Kingdom Keepers Boxed Set

by Ridley Pearson

  But before Finn ever reached the clot of guests at the windows, Maybeck stopped and pulled him aside.

  “Check it out!”

  Just Maybeck’s tone of voice told Finn it was something important. Typically, Maybeck was much too cool to get excited about anything. “Son of a ______.” Maybeck said a word that would have once again gotten Finn grounded for a week.

  “Oh…man,” he said, while Maybeck was busy unfolding his copy of the page from Jez’s diary.

  The temple’s stone wall held a series of stone carvings, four feet by four feet pictographs showing different scenes. The primitive carvings were beautiful. One showed a person with his or her arms in the air, and an eagle flying overhead. Another had a fruit tree at its center, with birds in the branches and deer surrounding it. A monkey sat at the base of the tree holding a piece of the fruit. There were two others, both depicting a weird-looking guy with a mustache dancing around and doing strange things. But it was the image of the monkey that captured and held Finn’s attention.

  Maybeck pointed to the monkey. “That’s the monkey she drew,” he said. “It wasn’t a live monkey, it was this one.”

  “Agreed.”

  panda: finn, check out the diary page.

  He quickly texted back to her.

  Finn: the monkey? can u c what we c?

  panda: check out the window, my angle matches the diary exactly.

  “The windows,” Finn told Maybeck, pointing to the knot of visitors straining for a look. He then found the incredibly similar drawing on the photocopy of the diary and pointed this out to Maybeck as well.

  He and Maybeck moved toward the crowd.

  “I gotta tell you,” Maybeck said, “until now, I wasn’t buying that Jez could dream the future.”

  “And now?” Finn asked.

  “Yeah, well. A person’s got a right to be wrong.”

  FINN AND MAYBECK steadily pushed to the front of the throng gathered at the windows overlooking the tiger yards, where a blanket of green grass was interrupted by some trees and rocks. A huge tigress slumbered in the thick shade of a bamboo stand, her back against the tall rock wall that contained her. Jez had sketched both this window and the sculpture reliefs they’d just been studying, meaning this location had played a significant role in her dreams.

  But what role? Finn wondered.

  “It could be she’s hiding in the tiger yards,” Finn said quietly to Maybeck.

  “You see her out there, do you?” Maybeck asked.

  “No. But—”

  “That’s because she isn’t there.”

  “But it makes sense. She wouldn’t exactly be able to move if she was stuck in there. Not with tigers roaming the place.”

  “Whitman, look around.”

  Finn moved to the opposite side of the walled bridge dividing the two tiger yards. He didn’t have to challenge any crowds, because there weren’t any. There weren’t any tigers seen from this side.

  “Convinced?” Maybeck said from behind him. He, too, had switched sides.

  “But why would she have drawn both the window and the monkey? Can you explain that?” Finn asked anxiously. “They have to mean something.”

  “She drew a lot of stuff: a dinosaur, the monkey, the window, a bat, some old dude. How are we supposed to know what it all means?”

  “That’s just the point,” Finn said. “We are supposed to know what it means. We’re supposed to figure it out. We’re supposed to help her.”

  “Maybe it’s about the animals, not the locations,” Maybeck suggested. “Something to do with monkeys, tigers, and dinosaurs. What do they have in common?”

  “Nothing,” Finn said, “except that they’re all part of the AK.”

  “The server!” Maybeck said excitedly. “The second server. Didn’t Wayne tell you the plan was to—”

  “Make animals into DHIs!” Finn shouted a little too loudly. “You’re right.” He pulled out the page of Jez’s diary and studied it again. “What if these animals are the ones they’re turning into DHIs? Jez saw them in her dreams. They meant something to her, something important.”

  Maybeck wrote to Amanda on the DS.

  mybest: amanda. how many tigers u c?

  panda: 3

  mybest: finn and me think some animals may B DHIs.

  Finn joined the D-Gamer chat room.

  Finn: otakers might use dhis 2 fake us out.

  mybest: maleficent cannot be trusted, she could have made a dhi of herself 2 use as decoy or something, no way 2 know.

  panda: she wants control of the parks, it makes more sense she would use the dhis 2 scare the guests, or 2 put us into sbs. she doesn’t want us around, that’s 4 sure.

  Finn: and with jez being able to see the future, she’s a real threat, what if she knows what Maleficent has planned?

  panda: that would explain why maleficent wants 2 control her.

  Finn: the diary drawings of animals may be 2 warn us 2 watch out for this or something.

  panda: no. it’s more than that, her dreams involve her. have u ever had a dream that you’re not in? never! the diary is about her dreams, her life.

  The screen flickered. She wasn’t through typing.

  panda:…there’s a truck being unloaded behind the bat enclosure. 2 cages…both wrapped with tarps.

  mybest: doesn’t mean anything.

  panda: listen to me! the truck driver has a monkey on his arm. a live monkey, the park would never allow a monkey to be running around loose, these cast members are fakes.

  mybest: how big r the cages?

  panda: big! big enough for a large dog or…a wild cat or…

  Maybeck interrupted by typing quickly:

  mybest: philby and willa!

