“Ach, Emmett isnae fakin’,” said Oogie. “Tha bairn is nae but a wee feartie.”
“A what?” Grimsby snapped. “For cryin’ out loud, man, speak the Queen’s English!”
“Hello, friends and enemies—mostly enemies,” Rector’s voice rang from the speaker. “Wow, if you could see this crowd. This is without a doubt the biggest crowd of people that has ever gathered on the National Mall. Seriously, this is amazing. I’m going to melt so many minds!”
“He’s there already?” Sarah said. “It hasn’t been but ten minutes. We must be very close.”
“This bunker’s built right into the banks of the Potomac,” Nellie explained. “Even on foot, you could reach the Mall in—”
“Quit yer clyping, lassie!” Oogie warned her. “Rector wants ye alife, bit he ne’er said naethin’ abit not hurtin’ ye.”
Nellie, who must have witnessed Oogie MacDougal’s temper in her months undercover, quickly quieted.
“I think we’re just surprised Rector would build his hidey-box within the Mind-Melter’s danger zone,” Cassandra said to the guards. “But I suppose you two are protected with those itty-bitty earplugs that keep the rays from reaching your brain.”
“Dornt need ’em! Ma lugs huvnae e’en a wee chuckie in ’em,” said Oogie.
“I have no idea what this tooty tartan just said, but none’s got those earplugs but Mr. Rector ’imself,” said Grimsby. “He filled us in on what you lot did last time. So if you ’ad any plans for swipin’ our plugs—we ain’t got any!”
“Then you’ll be paralyzed by the Mind-Melter just as we will,” Mary said. “What kind of spell does Rector have you under that you’d be willing to sacrifice yourself to—”
“Nah, we’re all in the clear down here,” Grimsby said, slapping the wall behind him. “Boss tells us ’is melty rays don’t get through concrete.”
Oogie sneered at him. “D’ye caa me tooty, ye bowfy auld footer?”
As their jailkeeps traded incomprehensible insults, Molly spotted Emmett waving to get her attention. He surreptitiously motioned toward the Sizzle-Stick lying on the table outside Molly’s cell. With his back to the bad guys, he pointed to the stick, made a poking motion, and mimed opening a door. Molly instantly knew what he was getting at and had to stop herself from yelping with excitement. A surge of electricity from the Sizzle-Stick could short-circuit the electronic locks on their cell doors.
“You’re a genius,” she mouthed back to him. But they still had a big problem. No matter how far she stretched her arm, there was no chance of her reaching a table six feet away. She pointed to her arm and then held two fingers close together to indicate “too small.”
“Psst!” Emmett got Nellie’s attention and pantomimed writing with an invisible pen. Nellie pretended to scratch an itch as she covertly pulled a pencil and notepad from her hidden skirt pocket.
Oogie’s eyes appeared to catch the movement as Nellie slid the pad from her cell to Emmett’s and Molly quickly spoke up to draw the gangster’s attention. “Hey, Oogie!” she called out. “What’s it feel like to go from big, bad crime boss to groveling henchman?”
The gangster turned on her with a fiery fury. “Haud yer wheesht, lassie! Nae a body tells Oogie whit ta dae but Oogie.”
Grimsby looked on eagerly, ready for a show. “That’s right, mate,” he encouraged. “Teach that jabberin’ brat a lesson. Assumin’ that’s what you were doin’.”
Oogie stood, glaring at Molly, and Hertha jumped in. “Well, it’s obvious who the boss is in this room,” she said casually. “I mean, between a Scotsman and an Englishman? There’s no question.”
Both men took the bait. They began jabbering at each other, Grimsby declaring things about “his proud Saxon heritage” and Oogie barking words like “dunderheid” and “numptie,” which Molly assumed to be insults. But neither of their captors seemed to notice as the prisoners passed, from cell to cell, the note that Emmett had just written. By the time Molly got to read the note, which asked for all the loose corset wire to be passed to Emmett, most of the women were already doing so. Any time either Oogie or Grimsby began to glance toward the cells, someone would quickly toss out a new comment to keep their argument going.
“Well, it’s clear which one of you has more years of experience,” said Nellie at one point. To which Oogie responded by howling, “Aye! This minger’s aulder than ma granda’s ashes!”
