Kingdom Keepers VI (9781423179214) (2 page)

“Hang on!” he called to Willa, and let go of the pipe just as it sank beneath the surface. Again, Finn sank his face into the water and spoke the Triton code in a loud bubbling voice.

“Starfish wise, starfish cries.”

Willa let go and treaded water.

“NO!” Finn called out, aware of the physics involved. The two were instantly the objects of opposing forces: the concussion of the sub's propeller wash and the downdraft of currents caused by its rapid descent. Willa was swept back, hands and legs held awkwardly in front of her as though she were crawling. Finn, slightly to the side, was caught in the downdraft, sucked deeper and deeper as he watched Willa zoom away.

For him and Willa to have the best chance for a return, they needed to be together, and they needed to be on the surface. Finn didn't trust the projection strength underwater, even this close to the
Dream
. He kicked furiously as he was pulled deeper still. He could feel the water pressure squeezing him smaller, compacting him. He had no idea if even a 2.0 projection could survive such pressure.

His hand struck something hard and slimy. Finn yanked away and kicked out instinctively, spooked by the unyielding darkness of the depths. A shark? It had to be!

The creature impaled him with its snout, striking
him in the center of his chest. An instant later, he was struck again, then snagged under both arms—
two
sharks, not one?—and driven higher. Finn wrestled to be free, but the force of the water and speed of his escorts pinned him to their slick, snot-like skin.

Only as Finn pulled toward the surface, where the moonlight and starlight penetrated, did he finally get a look at his captors. Not sharks. A different nose. Sleek bodies mottled gray and white. Spotted dolphins, fast as lightning, streaking for the surface.

The Triton code, answered—again.

Finn rolled and hooked on to the dorsal fin to his right, carried now by a single dolphin. The animal responded to his willing participation immediately, bursting through the surface, arcing through the air, and plunging back into the sea. It chittered playfully while airborne. Finn gave a spontaneous cry of joy.

“Ooooo-weeee!”

But it was a girl's voice he heard, not his own.

To his right, between his dolphin and the ship, Willa was straddling her dolphin like a pony, one hand on the dorsal fin, one high in the air like a bucking- bronco rider. The dolphins closed ranks, side by side, diving beneath the surface, then busting loose in high, acrobatic flight.

Glancing up, Finn saw the ship's port rails filling with spectators. This was what he'd hoped for: word spread quickly aboard the
Dream
, especially around whale or dolphin sightings. If their fellow Keepers were still looking for them—and Finn had every reason to believe they were—there was no way they would miss this.

Equally important, however, was that not
too many
passengers see the two kids riding the dolphins. Better that the sighting seem like the ramblings of someone who had drunk too much, or be taken as a Disney special effect. The Panama Canal cruise had been designated a Kingdom Keepers cruise, after all—excuses could be made.

Finn leaned down to his pilot, having no idea where a dolphin's ears were located. “Stay under!” he called out.

Having no idea what Finn had just said, the dolphin rose and leaped again. Finn saw that the flippers by his legs aimed upward as the dolphin dove; he reached out and held the flippers up, then let go. The dolphin got the message, diving deeper. Finn pulled the flippers to horizontal—using them as an equestrian would reins. The dolphin responded, leveling off. Its companion dolphin, carrying Willa, caught up, staying abreast of the leader, both submerged.

Willa's short hair streamed behind. She glanced over at Finn, eyes white with exhilaration.

The passengers on deck would be scouring the waves, hoping. But by now the crowd would be growing. Finn didn't need witnesses comparing notes:
Did
you see the two kids
riding
the dolphins?

The dolphins sped forward, racing through the water like torpedoes. Willa and Finn held tight. Thirty seconds underwater… Forty…

How long until the Keepers heard about the sighting and communicated with the Radio Studio to attempt a Return?

