by Morris, Chad
The Sherlock inside of Abby thought it all sounded like a good way to move ahead. But something bothered her. It was Ms. Entrese. Not just that she had been attacked, but the way that it had happened. Muns always went through so much trouble to make his revenge fitting. Either he had abandoned his habits or this didn’t seem to fit. Abby reviewed in her mind the details of Ms. Entrese’s involvement in their last adventure to double-check if there was anything Muns might have used in his revenge. Ms. Entrese had told Derick about Muns. She’d even brought Derick and Rafa’s avatars to the place Muns had been holding Grandpa hostage. They had used gorilla and rhino avatars to free him from watching his own children die on the Titanic. How did getting shot with a tranquilizer fit as revenge for that? The Hindenburg was like a Titanic in the sky. That fit, but the only thing it had to do with Ms. Entrese being tranquilized was that the intruders from the Hindenburg brought the briefcase into Cragbridge Hall. It just didn’t seem like Muns’s style. There was a clue there somewhere. Abby wasn’t sure what it was, but she was pretty sure it was there. If only she were more like Sherlock.
Then again, to figure out these clues, she might have to make it clear that she was involved, that she had ignored Muns’s warning. Abby remembered what Grandpa had quoted about evil winning when good people do nothing. He was right, but when Muns had threatened and then shown what he could plan and succeed in doing, it was hard to volunteer.
17
Tryout
Abby held her mom. She and her dad had met Abby in Ms. Entrese’s recovery room in the med center. Though they weren’t part of the Council, it seemed like they were up on most of the details. Maybe they had their own separate Council of the Keys.
Mom squeezed Abby. “I’m sorry you were the one who discovered Ms. Entrese. That must have been terrifying.”
Abby agreed, trying not to relive it in her mind.
Dad paced the tile floor of the room. “This is insane. I’m still trying to figure it out—and figure out what to do next.”
The door slid open and Derick and Grandpa stepped into the room. It had been announced that the school was finished with its routine safety check and would continue in another half an hour, all classes on a shortened schedule. Security had finished their rounds, but they found no one. The man must have fled to some unknown corner of campus. He couldn’t possibly have escaped from the entire school. But for now they had determined the school was safe.
“I must admit,” Grandpa said, walking with his cane in hand, “I’m full of both regrets and confidence. Part of me regrets getting you and Derick involved in this at all, Abby. As you have heard—and seen the evidence—we are in the middle of a very dangerous game. Perhaps Muns is right and you should no longer be involved.” His face was stern, his wrinkles deep. “But the other part of me realizes that you are very capable of making very important contributions. In fact, just as last semester, you may prove to be entirely invaluable. You two have surprised even me with how resourceful and fearless you can be.”
Surprised him? They had exceeded the expectations of a genius? That felt good. Yet Abby also felt the danger. A mix of pride and horror rolled through her insides.
“Should they sleep in our apartment?” Mom asked. “Or should we all move away from the school?”
“No,” Grandpa said. “The school is the safest place for us, even with this incident. Outside these walls, Muns would do nothing but attack—and attack quickly. I’m not sure you would be any safer outside. I believe we are safe where we are. Do you trust me on that?”
Dad nodded. Mom looked grave.
Grandpa turned to Abby and Derick. “If you still choose to help, I need you to keep your eyes open; watch out for anything suspicious or unusual. You never know what may be the clue that leads to a resolution of this mess. Let me or Hall security know as soon as you can. The security is already on the lookout and there aren’t that many places to hide. Chances are that we will have caught our person of interest in no time. But when there is as much on the line as there is with us, it never hurts to be extremely careful.” He shifted his cane from one hand to the other. “Therefore, I am removing all restrictions from you two at Cragbridge Hall. I expect you to act like adults, so I will give you all the same privileges as adults. You can leave your room and your dorms at any time of day or night, especially if you suspect someone is coming after you. You also have to be available to go to the basement at any time. I would urge you, however, to live life normally until the situation calls for it. Do not make exceptions unless and until you find an exception necessary.”
No restrictions. Abby was being treated like an adult.
The twins both nodded and thanked their grandfather. Mom was about to object, but Grandpa gestured to let him continue.
“I have also cloaked your rings’ tracking system. I don’t want teachers—or anyone else who may hack the system—being able find you two. If by chance anyone has bad intentions, as Mr. Hendricks did last semester, having your rings cloaked will prevent them from finding you. If they somehow find you anyway, and you are kidnapped or lost, I will remove the cloak and find you myself. I will do the same for Rafa and Carol. You can fill them in about the attacks, but not about those on the Council of the Keys—understood?”
Abby and Derick both nodded again.
• • •
Derick’s mind whirled. Why did Muns even have to exist? Without him, Derick would be able to focus on school and friends and not have to worry about people sneaking into history to change it, messing up the balance of time, and destroying the world. That was a lot for any seventh grader to worry about. He wondered if he was safe walking around school. After what happened last night, he wasn’t sure. But he did try to take Grandpa’s message to heart.
