The Impossible Race: Cragbridge Hall, Volume 3 (2 page)

The Bridge shook harder.

“Fast!” Abby yelled across the room—and into a different country.

The gator snapped at the man in the tan shirt as he scrambled backward, screaming something about a magic alligator coming out of the wall and not wanting to die.

The gorilla jumped forward several feet, hefted the gagged and blindfolded hostage over its shoulder, and crossed back into the basement of Cragbridge Hall. The gator left off chasing the man in the tan shirt and followed suit, creeping madly across the floor. To the mercenaries, it must have looked like they had disappeared through the wall.

As Abby closed the connection, she heard one man scream, “What just happened?” And if Abby wasn’t mistaken, another of the mercenaries—a full-grown man—was crying. The scene in Brazil faded away.

“That’s what you get for kidnapping people!” Carol yelled back, a little too late.

Abby approached the hostage. “It’s going to be okay.” She touched her lightly on the shoulder. “We’ll take you back home.”

The Bridge stopped shaking and began to settle, calm. The group would have to wait at least three minutes before they could use it again to put a very confused and blindfolded woman back in her own living room. For now, they had to let it rest.

• • •

“You rocked,” Carol said and slapped Derick’s hand. He was no longer controlling the robot alligator from the avatar lab. He, Carol, and Abby all stood in an empty classroom. Just one bank of lights illuminated the rows of desks. The blinds on the windows were all closed. They didn’t have to worry about the students of Cragbridge Hall looking in—they were all asleep in their dorms. They didn’t want any security officers or robots watching. They all had clearance to be at the school in the middle of the night, but didn’t want to arouse any unnecessary suspicion. “You’re cute as a human,” Carol said to Derick, “but I have to admit it’s cooler to high-five you when you’re an alligator.”

“It might have been cooler,” Derick said, scratching his head through his dark brown hair. It messed up his hair a little, though it still fell in a trendy tousle. “But it was really awkward for me.” He sat down on one of the desks. “Alligators have a different center of balance than us and tiny little arms. They aren’t exactly built for high-fiving.”

“Awkward, nothing,” Carol said, throwing her arms around as she spoke. Abby often wondered if Carol could speak without moving her arms and hands. It was like her mouth and her limbs were connected. “For the rest of my life I will be able to say that I high-fived a robot alligator and a robot gorilla that saved hostages from mercenaries in Brazil.” She clenched her fist and cocked her elbow. It was a tough-guy move, and coming from a skinny blonde girl, it looked a little out of place. “How many people can say that?”

“Not many,” Abby admitted, her shoulders bouncing as she laughed. She loved having Carol around. When Abby had first arrived at the premier secondary school in the world, Carol had been the only girl willing to be her friend. She would always love her for that. But Carol’s ability to lighten up even the tensest of circumstances was often just what Abby needed. “Don’t forget that you have to keep this whole thing a secret.”

“I said I’ll be
able
to say it,” Carol clarified. “I didn’t say that I would. I wish that you would have let me jump in through the Bridge at the very end so I could say something like, ‘If you ever kidnap innocent people again, you can fully expect ferocious animals to appear out of nowhere and bite your evil backsides.’” She took a few steps backward. “And then I would have stepped back through the Bridge all mysterious and awesome. It would have been the best threatening speech ever!”

“Yeah,” Derick responded, “Something tells me after the alligator and gorilla, a thirteen-year-old girl just wouldn’t be as scary.”

This time, several strands of Abby’s sandy blonde hair fell over her face as she tried to choke down her giggles. She pulled them back behind her ear.

“And did you say ‘evil backsides’?” Derick asked.

Abby wanted to say something funny to add to the banter, but she couldn’t think of anything. It would come to her later, when it was useless. “I’m just glad we got all of the hostages back home,” Abby said. “They’ll be able to recover as a family.”

It had been quite the operation. They had used the Bridge to look into the past and find the moment in time each of the various hostages had been kidnapped. Then they had followed the kidnappers to their hideouts, and then found them in the present. When the moment was right, they had sent the avatars across the Bridge to rescue the hostages. Rafa’s mother was perhaps the only one at Cragbridge Hall better at the avatars than Rafa, but she hadn’t trusted herself to do it. She was so angry about the situation that she was afraid she might get carried away. Instead, she had synced up with the Brazilian police to convince them to protect the rescued hostages from any future attacks.

“After this, I think we should celebrate our heroic rescues with some milkshakes,” Carol proposed. “Maybe they leave the ice cream machine on at night. There’s always strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla, but today’s bonus flavor was eggnog. And since saving kidnapped people burns a few calories, I think we all deserve one.”

“For once, I agree with Carol,” Derick said. “But it might not be worth the risk with all the security around.”

“Ice cream is
always
worth the risk,” Carol replied.

Abby cracked the door and peered out. “Here they come.” They had been waiting in this particular classroom for a reason: to interrogate someone.

A few moments later, Rafa’s mother entered. She was a few inches taller than Abby and Derick, with olive skin and black hair that hung just above her shoulders. A gorilla was only a step behind, carrying a woman over its shoulder. The woman had dark, curly hair and was bound, gagged, and blindfolded like those they had just rescued. Unlike them, however, she was far from innocent. Just the sight of her made Abby clench her teeth. The gorilla set her down in a chair attached to the floor at the front of the room and pulled off her gag.

