Sara sprang forward, hurtling toward the airborne mecha-monkey as it dove for her sister. The action of the next moment happened in a split-second, but the passage of time seemed to have decreased to a state of slow motion, heightening her senses, enhancing every effect upon her ears and eyes.
As she rushed to reach her sister, Sara placed one hand on Maria’s shoulder, serving to stabilize both of them. Without a moment’s hesitation, she planted one foot on the surface of the catwalk and raised her other sneaker high.
The sole of Sara’s shoe met the leaping mecha-monkey square in the face. With a warbling noise of disgruntlement, the robot went flying off course, arcing toward the stage with its limbs akimbo, arms and legs flailing in a doomed attempt to slow its flight.
Having dispatched the first threat, Sara turned toward Maria, maintaining her grip upon her sister’s shoulder. The two of them teetered uncertainly for a moment, wavering at the edge of the catwalk, while the mecha-monkey on Maria’s back hooted and hollered and caused an unspeakable amount of fuss.
Grabbing the raucous robot by the back of its neck, Sara shouted, “I got him, Maria, just hold still!”
At those words, Maria dropped into a crouch, grasping the edges of the catwalk in order to hold herself steady, doing her best to ignore the raking claws of the rowdy passenger that rode her back. She held onto the metal surface as tightly as she could, her knuckles turning white with pressure.
With a grunt of effort, Sara yanked against the mecha-monkey, struggling to disengage the claws of the crazed critter. She flexed the muscles of her pitching arm, and after a moment of strenuous effort, she pulled the robot from her sister.
“Boom-shaka-laka!” Sara shouted.
Wrenched free from its perch, the mecha-monkey joined the others who had been tossed from the rafters, engaging in a doomed flight to the hard, wooden surface of the stage. It crashed with a clatter among the other gremlins who roamed below, taking out several of those that still had active batteries.
“Nice save,” Maria told her sister, rising from her crouch and peering over the edge of the catwalk.
“There’s no time to celebrate,” Sara said. “We need to take out that last one before it cuts the rope!”
The sisters raced to the end of the catwalk, screaming assurances to their father, who was making muffled noises of alarm and frantically shaking his head from side to side.
Unfortunately, they found the final mecha-monkey was out of reach, being too far below them. The gremlin had scrambled down the rope, and it was now perched just above the swinging chair that held the captive Chief Fresco. Spinning so fast that it was nothing more than a circular blur, the robot’s saw buzzed mere inches away from the swaying rope.
Maria dropped to her stomach and reached over the catwalk. With a gasp of effort, she swung her wrench at the mecha-monkey, attempting to dislodge it.
But it was no use - the gremlin was beyond the reach of her wrench. Maria’s failed attack did yield a benefit, however, for it captured the attention of the mecha-monkey, temporarily distracting it from its focus on the rope it was so intent upon cutting.
The mechanized critter turned its head toward Maria and opened its hinged jaws, releasing an uncanny screech that made her eardrums tremble. Insulted by the sisters’ assault and determined to deny them their goal, the gremlin once more turned toward the rope, its saw blade buzzing.
“I can’t reach him!” Maria shouted.
“Throw it!” Sara encouraged. “Bean him with that wrench!”
Maria moved her throwing hand back in preparation, but paused as she tried to track the wily critter as it scrambled and swung on the rope. “He’s moving way too much – if I miss him, we’ll be totally out of options. I’m going to have to stretch out even farther!”
Sara dropped down to the catwalk and held onto Maria with one hand and the edge of the metal platform with the other. “I’ve got you,” she promised her sister. “Just do what you’ve got to do!”
The trust the sisters held in one another was absolute and unwavering. Without a moment’s hesitation, Maria extended her torso completely over the edge of the catwalk, placing her safety entirely in the hands of Sara.
Having done this, her reach was extended considerably, and she thought she might just be able to swat the persistent mecha-monkey away. The only thing preventing her from a fifty foot drop was the grip of her sister, but this didn’t make her pause in the slightest.
Hanging at a position that nearly put her upside down, she channeled all of her focus on the gremlin. The frenzied robot was a moving target, for the rope was swinging wildly back and forth. Sensing that Maria was preparing to strike, the mecha-monkey brought the blade of its humming saw forward. The girls had no doubt the saw would slice through the rope as if it were nothing more than warm butter.
