by Sheela Chari
“What?” Epica spoke up. “All if you have special what?”
Caddie was about to say special powers. But some things were best left unsaid.
“Determination, Epica!” JP cut in. “Special determination.”
Epica blinked. “Lame,” she said.
Meanwhile, something seemed to have changed Mr. Q’s mind. He had started up the engine.
“Fine, kids. Buckle up,” he said, relenting at last. “Next ferry leaves on the hour.”
JP whooped. “You’re a good man, Mr. Q.”
Their teacher pulled the bus onto the road warily. “We’ll see, JP.”
The Gale Island ferry was the strangest one Caddie had ever seen. First of all, there was no room to drive your car on like the Bremerton ferry that went to Seattle, with multiple floors for passengers to sit and a lookout deck on both ends of the boat. This ferry was small, with only one floor for sitting, no observation deck, no vending machines in sight, and most of all, no one around who seemed to be controlling the ferry. Apparently Mr. Q, Caddie, and her friends were the only ones on the boat as it headed across the water.
Mr. Q said he would go downstairs to see if anyone was available in the control room.
“Well, this is weird,” Caddie said.
“Yeah, nobody’s around,” JP said.
“I guess that’s kinda like how your life is,” Epica said, twirling a strand of hair around finger. “You know, empty with nobody there.”
“Can you stop being so mean all the time, Epica?” Caddie said, losing her patience.
“Epica is scared inside,” Toothpick said gravely, “and uses insults to push people away.”
“Well, how about I push her away, too?” JP asked, making their hand into a fist.
“JP,” Caddie said.
“Whatever,” Epica said, but she took a step back from JP.
Just then the lights around them blinked, and a large image appeared in front of them.
“What’s going on?” Epica stammered. “Who’s that in front of us?”
“Not him again,” Caddie said, sighing.
“I thought I pulled the plug,” JP said, groaning.
“Don’t worry, Epi, it’s just a hologram!” Toothpick said. “Remember the assembly?”
Projecting in front of them was a grainy, wavering image of Oliver Pruitt holding a camera. This time he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and a straw hat. Kind of like he was on a beach vacation except without the sand. “Welcome aboard the USS Pruitt!” he announced cheerfully. “I am your holographic captain, Oliver Pruitt! By now, you must have observed the boat is automated. Not only that, your trip to Gale Island is being carefully monitored from Pruitt Prep Mission Control. We take security very seriously. Smile at the camera!”
“So much for the element of surprise,” JP observed.
“I guess he knows we’re coming,” Caddie said glumly.
The holographic Oliver Pruitt smiled widely at them and continued taking pictures like a creepy tourist. “Smile!” he said again.
Epica gave a big sunny smile and tossed her hair back. “Will I be getting copies?” she asked.
“It’s a recording, Epi,” Toothpick said. “I think it’s for their files.”
“They better not upload my photo without a filter,” Epica said. “I like sepia.”
“Please note that the entrance to the school is strictly forbidden,” Oliver Pruitt chirped. “Only students accepted through our GIFT testing protocols are allowed inside. Otherwise, trying to access the school is futile. We have twenty-four-hour surveillance, and the grounds are surrounded by twenty-foot titanium walls that are impenetrable —”
JP walked over, and a sudden crash interrupted the recording as their fist smashed the equipment. “Easy enough to penetrate the projector,” JP said with satisfaction, observing that their fist showed no signs of injury. “Hey, guys, I’m stronger already!”
“JP!” Caddie warned.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” said Mr. Q, who’d just come up the stairwell.
“Yeah? Do you see anyone around here to stop me?” JP waved their arms around.
“Yes,” came a thin, reedy voice. Behind Mr. Q stood one of the White Suits, holding a neutralizer dart. “You should have thought before destroying private property,” the White Suit said. “Breaking the projector activated APES.”
“APES? Like gorillas?” JP asked.
