“You’d leave her behind?”
“Do I want to? No, of course not. But as long as she gets herself out of DHI shadow, she’ll return with me. She’ll be fine.”
“But we won’t know if she’s out or in. Right? Not without seeing her.”
“Mattie, I really need you to calm down. Take a deep breath. Chill out. We all make more mistakes when we’re wound up.”
“You’re not my mother, Mandy.”
“No, I’m your friend. And I’m Charlene’s friend.”
Mattie nodded. She drew a deep breath, held it and let it out slowly.
“Better?”
Mattie repeated the exercise. “Sorry.”
“It happens.” Amanda glanced back up the trail. “Come on!” she whispered aloud, not meaning to.
“You’re worried.”
“I’d rather we leave together. Of course I would. But we can’t wait any longer. We’re going now.” She said this for her own benefit as much as Mattie’s. She knew it made sense, but it felt wrong; and with things between her and Charlene and Finn being the way they were, it could look wrong, too. Mattie was right: Keepers didn’t leave Keepers behind.
“You’re worried about her.”
“Charlie’s strong. And clever. She’ll be fine.” Amanda took one last look up the trail. “Yes. I’m worried. Okay? But we’re leaving anyway.” Amanda led Mattie back onto the trail. “We’re going to circle around to the right.”
“But that’s the opposite direction from where we came through.”
“And it’s not a direct route to the main gate,” Amanda said. “We can’t have two plans, Mattie.”
“Okay. To the right.”
“I’ll be focused on what’s in front of us. You will stay close. You will check behind us. But don’t get distracted. If you see someone, you do not talk. You tap me on the back and then duck.”
Amanda’s hologram made no sound on the trail floor. Mattie snapped a stick, but from then on walked perfectly silently, gauging her every step. They came around the far side of the two storage sheds. Amanda peered around the corner, facing the pavilion nearly straight ahead. The main gate was to her right; the chicken-wire door they’d used to enter in front of her. It was thirty yards over to the door, all of it across wide-open space, with only a few clumps of flowering bushes in between.
She turned, tapped Mattie on the chest, and pointed to the ground, signaling, You stay here.
Mattie acknowledged with a brief nod.
Amanda slipped out of her zip-line harness and quietly eased it to the ground. She raised her finger to her lips to silence Mattie and stepped through the wall of the shed, disappearing.
Mattie nearly choked trying to keep quiet.
Amanda moved through the inside of the well-organized shed and paused at the corrugated metal wall. She eased her face forward a half inch at a time. If you’d been standing in the pavilion’s courtyard picnic area and had happened to look over at the shed, you would have seen a nose suddenly appear through the wall. It was followed by a girl’s forehead and eyes and chin. The face stopped. It looked as if it belonged to a ghost. Her eyes tracked right to left. The face disappeared.
Amanda saw him. He was sitting at the end of a picnic-table bench with what looked like a strange-looking cane on his lap, just out of view of where the path entered the courtyard. Had Amanda and Mattie not gone the long way around, they would have walked into this guard’s trap. No, too short for a cane. With a thick rubber handle. Why rubber? Insulation! It was a cattle prod. He was set to zap whoever crossed his path.
That made things tricky for Mattie—even for Amanda. If she happened to be reaching for him with a solid hand and the shock hit her, it would disrupt her hologram. Maybe even fry her.
Amanda stepped through the wall and rejoined Mattie. Her voice was quieter than a breeze. “Wait for me. I’ll call for you. Come when you hear me.”
Mattie nodded again. Her face was white.
Amanda reentered the shed. She picked up a pair of spare pulleys, moved close to the shed door, and rattled them loudly. Paused. Rattled them again. She heard the door’s metal hasp click. The moment the door cracked open, Amanda stepped through the wall and into the courtyard, now behind the guard. She shoved him from behind, throwing him into the shed, threw the hasp into place, and clicked it shut, trapping him.
“Now!” she called.
Mattie came running around the corner and into the open. The trapped guard was going nuts, trying to shake the door open. The girls reached the gate and ran out into the driveway as fast as they could.