parents and Somerville Police Captain Joel Osgood rallied around Jace and Evie and vowed to keep their true identities a secret so they could remain safely in town Things settled down quickly after that and a few weeks later Evie was enjoying her new job at Mick’s Diner and making friends while Jace had become inseparable from Rowan Astrid and Quinn The foursome had fallen into an easy summer routine of helping at the diner and hanging out As the days went on however they grew antsy with the monotony Jace and Rowan tried to break up the boredom by starting what they called the Ultimate War Tournament The boys had been hooked once Mr Vega had taught them the card game in which the person with the high card wins each round and tries to collect all of his or her opponent’s cards They decided that whoever had the most wins by the end
of the summer would be declared the Ultimate War Champion Astrid and Quinn enjoyed playing sometimes but Jace and Rowan were way ahead of them There was plenty of summer left but they had already begun taunting each other with each victory Winner winner chicken dinner Jace exclaimed as he scooped up the last of Rowan’s cards Jace beamed as his black hair fell over his pale green eyes Whatever Rowan grumbled as he added a line under Jace’s name on their tally sheet While Jace and Rowan may have been different in many ways Jace was tall and laid-back while Rowan was small for his age and tended to be more serious neither of them liked to lose Make sure you make that mark nice and dark Jace continued teasing his friend I’m pretty sure that win puts me in the lead
Rowan did some quick counting and frowned when he realized Jace was right It’s 20 to 19 he said Let’s play again Rowan began shuffling the cards anxious to tie up the score Chester Feeney the longtime mechanic at Earl’s Gas was sitting near the boys and chuckled at their banter As Rowan began passing out the cards Chester went back to reading his Somerville Gazette Somerville wasn’t big enough to have its own daily newspaper and most people received the Ledger from nearby Watertown instead The Gazette was for local news only and came out every two weeks Despite the fact that most of its news was well known by the time it came out most locals enjoyed reading the paper Well look at that Chester said showing the boys the front page A bike race is going to come through Somerville
Really Jace asked excitedly as he set down his cards A real race Which one Jace was a big fan of professional cycling and followed the many races that took place around the world Having traveled quite a bit with his parents before they were forced into hiding Jace had attended several major races including the Giro d Italia and the Tour de France He was such a fan he even followed the smaller regional races Chester scanned the article again and told Jace Says here it’s the Tour Across the Land No way Jace had abandoned the card game altogether and walked over to Chester to get a better look at the paper That’s an epic race It’s crazy hard The Tour Across the Land was a long-distance bike race that started in Washington D C and finished three thousand miles away in California
