by Matt London
Sprout caught Rick as he landed inside the stump. Everything was covered in big splinters the size of kitchen knives. They hurried over to the stairs that led down into the root system. They opened the door and started to descend.
But they couldn’t proceed. A cave-in blocked the passage. Rick started to panic. This was the hall that led to his father’s lab. He pulled out his pocket tablet and dialed his dad’s number. “Dad! Dad! Are you all right?”
Scratchy and faint, his father’s voice came back. “Rick! Are you okay? Your mother and I are trapped in the lab with Professor Doran.”
“Dad! I’m so sorry. That’s terrible.”
“I know! Professor Doran won’t stop talking about fungus. He’s going to bore us both to death!”
“George!” Rick could hear his mother chiding his father in the background. “Be serious!”
“Oh, okay,” Dad said. “I’m just kidding. We’re safe. But the door’s blocked. Looks like a cave-in. We are trapped down here.”
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll think of something. Then I’ll have you all out of there in a flash.” He ended the call. “Sprout, we need to get some of the workers to help us dig them out.”
“Righto, Rick!” Sprout led the way back up to the surface. He grabbed a fire axe from an emergency storage locker near the entrance. “Stand back!” Sprout cautioned, and then chopped at the jammed door. Three swings, and it broke open. Rick and Sprout spilled onto the ground outside.
To Rick’s surprise, a Winterpole shuttle had landed in the middle of the settlement while he’d been underground. A crowd had gathered around the hovership. Diana was unloading pallets of bottled water, first aid kits, and other emergency supplies. She bent down to hand a bottle of water to a little boy, and when she stood up she brushed her hair out of her face and looked at Rick. He froze. She ran. And before Rick could react she pounced on him like a kitten attacking a ball of string.
“You’re alive!” She pulled him into a tight hug. “When I saw what happened I feared the worst.”
“I . . . um . . .” Rick stood there while she hugged him. It hurt a lot where she touched his back, but it still felt good somehow, so he just grimaced and kept quiet.
At last she pulled away and wiped her eyes. “Is everyone safe?”
“Some of us are hurt pretty bad,” Rick explained. “And my parents are trapped in some of the wreckage. But everyone’s alive.”
“How can I help?” Diana asked, looking very serious.
“You’ve already done so much.” Rick gestured to the supplies she had brought. “But honestly, I don’t know what else you can do. The settlement has been destroyed. We’ve lost everything. And there’s no way we’re going to get the certificate of occupancy now.”
“Actually . . .” Diana showed him a faint smile. “I may be able to help you with that.”
Rick listened carefully as Diana described the Ultimate Continent Ownership Form that Benjamin was guarding back at the Winterpole base.
Adjusting his glasses, Rick said, “I don’t know what’s more distressing, that Winterpole has such a document in their possession, or that they’ve started their own society right here on the eighth continent.”
Diana kicked some of the wood chips underfoot. “Honestly, even like this your settlement is cooler than what Winterpole has set up.”
“Will you take me there? That ownership form may be our only hope of saving the continent.”
“In a heartbeat,” Diana said. “But it won’t be easy to get past Benjamin, and Mister Snow isn’t letting anything by him these days.”
Rick scratched his chin. “All of my cyber paper was in my room in Spire One. So I have no permission slips at all. I’m defenseless.”
“I may have a few documents on my shuttle,” Diana replied. “And if we sneak you in, hopefully we won’t need to use any of that stuff.”
Turning to his other friend, Rick said, “Sprout, I have a big favor to ask you.”
“Well, shoot, Rick. You know I’d do anything for you.”
“I need you to lead the operation to dig my parents and Professor Doran out of the lab. Diana and I are going to pay a visit to Winterpole. Please, you need to stay behind and save them. I’m counting on you.”
Humbly, Sprout removed his hat and covered his heart with it. “I will not fail.”
“Thanks, buddy. I knew I could count on you.”
“Follow me,” Diana urged, leading Rick to her shuttle. “We have to hurry.”