“The Autonomic Procedure for Emergency Situations,” Mr. Q said blandly. “The boat is being automatically turned around to return to its last approved coordinates. We’re going back to Port Elizabeth.” His eyes traveled nervously to the neutralizer dart in the White Suit’s hands.
“In the meanwhile, we have to neutralize the source of the problem,” the White Suit said. He raised the dart to take aim.
Immediately the four kids ran through the automatic doors to the south deck.
“What do we do next, Caddie?” JP panted when they reached the mast. Behind them, the White Suit had just come out of the automatic door.
“Wait, me?” Caddie could feel the boat lurch as it turned around. “But I don’t make the decisions. That’s Mars.”
“Mars isn’t here,” Toothpick said.
Caddie gulped. She felt woozy and faint, and time was running out.
“OK, we need a plan,” she said.
“Maybe I can override the system?” Toothpick said. “I have tools in my backpack, and I’m already feeling smarter. But I need time.”
Caddie nodded. “What else we got?”
Epica shrugged. “Can’t you guys, like, swim?”
“Epica’s right,” Toothpick said. “We’re not too far from shore, and it is low tide. Plus, my backpack is waterproof and doubles as a life preserver.”
“Geez, Toothpick,” JP said. “That doesn’t change the fact that I HATE GETTING WET.”
Caddie thought fast. “Let’s do it,” she said. JP opened their mouth, but Caddie cut them off. “JP, we’re out of time. Look, that guy is getting ready to aim again. Hurry, we need a distraction!”
“Leave that to me!” Epica said suddenly. She reached down to remove a shoe. “I’ll stay. You go!”
Caddie, Toothpick, and JP rushed to the edge of the boat. Over the railing, the water looked uninviting and cold. “It’s now or never!” Caddie told them.
“Take that!” Epica yelled. The last thing Caddie saw was Epica on board, hurling her wedge at the White Suit.
“One, two, three!” yelled Caddie as she, Toothpick, and JP plunged into the sound.
They could hear Epica’s words lingering in the air as they hit the water. “Randall, I love youuuu . . .”
Caddie crawled onto the gravelly shore of Gale Island. Never had she been so glad to see sand. Even if it was inside her shoes, down her shirt, and in her ears.
On the sand next to her, JP was wet and mad but without a single scrape. On her other side, Toothpick was already calculating ahead. She could read his thoughts. He knew the lay of the island. The map was pretty much ingrained in his memory. Caddie was suddenly grateful. Toothpick’s brain meant they would never get lost.
Ahead of them came the howling sound they all remembered. And something else. A whirring over their heads.
“Oh my god, not that animal,” JP said. “We’re back not three seconds and that thing is still on the loose.”
“Shush, JP.” Caddie squinted. “It’s one of Pruitt’s drones. It’s spotted us already.”
“Let it come at me, then,” JP said. “I’m strong. I can smash it into a pulp.”
“Maybe it’s better to keep moving,” Toothpick said.
“Toothpick’s right,” Caddie said, shivering. “Let’s head for the trees. It can’t follow us there.”
They scrambled for the wooded area but JP went sprawling before they got there.
“Who left this junk here?” JP had tripped on something tossed on the ground. It looked like rolls of rubber hoses and tubes and shipp
ing supplies.
“It’s from the ferry,” Toothpick said. The whirring above them got louder. And this time something new happened. The drone started launching pellets at them.
“Are you serious?” JP yelled. “That drone is shooting at us?”
They ran until the three of them were inside the woods. They leaned over, catching their breath.
“I never thought I’d be shot by a drone,” JP said, huffing.
“They weren’t real pellets.” Toothpick held up something in his hand. “See?”
JP looked. “It’s hard to see in the dark, but is that a peanut?”
“Yep,” Toothpick said. “I guess it’s biodegradable.”
“Oh, yay,” JP said. “The drone is ecologically friendly . . . AND it wants to kill us.”
“Let’s get moving,” Caddie said. “Pick, you know how to go, right?”
