Read Online Kingdom Keepers VII by Ridley Pearson - Free Book Online Page A

said.
    “Not projected from our servers. And this was inside the Disney local area network, don’t forget. Our LAN is behind a dozen firewalls. If that old man was a DHI, then we’ve got an insider working for the OTs.”
    “Don’t call him an old man,” Finn says testily. “He’s a legend. A genius. And that wasn’t him!”
    “You have to distance yourselves from your emotions, Finn. All of you have to. The evil is out and among us, okay? This was a violent, destructive breach at the heart of the company. The Archives are like our bank vault. They hold all our knowledge—our institutional knowledge—of how we got to where we are. Our history. We can’t have the OTs picking things off the shelves like it’s a grocery store.”
    “Wayne had to be a DHI,” Philby repeats, but it sounds as if he’s trying to convince himself, not the others.
    “And when you can prove that, we’ll be happy to review your evidence,” Brad says.
    Silence.
    “In the meantime,” he continues, “your parents are on the way with a suitcase for each of you. You will say your good-byes. We’re off to Burbank before sunrise.”
    “Why can’t we just work from here?” Willa proposes. “I mean, sleep is sleep. We can be DHIs from wherever we go to bed. I’d rather stay home, if it’s all the same to you. Graduation’s important to me. I worked hard for this.”
    “Exactly,” Philby says.
    Brad glances back and forth among them. “It isn’t ‘all the same to me.’ This is Wayne. You were there, boots on the ground. You tell me: You think this can wait a week?”
    “I’m just saying we don’t need to be out in Burbank. We can do this from here.” Willa checks out the other Keepers to make sure they understand her position. “I’m not wimping out. I just don’t see the point in physically traveling out there when we can be DHIs from here.”
    “Willa, right now the facts say that Wayne has betrayed us. I don’t believe that. You don’t believe that,” Brad says, working his smartphone. “You did not see this. You understand? I never showed you this. Neither I nor the company has access to military satellite imagery. Is that clear?”
    Heads nod.
    “Is that clear?”
    “Yes, sir!” the Keepers say, nearly in unison.
    All but Maybeck, who rolls his eyes and says, “Crystal.”
    Brad turns his phone to face them. The images run as a slide show. From above, a jungle. The next slide zooms in lower, showing more detail: rocks, rubble, jungle floor.
    Finn sees it first. “That’s the sacrificial table. That’s where…” His voice trails off. Willa places her hand on his shoulder affectionately.
    “You didn’t know, Finn. None of us knew,” she says. Then through the dark she stabs Brad with her eyes, furious at him for raising memories of Dillard’s death.
    “The temple grounds,” Brad says.
    Professor Philby speaks up. “But they’re—It’s destroyed. Most of it anyway.”
    The slides keep moving in tighter on the temple grounds.
    “You can see the signs of an earthquake,” Maybeck says. “Those black slashes in the ground are where the tunnels caved in.”
    “The tunnels?” Philby sounds panicked.
    “The labyrinth?” Finn says. “But if the labyrinth caved in, if those are the tunnels—”
    Brad stops the slide show and pockets the phone. “If you don’t come with us,” he says to Willa, “no one’s going to fault you. We all have lives to live. I’m the first to acknowledge that. You can go home with your parents when they arrive. Whoever’s with me”—he glances at his watch—“we’re out of here in fifteen minutes. Say your good-byes.”
    Headlights stream into the parking lot from several entrances, aiming at the white van.
    The Keepers exchange glances. In their eyes are fear, grief, confusion, worry. Philby looks stunned. Willa looks sad. Finn’s face is a mask of pain; he can’t let go of what happened to Dillard. Three years have passed, but to look at him, anyone