Kingdom Keepers III Dinsey in Shadow

by Ridley Pearson

  23

  FINN KEPT AMANDA and Jess close, crouched and sneaking through the trees and shrubs, with Philby and Wil a lagging slightly behind. The group gathered where they’d have a view of Maybeck, who had scurried off into the overgrowth after boosting Charlene up into the superstructure. Maybeck had taken a position where he could see around to the back of the pavilion.

  The five watched in amazement as Charlene scrambled up the crossbeams like a monkey.

  She threw a knee over the rim that stuck off the curved surface like a shelf, and then rose to her feet, leaning against the wal and inching her way to her left. After a few minutes, she disappeared around the curve of the building.

  “We wait for Maybeck’s signal.”

  “Finn!” hissed Jess. She was pointing toward the pavilion. “On the ground.”

  “I don’t know what you’re pointing at.”

  Amanda shuddered. “Is that a—”

  “Snake?” gasped Wil a.

  “Not just a snake,” Philby answered. “A python. A giant python.”

  “That’s Gigabyte,” Finn said, final y seeing the thing. “It’s from Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.”

  The python was over fifteen feet long and a foot in diameter, with a diamond-shaped, oversized head the size of a large pumpkin. He was patrol ing through the grass and the landscaping along the base of the pavilion. “What’s he doing here?” Wil a whispered. “We aren’t anywhere near Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.”

  “He’s with them,” Finn answered.

  “And if he’s guarding Wonders,” Philby said, “then it’s pretty obvious who’s inside.”

  “Seriously?” Wil a sounded terrified.

  “An Overtaker for sure,” said Philby. “Interesting that the characters come alive here the same as in MK and AK. If we thought it was limited to just—”

  “Spare us the Nutty Professor routine,” Wil a said, uncharacteristical y harshly. “If the Overtakers are inside, then Charlene’s in trouble, big-time.”

  “We should have set up a system to do this in reverse,” Finn said, withdrawing his flashlight and preparing to signal Maybeck.

  Philby slapped his hand over the front of Finn’s light, stopping him.

  “Wait a second!” he hissed. “Think this through. If you signal Maybeck, and he signals back, guess who’l see it?” He stared off into the general direction of where they’d last seen Gigabyte.

  “Note to self,” Wil a said. “Where’s the snake now?”

  “I was watching him,” Jess said. “But I lost him by that column.”

  “What if he’s headed here?” Wil a said, speaking what they were al thinking. “Don’t snakes have amazing noses?”

  “They do have an olfactory ability,” Philby said. “They don’t have noses. But yes, they can smel things a long, long ways away.”

  “Like nervous girls?” Wil a said.

  “We have to warn Charlene,” Finn said.

  “Not with the flashlight,” Philby cautioned. “That’l backfire.”

  Wil a quickly tried to reach Charlene by phone. She shook her head. “Must have turned it off when we nixed it.”

  Finn felt responsible for that decision. He toed a rock free of the dirt at their feet and picked it up. “What if we could distract the snake? Turn him around so he doesn’t see our flashlights?”

  “I think it may be too late for that,” Amanda said. She was looking off toward Maybeck, and when Finn looked in that direction he saw what she had seen: a smal white light flashing three times, pausing, and flashing the same signal again. Maybeck was relaying Charlene’s signal.

  “She thinks everything’s okay,” Finn gasped.

  “And maybe it is,” Philby said. “Maybe it isn’t the Overtakers inside, but Wayne. Maybe the snake is on his own, patrol ing Wonders for the Overtakers, sure, but not with them.”

  “That would be a lucky break,” Finn said.

  “Only one way to test it,” Philby pointed out.

  Finn nodded. He extended the flashlight through the wal of leaves and pushed its button once, signaling: danger.

  24

  THE AREA OF THE BUSHES where they’d seen Maybeck’s flashlight remained dark. But from the grass there appeared a silver gray flash of a different sort: snakeskin. As Philby had predicted, Gigabyte had seen the signal and had taken off in Maybeck’s direction to determine its source.

  “This is our shot,” Finn said. “Maybeck just bought us the front door. We can’t wait for Charlene.”

