Kingdom Keepers V

by Ridley Pearson

  A shimmer to Finn’s right caught his eye. Like a flash of light. He looked that way: nothing. Empty sea. Turned his head back to watching where he was going. Another wink. Another inspection. Several more flashes, like from paparazzi cameras.

  Then, at once, a wall of silver, like a curtain dropping.

  A battery of barracuda.

  Charlene blew bubbles as her eyes went wide. She’d slipped out of her hologram.

  Several hundred fish. The fish turned direction and vanished again. Finn understood intuitively the change was the result of one of two possibilities: the fish were heading away from them, or the fish were heading for them. This explained the wall of silver disappearing—they were no longer seeing the fish from the side.

  Charlene popped her head above the water’s surface, gasping. Her hands splashed and her feet treaded water. Willa paused and surfaced to help, attempting to determine if it was a bug in 2.0 and, if so, what could be done about it.

  Willa swiped her hand at Charlene’s back. Her hand passed through her friend.

  “You’re okay,” she said over the roar of Charlene’s frantic splashing. “You’re stable. This is 2.0.”

  “I hate fish!”

  The most significant improvement of the 2.0 upgrade was its resistance to fear; prior to the upgrade the slightest tremor of terror made one’s DHI more solid. That Charlene had lost some of her DHI was both troubling and unexpected.

  “You’re freaked out,” Willa said. “You need to calm down, Charlie.” If Charlene didn’t return to full hologram the fish would have something to bite.

  Maybeck, swimming out ahead, missed the entire Charlene and Willa event. Finn saw the fish coming at them and Charlene slapping on the surface, indicating her hands were flesh.

  Some fish attack their prey mouth open, like in cartoons—the big fish after the little fish. Other fish hunt in schools. Finn found this out the hard way. When the wall of silver reappeared, it surrounded him and the two girls. It arrived all at once, like a net being dropped. And not just silver: silver with small black eyes, staring at them. The circle of fish was tightening.

  As Finn stopped, he treaded water. Without being consciously aware of it, he’d made his hands and feet 2.0-solid.

  The spinning school was incredibly close. Close enough for Finn to see their teeth. Their mouths were long, like the rest of them, so there were plenty of teeth. If Finn had known his fish better he would have realized they weren’t barracuda, but needlefish. Though this realization wouldn’t have helped him any; the truth was that needlefish were much more likely to attack humans than barracuda, much more likely to do harm—as in tearing a chunk of flesh away. Fish that attack in schools operate under a mob mentality. One chunk of missing flesh turns into many. This tends to be detrimental to the prey.

  Finn waved his arms threateningly and the school scattered. The swirling wall of silver vanished, then reappeared instantly like the flash of a bullfighter’s cape. In the blink of their disappearance, Finn saw past the curtain to Maybeck, who was swimming back toward Finn and the girls. Maybeck, with his powerful arms and wide eyes and a look of heroic intentions. But the swirl of fish continued to close upon Finn and the girls. It was quickly approaching snack time for the needlefish, and though Maybeck’s intentions might have been noble, his arrival would only offer the fish additional food.

  Four legs and feet kicked furiously just above Finn’s head. He kicked to the surface, his last underwater image a few brave needlefish taking aim at one of the girls’ feet and toes. He spooked them with another wave of his arms.

  On the surface, Charlene was panicked, Willa unable to calm her down.

  “Here’s the bug,” Willa said to Finn as he broke the surface. “In order to tread water, we seem to make our hands and feet solid.” She lifted her hands out of the water and clapped for him.

  He tried it and also clapped. “Uh-oh.”

  “We need to calm her down, and we need to get swimming again.”

  The lifeboats were a good distance away, nearly to the ship.

  Finn moved in front of Charlene. “Okay,” Finn said calmly, “I want you to float on your back. Arms out to the side.”

  “Isn’t that the dead man’s float?” Charlene asked.

  “No, that’s when you float facedown,” said Finn.

