Ridley Pearson - Power Play

Philby felt a shiver, but blamed it on the night air.

“Sorry, I’ve got to be rude,” Philby said, shutting and locking the window, “but I’m jamming.” He pointed to his desk. “It’s late, so be as quiet as you can. Wouldn’t want to wake up my mom. Towel’s in the closet. I’ll catch you in the morning.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t stay.” Hugo’s voice had dropped an octave. He spoke softly, sounding hurt.

Philby, who was now a step closer to his desk, looked back at his friend, feeling sorry for him. “No, I didn’t mean that. I’ll be done in a couple minutes.”

“Is that Epcot?” Hugo said, stepping closer.

“That’s amazing you could recognize it,” Philby said. His screen was nothing but some lights, the shimmering water of the lake, and…the little ants had moved to the fountain plaza.

That has to be Finn and Maybeck . But there were way too many ants on the screen-if it was Finn, he and Maybeck weren’t alone.

“Can I play?” Hugo asked.

“Ah…it’s not exactly a game, and, ah…You know, if you don’t mind, I’m a little busy right now.”

“Oh, but I do mind,” Hugo said. “Don’t touch that keyboard.”

Philby spun around. With Hugo having been outside in the dark, he hadn’t gotten a good look at him, especially given that he’d been holding Elvis. The cat had won Philby’s attention- by design , Philby thought. Because Hugo’s eyes were a vivid green.

Hugo had brown eyes.

Philby couldn’t believe it! Hugo? Of all people! After all Philby’s family had given to the boy! He felt overcome with anger and disbelief.

He saw his terry cloth bathrobe and belt lying on his bed. The belt would work to tie Hugo up.

Philby charged.

Hugo knocked him out of the way and onto the bed. Where had that kind of strength come from? Philby did a somersault and sprang from his haunches, launching himself at the boy.

To his right, a burst of color erupted across his computer screen.

The signal.

The lake burst into flames, flooding the night sky and illuminating every pavilion in a wash of golden light. It reflected off the face of the Evil Queen. It danced in Cruella’s eyes.

Finn hopped to his knees and stood, leaning to reach across the tangle of rattlesnakes and touch Willa’s outstretched hand.

It was not only the water burning. A dozen towering torches surrounding the lake had also burst into flames. But the water effect, part of the IllumiNations show, was a spectacular sight: giant balls of orange flames boiling off the water’s surface and rising into the dark, looking like the surface of the sun.

The timing of the effect had been Maybeck’s job: to schedule the pyrotechnics that Professor Philby had discovered on the control booth’s computer when he and Finn had visited two nights earlier. More than a thousand different pieces of ordnance on water barges, and a half-dozen laser projectors mounted on top of pavilions, were all synchronized by the IllumiNations computer. Following their spotting Willa and the Queen on the Security video, Maybeck had scheduled the fire events, giving himself five minutes to leave the control room, climb down the Mayan Temple, and catch up to Finn. With it nearing one am and the scheduled manual Return, maybe the pyrotechnics would offer a needed distraction.

Given that it looked like all of Epcot was on fire, there was no way Philby could miss the signal.

Now all he had to do was remotely tell the DHI server to Return them.

Philby witnessed the wash of flames engulfing Epcot’s lake and stretched for the computer’s Return/Enter key.

But Hugo held him by the shoulders, struggling to get his arms around Philby’s chest and squeeze the wind out of him. Philby stumbled back, his fingers hitting the spacebar instead of the Return key.

He threw an elbow into Hugo’s stomach, and groaning, Hugo let go. Philby regained his balance…took a step toward his desk…and was tackled to the floor.

He went down hard, face-first. Philby rolled over and kicked out, catching Hugo in the face. But Hugo scrambled on top of Philby, pinning his shoulders and winding up with a balled fist. As Hugo drove the fist toward his face, Philby jerked his head. Hugo punched the floor. Philby’s hand found the wicker trash can; he raked it across Hugo’s face and the boy went off him.

Philby rolled and shoved his hand into Hugo’s face-the fake green eyes staring back, unflinching and terrifying. Philby couldn’t look at those eyes. He turned away.

Hugo grabbed both of Philby’s wrists, pushing up, trying to get Philby off; Philby pushed back, trying to hold Hugo down. Their arms began to tremble, then to shake.

Light flashed from the computer, the lake alive with fire.

Philby managed to pin Hugo’s left arm with his knee and reach for the computer with his right hand. Hugo rocked side to side attempting to free his arm, and making it impossible for Philby to properly aim his fingers. He missed the Return key three times in a row.

Hugo kneed Philby in the back, freeing his hand, which he used to palm Philby below the chin and propel him back toward the bed.

Hugo jumped up and reached for the Escape key, which would close the current window-Philby’s link with the DHI server.

Philby had bit his lip; he tasted the salty tang of blood in his mouth. He was mad .

Elvis was just standing there on the bed like a spectator. Philby grabbed him and held him just behind the front legs and lunged for Hugo using the same technique his family members used to train Elvis to use his scratching pole. It forced Elvis to extend his front claws-claws that now tore through Hugo’s shirt, leaving eight narrow tracks of blood behind as Philby dragged him down the boy’s back, and then tossed Elvis back onto the bed as Hugo let out a gut-wrenching scream.

Philby spun Hugo around, tripped him, and dumped him to the floor. He stabbed for the Return key.

THIS ACTION CANNOT BE UNDONE

DO YOU WISH PROCEED? Y/N

He hit Y .

The bedroom door burst open. A wrinkly-faced woman with no makeup, an adhesive strip across the bridge of her nose stretching her cheeks, and wearing a pair of pajamas covered with cartoons of Marge Simpson, shouted: “BOYS!”

Both Hugo and Philby stopped cold.

“What in the devil is going on, young man?” Philby’s mom said to him. The next thing she said was, “Elvis?” in a loving and kind voice of pure affection.

Hugo stood up, unlocked the window, threw it open, and dove outside.

Philby watched the bandwidth meter spike in the bottom right corner of the computer screen. The DHI properties of the holograms were being saved back to the DHI server. The Return. The whole process could take anywhere from ten to sixty seconds.

Precious seconds.

“Dell?” his mother said.

“Please, Mom, no!” Philby said, seeing his mother march toward his desk. “Remember what happened to me?” he said in a begging tone. “If you shut my computer, it’ll happen to all three of them-Finn, Willa, and Maybeck. Mom! You don’t want that to happen.”

Shutting the computer, putting it into sleep mode, would send his friends to sleep along with it. Stuck in the Syndrome.

Finn couldn’t take his eyes off the trembling hands of the Evil Queen held high above her head. She reminded him of a major league pitcher in his windup. She was about to deliver some kind of spitball, sinker spell, that would make the spiders and rattlesnakes look like kids’ stuff. Something nasty.

The flames licked off the lake.

Tears ran down Willa’s face as she mouthed, “Thank you,” to Finn.

The Evil Queen threw her hands at them with a witch’s fury, her lips spouting an incantation.