“The one thing I remember,” said Maybeck, who yawned all of a sudden, “is how much I dreamed when they had me in this state. I dreamed of being locked up. I think I was dreaming what my DHI was seeing.”
Finn yawned reflexively. “Don’t get me tired, or we’ll end up like them.”
“A nap wouldn’t hurt,” Maybeck said, eyeing the bunk. “We could take turns. Ten minutes.”
“Do not go there.”
“I’m tired.”
“That’s the point. Hang on.” Finn sent Charlene a text message.
Finn: ready when u r.
angelface13: all set.
Both Maybeck and Finn heard the loud scratching sound at the same time. At first Finn thought it was a radio or TV in another room.
Maybeck hurried over and cracked the curtains. “Apes!” he hissed. He held up two fingers.
Two apes, Finn realized. Out on the balcony. The sliding door squeaked as one of the apes pulled on the handle from the outside.
Maybeck pointed to his own chest and then the closet. Seeing this signal, Finn hurried into the bathroom, stepped into the tub, and pulled the shower curtain closed. He heard the door swing open and the sounds of the two apes moving around the room. Were they looking for them? Had the maid told someone about letting Maybeck into the room?
A message from Charlene appeared on Finn’s screen.
angelface13: i’m in position, will push remote in 3, 2, 1…
The bathroom door was flung open. Finn could hear one of the two orangutans breathing hard, and the room suddenly smelled different. He reached up and turned the showerhead to face the curtains, his hand on the faucet.
Four hairy fingers appeared at the edge of the shower curtain. Finn felt as if he might pass out.
The shower curtain was jerked open.
Finn yanked the lever. Water roared into the face of an ugly orange ape. The ape slapped his own face, screamed, and jumped back.
Finn leaped from the tub, pulled a terrycloth robe from the back of the bathroom door, and tossed it over the ape. He then used the bathrobe’s belt to take a strong turn around the confused ape, pulled it tight, and knotted it around the ape’s legs. The orangutan fell over, kicking and thrashing and screaming, doing nothing but spinning in circles on the bathroom floor.
The second ape appeared at the doorway. Finn lunged for the other bathrobe, but it drew him closer to the ape, whose big mouth came open, teeth bared. Just as Finn feared the ape would strike, Maybeck leaped out of the bedroom closet and poked it with a hanger that he wielded as a sword.
This provoked the ape. It spun around to challenge Maybeck, giving Finn the extra seconds he needed to take hold of the robe and throw it over the orangutan. He and Maybeck made quick work of tying up this one as well. They dragged it into the bathroom and, as they shut the door, both apes were seen whirling angrily on the tile floor.
Finn shook Willa. Maybeck pulled on Philby’s arm. Both groaned and squirmed uncomfortably: they were awakening! Charlene had used the remote on the DHIs in the cages, and it had worked. The cages were now empty—the DHIs gone, zeroed out by the server. Maleficent and the Overtakers with her had to be terribly confused.
And angry.
The orangutans screamed loudly from the bathroom.
Maybeck said to Philby, “I know you feel like a zombie. I’ve been there. But we have to hurry. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
46
FINN AND MAYBECK escorted Philby and Willa to the train platform for the Wildlife Express Train. Amanda had announced a discovery and asked that they meet her. She’d been very secretive, and they were eager to talk with her.
Charlene was still keeping an eye on the bat enclosure. The ice truck had not been moved.
The kids stood around watching Finn as he finally made the call to Rob Bernowski, Jez’s boyfriend. He had the BlackBerry on speakerphone so everyone could hear.
“Rob?”
“Yeah? Who’s this?”
“My name is Finn Whitman. I’m a friend of—”
“Jez’s. Yeah, I know.” He didn’t sound too thrilled. “She talks about you and the others all the time.” Too much of the time, his tone of voice implied.
“Have you seen her by any chance? Heard from her?”
“No. Why?”
“Just curious,” Finn said.
“What’s up with that?”
“Just asking.”
“Because?”
“Yeah, well…listen…I know this is going to sound stupid, but if there was one thing Jez could change about you, what would it be?”
“Is this some kind of contest or something?”
Finn hesitated. Willa was nodding violently.
“Yeah, that’s it exactly,” Finn said. “A contest. A school thing. How well do boyfriends and girlfriends know each other?”
“The one thing she would change?”
“Yes. That’s the question.”
A long hesitation on the other end of the call. “My clothes. She doesn’t like my jeans, man. I wear ‘em kinda low.”
“Your jeans?”
“Yeah. Did I answer right?”
“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Finn said. “That’s all you can think of?”
“I can tell you the one thing I’d change about her,” Rob volunteered, not giving Finn a chance to stop him. “I’d take her iPod away from her. She’s, like, addicted to that thing. That, and all the word games she plays. She’s into scrambling every word she can—making other words out of the same letters, you know?”
“Anagrams,” Finn said.
“What’s that?” Rob asked.
“It’s what you call that: an anagram is a word that can be made from the letters of another word.”
“Never heard of it.” He paused. “So what about my prize? Do I win a prize?”
“Ah…we’ll let you know. Thanks for your answers.” Finn ended the call.
“Anagrams,” Philby said. “You think it’s worth a try?”
“Do we think what is worth a try?” Maybeck asked.
“Jez wrote ‘change Rob’in her diary—”
“And inside the tree stump,” Willa added.
“Some kind of code?” Finn asked.
“Give me the BlackBerry,” Philby said, reaching toward Finn.
“I really don’t think we should call him back,” Finn said.
“I’m not calling anyone. The BlackBerry has Internet. We can settle this pretty quickly.”
Finn and the others leaned over Philby’s shoulder as he used the BlackBerry to Google an anagram site. Then, reaching a site, he typed in “change Rob,” and hit the button to generate anagrams.
The small screen showed a long list of possible letter combinations.
“‘Branch ego,’” he read from the screen. “‘Corn bag he.’” They laughed. “‘Herb can go.’”
“Let me see that.” Willa moved in next to Philby, to where their shoulders touched. No one missed how close she got to him, least of all Maybeck, who suddenly started shifting anxiously. Willa studied the screen and spoke in a quiet voice.
“We’ve done this before,” she reminded him. “The clues from the Stonecutter’s Quill. Remember? We solved that anagram without a Web site.”
“That’s because we didn’t have a BlackBerry. There’s nothing here,” Philby said.
“There are no proper names,” Willa said.
“So?” Philby challenged.
Willa took the BlackBerry out of Philby’s hand and held it where she could study it clearly. Then she calmly returned the BlackBerry to Philby, who passed it back to Finn.
“So I’ve got one,” she said, capturing the full attention of the others. She meant this as a challenge. She remained incredibly close to Philby, and she was looking him directly in the eyes. “One word. A name. A Disney name.”
“I give up,” Finn said.
“I don’t! Wait! Wait!” Philby barked, not wanting to lose to Willa.
“A Disney name?” Maybeck asked. “But then that’s got to be it. What is it, Willa? Tell us what it is!”