The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages, page 24
“They are indeed,” said Sticky. He raised his walkie-talkie to notify Kate.
“Wait a second,” Reynie said. “We need to be careful what we say. If we tell her she can’t make it—”
“Oh, right, she’ll want to try even harder,” Sticky said, lowering the walkie-talkie. “Well, what do you suggest? We’re down to three minutes.” He pointed at the monitor, where, sure enough, Crawlings was standing at the ready over the crank that would open the security door and admit the rest of the Ten Men. He was flexing his long fingers in eager anticipation.
Reynie lifted his own walkie-talkie. “Kate, listen, we have a better plan now. We need you to skip the electrical panel and head straight to the barracks. Cut through that security door Sticky showed you. Remember, you’ll have only ten seconds from the moment you enter the code, which is ‘to live.’” He repeated the code and spelled it to make sure she had it clearly, then told her they would explain everything later.
“Roger that,” came Kate’s breathless reply.
Sticky and Reynie looked bleakly at each other. It had just occurred to both of them that Kate might not even reach the security door in time.
Tai, quite dramatically, took a huge breath and renewed his vigorous humming. Constance, her ears still covered, was watching the monitor on which Crawlings could now be seen opening the security door.
Reynie gestured toward the computer. “Do you think you could learn anything else that would help us?”
“In two minutes?” Sticky shook his head. “I think I should bring up the command screen and be ready to drop the barriers if Kate doesn’t trigger them in time.”
“Agreed,” Reynie said.
“This humming is driving me crazy,” Sticky said, “but before we make them stop, let me ask you about the riddle. Mr. Benedict is the ‘one’ who has a favorite flower, right? And the one ‘whose secret agents took a peek’? That refers to us, when we were students here.”
Reynie tapped his nose.
Watching the monitor, Constance shuddered. McCracken had stepped into the passage. He was followed by the familiar figures of Sharpe and Garrotte, and still more Ten Men started to stream in through the doorway behind them. Meanwhile, McCracken’s keen eyes, scanning the passage, had spotted the security camera. He now seemed to be staring directly into the control room, directly at Constance. He smiled. A pencil appeared in his hand as if by magic, and with a flick of his wrist he whipped it toward the security camera. Constance flinched. Now the monitor displayed nothing more than the spiderweb pattern of the camera’s shattered lens.
“Less than two minutes,” Sticky said. “Last question: Do you think ‘peek’ was a clue, since it’s ‘keep’ spelled backward?”
Reynie nodded. “The Institute’s acronym was LIVE—which, spelled backward, is EVIL. I think he wanted to call our attention to the letters. The only way that ‘violet’ has an ‘evil’ in it is that it contains those four letters.”
“That’s what I thought,” Sticky said. “All those things were dancing around in my head; I just couldn’t put them together quickly enough.” He cleared his throat. “By the way, I’m terrified right now. Am I doing a good job of hiding it from Tai?”
Reynie gave him a rueful smile. “I think so. Am I?”
They nodded at each other, then signaled to Tai and Constance that the humming could cease.
“I was thinking about S.Q.’s big feet!” Tai announced. “Guess what I was humming?”
“It’s about time!” Constance snarled. She pointed at the closed door they’d come through. “Why hasn’t the barrier dropped? Do you realize they’re on their way?”
“We do,” Sticky said gravely. “Evidently, Kate hasn’t reached the security door yet.” He sat in front of the computer and typed out a command. “Okay, it’s ready to go. One push of the button and I can drop the barrier.”
“Come on, Kate,” Reynie murmured. “Get there.”
“They’re almost here,” Constance said.
“Should Sticky push the button?” Tai asked.
Reynie lifted his walkie-talkie. “Confirm you’re almost to the security door? Over.”
There was no reply.
“She’s probably too busy punching in the code,” Sticky said, offering Tai a strained look of optimism. “We’ll know in a second when the warning goes off.”
But no warning sounded. And no reply came from Kate. Reynie hailed her again. Still no reply.
