Kingdom Keepers V(36)

Jess’s map suggested four groups of Overtakers. Maybeck and his team took the group he’d just observed; Jess and her group headed for a location on the park side of the Base building. Maybeck could not worry about the other three; he had his own group to deal with.

Maybeck had always felt like an outcast, partly because of his minority status, partly because he lived with his aunt, not his parents. He felt more like himself with the four original Keepers than with anyone other than his aunt. He found Jess mysterious and therefore hard to read; Amanda was absurdly smart and different in a way Finn clearly found interesting, but Maybeck couldn’t get comfortable with. He’d discovered he could run an operation as long as he dropped the attitude. The Keepers didn’t tolerate attitude. Now, sneaking along through shadow down the long row of workshops on the back side of the building, the volunteers—the VKKs—fell in behind him like a squad of Marines, and Maybeck took to his leadership role effortlessly. He raised his hand to slow the three, waved it forward to move them. Eyes and ears alert, he darted across the pavement to the first of the containers, his team following closely. As they reached the third container, he indicated an area at his feet by drawing a box. The first of the VKKs nodded, accepting the glue tube from him. The two others backed up ten feet, as Maybeck had instructed earlier. He gave them all a thumbs-up. They returned the gesture, signaling their readiness.

Maybeck slipped around the corner of the container—the same container that the Army Men had their backs to at the other end. He counted down from sixty, recalling the application instructions. When he reached thirty, he moved toward the Army Men, making himself obvious while trying to appear otherwise.

The nearest green man caught sight of him and slapped the arms of the others. The Army Men could not speak; they took orders, they did not give them. Their current orders were, no doubt, to take the Base, to capture any kid or any hologram they spotted. The squad took off in lockstep toward Maybeck.

Maybeck was a Toy Story fan. He knew the Green Army Men well, knew that a peculiar feature of the characters in the films were the plastic bases attached to their boots that allowed them to stand. Cast Members dressed as Army Men at Pixar Place in the Studios lacked the plastic bases but wore oversized boots in their place—a costume feature he was counting on.

He knew the chase would be no contest. For one thing, Maybeck was fast—very fast. For another, an army squad that double-timed in formation was no match for an individual in a footrace.

Having made sure he’d been spotted and was being pursued, Maybeck ran back from where he’d come. He turned the corner, took five strides, and jumped, tucking his knees. He landed hard, lost his balance, and rolled. At that exact moment, the Army Men appeared and charged.

Maybeck came to his feet facing the squad, his own team of volunteers perfectly in place behind him.

He counted the strides of the squad. One…two…three…four…

“Now!” he said to the VKKs.

As a group they raised their hands above their heads.

“We surrender!” Maybeck called. The pronouncement caused the squad leader to raise his hand, and he stopped the squad cold. He indicated for them to lower their weapons, as Maybeck and the others were defenseless.

Maybeck counted in his head as he said anything that came to mind. “We request to be treated as captive prisoners of war.” Nine, ten. “You will therefore allow us to notify our superiors of our situation in…”—thirteen, fourteen—“an attempt to…”—seventeen, eighteen—“negotiate an exchange of prisoners.” Twenty!

“On second thought,” Maybeck said, “maybe we’ll be going now.”

He turned around, as did the VKKs, following his cue. The four holograms took off. Maybeck knew that DHI 2.0 allowed him to easily maintain his hologram state—that bullets couldn’t hurt him. But he wasn’t nearly as confident the VKKs could master their fear in order to maintain the quality of the projection. He was counting on a series of events to protect them all, and, glancing over his shoulder, he saw them occur as if he’d scripted them.

First, the squad leader pointed at the four kids, raising his own rifle. His five squad members followed, also lifting their guns. Next, the squad leader took a step forward—or attempted to. But his boots were glued to the asphalt, courtesy of the glue tube and the efforts of the VKKs to saturate the area Maybeck had jumped over.

As the squad leader tried to step, he lost his balance and fell forward. He planted face-first into the glued surface, sticking to it like a fly to flypaper. His squad did exactly as their leader did: raised their weapons, tried to move, and fell to the blacktop, sticking to it instantly. Their weapons adhered as well. Maybeck and the others fled back to the paint workshop to join Jess when she and her team returned from an identical mission. With any luck that would be soon, and, according to Jess’s map, half the enemy would be flat on their faces, easy prisoners for park security to collect.