Kingdom Keepers III(17)

7


IF FINN HAD RIDDEN HIS BIKE straight home, none of it ever would have happened. So in a way, Amanda was to blame, because she was the reason he walked his bike rather than riding.

He’d just been climbing onto his bike when she’d come running up to him, red-faced and out of breath.

“Oh, good. I thought I’d missed you.”

“I’m right here.”

“I have something I have to show you.”

“Ah…okay.” He climbed off the bike.

She reached into her backpack, slipped her hand inside, and then happened to look over her shoulder.

“Oh, no,” she said.

Lousy Luowski was coming toward them, flanked by Mike Horton and Eric Kreuter. Smarter than Luowski by a long shot, both Mike and Eric wished they were as tough. They worked hard to act and look the part. Finn thought of them as pilot fish, the fish that swim with sharks and feed off the scraps that spill out of the scavengers’ mouths while they feed.

Amanda was holding a small book—no, Finn realized—a journal or diary in her hand.

“You and me…we’re going to fight,” Lousy said.

“You’re kidding, right?” Finn said.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

“That’s original,” said Finn.

When Lousy Luowski stood next to you, it was like putting your face into a laundry bin in the gym locker room. He had a string of zits stretching away from his nose, several with hairs, like tiny antennas, sticking out of them.

Finn worked hard not to show his fear. His only advantage at the moment was that the bicycle remained between him and Luowski—a small advantage at that.

“Hey, Greg, can’t I talk to a friend if I want to?” said Amanda.

“Him and me, we’ve got some business to settle,” said Luowski.

“Spoken like a true diplomat,” said Finn.

Amanda shot Finn a look, chastising him for provoking Luowski.

“Why don’t we take it off school grounds?” Luowski said.

“Because,” Finn answered, “if we take it off school grounds then you will feel free to beat me to a pulp, and something tells me I wouldn’t like that.”

“You got that right.”

“So I think I’ll stay put,” Finn said.

“You can run, but you can’t—”

“Don’t even go there,” said Finn. “Mike,” he said to Horton, “you’ve got to get this guy a better speechwriter.”

Mike Horton bit back a smile, then lost it completely as Luowski looked his way.

“You gotta go home sometime,” said Luowski.

It was true. And it would be easy for Luowski to wait for him in any number of places along his route. He might be able to lock up the bike and call his mom to come pick him up, but he’d never live that down. He saw his dilemma for what it was, even if Amanda didn’t: a confrontation with Luowski now seemed inevitable.

“So,” Luowski said, “whadda we got here?” He snatched the diary from Amanda’s hand and waved it over his head tauntingly.

Finn lurched forward, but Luowski fended him off with a straight arm. It was like hitting a steel post.

“That’s private property,” Finn said. He’d seen Jess’s diary before and understood its significance as a portal into the future. If Amanda had brought him the diary, then it had to contain something significant.

“As if I care,” Luowski said.

“You’d better care,” Finn said. He’d made promises to people—Wayne, chief among them—as well as to himself, never to cross over outside the parks, never to reveal his abilities to people who wouldn’t understand. Wayne believed that to do so would jeopardize the future of the DHI program inside the parks, and therefore the existence of the Kingdom Keepers. But at the same time Finn’s friendship with Amanda and Jess demanded that he act. Luowski had no right to steal Jess’s diary, no right to enter its pages without her approval—a permission she would never give. Finn felt bound to do something more than just stand there watching this moron misbehave.

Rather than anger, Finn sought the inner quiet that freed him. He divorced himself from the moment, no longer fully present. His vision blurred. His skin tingled. He felt a lightness in his being. Freedom. He began to cross over.

It wouldn’t last long. He had to take advantage of the moment—become part human, part DHI.

He charged Luowski, ducking under the boy’s surprised reaction, a hastily lifted arm.

Finn snatched the diary from Luowski’s grasp and threw it at Amanda, knowing that as he transitioned fully, his DHI might no longer be able to hold on to anything material.

“Go!” Finn shouted, wondering if he was the only one to hear the electronic buzz in his voice.