  Finn: amanda, watch every camera in that area, we’re on our way!

  FINN AND MAYBECK made their way toward the bat enclosure, just down from the tiger yard along the winding, dark trail of the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Bugs buzzed past their heads as the heat enveloped them, making their chests tight and their breath short. Birds cried out and fluttered past, winning Maybeck’s unflinching attention as he recalled his earlier horrifying experience. His DS beeped and he checked for the message.

  panda: the backstage camera @ the bat enclosure just stopped working.

  “That cannot be a coincidence,” Maybeck whispered to Finn. “That camera was sabotaged. Something’s going on back there, and we need to know what it is.”

  angelface13: hey, guys, right behind u.

  Finn spun around, looking for her.

  angelface13: 2 your left.

  Finn glanced in that direction.

  Finn saw her first: a paler green shape amid the dark green of the undergrowth. She was on the stilts and ten feet into the jungle, all but invisible thanks to the twisting vine of leaves that disguised her. It was only when she made a slight motion that he was able to spot her. The boys moved closer to the jungle so they could talk to Charlene in a whisper.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on the enclosure as Maybeck asked,” she said. “There’s been a lot of activity, a lot of coming and going through those doors at the rear. The workers have paid particular attention to that big bat near the red flag on the far left. Twice they’ve carried him through to the back and then returned him out front. I don’t know if that’s the one that was in the pillowcase, but…it might be.”

  Finn and Maybeck weren’t where they could see well into the enclosure. Maybeck walked steadily closer to the viewing station, leaving Finn behind. He positioned himself with a decent view of the enclosure, then turned toward Finn, and both shrugged and nodded, as if to say: It’s certainly big enough to be the same one.

  Finn said, “We need to get back there and find out what’s in those cages.”

  “No way!” Maybeck protested.

  Charlene asked, “Still no sign of Willa and Philby?”

  “No,” Finn answered with a heavy heart.

  “I think I have an idea,” Charlene said. “A way to
find out what’s going on back there.”

  Finn, surprised by Charlene’s offer, turned toward the jungle to face her—though because of the way she blended in, he found it difficult to see her. Maybeck’s attention remained fully focused on the enclosure. He and Charlene were opposites: Maybeck tended to react too quickly to situations and liked to work as a loner; Charlene rarely contributed in discussions, and when she did participate, enjoyed working as part of a team.

  “What are you thinking?” Finn asked.

  “I’m going to need a diversion,” Charlene whispered. “Something big. Something everyone will watch. And by everyone, I mean every last bird and caterpillar, and especially the people and bats.”

  INGENIOUS, FINN THOUGHT as he moved through the swinging doors and into the forward viewing booth. There were three levels of viewing offered at the bat enclosure, three open-air rooms constructed of dark wood that led the Park guest closer to the risk of contact with the flying rodents. The first viewing room offered glass windows; the middle room, screens; and the final room—more of a long booth—nothing but well-spaced vertical wooden bars to keep the large bats at bay. The bars were clearly wide enough for Finn to poke his head through, yet too narrow for the extended wings of the large African bats.

  Finn kept his cap pulled down snugly, hoping to avoid being recognized; that was the kind of distraction he could do without. The viewing room was staffed by a college-age girl in a ranger’s uniform. Presently, she was answering the questions of two young boys who had too much energy for such a small space. Their mother seemed unwilling to contain them, which served Finn’s purpose well. He slipped the case off his father’s BlackBerry and stepped close to the open-air viewing windows, hoisting the phone to take a picture. He pressed up to the bars, a warm breeze striking him, and caught a fleeting and exasperated glance from the ranger, who was finding her patience taxed by the two boys.

  Finn purposely fumbled with the phone and case, allowing the case to slip out of his hands and fall through the bars, down into the enclosure. He pocketed the phone.

  “My case!” he shouted. He jumped up onto the sill and began to squeeze himself through the bars.

  Finn was relatively slight of build. He actually got partway through the bars before the ranger’s strong hand grasped him by the upper arm.

  “GET OUT OF THERE!!” the girl screamed at the top of her lungs, pulling on him. “YOU CAN’T GO IN THERE!!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?”

  The effect was exactly what Charlene had hoped for: every human eye was drawn to Finn; some of the bats were spooked by the ranger’s admonishments. For a few precious seconds, the ranger pulled and Finn resisted.

  “My case!” he hollered.

  “GET DOWN FROM THERE!”

  Finn stole one quick glance. Maybeck helped Charlene, on stilts, through the jungle door and into the enclosure. Charlene’s ivy-clad costume pushed up against the rocks at the far end of the enclosure, and within seconds a miracle occurred: she disappeared. DeVine’s costume fit into the environment so well that her form appeared as ivy growing up the rocks. There was no mistaking this whatsoever for a girl on stilts. The change was extraordinary.

  Finn, apologizing and complaining at the same time, allowed himself to be drawn back into the viewing room, actually grateful for the ranger’s efforts, since the swirling bats swooped and dove too close for comfort. The ranger scolded him briefly, then promised to have his lost case retrieved. She tried to contact someone over her headset, but clearly there was no answer. She double-checked both the headset and the radio it was plugged into, obviously annoyed by the lack of response.

