The Overtakers could be anywhere. The Fantasmic! show was known as an outpost for them—a place the real villains could blend in with their Cast Member counterparts. Despite security screening to prevent such substitutions, the Overtakers’ powers were not to be underestimated. On a night like this, when an assault on the Base was anticipated, it wasn’t a question of if but where they were gathered.
Maybeck rolled out of the Pargo first, taking advantage of his holographic state. He rolled across the pavement, never feeling a thing, and crawled quickly into the shadow of a nearby building. He watched as Willa went next. Then the Pargo disappeared around the corner. Charlene was scheduled to bail out on the turn. If she did so, he didn’t see it. With everyone in place, while not perfect, they had decent views of all four sides of the two-story building that housed the Base.
A dark window on the second floor filled with light and then went black again, the signal to Maybeck that Kenny Carlson, along with another boy and two girl recruits, had successfully crossed over as a DHI. It was a historic accomplishment: seven DHIs already backstage. When and if Amanda and Jess crossed over there would be nine.
Maybeck practiced control of 2.0 by reaching out and touching the crate he hid behind, and then, with his next effort, burying the arm of his hologram up to the elbow. He’d worked on shortening the time needed to jump between the two states, finding the bandwidth ample enough to allow incredibly quick switching. They were just scratching the surface of 2.0, but already it was like an entirely new experience.
Willa waved and he signaled back. Time slowed—either a product of 2.0 or his own nerves. He didn’t want to know which. The Cast Members inside the Base were no match for the Overtakers. A computer operator didn’t have a lot of skills when matched with a flame-throwing fairy. It left him and the others as the last line of defense—which no doubt made the Cast Members uneasy.
A streak to Maybeck’s left. A hunched figure was running quickly toward him. Friend or foe? He had no idea. The ammonia wouldn’t kill, but it wouldn’t be pleasant; he wasn’t about to spray a “friendly” with it.
He prepared to tackle the person. If it turned out to be an OT, he’d hit it in the face with the ammonia, blinding it and sending it running for first aid. He squinted into the dark, trying to judge the distance. His muscles tensed, ready to spring. He knew a thing or two about defending himself. Life wasn’t always perfect as an African American kid in central Florida. He’d learned to be a step ahead and to see around corners. You didn’t wait for your opponent to own your space—to crowd you. You got the jump on them.
He dove out into the open, grabbing the person by the knees and squeezing in the perfect execution of a football tackle. The person collapsed and Maybeck rolled on top of…her.
“Jess?”
His hologram passed right through her so that he lay on the asphalt. She, too, was crossed over.
“What the…? That could have hurt!”
“This way!”
He hurried behind the crate. Jess followed.
“2.0,” he said.
“Yeah. I noticed.”
“Thanks for coming.”
“I’m not volunteering for war duty, or whatever it is you call it,” she said. “I came here to warn you.”
“About?”
“I…hang on…”
Sometimes when the Keepers crossed over, objects in their pockets crossed with them. Sometimes not. This was one area 2.0 still had not perfected, though it was more consistent now.
“It’s here!” Jess said, withdrawing and unfolding two pieces of paper, one atop the other. “I didn’t recognize this for what it was or I would have brought it up at the meeting. I have so many of these dreams. Always so random. This one was…maybe a week ago.”
Maybeck held it up to the light. A bunch of rectangles and clusters of Xs. Jess’s “gift”—and what made her valuable as a Fairlie—was an uncanny ability to dream the future. It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t constant. But when one of her dreams could be interpreted correctly, it always proved insanely accurate. She sketched out what she had seen in the middle of the night after she awoke from one of the nightmares.
“I don’t get it.”
“Neither did I,” she whispered. “That’s why I didn’t really even think about it. But then Jeannie was doing this history project and was on Google Earth and something just clicked. I realized what this is…” She slid out the second sheet of paper. “It took me some time to narrow it down.”
Maybeck angled this page to catch the light as well. It was a satellite image of rooftops.