Kingdom Keepers V (9781423153429) (34 page)

She strode up and circled the crate, her senses on full alert. Philby would want to know everything. Its corners were screwed shut, not nailed. The plywood was thick, though new. It still held the sweet pine smell of freshly sawed lumber. The holes cut into its top and bottom were covered with a fine black mesh. From within came the heavy sound of a creature breathing. There was a cluster of four bolts on opposite ends of the crate's narrower sides. If structural, they represented two ends of a bar, suggesting whatever was inside was heavy. It would take a beast to break the lumber apart.

A beast, she thought. In darkness. A bar across the top.

Philby would know what to make of it all. She wished she possessed such a mind as his.

Heavy black arrows were stenciled onto the crate pointing up, with
THIS END UP
! stenciled below.

A red light flashed on the wall. Two of the four men got to their feet.

“What the…?” the lead worker said.

“Everything okay?” Charlene said.

The light stopped flashing, and the workers noticeably relaxed.

The other man standing said, “Someone hit it by mistake.”

“Obviously,” said the leader. He told Charlene, “It is the lift signal from stage level, warning to stand clear.”

“But there is no show going on!” explained his companion. “No reason for lift signal.”

Philby, thought Charlene. Warning of trouble.

Enough! She'd done her reconnaissance; there was no need to push it further.

“I'll be back in a half hour to feed it,” she said.

“Whatever you say, miss.”

She was caught off guard by the sound of someone coming quickly down the stairs. She had no desire to be caught by the Overtakers—2.0 or not. The speed of the descent signaled trouble; she could feel it in her bones. Best to hang her head and hurry quickly out of here.

“Julia!” A girl's voice. A somehow familiar voice from outside the room, but not Willa.

“You're wanted upstairs immediately!” A second girl's voice, also familiar.

Charlene had just stepped through the open doorway, now wishing she could reverse her decision and hide. She wasn't Julia. She was in trouble.

The two girls were up the stairs a short distance, looking down at her.

Charlene's breath caught; her throat constricted. She could hardly breathe.

Amanda and Jess, their shoulders bearing faint blue outlines.

Jess waved for her to hurry.

Amanda said, “Maybeck's got them cornered.”

* * *

The Vibe was rocking. Open until two a.m. and celebrating a day on the beach and a successful Beach Blanket Barbecue, the teens had swarmed into the club after the ship had sailed. The music pulsed, the projection screen was showing a film, and the various gaming stations were surrounded by kids. Finn kept the ball cap pulled down low as he pushed through the crowd like a man possessed. The encounter with his mother had jarred him, had loosened the lid on the semblance of order in his life, first disrupted at Typhoon Lagoon. What was he supposed to do to save her? How was he meant to combat Maleficent's extraordinary powers? Would anyone other than his fellow Keepers even believe him if he appealed for help? He was about to find out.

“Bogey, two o'clock,” spoke a familiar voice from over his shoulder. He turned to catch Dillard Cole in profile. It was the second time Dillard had come to his rescue. Who had nominated him as Finn's guardian angel?

He turned as advised. Luowski was talking to several other kids, all a head smaller.

The music beat louder all of a sudden. A popular song. The dance floor crowded, the going difficult. Kids didn't usually dance much; what the heck was happening?

He needed to get past Luowski into the next room if he was to find Storey Ming; she wasn't anywhere in sight. But it was like the kid was the devil's apprentice guarding the gates to the fiery furnace. Was Finn required to confront Luowski in order to get past? He had no desire to test that theory. So far Luowski hadn't noticed him.

He took a moment to try to force
all clear
. Unlike his experience with Maleficent, he remained unchanged.

Keeping his cap low was all-important—he wanted to avoid Luowski, and he also couldn't risk being recognized. Any fan attention would work against him. He spotted a pair of pirates by the club's only exit: Cast Members still in costume from the island party, he hoped.

He'd led himself into a trap. Where better to look for teens like him than in the Vibe? He'd been an idiot to come here.

“Not that way.” Again, Dillard's voice over his shoulder. Again, he turned only to see his friend's back.

Finn turned away from the pirates and the exit, heading along the near wall in order to avoid Luowski on the far side of the thick crowd. He reached a dead end, the only doors leading to two restrooms. Beyond Luowski, out on the Vibe's private deck, Storey was giving a pottery demonstration. She might know a way out of the club—if he could reach her to ask.

He entered the restroom door marked
BUOYS
. Stalls to his left, a line of urinals, and across from them, sinks. At the far end, another door. The restroom could be accessed from both sides. He cut across the space, not stopping to use a urinal, his eyes dancing in every direction.

“Perv!” said a kid standing at a sink and watching Finn in the mirror.

He exited to find himself in an area beyond Luowski and his gang. He headed outside through a set of automatic doors.