A few moments later, Margaret helpfully pointed out, “He’s also the only one who hasn’t been previously trounced by any of us.” To which Grimsby responded by scoffing, “S’true, MacDougal, I ’eard you got your scrawny tail stomped by this bunch at the World’s Fair!”
Holding the paper out of sight, Molly read the rest of Emmett’s note, which also asked for pieces of metal that might be used to fashion a clamp, and anything that could be used to tie pieces together. Without turning away from the bickering henchmen, Molly began unlacing her boot and watching, from the corner of her eye, as Mary unraveled yarn from her knit cap, Bell removed the chain from his pocket watch, and Margaret shook out her boot to find a handful of loose bolts in there. In the back row of cells, Thomas Edison stared wistfully at the broken collection of gears and springs in his hand until Bell finally reached over and gave him a shove. “Oh, just give it to them, Tom,” Bell whispered. And Edison rolled his gadget bits into the next cell.
Molly carefully reached out to hand her unthreaded bootlace to her mother, but paused when she saw Cassandra take off her “World’s Greatest Inventor” medallion. The elder Pepper looked into her daughter’s eyes and raised her brows as if to ask, “Is this okay?” Molly nodded. Her mother believed in herself—and believed in her. She didn’t need a medallion to show it.
As all of the scavenged items were stealthily passed from cell to cell over to Emmett, the Empowernator’s speaker crackled back on. It was not Rector’s voice they heard, but that of President Chester A. Arthur as he made opening remarks to the cheering crowd outside the Washington Monument. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us on this historic occasion. Here with me today are the three men who will be vying for my job in a fortnight—Governor Grover Cleveland, Secretary of State James G. Blaine, and inventor, entertainer, and all-around amazing guy, Thomas Alva Edison. But the contest to see who will become our next president can wait, because today we gather to honor our first president, George Washington. And I think old George would be proud, because you lucky folks are about to bear witness to the lighting of the world’s first electric monument. That’s right, in a surprise move—a surprise even for me; I only learned about it this morning—this big, pointy . . . honor spear is going to be illuminated, from top to bottom, with state-of-the-art electric light. Yes, it’s true. And that bit of spectacularity comes to us, of course, courtesy of Mr. Edison, who is far more than just a political candidate.”
“Hey,” objected Grover Cleveland.
But President Arthur just continued. “In fact, you folks all the way in the back can hear me right now, because I’m speaking to you through Mr. Edison’s magnificent Vocal Empowernator! Incredible, isn’t it? Sounds like someone’s got a bit of an edge in this race, eh?”
“Hey!”
In the secret prison, the president’s speech became increasingly difficult to hear over the rising volume of the spat between the jailers. Oogie was threatening to “skelp yer foosty face!” as Emmett sat hunched over in his cell, furiously bending, twisting, and arranging the odds and ends that had been passed to him.
“And now,” they heard President Arthur say through the speaker, “the candidates and I will make our way to the top of this towering . . . tower, where we will flip the switch to shine our beautiful light straight into the eyes of President Washington’s ghost up in heaven!”
Rector was moments away from activating the Mind-Melter. Molly tried to imagine any scenario in which they’d make it there in time to stop him, but she came up blank.
Luckily, the walk up the stairs
inside the Washington Monument must have been a long one, because for minutes on end, the only sound coming through the speaker was footsteps and panting. Grimsby was bragging about how he’d been committing crimes back when Oogie was the size of a chicken’s toenail when Emmett began sneaking his completed invention over to Nellie in the next cell. It wasn’t easy to stealthily pass a five-foot-long wire arm with a trigger on one end and a clamp at the other, but Nellie managed to get it to Hertha, and Hertha to Josephine, without attracting any undue attention. But as Cassandra reached out and grabbed it from Josephine, the long rod clanked noisily against the bars of her cell.
Grimsby’s head turned. “Oi! What’s going on over there?” he snapped.
But Oogie MacDougal, his ire fully sparked, was in no mood to disengage. “Dinnae ignore me when Ah’m haverin’ at ye, auld man!” And with one powerful blow to the side of the skull, he laid Grimsby flat. The elder henchman’s white ponytail flopped onto his face as he hit the ground and lay utterly still.
