part0025

Cody and the two girls ran down a long set of stairs toward the beach. It seemed never-ending until they made a right curve and saw a metal hangar sitting next to the water. They arrived out of breath. Cody opened the large sliding doors.

“Mr. Musket, why did we have to run so fast?” Maggie asked. “My side’s hurting.”

“How old did you say you girls were again?”

Kennedy and Maggie looked at each other. “Okay, okay,” Kennedy said, “I’m only twelve and Maggie’s thirteen. But I’m taller than she is.”

Maggie bristled up. “Well!” she said to her sister. “Maybe so, but I’m smarter than you are!”

“You are not! I’m the one who—"

“Kennedy! Maggie! Listen to me!” Cody paused to catch his breath. “You see that mountain over there? Do you see the smoke coming out of the top?? That’s a volcano. It’s gonna blow pretty soon.”

“You mean like Saint Helens or . . . or—”

“That’s right! Now listen, ladies. I need your help. I need you to put some of your electronics knowledge to work. A lotta lives depend on what we’re about to do. Don’t think of yourselves as girls anymore. Think of yourselves as adults from this day forward, okay?”

Both girls stood staring for a moment. Maggie’s tears welled up again and Kennedy frowned, but they both snapped out of it.

“Okay, cowboy . . . I mean, Mr. Musket. My friends call me Ken, by the way.”

“Of course we’ll help, Mr. Musket.” Maggie walked toward the aircraft and began to read the data plate on the side of the fuselage.

“What kind of plane is this?” Ken asked.

Maggie had the answer. “This is a DHC-2 Mk1 Turbo Beaver, Converted in 2008. The serial number is—”

“Okay, okay, thank you, Maggie.”

“I was reading it off the data plate on the side of the plane.”

“I know, I know. Let’s get on board.”

“Where do you want us to sit?”

“I want Ken in the front with me and you in the back.”

“Don’t ask. I have my reasons for the seating arrangement. Adults, remember?”

“You need to wear headsets. We can communicate easier.”

The headsets were already installed in the aircraft. He showed the girls how to wear them.

Cody started the turbine engine and propelled the amphibious Beaver gently into the water. He then applied full thrust, sending them bouncing over the late-morning surf. He pulled back on the yoke and they were airborne.

“Try not to turn too much,” Maggie said. “I get airsick.”

“Gonna have to suck it up this time.”

“No, no,” Cody assured. “Just an expression.”

Cody flew low, following the north coastline until he spotted the four boats of kids Victor was leading to the cove on the west side of the island. Some of the healthier kids were rowing.

From the air, Cody estimated the island to be about five miles long from east to west and four miles north to south — a very small island with a two-thousand-foot peak in the middle. The volcano crater at the top of the peak was emitting darker and darker smoke.

“Ladies, we’re gonna fly over a cove in a couple of minutes. I need the exact lat-long at the mouth of that cove. Get your pocsats ready. Maggie, when I say three, two, one, mark, I want you to record the lat-long. Text those coordinates to Ken and she’ll enter it into the global positioning system on the panel up here in front, okay?”

Cody continued following the coast around to the west side. Soon they were approaching the cove. “Maggie, get ready. Three, two, one, mark .”

“Got it! Texting to Ken.”

“Outstanding. You’re doing great!”

“I didn’t receive the text! I didn’t get it!” Kennedy shouted.

“Okay, okay. The reason you didn’t receive it might be due to the Sabonic Cage Umbrella. It interrupts communications. I’m gonna climb above it and see what happens, but first I need to record one more lat-long at a different location.”

Cody continued following the coastline around to the other side of the island until he spotted the front entrance to the original cave which they had abandoned. He turned slightly to fly directly over the cave.

“Stand by, Maggie. Three, two, one, mark .”

“Got it!” she yelled.

Cody throttled up to full power and climbed until the island disappeared from view. He leveled off at 10,000 feet.

“Hey, where did the island go?” Kennedy was frantic. “It’s not there anymore!”

“It’s still there,” Cody explained. “The Sabonic technology not only blocks communications, but it bends the light and makes the area appear to be solid ocean from overhead.”

“How cool!” Maggie said.

“Try to text those coordinates now, Maggie.”

“Okay . . . done!”

“Uh, I received them,” Kennedy said. “But I can’t upload them to your panel. Let me check your system.” Kennedy read the data tag on the bottom edge of the unit face, then spoke to Maggie. “This unit has a metra-dupic insulator with a countdown shield. It isn’t compatible with these pocsats you lifted from the alpha bunch below. Isn’t there a way to get around that?”

Maggie scratched her head. “So . . . try the reset on the starwisp tellurion filter. That should make it work.”

Kennedy reprogrammed and pressed the reset. “Yes! That did it!”

“Nice work,” Cody said. “Through the GPS system I can send the coordinates on a secure hookup to my contact at the DOD.”

“DOD? You mean we’re dealing with the Department of Defense?”

“That’s all I can tell you,” Cody said. “Trust me, okay?”

“Kennedy, here’s a number I need you to call.” Cody handed her a written note.

She entered the number and pressed the call button. It rang three times.

“Hello, this is Ryan. I’m away from my phone until next week. Please leave your—”

“Never mind,” Cody told Ken. “Try this other number.”

This time, someone answered. It was a child. “Hello, this is Ram.”