Warm wind whipped his face. The smell of the sea slapped him. The moon, already above the horizon, was working its way into the stars, and for a moment the whole world seemed to both stop and come alive. Moments like this, he thought, were what cruising was all about. Note to self: come back sometime when you're not trying to save the Kingdom and your own skin.

There was a game of deck volleyball under way. Some girls and boys were crowded into the hot tub and, over against the ship rail to his left, there was a line of four craft tables, including a girl demonstrating pottery. He offered Storey a small wave and then moved away and along the rail, looking into the dark water breaking off the powerful force of the ship's bow, five stories below. The sight was mesmerizing. Just for a second, he felt like jumping.

A porpoise broke the surface. Then another in the white foam cresting off the bow. The moonlight turned the foam into pearls.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” Storey Ming.

“Oh, hello,” he said. “It is.”

She looked dazzling in the moonlight. He saw that she'd put on some makeup for her presentation, her hair held up and off her face by a decorative comb.

“I don't have anything new for you,” Storey said. “No one I spoke to knew of any unusual cargo being brought on. No surprises planned for any of the stage shows. Or none that anyone knows about.”

“No animals.”

“Nothing. But it's not like I have that many connections.”

“Talk about false modesty. You know the crew. You can view manifests. You know there are stowaways. What and who don't you know?”

“I don't know what or why any of this is happening. I think you do,” she said.

“You overestimate. I'm a foot soldier. Not much more.”

“You're the one to protect,” Storey blurted out.

He paused, the sound of the water below hypnotic.

“Am I?”

“That came out wrong.”

“Is that why you're being so nice to me?”

“I said it wrong. I apologize.”

“Who assigned you?” He swallowed dryly. “Wayne? One of the Imagineers? Are you really a potter?” He wondered: an Overtaker?

“I'm throwing pots, aren't I?” She sounded so defensive.

“How many others with you?”

“Listen, it's a group effort, that's all. You and the others…your being holograms and all…everything you've done so far. No one wants to see that go to waste.”

“I see. So it's a matter of efficiency,” he said sarcastically. “No one can afford the time to train a new set of Keepers.”

“Or maybe the Imagineers feel it's about time they did just that,” she said. Then she covered her mouth.

Finn studied her face in the moonlight. “What…do…you…know?”

“I didn't say anything.”

“You said they're going to replace us. This…” he said, pointing a finger back and forth between them, “could be you and others gaining experience from us.”

“That is so not true.”

“Except that you're too old,” he said.

“Seriously? You want to go there?” Storey leaned away from him.

“As if they're going to install college kids as guides.”

“You are so out of line.”

He looked out at the imagined horizon, that place where the darkness of the sky and the stars blended into a void of sea. What was he missing?

“Is that what the beta testing of 2.0 is about?” he asked. “We test it. A new generation of student models puts it operational?”

“You've got this so totally wrong. Seriously. I was just…I don't know what I was doing. Trying to sound more important than I am. Trying to make you like me.”

“You're lying!”

“I am not! I made it up. I thought…I don't know what I thought!”

They'd raised their voices and drawn attention to themselves. Finn had bumped the brim of the cap up when challenging her so that now he stood there with his face exposed. How long he'd been like that, he couldn't say. A minute? Maybe.

“Hey, Witless…”

Finn didn't need to look to know who it was. Two-legged trouble in the form of two hundred pounds of seventeen-year-old flesh and bones. (Greg Luowski had been held back in third grade, and again in sixth.) So when Finn actually did bother to look over at the boy, the surprise that stole over his face wasn't the result of whom he saw standing there, but instead that Luowski was surrounded by a thin, but evident, blue line.

A
hologram.

“You have a stateroom, do you, Greg?” Finn said. He was trying to signal Storey that she was looking at one of the stowaways.

“Don't bother yourself with my stuff, Witless. I'd be thinking about how well you can swim.” Luowski stepped forward.

Some of the other kids overheard the confrontation and began forming a ring around the two boys.

“Somebody get a counselor!” a girl's voice called out. Finn knew that voice.

Luowski elbowed one of the boys by his side. The kid took off and tackled another kid heading for the doors.

“Let's keep this between us, okay?” Luowski said.

“So let me ask you: doesn't it bother you being someone's goon?” Finn said. “Or is that what they call in drama class
typecasting
?”

Luowski took another step forward. As a DHI, regardless of the operating system, he had the advantage. Never mind his considerable strength. Never mind his supernatural size. Never mind his fighting skills and wrestling championships. The kid was a DHI with a blue outline that told Finn he could touch and hit and bite and thrash—probably for several seconds at a time. The rest of the time he'd be untouchable, unhittable—nothing but a projection of light.