  “Oh,” said Charlene.

  “Lay back and arch your spine,” he said. He was thinking of the needlefish’s proximity to all their toes.

  He too was treading water, but he saw that sometimes his hands pushed against the water, sometimes they passed through it without effect. Yet he was able to keep himself on the surface. Take that, Philby!

  “Look!” he said to Willa.

  She saw the two states of his hands and concentrated. She too was then able to alternate between hologram hands and physical hands. “You gotta love 2.0,” she said.

  “Lay back!” Finn ordered Charlene. He caught her under her knees and behind her neck and held her like a baby in his arms. In order to do so, he’d made himself solid.

  “Finn, don’t!” Willa said, the spiral of fish closing in on them.

  He lay Charlene out on the water’s surface, pulling her arms out as flotation. She steadied and calmed. A thin, athletic girl, her body was muscle and bone and did not float well.

  “Take a deep breath and hold it,” he instructed. “Arms and legs out. You’ll float better.”

  She did as he said, and though her legs fell away slightly, she stayed on the surface. She managed to relax and immediately calmed.

  “I’m sorry,” Charlene said.

  “No worries. We’ve got this,” he said encouragingly.

  Willa, being Willa, had already adopted the back float alongside Charlene.

  “Finn?” Willa said tightly as the water’s surface began to boil with frantic needlefish rapidly closing on them. “Float with us! There’s no time.”

  Finn tested Charlene’s hands—they were no longer solid. “Just like that,” he said. “No matter what happens, hold it just like that.”

  “Got it,” Charlene said.

  “Where’s all clear when you need it?” Willa said.

  Finn could only think of Philby and his claim to have added control over 2.0. It made him think of Wayne. And that made him wonder if Wayne now favored Philby over him as the leader of the Keepers.

  “Here they come!” Charlene said, pointing with her outstretched arm.

  She shouldn’t have pointed. The intention of pointing made her finger solid.

  The needlefish took it as an offering of, well, finger food. A hand suddenly broke the surface and swept the needlefish aside just as they were about to feed on Charlene’s finger.

  Maybeck’s head popped up.

  “Gawd, I love 2.0,” he said. “Did you see that?”

  Finn couldn’t stop himself from grinning. Maybeck’s overconfidence—his conceit—was nearly always contagious, if not occasionally grating.

  But Maybeck too saw their predicament: the encroachment of the churning swirl of aggressive fish, ever closer. The girls laid out on their backs like so much snack food. Finn’s troubled face.

  “F…i…n…n,” a terrified Charlene said, “tell me you have a plan.” She craned her neck to get a look at him.

  By this point Maybeck was splashing at the water, trying to hold off the needlefish—a futile effort, but one that occupied him.

  “A helicopter rescue would be nice,” Maybeck said. That was another thing about Maybeck: he could lighten up any situation. “Where’s Neptune when you need him?”

  Mention of the mythical hero spurred a memory of Triton at Typhoon Lagoon. Of the ocean king standing up to Ursula and holding her off. Of him offering Finn his support in case of trouble. What was the code he’d offered?

  “Finn? Buddy?” the splashing Maybeck called out. The ring of foaming water caused by the net of needlefish closed to within a foot of them on all sides. A few brave fish darted toward the outstretched girls
. Maybeck and Finn splashed the water, trying to hold them back, but it was a losing effort.

  Stressed by the fish attacking, Finn couldn’t recall the code. Little pieces of the expression would float through his consciousness—lies? Cries? He couldn’t grab hold of the whole thing.

  The funnel of fish converged toward the center. Open mouths. Teeth.

  The words arrived. “Starfish wise, starfish cries.”

  “What?” Charlene said.

  Finn repeated the Triton code, this time louder.

  Nothing happened.

  “Dude,” Maybeck said. “You’re losing it. Hang in there.” Then, “Ow!” as a fish took a bite of his hand. Maybeck managed to splash the water and create a hole in the closing silver.