“Rammy, this is Uncle Cody.”

“Uncle Cody! We thought you were dead! They said your plane went down off the coast of—”

“Rammy, I need to talk to your dad immediately! Immediately! Do you understand, son?”

“I don’t know if, I mean cell service is non-existent off the Venezuelan coast. That’s where they’re searching for you. I’ve been calling him this morning.”

“Okay, Ram. Is Sam home?”

“No. I can’t keep up with my brother anymore. We communicate electronically mostly. What’s so urgent? There might be one possibility, but it’s iffy.”

“Try it! Whatever it is, try it!”

“Okay, Uncle Cody! My dad doesn’t know about this yet. It’s a superluminal sterile holographic convertor. I developed it myself. Me and Sam have used it to contact each other whenever we—”

“Just try it, son. This is no time to stand on ceremony.”

“Okay, stand by.”

“So, it’s like a face-o-gram?” Maggie asked.

“Not exactly,” Ram said. “It’s a way to reach someone without using any device.”

“Okay, okay. Just give it a shot.” Cody was getting antsy.

Maggie spoke up. “That sounds like a signal that seeks out someone’s unique DNA profile. It uses holographic memory data and gamma conversion dryware to communicate without digital inputs or wireless signals.”

“These phones aren’t set up for that,” Kennedy said.

“Okay, Uncle Cody. My dad’s talking to me. Can you send me your unit’s flare ratio, and its compatibility to a terraform space fountain?”

“Uh . . . what’s that?”

“Wait!” Kennedy said. “Who is this?”

“I’m Rammy Maxwell. “Who’s this? You sound cute!”

“Rammy, I need to know if you’re using trans-human radonical connectors or just genetic plasma loops.”

“I’m using the loops. You can just adjust your unit to a Stanford Tauros or a space elevator. That should put us on the same page.”

Maggie interrupted. “But, Rammy, that’ll only work if you have a built-in or downloaded psycho-history phaze neutralizer.”

“Sheese! Good catch. I’m downloading one right now. Okay, you should be able to talk to my dad in about five seconds.”

Both girls screamed, as suddenly the image of a man sitting in thin air outside the aircraft looked right at them and smiled. When he began to speak, they heard his voice loud and clear inside their headsets.

“Good to see you, Gunfighter. We all feared you were dead. Confirm your current position.”

Maggie blurted out, “We’re currently orbiting the 13th Parallel, 65.9661 west and—”

“Thank you, young lady. That’s right in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We were searching off the Venezuelan coast.”

“Ryan, I’m gonna ask you to use classified technology. A lot of lives are at stake, and we’re running out of time. Do you have your remote Tommy John satellite hookup with you?”

“Never leave home without it. You know that, Gunfighter.”

“Awesome,” Cody said. “You can access my GPS at port seventeen, Oscar-Delta-four-zero-niner-niner-eight. Pull up coordinates Alpha-one. I need an amphibious landing craft capable of evacuating about ninety people sent to those coordinates.”

“Okay. It’ll take about ten minutes to set this up. Anything else?”

“Affirmative. Access GPS coordinates Alpha-two. I need something at that location transferred to our barn at Houston. Tell Mom and Dad to alert the, uh, associates back in H-Town. The empty barn. They’re gonna be surprised.”

“Okay, what is this object?”

“You’ll have to use your mag-inverted penetration viewer. You’ll figure it out. It’ll be the crowning jewel of your year, if you catch my drift.”

“Got it,” Ryan said. “All this should take place in the next thirty minutes.”

“One more thing, Ryan. Can you collapse a Sabonic Cage Umbrella? It’s directly below us.”

“Hmmm, that’s cutting-edge. It has to be a shield of some sort, right?”

“Affirmative. There is supposed to be an island below us.”

“Oh, I get it. That’s just a big light-bender. Gimme one minute.”

“Much obliged, Ryan. Tell my big sis ‘hi.’ Gunfighter out.”

Cody breathed a sigh. “Good job, ladies! Let’s go back and get everybody off that island.”

“Look!” Maggie said. “There’s the island again! Look at all the smoke. You can hardly see the ground. Wait, what’s that long highway down there?”

Cody looked down through his left window. “That’s not a highway. That’s a long airplane runway. We knew we’d find one somewhere. But we aren’t going there now.”

“The smoke’s coming out of that mountain over there. That’s scary!”

“I know, ladies. We need to expedite. Hang on.”

Cody reduced the thrust and began to descend rapidly. He called Victor using one of the coms he had confiscated from a prisoner. He inadvertently left his aircraft headset on, allowing the girls to hear.

“Gunfighter to Deep Blue. Do you read me?”

“Affirmative, Gunfighter! I’ve been calling you. Pablo freed the other three prisoners, and they took Diamond. They forced her to go back to the other cave and lead them to the pirate treasure. I have my hands full with all these kids. They shot Thirsty Giant. He’s alive but just holding on.”

“How did Pablo know about the treasure?”

“He eavesdropped and heard you and Diamond talking about it. They stole one of the small boats from us. They plan to escape with Diamond and as much treasure as they can carry.”

The two girls had become suddenly silent.

Cody banged his fist on the yoke. “It’s my fault!” He covered his eyes and composed himself. “Ladies, we have to make one more stop.”