The three of them continued, trudging through the woods. As the excitement with the drone died down, Caddie tried to keep her distance so she wouldn’t keep colliding with JP’s and Toothpick’s thoughts. Already she could feel JP wondering if they were walking into danger, and if JP could protect them all. Caddie could sense JP’s hands balling up with determination.
Toothpick was determined, too. Everything in his mind was clear and precise, and his confidence kept growing. He was getting smarter. He knew the scientific names of the trees in front of them, he knew which direction was due north, and he’d already calculated an algorithm for how long it would take to skirt the entire island.
But sometimes his thoughts would stray, like thinking how brave Epica was for throwing her favorite shoes at the White Suit so they could get away. That was love, wasn’t it? Plus Epica had looked so pretty in blue, and he liked the way she tilted her head when she said his name.
This is where Caddie stopped for a moment to let Toothpick go farther ahead. Give the guy some privacy, she told herself.
Just then, the howling started up again.
“Pick, where are we going?” JP asked. “Now would not be the time to get lost. I’m strong, but I’m not sure I can fend off starving wolves.”
“Trust me. I see the entire island laid out in my head,” Toothpick said. “We’re very close.”
“We were very close last time,” JP said. “But the school wasn’t there. What’s different about this time?”
“Because it’s here,” Caddie said suddenly. She stopped, noticing the pulsing she felt inside her. It had been there, growing slowly. She wasn’t shivering anymore. It was the school. She was feeling the school. “I can feel it,” she said.
She was right. A few minutes later, the trees gave way to a clearing. The same clearing they’d run to last time. But last time it was completely empty. And now . . . now!
Caddie, Toothpick, and JP craned their necks.
“It’s humongous!” Caddie breathed.
Humongous didn’t even cover it. What was in front of them was unlike anything they had ever seen. The school was sleek and gorgeous, rising up from the ground like a missile. The walls were made of steel, the windows of reinforced glass, with two shorter towers flanking the central building, each topped with glass domes and metallic spires. And surrounding the structure was an immense wall twenty feet high that shimmered under the setting sun. This was the titanium wall that Oliver Pruitt had been talking about. What had he called it? Impenetrable. Impossibly strong and impossible to breach.
“It’s here!” exclaimed Toothpick. “The labs, the towers, the titanium walls. I don’t get it. How can it be here when it wasn’t before?”
“Maybe it’s a hologram,” JP wondered. “Like Oliver.”
Caddie leaned forward, pressing her palm against the titanium bricks. She was surprised by the warmth that spread through her like a jolt, almost as if the wall were alive.
“No, it’s real,” she said. She started to pull her hand back but left it lingering a little longer, enjoying its warmth. By now, Toothpick’s thoughts were coming through to her, and this time they weren’t about Epica. Instead, he was studying the walls, the two towers, the dizzying height of the main building, and he was hatching the most thrilling plan Caddie had known.
“Toothpick, you’re a genius,” she said. “Or crazy. Or both.”
“Did you just read my mind?” Toothpick asked. “Then you tell JP. You’re better at it.”
“Tell me what, guys?” JP’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not getting on another boat, are we?”
“No. Toothpick has a plan,” Caddie said. “I know you hate swimming, JP. But how do you feel about . . . flying?”
The idea sounded even more unbelievable when Caddie said it out loud to JP: “We want to launch you into the school with tubing tied to a tree.”
Toothpick pushed up his glasses. “Think of it as a human slingshot.”
There. They’d said it. It was too crazy. Time for another idea.
But to Caddie’s surprise, JP jumped up and down.
“I love it! You. Are. Brilliant!” JP slapped Toothpick on the back, and he grimaced. “Sorry, Pick. I forget my strength on this island!”
When JP was done gushing, Toothpick explained the finer details. With the proper angle and the right amount of tension, the rubber tubing they’d seen lying near the dock could be used to send JP flying fifty-five feet through the air, to land on the terrace of the south tower, where there was a door that could be opened from the outside. JP would take the staircase down six flights, pass the theater on the right, go through the sensory hall, and reach the south loading dock to let Toothpick and Caddie in.