  “Are you nuts?” Wil a said.

  “We go now!” Finn said. He reached out, took Amanda by the hand, and led her out of the shrubbery, somehow knowing that the others would fol ow—that Jess would stay with Amanda, and Philby would join him; Wil a wasn’t going to remain in the bushes alone.

  Their DHIs sprinted across the lawn, jumped a rail, and hurried up the ramp leading to the pavilion’s front door. Al of them were panting, and Philby bent over to catch his breath.

  “Give me two seconds,” Finn said, closing his eyes and attempting to settle himself into al -

  clear. But it required a profound depth of concentration, mixed with a surrender and the subsequent removal of any fear. Standing in the dark, in front of an enormous abandoned pavilion with a fifteen-foot python somewhere out there, he found it difficult to picture the pinprick of light in the sea of darkness inside his eyelids.

  “How do we know it isn’t coming this way?” Wil a asked.

  “Shh!” Philby understood the chal enges of al -clear.

  “How do we know there isn’t something, someone, much worse inside?”

  Amanda tapped Wil a on the shoulder and pointed to Jess who, standing alongside Finn, had her eyes squeezed shut.

  “I know that look: she’s picking up on something,” Amanda whispered so softly that not even Philby could hear her.

  In the gloomy darkness, Jess’s right hand reached for her back pocket and pul ed out a smal spiral notebook, her eyes stil pinched shut. Her left hand found a mechanical pencil in her front pocket and, as she slowly came out of her trance, began to sketch.

  Finn passed through the glass of the pavilion’s front door and turned to face them. He could be seen taking a deep breath. He tried to push the door’s panic bar, to open it, but his hand slid right through the glass barrier, and he pul ed it back inside. He shook his arms.

  “It’s coming back,” Wil a announced, pul ing Philby and the others down to a crouch.

  Philby peered out to see the silver python slithering toward them at a high speed. “Stay down,” he said.

  Finn tried a second time, and his glowing arms went right out the door. The third time was the trick: the door opened.

  The others slipped inside and Philby quietly pul ed the door closed. Wil a backed her way through the door, never taking her eyes off Gigabyte.

  “Look!” she said pointing. “Where’s he going?”

  The python reached the path and headed off, his body maintaining a giant S-shape yet stil propel ing himself forward, moving toward the center of the park away from the pavilion.

  “Reinforcements. If we could fol ow him—”

  “He might lead us to the Overtakers,” Philby concluded for Finn.

  “And maybe Wayne.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Wil a complained.

  “It’s too late,” Philby said. “He’s too fast. The only way we’d be able to fol ow him is at an al -

  out run, and he’d spot us.”

  Jess gasped and they al looked at her and her pencil that had stopped in the midst of making the sketch.

  “What is it?” Amanda asked.

  “It’s me…” Jess answered. “They’re coming for me.”

  For a moment Finn couldn’t think. His mind, free of al thought only seconds before, was bombarded with reality—the hardest part of going al -clear. It was like being jostled awake from the deepest sleep ever. Like waking up in the middle of a class only to realize the teacher has jus
t cal ed your name. He shook his head. His hands were doing the tingling thing, and his feet felt as if he were walking on a bed of a thousand needles.

  “Where?” he managed to say.

  “The image stopped,” Jess said, shrugging her shoulders. “The minute I realized it was me, the image stopped.”

  “We’ve got to get her back,” Wil a said. “Cross her back over.”

  “We need her,” Finn said, without thinking. He looked at her, knowing the kind of pressure they were putting onto her, but not seeing any choice. They had come a long way to reach this moment. “It’s up to you.” They were where they were because of Jess’s original dream, because of her powers as a seer. He believed they needed her to search the pavilion, to confirm that they had the right place. “No one wil hold it against you if you go. It’s probably the smart thing to do.”

  “They wil come from my left side. Two of them. A man with a red beard and a green tunic, and a boy much like him wearing blue. I know that sounds ridiculous, but…”

  “Trust me,” Finn said. “Everything we do is ridiculous. No one would believe half of what we’ve seen.”