The only thing he knew to do was to try to find the answer to the question Abby had asked. But his sphere was still empty. He had just tried again, hoping that somehow it would be different this time. He was about start in on some homework—another round of Portuguese vocab—when a message came from Rafa:
Derick, the guys said that it’s a possibility for you to come avatar with our club, but they want to meet you first before anything becomes official, kind of like a tryout. We are meeting in fifteen minutes. Can you make it?
Avatar club. Oh, he wished he had time to focus on that. He wished Muns hadn’t struck, that he didn’t have to find the answer to Abby’s question, that he didn’t have to figure out what to do with a newly blank sphere—it all felt more important than him getting into a club . . . even the avatar club.
Then again, if he suddenly changed what he was likely to do before, someone might notice. They might realize that he was siding against Muns and that might bring more trouble. Besides, he might get a little help with his Portuguese vocab hanging around Rafa.
He walked down the hall toward the avatar labs. He had made it through his shortened classes for the day. Zoology had been a little strange. Dr. Mackleprank taught as usual, but Derick thought that it seemed he had a lot on his mind. If he hadn’t known, though, Derick never would have guessed that Dr. Mackleprank had been drugged and burglarized the night before.
The avatar club would be good, give him something other than Muns to think about.
Rafa met him at the door to the avatar lab. “Glad you could make it.” Derick wanted to update him on everything that had happened, but that would have to wait. “Nervous?”
“Um . . . no,” he lied. “Well, sorta.”
“No worries. Just give it your best shot.” Rafa led the way down the hall and into one of the small labs. “We decided it would be easier if we all met together as avatars and not in person. They know I recommended you, but they don’t know who you are. If we only meet as avatars and things don’t work out, no one feels awkward.” Rafa handed him a set of sensors.
“Makes sense.” Derick threaded on his black straps with sensors attached. “Should I grab a particular animal?” Please don’t say giraffe. Please don’t say giraf
fe. Derick had practiced in the lanky animal for a short time again that day and, though he’d improved a little, he knew he wasn’t going to impress anyone.
“A gorilla.”
Yes!
“And bring it to the field, room 1—the biggest one. We need the space. I’ll turn on the audio system so everyone can hear each other.”
“All right,” Derick said, excited to step into anything but a giraffe. “Let’s do it.” He usually felt rather confident about his abilities, but he had to admit he was a little nervous. Being invited to hang out with the elite group of avatar controllers in an elite school could be a little intimidating. He heard the door click as Rafa left.
Derick selected his avatar, knowing the computer system would bring it to the room. “Here we go, Kong. Let’s see if we got what it takes.” After a brief wave of nausea, he stared out at the largest of the practice rooms. A gorilla, two squirrel monkeys, and a lion ran, swung, stretched, and pounced.
Derick just watched for a moment, taking in the scene, noticing their agility. They were good—really good. The lion crouched low to the ground and pounced, landing near the gorilla, who was in the middle of a backflip. He wouldn’t have expected any less, but to see it made him nervous and excited all over again.
“Hey, back off. I’m still warming up,” a boy’s voice said. Though he wasn’t in the same room, Derick could hear the boy’s voice over the audio system just as Rafa said. “You enjoy your time as the so-called king of the jungle, because that is the only time you are going to rule anything tonight.” The boy had a Southern drawl.
“You’re wrong,” a girl with a Latin accent responded. She had to be the lion. “I’ll be queen.”
A squirrel monkey leapt off a tree branch, flung itself into a backflip, and landed on a branch in the neighboring tree. It swung one-handed down two more branches, and then stuck a landing on the ground. It waved at Derick. “Hey, Tryout.” It was another girl’s voice. “So you call your gorilla Kong, huh? Not very original, but I guess it’ll do.”
“Yeah,” a third girl’s voice kicked in—probably the other monkey. “Sounds like Rafa hooked up the mic system quicker than you thought.”
Derick could feel his face reddening. He was grateful that didn’t come across on the avatar. “Yep. Busted. I’ll try to keep the talking to myself to a minimum.”
“Probably a good idea,” the first monkey added. At least he thought it was the first monkey.
“Okay, but I do have some really interesting conversations with myself,” Derick responded.
“I’m sure you do,” the Latina lion said.
“Good to hear you’ve got some spunk and confidence,” the gorilla with a Southern drawl added.
“I try,” Derick said.
“Well, we’ll see if your trying is good enough.” That had come from one of the monkeys, but Derick wasn’t sure he even wanted to try to keep track of who was saying what anymore.
Something about hearing their voices and the challenge ahead excited Derick. He didn’t feel as nervous. Plus, he had faced men with guns while he was in an avatar. He could do this.
“All right, everyone.” Derick heard Rafa’s voice—he was glad to hear a voice he knew for sure. He saw Rafa enter as a gorilla. “Good to see you’ve met our possible new guy. As we discussed, we’ll do something we haven’t done as avatars before so we don’t have an unfair advantage. I figured since we have six people, we’d split into two teams.”
“That would be fantastic if this guy made it,” one of the girls said. “We could play a lot more sports if we had three on three.”
“Don’t get ahead of the game, now,” the Southern drawl said.
Sports? Playing sports as animal avatars. Awesome!
Rafa lifted a ball. It was about the size of a volleyball, but red. “Handball.”
