The Impossible Race: Cragbridge Hall, Volume 3 (28 page)

“The key in the box? No—” Chief Shar answered, opening her mouth to continue.

“None at all?” the assistant interrupted.

“No. None at all. Now please excuse me,” she said.

“The police found the three vials,” the assistant announced. “They have been returned to Ruminex.”

Chief Shar stood straighter in surprise. “Where did they find them?”

“In a security box, downtown,” the assistant said. “One we think you have access to.” Several of the officers flanked Chief Shar. One slapped handcuffs on her.

“You are under arrest,” one of the uniformed officers said.

“What? This is slander and insubordination!” Chief Shar blurted out, her eyes fiery.

The blond-bearded assistant took a step forward. “I did my due diligence on Mr. Sul. He insisted that he had been set up. Part of me believed him. So I searched again for the message he claimed to have received. I didn’t find anything, but something was still strange. I looked a third time, and a fourth. I didn’t find a message, but I did discover a ghost file, cloaked in the most impressive way I have seen yet.”

Chief Shar tilted her head, listening carefully.

“Once I opened up the file, it took me hours to decrypt it,” the officer with the blond beard said. “When I could read it, I discovered details of a plot. Just pieces. But it included switching one challenge in the Race and stealing items from Ruminex.”

“If this is true, the file was not from me,” Chief Shar said. Her expression hadn’t changed. “I want to see the evidence.”

“Let me finish,” the assistant said. He scratched his beard nervously. “Instead of proving Mr. Sul’s innocence, finding the file further implicated him. Then I turned to Mr. Silverton’s files. It took me a while to find it, but now that I knew what I was looking for, I discovered a similar ghost file. It included another message with the same digital signature as the one sent to Mr. Sul. It’s certain it is from the same sender. Both Mr. Sul and Mr. Silverton were communicating with the same person. The message spoke of Mr. Silverton putting a key in the prize box for the Race.” He paused. “That was somehow part of the plan. But the person who sent the message was the one who would bring him the key.”

The assistant looked at his superior. “It is possible and even likely that you are part of it all. After decrypting the ghost files and following their digital trail, you are the prime suspect who could have sent the messages. Between the three of you, you tried to steal chemicals, a robot, and now experiments from Ruminex.” The assistant scratched his beard. “And it may have been you who wrote to Derick and led him to discover Mr. Sul in the robotics lab. You may have double-crossed your own team. I’m not entirely sure what you planned, but it could not have been good.”

“No,” Chief Shar said. “I didn’t do any of—”

“The way we prove your innocence or guilt depends on the key in that box,” the assistant interrupted. “When the Race is over, if there is any trace of your fingerprints or fibers from your clothing, anything we can track back to you on that key, it will corroborate my theory.”

Derick wanted to pump his fist and scream in celebration. He wanted to high-five and hug the officer with the blond beard. He had caught the person who stole the vials, and she was the head of security. She could have had a terrible plan. And maybe the officer had just saved Derick’s life. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Chief Shar was escorted out of the room in cuffs. She would be held on campus until they could prove her involvement or innocence.

The outside police officers asked more questions, got access to the equipment they had used during the virtual zombie race, and made the group of students stay in the room for an uncomfortably long time. Eventually the blond-bearded officer stood in front of them again. “Our searches confirm that you had nothing to do with the alterations. You didn’t know you were stealing. You are innocent. But, as you can imagine, we need to be cautious. I’m still in the process of double-checking all of it.” He was taking the lead of the whole process.

“Perhaps we should postpone or even cancel the last event in the Race,” one of the other officers suggested.

“No,” the man with the blond beard said. “Mr. Sul and Mr. Silverton and Chief Shar are detained. The only other suspects were Landon and Mrs. Flink, who I have discovered could not be involved. The vials have been recovered and returned. There is no danger. Now, we just have to prove whether or not Chief Shar is guilty.”

The Future

Abby rushed down the cold metal ladders and through the thick metal doors in the basement. She wanted to feel completely relieved, but couldn’t. Chief Shar had come close. And as head of security, she could have done a lot of damage. Abby didn’t even want to think about what she could have had planned with the vials.

There were still loose ends. They still had to try to get the key and protect the secret. Tomorrow was the day that the saturn had prophesied Derick would die. And Muns was probably awake.

Carol, Rafa, and Derick met her just outside the Bridge room. They had been careful with so much security around.

Abby wore her heartstone and had her visor in her hand. She had run back to her room to retrieve the visor after the security team was finally done with them. “I’m not really sure what’s going to happen,” Abby admitted. She was hoping to learn just exactly how to see the future.

Abby stepped in front of the others, and they went into the room with the Bridge. Nothing happened. No appearance from her grandfather. She put on the visor. Through its lens, one brick in the wall stood out. She walked over to it and it shifted, opening up like a drawer. The inside of it was hollow, similar to the thick drawer the visor had come in.

“Place the object you made in my laboratory into the brick,” Grandpa instructed, appearing in front of them. He looked mostly solemn, but with a tinge of excitement around his eyes.

Abby dropped the heartstone into the brick drawer and it closed. She heard some mechanical sounds and something whirring inside.

When the compartment opened again, the heartstone seemed like it shone a bit more. Apparently it had been changed somehow in the drawer. Abby remembered a similar thing happening with the sphere she had been given that authorized her to see the present.

