“Check it out!”
Just Maybeck’s tone of voice told Finn it was something important. Typically, Maybeck was much too cool to get excited about anything. “Son of a ______.” Maybeck said a word that would have once again gotten Finn grounded for a week.
“Oh…man,” he said, while Maybeck was busy unfolding his copy of the page from Jez’s diary.
The temple’s stone wall held a series of stone carvings, four feet by four feet pictographs showing different scenes. The primitive carvings were beautiful. One showed a person with his or her arms in the air, and an eagle flying overhead. Another had a fruit tree at its center, with birds in the branches and deer surrounding it. A monkey sat at the base of the tree holding a piece of the fruit. There were two others, both depicting a weird-looking guy with a mustache dancing around and doing strange things. But it was the image of the monkey that captured and held Finn’s attention.
Maybeck pointed to the monkey. “That’s the monkey she drew,” he said. “It wasn’t a live monkey, it was this one.”
“Agreed.”
panda: finn, check out the diary page.
He quickly texted back to her.
Finn: the monkey? can u c what we c?
panda: check out the window, my angle matches the diary exactly.
“The windows,” Finn told Maybeck, pointing to the knot of visitors straining for a look. He then found the incredibly similar drawing on the photocopy of the diary and pointed this out to Maybeck as well.
He and Maybeck moved toward the crowd.
“I gotta tell you,” Maybeck said, “until now, I wasn’t buying that Jez could dream the future.”
“And now?” Finn asked.
“Yeah, well. A person’s got a right to be wrong.”
34
FINN AND MAYBECK steadily pushed to the front of the throng gathered at the windows overlooking the tiger yards, where a blanket of green grass was interrupted by some trees and rocks. A huge tigress slumbered in the thick shade of a bamboo stand, her back against the tall rock wall that contained her. Jez had sketched both this window and the sculpture reliefs they’d just been studying, meaning this location had played a significant role in her dreams.
But what role? Finn wondered.
“It could be she’s hiding in the tiger yards,” Finn said quietly to Maybeck.
“You see her out there, do you?” Maybeck asked.
“No. But—”
“That’s because she isn’t there.”
“But it makes sense. She wouldn’t exactly be able to move if she was stuck in there. Not with tigers roaming the place.”
“Whitman, look around.”
Finn moved to the opposite side of the walled bridge dividing the two tiger yards. He didn’t have to challenge any crowds, because there weren’t any. There weren’t any tigers seen from this side.
“Convinced?” Maybeck said from behind him. He, too, had switched sides.
“But why would she have drawn both the window and the monkey? Can you explain that?” Finn asked anxiously. “They have to mean something.”
“She drew a lot of stuff: a dinosaur, the monkey, the window, a bat, some old dude. How are we supposed to know what it all means?”
“That’s just the point,” Finn said. “We are supposed to know what it means. We’re supposed to figure it out. We’re supposed to help her.”
“Maybe it’s about the animals, not the locations,” Maybeck suggested. “Something to do with monkeys, tigers, and dinosaurs. What do they have in common?”
“Nothing,” Finn said, “except that they’re all part of the AK.”
“The server!” Maybeck said excitedly. “The second server. Didn’t Wayne tell you the plan was to—”
“Make animals into DHIs!” Finn shouted a little too loudly. “You’re right.” He pulled out the page of Jez’s diary and studied it again. “What if these animals are the ones they’re turning into DHIs? Jez saw them in her dreams. They meant something to her, something important.”
Maybeck wrote to Amanda on the DS.
mybest: amanda. how many tigers u c?
panda: 3
mybest: finn and me think some animals may B DHIs.
Finn joined the D-Gamer chat room.
Finn: otakers might use dhis 2 fake us out.
mybest: maleficent cannot be trusted, she could have made a dhi of herself 2 use as decoy or something, no way 2 know.
panda: she wants control of the parks, it makes more sense she would use the dhis 2 scare the guests, or 2 put us into sbs. she doesn’t want us around, that’s 4 sure.
Finn: and with jez being able to see the future, she’s a real threat, what if she knows what Maleficent has planned?
panda: that would explain why maleficent wants 2 control her.
Finn: the diary drawings of animals may be 2 warn us 2 watch out for this or something.
panda: no. it’s more than that, her dreams involve her. have u ever had a dream that you’re not in? never! the diary is about her dreams, her life.
The screen flickered. She wasn’t through typing.
panda:…there’s a truck being unloaded behind the bat enclosure. 2 cages…both wrapped with tarps.
mybest: doesn’t mean anything.
panda: listen to me! the truck driver has a monkey on his arm. a live monkey, the park would never allow a monkey to be running around loose, these cast members are fakes.
mybest: how big r the cages?
panda: big! big enough for a large dog or…a wild cat or…
Maybeck interrupted by typing quickly:
mybest: philby and willa!
Finn: amanda, watch every camera in that area, we’re on our way!
35
FINN AND MAYBECK made their way toward the bat enclosure, just down from the tiger yard along the winding, dark trail of the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Bugs buzzed past their heads as the heat enveloped them, making their chests tight and their breath short. Birds cried out and fluttered past, winning Maybeck’s unflinching attention as he recalled his earlier horrifying experience. His DS beeped and he checked for the message.
panda: the backstage camera @ the bat enclosure just stopped working.
“That cannot be a coincidence,” Maybeck whispered to Finn. “That camera was sabotaged. Something’s going on back there, and we need to know what it is.”
angelface13: hey, guys, right behind u.
Finn spun around, looking for her.
angelface13:2 your left.
Finn glanced in that direction.
Finn saw her first: a paler green shape amid the dark green of the undergrowth. She was on the stilts and ten feet into the jungle, all but invisible thanks to the twisting vine of leaves that disguised her. It was only when she made a slight motion that he was able to spot her. The boys moved closer to the jungle so they could talk to Charlene in a whisper.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on the enclosure as Maybeck asked,” she said. “There’s been a lot of activity, a lot of coming and going through those doors at the rear. The workers have paid particular attention to that big bat near the red flag on the far left. Twice they’ve carried him through to the back and then returned him out front. I don’t know if that’s the one that was in the pillowcase, but…it might be.”
Finn and Maybeck weren’t where they could see well into the enclosure. Maybeck walked steadily closer to the viewing station, leaving Finn behind. He positioned himself with a decent view of the enclosure, then turned toward Finn, and both shrugged and nodded, as if to say: It’s certainly big enough to be the same one.
Finn said, “We need to get back there and find out what’s in those cages.”
“No way!” Maybeck protested.
Charlene asked, “Still no sign of Willa and Philby?”
“No,” Finn answered with a heavy heart.
“I think I have an idea,” Charlene said. “A way to find out what’s going on back there.”
Finn, surprised by Charlene’s offer, turned toward the jungle to face her—though because of the way she blended in, he found it difficult to see her. Maybeck’s attention remained fully focused on the enclosure. He and Charlene were opposites: Maybeck tended to react too quickly to situations and liked to work as a loner; Charlene rarely contributed in discussions, and when she did participate, enjoyed working as part of a team.