  She blushed, apologized, and asked Finn to stick around. “I don’t know why I’m not getting anyone back there,” she said.

  I do, Finn thought to himself. The people behind that door are not the people you normally work with. If they’re even people at all…

  Once again, his eyes strayed to the far side of the enclosure, where he saw that the ivy patch on the rocks had migrated a few feet farther along, a yard or two closer to the enclosure’s center doors. Charlene was moving so incredibly slowly, so expertly, that it was impossible to detect her movements. The ivy seemed to be growing and extending all on its own, blending in perfectly with the ivy already there.

  WITH HER BACK TO a false rock wall, Charlene watched Finn being grabbed by the ranger in the viewing booth. The girl stopped him from jumping into the enclosure, and then the two had words. Charlene thought that Finn seemed to be looking right at her a couple of times, and she wondered how good a job she was doing at blending in.

  With her face painted camouflage green, white, and brown, only the whites of her eyes threatened to give her away; so Charlene tried to keep her eyes averted. But it wasn’t easy. Jangled by raw nerves, she inched her way along the wall, trying not to look at the bats. She hated bats, and the ones in the enclosure were the size of bowling pins: big, gray, winged rats, hanging upside down from clotheslines. As long as they kept their distance, she thought she could make it.

  The only people who might spot her were those in the viewing station: the Park visitors and the ranger. When she did look up, it was toward the booth. She didn’t know if Amanda had a camera aimed at her, and she’d lost sight of Maybeck, who was somewhere off to her right near the jungle door. She was on her own: fenced in with several dozen giant bats, in a place that smelled…well, funky…trying to slow dance her way clear around the curve of the smooth, irregular rock wall to the center doors.

  She inched a stilt to her left, stepped the other along, and then froze, allowing her vines to blend in with those growing on the rocks. Then, a minute or two later, she moved again. She and the vines crept ahead, no one the wiser.

  Finn left the booth, and Maybeck appeared out on the path with him. They both glanced once in her direction. She saw Finn lift his DS, signaling for her that a text was coming.

  Finn: can’t c u at all, charlie. great job, we’re here if u need us.

  The two boys walked off.

  It was the first time Finn, or anyone else for that matter, had ever called her Charlie, and she actually liked the nickname. There was something pleasing about it, something incredibly personal that made her feel especially good about it. She hoped it might stick, providing she got out of here alive.

  The left stilt caught on a rock as she moved, and the rock shot out from under it like a wet bar of soap, raising a puff of dust. This, in turn, startled the bats, already edgy from Finn’s distraction. Three of the ugly things flew straight for her, coming toward her face at incredible speed, flying close enough that she could see not only the black glass, buttonlike, beady eyes, but the tiny gray hairs that surrounded their ratty faces, and the eerie translucence of their wings. Her stomach knotted, her head swooned, and a scream bubbled up from her lungs. She kept silent only by snapping her lips shut and clenching her teeth. The last of the three brushed against her hair, dislodging a carefully placed plastic vine and causing a strand to fall into her eyes—undoing her disguise. If anyone looked directly at her now, they were sure to see a length of blond hair inexplicably sticking out from the ivy—and that couldn’t be good. She blew the hair out of her eyes with upturned lips and moved more quickly now, slipping her way around the curving rock wall and nearing the green doors at its center.

  She was partially hidden by several trees as she neared the two doors, suddenly realizing that on stilts she was much too tall to fit through without Maybeck’s help. Being near the middle of the enclosure, she was also now the center of attention. Without her knowing it, the Park guests were looking directly at her.

  She wasn’t going to get through those doors, and she’d come too far to turn back. She looked up: the rock wall rose high above her head, but though it was uneven and craggy, there were plenty of handholds visible. Charlene climbed the rock wall at her gym—she considered herself something of an expert.

  The trick was getting her feet out of the stilts without being seen and then leav
ing the stilts propped against the rock so that she could return to them and effect her escape. She eased down into a squat—not an easy balancing act on stilts—and managed to release her left foot. She freed her right foot, too, and then carefully stepped out of both stilts to leave them resting against the fake rock wall. Some of the ivy strands that wrapped around the stilts continued higher and merged into those that surrounded her leotard. She managed to disconnect the tendrils one by one; far more were sewn to the leotard and remained part of her costume. These also helped disguise her as, by handhold and foothold, Charlene climbed higher up the rock face. With each small ascent she paused for what felt like a very long time, allowing her vines to combine with rock and make it more difficult to spot her. She was helped out by the trees and vegetation between her and the viewing booth. But soon she rose above the crown of the nearest tree, clinging to the odd texture of the fake rock and staying close to the line of real ivy to help camouflage her.

  Then, any possible route disappeared above her. She was used to having to plot her way up a rock wall, so she paused and looked for a possible route. The only small handholds she saw moved away from the patch of real ivy. But she had no choice. As she started off in that direction, she realized she was heading directly above the double doors at the center of the enclosure. She was also exposing herself to being seen by Park guests, as she was now directly in front of the viewing booths. Because of this, she tried to move incredibly slowly. But the slow climbing taxed her strength and weakened her.