Grandpa appeared again. “You have now discovered one of my last secrets,” he said with a tired smile. “After you have inserted three keys and a sphere, hold your object near the Bridge console, and a place to insert it will appear. Inserting your object will allow you to see the future. If you want to interact with the future, you will need three keys, three spheres, and three objects that were made in my laboratory and sanctioned as yours has been.” Carol and Derick still had not finished their objects. Rafa had also started, but only Abby had completed the task.

“As always,” Grandpa continued, putting his virtual cane to the floor every few feet as he paced, “I give you a warning that you may not like what you see. Or you may feel great relief at your glimpse of the future. Either way, remember that I don’t believe the future is unchangeable. I believe our decisions can make a difference, can change what would have been.”

“You will notice,” Grandpa said, his image walking toward the Bridge, “that the machine is not able to tolerate showing the future for long. Showing the future puts much more stress on it than showing the present. You only have somewhere between five and ten seconds. After that, I don’t believe the Bridge can take the pressure. It will destroy itself.” Abby had seen it come dangerously close when she had used the Bridge to look into the present.

“It is also nearly impossible in five to ten seconds to find any specific moment in the future,” Grandpa said. “You often don’t know what you’re looking for, and don’t have much time. If you are trying to see a certain moment, my advice would be to overshoot slightly, and then quickly backtrack to the event you want to see. Even if you don’t see the actual event, the aftermath often gives more clues than the moments just before.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Grandpa said, pointing with his cane. “After you look into the future, please let the Bridge rest. I believe it will need an entire day to recover, a full twenty-four hours. Anything less would do it harm.”

That was a long time. This was a level above just the past or the present. And if they saw into the future tonight, they wouldn’t have time again before the last event of the Race tomorrow. They would only get one shot.

Abby walked over to the invention that looked like a giant metal tree. She gazed at it a moment, taking in its grandeur. Her grandfather had really made something spectacular. It was unfortunate that others wanted to use it for terrible purposes. She thought of the future she had seen through the saturn. She thought of the Ash.

“Maybe we should plan this out a little,” Derick suggested, stepping toward Abby.

“I agree,” Abby said. “I think that, first, we should spy on Muns in the present. We need to know if he’s awake and if he has any more plans. Then we should try to see the future, because afterward it will take so long before we can use it again.”

Everyone agreed.

In a few moments, they had turned their keys and Abby had put in her sphere. They peered into Muns’s mansion, another place in the present. Abby tensed. Muns’s bed was empty. She had been hoping he would still be recovering.

After some searching, she found him at his desk. He was wearing a full suit, dark blue with a silver vest. His hair was slicked back, every strand in place. He was still pale, at least experiencing some aftereffects of his time unconscious. He moved his fingers, controlling his rings. His eyes moved back and forth. He was reading something. He half-smiled and then seemed to be thinking.

“You look good,” a voice came in from out of view. “You wanted to see me?”

“I don’t pay you to flatter me,” Muns spat. The half-smile was long gone. “I pay you for your connections. Everything seems to be in order, but I want you ready just in case. Even if the plan fails, it will give me the opportunity I need.”

Everything was in order? Didn’t he know that Mr. Silverton and Mr. Sul had been caught? He obviously hadn’t received word that Chief Shar was arrested and security was waiting to confirm her involvement. That had happened too recently. And she wouldn’t have had a chance to communicate with him.

But what if he did know?

“I have a hundred and fifty soldiers from various pasts ready to make their fortunes,” the voice from behind their perspective said.

One hundred and fifty? That was a small army!

Muns eyed the man carefully. “Double it!” he barked.

Abby could hear the man gasp. “I don’t have the weeks or even the days to make that happen.”

“And I don’t have the patience for you if you do not.” Muns glared back. “No more games. I’m going to end this.”

The Bridge started to rattle and Abby turned the keys. They had to save the Bridge for a look into the future.

“Why does Muns need an army?” Carol blurted out. “Because I’m really not very fond of that idea.”

“Me neither,” Derick admitted.

“He could try to attack the school,” Abby suggested, twisting her hair into a temporary ponytail.

“But we have those huge walls and more security than ever,” Derick said. “Maybe it’s okay that we have all those annoying security bots around.”

“But that’s just it,” Rafa said, a few long strands of his hair dangling in front of his face. “Chief Shar was head of security. Muns was probably planning on her just letting him in. She could have done that. She supervised all the guards and the bots.”

The importance of Chief Shar being arrested hit Abby. That had changed everything. Otherwise Muns would have attacked with an army. And during the Race would have been the best time.

“I’m sending a message to my mom,” Rafa said. “She’s doing her own research on Chief Shar. I’ll have her send another message to security to beef it up.”

“The only other possibility,” Derick said, “is that he tries to bring the army through using the Bridge.”

“He does have a Bridge,” Abby said. He had stolen it from her grandfather’s house at the beginning of the school year. “But I don’t think he has enough keys or spheres to bring anyone in through the present.”

“At least we don’t think he does,” Rafa said.

Abby turned back to the Bridge. It had stopped rattling and stood firm. “I guess looking into the future just became a lot more important.” She took in a deep breath. “After I put in my heartstone, where do I look?” She shook her head. “Maybe I should start with when.”

“I think if Muns is going to make a move, it will be during the last event of the Race,” Derick said. “That’s where his plan seems to be leading.”

“Maybe I should set the Bridge for just after the last event tomorrow night,” Abby suggested. “That way we can see what happens after and get better clues.”

“Sounds good,” Carol said, and gave a double thumbs-up. “And we can see my victory dance when we win the Race! Go Spartans!” She karate kicked and then broke out into a dance.