Each step toward the shuttle sent a shot of pain up Rick’s back, but he didn’t have time to rest or recover. These next few hours would decide the future of the continent he had come to call home. It was all up to him.
Diana brought down the shuttle a couple of miles south of the Winterpole complex. The sun had gone to bed, and the forest was dark and quiet. She unbuckled and went to the shuttle’s main hold to check on Rick.
He thumbed through a file folder of permission slips, pulled out a few choice pieces of cyber paper, and tucked them into a satchel. He fit the satchel over his shoulder and winced as the strap settled across his back.
“You’re hurt,” Diana said, coming up behind him.
“I’m fine,” he assured her, but it sounded like a lie.
“Here . . .” She went to the storage hold and retrieved one last first aid kit. She pulled out a tube of ointment and wiggled it at him. “Let me see.”
Grimacing, Rick turned and raised his shirt.
“Oh, gosh. These blisters look pretty bad.”
“Sorry, I’m kind of scrawny,” Rick apologized. “Not exactly the superhero we need right now.”
Diana blushed. She smeared the ointment over his injuries. The ointment was ice-cold and numbing. It made her fingers tingle. “It doesn’t take muscles to make a hero, Rick. You’re brave. That’s what matters.”
“It didn’t feel very brave to run off, leaving my friends and family behind.”
“You’re looking at the bigger picture. Trying to save the continent.”
“Yeah, but thinking about the big picture is what got me in this mess in the first place.”
“What do you mean?” Diana finished applying the ointment to Rick’s back. He lowered his shirt while she wiped her hands clean on a paper towel.
“I was so caught up with what I thought was best for the continent that I wasn’t listening to what anyone else wanted. I chased Evie away. I abandoned her.”
Diana didn’t know what to say. She’d always thought Rick and Evie were very different, but that diversity made them stronger. She wished they could see that the way to succeed was to work together. If they pursued their own interests and never compromised, they’d be no better than Winterpole or Vesuvia.
“I was a pretty lousy big brother,” Rick said, staring into the distance. “I get it now, why she ran away. So, yeah, Evie did something pretty dumb, but I forgive her. I just want her to come home.”
“So let’s go get her,” Diana said. She wanted to do anything she could to help.
“She’ll need a continent to come home to.” Rick held his satchel tight. “Let’s get this ownership form, and then we’ll find Evie.”
They slipped noiselessly through the jungle. Diana guided him to a large gray rock beside a tree. The rock was vaguely shaped like an old TV set.
“Help me move this,” Diana said, straining to pull the rock aside. Working together, they lifted the rock to reveal a tunnel leading down under the surface of the continent. Winterpole dug farther every hour. Unchecked, they would form a vast network of caverns under the whole continent.
As they moved down the tunnel, Diana gave Rick all the info she had. “The keys to the vault are in the possession of Benjamin Nagg, one of the other junior agents.”
“Oh, yeah, you told me about him. Short kid, nasty attitude, loves nothing but
himself?”
“That’s Benjamin. This time of night he’s probably gazing longingly into a bathroom mirror, flattering himself.”
But as they searched the corridors of the Winterpole cavern system, they heard a voice echoing off the stones.
“I’m working as fast as I can. I’m onto something big. Just give me a little more time.”
“That’s Benjamin,” Diana whispered.
“Who’s he talking to?” Rick asked.
“I don’t know.” She strained to listen, but the other voice was garbled. It sounded like it was coming out of a phone.
“Fine!” Benjamin snapped. “Goodbye!”
They heard footsteps coming toward them.
Panicking, Diana looked around for a place to hide. Rick calmly withdrew a piece of cyber paper from his bag. She hid behind him, hoping she wouldn’t be seen.
Benjamin rounded the corner and froze. “Hey, aren’t you—?”
“REDACTED!” Rick shouted, holding up the cyber paper. The document flashed blindingly white. Benjamin screamed and covered his eyes, doubling over in pain. Rick rushed over to him, rolling up the cyber paper.