“They’re at the end of the passageway!” Constance said. “They’re coming!”
There was no help for it. Sticky pushed the button.
A hidden bell began to clang. From a speaker by the door came a recorded voice: “Warning! Step away from all doorways! Warning! Step away from all doorways!”
“That’s so loud!” Tai yelled over the noise. He was looking uncertainly back and forth between the control room’s two doors. “Do I need to step away?”
“You’re fine,” Reynie said, squeezing the boy’s shoulder. He tried not to sound defeated. “You’re fine, buddy.”
From the gap over the door a sheet of crystal-clear material dropped with alarming speed. If Tai gasped, no one heard it over the clamor. Then the clamor halted, and all was silent.
“The barrier thing worked,” Tai whispered. “That’s good, right?”
The others nodded, but no one spoke. With all the strategizing and humming and riddle-solving, there had been no time to dwell on what might be about to happen. But now it had happened. They were stuck in this section with no way out, and McCracken was on his way. The barrier would keep them safe for the moment, but the Ten Men would get through it eventually. It was only a matter of time.
Reynie swallowed with some difficulty. “We need to find out what happened to Kate,” he said. Yet no sooner had he said this than Kate’s voice suddenly blared out of their walkie-talkies.
“You all… still there?” she said, speaking through gasps of breath. “Did the barriers… go down?”
“At least she’s okay,” Sticky muttered. He raised his walkie-talkie. “Roger that. Where are you, Kate?”
“I have… to be honest,” came Kate’s reply. “That panel was a lot… harder to rewire… than I…”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Reynie cried, leaping forward to change the monitor display.
The image flickered, then revealed a corridor at the end of which an open electrical panel was plainly visible, a bucket on the floor beneath it, and beside the bucket, sprawled on her back with a walkie-talkie in her hand, a visibly gasping Kate Wetherall.
“Hooray!” Tai said, throwing his hands into the air.
The others all felt like cheering, too. Just like that, they were back to plan A.
Sticky spoke into his walkie-talkie. “You’re the miracle we needed, Kate. But why didn’t you do what Reynie said? We’re looking at you through the camera, by the way.”
On the monitor they saw Kate wiggle the fingers of her free hand. Evidently, it was the best wave she could muster. Her other hand pressed the button of her walkie-talkie, and she said, “I’ve known… Reynie… a long time. You think… I didn’t guess… what that was about?” She paused for a few breaths, then added, “I told you… I could do it… didn’t I?”
They were all looking at one another, shaking their heads, still in awe.
Reynie lifted his walkie-talkie. “Roger that, Kate,” he said. And then with a little laugh he pushed the button again. “Roger that.”
With a glance at the computer, Sticky confirmed that Kate had rewired the electrical panel properly. The barrier over the barracks entrance, “believing” it was already down, had not dropped. Nor would it when the four of them entered the override codes for the security doors between themselves and the barracks entrance. Once they were in position there and Kate had rewired the panel, they’d be able to trigger that barrier as they slipped into the barracks, leaving one more obstacle between them and the Baker’s Dozen.
Reynie told Kate that they would notify her when they were ready. Kate, still lying on the floor, presented a weak thumbs-up to the camera. Reynie switched the monitor to a view of an empty corridor.
“Time to move,” Sticky said quietly. He rose and put on his backpack.
Constance, however, had crossed her arms and was glaring at the barrier. She gave every impression of staying exactly where she was.
Tai, for his part, was looking apologetically at Reynie. “I guess I shouldn’t have cheered,” he said in a meek voice. “I don’t know why, but I’m sorry.”
Reynie, taken aback, tried not to show it. He had been worrying about Tai’s cheer; it was true. “You don’t need to be sorry,” he said. He jerked his thumb toward the barrier. “I would just rather those meanies not know you’re here if we can help it. Same goes for you, Constance. Let’s get you out of this room pronto.”
In response, Constance merely intensified her glare.
“Constance?”
