by Bobbie Peers
William ran onto a road that cut through the woods and came to a sudden stop as two bright lights blinded him.
“Watch out!” Iscia was right behind him.
William flung himself to the side just as a large semitrailer whizzed past at tremendous speed. It careened all over the road, seemingly trying to regain control. It had changed lanes, obviously to prevent a collision with something on the road. William and Iscia stood there watching its red taillights disappear into the darkness.
“There!” Iscia said, and pointed. “The pyramid.”
And there it was. It hovered in the middle of the road. The beam of light was still shining into the sky and bathed the area in brightness.
“Can’t you turn that thing off?” Iscia asked. “They’re going to find us.”
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” William said, and moved closer to the pyramid. He stopped and followed the beam up into the sky with his eyes. “It’s like a beacon,” he whispered.
“Exactly,” Iscia said. “And the guard bots will find us.” She pulled off her jacket and placed it over the pyramid. The beam of light vanished.
“There,” she said with a relieved smile.
They stood there for a few seconds staring at Iscia’s jacket, which hovered in midair. The bright light from the pyramid glowed from inside.
“This is definitely the main road,” Iscia said. “Maybe we can get a ride?”
“As in hitchhike?” William stared at her. “No one hitchhikes anymore. . . .”
“Well, how else are we going to get out of here?” she said.
“Is that what we’re doing?” William stared at Iscia. “Getting out of here? What about Benjamin, and this thing?” He pointed at the hovering pyramid.
Iscia didn’t respond. Her eyes radiated frustration.
Suddenly she startled and looked around.
“Do you hear that?” Iscia stared into the darkness.
“What?” William couldn’t hear anything other than the whispering of the trees in the woods.
“That hum?”
Now William heard it too. It was the same noise they had heard when they were hiding in the bunker. Only now it was coming closer.
Then he spotted a powerful light behind the dark treetops. It seemed to be heading straight for them.
“Is that a drone?” William whispered. “We have to get out of here.”
“That’s no drone,” Iscia said. “It’s a plane.”
William squinted at the sky. She was right.
It was an old propeller plane, painted bright red.
They stared at the little plane as it descended toward the road where they were standing.
“Looks like it’s going to land,” William said.
“Here?” Iscia sounded scared.
“Come on!” Together they hid behind a large bush along the shoulder of the road.
They listened to the approaching propeller.
There was a squeal of rubber as the tires hit the asphalt.
The engine sputtered and coughed, and then there was a sudden loud bang.
“Well, it’s not from the Institute, anyway,” William said. “They don’t have a plane that old.”
The plane stopped right by the bush William and Iscia were hiding behind.
The engine spluttered a couple more times before going quiet.
“Well, are you planning on spending the whole night back there or what?” a voice suddenly asked. “We really ought to get going.”
William and Iscia remained quiet as mice.
“I’m on my way to London,” the voice continued. “And I have room . . .”
William and Iscia looked at each other but didn’t move.
“Fine, fine . . . ,” the voice said. “It’s up to you. Anyway, I offered. I asked you to dance, and you turned me down.”
There was something familiar about that voice. William was sure he’d heard it before.
And before he had time to change his mind, he peeked out of his hiding place.
The plane was parked in the middle of the road. It was an old Spitfire from the Second World War. William knew the make because he’d seen pictures of planes like this. It looked like a shark with wings.
A man in a leather hat and earmuffs sat at the controls. He slid his round aviator’s goggles up onto the top of his head.
William recognized him right away.
It was the same man who’d given him the pyramid outside his house in Norway. It was the mailman. Or the Orbulator Agent, as Benjamin had called him. Although now he looked like a World War II pilot.
“I see that you finally solved it,” the pilot said, and motioned toward the hovering pyramid. “Would you mind bringing it over here? I would do it myself, but my legs are stiff from all the sitting.”
William hesitated.
“Do as he says,” Iscia whispered, and poked William in the back. “Give it to him.”
“How?” William said.
“Just give it a push,” the pilot said. “Like you’d push a car.”
Carefully William walked over to the floating pyramid. He stopped next to it and poked it with his finger. It wobbled a little.
“Come on,” the pilot said impatiently. “We don’t have all day!”
William put both hands on the pyramid and pushed. It responded by floating willingly toward the old plane.
Soon it bumped gently into the side of the plane. The pilot reached for it and pulled Iscia’s jacket off.
“Whose jacket is this?” he said, holding it up.
“Mine,” Iscia said, coming out from behind the bush.
“Catch,” the pilot said, and threw the jacket toward her. She caught it and put it on.
The pilot grabbed the pyramid and placed it on his lap. He turned it a couple of times, and the light turned off.
“Jump in,” he said, and waved at them. “We’re in a hurry.”
William and Iscia looked at each other. Was it safe?
Suddenly they heard the unmistakable sound of guard bots crashing through the woods.
Without another thought, William ran over to the old plane. Iscia followed him.