“It’s all there in the layout of the school, which I have memorized,” Toothpick said.
“Six flights of stairs? Is that how tall the school is?” JP gazed up at the top of the building, which seemed to disappear into the clouds.
“No, that’s how tall the north and south towers are,” Toothpick said. “The highest part of the school is at the center — that’s twenty floors.”
“Twenty floors!” JP paled. “That’s a lot of stories.”
“Right, but we just have to get to the top of the south tower,” Toothpick said. “Six floors. Not twenty. Just avoid the metal spire or you’ll get impaled.”
“OK . . .” JP said, a little unsurely.
“Trust me, JP,” he said. “I have it all worked out. Come with me.”
As JP followed Toothpick into the woods, Caddie said she wanted to check the wall again. “Maybe I can sense whether there’s anyone on guard at the South Tower,” she said.
As she walked around the wall, she held out her hand to feel the gleaming titanium again. It was so hard to resist. Every time she touched it, she was filled with a rush of happiness. The wall felt cold and hot at the same time, like it could be alive — but not like a human being. More like . . . the hood of a car after a drive. Then other sensations slowly began to tingle to the surface. People. Guards. Many of them. Surprised, she kept her hand still until she could separate out one of the people. It was a guard near the south side who was . . . hungry. How extraordinary it was, channeling his feelings . . . He wanted a sandwich; his stomach growled; he was going to take a break in five minutes. Wow. That was perfect. As she turned to go, there was something else she felt under her hand, a warmth that wasn’t like a car engine but like a summer day or a good memory. She shivered, then finally lifted her hand.
When she returned to Toothpick and JP, she was surprised to find they had already gone back to the dock to retrieve the tubing, and the slingshot was done. Caddie watched as Toothpick inspected his work.
He pulled on the tubing tied to two trees. “See? It’s good to go.”
“Guess what else?” Caddie said. “The guard at the south tower is about to go on break.”
“Then we need do it now, when nobody’s there,” JP said.
“Exactly,” Caddie said. “Also . . . I felt Mars.”
“For real?” JP asked.
“Yeah,” Caddie said. “It means we’re close,
guys.”
“I’ve adjusted the tension,” Toothpick said, “and pointed the sling toward the south tower terrace, away from the spires. I checked the wind direction, too. We’re ready.”
A sudden whirring descended on them.
“Oh no, another drone!” Caddie cried.
“Don’t worry, that’s my pet drone, Droney,” Toothpick said.
“What?” Caddie asked blankly. She looked from Toothpick to JP.
“Remember the drone that crashed into us at school?” JP asked. “Toothpick brought it with him in his backpack, and he took it out while you were looking at the wall. He reprogrammed it, and now it’s working for us.”
“I figured out how by watching a YouTube video,” Toothpick explained.
“I don’t believe it,” Caddie said. “But with you, Pick, anything’s possible.”
“Welcome to another day on Weirdness Island,” JP commented.
“Hey Droney, station yourself at the top of the south tower,” Toothpick said.
“OK. Stationing myself at the top of the south tower,” Droney responded.
“And if JP lands on the terrace, come tell us,” Toothpick added.
“OK, I can do that,” Droney added. Then it went flying up and over the wall.
“I never thought a drone could be your personal slave,” JP said. “I thought it was just good for maiming people.”
“Not if you know how to code,” Toothpick said. He stood back. “Ready to launch.”
“Don’t put it like that!” JP said quickly.
“Why not? It is a launch.”
“Yeah, but we’re launching me.”
“Don’t worry. You’re going to be fine,” Toothpick said. “Remember: on the island, you’re indestructible. Which means nothing can hurt you, even if something goes wrong with this sling.” He paused. “Well, at least I think so.”
“Gee, that’s so reassuring,” JP said. “All right, let’s go.”
“Wait — JP,” Caddie jumped in. “You’re incredibly brave. I want you to know that. And a good friend.”
JP smiled at her. “Mars would do it for me. That’s what friends are for.”