“It’s now or never,” Maria muttered.
“Do it!” Sara shouted.
It was an uncomfortable position from which to swing her wrench, but swing she did, putting every ounce of muscle into the effort, stretching to the absolute limits of her body.
At first, it seemed the mecha-monkey might remain out of reach. But as Maria’s wrench arced forward, the rope swung toward her, just barely bringing the gremlin within striking distance.
The heavy head of the adjustable wrench struck the mecha-monkey square in the noggin, and the welcome clang of metal striking metal rang out in the air. It was, quite possibly, the sweetest sound the girls had ever heard.
“Quit monkeying around!” Maria hollered victoriously.
Dislodged from the rope, the mecha-monkey went soaring through the air, grunting and hooting in dismay. Its limbs flailed wildly, but this was useless, for there was nothing that could be done to stop the inevitable pull of gravity.
It made a final, desperate reach for the rope, trying once more to sever it. Fortunately, it had already traveled too far, and though its blade came close to the intended target, it did nothing more than glance against the rope.
Feeling a rush of exhilaration pass through their bodies, the sisters watched as Jasper’s creation fell to the stage. The thrill of having thwarted the mecha-monkeys at the last possible moment was indescribable. Relief filled their bodies, and their hearts swelled with love for their father, who they had come so very close to losing.
Panting and heaving, Sara used the last of her energy to haul Maria up, so that she was no longer hovering above a perilous fall. Once having done so, the pair of them collapsed on the catwalk, their chests rising and falling with deep, rapid breaths, their hearts racing madly.
The rope that held their father’s chair was slowing, no longer swinging so violently, now that the mecha-monkeys who had terrorized him had been dispatched by his daughters. As the chair stopped moving about so wildly, the girls were able to see their father more clearly, and they smiled down at him from their vantage point atop the catwalk.
The chief was a bedraggled sight. Sweat ran down his temples and forehead, his hair was mussed, his clothes were torn, and his makeshift eye patch was askew.
“Hey, Dad,” Maria said, her voice little more than a whisper.
“Mmmpf!” Chief Fresco said, making an inarticulate noise against the gag in his mouth.
“Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll get you down in just a few minutes,” Sara told him. “We just need to wait until the rest of those mecha-monkeys run out of battery juice, so it’s safe for us to lower you to the stage.”
Chief Fresco only became more agitated at these words, and he began shaking his head from side to side in an excited manner. He was trying to speak, but the girls couldn’t understand a word he was saying, thanks to the gag in his mouth. He was out of reach, so they couldn’t help him for the time being.
“Just hang on a few minutes, and then you can tell us all about it,” Maria said. “I’m sure you were real scared, but we’re here for you now, Dad!”
The words of his daughters failed to have any calming effect on Chief Fresco. He was becoming
increasingly aggravated, struggling against his bonds, straining against the rope and twine that secured him to the chair. He made frantic gestures with his head, trying to point above him while uttering incoherent sounds.
“Uh-oh,” Sara said in a quiet voice. She felt as if fear had taken all the air from her lungs, and she could barely speak. “Do you see that?”
“Oh, no,” Maria gasped.
As if they were deer paralyzed in the glow of approaching headlights, the sisters remained frozen and unable to move, staring at the rope above their father.
It was true that they had prevented the saw-wielding mecha-monkey from severing it. But the critter’s final, lunging attempt had resulted in the saw blade glancing over the edge of the rope, and it appeared there were unfortunate consequences for that action.
A tiny sliver of damage had been inflicted in the material, and now the rope was slowly coming undone. It was frayed at the point where the saw had contacted it, and as the sisters watched, the notch was growing, with additional strands popping free and unraveling.
It was a slow process, but with each second gone by, it seemed to accelerate. It wouldn’t take long for the weight of Chief Fresco to overcome the damaged rope, at which point its frayed material would no longer support him.
It would break apart, and Chief Fresco, bound as he was to the chair, would not even be able to brace for the impact of the fifty foot drop that awaited him.
Chapter Thirty
The Chief Unwinds
The Green Beans, Volume 5: The Phantom of the Auditorium Page 29