It hadn’t taken long for Mrs. Wilde and the others to realize that the dragonfly wasn’t where they’d left it. When they’d heard Mr. Wilde whispering to them through the computer speakers, they’d run back to the controls, Charlie’s injured jaw forgotten. But by the time they’d gotten there, Charles had stopped talking.
Mrs. Wilde looked at the screen and saw that it was mostly dark and fuzzy. “What happened?” she muttered. “What are we looking at?” The four of them could hear a muffled voice, but they couldn’t really see anything. Mrs. Wilde quickly touched some keys to try to get the dragonfly to pivot. The voice in the lab ceased, and all was quiet. Mrs. Wilde turned the dragonfly’s face upward and soon the screen grew lighter. They could see part of a person.
Charlie gasped when she realized who it was. “Mom, stop!” She pointed to the screen, which was now a partial shot of Mr. Wilde’s shoulder and face. “The dragonfly is in Dad’s pocket. Don’t make it move! Somebody might notice!”
Mrs. Wilde froze. “How did it get in there? I was only away from the controls for a couple minutes!”
“We can watch the tape back later to figure that out,” said Mac. “But Charlie’s right. It must have fallen from the grate. I hope nobody else saw.”
“Shh,” said Maria as they heard Dr. Gray’s voice break the silence again, clearer now that the microphone wasn’t pressed against the fabric of Charles’s lab coat.
Mrs. Wilde moved over and motioned for Mac to take the controls. Expertly he adjusted the ladybug on the window to try to get a better view of the gathering, since the dragonfly gave them only a partial, limited view of Mr. Wilde’s face and not much else.
“Everybody’s there,” he whispered.
Maria counted them all, saw a few unfamiliar faces, and made a note in the log book while they listened.
“There’s a girl in the news who’s doing heroic things,” said Dr. Gray angrily, “and she’s wearing one of our devices. It isn’t your daughter this time, Charles.” Dr. Gray held up a tablet and played the clip of Kelly’s TV interview in Cabo.
Mr. Wilde glanced into his pocket, his eyes wide, then looked away.
“Dad must recognize Kelly,” said Charlie quietly. She bit her thumbnail anxiously. “He saw her in the musical.”
When the clip finished, Dr. Gray narrowed his eyes at Charles. “Obviously she’s one of your daughter’s friends who stole the prototypes from the warehouse. But she’s being quite a bit more of a pest than Charlie was. At least your daughter knows not to talk about the bracelets. This one can’t shut up.”
Charlie stared at the screen.
Mr. Wilde didn’t say anything.
Gray went on. “If she finds out where we are, she can lead people straight to us.” He glared at Charles. “We can’t let that happen.”
Charles lifted his chin. “It won’t. Nobody knows we’re here.”
“Don’t play games, Charles. Braun and Mega saw Charlie and your wife and one of the other juveniles. Prowl fought them when they were with Dr. Sharma. So they know we’re in this area.”
“They also know better than to tell anyone about it,” said Charles, trying to appease him. “Obviously they’ve listened and agreed to your request—and they know what the consequences are. So I don’t think you need to worry about this twelve-year-old leading anybody to us. Besides, according to the news interview, she’s not even anywhere near here. And she didn’t mention the bracelet, so I think we can remain calm.”
Dr. Gray looked shiftily from Charles to Quinn and back to Charles again, as if he was trying to decide if he could trust that this wasn’t a big deal. “But if this girl keeps up her antics, and people learn about the device and want to know where she got it, it wouldn’t take much for her to lead them to your family . . . and your family can point them to me, or at least give them my name. If that happens, don’t forget it’ll be you who suffers.”
“I know.” Charles’s face didn’t waver. “And they know. It’s not going to be a problem.”
Dr. Gray seemed to want to believe him. He studied the scientists a moment longer. “I do not want to move this operation again,” he muttered. Then he barked, “Work faster!” He turned on his heel and went out of the lab. A couple of soldiers followed him. The rest dispersed around the room.
Charlie and the others could hear Mr. Wilde sigh in relief. They traveled in his pocket back to his station.
When it was clear that all was quiet in the lab again, with everyone appearing to work as quickly as they could, Mac rewound the footage to the part they’d missed. They watched the dragonfly falling and Charles whispering into it, confirming they’d seen their sign and they would plan on an escape on Monday night.
