Kingdom Keepers V(93)
* * *
“Welcome,” said Philby.
Willa opened her heavy eyelids. Philby looked back at her with a mixture of relief and concern, and she realized she must look a mess. But there was something else to his look, something that warmed her and confused her and made her feel lightheaded, made her heart flutter and her head slightly dizzy. She blinked to make it go away—or was it to test if it was for real?—and when she opened her eyes again there was Professor Philby up to his usual stuff.
They left the crew break room together and said little until arriving outside the Vibe; everyone was at the beach. It was the first time they could speak openly.
“Where’s Charlene?”
“Waiting for you.”
Philby’s forehead knitted. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“We got seriously lost, okay? Thought we could find our way back, but failed. We expected you to try to return us and, if that failed, to try to cross us over. Thankfully, you’re predictable. I curled up under a bush and took a nap…believe me, it wasn’t hard. We’re both super tired…Charlene is standing guard.”
It took Philby a moment to process her reasoning. “Predictable?” he said. “You think?” He hated being predictable, especially to a girl. It sounded like the last stop on the train before boring.
“You’ll get over it.”
“I am over it,” he stated somewhat cruelly. “And where are you?”
She had warned herself about getting too close to him. “That’s the thing…we’re lost. We don’t know where we are. But we think we’re somewhere basically southeast. On a trail in the middle of nowhere. I thought, maybe with 2.0 I could try to return with a flare or something.”
“Never happen,” he said. “It’s one thing to cross over with something in your pocket; that has proved pretty stable in beta. But to pick something up and return with it?”
“We haven’t tried it.”
“It’s not going to happen. This is a projection system. It’s not teleportation.”
“Then we’re stuck out there.”
“Not necessarily,” Philby said. “You may not be able to signal us, but we could signal you.”
Her eyes flared excitedly. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Or she tried to—her hologram lips were absorbed by Philby, and he felt nothing. “You’re brilliant! That’s what I love about you! You think of everything!”
Love? he thought. Should he try for a kiss?
He said, “We can head out there with flashlights and whistles. You hear a whistle or see a flashlight, you move toward it.”
“Deal,” she said.
“The main thing is for you to stay where you are. If you start moving around it’ll be too many variables.”
“I get it.”
“We’ll work from the southeast across to the west side of the island. As long as you’re patient, we’ll find you.”
“Before the ship sails,” she reminded.
“I understand.”
“I don’t think you do.”
He looked at her curiously. Love? He was stuck on that one.
She said, “We…that is…Charlie and I overheard the girls we were following talking to someone. As much as I want you to find us—and I really want you to find us!—they were talking about a box. An airplane. About blocking the Pargos with a palm tree!”
“Slow down!” It wasn’t like Willa to lose her cool. Of all the Keepers, he and she were the most alike: analytical, patient. To see her come slightly unglued made him uncomfortable.
Willa explained what they’d heard while eaves-dropping in the mangroves. The bits and pieces: a plane landing, a tree blocking paths, a box, a delivery to the ship. Combined, it seemed to tell a story, but not one that Philby could easily interpret. A delivery for sure, and a well-planned one. But why such a secret? He couldn’t be certain the Overtakers were involved. Maybe it was a prank by Cast Members—although the expense of it all seemed to suggest otherwise. Did Maleficent have such resources available to her? He’d never considered her having a reach beyond the Kingdom and into the real world—the world of chartering airplanes and delivering goods. If true, the reach of the Overtakers far exceeded anything the Keepers had dreamed of.
“Earth to Philby,” Willa said.
“Is this legit?”
“It’s what we heard.”
“You’re right: we need to focus on it then.”
“And not us,” she said.
“Of course, you too. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“But Finn and Maybeck already have assignments. You can’t be in two places at once.”