“What the heck?” exclaimed Charlie, jumping to her feet. “She did not just say that!”
“Replay it, Mac,” Maria instructed. “But I’m pretty sure we heard the same thing.”
“How dare she!” Charlie gripped her hair, tugging at it in frustration. “What a . . . UGH!” She couldn’t think of a name despicable enough to call Kelly.
Mom parked the dragonfly drone on the roof for the time being and came over to watch the clip. Mac queued it up and rolled it again, and Kelly repeated the words. “That mystery youth . . . was me.”
“Yep,” said Mac. “She really went there.” He shook his head, seemingly appalled by her nerve but at the same time almost admiring it.
“At least that gets the spotlight away from you, Charlie,” said Maria. “Maybe this isn’t a bad thing.”
“B-but she didn’t save those people—I did!” Charlie started pacing. “I mean, I don’t need the credit or anything. I don’t care about that. Not much, anyway,” she admitted. “But she totally just lied. I can’t believe this.”
Mrs. Wilde went to Charlie, offering her a hug. “It feels wrong, doesn’t it? You having to be silent about your good deed while somebody steals it away from you without even looking uncomfortable about it. That was a pretty low thing to do. I wonder what made her say it.” She smoothed Charlie’s hair. The thoughtful, almost sympathetic look on her face made it seem like she knew the answer.
It made the others think. They remained quiet. Soon Charlie sat back down and leaned over Maria’s shoulder again, watching her search for more. Maria glanced at her and squeezed her hand. “I guess maybe grown-ups are finally paying attention to Kelly, which is all she really wants. I’m sorry, Chuck.”
“It’s all right,” said Charlie. After a while she added, “I wonder what else Kelly’s device does. She has the Mark Four. Did Dr. Sharma ever mention how it works?”
Mrs. Wilde looked up. “I asked her last week when you were in school. She was pretty private about it. I don’t blame her—it was her invention after all. Your father was the same way about protecting his projects. I’d hoped to get more specifics once things settled down, but I didn’t have a chance to talk about it with her beyond that before she got abducted.”
Maria tapped her lips. “Like Mac said, we know now that Kelly has some sort of water creature’s ability, like a fish. I wonder what kind.”
“It would have to be a powerful fish for her to be able to pull all three of them out of a riptide at once,” said Mac.
“Could be an octopus or squid or something,” said Charlie. She frowned, still mad at Kelly for what she’d said.
“What about a manta ray? That would be cool,” said Maria, really getting into it.
Mac started a search on his phone while his iPad kept track of Kelly. “There are a lot of possibilities in the ocean.”
Charlie plopped down on the floor and folded her arms across her chest, frowning. “Maybe she has a second ability to be able to poop owl pellets,” she grumbled.
“Well, technically, pellets are vomit,” Mac said, but Maria shut him down with a look.
“Maybe her third,” continued Charlie, ignoring Mac, “is to act like an annoying peacock, strutting around, being beautiful and highly obnoxious all at the same time. It certainly suits her.”
“Pretty sure she already had that ability without the bracelet,” said Mac matter-of-factly. “Besides, the colorful ones are males, so . . .”
“Mac, stop,” said Maria pointedly.
“I can’t help it,” Mac replied. “Accuracy is important.”
“What are we going to do?” Charlie asked her mom. “With her, I mean?”
“Well,” said Mrs. Wilde, “from the sound of that TV interview, she’s not in this to squeal. She wants fame. And if she keeps the device, she’ll get it. But we have enough to do here. We can’t worry about her.”
“She sure loves an audience,” said Maria.
“So I can tell,” said Mrs. Wilde. “And she’s a great performer. I believed her when she said she threw the device out, and I’m pretty good at telling when somebody’s lying. Anyway, since this story is already viral, we’ll let her bask in her fame. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we’ll be here trying to stop the bigger evil. Once we have the scientists free, we can deal with her. Maybe she’ll do some more good deeds—let’s not forget she saved three teenagers from drowning. I’m certainly not mad about that.”
“That’s true,” said Charlie. But she was still really annoyed with Kelly for taking credit for her rescue. “I guess that’s better than her using the device for bad things.”
“Yes,” said Mac firmly. “Knowing her, this whole thing could have gone really badly.” He left the words hanging in the air before getting up and going back to the dragonfly camera. Charlie had to wonder if there was still a chance the situation might go that way.
They stayed as late as Mac’s parents would allow, but the scientists worked later again. Dr. Gray seemed determined to move as quickly as he could toward world domination. Eventually Mac and Mrs. Wilde gave up trying to find another way in for the dragonfly and parked him back inside Dr. Gray’s office vent again.
As the kids and Mrs. Wilde were getting ready to leave for the night, Maria’s phone buzzed. “It’s another text from Kelly,” she said, opening it. She read it to herself, then raised her eyebrows. “Good grief,” she muttered. “She’s starting to lose it. Maybe all the fame is going to her head.”
“What does it say?” asked Charlie.
“It says, ‘By the way, tell Charlie the envelope she stole from the warehouse has been really helpful. And maybe she should be more careful about slamming her gym locker door shut. The lock doesn’t always catch.’”