The other two cats arrived at the same time. They, too, began to circle, along with the tiger that escaped the hatch—a wider circle than the monkeys, one that included Amanda.
The escaped tiger still confused Finn: how had it gotten into the tunnel in the first place? Was the lower yard hatch open? If so, who had opened it?
Only the prowling tigress that had emerged from the shadows remained on her own, majestically moving with long, confident strides, restlessly back and forth. She seemed to be agitated, studying the commotion in her yard, calculating a strike.
Several of the monkeys spun around, distracted by Amanda, and broke their chain. Finn took advantage of the distraction and shot for the opening.
The two charging tigers turned at the last minute, now aiming for Amanda.
Finn took two steps toward her, intending to defend her, but then witnessed her leaving the ground. She levitated, floating higher and higher. The monkeys, carried by their own momentum, ran right through the space she had occupied. The two charging tigers leaped into the air, reaching their claws toward her. One caught the leg of her jeans, but there was no sound of tearing fabric. No scream.
The leaping tiger flew through the air and landed with a roll.
The slinking tigress sat back on her haunches and sprang for the charging tiger. It looked as if the tigress were trying to defend Amanda. The two tigers growled at the tigress and the three cats began to circle each other.
Ignored, Amanda lowered herself to the grass.
“The wall!” Finn called out to Amanda as he raised his stick toward the remaining two monkeys.
Amanda sprinted toward Charlene.
Finn turned his back in their direction, battling most of the monkeys, who darted about him trying to sink their teeth into his legs. He knocked them back with his stick, but apparently they barely felt it.
Looking over the heads of the monkeys, Finn saw the tigress swiping her huge claws at the other two grand cats. It looked as if the cats made contact, but none of them reeled with pain—they held their ground.
Charlene let out a squeal as Amanda climbed up her stilts; her hand had become caught between a stilt and the wall.
With that squeal, all three cats turned. One minute fighting each other; the next, acting like curious cats. They clearly saw the monkeys, then Finn, and finally the girl in the distance clambering up a wall.
They charged.
Finn had his hands full with the monkeys. He had not an ounce of strength nor a second of time to deal with three enormous cats barreling down toward him.
This is it, he thought. It was too late to turn and run. Too late to escape.
The cats were lightning fast. They seemed to pull the earth, and Finn with it, dragging him toward them. Without looking, the monkeys knew. They darted to their left, removing themselves from the tigers’ line of sight.
Finn readied his pathetic stick; it was all the defense he had. He was going to be eaten alive.
The two smaller tigers leaped into the air when just five yards away, perfectly calculating the distance. They would land on Finn, crushing him, then snap his neck with their powerful jaws and start the feast.
Finn braced for the end.
59
PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS HAD, only five minutes earlier, moved around the right wall of the Dino Institute, as it appeared on the virtual schematics.
philitup: if you helped create the place, how about a little hint of how to reach that room?
Near the south wall of the institute, the purple cables terminated. The blueprint showed a series of walls around them, but no door. So was the server in a closet? A workspace? The ceiling? The hiding place in the floor?
[ ]: computers came way after my time. I have no idea where that is.
philitup: none? are you sure? they don’t need much space, but it has to be a cool room, and they require a lot of cabling, so they would be over a tunnel or sewer, or—
[ ]: storm sewers.
Wayne’s avatar lifted its arm to point.
[ ]: I remember a meeting, years ago, where routing data lines over the storm sewer pipes was discussed, storm sewers carry the rainwater out of the park, the sewer lines are in maintenance conduits throughout the park.
philitup: but this is a server they want to hide, that they don’t want anyone to find.
[ ]: the employee bathroom in the Dino Institute is way too cold, and every bathroom has drains, right? some drains feed the storm sewers.
Philby grabbed hold of the DS. It was worth a try.
philitup: dhi server is in an employee bathroom close 2 the south wall.
mybest: on our way.
philitup: wayne and i will try 2 cut the cables, u try 2 find server.
Philby looked back at the VMK screen and, as he did, the screen popped and sparkled. It occurred to him that someone could be monitoring them. The Overtakers could know that he and Wayne were online. Could they trace their locations? If so, both he and Wayne were at great risk.
philitup: hurry up! we have to cut the cables.
Wayne’s avatar rushed to keep up with Philby. It forced Wayne to keep his hands on the mouse and off the keyboard: he couldn’t type a message as long as Philby kept him moving.
They traveled around the corner of the institute and back to the catwalk that carried the data cables. Philby struck the purple cables with his sword. Once…twice…three times. All the cables were cut. They immediately turned gray—the data stream was dead.
Why wasn’t Wayne helping? Philby turned his avatar to look.
Wayne’s avatar wasn’t moving.
philitup: come on! hurry!
The white-haired avatar just stood there not doing anything.
Philby wished he could scream at Wayne, instead of just typing. Why wasn’t the old guy following him?
Then the impossible happened: Wayne’s avatar dissolved.
60
MAYBECK AND WILLA occupied the backseat of one of the exploration vehicles inside the Dino Institute. The front seat stood empty, and given the size of the crowd lined up for the ride, this should have told them something; but they’d been too preoccupied with Philby’s instructions to pay much attention to anything beyond looking for doors offering employees backstage access.
The ride was dark and very cold, with stunningly real dinosaurs appearing at every turn. Asteroids fell to Earth in a shower of fiber optics. The vehicle rounded a long turn. The prehistoric creatures looked up and turned toward the truck.
“How are we going to do this?” Willa asked Maybeck in a whisper. “We can’t jump from the car without setting off the alarms.”
“We’ll find a way backstage,” Maybeck promised. “The trick is to know where we’re going.” He indicated the part of the ride to their right. “This section is all interior to the track. Philby said a workshop or bathroom. Those rooms are going to be in spaces between the ride and the exterior walls—or currently to our left.”
“Are you sure about that?” she asked.
“I’m not sure about anything,” he conceded.
The next scene showed a tyrannosaurus eating a lizard.
“It’s creepy the way their eyes move,” Willa hissed. “It feels like they’re looking right at—”
But her words were cut off as the dinosaur’s giant tail swiped over the engine of the open-topped vehicle. Maybeck reached out and pulled Willa down onto him a fraction of a second before the massive tail nearly beheaded her. The tail broke some equipment off the vehicle, and it tumbled to the track.
Maybeck dared to sneak a look and pushed Willa back up.
“Was that…supposed to happen?” she gasped.
Maybeck pulled at a lap belt at his waist; then he tried Willa’s. The belts wouldn’t release—they were locked shut. The kids couldn’t jump out of the vehicle even if they’d wanted to.