain or the wind. All we could feel down there was the thunder, but that was as much as some people could take.

Finally, I asked a squirrely-looking high school kid if he knew Troy, and I actually got an answer that helped me. I was directed back toward the bleachers, and there I found Troy, actually sitting under them. That wasn't allowed, so I had to sneak in there to talk to him. He was with a couple of other guys and they were playing cards. It was dark and smelled like socks down there, and when the three saw me coming toward them they got these suspicious glints in their eyes. For a minute, I was nervous, but then I saw that Troy recognized me.

"Well well," he said all nasally. "If it isn't Nyler's little friend." He was lying on his side, propped up on one elbow. His friends' faces were shadowy, which made me even a little more nervous. "What do you want?" He stared at me, waiting for a reply.

I wondered if I could say what I needed to in front of the other two guys. "I need to talk to you alone," I decided to say.

Troy turned back to his game. "Whatever you need to say, say it. I ain't getting up for nobody."

"I don't have time to mess around," I said impatiently.

The guys laughed. "Oooh, the little blondie don't want to mess around!" said one of them.

"Beat it, ass-nugget," said Troy, taking a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and putting it to his lips. He picked up a lighter off the floor and was about to draw a flame when I knew what I had to say.

"Either you come out there and talk to me or I'm going to tell the mayor you're lighting up under the bleachers. You aren't even supposed to be under here."

Troy paused, letting the cigarette drop from his mouth. He was annoyed, but he knew I would really do what I said. Although he was kind of shifty, Troy wasn't a jerk. He could be very reasonable when he felt like it. And he definitely wasn't someone to be scared of. Not like some guys, who might feel like beating you up after you threatened to rat on them. "All right, kid. I don't want no trouble with Shacklette. That old mayor and me got enough run-ins to paint the Empire State Building." He got up and stretched, then followed me toward light. I could see his friends peek at his cards as he left.

We made sure we were in the clear, then crawled out from the bleachers. "It's about Adam," I said immediately, not wanting to waste any time. "You know he's missing, right?"

"Who, Nyler?" Troy lifted his shoulders one at a time kind of uncomfortably. "Yeah. So what?"

"I talked to someone who said he went to your house on the day he disappeared."

"Oh yeah? Well . . . they're wrong. I was at . . . work. All day that day. All night too." Troy was a terrible liar. All I had to do was raise an eyebrow and he gave in. "All right! I know where he is, but I promised Nyler I wouldn't tell nobody. Who knew he came? Not even the cops knew that."

"Whatever. You know, so I need you to tell me where he is."

"I can, but it ain't around here. I gave him a ride."

"Fine. Then give me one too."

Troy laughed loudly. "Yeah, right! You're going to have to wait for that. There's no way I'm going out in this mess."

"You've got to!" I said angrily, feeling so impatient and not willing to wait for an idiot like Troy McDermott to build up his bravery. "Either you take me or I'll tell everyone here that you know about him, that you kidnapped him!" Even though he was a good four inches taller than me, I grabbed his collar and looked him square in his pimpled, scruffy face. "I'll tell them it was your fault!"

Annoyed, Troy tried to shake me loose, but I wasn't going anywhere. "Forget it! Are you crazy, kid? Look at that weather out there! There ain't no way anybody could get anywhere!"

I didn't have the voice in me to respond. I felt like all the frustration in the world had been building up inside of me, and there was no way I could stop now that I was so close to finding Adam. He could be in serious trouble, and Troy was going to take me to him whether he wanted to or not!

Heat flushed through my body. My fingers grew hot on Troy's shirt. My face was consumed with fire. Troy was looking at me like I was some monster from the underworld, and before I could even focus on anything other than my own rage, popping sounds echoed overhead and sparks began showering down onto the floor. Turning to look, I saw the people hurrying to get up against the walls. The gym was suddenly darker. My head turned up. The individual bulbs in the gigantic fluorescent lights were popping one by one. Nearly ten had already gone, and they were continuing to burst. When I looked back at Troy, I heaved a deep breath and five bulbs popped at once.

He was freaked. "Fine!" he cried. "What the hell is your problem, kid?! Fine, fine! I'll take you!"

"Good."

The gym was turning dimmer by the second. Troy and I made it out with hardly anyone noticing; the people were too busy watching the bulbs above. When Troy and I entered into the wind tunnel outside, I felt nervous flurries. I was going to find Adam. Practically a week of waiting was going to end.