For Finn, it was exactly the opposite. He was flesh and bones.

Luowski intended to throw him over the side of the ship, and Finn wasn't sure what could be done about it.

At night. In the dark. In the middle of the ocean.

“They'll catch you, flubber belly,” Finn said, “because you're a loser. It's a ship, brainless. Where are you going to hide?”

The whole idea was to instill a mixture of anger and fear into the boy. It didn't take much to pull a version 1.6 DHI's hologram back to reality.

“Shut up!” Luowski said angrily.

Sweet!

Finn shifted onto his left foot, raised his right, and kicked out, connecting with the boy's midsection. Luowski flew back and fell down, his green eyes in shocked disbelief.

“Hmm,” Finn said. “That wasn't supposed to happen.”

Luowski clambered quickly to his feet and charged. But Finn had his senses about him. He waited until the last second and moved aside. Luowski struck the rail with a thud.

The crowd groaned.

“Nice job, doofus!” Finn said.

Luowski turned and took a mass of wet clay in his face, courtesy of Storey. The fact that it stuck to the boy's face was the only test Finn needed.

He charged Luowski from behind, leading with a shoulder to the boy's right knee and collapsing Luowski like a folding chair. With Luowski down and moaning, Finn took Storey's slimy hand in his and fled. The automatic doors swung open, revealing two pirates.

Not Cast Members. Not costumes. Not role-playing. Pirates. Just like the ones at the Sail-Away Celebration. They grabbed Finn and Storey, spun them around, and lifted them off their feet. The sound of Storey's cries echoed in Finn's ears.

The pirates turned and carried the two toward the crammed club. They'd be out into the companionway in less than a minute. Once out there, who knew what was going to happen to them? Being thrown overboard might have seemed a luxury by the time these guys got through with them.

In an instant, all the lights went out. The music stopped. The projector quit. For a heartbeat there was complete darkness and total silence. Then, as the emergency lights switched on, pandemonium. Kids charged for the exit as counselors hollered for calm.

Finn drove his heel into the arch of the pirate's right foot. He felt something give. The pirate let go of him, cried out in pain, and fell like a tree against the pirate next to him, who released Storey to catch his friend.

Philby, Finn decided, without a second thought. The power outage had been Philby's doing.

In the crush of terrified kids, Finn led Storey into the dead-end area, against traffic. He pulled the couch away from the wall and climbed behind, helping Storey in there with him.

“What are you doing?” she asked above the roar of the chaos.

“They'll look for us out there,” he said, pulling the couch in tightly against them. He typed a text on the Wave Phone.

thnx. hiding behind couch in alcove


A moment later a text was returned.

no prob. i c u. nice move. so far, no worries. tell SM hi 4 me


“Philby says hi,” he told her.

She looked frightened.

“If you're going to train to take my place,” Finn said, “you're going to have to get used to this stuff.”

“Shut! Up!” She paused. “Tell him hi back.”

“I will not. You think I share, or something?”

It won a smile from her. She had bright white teeth.

* * *

The question of whom Maybeck had cornered turned out to be a what, not a whom. The hyenas. He wasn't exactly sure why it was working, only that it must have something to do with Disney. When you were a Keeper, it turned out everything had to do with Disney.

The truth was, he hadn't thought about it. It was not some brilliant plan the way Philby and Willa hatched brilliant plans. It was not some insanely creative solution the way Finn came up with them. Confronted by two drooling hyenas, both the size of a Great Dane and the demeanor of a pit bull, he'd just grabbed for the object nearest to him, which turned out to be a papier-mâché lion's head, a prop from one of the live stage shows. And not just any lion's head—Scar's head.

Seeing this, the hyenas cowered into a corner, sat back on their haunches, and looked away, the way a dog does when scolded by his master. They went from vicious, blood-seeking, four-legged killers to simpering, whimpering mutts that looked as dangerous as a pair of gerbils.

But if Maybeck moved the head to the wrong angle, their necks snapped around, their eyes popped out of their heads, and they appeared ready to tear a chunk of flesh from him the size of a holiday ham. So he kept the mask extended, arms tiring, wondering, “What now?”

“Psst! How's it going?” Amanda called to him. He had rescued her and Jess, believing at the time that at least one of the girls he saw was Charlene.

“It's a bit of a stalemate,” Maybeck answered. “If I take a step back, they take a step forward. I've held them here since you left. But the slightest movement, and I get the feeling I'm going to be puppy chow. Factor into the equation,”—an expression he'd heard Philby use repeatedly, and one he thought sounded particularly smart—“that my arms are tiring…I'm not saying I'm weak, but this mask is huge and it's heavy…”

“What do you want us to do?” Jess asked.

“I think you should get out of here,” he said.

