Kingdom Keepers V(68)

The men muttered. One of them cursed the “old witch.” Too loudly, apparently. He made it only a matter of feet from the stairs before he buckled at the waist in the grips of abdominal pain.

“Be careful your choice of words,” came the baritone from the cabana. “Respect where respect is due.”

Two of the other five dragged the man across the sand, glancing back at the cabana. They moved quickly as if attempting to outrun a fire.

There was little doubt the woman in the cabana had done this to the sailor.

Magic, Finn thought. Black magic, at that.

“You know who that is in there?” Charlene whispered hotly. Not waiting for Finn to answer, she added, “Tia Dalma.”

Finn thought he knew the name, but he couldn’t place it.

“The voodoo priestess. Pirates?”

It was as if a connecting piece to a jigsaw puzzle had fallen into place. He began to see the bigger picture, though answers and explanations escaped him. He nodded slightly.

“They’re taking the boats,” Maybeck said. He and Willa had snuck up on them.

“But they…can’t!” whispered Charlene.

“Tell them that,” Maybeck said.

“We’re part of the program this morning.”

“We’re supposed to be,” Maybeck said.

The boats motored on, backed up, and pulled away from the beach.

Finn glanced toward the ship where, in the headlights of golf carts and forklifts, he saw a dozen workers busy as ants.

“The dock is out,” he said.

“We’ll have to swim,” Willa said. They all looked at her like she was crazy.

“I don’t think holograms can swim,” Maybeck said. “Though I could be wrong.”

Finn didn’t like being so close to Tia Dalma. He led them away from the cabana and back to the palm trees, where they gathered as a group.

“Charlene and I hit some interference out in the lifeboat. The island projectors don’t cover very far out off the beach.”

“We had the same thing happen,” Willa said, looking at Maybeck.

“I’m not sure we want to try swimming in the open ocean with our holograms failing to project.”

“Doesn’t sound like fun to me,” Maybeck said.

“So we stay close to shore and just beneath the surface,” Charlene said. “If we go all static, we surface.”

“If we lose 2.0,” Maybeck said, “we drown.”

The three looked to Finn for answers. Not for the first time. He lived with this weight on his shoulders. Wayne had once told him he would grow to be the leader of the group. He had never asked for that role, but he seemed stuck with it.

“We don’t know that,” he said. “Besides, we won’t lose 2.0. It’s stable. We might lose projection, and we’ve never done that in 2.0. Water’s not a good place to test it. So we stay close together. Just beneath the surface and close to shore, as Charlene said.” Give credit where credit is due: the first lesson of effective leadership. It wasn’t about leading so much as listening and reacting. “We’ll stay just inside those buoys.” The swimming areas were defined by ropes and floats.

“I’m the best swimmer,” Willa announced. “And I’m lifeguard-certified.” No one argued, not even Charlene. Willa was known as a bit of a book nerd, but every winter she swam competitively. “If anyone has trouble, I’ll hang with them. The rest will get to the ship.”

“Yes,” Finn agreed. “We can cover for each other if a couple of us make it.”

“Our phones?” Maybeck said.

“We leave them here. We can pick them up later, once we’re back on the island as ourselves.”

They unloaded their phones. Willa hid them beneath a large leafed plant and took note of its location.

The sky was a lighter blue, the sun only minutes from rising.

“We have to hurry,” Finn said. “You see that open door on this side of the ship? We’ll head there.” There was a smaller boat tied up to a small float, but the hatch appeared empty of people.

They headed for the open water. When they reached knee depth, they slid down to their shoulders. Then their heads popped under and did not resurface.

* * *

All went swimmingly. The four stayed close. Their projections broke up occasionally as they swam just below the surface, but it was easy enough to keep track of each other. The latest modeling had included hang gliding, rock wall climbing, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, snorkeling—as well as a dozen new competitive sports, including riflery, fencing, and martial arts. The world of physical movement for the 2.0 holograms was growing exponentially; more modeling was planned for the coming months.