The Paladin Prophecy

A TINY PIANIST

A message came up on-screen: CALL DISCONNECTED. When Will turned around, he saw Nick and Ajay with their arms wrapped around each other.

“Monsters,” said Ajay faintly.

“Dude,” said Nick. “I am believing anything else you ever tell us for the rest of my life.”

They separated, a bit self-consciously. Nick staggered out of the closet, gulping in some deep breaths. Ajay and Will followed.

“You think Nando’s all right?” asked Ajay.

“I’ll try to call him,” said Will, taking out his phone.

“So those bugs are from the same place as the other ones?” asked Nick.

“Yes.” Will hit Nando’s number. The call went straight to voice mail.

“Well, we didn’t need special glasses to see these,” said Ajay.

“No,” said Will. “I think that means they came across a while ago.”

“From this place you called the Never-Was,” said Ajay.

“Right,” said Will.

“And they get here through those Weasel Holes,” said Nick.

“Yes.” Will punched REDIAL. “Damn, he’s not answering.”

“Dude,” said Nick. “Your house is on fire. Call the local fire department.”

“And tell them what?” asked Ajay. “That we saw it burning from Wisconsin?”

“I don’t know,” said Nick, throwing his hands up. “If they hurry, maybe they can catch one of those crazy cock-a-roaches.”

“They won’t find anything,” said Will. “It’ll all be wiped out by the fire. That was a trap set to go off if I came back. That’s how the Caps planned it.”

“You mean … they want to kill you?” asked Ajay.

The hell with rules or what my parents wanted. My friends are involved now, in harm’s way, and I put them there. Time to come clean.

“Yes. Did you record any of what we just saw?” asked Will.

“All of it,” said Ajay.

“Get the girls,” said Will. “Let’s meet in the great room.”

Five minutes later, Elise and Brooke had joined them, huddled together on the couches in the great room, listening as Will told them the whole story about how the Black Caps had chased him that morning in Ojai. He showed them the mechanical bird they’d used to spy on his family before his parents had been kidnapped, or worse. He told them about the monsters in the hills and on the plane, about Ride Alongs and Weasel Holes and how people at the school were now summoning monsters from the Never-Was. He didn’t mention Dave or the Hierarchy—he didn’t want them to think he was completely crazy—but he did say that Todd and some of the seniors on the cross-country team, along with Lyle and the rest of the Knights, appeared to be the ones who were bringing monsters over.

“Monsters?” asked Elise skeptically. “That’s laying it on a bit thick.”

“I want to believe you, Will,” said Brooke, wide-eyed and a little shaky. “Do you have any proof of all this?”

“Show them,” said Will to Ajay.

Ajay played back Nando’s phone call on his tablet for them. When it ended, Brooke and Elise looked stunned. No one in the group said anything for a moment. Wood crackled in the fire.

“So basically,” said Elise slowly, as if intrigued by the idea, “everything we know … is wrong.”

“One question, Will,” said Brooke. “Why are they coming after you?”

Will shook his head. “I think that my parents must have known, considering how much we moved around.” He told them how they had ordered him to stay under the radar, how he’d always pulled back in school and in athletics. “Then I aced that test,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for that, my parents might still …”

Brooke scooted over and took his hand. “Whatever’s going on,” she said softly, “I’m really glad you told us. And we’re all going to help you.”

Will’s chest tightened; his eyes burned. Elise sat on the other side of him and patted his shoulder. There wasn’t much of his game face left now.

“So it’s all connected,” said Ajay, on his feet, pacing. “The Knights, the locker room, the tunnels to the Crag, and what happened to you back home. Now if we can just find out the reason for all of it.”

Will looked at Elise and when their eyes met, he could swear that he heard her thinking something. Almost as if she’d “pushed” a thought into his head.

Ronnie knew about this.

“I’ll tell you what I think,” said Nick, pacing and agitated. “I think that the bastards who did all this to you are in for a prime-time ass-kicking—”

“Take it easy, Tarzan,” said Brooke.

Ajay knelt beside Will to look at the bird. “May I examine this later, Will?”

