by Morris, Chad
Out of the corner of her eye, Abby saw something black on the floor behind the desk. She circled around to get a better look.
Her heart stopped.
She raced to Ms. Entrese, who was sprawled on the ground, motionless. “Ms. Entrese, are you okay? Can you hear me?” Abby grabbed her teacher’s face, pulling it toward her. Her eyes were closed, her body limp. She shook her. No response.
No. Please no.
“Help!” Abby screamed over her shoulder, hoping someone was in the hall to hear. “Somebody help me!”
Abby lay her head against Ms. Entrese’s chest and listened. Thump. It was faint. Thump.
Oh, thank you. She was still alive.
“Help me! Ms. Entrese is hurt!” she yelled again, then flicked on her rings. The Cragbridge Hall emergency line answered her call. “Help. I’m in Ms. Entrese’s room and she isn’t responding to anything I say.”
The woman on the other end urged her to be calm and said that a team was on their way.
“Just hurry.” Abby disconnected her rings.
Only when the medical team burst through the door and began to care for Ms. Entrese did Abby break down into surging sobs. She cried and cried. What had happened? What had gone wrong?
The medical team placed Ms. Entrese’s body on a wheeled stretcher and began to guide it out the door. One of them invited Abby to come with them. As she stood up, she noticed a small object on Ms. Entrese’s desk. It was a wooden castle tower—a chess piece.
Muns.
• • •
Derick woke up to his rings vibrating.
Whoever it was could wait.
He rolled over, his thumb searching for the place on the ring to ignore the message. He tried twice. Something in the movement woke him up enough to remember the day before—Muns’s message, the Council. One eye opened. He’d better check just to be safe.
It was a message from Cragbridge Hall administration:
STAY WHERE YOU ARE.
Derick opened the message:
Good morning. We ask all students to stay where they are as the administration performs a routine safety check. Again, please stay where you are until notified otherwise.
Strange. If it was so routine, then why . . . Derick didn’t finish his thought. He knew why—Muns.
He sat up in his bed, and sent messages to Abby, Carol, Rafa, and Grandpa. Rafa and Carol hadn’t heard a thing, though Carol added a line that made Derick cringe:
. . . but I haven’t seen Abby all morning. We talked about waking up early to try out our spheres, but when I woke up she was gone.
Where was his sister?
Derick clenched his eyes shut. Muns wouldn’t go after Abby, would he? There was no way for him to know if she had obeyed his message or not. Unless he knew about the Council of the Keys. But there was no way. Was there?
Derick didn’t bother changing out of his pajamas. He didn’t care that the school had mandated him to stay where he was. He burst out of his door. He would check the virtual booths, then Abby’s dorm. He’d have to get permission to get in there, but he’d find a way. Halfway down the hall, his rings vibrated.
Please be Abby.
It was from Grandpa and entitled EMERGENCY.
Something has happened. We need to meet.
It had to be another Council of the Keys meeting, but Derick wasn’t changing his plan to look for his sister. He continued toward the school, but messaged his grandfather as he walked. I can’t find Abby.
He made it halfway across the grounds before a reply came back.
She’s fine. I will explain in a few moments.
Derick stopped.
You’re sure?
Yes.
Derick took a deep breath. At least she was okay. He rushed down to a virtual booth where he could join the meeting. He didn’t care that he was still in his PJs.
Grandpa stood again at the head of a virtual table. “Something has happened. Muns struck last night. Please pay attention as we discuss the attack; we will need all our intellects to figure this out. I recorded the first victim’s testimony and would like you to hear it.”
Victim?
Dr. Mackleprank appeared. He looked the same as he always did, though his blondish/whitish hair appeared far more tousled than normal. “This morning,” he began, “I woke up to . . . this.” The recording moved from the teacher’s face to his room. It was a mess. Screens were detached from the wall, their connecting wires strung in every direction. An avatar rhino head lay upside down, a squirrel monkey on top, other unfinished avatars carelessly thrown across the floor.