“Never played it,” the Latina responded.
“Is that even a real sport?” the Southern drawl asked.
“Yes, it is a real sport. It has been an event in the Olympics for over a hundred years,” Rafa explained. “And of course I chose something you hadn’t played before. That’s the idea—something new to make it a little more even.” Rafa’s gorilla tossed the ball from one hand to the other. “Here are the rules. You can only take three steps with the ball and then you have to either dribble or pass. Once you pick up your dribble you can’t dribble again until someone else has had the ball. You can use your body to block and defend, but you must be between the other player and the goal; you can’t pull from behind or push from the side. And finally, you have to throw at the goal from outside a curved line around the goal—about nineteen feet out.” Rafa motioned with his arm about how far out the arc would be. “You can jump from outside the line but you have to throw the ball before you touch the ground.”
Okay, it sounded like a mix of soccer and basketball. Cool.
“I’ll draw the lines and set up some makeshift goals while you switch avatars.” Rafa thumped his hairy chest. “Let’s go gorillas for this.”
“I was hopin’ for rhinos,” the Southern drawl said.
“It would be tough to play handball in a beast that has no hands,” a girl’s voice countered.
“Just go change,” Rafa said.
Derick couldn’t believe it. He was about to play an Olympic sport with a bunch of robot gorillas!
From the moment they started, it was a crazed blur. At one point a gorilla passed the ball to his teammate, who flipped on her hands, caught it with her feet, and then shot it into the goal. Such acrobatics made it very hard to defend. Some gorilla bodies banged against each other harder than Derick thought they should. They were using very expensive equipment.
“So, I don’t mean to be a stickler here,” Derick said, “but don’t we need to be careful with the avatars?”
“They are actually extremely durable,” Rafa explained after he stole the ball from the opposing team. He paused in his explanation long enough to pass the ball to Derick, who whipped it around to the girl on their team. He didn’t want to hold it too long. He knew the others were better than him. “They have to be. In order to interact with real gorillas, you have to be ready to bump bodies a little bit.”
Hearing the explanation, Derick bumped a gorilla out of the way to make himself open. Oh, that felt good. He could get used to being a beast.
“Oh, I like this kid,” the Southern boy said, coming back to bump into Derick.
Derick faked a shot, then passed the ball to the girl on his team. She leapt off the ground and flung the ball into the goal. Not bad. Derick felt the rush of having done something right.
“Maybe I don’t like this kid,” the Southern boy corrected.
After the game, Derick took his sensors off slowly, knowing that the others were probably discussing if they should let him in. Thanks to a nimble steal and shot by Rafa, Derick’s team came out on top, but it was him that was on trial, not his team. Please. He wanted this. He really wanted this. The girl on his team had even put her gorilla arm around him, and said, “Not bad, Tryout. I’ve seen better, but not bad.” He hadn’t known if he was being complimented or not, but either way he was pretty sure Carol would be jealous—even if this girl was a gorilla at the time.
Rafa entered the room. “Hey, rapaz, you did all right out there.”
“Thanks,” Derick said, “but you guys are a league above me.”
“Maybe a little, but we’re also older.”
“So did you decide?”
Rafa paused before answering. Pauses aren’t good. “Not yet. We’ll talk it over some more and let you know.”
It took a lot of restraint not to groan. They had taken long enough; what had they been talking about? Maybe he hadn’t been perfect out there, but he had done all right. He wanted an answer. Then he remembered everything with Muns. “Oh, and I need to catch you up on a few things. Do you have a few minutes?”
Rafa did. Derick made sure no one was within earshot and confirmed that Rafa had turn
ed off the audio system. He didn’t want this ringing throughout the avatar lab if anyone was still practicing. He told Rafa about the attacks and the Council, but this time it was Derick’s turn not to use names. He told him that their restrictions were lifted so they could keep an eye out for anything strange and to protect themselves.
“Wait,” Rafa said. “Two were attacked? Was one of them Dr. Mackleprank?”
Derick didn’t answer. He just stood there trying not to react—not to give anything away.
“I’ve got to go,” Rafa said, and rushed out the door.
18
Assassination
The Gettysburg Address was short—much shorter than Abby realized. Like under five minutes short. Maybe even half that. The other speaker was quite the windbag, going on for hours it seemed, but Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, got straight to the point.
Abby had watched the tall, gangly man working on his speech almost nonstop. He even made corrections and changes on the train as he went to give the speech. Maybe that was part of what made it great—he just kept making changes until he got it right.
She didn’t mind learning about the president. She couldn’t remember all the dates and names, but she liked him. She had seen his humble beginnings—the one-room cabin in Kentucky with a dirt floor. She saw him reading whenever he could, even at times when he was supposed to be working. She saw him as a lawyer in the courtroom during the day and telling story after story with his friends at night. She saw him failing in his first attempt at public office, then trying to get into Congress, attempting to get a position at the Land Office, and running for Senate. And she noticed that he had other entries showing other failures. He had maybe more than his share.
Finally, he was nominated to run for president. A rival called him “a two-face,” and Lincoln reacted by saying, “If I had two faces, do you think I would wear this one?” Abby loved it.