  “Vikings,” Philby whispered. “Norway. There’s a father-and-son display. It’s just about as she has described.”

  “What about…cavemen?” Jess asked. “I know that also sounds stupid but—”

  “Nothing is stupid,” Finn said. “You know that! Not here. Philby? Cavemen?”

  “Spaceship Earth. Another father-and-son team. In the scene, the two are looking at pictographs on cave wal s. The guests see them from behind, never see their faces.”

  “They’re part of this too,” Jess declared.

  “Overtakers,” Wil a and Finn said in unison.

  “How do we protect her?” Amanda said anxiously.

  “We know what to expect now,” Finn said. “Or who to expect.”

  “Keep them away from me, and I’m safe,” Jess said.

  “We don’t know that what she just saw wil happen tonight,” Professor Philby pointed out, raising his index finger perfunctorily. “The future is longer than just the next few minutes.”

  “But what she saw could also happen tonight,” a troubled Amanda said.

  “If we stopped talking and started looking for Wayne,” Finn said, “tonight would be over a lot sooner.”

  Maybeck appeared at the top of the stairs and stopped abruptly. “I thought…” he whispered, seeing them already inside.

  “Change of plans,” Finn hissed back.

  Maybeck made a series of hand signals that apparently Finn was supposed to understand.

  He didn’t.

  “He and Charlene wil stay upstairs,” Philby translated. “No sign of the Overtakers. Should we split up Jess and Amanda?”

  “You got al that,” Finn asked, bewildered, “from him pumping his fists a couple times?”

  “No. That last part was me. What about Jess upstairs, Amanda with us? If anyone comes after Jess, maybe we can act as decoys, buying Charlene time to get Jess out of here.”

  “Works for me,” Finn said. “Jess?”

  “Sure. Why not?” She gave a fleeting glance in the direction of Amanda and hurried up the stairs. Finn, Wil a, Philby, and Amanda crept forward and moved past groupings of gray machines with bold white numbers on their fronts. Philby explained, a little heavy-handedly, that Wonders had been known for its interactive stations long before interactive was even a word. There were al sorts of games and demonstrations surrounding them that involved participation, but their plugs were pul ed and they were stacked randomly together—it looked more like a technology graveyard than a Disney attraction.

  A doorway opened into a vast space beneath a dome.

  “This reminds me of The Land,” Wil a said. “Only different.”

  A gray glow from the path lighting outside leaked through the skylights, playing on the contents like moonlight. At the center of the circular space was a theater; there were structures made to look like tents, and seats and tables; the whole pavilion was deserted in a way that suggested that the guests had fled in a hurry.

  “Creepy,” Wil a said.

  “Times ten,” Amanda said.

  There was a sign for BODY WARS on the opposite wal in front of a queue with stanchions and chain.

  “It was original y al about stuff to do with health,” Philby said. “Body Wars, Cranium Command, The Making of Me. Some of it was real y gross.”

  “A lot of places to hide a person,” Finn said.

  “And total y empty,” Philby said. “It’s pretty weird to see an entire pavilion total y empty.”

  “You think?” Wil a snapped sarcastical y.

  A whistle caught their attention. Finn looked behind them to the second floor—an enclosed sunroom that ran ful y around the building. Maybeck was waving for them to come up.

  Philby gestured in hand signals. Maybeck gestured back.

  “Did I miss a class or something?” Finn asked.

  “He wants us al up there,” Philby said. “There’s something to see.”

  “That’s not so smart,” Finn said immediately. “We’re more effective in two groups. As a single group we’re vulnerable.”

  Philby nodded. He flashed Maybeck some hand signals, and Maybeck turned from the railing and disappeared.

  “Okay, Maybeck’s coming down,” Philby said. “You and Amanda wil go up to Charlene and Jess.”

  Finn remained skeptical that Philby could have gotten that from Maybeck’s few quick gestures, but a moment later Maybeck appeared.

  “You’re not going to believe it,” Maybeck said.

  “Keep an eye out,” Finn said. “Al phones on vibrate. Cal me if there’s trouble.” He and Amanda took off.

