Santa Command—Main Frame
December 25th
0205 hours
Phil's fingers flew across the keyboard. The entire Southeastern sector was frozen in time, Santas included. Fortunately, those inside Santa Command were immune to it, and he was able to work. He'd already restored the system. A virus had been uploaded to the computer, and he was pretty sure who had done it. His heart hammered wildly in his chest as he wondered how one little girl had managed to screw everything up so thoroughly.
Beth stood behind him and watched over his shoulder. She had come back to confirm that she'd gotten him the extra time. Erlek had not come back with her, and Walt had gone back to his office. Beth's presence, along with the others' absence, calmed him enough to focus on his task.
There were nine systems to reboot. He did the most critical ones first—sleigh power, navigation systems, and the Santa program. When those were done, and he had verified that all of the Santas were back on track, he activated the GPS in the Santa coats. That had been added a few years back as a security feature when one of the Santas fell out of his sleigh, and it had taken twenty-five minutes to find him. They'd stopped time that night too. Phil remembered with a shudder how close they'd come to disaster.
“Okay, I think we're good,” Phil said. “Can you get time started again?”
Beth stepped out of the room, then returned a few moments later. “We're back.”
As the GPS came on line, Phil watched the United States map on the screen light up with dozens of red, blinking dots, including his own sector. He exhaled with relief, hoping that he hadn't created another slew of problems.
Now, to find Tracy. He zoomed in on their area, focusing on Santa Command. Most of the dots in the building were motionless—those were the coats still hanging in the dressing room closets— but there was one dot moving through a room at the other end of Command.
Moving. Moving. And then it was gone.
Phil blinked, hoping his tired eyes were playing a trick on him. Of course he knew it wasn't a trick. There was only one room in Santa Command where Tracy could disappear like that, and no adult could follow her.
He slowly turned to Beth and saw the same panic on her face that he felt in his gut. That little girl had a knack of making the worst choice every single time. There was only person who could retrieve her now, and there was no guarantee that he'd be willing to try.
“Beth, I need you to make a phone call.”