“Seriously, Maybeck,” Charlene said, “what are the odds of me leaving you here?”

“I could drop it and run, but my guess is they're about five times faster than any of us.”

An amber light on the wall behind the hyenas flashed.

“It's Philby,” Charlene said.

“Freeze! And don't say a word!” Jess whispered harshly, having nearly forgotten what had led her and Amanda down the stairs to begin with. The Evil Queen and Cruella were headed to the lower-level staging area and the crate. She'd seen it in a dream, along with Charlene being down there at the time of their arrival.

The kids remained absolutely still. The clip-clop of a woman's heels percussed across the darkened stage. The two grown women stopped only yards from the three girls.

“Happy? Howly?” Cruella called out. Then again. “Come here, my little laughers!” A pause. “Boys?” Another pause. “Well, that's as odd as a one-eyed parrot. I left them here to patrol.”

“So maybe they're off patrolling,” said the Evil Queen, impatient with her partner. “What is the problem?”

“The problem is I left them here, and those boys obey.”

“You think every animal dances to your tune, including most people. Well, not this person.”

“You are hardly a person!” Cruella complained.

“Shush! Let's make sure our guest is comfortable. You can work your magic on him, my dear.”

“That's the idea,” said Cruella.

“I wouldn't get too cocky, if I were you. He's no hound, as you'll soon find out. How are you with bats, anyway?”

“While I adore most nocturnals, the winged variety find little support from me. Though I'm loath to admit it, I find them frightening.”

“Well, at least we have something in common! You live in the woods or drafty old castles, you come to tolerate the things, but accepting them is different. If left up to me I'd banish them for eternity!”

“You can do that, can't you? I envy you, Queeny. How I wish I could conjure. Could you teach me?”

“Shut it, will you? Are you quite done blowing your dog whistle? I'd like to get on with it.”

“At your disposal.”

The two trundled off in the direction of the staircase and descended.

When the witch and the woman were well gone, Amanda, looking up, said softly, “I have an idea.”

“Let's hear it,” Jess said.

“You're a climber, aren't you?” she asked Charlene.

You know I am, Charlene felt like saying, but she held her tongue. She knew Amanda had a thing for Finn, knew Finn had a thing for Amanda, and knew that Finn found it easy to flirt with her and that the flirting drove Amanda crazy. There were few secrets among the Keepers. Everyone had known that Charlene had had a crush on Finn for quite some time. But it was over now, and Amanda didn't need to pretend they barely knew each other.

“Yes,” she said. “Sure am.”

“If you climb up there,” Amanda asked, pointing into the staging overhead, “would you be able to jump or get down really fast somehow?”

“I could probably work something out. Why?”

“You see that curtain?” she said.

Charlene followed her gaze. She did see the massive curtain, and she intuited what Amanda had in mind just by looking.

“It just might work,” Charlene said.

“What might work?” Jess said. “Did I miss something?”

“I'm with Jess,” Maybeck hissed.

Charlene crossed to the wall and scampered up the rigging like a sailor up a mast. She moved from one stage rope to another, shinnied up a pipe, swung from a cable, and arrived quickly to the support bar that held the stage curtain.

“Terry,” Amanda said, “you're going to need to back up about ten more feet.”

“I don't love that idea.”

“Noted,” said Charlene from the rafters.

Maybeck stepped back and the two hyenas, Howly and Happy, scooted forward on their behinds, still wary of the giant lion mask. A few more feet of retreat, and the hyenas advanced an equal distance.

“Nearly there,” Amanda said. “Charlene?”

“Ready.”

“Are you sure you can get down fast enough?”

“Five more feet,” Charlene said from up above. “When I reach three, the mask needs to be on the floor facing them. You don't want to spook them—”

“You think?”

“—so just put it down and back up slowly. Got it?”

“And then?” Jess asked.

“And then we run past the stairway and into the corridor and we get the heck out of here,” Amanda said. “You and Maybeck first. I'm waiting for Charlene.”

“No need to do that,” Charlene complained.

“Not open for discussion,” Amanda said, asserting herself.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Charlene said. “Everybody ready?”

They each acknowledged.

“Then here we go. One…”

Maybeck began lowering the mask. As he did, the two wild-eyed hyenas fixed on him like heat-seeking missiles.

“Two…”

The large mask touched the stage floor. Maybeck backed up first one step, then two. The hyenas inched forward, but could not bring themselves to challenge Scar.

“Three!”

Maybeck turned and ran as the whine of rope paying out joined the release of the curtain, the giant wall of fabric falling as a wave of ruby-colored smoke and covering the hyenas like a magician's handkerchief.

Charlene came down a nearby rope like a spider laying its thread, joined Amanda an instant later, and the two held hands as they ran from the stage, quick on the heels of their friends.