Several of the prisoners gasped.
“Did he just—did he kill Bumbles?” Emmett sputtered.
That was when Oogie, shoulders hunched and chest heaving, noticed the long, bizarre rod in Cassandra’s hand. Fast as she could, Cassandra whipped the gadget through her cell and out the other side to Molly. Molly grabbed it and thrust it out between the bars of her cell door, reaching for the table by the wall. She squeezed repeatedly on the cog-wheel trigger, snapping open and closed the bent jar lid that functioned as a makeshift clamp. On the third squeeze, just as Oogie leapt for it, the clamp caught hold of the Sizzle-Stick and Molly yanked the weapon back into the cell with her. Wasting no time, she flicked it on. Sparks flew from the tip as she jabbed it against the lock and, with a whiff of smoke, her door cracked open.
She was free! And Oogie was fuming. He flipped the table over in anger, knocking the Empowernator speaker to the floor as he charged toward Molly’s cell. Molly waited until he was only a few inches away before swinging the door open and smashing it into his face. She leapt out and turned to zap open her mother’s cell, but Cassandra waved her off. “Get Emmett next,” her mother said.
Oogie had already recovered and was running at her again. But he took a tumble over Cassandra’s outstretched foot and skidded onto his face as Molly dashed across the room and sizzled the lock on Emmett’s cell.
Emmett jumped free as Molly turned and raised the stick to fry Nellie’s lock, but before she could bring her weapon down, Oogie’s hand clamped around it. He pulled, trying to pry the Sizzle-Stick away from her, but Emmett wrapped his hands around Molly’s and together they engaged in a tug-of-war with the seething, red-faced crime lord.
“Ye’re deid, bairns,” Oogie hissed through clenched teeth. “Deid.”
Cheers of encouragement roared from the cells as Molly and Emmett bent their knees and pulled with all their might. But they could not get the Sizzle-Stick away from Oogie.
“Molly,” Emmett panted. “On three.”
Molly nodded. “One, two . . .” She and Emmett simultaneously released their grip and Oogie’s own momentum sent him stumbling backward. The Sizzle-Stick flipped through the air and smashed against Robot’s cell door, cracking in half with a shower of sparks.
Molly scrambled to snatch up the pieces of the broken stick, but it was obviously dead. No more opening the cell doors. And nothing to keep Oogie at bay.
The gangster stood up and wiped a trickle of blood from his swollen lip. “Nae too toof noo, are ye, lassie?” Oogie said as he walked, slowly and menacingly, toward the children. Molly and Emmett held hands, trying desperately not to falter as the murderer approached.
“Oh, look,” said Robot, “the Sizzle-Stick unlocked my cell before it broke.”
The metal man shoved his door open into Oogie’s face and grabbed the staggering gangster by his shirt collar. Oogie squirmed as Robot lifted him off the ground and hurled him across the room into the center of the grid of cells.
Flat on his back, Oogie woozily lifted his head. “Ah’mno fallin’ frae fistycuffs with a teapot,” he groused. But before he could even attempt to stand, Captain Lee reached through his bars and grabbed Oogie’s right wrist. Then Alexander Graham Bell promptly seized the villain’s left arm. Sarah grabbed his right ankle, and Margaret the left. And there the four held him, spread-eagled on the concrete. No matter how he writhed, Oogie could not pull free. “Agh, Ah’m fair puckled.”
“We’ll hold him,” said Captain Lee to his son. “You get the cells open.”
Emmett ran to the control panel and started randomly flicking switches, while Molly tried fruitlessly to shock open her mother’s cell with the broken stick.
“Stop, children—listen!” said Hertha.
Everyone paused to hear the speech coming through the Empowernator. With all the commotion, no one had realized that Rector was speaking again. “. . . find out two weeks from today, when this nation chooses its next ruler. But let’s be honest—it’s going to be me.”
“Hey!” said Grover Cleveland.
“And I must say,” Rector continued, “I do like the feel of looking down upon all you little people from way up here. Figuratively, of course. But I am basically on top of the world up here, which I think we can all agree is where I belong. And I’ll prove it to everyone when I turn this bad boy on in a moment, but first, let me tell you a little bit about my road to awesomeness . . .”
