Ridley Pearson - Power Play

“Mom,” Philby said. “I don’t have time to explain it all. Not exactly sure, anyway.”

She’d gone from tyrannical Keepers hater to poster mom, sitting by her son’s side and watching him manipulate a dozen windows on his computer screen simultaneously.

The server had never faltered, but without warning the Projection icon had turned red, indicating a full Park-wide failure of all projectors.

“It’s some kind of power failure, I think,” he said. “The projectors are out, but the server is still up. It’s probably on a battery backup of some kind. But if that’s right, it won’t last long. Five minutes. Ten, at the outside. I’ve got to get them back.”

“I thought you said they were back,” she said.

“That was Maybeck and Charlene. Yeah, they Returned okay. It’s Finn and Amanda.”

“The sick girl…”

“Yeah…We hope not.”

“So, can you help them?”

“I’m late. And I’m kind of busy here.”

“I’ll shut up,” she said, straining to sit back, but then sticking her face alongside his shoulder.

Philby executed a few lines of code and pushed Enter.

The screen filled with data that then began to scroll automatically.

“What’s that?” his mother asked.

“It’s okay,” he said, fed up with her questions, but trying to sound patient. “It’s begun. A few minutes is all, and we’ll know.”

Finn and Amanda-invisible-jumped onto the raft, joining Pluto and Minnie.

“Go!” Finn said to Minnie, who startled, and looked around trying to see him in the moonlight. “Please! Take us back!”

Minnie threw a lever and the raft pulled away from the dock ahead of the Overtakers’ arrival. Once to the other side, an invisible Finn kissed Minnie on the cheek before he and Amanda jumped off.

They ran hard, Pluto at their side, keeping up with them effortlessly.

When Pluto barked sharply three times, Finn looked behind them.

The wolf, head to the ground. Moving like a tornado toward them.

“We’ve got company,” he told Amanda.

“How can he possibly-?”

“Who knows? Smell? Maybe he’s after Pluto.”

The hub and Cinderella Castle came into view and, as they did, all the lights in the Park pulsed once and went dark again. With them, Amanda’s DHI sparkled, eerily translucent, and then vanished again with the loss of power.

“Almost there,” Finn said. He caught up and reached for her. Trying to feel her. He bumped her back with his fist, reached down her arm, and took her hand. He tingled all over. He knew that feeling. Knew it only too well.

FINN AWAKENED IN HIS BED, his clothes damp with sweat and the fetid smell of the tunnels. His mother sat in a chair two feet away.

“Mom?”

“Oh, thank God! Are you okay?”

Finn took inventory of his condition. “I’m fine.”

“You crossed over.”

Duh! “Yes.” He sat up sharply. “Can I use your phone? I’ve got to text Philby.”

She had her phone in her hand. She passed it to him.

i’m bak. others?

yes. all 4. amanda 2. she’s good.

Finn released a huge sigh of pent-up anxiety. He explained things to his Mom. She raised her hand for a high-five and Finn looked at her strangely.

She lowered her hand. “Too much?”

“And then some,” he said.

“So, it’s over?”

“I wish,” he said. “I failed.” He agonized for a moment. “I had them…”

“Who?”

“The Queen. Cruella. I had them! ” His mother’s phone rang. “That’s Philby for me.” He answered the call.

Their conversation was intense. They spoke in a Kingdom Keepers shorthand, Finn relating what had happened on the island, and the discovery of the fort; Philby relayed what Maybeck had told him about the activities at the power plant, including Hugo Montcliff being a DHI. That news was the hardest to take. Finn tried to swallow away his terror. Other kids as DHIs. Where did that leave the Keepers?

Philby told Finn about Charlene winning back the fob and dropping it into a drawer in the control room. Despite some losses, there were gains, he realized.

Finn told him, “Something happened during the power failure when I was in projection shadow. Cruella said something about tomorrow morning. That by seven it wouldn’t matter. The Queen stopped her. She didn’t want me hearing it.”

“Maybeck’s theory is that the power failure has to do with the prison break, which makes sense, but we have no way to know if it’s true or not,” explained Philby.

“Don’t we?” Finn said.

“I’m listening.”

“This is your stuff, not mine, but didn’t you say that counting Hugo that made five DHIs for them?”

“Yup.”

They had yet to identify the remaining two, but Finn now had an idea. “Have you checked the server log since the power failure?”

The line crackled.

“Are you there?” Finn asked.

“Thinking. Checking…Stand by…”

Finn heard Philby’s fingers clacking on the keyboard through the phone.

Philby mumbled, “I thought I was supposed to handle the techie stuff.”

“Whatsup?”

“Bandwidth bump. How’d you know that?” Philby said. “Stand by…”

More clicking from his end.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Philby said.

“Try me.”

“The prison?”

Finn nearly came out of his chair. “Yes?”

“I think it’s in the Animal Kingdom. There’s something I’ve got to show you. Check your e-mail…now.”

A moment later, Finn opened the e-mail from Philby, recognizing Jess’s artwork immediately.

“She drew that tonight ,” Philby told him over the phone.

Finn studied the diary entry. A gate? A ladder on its side? Bunk beds? Something hanging on the wall. Or was that a window?

And if it was a window, that small, that high on a wall-where would that be? A basement. Only basements had weird, tiny windows like that.

Basements and…

…prison cells.

Finn felt physically sick to his stomach. He leaned over his trash can thinking he was going to hurl. His mother patted him on the back.

“What’s wrong, dear?”

It was like being blindfolded and spun around, trying to hit the piñata, only to have the piñata hit back at you. Smack you in the head.

A prison cell.

Finn said, “I know how they’re going to do it.”

Finn’s mother waited at the curb, the car running. He knocked on the door, rang the bell, then knocked again. Wanda Alcott answered, fully dressed. Finn knew there was no way anyone could dress that fast, much less an older lady-she had to be at least thirty. It meant she’d been awake all night. It was past four am. Doing what? he wondered. Monitoring the situation, perhaps?

“I need to talk to him,” Finn said.

“If it’s about the power failure, we’re looking into it,” she said.

“We were there,” he said. “The cogeneration facility.”

She looked stunned. She nodded thoughtfully. “The supervisor mentioned children.”

“One was an OT. Two were us: Maybeck and Charlene. All DHIs. The Return’s there. We need it back. Now. We’re not safe until we have it back. It’s in a drawer. You have to get someone to get it for us.”

“I can do that.”

“I know you can; that’s why I’m here.”

“He’s safe. I appreciate your concern-”

“It’s not concern. Not for him. The power failure was part of the jailbreak. They’re going to bust them out.”