Derick heard gasps from other members of the Council.
Dr. Mackleprank continued, “I would like to think that I would have been able to stop the intruder, but I never saw him. Whoever it was . . . well, you’ll see. Oscar Cragbridge has authorized you to see the security footage.”
Dr. Mackleprank disappeared and a view of a hallway took his place. One simple lamp partially illuminated a corridor. It was probably how all the halls looked in the middle of the night. A shadow moved down the hallway and gradually made its way to the door. The person wore a hood, and as a hand reached forward, Derick could see he was wearing gloves as well. The shadow attached a small device to the lock, then, after removing something else from a pocket and playing with the door handle, the figure slid the door open, making very little sound.
None of the Council said a thing as they watched the man slip quietly through the doorway. The shadow put something long and straight up to its mouth. Strange. It looked sort of like a straw. Derick heard a brief whir and a thock. A blowdart? Was it the same as the ones in the briefcase? “He hit me with some sort of tranquilizer,” Dr. Mackleprank said, pointing to a small bandage on his neck. “I don’t remember a thing.”
Dr. Mackleprank rubbed at the bandage. “As you know, for our privacy, security cameras are not posted inside our quarters so you cannot see any more of what happened. All I can guess is that he was looking for a key—a key I didn’t have. This must have some correlation to Muns. He must have attacked me because of my work with the Hindenburg incident. And if Muns was watching his goons trying to change the past, I would be the only one he would have been able to see.”
“Oh,” Dr. Mackleprank said, “and one more thing. Whoever it was left this.” He held up a small horse head with his fingers—a chess piece. “I have no idea why. It isn’t mine.” The image of Dr. Mackleprank faded and those in the virtual room began to murmur.
“It had to be one of the men we took captive. But how did they get out of the basement?” Coach Adonavich asked.
“They didn’t,” Grandpa answered. He moved his fingers and showed security footage of the men’s cell and then the prisoners themselves. “They were there all night. Absolutely no sign of anyone escaping.”
“But no one could sneak into the school, could they?” Coach Horne asked.
“Doubtful,” Grandpa answered. “Our security outside the school is as good as it gets. It is more likely that it was someone from the inside.”
Derick noticed that the Trinhouses sat very quietly. Perhaps he knew why.“What about the straw and tranquilizer?” Derick asked. “I mean . . . are those the same ones that were in the briefcase, or were they just the same shape and size?”
Mrs. Trinhouse stood, her face somber. “It’s the same straw and darts. I kept the case in my lab space at our apartment. I locked it in the room at night and it was there in the morning. I didn’t suspect a thing until Oscar messaged me. I rescanned the case and . . .” she paused for a moment to rub her temples, “now it’s empty.”
“Was it the same guy who tranqed Mackleprank?” Coach Adonavich asked.
“We don’t know,” Grandpa said. A new clip of security footage showed on the screen. “This is from the camera outside the Trinhouse’s room.”
The light flickered out and the scene went dark. Derick and the others watched an empty, dark hallway for a few seconds. “I don’t see anything,�
�� Derick said.
“Precisely,” Grandpa said. “There is no footage of anyone even approaching their door. Because the case was inside personal quarters, there is no security footage of the thief from inside.”
“That’s not all,” Mr. Trinhouse said. “The device the man used to get into Dr. Mackleprank’s room looks to be about the same size as the device we saw in the case. It’s probably a lock-hacking computer to allow him into the room. To get in through our locks, though, it must be the best of its kind.”
“So,” Coach Horne started, “somehow someone breached our school’s outer perimeter, then stole the tools out of a suitcase in a locked apartment so that he could break into a separate apartment? That doesn’t make sense.”
“No. No, it doesn’t,” Mr. Trinhouse said.
“It also seems strange that he would break into your room and not tear it up looking for a key,” Coach Adonavich pointed out. “And he didn’t tranquilize you.”