“He’s launching into one of his villain speeches,” Hertha said. “That could give us a good ten, fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll work fast!” Emmett said, madly flipping switches.
“No! Molly, Emmett, Robot—you need to go and stop him,” Cassandra urged. “You’re our only hopes!”
“Maybe,” Edison said skeptically. “But if they stay here in the bunker, at least they’ll be shielded by the concrete.”
“Unless Mr. Rector was lying about that too,” said Robot.
“It might not be my place to butt in,” said Hertha, “but if Rector takes over Washington, and then the country, and then the world . . .”
“MacDougal’s got the combinations in his jacket!” Nellie reminded them.
“Heh! Nae anymore,” Oogie snarled from the floor. “Rector said they doors wid ne’er needs be open agin, sae Ah et it! Tha’ wee piece o’ paper is in mah tummy.”
“I, um, I can keep guessing at combinations,” Emmett said.
“That would only waste more precious time,” Cassandra said. “Children, you can do this. Hand me that Sizzle-Stick; I’ll fix it and get the rest of us out. But you three need to go. Now. You’re our only chance to stop Rector.”
“But . . . how?” Molly asked.
“Any way you can,” her mother replied.
“Son,” Captain Lee called from the next cell. “I know you’re hesitating because you’re thinking I would not want you to do this. And you’re right. Why would I want you to do something so crazy and dangerous? But this is bigger than my feelings. Make me proud, Emmett.”
Emmett nodded.
Molly handed the broken stun rod to her mother. “Don’t worry, everybody!” she called as she, Emmett, and Robot rushed out the door. “We’ll save the world!”
“Head due east out of the woods from here until you reach the Mall!” Nellie said.
“Use anything you see to get you there faster,” Hertha urged. “A wagon, a horse, anything!”
“Believe in yourselves!” Sarah yelled.
The freed trio rushed down a cement corridor, scaled a flight of steps, and burst outside into a grassy clearing surrounded by trees. The sun was bright and the children had to squint until their eyes adjusted. Behind them, they could hear the rushing waters of the Potomac River, while the roaring of the crowd at the monument could already be made out in the opposite direction.
“I don’t suppose we’d be lucky enough to find Grimsby’s coach sitting out here for us,” Emmett said.
“Better than that,” Molly replied, unable to beli
eve her eyes. “Look! It’s the Daedalus Chariot!”
She ran to the gleaming red vehicle. She had no idea how her mother’s flying machine had appeared at the riverside outside Rector’s secret bunker, but she didn’t care. Then she saw who was sitting in the pilot’s seat.
“Well, this is fortuitous,” said Agent Clark. “Molly Pepper, you are under arrest.”
24
Dogfight
“AGENT CLARK!” MOLLY shouted. Her heart was pounding. “Believe it or not, we are so glad to see you! I’m not even angry that you’ve stolen my mother’s flying machine! Listen, Rector is disguised as Thomas Edison right now. He’s at the Washington Monument with President Arthur and he’s going to—”
“Tell me whatever stories you’d like while we’re on the way to city jail,” the federal agent said, unclipping a pair of jangling handcuffs from his belt.
“Sir, you don’t understand!” Emmett said. “Rector has turned the entire monument into a giant version of his Mind-Melter from the World’s Fair! He’s about to use it on the crowd and—”
“I’ll be happy to take down your report at the station.” Clark stood, ready to disembark from the chariot.
“If you are not interested in the exploits of Ambrose Rector,” said Robot, “perhaps you would like to go inside this odd little building and arrest the criminals in there.”
“Yes! Oogie MacDougal is right down those steps!” Molly shouted as Clark approached. “You know, the most wanted man in America? Besides us. He helped Rector kidnap all of us. Our parents and the MOI are holding him down in there, but—”
“Your parents are here as well?” Clark said. And Molly saw, for the first time, something on his face that could possibly be called a smile. “And the Mothers of Invention? Well, I believe I have, as those of the gambling persuasion say, hit the jackpot. Let’s get you cuffed and we’ll all go inside together.”
“We’re losing precious time!” Emmett pleaded. “Every second we waste talking about this is one second closer to Rector turning on his death machine.”
The Final Gambit Page 23
