Ridley Pearson - Power Play

“Can we stay on topic please?” Philby said.

Maybeck said, “You missed your big chance.”

“How long had you guys known? About the spell, I mean?” Charlene said, ignoring Philby’s request.

“We can do this later,” Philby said. “The point is, you’re back.”

“Jess showed me a sketch today,” Willa said, changing subjects, “at school.”

Finn recalled Jess drawing on a napkin at the ice cream parlor.

“And?” he asked.

“She said it had just come to her when we were in the Parks.”

“AND?” Finn repeated anxiously.

“It was this military guy. Like a general. Or maybe a police officer or something.”

“What kind of officer?” Philby asked.

“How would I know? They all look the same to me. Just a guy, a grown-up, in a uniform.”

“I’d like to see it,” Philby said, wondering if it had something to do with Wanda being locked up. According to Finn’s mother, she was supposed to have been released earlier that day.

Finn nodded.

“So, you can ask Jess,” Willa said.

“What are we supposed to do?” Maybeck asked. “Spy on their spies? That could be awkward.”

“So what can we do about it?” the ever-practical Willa asked.

“Can you stop what happened to me from happening again?” Charlene asked.

“It shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place,” Philby said.

“That doesn’t exactly answer my question,” she said.

Philby said, “I can monitor the traffic. Set a data alarm. If there’s another surge of data, high bandwidth usage, I should be able to detect it.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound promising,” Maybeck said.

“I’m open to suggestions,” said Philby, knowing he was the only one who understood any of what he’d just said.

“I’d like to gang up on one of these imitation-flavor Overtakers and have a little talk with them about what they’re up to,” Maybeck said. “I wonder how strong they are when it’s three against one.”

“I hate to say it,” said Willa, “but it might be better-safer-to try a girl first.”

“Sally Ringwald,” Finn said. “She was in the photo with Lady Evil, and Amanda said she’s now wearing green contacts.”

“Can you or Amanda get her alone with us someplace?” Maybeck asked.

“Listen to you!” Charlene said, chastising them. “You’re going to hurt some girl without even being sure she’s part of this?”

“Of course you’d defend her! You were working for the Evil Queen yourself! Besides, who said we’re going to hurt her?” Maybeck said. “Scare her a little, maybe? Sure. It’s not like the OTs don’t scare us. Am I right? You bet I am. It’s time we return the favor, is all. If those guys are spies, we need to know it before it’s too late.”

Heads nodded in agreement.

“I was apparently a spy for them and I didn’t even know it,” Charlene reminded in a somber voice.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Maybeck said. But it didn’t sound as if he meant a word of it.

PHILBY’S CAT, ELVIS, was a plump, lazy cat. The kind of plump that might get him mistaken for a pet raccoon. The kind that scared off small dogs. Elvis, like all cats, enjoyed warm places to sleep. On the couch, nestled between pillows. Curled up in a shirt that had been tossed on the floor.

Philby’s laptop computer ran hot. Its internal fan emitted a pleasant, catlike purr.

Elvis jumped first to the empty office chair, then up to the desk, and lay across the purring keyboard, luxuriating in its warmth.

At desk height he was nearly level with Philby, who slept soundly in his bed across the room. Elvis got up and circled once, unable to find the perfect position. His back paws hit several keys at once. On the screen a window closed. Then another. Elvis took no notice; he’d found the perfect spot to sleep.

He had no idea that he’d just closed the data traffic monitoring program Philby used to police the DHI server. No idea he’d turned off Philby’s data alarm.

Instead, he settled his formidable self over the keys, wiggling until gravity claimed various parts of him. He placed his considerable cat chin down gently onto his crossed paws and closed his eyes.

Behind him, the laptop timed out and went into sleep mode along with him. The boy in the bed knew no different.

Willa slept with a bear. Not a real bear, a stuffed bear; but no normal stuffed bear, either. A sizable bear. A gargantuan bear of proportions nearing those of a small child. She slept with it alongside of her, its head on a pillow, or sometimes rocked up on its side with its black button eyes looking right at her as she drifted off to sleep. And sometimes, at the same magical moment of finding sleep, she would sling an arm around it and pull it in close, subconsciously enjoying its fuzzy fur as well as the comfort of having something so wonderfully close.

She dozed off, dreaming of school that day, of meeting the Keepers at Crazy Glaze, and of a particularly disturbing exchange of texts with Philby. They’d been texting a lot recently, which she didn’t mind at all. But when she found out that Philby, not Maybeck, had kissed Charlene to break the spell, she’d felt the tug of jealousy. Charlene, with her athletic ability, her incredible looks, and her class-A flirting-if she turned on the charm, a fire hydrant would agree to go to the mall with her. Why had Philby been the one to kiss her and not Finn? Why had his recent texts felt more normal and less crushy? Mr. Totems brought her comfort, but her mind wouldn’t stop churning.

Willa’s dream became intensely realistic. Suddenly, she was laying beside a lake, while clutching tightly to Mr. Totems, her bear. Across the lake-rising out of the water-was a green dinosaur. A brontosaurus, she thought, though she was no expert. It was not daylight, but it was not exactly night either. There was an eerie quality to the color of the light, everything around her was glowing. She let go of Mr. Totems, noticing the familiar shimmer to the outline of her forearm and hand. She held her hand out in front of her, admiring the translucent quality of her skin. Then a breeze blew across her and she shivered. And she gasped.

It wasn’t a dream at all: she was a hologram. A DHI. She had crossed over in her sleep.

It wasn’t supposed to have been able to happen. They had talked about avoiding crossing over until they knew more, until they knew it was safe. Philby would have told her if he’d planned this; otherwise it must be an extreme emergency, she thought. Something that couldn’t wait.

And here she was: in her pajamas with Mr. Totems, somewhere in Disney World. At least her Justice pajamas weren’t too embarrassing-red pants, and a long-sleeve top with a panda bear and fireworks that glittered. Not exactly what she wanted to be seen in; but better than a nightgown, which was what Charlene typically ended up in.

But which Park was it? Willa wondered as she took her bearings. She faced a street-not much of a clue. Some buildings surrounding an open plaza-again, not enough to tell her which Park it was. She sat on a raised platform; it was nearly pitch-black above her, except that she could just make out a patch of nighttime clouds swirling directly overhead in a doughnut of black.

Her lack of familiarity with the place told her two things: one, she wasn’t anywhere in the Magic Kingdom or the Animal Kingdom-she knew both Parks too well; two, by process of elimination, that left only Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Epcot had streets in the various World Showcase attractions, but none as wide, as real-looking as what she faced. A moment later, she had it: she was sitting beneath Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat. Now it made so much sense, she felt stupid. Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Of course.