  Finn did the same. Then he lowered his head into the water.

  To Willa, it looked as if he were sinking. “Noooo!” she screamed.

  Finn spoke the Triton code underwater. “Starfish…wise, starfish cries…”

  He resurfaced.

  Nothing. Only the needlefish.

  Then…

  “Look!” Willa said, pointing.

  Finn turned to see the miracle of angel-like fish popping out of the ocean and flying through the air twenty yards at a time. Dozens at first, then hundreds. Thousands, maybe. Flying right for them.

  “We’re doomed,” Charlene said.

  “No,” Finn said, “we’re saved. They’re on our side.”

  Finn and Maybeck splashed more holes in the ranks of the needlefish, protecting the floating girls.

  “Dude?” Maybeck said, his voice uncommonly anxious. “What now?”

  Then, like Old Faithful, the water exploded up around the Keepers. It shot into the air five feet, ten feet, twenty in a giant plume. The explosion pushed back the needlefish, driving them away from the Keepers, creating a ring of safety.

  It wasn’t just water forming this twenty-foot-high fountain, but the dainty flying fish, their fins stretched out as wings. They flew high, straight up out of the water, and then plummeted back down, a thin column growing thicker. Soon, Finn and the others found themselves in the eye of the column, the needlefish driven back and away, farther and farther until the Keepers were safe.

  The column of foaming water slowly lowered and the eye of the water storm began moving slowly toward the Dream.

  “They’re protecting us,” Willa said. “They want us to swim with them.”

  As a group they swam toward the ship.

  “Are you going to explain the flying fish?” Charlene asked Finn.

  “Typhoon Lagoon,” Finn said. “King Triton’s code.”

  “We have King Triton on our side?” Charlene said.

  “Looks like it,” Finn said.

  “How cool is that?” Charlene said.

  “So does that mean we get Eric, too?” Willa said. “Because Eric is definitely hot, and if I had my choice I’d take Eric over some white-haired king merman any day.”

  Charlene chimed in. “I’ve had a crush on Eric since I was about eight.”

  Maybeck said, “And I thought you were crushing on me.”

  “Who says I’m not?” she fired back.

  “Trying to get me jealous?”

  “Maybe.”

  “It’s working,” Maybeck said.

  With the angel fish protecting them, they moved smoothly toward the ship.

  Finn spent the time considering their rescue by the flying fish, the existence of Tia Dalma on the island, the hyenas on the deck of the ship, and the crew members’ apparent obedience to some form of an Overtaker. He tried to piece together how any of it might connect to the stolen journal and their assignment to retrieve it. How it might connect to Chernabog.

  “What does Tia Dalma have to do with any of this?” Finn called out.

  It cooled the levity.

  “Should we try to let Wayne know?” he said.

  “I suppose,” said Willa.

  Wayne was constantly trying to teach Finn leadership lessons. Were the challenges they were facing nothing more than tests of their control over 2.0? Was it an exercise? Finn was sick of being used. Why did everything have to be part of some lesson?

  He was reminded of the mega-screen at an Orlando Magic basketball game. Three animated Magic ball caps on a table. A basketball slips under one of the caps and they shuffle and jump, the crowd trying to keep track of the cap hiding the basketball. A shell game, it was called.

  He wondered again if part of the shell game was to keep Wayne and the Keepers focused on the ship while something was brewing at the Base. Which was the ultimate prize? Which was the hat containing the ball?

  Now it was Wayne calling across an ocean at him: “Keep your eye on the cap with the ball! Don’t get distracted. Don’t lose focus for even a moment.”

  “I get it!” Finn said aloud, shutting up the others.

  “Get what?” Charlene said.

  “Nothing,” Finn said.

  “We’re getting close,” Maybeck said.

  “We don’t want to be spotted,” said Charlene.

  “Underwater,” Finn said. “I bet the flying fish will stay with us.”

  The four holograms slipped out of sight. The flying fish surrounded them in a protective tunnel.