“Very strange,” Mrs. Trinhouse agreed.
“Wait,” Coach Horne said. “He couldn’t have used the handheld device to crack the lock of your apartment because it was locked inside the case inside your room. How did he get in?”
“We don’t know,” Mr. Trinhouse said.
“And you two were some of the very few who knew about Dr. Mackleprank’s role in the Hindenburg incident,” Coach Horne said.
Mrs. Trinhouse stood up. “Are you accusing us of something?”
“It does seem suspicious,” Coach Horne said, his deep voice growing an edge.
“We didn’t have anything to do with this,” Mr. Trinhouse’s voice rose with every word.
“Then where’s the security footage? Why didn’t he need to break in? Why isn’t there any sign that he was there?” Coach Horne’s voice escalated into a shout.
“Please!” Grandpa yelled, waving his arms, his cane in one hand. “We don’t need to accuse one another. What little we have of the intruder’s facial and body measurements, we ran through our security programs and found that whoever it is is not either of the Trinhouses.”
“But who does it match?” Coach Horne asked.
“No one on record,” Grandpa said.
Silence fell as everyone thought for a moment.
“Wait.” Derick raised his hand. “He used the device from the briefcase. There is no reason the two intruders would have needed that on the Hindenburg hundreds of years ago. This was a setup. The Hindenburg was a gambit. It was all part of Muns’s plan.”
16
Doesn’t Fit
Muns played us.” Coach Horne pounded a fist into his other open hand. “And now he has someone with tranquilizer darts and some device that can let him through any locked door running around the school. What do we do?”
“And when will he strike again?” Mrs. Trinhouse added.
Derick shivered. She hadn’t said “if.” She said “when.” He immediately thought of Muns’s message. Muns wanted him to stay out of it. Was Derick on the list if he didn’t? Could someone break into his dorm room in the middle of the night and tranq him? . . . and Abby, Carol, and Rafa? The thought sent chills pinging through him. If they ignored Muns’s warning and got involved, Derick was sure that was what it meant. Muns did not cut corners when it came to revenge.
With more and more questions, the meeting began to spiral into chaos. Grandpa pounded his cane again to get everyone’s attention. “I know you have questions, but I need to finish giving you the facts we know, though they are unpleasant.”
There was more?
Grandpa swept the security footage away with his fingers. Derick saw a new image, a woman in a bed in the health center—Ms. Entrese! Abby sat next to her, holding her hand.
Grandpa flicked his fingers and showed another hallway—the whole scene shockingly similar. The same hood, same straw in the man’s mouth, same gloved hands. But this time it was in a classroom.
“The security camera in the room malfunctioned, which is suspicious, so we did not see what happened.” Grandpa scratched the side of his head. “But this was how Abby found Ms. Entrese this morning.” Grandpa then told about Ms. Entrese’s pivotal role in saving him from Muns several months ago.
“The dose in her tranquilizer dart was much higher,” Grandpa explained. “Dr. Mackleprank’s dart was designed to keep him out for the night. From the levels the doctors have detected, Ms. Entrese could be in a coma-like state for weeks . . . maybe months.”
Mrs. Trinhouse gasped.
Months? Muns had not killed her, but he’d incapacitated her for a long time. He was not one to show mercy. He had risked Abby’s parents’ lives. He probably thought that he could finish this, that he could take over time travel by the time she woke up—and she would wake up to Muns’s reality. That would be some heavy revenge.
“That eliminates one player,” Mr. Trinhouse said. “I don’t like this guy.”
“Our security team is finishing a sweep of all the grounds now. We have also programmed our security cameras to recognize his silhouette and alert security immediately. If he comes anywhere near a classroom or apartment again, he will be met with a most unwelcoming party. I was tempted to close the school down until we find the intruder, but I believe that may be playing further into Muns’s hands. He wants us to be afraid. He wants the students to be afraid. From what we can tell, whoever this intruder is, he poses no threat to the students—only to us, only to those who oppose Muns. School will continue as it has until this theory is proven otherwise. Keep this a complete secret.”