“Do you have a way to knock him out?” Diana asked over Benjamin’s loud groans.
“Kind of,” Rick said, and then whacked Benjamin over the head with the cyberpaper. The weasely boy dropped to the floor and was out cold.
Diana stifled a laugh. “Aha. I see what you mean.”
Rick put away the cyber paper. “Please don’t tell my mom I did that.”
They searched through Benjamin’s pockets and found the key card, the copper key, and the password.
Squinting at the piece of paper, Rick read, “W-I-N-T-E-R-P-O-L-E-ONE-TWO-THREE? What are these guys, morons?”
“Don’t dawdle,” Diana warned. “Follow me.”
They left Benjamin on the floor, and Diana led the way deeper into the tunnel system. After a winding journey, they arrived at the door to the vault.
“This is it,” Diana said, looking around, feeling like Mister Snow was going to jump out of nowhere and lock them both up.
Rick moved to the door and swiped the key card, then turned the lock with the copper key. He punched in the password and stepped back.
The door opened with a hiss. But there was no table. Since Diana had last looked inside the vault, a long tunnel had been dug beyond the vault door. It led down into darkness.
The Ultimate Continent Ownership Form was gone.
“Where did it go?” Diana asked, utterly confused.
“Your friend Benjamin probably wanted better security for the ownership form. So he built a second vault, deep inside the first one.”
“Well, that’s annoying,” Diana said.
“Just a bit of a hiccup. Don’t worry. I’ll find it.” Rick pocketed the key card, the copper key, and the scrap of paper and stepped through the open doorway.
“Right.” Diana clapped her hands together. “Let’s go.”
“I’m sorry, Diana.” Rick blocked the doorway. “It could be dangerous down there. And you’ve put yourself at enough risk already. No one from Winterpole can find out you’re helping me. You have to maintain your cover.”
“But Rick, I—”
“I’m sorry.” He closed the door, sealing her out of the vault.
“Rick!” She grabbed the door, trying to pull it open, but it was no use. The lock had reset. She sighed, pressing her head against the cold metal of the vault door. “Good luck.”
Evie sat in her cell and waited. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the guards had returned her to the prison, but her stomach ached with hunger and her throat was sore. At some point, she must have fallen asleep, but a deep rumbling that shook the whole dreadnought had begun a couple of hours earlier, and since then, she’d been wide awake.
From the slab in the corner of her cell, Evie could hear footsteps at the far end of the hall, like the clanging of someone wearing toasters for shoes. She went to the bars and waited as 2-Tor and Didi appeared.
Didi stood stiffly as she greeted Evie. “Mrs. Piffle requests your presence on the bridge. There is something she would like you to see before she disposes of you.”
Evie looked to 2-Tor. “So now you’re on Mastercorp’s side?”
“I am on the side of my paramour, Miss Didi,” 2-Tor replied. “I have argued on your behalf, but to no avail. I am sorry, Miss Evelyn. Truly, I am.”
“That’s it, then.” Evie shrugged. “So hurry it up.”
Didi opened the cell doors, and they escorted her from the prison. Evie walked quietly, head down, despondent. She deserved to be punished. She just hated that at the end she was going to be alone and facing someone as petty and vile as Viola Piffle. Back in the day, Dad had outsmarted Mastercorp. But Evie wasn’t her father, that was certain.
A few minutes later, in one of the dark, winding halls of the dreadnought, 2-Tor stopped short. “I say, oh, dear. I seem to be jammed.” His wings seized in an awkward pose, blocking most of the hallway.
“I just oiled you,” Didi complained, grabbing at his wings, trying to move them.
“I do not have the foggiest idea what is causing this.” 2-Tor sounded befuddled. He started backing up, little quick steps, bumping into Didi.
“Hey, bird brain! Be careful!” Didi swatted him on the head with a wing, but he kept moving back and stepped on one of her talons. They tripped and toppled over. 2-Tor pinned Didi to the ground as he flailed and flopped around. “I say! This is most irregular!”