“On board, you two,” the Orbulator Agent said.
William and Iscia climbed up onto the wing and then tumbled in behind the pilot’s seat. William looked toward the two guard bots. They had their passivators raised, ready to shoot.
“Hold on tight. Let the dance begin.” The Orbulator Agent pushed in a button on the control panel. The powerful engine started, and the propeller began to spin. The plane gathered momentum moving down the road, and William and Iscia were pressed against the seat back.
The plane roared down the road and then took off.
It went fast, very fast. William felt his stomach tickle. The wind tugged at his hair, and he realized he was freezing.
Soon they were high above the treetops. William looked at the guard bots on the road far below.
“We did it!” he cheered.
• • •
The man who had saved William and Iscia, the Orbulator Agent, sat in the pilot’s seat in front of them. William studied him from behind as best he could. The skin on his face was very pale, almost white. And now he noticed something else. His skin seemed as if it were composed of smaller pieces, like a puzzle. He was neatly dressed in an old suit, and over his suit he wore a coat with large, bulging pockets. In fact, they were crammed full of things. William even thought he saw a small, black London taxi poking out of one.
“How did you know we were behind those bushes?” William asked.
“You solved the orbulator,” the Orbulator Agent said.
“And you saw the beam of light,” Iscia said.
“Yes. I’ve been in the area, waiting for that to happen.”
William and Iscia exchanged looks. This man was really odd.
“Where in London are you going?” William asked.
“I’m going where you’re going,” the Orbulator Agent responded.<
br />
“And where is that?” William inquired.
“The first stop is Big Ben. Let’s tango.”
The plane changed direction and proceeded upward through the dense cloud layer.
26
The old plane putted along under the clear night sky. William couldn’t see the ground. It was completely hidden by the clouds below them. He just had to trust that they really were on their way to London.
He didn’t want to think about how high up they were now. Especially since it sounded like the old plane’s engine might cut out any minute. Every now and then it backfired with a loud bang! and then went completely silent—before coming back to life again.
The cold wind hit William’s face, and he’d already lost the feeling in his fingers. He pulled his jacket even tighter around himself and huddled in the seat in an attempt to get out of the wind a little.
Iscia looked cold too. Her face had lost all its color. Her thin windbreaker wasn’t much help against the freezing winds at this altitude.
The pilot had been sitting silently with his back to them for the last half hour.
William cautiously leaned closer to Iscia. “Do you think we can trust him?” he whispered.
Iscia shrugged. “Don’t know,” she replied. “I’m too cold to think right now!”
“I’m sure you two have a bunch of questions,” the pilot called back to them, and suddenly let go of the control stick and leaped around. He was squatting on the front seat and staring at them.
“Shouldn’t you be flying the plane?” William exclaimed, pointing at the controls.
“Relax.” The pilot smiled proudly. “Even though this plane is old, it has an autopilot. I installed it myself fifty, maybe sixty years ago. I like tinkering with these things. It relaxes me.”
The pilot’s eyes moved back and forth between William and Iscia. Then it was as if he suddenly realized something.
“You guys are cold,” he exclaimed, looking concerned.
“It’s fine,” Iscia said, her teeth chattering. “We can deal with it.”
“Nonsense,” the pilot said, and pushed a button on his control panel. “Autopilot wasn’t the only thing I installed on this plane.”
A panel opened on the front of the plane and a glass roof unfolded and settled down over them. William felt more relaxed the instant the cold wind stopped. He could feel Iscia starting to relax next to him.
The pilot sat there, looking at them. Now and again, slight turbulence made the small plane rattle.
“Are you really the Orbulator Agent?” Iscia asked.
“Oh, sorry,” the pilot said. “I see that I forgot to introduce myself in all the excitement. This is a big day. No one has ever solved the pyramid. I can get forgetful on occasions like this.”
He held out his hand and greeted first Iscia, then William. His hand was neither cold nor warm, just completely neutral. On it, too, his skin was like puzzle pieces.
“My name is Philip,” he said. “But I prefer Phil. And, yes, I am what they like to call the Orbulator Agent. But I don’t use that title very often. It’s too formal. Makes me sound like a tax collector or the foreign minister.”
“But what is it that you do?” William asked.
“A very good question,” Phil said, smiling. “I am so old that I’ve almost forgotten myself. My main job is to give the code pyramid—the orbulator—to the person who can solve the code.”
“And this orbulator,” Iscia said. “Is that a weapon?”
“Very much so, indeed!” A huge grin shot across Phil’s pale face. “A very powerful weapon. Very, very powerful.”
“So now,” Iscia continued, “you’re going to give this weapon to William?”
Phil looked at William affectionately.
“You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve waited for someone like you to come along,” he said with a trembling voice. “I just knew you would solve the first code.”
“First code?” William gasped. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you more about that later. First we have to get to Londinium.”
“Londinium?” Iscia repeated. “You mean London?”