Everyone agreed.
“However,” Grandpa raised a hand in the air, “we cannot count on security to protect us. All of us must take great care.”
“But if I had to guess, some of us have to take more care than others,” Coach Horne said.
“Yes,” Coach Adonavich said. “He is most likely targeting those he knows have taken an active role in stopping him. Coach Horne and I—and all the Cragbridge family—are probably next on the list.”
• • •
It felt like ice had seeped into Abby’s chest. She was probably on the list.
Grandpa had sent her the file of the Council meeting. He encoded it several times of course, and she had to answer several security questions before she was able to watch it. But she knew Coach Adonavich was right. Abby probably was on the list. Whoever it was that had attacked Dr. Mackleprank and Ms. Entrese would likely come after her if she got involved. The thought was terrifying—having someone coming after her in the night. Abby didn’t know if she was going to be able to sleep ever again.
She continued to watch the video file. “With that said,” Coach Horne added, “he would likely only put us out for the night and steal our keys. Putting someone out for months was probably a special revenge just for Ms. Entrese for having worked for him and then betraying him.” Abby noticed the coach looked at Derick while he spoke. He was probably trying to soften the situation, soothe any fears.
“Yes,” Grandpa agreed. “And it is most likely that he will target myself and the two coaches. He does not know whether or not my son, his wife, or their children have keys.”
“That’s possible,” Mrs. Trinhouse said, “but the fact remains that if any of us have a key, he will want it. He only needs two more, so I wouldn’t say the rest of us are in the clear. If anyone knows we have a key, they may come for it. Which is all the more reason to keep each other’s identities secret.”
Grandpa looked around the room. “Hall security has been given every bit of what little information we could gather about the intruder and they are looking for him. They will also double their rounds, making special efforts in our halls. I did not give them your specific apartments to guard in order to keep our identities safe from anyone watching how we react to this intrusion. I have also scrambled all of the entrance codes to your rooms. I will add another layer of encryption after this meeting and you will need to devise a password which only you know and no one could ever guess. No cracking devic
e like the one the burglar had—no matter how state-of-the-art—will be able to enter. We should all be safe now that we understand the threat. But I would suggest that ‘safe’ isn’t good enough.”
Grandpa flicked his fingers. A picture of a man with an old hairstyle, parted and bushy on the sides, with a ponytail in the back, appeared. He wore a waistcoat and a fluffy cravat. “This is Sir Edmund Burke, a member of the British Parliament in the mid-1700s. He is famous for a saying, a saying that I want you to remember very well from this moment on. I have stated over and over again that we should learn from history and not try to change it. Well, learn this lesson well. Burke taught, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’” Grandpa paused. “I propose that we do more than nothing. I propose that we do everything we can to tie up any loose ends to this puzzle and find the person who attacked Mackleprank and Entrese.”
“But we don’t have any leads,” Coach Adonavich pointed out.
“True,” Grandpa admitted. “And so far, the only people I’m sure I don’t trust are the two in the cell. I’ll question them and send you all a video of the interview. It is the only place I know to start.”
Coach Horne raised his large arm. “May I suggest you use the Chair? We may get images for clues even if they won’t talk.”
“That is a fantastic idea,” Grandpa said.
“And I mean no disrespect,” Coach Horne looked at Mr. Trinhouse, “But to calm my suspicions, would the Trinhouses mind also sitting in the Chair and answering questions about that briefcase?”
“Not at all,” Mr. Trinhouse said. “It is wise to check every avenue for clues and we are happy to help.”
Mrs. Trinhouse nodded too, but slowly.
That sounded good. Though Abby liked Mrs. Trinhouse as a teacher, she had to admit something didn’t feel right about the situation. There were too many unanswered questions. But if either or both of the Trinhouses had helped the criminal, or somehow one of them was the criminal, they would not likely agree to sit in the Chair.