Sticky took Tai’s hand. “Let’s have a look at those ramps,” he said in a cheerful voice. “We can wait for these two at the top.”
“Okay!” said Tai, eagerly tugging Sticky to the door.
Sticky gave Reynie a look that said “good luck,” then closed the door behind them.
“So I guess we’re waiting to say hello?” Reynie said. When Constance didn’t respond, he took a deep breath and moved to stand by her side. His mouth was dry, and he found he didn’t know what to do with his hands. First he crossed his arms like Constance’s, then he let them hang at his sides, and finally he clasped his hands behind him.
They didn’t wait long.
A knock sounded at the door behind the barrier. “Little pig, little pig, let me in!” The doorknob turned, the door opened, and McCracken filled its frame. His shoulders almost touched the doorjambs on either side of him. His glistening, well-coiffed brown hair almost brushed the ceiling. It was impossible to see beyond him into the passage.
McCracken smiled, revealing a row of perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. “Aren’t you going to say something about your chinny-chin-chins? No?” He tapped the barrier with a fingernail, then leaned forward to sniff it, his huge nostrils flaring. “Glastanium,” he said. “Well, well, that’s top-notch. I suppose the idea is that when the special forces arrive, they want to be able to see what’s waiting for them on the other side.”
Reynie said nothing. He could feel his clasped hands trembling behind his back. He knew he and Constance were protected by the barrier, but in the looming presence of McCracken, he didn’t feel the least bit safe.
“I have a little secret for you,” McCracken said. “No one is going to be arriving. No special forces. No help. Just us.” He put on a pitying look. “Are you hoping I’m wrong? Are you thinking that even now a distress signal is being sent out to the mainland, where officials are scrambling to respond? Do you think a whole army of special operatives is being dispatched to help you? Is that what you’re counting on? Is that why you’re standing here so defiantly? You think everything’s going to be all right?” He clucked and shook his head. “Poor, sad little chickies.”
Reynie had no answer for this. He waited to see if Constance would say something, but she only glared at McCracken. If she felt the fear he felt, she certainly didn’t show it.
“Here is the truth,” McCracken went on. He drummed his fingers on the barrier, a jaunty little tap-tap-tap-TAP. “We have our Disrupter up and running. We’ve plugged into the tidal turbine power grid, so it will function as long as we need. No signals from the island can reach the mainland, I’m afraid. And when we take this down”—he rapped the barrier so sharply with one knuckle that Reynie and Constance flinched at the sound—“we’ll do it so quietly you won’t even hear it yourselves.”
“How exactly do you intend to do that?” Reynie said. He spoke casually, as if genuinely curious. “Doesn’t the blast radius of your calculator bombs exceed the range of your noise-cancellation device? Wait, no, don’t tell me. I suppose you’ve brought some sort of armor for the device. Or else you plan to shelter it in one of the rooms off the passage. That’s risky, though. The walls between your section and ours have been reinforced, but I don’t know about the walls of those rooms on your side.”
McCracken looked amused. “Why, Reynie dear, are you actually trying to help me?” He put his hands on his massive chest. “I’m touched. You’re very kind. Or perhaps you’re hoping to slow us down by making us rethink our plans. Hmm? If you must know, we have armor for our device, and we intend to shelter it in the nearest room. It’s being installed as we speak. Do you intend to wait around for the show, or shall we catch up with you later?”
“We’ll be moving along,” Reynie said. Constance didn’t move, however, and so he remained where he was, hands behind his back, as if simply waiting for the appropriate moment.
“A wise decision,” McCracken said. “Much better for your health in the short-term, at any rate. But, Reynie, as long as we’re speaking candidly, allow me to make a proposal. This one,” he said, flicking his fingers in Constance’s direction without looking at her, “this little scowling songbird of yours, is of great interest to me. I can’t tell you how delighted I am to discover she’s here with you. Now, what if I were to tell you that I would actually help you make your precious delivery to your beloved Mr. Benedict? I understand you’re finding it challenging—I have it on good authority that you’ve been in here racking your brains to solve some kind of riddle. Oh, does that surprise you? I know a great many things you might not expect.
