She lowered her hand. “Too much?”
“And then some,” he said.
“So, it’s over?”
“I wish,” he said. “I failed.” He agonized for a moment. “I had them.…”
“Who?”
“The Queen. Cruella. I had them! ” His mother’s phone rang. “That’s Philby for me.” He answered the call.
Their conversation was intense. They spoke in a Kingdom Keepers shorthand, Finn relating what had happened on the island, and the discovery of the fort; Philby relayed what Maybeck had told him about the activities at the power plant, including Hugo Montcliff being a DHI. That news was the hardest to take. Finn tried to swallow away his terror. Other kids as DHIs. Where did that leave the Keepers?
Philby told Finn about Charlene winning back the fob and dropping it into a drawer in the control room. Despite some losses, there were gains, he realized.
Finn told him, “Something happened during the power failure when I was in projection shadow. Cruella said something about tomorrow morning. That by seven it wouldn’t matter. The Queen stopped her. She didn’t want me hearing it.”
“Maybeck’s theory is that the power failure has to do with the prison break, which makes sense, but we have no way to know if it’s true or not,” explained Philby.
“Don’t we?” Finn said.
“I’m listening.”
“This is your stuff, not mine, but didn’t you say that counting Hugo that made five DHIs for them?”
“Yup.”
They had yet to identify the remaining two, but Finn now had an idea. “Have you checked the server log since the power failure?”
The line crackled.
“Are you there?” Finn asked.
“Thinking. Checking…Stand by.…”
Finn heard Philby’s fingers clacking on the keyboard through the phone.
Philby mumbled, “I thought I was supposed to handle the techie stuff.”
“Whatsup?”
“Bandwidth bump. How’d you know that?” Philby said. “Stand by.…”
More clicking from his end.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Philby said.
“Try me.”
“The prison?”
Finn nearly came out of his chair. “Yes?”
“I think it’s in the Animal Kingdom. There’s something I’ve got to show you. Check your e-mail…now.”
A moment later, Finn opened the e-mail from Philby, recognizing Jess’s artwork immediately.
“She drew that tonight,” Philby told him over the phone.
Finn studied the diary entry. A gate? A ladder on its side? Bunk beds? Something hanging on the wall. Or was that a window?
And if it was a window, that small, that high on a wall—where would that be? A basement. Only basements had weird, tiny windows like that.
Basements and…
…prison cells.
Finn felt physically sick to his stomach. He leaned over his trash can thinking he was going to hurl. His mother patted him on the back.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
It was like being blindfolded and spun around, trying to hit the piñata, only to have the piñata hit back at you. Smack you in the head.
A prison cell.
Finn said, “I know how they’re going to do it.”
* * *
Finn’s mother waited at the curb, the car running. He knocked on the door, rang the bell, then knocked again. Wanda Alcott answered, fully dressed. Finn knew there was no way anyone could dress that fast, much less an older lady—she had to be at least thirty. It meant she’d been awake all night. It was past four am. Doing what? he wondered. Monitoring the situation, perhaps?
“I need to talk to him,” Finn said.
“If it’s about the power failure, we’re looking into it,” she said.
“We were there,” he said. “The cogeneration facility.”
She looked stunned. She nodded thoughtfully. “The supervisor mentioned children.”
“One was an OT. Two were us: Maybeck and Charlene. All DHIs. The Return’s there. We need it back. Now. We’re not safe until we have it back. It’s in a drawer. You have to get someone to get it for us.”
“I can do that.”
“I know you can; that’s why I’m here.”
“He’s safe. I appreciate your concern—”
“It’s not concern. Not for him. The power failure was part of the jailbreak. They’re going to bust them out.”
“Yes. I’m sure that was the intention. The power failed there for nearly ten minutes. But it’s all under control. The…Our guests are where they belong.”
“No,” Finn said, “they’re not. Do you have clearance? Can you get me into the prison?”