Will nodded. Ajay folded the bird into the towel and picked it up.

“I need to talk to Elise,” Will whispered to Ajay.

“Brooke, come to my room, please,” said Ajay. “I want to show you something. You, too, Nick.”

“What?” snapped Nick, still pacing.

“I need your help,” said Ajay. “In here.”

Will caught Ajay’s eye and nodded thanks. As soon as they left, Will sat in front of Elise.

“Tell me,” said Will gently. “What did Ronnie know?”

Elise’s eyes widened. “How did you …?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I’m right, aren’t I? Ronnie knew something about this and he told you.”

Elise put her hands on her temples and rubbed hard, like she was fighting off a migraine. Her fine black hair hung down over her eyes.

“They picked on him relentlessly,” she said. “Todd and Lyle and the rest of them. He was so shy, whining about how homesick he was all the time. We’d decided he was hopeless, V for ‘victim’ stamped on his forehead like a license plate. Then he started crushing on me. Way beyond awkward. He played the flute. He wrote poems, for crying out loud.”

“He wrote them to you?”

She put on a tough face. “ ‘How do you measure the distance traveled by a smile?’ Gag me with a deer rifle, do I seem like the kind of girl who likes poems?”

He saw the answer behind the protest in her troubled eyes. “Yeah, you must have hated that.”

“Please. We knew he was brilliant, in a dorkus malorkus sort of way. And funny and self-deprecating, and that was … unexpected. He didn’t find his confidence until he started his project in the labs. They even stopped picking on him then. But he never told us what he was working on.”

“Not even you?”

“Why would he tell me? It wasn’t like we were seriously hooked up. I mean, we spent some time together, and I—” She saw he wasn’t buying it. “Okay, so we got tight. Then something changed a month before end of term. He just cut me off.”

“Why?”

Her jade eyes blazed with pain and anger. “I don’t know. I tried to find out. About him or me or what was wrong or any of it. And I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this or not, but I’m kind of skilled at finding out what people are feeling.”

Will gulped. “I can see that.”

“But I couldn’t read the faintest signal from Ronnie. Instead of this cute warm goof, an iron curtain came down. And I had told him things about myself … stuff I’d never told anybody. I trusted him, and I couldn’t get a hello.”

Will had to tread carefully. One wrong word might shut her down again. “So what did Ronnie know, Elise?”

Elise shot a fierce, penetrating stare at him. Will tried to open his mind, let her look inside him if she needed to, show her that he trusted her.

“The last day of term,” she said, “we’re packing to leave for the summer. Ronnie stops me in the quad with this … sweet, openhearted look he used to have for me, so I know it’s him and his guard is down and … I caught a glimpse inside.”

She looked away. Will tried to keep eye contact. “What did you see?”

“Something that scared him. Something he’d seen in the labs. Something deep and dark and terrifying that he couldn’t handle.”

“Did he tell you what it was?”

Elise shook her head. “He just hugged me and said that if anything ever happened to him, he’d find a way to tell me … so I’d understand. And then he whispered a question in my ear: ‘Are you awake?’ ”

“Awake?” The word sent a shock through Will; he’d been hearing it a lot lately. “What did he mean?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. That was the last time I ever saw him.”

She looked away, deeply wounded but too proud to cry. Will racked his brain, trying to think what to do. But this wasn’t a thinking problem. Then he remembered: #87: MEN WANT COMPANY. WOMEN WANT EMPATHY.

“Did you ever tell Ronnie how you really felt about him?” he asked quietly.

“Of course I didn’t,” she said, twisting her hair.

“And that’s what you’re mad at yourself about.”

“Isn’t that painfully obvious?”

“Kind of.”

“Well it’s kind of a stupid question.”

“I guess we all have a game face, don’t we?” asked Will.

Elise’s eyes went soft. She mimed pulling out a knife, then stabbed herself and fell over. Will laughed. A moment later, so did she. Will stood and held out a hand. When he pulled her up, they came face to face.

