“This place is very big,” Maybeck said to Charlene.
They had made their way down the facility’s main floor, passing more offices, conference rooms, and a coffee lounge. They’d also passed a half-dozen security cameras. The underlying roar of the place grew progressively louder.
“You think Security has spotted us by now?” she asked.
“Honestly? I’m wondering why no one’s come after us. In a weird way, I don’t think that’s the best sign.”
“The OTs got them?”
“It might explain why no one has bothered with us.”
“That’s depressing.”
Maybeck stopped at the end of the hall.
“You do realize,” Charlene said, studying her DHI’s somewhat shaky blue outline, “that our best defense is being one-hundred-percent hologram?”
“As if that’s going to happen.”
“So you’re scared, too?”
“I don’t get scared,” he claimed. “I get…aware. But I’m
He opened the door and waved her through. They stepped out onto a steel catwalk that surrounded a central space. Three stories below two huge turbines whined. From the turbines ran a tangle of pipes and wires. The walls were decorated with signs warning of high voltage! death on contact! Nice calming stuff.
Just barely audible was a woman’s complaining voice.
The Queen? they both wondered.
Maybeck raised his voice just loud enough to be heard. “Check it out!”
A blue uniform hung from the railing. Perched alongside of it was a blue jay frantically flapping its wings. Charlene looked first to the uniform, then to the blue jay, then back to the uniform.
Maybeck said, “I think we know what happened to the security guards.” He indicated the blue jay. “I’d say someone spelled them.”
“The Evil Queen did that?” Charlene said.
“Well, it wasn’t Bambi.”
“Whose side are they on?” she asked.
“If someone did that to me, I know whose side I’d be on. But with a twisted sister like her, who knows?”
“So, what now?” she said.
“We split up, and we head down toward those voices. If one of us is caught, maybe the other can do something about it.”
“And?”
“We listen to whatever’s being said.” He studied their surroundings. “I’m taking the stairs on this side,” he declared.
Charlene took in the interconnected pipes, the railing, and the catwalks on each level.
“I can climb down there,” she said.
“FYI: There are stairs on the other side. Might be easier.”
“And more obvious. They could be watching them. I’m going to climb it,” she declared.
“Whatever,” Maybeck said. “Just don’t make me have to rescue you.”
“Other way around,” she said.
“Not likely.”
“We’ll see.”
The blue jay cawed loudly, startling them both.
The faint voices below paused with the cry of the bird.
Maybeck whispered: “See you down there.” He tiptoed off toward an exit sign.
Charlene stayed well clear of the blue jay and climbed over the metal rail, one foot placed carefully after the other. She possessed a climber’s eye, able to look up at a climbing wall and quickly plot and remember an exact route. Descending was altogether different; it was much more difficult to climb down than up. For her, plotting a descending route was twice the challenge.
She hesitated a moment, seeing a possible route play out in her mind’s eye-each toehold, hand and finger grip she would take. One pipe to the next; one clamp at a time.
She drew in a deep breath and made her first move.
Philby heard Elvis meowing on the other side of the bathroom door.
“
“MEEEEOWWWW!” Elvis wailed, sounding like a police siren.
“
He was jolted back against the well of the toilet.
“Dell?” His mother.
“Busy,” he said.
“You open this door this minute!”
Philby said, “Be right out,” while looking for somewhere in this shoe box room to hide his gear.
“OPEN THIS DOOR!”
When his mother shouted like that, he lacked resistance. He obeyed, turning the knob.
Seen from his mother’s perspective, her son, fully dressed, was sitting on the closed toilet, his computer open in his lap, a phone, also on, resting on his thigh. Her face burning a new shade of crimson, she said nothing; she simply extended her hands expecting delivery of the goods.
“Mom, I can’t.”
“I don’t want to hear it, young man.”
Her hands, now shaking with rage, remained extended.
“Mom.”
“It’s nearly one o’clock. We’ll discuss it in the morning.”
He glanced at the time. How had the time passed so quickly? One am? Finn would be expecting the Return.
“Mom! Please! Just listen.”
“I’ll listen in the morning.” She added, “Maybe.”
Philby had never seen her in this particular state before-like a teakettle boiling over. Wayne had said that a friend would turn his back and betray them. He hadn’t mentioned mothers.
He closed the laptop and handed it to her, feeling like a traitor. Maybe that was it, he thought: Maybe
“Guard!” Finn hated to put Pluto at risk, but the dog seemed their best chance to get out of this with all their limbs intact.
“Higher ground,” Amanda said. “It’s the best defensive position.”
“Move slowly,” Finn said.
They backed up, taking small steps, never taking their eyes off the alligators. Pluto saw them, but held his ground.
“Good dog!” Finn called out.