  After a fair distance, Finn poked his head up. The two lifeboats were tied up to a portable dock floating below an open gangway. He swam closer, and his ears broke the surface as well. He marveled at how clear his hearing was—how far into the ship he could make out sound.

  The lifeboats were empty, as were the dock and the doorway in the hull of the ship. He waved beneath the water and three more heads appeared.

  “Clear,” he whispered.

  “Two by two,” Willa said.

  Finn motioned Charlene forward, and she slipped past him. Grabbing hold of a line used to tie a lifeboat, she pulled herself up and threw a leg onto the dock. A moment later she extended a hand to Finn and helped pull him up.

  Their holograms and hair were dry—no indication they’d been swimming. They approached the open gangway at the edge and peered inside where three crewmen were busy working, their backs to them. Finn and Charlene both took a deep breath and stepped aboard. They headed quickly through the maintenance area to an open door and out into a crew member–only passageway.

  They were heading down a corridor. A crewman approached with a look of disapproval on his sunbaked face.

  “You there!” the man called.

  “Stay with me,” Finn whispered, taking Charlene by the hand.

  “We’re the Kingdom Keepers,” Finn said proudly.

  The crewman stopped and appraised them. “So you are! Good to meet you!”

  “And you.”

  Finn shook the man’s hand. Charlene offered one of her dazzling smiles. Maybeck and Willa arrived behind them.

  “Having fun so far?” the man asked.

  “A blast.”

  “It only gets better from here,” the man said. “You’re going to love tomorrow.”

  “We can hardly wait,” said Willa.

  When Finn returned to his room, there was a card waiting with his name on it.

  The Keepers woke up exhausted in their own beds at six thirty. Philby had returned them once they’d all congregated on board the ship. None of them had had more than four hours of sleep; Philby even less because of nerves.

  The shore party excursion and entertainment crew leaders met in a bar called Pink. The Keepers all wore the shorts and golf shirts from their Magic Kingdom DHI identities. Max served as team leader. He informed the thirty people gathered for their assignments that they would cover all sorts of beach and island activities. Minnie, Mickey, Chip, and Dale were also in attendance; they wore their beach clothing and looked adorable. Minnie put her hands on her nose and mouth in astonishment as Max explained in detail how the two would arrive by golf cart and be interacting with the beach crowd just prior to lunch being served.

  After posing with guests departing the ship f
or the beach they would have the rest of the morning off. Then they were to arrive by Jet Ski at two o’clock and lead a crab race before serving as referees for a volleyball tournament.

  Each had his or her assignment, previously explained by Finn and Philby. Given recent developments, there were a good number of questions to answer before the all-aboard on the Dream at five o’clock. Chief among them: what was Tia Dalma doing on Castaway Cay, and why had the crew tried to take her aboard the Dream?

  Philby had earlier explained their situation: “Until we locate Maleficent, or whatever Overtaker is running things on this ship, our chances of finding the missing journal are zilch. Because of this, we’ll each tail a different person. Hopefully someone leads us back to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

  “Please!” Willa had said. “Lose the metaphors. This is hard enough to swallow. Running around in the heat and sun trying to look all innocent.”

  Collectively and individually they posed for forty-five minutes in the glare of hot sunshine, taking photos with guests by a Castaway Cay sign with the Dream in the background. Everyone smelled of suntan lotion. The little kids couldn’t contain themselves in the company of celebrities.

  Finn enjoyed such moments, but was also glad when it was over. Willa and Charlene awaited the dismissal of two girl crew members, each suspected of being the Asian girl who’d been spying on Philby and Finn at the Radio Studio. Maybeck was to change into a crew member’s white shorts and pale blue polo shirt and infiltrate the island staff, while Finn had a secret appointment. Philby would serve as roamer—first retrieving and distributing the Wave Phones left behind on the island the night before and then serving as backup in the event anyone called for help.

  Things had not gone well aboard ship. They needed to put the odds in their favor.