And suddenly Will couldn’t move. A prism of light from her dazzling eyes shot through him as if he were made of glass. She could have told him, in that moment, to rob a bank or jump off a building and he’d have done it without thinking. He couldn’t break away, and in that moment he didn’t want to.

“I think I might know how Ronnie planned to tell you,” he said. “Come on.”

He took her by the hand and led her to Ajay’s room. When they entered, Brooke looked up from the desk and saw them holding hands. Elise didn’t notice, but Will felt like he’d been caught pickpocketing. He let go. Brooke quickly looked away.

Nick had set up chairs for everyone. Elise sat beside Ajay in front of the animated mountain image on the enlarged screen. In the half hour since they’d started, the syn-apps had climbed all the way to the top of the rocks onto a narrow ledge above the tallest waterfall. The figures waved to Will and Elise as they came closer.

“What is this?” asked Elise.

“This image was on a flash drive Ronnie hid in his room,” said Will. “I found it this morning.”

“I hacked our syn-apps into it,” said Ajay. “We think Ronnie hid something in the file; the syn-apps have been trying to uncover it. Zoom in.”

The point of view zoomed in on the ledge where the two figures stood.

“Go on now,” said Ajay to the figures. “Follow the path.”

The two syn-apps worked around the corner. As they made the turn, the image opened into a peaceful green glade. Sprays of colorful wildflowers dotted long grass swaying in the breeze. A still pond sat in front of a pagoda-like structure built into the face of a sheer rock wall.

“What is this place supposed to be?” asked Elise.

“I’ve been telling ’em all along,” said Nick. “They’re in Shangri-la.”

The figures walked across a bamboo bridge that spanned the pond, where sparkling, jewel-like white and golden koi swam lazily. They climbed the stairs toward the pagoda’s imposing double doors. The doors opened and two human figures in long white coats stepped out before them. The doors closed.

“Who are those guys?” asked Will.

“They look like doctors,” said Brooke.

“So go inside,” said Elise.

“Let’s try,” said Will. Then, to their doubles, “Enter.”

But as the syn-apps advanced, the doctors locked arms and blocked the doors. Each time they moved, the doctors moved in their way.

“Losers,” said Nick. “Do I need to jump in there and kick their butts for you? Let me get my munchkin—”

“Sit down and shut up,” said Brooke.

“Read his passage from the yearbook again,” said Ajay.

Will picked up the book from the desk: “ ‘Embrace paradox. Look for patterns. Beethoven holds the key but doesn’t know it yet. Hiding inside your Shangri-la you might find the Gates of Hell.’ ”

“Ronnie wrote that,” said Elise.

“Yes,” said Will.

“We think he built all of this,” Ajay said. “That it’s like one of his games.”

“It’s more than a game.” Elise leaned closer to the screen. “This was how he saw the world: a maze of interlocking mysteries. If you solve this puzzle, you unlock the next one and eventually reach the heart of things.”

“Where he hid what he wanted to tell you,” said Will.

“Maybe,” said Elise, studying the passage in the yearbook.

“So this is his version of an extremely elaborate password,” said Brooke.

“I keep telling you,” said Nick, biting a nail. “Type in Shangri-la.”

“Your contribution has been duly noted,” said Ajay.

Elise looked up sharply. “Tell them to hug those two figures on the porch.”

“That’s limp,” said Nick.

“Do you want my help or not?” said Elise.

Ajay and Will looked at each other, shrugged, then both said, “Hug them.”

Their syn-apps looked at each other, shrugged, then walked toward the figures at the door with their arms outstretched. The figures in white looked at each other, then stepped forward and allowed themselves to be hugged by the syn-apps.

The doors behind the doctors immediately swung open. The figures in white stepped back, bowed, and faded away.

“Embrace the ‘pair-o-docs,’ ” said Will.

“Now you’re starting to get it,” said Elise.

“ROTFLMAO,” said Nick, his jaw hanging open.

“You are not rolling on the floor laughing your ass off,” said Ajay.

“I am on the inside.”

“Tell them to go in,” said Elise.