“Get off!” Didi screamed.
2-Tor flapped his wings at Evie. “Run, Evelyn! Hurry! Go!”
Evie didn’t stop to think or ask questions, she just ran. She ducked around a corner, not looking back. On the inside her heart was soaring. 2-Tor had risked everything for the chance to save her. She felt so foolish for doubting him.
Signs hung on the walls at some intersections, but the labyrinthine dreadnought was still nearly impossible to navigate. Evie ran aimlessly, trying to find her way back to the docking bay and the exit. She had to escape over the bridge that led to New Miami. From there, she could escape into the woods, and then . . . she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t have time to think about it now.
Evie skidded to a stop as she came upon a catwalk that crossed a deep chasm. In the middle of the pit, rising up past the catwalk, was a communications tower. She had seen Rick set up a similar but much smaller device back at the settlement. She reasoned that all communications from the dreadnought must be routed out through this tower.
Rick. In case Evie didn’t make it out of the dreadnought, she had to let Rick know that Mastercorp was on the continent. She had to let him know how sorry she was.
Evie ventured across the wobbly catwalk, trying not to look down. When she reached the communications tower, she quickly opened up their systems. Her computer skills were a little rusty, but she managed to get a feed to Rick’s pocket tablet. For some reason he didn’t pick up, but that was probably for the best. She didn’t think she was ready to face him.
Taking a deep breath, Evie looked into the camera and left her message.
When she finished, she closed the feed and hurried to the other side of the catwalk. Soon she found a sign with directions to the docking bay. At last! she thought.
The docking bay was strangely deserted. The hoverships were all there, but the mechanics, soldiers, and guards who were always bustling around the staging area were nowhere to be seen. At the far end of the docking bay, the jagged mouth of the black robo-shark was closed tightly. Evie flipped the lever that extended the bridge out of the shark’s mouth and hurried across as the great black maw yawned open. Wind blasted through the open portal, whipping her hair as she ran.
Her hopes fell when she reached the end of the bridge and could see outside the mouth. Now that incessant rumbling m
ade sense. At some point during the night, the dreadnought had taken off and was now flying over New Miami. The bridge extended to nowhere and dead-ended at a thousand-foot drop to the ocean below.
Evie searched for another way out. Maybe she could steal a hovership and fly to safety.
“Caw! Caw!” Something black swooped past her head. She ducked out of the way. It was a black raven, a model of metal robo-bird she had never seen before. It flew around in a tight arc and dove at Evie again. She screamed as it flew by, slicing a gash in her arm with a razor-sharp wing.
More birds flapped toward her. “Rawwk! Caw!”
Evie shielded her face with her arms and ran back up the bridge, trying to avoid the deadly flying robots. The birds perched on her head and shoulders. She tried to shoo them away, but they pecked at her, sending stabbing pains through her body.
The birds grabbed Evie with their beaks and talons and flapped their wings, pulling her into the air. She kicked and struggled, but it was no use. They carried her back to the black metal floor of the docking bay and dropped her hard. She landed on her knees.
Viola Piffle stood before her, tall and imposing. She smoothed her blond hair flat against her head as one of the ravens landed on her shoulder, glaring at Evie with eyes that glowed like hot coals.
“Come now, little Lane,” Viola said as Evie struggled to get to her feet. “There is no escape for you.”
Rick could hear Diana’s protests through the sealed vault door, but he didn’t dare change his mind now. He had to protect her—she’d already done so much for him. He took the illumination request form from his satchel and switched it on, casting faint light down the tunnel. These forms had been designed to order lawyers to clarify their oft-baffling contract language—pretty smart to have the forms illuminate tunnels as well as ideas.
The ground was uneven, and Rick was grateful for the light. He stepped carefully, and after a few hundred feet he came to a small, square room with walls of stone. In the center of the room was a glass box on a wooden table. A piece of notebook paper was taped to the glass. It read:
