By the time he got there, the other Keepers had already arrived, though not Amanda and Jess. Jelly had given them the back room all to themselves, the door closed to the outside noise and chaos of kids doing after-school art projects.
The collective mood felt highly charged with anticipation.
Finn sat down and caught them up on his encounter with Luowski. Philby related his story about feeling watched. Willa and Maybeck had similar stories to tell, but neither had connected the events at their school with the Overtakers until they heard Finn and Philby voice their suspicions.
“What does it all mean?” Charlene asked.
Philby spoke up. “It means the Evil Queen has found a way to recruit kids in our schools to watch us.”
“It means we’re outnumbered,” Maybeck said, “and outflanked. That we can’t trust anyone.”
“But the contact lenses,” Charlene said. “They give themselves away as OTs in training, or whatever. Right? I mean, why do that?”
“Intimidation,” Maybeck said. “Is there some other explanation?”
“Agreed. It’s the fear factor,” Finn answered. “Maybe they think we can all go
“And it makes them feel special,” Willa said. “It makes them important and part of a bigger group.”
“It is unusual to make your spies known to the enemy,” Professor Philby said. “Let’s assume they’re planning some kind of jailbreak. Remember, the OTs are characters. That means they’re confined to the Parks-and it’s entirely possible Maleficent and Chernabog aren’t being kept locked up in any of the Parks. They could be in jail anywhere! That might make it necessary for the OTs to have field agents-people on the ground to do stuff for them. The Queen puts spells on a few kids-that would explain Luowski’s bizarre strength-and tests them out with some assignments, and then moves them like pawns to do her dirty work.”
Finn spoke first. “I hate to say it, but it makes sense. No one is going to stop Luowski with that kind of strength. If there are five or six of them like that, they could easily overpower a bunch of guards.”
“Or us,” Maybeck said, ominously. “Maybe, when the time comes, their job is to keep us from interfering with the Evil Queen’s plans. We’ve messed things up a lot for them in the past.”
“Good point,” Willa said.
“Oh, my gosh!” Charlene said. “I just got it!” She was fixed on Maybeck. “You were trying to kiss me to bring me out of the spell! In Epcot. At ice cream!”
“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.
4
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.
