Kingdom Keepers III(129)
“You need some sleep, man,” Maybeck said. “We all do. We’ve got to hit the button and return. As in: now.”
“Shadows,” Philby said.
“You’re tripping, dude,” Maybeck said.
Philby worked a keyboard that slid out from a cabinet beneath the flat screen. The thumb drive’s red light blinked from the computer box behind the keyboard.
“Check it out,” he said. He backed up the video footage of the battle on stage. “Willa!” he said. “There’s a kitchen back there. Find me a match please.”
“Dude!” Maybeck said. “You are way over-baked.”
“We hear him out,” Willa said. “When is Philby ever wrong?”
“When his real self is being medicated by doctors,” Maybeck answered.
“Let him talk.” Willa headed off toward the lounge kitchen in search of a match.
“What do you notice about the vulture?” Philby asked.
“Ugly?” Charlene said.
“Big?” Maybeck said.
“Scary,” said Finn.
Philby pointed to the screen. “Shadows. All the stage lights make the thing cast about a dozen shadows going out from her feet like a star.”
“Okay….” said Amanda, stepping closer.
“And Finn?”
“Basically the same thing,” said Jess. “Lots of shadows.”
“And the dragon,” volunteered Charlene. “Not as many, but that one shadow is really dark.”
“He’s closer to those top lights,” Philby said. “Different pattern, but strong shadows nonetheless.”
“And this interests us because?” said Maybeck sarcastically.
Willa arrived with a book of matches. “I found these,” she said.
“Excellent!” said Philby. “Put your finger here, please.”
Willa hesitated. “You’re not going to burn me, are you?”
“A little trust please?” Philby said. “Stand your index finger on end.”
Willa stood her finger alongside the keyboard.
Philby struck and lit a match and moved it closer to Willa’s holographic finger. “Don’t move,” he said.
“Please don’t burn me,” she said.
“What do you see?” Philby asked Finn.
“A nervous finger.”
“Behind the finger,” Philby said.
“A shadow,” Amanda answered.
“Gold star,” said Philby, raising the burning match to his lips and blowing it out.
“I repeat,” Maybeck said. “This interests us—”
“Because of this,” Philby said.
He played the video forward. There was no sound. The dragon reared back, opened his mouth, and then fell as Charlene speared his heel. The column of fire erupted from his open mouth and Wayne was incinerated.
Every one of the kids looked away from the screen just before Wayne burned. “I cannot look at that!” Finn said. “Do not ask me to look at that.”
“And maybe that was the point,” Philby said. “That none of us would have the stomach to study it. But you’ve got to look at it.”
All of them took deep breaths at nearly the same instant. Philby played it again.
“No way…. ” muttered Willa.
“What?” said Maybeck. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“I can’t do this,” said Jess.
“One more time,” said Philby. “Please. Just look. Not at Wayne, but behind him.” He ran the segment one more time.
“I don’t believe it,” whispered Finn.
“How is that possible?” said Charlene.
Maybeck spoke. “It’s not possible. It’s some kind of trick of light. A bad angle by the camera.”
“Lighting’s fine,” said Philby. “Angle is fine. But it is a trick of light. You’re right about that.”
“But there’s no shadow,” said Willa. “All that flame—all that light—”
“Finn,” Philby said. “I want you to go all-clear. And I want you to put your finger down here, right where Willa did.”
Finn considered arguing, but he was too tired to do it. Instead, he closed his eyes and summoned the dark tunnel and the pinprick of light. He heard the sound of a match being struck and several of his friends gasping. He looked down.
His finger cast no shadow.
“It wasn’t Wayne,” Philby said. “It was a DHI of Wayne.”
“‘A deception of the worst kind,’” Jess said, quoting Wayne’s Mission: Space video message.
“They tried to use a DHI of Wayne to trick you into surrendering,” Philby said. “Wayne knew they modeled him for a DHI. He tried to warn us not to believe him. Not to believe the Wayne we saw.”