Everyone sat back in relief. At least they had that part of the plan figured out. And Mr. Wilde had done an amazing job to calm down Dr. Gray, so that was good, too.
Mrs. Wilde looked at the kids. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” She checked the time, then said, “It’s late. Tomorrow we’ll talk to Ms. Sabbith and start figuring out how we can help them on Monday. But for now . . . I’ve had enough. Let’s call it a night.”
On Friday Maria’s mother announced that she’d hardly seen Maria all week, and she insisted that Maria stay home. She invited Mac and Charlie to hang out there with them. Maria was wary in case she changed into a weremonkey, but at least she was getting better at changing back to her old self quickly now. Knowing that Mrs. Wilde and Ms. Sabbith would be busy working out a plan today, and there wouldn’t be any action happening until Monday, Charlie and Mac decided to accept. “We can try to figure out what Kelly’s animal power is,” said Maria.
“And there’s always good food,” Mac pointed out. After having hurried meals and sandwiches every day for a week, the kids were looking forward to whatever Maria’s grandmother had in store for them.
They hung out together in Maria’s bedroom and researched various fish and other water creatures, but they couldn’t come to an agreement on what they thought Kelly’s animal might be. Mac insisted it had to be big and strong to allow her to rescue three teens at once, so he found a website of colossal sea creatures and read about them. Every now and then he’d exclaim the name of one, like Portuguese man-of-war, or lion’s mane jellyfish, or giant isopod. Maria was more focused on the rescue part of Kelly’s animal and looked up what the smartest sea creatures were. She came up with octopus, sea lion, dolphin, otter, and penguin.
Charlie let them argue while she checked to see if Kelly had done anything new. Last night Dr. Gray had said in no uncertain terms that if Kelly did something that would lead people to discover what he was doing, it would be Charlie’s dad who would suffer. She was worried about him. And worried about what Kelly was going to do next. Because Charlie didn’t believe for a moment that Kelly was done showing off.
“Nothing new from Kelly,” Charlie announced after she’d checked her usual online channels. “That’s a relief.”
“Probably because she’s flying home this morning,” said Maria.
“Oh.” Charlie had forgotten that. There wasn’t much Kelly could do up in the air—or at least Charlie hoped not.
“She’ll probably find a way to kick out the pilots and land the plane or something,” grumbled Mac, swiping through another website filled with possibilities. “Oh! Blue whale! Whaddaya think?”
The girls shrugged. Having so many options was making it even harder to figure out.
That afternoon the three emerged from Maria’s bedroom and discovered her abuela Yolanda already working on the evening’s feast. With the Torres dogs underfoot, the kids crowded into the kitchen and helped Yolanda peel, slice, pound, and fry the plantains that would be used with garlic and pork rinds to make mofongo. They watched as she prepared her famous caramel flan for dessert, and they cut up a mountain of peppers and onions to go with the churrasco.
That evening the table was packed with the whole Torres family plus Mac and Charlie. Maria’s three stepbrothers were back from their trip to the Grand Canyon and full of stories about all the wildlife they’d seen—especially the huge elk that had wandered across the road right in front of their car.
The conversation turned to Kelly and how her face was plastered all over their mom’s social media. “How did she do those rescues?” the youngest stepbrother asked Maria.
“I don’t have a clue about how she managed the house fire one,” Charlie said, trying not to sound snide or sarcastic. Mac squelched a grin and kicked her under the table.
“She must be a great swimmer to have saved those people in Cabo,” Maria said lightly.
“She’s so cool,” said the middle brother.
The oldest agreed. “Everybody is talking about her and I’m like, ‘I know her.’” He laughed and his face flushed.
Mac smiled politely and said with false enthusiasm, “Yes, she sure is great.”
They moved on to talk about Puerto Rico and Maria’s extended family who lived there, and then discussed how much they’d miss Yolanda when she went back home again.
It felt just about perfect being there, laughing and having fun. Charlie almost forgot about how much she missed her dad.
As they were finishing up the meal, Maria’s mother pushed her chair back and reached into her pocket. “Sorry everyone,” she said apologetically. “Somebody keeps calling me, so I’d better take it.” She pulled out her phone, looked at it, and frowned. “Hmm. It’s Kelly’s mother.” She got up and walked to a quieter part of the house to answer.