  Finn and Amanda hurried back to the main doors and were halfway up the stairs when Finn tripped. He fel flat into the stone stairs and struggled to stand back up, desperate not to look too much like an uncoordinated dork. But Amanda crawled up his back and lay down on top of him, holding him down, squeezing the breath out of him, before sliding off to his side, her left arm stil around him. “Outside!” she whispered.

  The exterior wal was glass. Finn edged his eye over the edge of the staircase and spotted what Amanda had seen: the giant gray python, squirming toward the pavilion, with four shapes fol owing close behind. Two adults, two children, judging by their size.

  “Vikings and cave…people,” Finn said. He rol ed over and quickly texted al the others.

  MAYDAY!

  Finn was lying face-to-face with Amanda, so close that he could smel a flowery sweetness.

  Her hand had seemed to burn his back where she’d touched him.

  Philby, Maybeck, and Wil a appeared, moving toward the front door.

  “Pssst!” Finn caught Philby’s attention and tried his best to hand-signal him to crouch and hurry to join them. He then took Amanda’s hand and, bending low, the two raced for the top of the stairs.

  They ran down a hal and into a room where a real-life fabric circus tent had been erected inside the reception area. Beyond the circus tent, Charlene was waving them ahead.

  As Finn reached Charlene and Jess, the other three were fast on his heels. Finn stepped into what turned out to be a conference room with a long oval table surrounded by a dozen or more comfortable chairs. But it wasn’t the chairs or the table that caught his eye. It was the wal s. They’d been painted with carousel horses from Mary Poppins, so he felt as if he were at the very center of a carousel, looking out.

  “Oh my gosh,” he said. “This is it.”

  He immediately identified the panel and chair that Jess had sketched in her diary. The resemblance was uncanny. She’d captured it perfectly.

  “But no code on the wal ,” Jess pointed out. “Or if it’s there, we can’t see it.”

  “Maybe it’s invisible ink or it needs a special light or something in order to be seen,” Philby said.

  “And no Wayne,” Charlene said.

  “We’re out-a here, peo
ple,” Maybeck said as he arrived. “Those four aren’t sightseeing.”

  Finn said, “We’l go down Charlene’s rope, as soon as we’re certain those four are inside.”

  “What four?” Charlene asked.

  “We’l explain later,” Finn said.

  “We have visitors,” said Amanda. “Two sets of fathers and sons.”

  “And don’t forget the snake,” said Wil a.

  “I’l stand watch,” Maybeck offered. “The moment they enter the building, we go over the side.”

  “What about the snake?” Wil a asked in a dry rasp.

  “I can deal with the snake,” Finn said. If he could maintain himself ful y crossed over in al -

  clear, the snake would have nothing to attack.

  If, he thought.

  “Fol ow me!” Charlene said, leading them through a jumbled room where there were cloud figures on the wal .

  Jess stopped as if she’d hit a wal of glass.

  Finn grabbed her.

  She said, “I know this place. I’ve seen those shapes.” She pointed to a hot-air bal oon and a spaceship—smal plaster reliefs hanging on the wal about fifteen feet above the floor.

  “We’ve got to go,” Finn said, pul ing her after him. They entered a spacious patio enclosed in wal s of glass that met overhead like a greenhouse. One of the windows was open and Finn spotted Charlene’s rope looped over a pipe and doubled, dropping down to the ground.

  “Philby first. Then Jess, then Amanda.”

  No one argued with him. When Maybeck appeared, frantic and excited, Philby hooked the rope in his feet and lowered himself. Jess went next. They went quickly, in an orderly fashion, and Finn thought back to Wayne tel ing him that some people were born to lead and that he was one of those people. He hadn’t believed it at the time, but he was slowly coming around.

  “I’m last,” Charlene told him, when only the two of them remained. “I’l take the rope out so they won’t even know we were here.”

  “How can you do that?” Finn asked.

  “Same as in climbing. I’l loop the rope over a bar up top. We’l climb on a double rope and then pul ing it out is a matter of just tugging one end of it.”

  “But no funny business,” Finn said.

  “None,” she said.