“I know where I am,” the woman said, her hair falling over her blindfold. “We could have talked while I was in my cell. But instead, you brought me out of the basement and up to the school in the middle of the night.” She paused, perhaps waiting for a reaction. She didn’t get one. “I’m not sitting in just any chair. I’m sitting on Oscar Cragbridge’s invention in an English class in Cragbridge Hall.” She turned her head toward where she guessed those who were watching her were standing. “You can see my thoughts as we talk.”

She was right. On the screen behind the woman, an image appeared of herself sitting in the Chair. In her imagination, her hair looked frizzier and her skin bruised. She apparently thought she was in worse shape than she truly was. She had been kept in a locked room in the basement but treated well enough. Her imagination showed several menacing figures surrounding her: Rafa’s mother, other teachers and administrators at Cragbridge Hall, and the robot gorilla who had originally put her in the basement room.

She was right about the Chair, Rafa’s mother, and the gorilla, but she hadn’t guessed that kids would be watching instead of adults. Underestimating kids—a typical adult problem.

Usually the Chair was used to study literature. As a student sat in the Chair and read
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
or
Lord of the Flies,
everyone else in the room could see what the student imagined. However, the Chair could also be very helpful in an interrogation.

A poignant mix of anger, hatred, and sadness swirled inside of Abby. This woman’s treachery had put Abby’s grandfather and parents in the medical unit of the school, unconscious—tranquilized—and they could stay that way for weeks more.

Abby glanced over at Derick, who glared at the woman. He was probably thinking some of the very same things.

Rafa’s mother exhaled slowly to control her feelings. “You’ve guessed well,” she said. She took another deep breath. “I wouldn’t expect any less from you, Katarina. You always were clever.” She tapped the side of her head.

Carol, who stood next to Abby, turned on her rings and moved her fingers rapidly. It was like typing on thin air. The rings sensed her movements, translating the movement into text, and then processed her message. After she had double-checked the message on the screens in her contact lenses, she sent it to the other students in the room.

Wow. She knew she was in the Chair. Bright cookie. I usually love meeting another impressive female intellect. Too bad she’s also a crazyface who did what Muns asked her to. You can’t exactly use her as an inspiring example of achievements among women when she works for Señor Psychopath who could destroy our world.

“We have rescued your relatives, the ones Muns kidnapped to blackmail you,” Rafa’s mother explained. “They are safe. Now it’s your turn. What was the information you offered?”

They would have rescued Katarina’s relatives even if she hadn’t offered information. But the more they knew about Muns, the better.

“Why don’t I just show you?” Katarina asked. She sat back in the Chair. “When I thought that my victory for Muns was inevitable, I asked him to free the members of my family he had kidnapped.” She appeared on the screen, a memory of herself, contacting Muns.

“You’ll have your keys by tomorrow morning,” she said to him. “You can change the past and more.”

Muns looked back at her, his hair slicked back. He wore a light gray suit and sat at a large desk, a chessboard before him. He moved a rook five spaces to threaten a knight. “I’m very pleased to hear it.”

In her memory, Katarina swallowed hard. “You can release my family now.”

An edge of Muns’s mouth curled. He didn’t look up from the board. “It would be foolish to give up my advantage. And you know I’m no fool. Play your part to the end and your family will be fine. Focus your anger and anxiety on those who keep their keys from me.”

“And if I don’t?” Katarina asked. “If I back out now?”

“If you waver from my plan, I’ll have to make good on my threats,” Muns said calmly. He got up from his desk and walked around it.

“But
I’m
your advantage here,” Katarina said. “And if I don’t continue, you’ll lose that advantage. Isn’t that foolish?”

Muns stood up straighter. “You have fire,” he said. “To be frank: For your and your family’s sake, you must succeed. It is all on the line for you. There is no turning back.” He sat on the edge of his desk. “If you fail, you’re right—I will lose my advantage . . . for now. But I’m a businessman. I always prepare for the worst-case scenario. I have a backup plan. If you falter or fail, before the year is out, the Cragbridges will again know what it’s like to have treasured hostages threatened with death, and they will give me their keys to save them.”

The memory faded and all eyes turned to Katarina, blindfolded in the Chair. “There
is
a chance he was bluffing,” she said. “But I think something else is coming.”

Are You Sure?

It could be anything,” Derick said. Rafa’s mother had asked question after question but couldn’t draw out any new information. Either Katarina didn’t know any more, or she was doing an admirable job of hiding it. After returning Katarina to her cell, they all met back in the English classroom. “We have no way of guessing what Muns’s plan may be,” Derick yawned. It was nearly one in the morning. Doing all this secret work was catching up with him.

“We just know it’s going to be terrible,” Carol said. “Heebiegoosehivejeebiebumps.” She shuddered.

“And if we don’t know what it is,” Rafa said, pulling his ponytail of dark hair tighter, “it’s impossible to prepare for.”

“The good news is that Muns is still unconscious,” Derick said, and looked over at Abby.

“Oh yeah!” Carol blurted out. “That’s because Abby here gave him a taste of his own medicine.” Carol put a finger to the side of her head. “Or, more accurately, a taste of his own tranquilizers.” After Muns had nearly sabotaged everything, Abby had used the Bridge to travel through the present and shoot him with one of his own tranquilizer darts. Hopefully he would be unconscious for as long as Grandpa was.