“Sorry,” Phil said, shaking his head in embarrassment. “I mean London, of course. Haven’t really gotten used to the new name yet. Londinium is what the Romans used to call it back in the day.”
“What are we going to do when we get to London?” William asked.
Phil leaned toward them and looked around before folding his hands in front of him.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he whispered. “Sorry if I seem a little stunned. This is really big for me. I had given up hope, actually.”
William stared at Phil.
“Well.” Phil looked up at the sky, as if he had to really think about what he was going to tell them. “What was the question you asked?”
“Why are we going to London?” William asked.
“Londinium is the first stop on the way to the weapon,” Phil said.
“The first stop?” William said.
“Yes.” Phil nodded. “I need to take care of some stuff there.” Phil did a quick little wave with his hand as if these were unimportant details. “Think of Londinium as a stopover on the way to our destination.”
“A stopover? Is it far to where we’re going? Where is this weapon anyway?”
“The Mariana Trench,” Phil said as if he were talking about somewhere just down the street. “If you want to hide something, the Mariana Trench is the perfect place to do it.”
William and Iscia looked at each other. The Mariana Trench was on the other side of the world. It was the deepest place on the earth and, as a result, mostly unexplored. A perfect place to hide things, and for that very same reason, probably a terrible place to get to.
“Are we losing altitude?” Iscia asked, looking around. The small plane shook as they hit a layer of thick, gray clouds.
William peered out the window and grabbed hold of his seat.
“Whoops!” Phil turned around and grabbed the control stick with both hands. “It just occurred to me that it was one of the other planes I put the autopilot in. This plane doesn’t fly itself. I really am starting to get old.”
Phil pulled the control stick toward himself hard, and the plane tipped up and started climbing again.
William sat there in silence. He was thinking about what Phil had said. Were they really going to the Mariana Trench?
27
“William!”
William opened his eyes and looked around. He was still sitting in the plane, but he must have dozed off.
Iscia was shaking him.
“Look!” She pointed out at the ground below. “We’re there.”
William rubbed his eyes, pressed his face to the window, and looked down. He beheld a sea of little twinkling lights in all the colors of the rainbow.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Iscia sighed in delight.
William nodded. “There’s a landing strip,” he said, pointing. “That must be where we’re going.” He sat back in the seat and tightened his seat belt.
They waited.
“We’re flying past it?” Iscia pointed to the airstrip as they passed over it.
“Aren’t we going to land?” William poked Phil on the shoulder, but Phil didn’t respond.
“Phil?” William tried again. “Philip?” He tapped his shoulder again, harder this time. “Orbulator Agent?”
No reaction.
Iscia undid her seat belt and leaned forward to look at Phil.
“His eyes are closed,” she said.
“Closed?” William said. “He can’t land the plane with his eyes closed, can he?”
“Phil?” Iscia shook him. “Phil?” she shouted, and slapped his face.
“What is it?” Phil yelled, his eyes opening wide. “Run! The dinosaurs are coming!” He stared at Iscia, as if he couldn’t place her. Then he smiled broadly.
“Did you have a nice trip? Sometimes a nap i
s just the thing. That’s something I started doing back in the Dark Ages. I don’t actually need to nap, mind you, but by now it’s become something of a habit.”
“We’re going to crash!” Iscia yelled.
“Apparently.” Phil looked at the lights below them. Then he grabbed the control stick with both hands and turned the plane around.
“This is the perfect place to land,” he said, pointing to a large, dark patch on the ground ahead of them.
“What is it?” Iscia asked.
“Hyde Park,” Phil responded, pushing the control stick forward.
The nose of the plane was pointed at the ground. The body of the plane started shaking so strongly that William was scared the whole thing would fall apart.
They were heading for some tall treetops. The plane kept going, into the trees. Branches were slapping the wings. It seemed as if it was totally out of control. This might turn out to be the end of both this London trip . . . and them.
The wheels hit the ground with a loud bump, and gradually the plane came to a stop with its nose planted deep inside a large bush. Phil unbuckled his seat belt and pushed a button on the control panel. The glass roof disappeared into the panel on the nose again.
“Welcome to Londinium!” Phil jumped out of the plane and down to the ground.
William and Iscia followed and looked around. It was the middle of the night, and there wasn’t a soul about.
“We ought to get out of here,” Phil said. “They don’t like people landing in the park.” He thrust his hand into one of the big pockets in his jacket and pulled out something that looked like an old TV remote.
He aimed it at the plane and pushed one of the buttons.
With a loud zap and a bright flash of light the plane was gone.
“Where did it go?” Iscia blurted out.
“There,” William said, pointing to something on the ground where the plane had been.
“Wow!” Iscia exclaimed. “Coooool!”
The plane hadn’t disappeared. It was still there. But it was smaller, a lot smaller. It was no bigger than a toy now.
Phil strode over to the little plane, picked it up, and stuck it in one of his jacket pockets. From one of his other pockets he pulled out a little green military tank. He studied it in the light from a lamppost.