They did and their doubles walked into the building. The walls faded away and the small figures entered a vast empty gray space. Near them, a sharp circle of blinding white light snapped on from high overhead. More circular beams appeared, polka-dotting the space with a rainbow of colors as far as they could see.

The syn-apps stepped into the first white circle. Without warning, all of the floor untouched by light dropped away. Only the colored circles remained. The circles were now the tops of tall round columns that rose out of a bottomless void.

“Uh,” said Will, unnerved. “What happens if our syn-apps die?”

“My guess is that if we die, we’ll lose access to the program,” said Ajay.

“Ronnie probably rigged it to self-destruct,” said Elise. “To protect whatever he hid in here. We have one shot at this.”

“What did he write next?” said Brooke, picking up the yearbook.

“Hope it wasn’t ‘Plunge to a meaningless death,’ ” said Nick.

“ ‘Look for patterns,’ ” read Brooke.

“What patterns?” asked Nick.

The circles began blinking on and off, one color at a time. Each of the seven colors corresponded to a single loud tone that repeated with each blink, until the whole space filled with cacophonous music. The syn-apps covered their ears.

“How does this work?” asked Ajay. “What should we do?”

Elise closed her eyes and listened closely. “It’s a Phrygian scale. The fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale.”

“How do you know that?” asked Nick.

“Because I told him about it,” said Elise, scowling. “You need to jump to the color that corresponds to the next note in the scale.” Elise struggled to concentrate; the music was nearly deafening.

“Blue,” she said.

The two syn-apps hopped from their column to the closest blue circle. As they landed, every other blue column crumbled and fell out of sight. The “blue” notes disappeared with them, slightly simplifying the music.

“What’s next?” asked Ajay.

Elise concentrated, then said, “Purple.”

The syn-apps jumped to a purple circle, and the rest of the purple columns collapsed. Then all the columns, including the one they were standing on, began rising up and down like titanic pistons, making further leaps infinitely more dangerous.

“Now red,” said Elise.

The syn-apps waited until the nearest red column rumbled up out of the darkness, timing their jump to land on it as it rocketed past them. The rest of the red columns disintegrated.

In addition to rising and falling, the columns began moving horizontally, sweeping rapidly from side to side. The syn-apps struggled to stay on top, clinging to each other as their red column whipped around.

“It’s like some kind of insane carousel,” said Brooke.

“What’s next?” asked Will.

Three colors remained: orange, yellow, and green. “Orange,” said Elise. “Will” and “Ajay” had to wait longer for an orange column to pass, and then made the leap together. Will landed cleanly, but Ajay stubbed a foot on the edge and nearly fell backward. Will grabbed his belt and hauled him to safety as the pillar whirled around.

“Why didn’t we bring Nick the Human Goat-Boy along for this?” said Ajay.

“Dude, I offered,” said Nick.

“Yellow,” said Elise. A yellow column whipped by, and they made the leap. Now only green columns remained. The columns picked up speed. The syn-apps threw themselves on top of a green one as it sailed past. The green column gradually slowed, then ground to a halt with an alarming shudder.

A single white column appeared ahead of them. The syn-apps were stranded ten yards away from it, too far to jump.

“What now?” asked Ajay.

“Think it through,” said Will. “There’s no rush.”

A message appeared on-screen: YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS. The message was replaced by the number 30, which changed to 29, then to 28. With each passing second, the syn-apps’ green column slowly crumbled. The syn-apps moved to the center, looking out at them for help.

“You were saying?” asked Brooke.

“Damn it, Ronnie,” said Elise.

“Jump, dudes!” said Nick.

“Use your ropes,” said Ajay to the screen.

The syn-apps huddled for a moment and agreed on something. “Will” opened his backpack and took out what looked like a flare gun. “Ajay” attached a spike to the end of his rope and dropped it into the barrel of Will’s gun, and Will fired it down at the white circle. The spike embedded in its surface near the edge. Ajay secured their end of the rope to the center of their shrinking pillar with a piton.

“Zip lines,” said Will.