Maria and Charlie looked at each other. Had they both gotten that prickly feeling at the backs of their necks? Mac looked over, too, uneasiness apparent in his eyes.
They didn’t have to wait long. After a few minutes, Maytée came back into the dining room, a stricken look on her face. “Have any of you seen Kelly since she and her mom got home from Mexico this morning?”
Charlie, Maria, and Mac all shook their heads solemnly as their hearts raced—something bad must have happened. “Why, Mamá?” asked Maria. “Is something wrong?” Her eyes went wide and she reached under the table and grabbed Charlie’s hand, both of them feeling the effects of their abilities beginning to kick in. Maria’s hand began to sweat in Charlie’s, and Charlie could tell she was worried about changing. But they had to find out what was going on.
“Kelly didn’t show up for dinner,” said Maytée, “and her mom found a note in her bedroom. It looks like she ran away from home.”
“What?” exclaimed Mac.
Charlie echoed his shock. “Why?”
Maria didn’t say anything. She started breathing deeply to stop herself from changing.
“Do you need help?” Charlie whispered in her ear.
Maria shook her head, but a second later she was tipping her chair over and running for the bathroom. “I’m fine, everyone!” she called out behind her as her mother started following her. “Just need the bathroom!”
Maytée returned to the table, still in shock from the phone call, and the boys started talking over one another, wondering why Kelly would do something like that.
Mac and Charlie looked at each other, eyes wide. What was Kelly trying to prove by running away from home? Was it really that bad for her there with her parents? Or did this have something to do with her newfound powers?
Maybe it was both.
That evening Charlie alternated between reading and googling Kelly as she waited for her mom to come home.
“Hey, kiddo,” Mrs. Wilde said, poking her head into her room. “Did you have a good day?”
Charlie nodded. She’d called her mom on her way home from Maria’s to tell her about Kelly going missing. “How about your day? Anything new? Yolanda sent a plate of food home for you. I put it in the fridge.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of her.” Mrs. Wilde’s smile was tired. “Your dad managed to talk in private through the dragonfly cam a couple times today and told us some stuff that’ll help. He also said he loves and misses you.”
“Aw, Dad,” said Charlie. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“Then Ms. Sabbith and I FaceTimed for a couple hours. We’ve been working on a rescue plan for Monday evening. She and I will talk you kids through everything tomorrow night, once she gets back. Can Mac and Maria spend the day with us?”
Charlie nodded. “I’m sure they’ll skip their movie to come with us. We just have that soccer scrimmage at three.”
“Got it. Also, Juan’s mom texted me, saying that they’ll be coming home first thing tomorrow, so we can pick Andy up around ten. We can get Maria and Mac then too.”
“Okay, I’ll tell them.”
Mrs. Wilde kissed Charlie on the forehead and went to bed.
Before Charlie turned off her light for the night, she pulled her laptop onto the bed and googled Kelly’s name one last time. There were lots of entries that Charlie had already clicked on. But the top one was new. It was the most recent, posted just minutes before. It read, “Wonderkid Kelly Parker Visits LIVE, TONIGHT to Reveal Her Secrets to Saving the World!”
“Oh no!” Charlie whispered, scrambling to sit up. “Kelly, what are you doing?” Charlie knew that LIVE, TONIGHT was a Friday night internet show with a live studio audience and millions of viewers. The host liked to have guests who would do shocking, provocative stunts. Some speculated that the show was rigged, but fans didn’t care. Charlie’s mom and dad generally didn’t allow her to watch it because it was too adult, but she’d seen clips of it before. She clicked on the link. While she waited for the feed to start, she group-texted Mac and Maria.
“Are you watching LIVE, TONIGHT? That’s where Kelly is.”
Mac replied immediately. “Going there now.”
Maria didn’t respond. It was almost eleven—Charlie thought she might be asleep already. She called Mac. “Are you on?”
“Doing some quick research before it starts,” he said. “They film in Los Angeles. Do you think I should I call Kelly’s mom?”
“Do you have her number?”
“I can find it.”
“Yeah, maybe you’d better. I’ll text that info to Maria. I think she’s asleep.”
“Will do,” said Mac. “I’ll call you back.”
“Okay.”
They hung up. Charlie sent Maria a text message letting her know what was up and giving her a link so she could find the show in the morning. Then she settled in to watch.