Kingdom Keepers III(131)

There was a carabiner holding a clasp shut on the front of the box—a door.

Finn crawled toward the box.

A van pulled up and off the pavement, skidding to a stop. It threw up a plume of dust.

Finn crept one knee closer to the box, but he still lay a good ten feet away.

He heard his mother’s voice.

For a moment he didn’t believe it. He had to be feeling the effects of the all-nighter. It couldn’t actually be his mother. But she spoke again.

“I want to talk to whoever is in charge,” she said.

That was his mother. No doubt about it.

Pete hurried over in that direction. Finn peered through the bottom of the globe. His father. His mother. And two other adults.

“We have been searching this park for over an hour,” his mother complained. “And then, just now…we saw two—”

“Kids,” Finn’s father said.

“Yes,” his mother said. “Running from this direction. If you have harmed these children in any way…!”

“Harmed?” Pete answered. “What children? We saw some vandals, some trespassers just now, and I sent a couple of guards after them. If those are your kids, they’re in big trouble, lady.”

“Do not ‘lady’ me, mister.”

One of the remaining guards moved closer to the Earth Globe barge. He did so slowly so as not to arouse suspicion. But he was too close now. There was no way Finn was going to get the box open with that man standing there.

Finn felt a tug on his wet shirt. He looked over his shoulder. Charlene was pointing down to the far end of the barge where Finn finally spotted what she was trying to get him to see: an outboard engine strapped to the back. Unlike the other barges, the Earth Globe did not need to be towed into place.

Charlene pointed at herself, and then at the engine.

Finn understood the message. He nodded.

Charlene took off, slowly crawling on her belly down the far side of the barge, keeping herself flat and low, her wet, black clothing blending in perfectly with the barge’s black paint.

Finn’s eyes roamed, looking for…he spotted it: a single thick line tying the barge to the dock. But how was he ever going to get to it?

Amanda tugged on him next. He met eyes with her and she held up both hands. Then she pointed to herself. Then the hands again, and she slowly pushed.

Finn nodded: Brilliant!

Only that one rope remained.

There are some things in this world that will never be fully explained. Even the existence of Fairlies did not explain them all: how a friend can think of a friend and the phone will suddenly ring with that same friend on the other end; how a twin will know the exact moment when his or her twin has unexpectedly died; how the same song will come into the heads of two people at the exact same instant; how a mother can see her child no matter how well the kid is hidden in a crowd.

Finn’s mom spotted him. He saw the change in her face, and there was no doubt in his mind. Next, she spotted Charlene crawling toward the back. She went rigid. She was turning toward Finn’s dad as Finn shook his head no, once and quite violently. She stopped.

Her father said something to her. She shook her head, her eyes never leaving Finn. They filled with tears and she wiped them away and made excuses to Pete about how upset she was. She had no idea what to do. She stood there like a stone statue.

Finn knew it was now or never, but no matter how he planned to get to the line and release the barge, he knew the guard would stop him. He might avoid capture by going all-clear, but that would also prevent him from taking hold of the rope. And if he tried to get the door open to the box, he’d never make it. The guard would pounce on him and he and the girls would be hauled off. They had no right to be on the barge or the Disney property. By the time anyone got a look in that box Wayne would have been moved and would be long gone.

Maintaining eye contact with his mom, Finn pointed at the line holding the barge to shore and watched as her eyes found it.

She looked back at her son, then once again to the line. Finn used his hands to mime untying and he pulled his arms apart to indicate separation.

If his mother turned him in now, all was lost. He was putting Wayne’s fate in her hands. All their fates.

He waited. And waited.

“Oh, dear,” his mother said. Her knees went out and she fell forward. She’d obviously caved under the pressure. Finn’s plan had failed.

Pete caught her. Then Finn’s dad took her under her arm and tried to stand her up. But she used being off-balance to propel herself toward the barge.

“If I can only sit down for a moment,” she said. She practically dragged Finn’s dad to the side of the Earth Globe barge, and she sat down on the edge of the barge next to an old tire used as a bumper. Right next to the line that tied it to shore.