Arcade Catastrophe
Page 86

Nate sat down with his legs crossed. Lindy knelt beside him.
Katie stood nearly a head taller than the carved door. She ran her hands over it high and low, tracing some of the curvy lines etched into the surface. She applied pressure in certain places. Finally she backed away, hands on her hips, and asked generally, “Any theories?”
Nobody responded. Jeanine and Chris moved forward to take a closer look.
Katie turned to Nate. “Use the statue to break it down.”
“Worth a try,” Nate said. The Protector remained on the pedestal. As Nate used the little model to march the statue over to the door, he could feel that his gum had fully worn off. Still, guiding the statue while under the influence of Peak Performance had given him experience, so he managed to jerkily maneuver the statue into position and kick the door. The foot struck with a dull thud. The door showed no sign of weakening.
“Use a club,” Katie recommended.
Nate shifted the position of the statue so he could swing a club low. A pair of blows accomplished nothing.
“Hit it hard!” Katie demanded.
Nate shifted the position again and took a big swing. The top half of the club broke off. The door appeared undamaged.
“Perfect,” Cleon spat.
“Contact Jonas,” Jeanine suggested.
Katie produced a small seashell and spoke into it quietly. She held it to her ear as if receiving a response. She spoke and listened several more times.
“Nate,” Katie called. “Remove the Protector from the pedestal.”
When Nate tried to lift the entire Protector, it felt glued to the top of the pedestal, which was strange because he had managed to lift individual legs with little problem. He had more luck as he tried to tip it with both hands. He found that constant effort slowly caused it to lean. As he tipped and lifted, he fought against what felt like a powerful magnetic attraction. With a final yank, the Protector came free. The big statue remained frozen in place. The small, thick door slid upward until it disappeared entirely.
“Bingo!” Cleon chuckled. “Boss knows his stuff.”
Katie murmured something into the seashell. She listened, nodded, then put it away. “Is everyone recuperated?”
Cleon used the spear to help himself rise. “I’m about as ready to die as I’ll ever be.”
The others got up as well. They gathered near the small doorway. Peering inside, Nate saw a long, narrow corridor.
“A Tank should lead the way,” Katie prompted.
“Out of the road,” Chris said, stepping through the doorway. “You guys back me up.”
Nate got another stick of gum ready. He dreaded to think what might await beyond the confining hallway. Lindy followed Chris, Nate tailed Lindy, and Katie entered behind Nate. The hall was no higher than the doorway. Chris was almost tall enough for the top of his head to brush the ceiling. Katie had to advance in a stooped position.
“I don’t see any enemies,” Lindy told Nate. “But the way ahead won’t be easy.”
Nate saw what she meant when he exited the cramped corridor. The hall opened into yet another large chamber. To the right, an enormous corridor led away from the cavernous room. The massive corridor was essentially a bigger, longer hallway full of moving obstacles like the passage that had guarded the Protector. Beyond the spinning blades, scything pendulums, jabbing spikes, twirling axes, and crushing pillars, Nate caught fleeting glimpses of a large, distant door.
“No way,” Chris said. “This is worse than Angel Island.”
“Much worse,” Lindy agreed. “It’s denser—more blades, bigger blades, more spikes. Many are faster than anything we saw in the other corridor. Some of the pillars are mashing together horizontally. I see evidence of trapdoors in the floor. Some of the holes in the wall have arrows and darts ready to fire. Plus it’s more than twice as long.”
Behind them, Nate noticed Katie speaking into the seashell. She regarded the frantic obstacle course with trepidation.
Risa approached the other Jets. “This isn’t fair! Is every hidden treasure guarded by a hall like this?”
“Iwa Iza hid the Protector,” Nate reminded her. “He also hid Uweya. Same designer.”
Risa shook her head in despair. “Do we seriously have to—”
Her words cut off without explanation. Nate looked over and saw that Risa was holding perfectly still. Chris was motionless as well. And Lindy. He decided he had better freeze himself.
“Please don’t panic,” Katie said. “Jonas has temporarily immobilized the four of you for security reasons. He expected something like this final gauntlet. Our prize should lie just beyond. We needed you against those warriors, and we thank you for your fine service. The good news is, you won’t have to make it through that deadly tangle up ahead. Jonas will use my simulacrum to boost me as he has never boosted anyone before, and the task of retrieving Uweya will be mine alone.”
“I’ve never heard them so quiet,” Cleon said.
“Can’t they speak?” Jeanine asked.
“Jonas wanted to paralyze you four quickly,” Katie explained. “As a consequence, he had no time for finesse. He’ll go back and make you a little more comfortable if you behave well. Free up your mouths and eyes, for example. Then, once Uweya is secure, he’ll release you entirely, and you can fly out of here, free to enjoy the fruit of your efforts.”
Nate remained motionless, although keeping completely still was turning out to be harder than he might have guessed. He was worried that he might sway a little, or move his arm, or shift his glance, or somehow give away the fact that he
remained in complete control of his body. The other Jets remained as immobile as wax figures.
Nate was positioned so he could see Katie. Her brow crinkled, and she lifted the seashell to her ear. Her alarmed eyes went to Nate. “Is somebody playing possum?”
The moment had arrived. It was now or never. The other Jets were out of commission. He knew where he needed to go. The amulet around his neck had obviously worked, preventing Jonas from freezing him, and now Jonas had noticed that something was interfering with his simulcry.
Nate still had the stick of Peak Performance in his hand. Shoving the gum into his mouth, he took to the air, rising quickly. Cleon, Jeanine, and Katie all shouted in dismay. Katie hurled her mallets at him with superhuman force, but the gum was already kicking in, and Nate narrowly dodged them. Gravity suddenly increased around him, dragging him down, but Nate found that if he angled down diagonally, he could slip away from the weighty pull. Each time he escaped, a moment later gravity would increase again as Jeanine refocused her power. But every time he slipped away from her increased gravity field, he climbed as much as possible before the downward tug hit him again. Overall, he kept gaining altitude instead of losing. After her seventh attempt to drag him down, Jeanine collapsed.