Kingdom Keepers IV(86)

“The only way to do this,” Finn said, “is to break it.”

* * *

At the same moment, Philby was comparing himself to a sponge left too long under the kitchen faucet; there came a point where the sponge could absorb no more water. He was currently monitoring a dozen Security webcams inside the Magic Kingdom, the DHI bandwidth, and was attempting to determine the direction of the unexpected data traffic to see if he could pinpoint where the Evil Queen and Cruella were sleeping during their DHI activity. It was too much. His brain was ready to burst.

The closet-sized bathroom was getting warm and the air stale. The laptop’s battery was burning up his thighs. If his parents caught him in here he and the Keepers were doomed.

Juggling all the open windows on his computer and computing hundredths-of-a-second differences in transmission times on the log, his finger stopped on a particular line of data. He reviewed the times again, his finger sliding down the transmission column. Using the router data, he could trace the source of the original transmission to a location, and the location to a Google map. It was like a juggler trying to handle seven items at once.

His finger crossed from the router data to the map, and back again just to make sure.

“Oh, no,” he said aloud, quickly double-checking his findings.

* * *

“The cotter,” Finn said. “It’s a pin that holds a wheel’s axle in place.”

Amanda was listening to him, but with her back turned. She was focused instead on the change in Pluto’s stance, and a crunching coming from the bushes.

“I think something’s out there,” Amanda whispered.

“Apparently, so does Pluto,” Finn said, equally softly.

“If you have plans for the wheel, I suggest you get to it,” she said.

Finn hurried around the mill house and found the door. The inside was small and dark, the air stale and moldy smelling. His hologram glowed slightly, casting a pale light in front of him. The wheel axle sat in a closed yoke resting atop a shoulder-high post. It did not connect to any kind of millstone; it was all for show. A curved band of steel wrapped over the spinning axle, securing it in the yoke, with a wooden pin bisecting the axle to keep it from slipping out. Finn could feel his fingers and toes, knew his DHI was far from pure given the events of the past several minutes. He used a section of pipe from the floor to pound the wooden cotter from the axle, which began to creep slowly out of the yoke, like a screw unscrewing.

He hurried back outside and, rounding the corner of the mill house, stopped dead in his tracks.

Alligators.

Three of them. The biggest looked a lot like Louis in Princess and the Frog—but a mean Louis. Standing between the alligators and Amanda was a very nervous-looking Pluto, low on his haunches, growling.

“Finn?” Amanda called out, not taking her eyes off the beasts.

“Yeah, I see them.”

“Help?”

“Yeah,” he said.

The waterwheel’s loose axle caused it to spin off-center; the wheel and its external post vibrated and shook. It seemed like the whole mill house might come down.

Finn sped up the process. He raised the pipe high over his head and smashed it full-force down onto the outside post and yoke.

The alligators slithered back, away from the sound. Pluto crept forward, expanding his protection of Amanda.

Finn struck the post again. The wood split. He struck yet again.

It broke.

The waterwheel rocked violently side-to-side, causing the water to spray.

“Get…away!” Finn hollered.

He grabbed Amanda.

“Slowly!” he said.

With each step backward, Louis and the two other alligators ventured forward, forcing Pluto back as well.

“Pluto! Come!” Finn commanded.

But the dog held his ground. He barked once, sharply.

With a thunderous explosion, the waterwheel broke loose of the mill house. It hit the ground spinning, throwing water out in front of it as it rolled straight for the alligators. The closest of the giant lizards lost a section of its tail as all three turned and fled into the woods. The huge wheel smashed into some trees, teetered, and fell, crashing down onto a section of stone wall along the path, wood flying.

“That’s it!” Finn said. He reached for Amanda and took hold of her arm, snagging a large splintered piece from one of the struts.

Amanda turned her head, knowing what had to be done.

Finn stabbed the tip of her index finger, drawing blood.

“Oww!” she cried out, immediately sucking on her bleeding finger. “Nowww whawt?” she asked, her words difficult to understand with a finger in her mouth.

Finn considered this a moment. “I don’t think we’ll know until you Return. Although they might know on the other end—at Mrs. Nash’s.” He glanced around, believing there was at least an hour to go before the manual Return.