As the countdown hit 10, they attached clips from their belts to the rope, then launched off the column. They soared over the void and tumbled onto the white column just as what was left of the green column collapsed into the bottomless dark. Slipping off their climbing gear, they just escaped being dragged over the edge. Everyone, including the syn-apps, stopped to catch their breath.

“Now what?” said Brooke.

The light slowly brightened and the white circle of light became part of a ledge at the bottom of a tall smooth cliff.

“Keep going,” said Elise. “You’re getting close.”

The syn-apps moved along the ledge until they reached an open doorway in the cliff. As they moved through it, the space transformed into a large chamber containing antique furniture, a blazing fireplace, and geometric parquet flooring. Tall hunting tapestries hung on the walls.

An ornate grand piano sat in the center of the room. A man sat on the bench with his back to them. He wore a high-collared white shirt and neckerchief, breeches, buckle shoes, and a long tailcoat. The man was leaning forward, with one arm on the piano, resting his chin on his hand. A feathered quill and bottle of ink sat beside him on a small wooden stand. Two blank pages of musical composition paper rested on the piano’s rack.

The doubles walked around the piano until the point of view shifted and Will could see the man. He looked about forty, stocky and powerful. A wild shock of thick gray hair swirled around his head. His face was heavy and grave, lined with care, almost tormented. He didn’t seem to notice them, his intense, steely blue eyes staring into the distance.

“You know who that is?” asked Ajay.

Will had seen this face on dozens of record covers in his parents’ collection. “Ludwig van Beethoven,” said Will.

“Oh my God,” said Nick. “The dude who wrote the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ”

“Beethoven did not write the—” said Brooke.

“Don’t bother,” said Ajay.

“The last puzzle,” said Brooke, reading from the yearbook. “ ‘Beethoven holds the key but doesn’t know it yet.’ ”

“Then tell him,” said Ajay to his syn-app.

“Guten Tag, Herr Beethoven,” said Ajay’s syn-app on-screen with a polite bow. “May we have a word with you, sir? Dürfen wir mit Ihnen sprechen, bitte?”

“Your dude speaks Russian?” whispered Nick.

“I speak German,” said Ajay.

But Beethoven didn’t respond. Didn’t even look at them.

“He can’t hear you,” said Brooke. “He’s deaf, remember?”

“Ajay, does your little dude know sign language?” said Nick, then slapped his forehead. “What am I saying? Sign language hadn’t been invented yet.”

Brooke stood up suddenly and asked, “Do either of you play the piano?”

“I can a little,” said Ajay.

Brooke leaned in and hummed a melody in his ear. They looked at each other.

“How?” asked Ajay.

“Tell him to play it by ear,” said Brooke.

Ajay leaned in to his syn-app and said, “Play this on the piano.” He hummed quietly. Ajay’s syn-app moved to the right side of the keyboard and played the notes.

Dah-dah-dah-du-dee-da-da …

Elise gasped and touched her hands to her face, her eyes filling with tears.

Beethoven came to life, his face lit up as if inspired by “hearing” the notes in his mind. He brought his right hand to the keys and picked up the melody, adding his left hand in the third measure. Every note he played appeared in ink, as if he were writing them, on the notation paper.

“I’ve heard this before,” said Will. “A hundred times.”

“It’s one of his most famous compositions,” said Ajay.

“Maybe so,” said Nick, disappointed. “But that is definitely not the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ ”

“No,” said Elise, quietly wiping away a tear. “In German it’s called ‘Für Elise.’ ”

“For Elise,” said Brooke, with a look at Will.

As Beethoven continued, a full invisible orchestra joined in. The wall in front of the piano transformed into the door of an enormous bank vault, covered with intricate locks, bolts, and steam-powered gears.

The notes of the tune lifted off the page as if animated and floated through the air toward the vault. They poured into a slot near the center. Gears and immense levers went into motion all over the vault’s surface. Bolts gave way, bursts of steam spurted, wheels turned, a bar drew back with a heavy thud, and the door swung slowly open.

“Beethoven holds the key,” said Brooke softly.

And out walked the syn-app of Ronnie Murso.

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