Santa Command—Main Frame
December 25th
0200 hours
At that moment, Phil didn't care where Tracy was. He didn't care what she was doing. He didn't care what secrets she was learning. All he cared about was getting that computer back on line.
He quickly did the math in his head. The Alabama Command center was in charge of 187 different Santa routes. That was 160,000 houses! With two and a half hours to go, that meant there were still about 40,000 houses without presents. If he didn't get the Main Frame up immediately, they would fail. For the first time in the history of Santa Claus, the big guy would not complete his rounds.
First, Phil pulled the plug on the computer, hoping a simple restart would get everything going again. It did not. The blue screen returned and started flickering, almost like the computer was laughing at him.
Phil gripped the sides of the desk and let out an “Arggh!”
“You should have come with me when I asked.” Erlek stood to the side grinning smugly. “Then you wouldn't be in this mess.”
“Correction.” Walt appeared in the doorway, his body a shadow against the brightly lit hallway. “You wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't insisted on bringing that little girl here.”
And now Walt's here, Phil thought. Just great. At least his boss couldn't do anything before he fixed the computer. Phil was the top programmer at Santa Command, and the only one who could fix it.
Walt stood blocking the door with his hands on his hips. “Every control room is at a standstill. We have no clue what people are seeing out there! It's our job to keep the secret. If we fail, what do you think my boss is going to do?”
Phil's blood pounded through his veins, and he wondered if he was going to have an early heart attack right then and there. He didn't worry so much about being fired, because he knew that was going to happen. He had joined Santa Command to help keep the secret, and that's what he was going to do. “I'm on it. Just give me a few minutes.” He pulled a small spiral notebook and pen from his pocket and wrote down the error listed on the screen.
“Can I do anything?” Beth asked.
Phil sighed with a small amount of relief. At least there was one person who wasn't trying to send his blood pressure through the roof. In fact, there was something she could do, and Phil had the power to order it. “I need some more time.”
“Time?” Beth asked like she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly. At Santa Command, that word carried a lot of weight.
“Do you have any idea what you're doing?” Walt asked.
“Yes.” Phil answered both of them as he calculated what he thought he needed and not a second more. Still, he struggled with getting the words out of his mouth. Stopping time was tricky. It didn't always work out as planned, but at the moment, it was the only way. “I need half an hour.”
Erlek blew out a low whistle. “Glad I'm not you.”
Phil wanted to strangle the creature, but instead chose to focus on the computer screen. As Beth was leaving the room, Phil called back over his shoulder. “And do me a favor. Take the Inkling with you.”