“At any rate,” McCracken continued, with a friendly smile, “I would gladly help you, and what’s more, I would guarantee your safety. I would! Because, you see, I don’t truly consider you a threat. We could work out an arrangement for your friends, as well. All you have to do is give us your little scowler here. Oh, see how she scowls!” He laughed and turned his gaze directly on Constance. “Does that frighten you, ducky? To know that you’re important to us? To consider that your friends might give you up to save themselves?”
“That doesn’t frighten her,” Reynie said, his voice quavering with anger, “because she knows it isn’t a possibility.”
“Well, well,” McCracken said, still gazing at Constance with amusement. “If a look could hurt me, I’d be in agony right now, wouldn’t I?”
A voice from behind McCracken called out: “Almost ready, old sport!”
With an expression of mock regret, McCracken bowed. “I’m so sorry we’ll have to interrupt our little chat for now. But, Reynie dear, do keep my proposal in mind. You may find it easy to reject now, with this barrier between us. Later, however, you may find it suits your purpose to give the offer more serious thought.”
“Don’t count on it,” Reynie said coolly.
For the first time, Constance moved. Her arms still crossed, she stepped forward until she was inches from the barrier. McCracken raised his eyebrows. He cocked his head to the side and waited to see what she would do.
“Your pants are unzipped,” Constance said simply. Then she turned on her heel and walked to the door. Reynie quickly followed her, but not before he saw McCracken give a start and check his zipper.
“Made you look!” Constance called without even glancing back. She threw open the door and went out.
Up the ramps they hurried, joining Sticky and Tai at the top, then up a stairway into the old classroom building, where they used the override code to pass through the first security door. They scurried down a remarkably long corridor, the appearance of which had a strange effect on the Society members, for although in their time at the Institute they’d never been down this particular one (which lacked the yellow tiles that indicated to students which corridors were permissible), in all other respects the tiles, stone walls, and ceilings were both intimately familiar and weirdly alien. It was a place from a dream—a bad dream, at that—and yet as their feet quickly covered ground, they all felt how far they had traveled in other ways since their last days here.
“Surely the ceilings aren’t actually lower, are they?” Sticky puffed.
“I was wondering the same thing,” said Reynie, puffing even harder because he was carrying Tai on his back. “I think our eyes are just a little closer to them now.”
“I don’t like them at all!” Tai declared in a tone that suggested he actually did like them but felt it polite to say otherwise.
Constance said nothing, only cast sidelong angry looks at Reynie, which he was trying to ignore.
They had just passed through the second security door when they felt, but did not hear, the first calculator blast. The walls shivered, and dust fell from the ceiling above them. The second blast came a minute later. They tried to quicken their steps, with only moderate success.
“They’re in the secondary control room,” Constance panted. Her eyes were open, but they had a dazed look about them, and she was running with her hand on Sticky’s elbow, letting him guide her as she peered mentally elsewhere. “They have the schematics up on the computer. He’s sending his fastest men ahead, giving them laser pointers to get through the security doors. They’re trying to catch us before we reach the barracks.”
“Too bad for them!” Tai declared. “Right?”
The others made unintelligible gasping replies.
“Reynie, why are you thinking about S.Q.’s feet again?” Tai said, laughing. “And why are you pretending to be afraid of them?”
“Here’s the next security door,” panted Reynie, whose fear was very real, though not actually related to S.Q. Pedalian’s feet.
Sticky quickly punched in the code, and the four of them burst through the door. Straight ahead in the distance they saw the final security door—the entrance to the barracks. And halfway down the corridor on the left was the one that Kate would use as a shortcut.
Even as they spotted it, Kate’s voice came over their walkie-talkies: “Any day now, people.”
Sticky ran down to the door on the left, entered the code, and held the door open. “Wire away,” he gasped into his walkie-talkie. “And I know it goes without saying, but, um… the faster the better.”
