Return to the Black Hills

"A little to the left. Puuuush. Harder. Keep it coming. That's it. Almost. Yes," Jessie Bouchard cried in triumph. "You're in."

She stepped back and looked skyward at the massive man-made climbing tower that she and her team would be scaling a few hours from now. "What do you think?" she asked her sister Remy, who was standing a few feet away.

"It's definitely phallic."

Jessie ignored the humor in her twin's voice. "I meant does it look plumb? Not the tower itself—the computer on the truck handles that—I mean the lightning rod thingie we added."

Remy moved closer. "It looks straight. And dangerous. You aren't really going to climb this thing, then jump off the top holding one of those little, bitty ropes, are you?"

"That's the plan," Jessie answered, watching Zane and Eerik—the oldest and youngest members, respectively, of Team Shockwave—crisscrossing each other's paths in an attempt to beat the other to the top.

"Hey, guys, cool it. Shane won't pay us if you break his new toy."

And the money was important. Jessie needed every penny to fund her three-month training hiatus this summer. By the end of August, she planned to be in Japan with her name at the top of the leaderboard of Kamikaze—the adrenaline-rush game show she'd lost so spectacularly last year. Her reputation was on the line, along with her career and self-esteem.

"Well, the plan looks downright dumb to me," Remy groused. "But since when have you ever listened to anyone else?"

Jessie turned to look at her. "Nobody is twisting your arm to watch the show, you know. If you hadn't suddenly popped in to check up on me, you never would have known about this."

"I was worried. You stopped answering your phone. And emails. The Bullies figured you were still pouting about Mom's funeral, but I told them som