Willa motioned a thumb up, toward the surface. Finn, in weighing exposure to the passengers against the chance to return, had neglected the needs of the hardworking dolphins, who were mammals and required fresh air. He pressed the dolphin's flippers down, holding them there briefly. The dolphin responded, raising its head, kicking its fluke, and exploding into the night. Water sprayed from its blowhole, fresh air filling its lungs.

Finn heard shouts as viewers called out to one another.

Then his arms tingled. He looked over at Willa, but it was like looking at her through a shower curtain; her image was faded and dull. She reached for him, and he for her. Their fingers wiggled, trying to touch. They connected.

Finn woke in an empty stateroom. Bone dry. Panting. A dream? A nightmare? Or had he returned? Nearly always the same sensation—mystical, mysterious. Awash in disbelief and not trusting his own powers of observation, he briefly wondered if he'd imagined everything.

Or had he lived it?

Where did the potency of possibility give way to the power of persuasion?

F
ROM THE MOMENT
Finn and Willa had jumped off the deck, the situation on board the ship had gone from bad to worse.

As he'd leaped, Finn had thrown a small object back onto Deck 4. It had been spotted by Amanda and Jess, two girls with unusual abilities who had joined forces with the five Keepers. The “sisters” had been crossed over onto the ship hours earlier as holograms at the instruction of Wayne's daughter, Wanda. Wayne
supervised all the Keepers' activities and missions; he had the final word on everything.

The four hyenas in pursuit of Finn had seen it as well. Nasty creatures intent on reducing Finn to a midnight snack, the hyenas were homicidal maniacs. The lead hyena was so determined to catch Finn that it misjudged the traction on the slippery deck and plowed headfirst into the metal railing, knocking itself unconscious. The second beast bounced off the rail, but recovered. Hyena number three aimed for whatever it was Finn had tossed behind, and snapped it up in its frothing mouth.

Maybeck arrived on deck wearing a kitchen
costume: white pants and pullover shirt. “Don't ask,” he said to the bandaged Charlene at his side. The ship's doctor had patched her wounded shoulder.

A big kid for his fifteen years, and fearless to the point of stupidity, Maybeck dove for the hyena but missed. None of the kids knew exactly what the hyena had stolen, but Finn had tried to save it, which made it important.

Maybeck's effort was commendable if unsuccessful. He tried for the animal's rear leg. But this model hyena came equipped with the full package, including backup sensors; it spooked as Maybeck dove, avoiding his eager hand. Like a trained seal, it tossed the small object
into the air, opened its maw wide, and appeared to swallow the thing.

Charlene lunged to stop the hyena. It veered, heading straight for Jess.

As sisters who weren't really sisters, the enigmatic Amanda and Jess were known to the Keepers as “Fairlies”—fairly human, but with unique powers. Amanda possessed telekinesis (the “supposed” power to move objects with her mind); Jess, clairvoyance (the “supposed” power to see events in the future). In fact, there wasn't anything “supposed” about their powers, except that the U.S. military was confounded by them and continued to study kids like Jess and Amanda at a facility in Baltimore, an institution from which the two girls had escaped before meeting the Keepers. Currently, they lived with a number of other “strays,” charges of a foster mother called Mrs. Nash, whom the girls referred to as Mrs. Nasty.

Now the hyena aimed at Jess, who reacted defensively and reached out to block it. She grabbed its hind leg. The animal squealed, rolled over, and bit Jess, whose hologram was solid at that exact instant.

Jess cried out and let go. She balled up in pain, rolling onto the deck.

An injury a Keeper sustained as a DHI ended up as part of their real body when he or she returned. This bite was a bleeder. Jess was in serious trouble.

The hyena scrambled back to its feet and charged up Deck 4's jogging track toward the bow, the other hyenas trailing close behind.

Maybeck started out in pursuit but quickly lost ground. He snatched up a shuffleboard cue, smacked it on the deck, and broke its U-shaped head from its broomstick-like rod. He hoisted the rod to shoulder height and launched it like a javelin. He would claim later that it had been a protective instinct to defend Jess, a combination of anger, frustration, and the urge to play action hero.

A wild shriek echoed down the deck—the lead hyena was hit, the spear dragging from its flank. The animal slowed but continued toward the bow. The spear
wiggled loose and clanged to the deck. The hyenas
disappeared into the jogging track's bow tunnel.

Charlene and Amanda stooped over the fallen Jess.

“What's happening to her?” a frightened Amanda said.

“She's…” Charlene studied Jess, trying to understand what they were witnessing.

The girl's hologram grew translucent, then disappeared altogether. As it reappeared, it sputtered and wouldn't hold. Each time it faded, Jess squirmed and cried out in pain.

“…form-shifting,” Charlene continued. “Her fear
and the pain of the wound are switching her from
hologram to mortal. She's in limbo, flashing between the two.”

The bite was ugly. It was on the top of Jess's right thigh, two curved lacerations—a frown and a smile. It bled heavily.

Philby arrived from the Radio Studio through the deck's center doors. He spoke with a slight British accent, having spent some of his childhood in England, and had a crop of red hair and a sparkle to his eyes that signaled his uncanny intelligence.

“What about Finn?” Amanda called out to him.

“Storey's on it. At the moment, everyone's on the port side because someone claimed he saw two kids
riding dolphins.”

“No way!” Charlene said.

Philby grinned at Amanda. “Storey returned the two of them. So for the moment,” he continued, “we should be alone here, but it won't stay that way.”

He took in Jess's injury and her form-shifting.

“The ship's doctors can't find her like this! They'll try to medicate her hologram and who knows how that will affect her real body.”

“Well, she can't return like this,” Amanda said firmly. “No way we can deal with the wound at Mrs. Nash's, not to mention that we'd have no way to explain what's happened.”

“So she can't stay here and she can't go back,” Maybeck said. “Someone have a plan?”

Philby caught Charlene's eye. He said, “We have to—”

“Hide her.”

“Yes.”

“How?” Charlene asked.

“Even if she could walk,” Maybeck said, “which I doubt—it's not as if anyone's going to miss
that
.”

He was pointing at Jess's bloody leg.

“And we need to find that hyena,” Philby said, “and whatever it stole from Finn.”

“The bee suits,” Jess groaned to Amanda through clenched teeth.

All eyes fell on Amanda.

“What are you talking about?” Philby said.

“One of her dreams,” Amanda explained. “She sketched out two guys in beekeeper suits carrying
her
. You know: big, baggy suits and netting for a helmet?”

Philby said, “Not beekeepers. Hazmat suits. Hazardous materials. Coveralls.” He addressed the wounded Jess. “Is that right? Suits? Goggles? Masks?”

Jess nodded.

“Rubber gloves,” she said. “I thought it was beekeepers.”

“They call 'em protein spills,” Charlene said. “Kids puking. Passengers who get cuts and bleed. Protein. Get it?”

“That's disgusting!” Maybeck said.

“Better than Puke Patrol,” Philby said. “Any guesses as to how many people get seasick on a cruise ship? And if it's a bug instead of seasickness, they have to make sure it doesn't spread.”

“They dispatch teams,” Charlene said. She turned to Maybeck. “Did you read
any
of Philby's background notes for this trip?”

“I…ahh…”

“Three suits,” Charlene proposed. “One, to hide her. Two more to hide whoever's carrying her.”

“Take Maybeck with you. More suits, if you can. A protein spill team can follow the blood trail.”

“That would be us,” Maybeck said, understanding what Philby had in mind. If they could get four suits, they could divide into two teams of two—one team to get Jess to a stateroom; the other to follow the hyena's spilled blood.

“I'm all right,” Jess said, lying. She struggled to
get up.

“Let's get her to the bench,” Philby said, “before anyone sees her. We'll hide her leg—”

“With my bandana,” Charlene said, untying her Cast Member neckerchief.

“Here we go,” Philby said. “You two…hurry!”