The Sabotage Page 9

  Carter’s mind raced. With one runner out, that left twenty-two runners on the course. And sixteen seccu still waiting to be claimed.

  Vanessa was weighing their options when Carter made another fast decision.

  “Let’s go for it,” he said, and jumped to the hanging vine in front of them.

  Vanessa’s breath rushed out of her. There wasn’t even time to shout Carter’s name. He leaped, grasped the vine, swung forward, and dropped lightly onto the platform a few feet farther away.

  It was an impressive move. Even in the rush of the moment, Vanessa was grateful for his skill. And it made her want to do just as well.

  Before she even tried, she took another look around. The first runner of the competition was already finishing the course. He scrambled off a final stretch of netting that hung from the gorge’s edge and rolled onto the flat ground at the top of Cloud Ridge. Without pause, the boy sprinted past Ani and straight for the line of seccu. He reached up as he jumped, snatched one of the necklaces without touching down, and disappeared over the crest.

  “Come on, Nessa,” Carter said. “We have to keep moving.”

  “You’re right,” she said, turning her attention back to him. “Something tells me this is going to be over soon.” Already, two more runners were nearing the top. It wouldn’t be long now before they’d grabbed their own seccu.

  Which would mean there were thirteen seccu left.

  Vanessa eyed the vine rope. Then she jumped.

  Her hands closed around the woody texture of the vine. Her body swung forward. She reached with her toes first, arched her back, and let go, flying the last few feet onto the platform. Carter was right there to pull her in as she landed. The platform swayed back and forth. It was solidly built but not well anchored. It felt like landing on the deck of a rocking boat.

  As soon as Vanessa could, she looked around, gauging Buzz’s, Jane’s, and Mima’s progress.

  Jane was working her way laterally and seemed to be heading for a bamboo ladder on the far side of the next platform—one that would bring her back up to the top level.

  Mima was just stepping onto a wooden beam that swung between two vine ropes. As Vanessa watched, the whole thing gave way, just like the small bridge before it, and Mima dropped. She reached for the nearest rope, but it was too late.

  “Carter!” Vanessa shouted.

  “I see!” he said—but there was nothing they could do.

  Mima landed ten feet down, on the next level—lucky enough to crash onto a bamboo lattice like the one Buzz had already crossed. The fall looked painful, but the lattice held.

  “Mima! Are you okay?” Vanessa yelled. Mima was still for a moment, but then she sat up, rubbing her arms on both sides. She waved to say she was fine.

  It was becoming clear now that not every piece of this course was meant to be crossed. Some elements were solid. Others were like traps. As for how to tell the difference, Vanessa had no idea.

  Buzz, meanwhile, hadn’t left his spot.

  “Buzz, what are you doing?” she called out. “You have to keep moving. Do you want us to come get you?”

  “Hang on!” he barked back. His gaze had a familiar intensity to it. He seemed to be thinking something through, but time was not on their side here. When Vanessa glanced to the top ridge, two more seccu had been snatched off the line behind Ani. It was down to eleven necklaces.

  “Buzz!” she tried again. “What are you doing?”

  This time, he didn’t even respond. His gaze seemed to be following one runner in particular. A Nukula girl. Vanessa watched—glancing back and forth between Buzz and the girl—as the girl scrambled up a vine rope, across one last plank, and over a section of mesh to reach the top of Cloud Ridge, where Ani was waiting.

  A moment later, she’d leaped and grabbed a seccu on her way out of sight, just like the others before her.

  Ten seccu left.

  When Vanessa looked back again, Buzz was sitting bolt upright on his platform.

  “Yes!” he shouted.

  “Buzz?” Jane called up from below. “What’s going on?”

  “Everyone stay where you are!” he said.

  “What for?” Carter yelled back.

  “I’m going to tell you which way to go!” he said. “Because I just figured this thing out!”

  Buzz had played enough video games to know that every game had a pattern. Every element in every game existed for a reason, even if that reason was just to get in the player’s way. What if this course was built with the same idea in mind?

  So he’d watched carefully. He’d studied the movements of the other runners. And most of all, he’d watched the ones who made the fastest progress. After the first three runners reached the top, Buzz started to see some of the common threads in the paths they were taking.

  The obstacles weren’t random. There was a strategic design to this thing. A code. And the quicker you figured it out, the faster you got to the top.

  The realization was like fireworks going off in his brain, even as the clock kept ticking.

  “Buzz, stop messing around!” Jane yelled again. “What are you talking about?”

  “I see it!” he shouted. “I know how to do this!”

  Like so many patterns he’d found in so many games before, this one went from invisible to obvious as soon as he’d puzzled it out. Now, it was like a line of yellow highlighter marking the way for them.

  “Left, left, right, and then right, right, left!” he shouted out. That was the pattern. From each platform, there were directional choices to be made. Some of those choices led to success, some led to dead ends, and some led to a fall. Already, three runners had plunged to the bottom of the course and were out of the running.

  The next trick was going to be getting Carter, Jane, Vanessa, and Mima on the right track from their current positions. Only ten seccu remained on the vine strung behind Ani. And they’d need to get there in time to secure five.

  “Carter, Vanessa! Stay there for now. Jane, you go first!” he yelled.

  Already, he’d gauged where Jane had begun the course, and where the left-left-right, right-right-left pattern should have taken her. Except for her last two moves, she seemed to be on track.

  It was an amazing feeling of certainty, now that he had it. And the kicker was, nobody but Ani could understand what he was saying. He could shout out all the instructions he wanted to.

  First, though, he had to be absolutely sure.

  He looked back at the broken bridge where they’d started. His eyes followed the pattern from there—starting with a left turn off the platform. That was the rope Jane had taken down.

  From the bottom of the rope, Buzz’s eyes continued to where Jane had taken another left, along the bamboo bridge to the next platform. There, Jane had gone straight instead of right. Which was her first wrong move.

  “Jane! Go back to the last platform!” he said, pointing. “Everyone else wait! Mima! Wait!”

  He’d caught Mima’s attention now, too, but she seemed confused by his instructions. Still, there was only so much Buzz could process at once. He focused on Jane for the time being. She was their best hope at confirming this answer.

  “This way?” Jane asked, pointing to the platform she’d left behind.

  “Yes!” Buzz said. “And hurry!” When he looked across the gorge, two more seccu were gone. Eight left. But if this idea was correct, then the rest was going to be easy.

  “Now what?” Jane called from the platform.

  “Go right!” he said. “Onto that net.”

  “It doesn’t look very strong!” Vanessa shouted from her platform. “Those vines are like strings. Are you sure about this, Buzz?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Pretty sure.”

  “Buzz!” Jane shouted.

  “I’m sure!” he called back. “Just do i
t! Take it all the way to the next platform. Then right again. See that ladder?”

  “Got it,” Jane said.

  Everything seemed to stop moving around him as he watched her execute the next move, also to the right. And sure enough, the net held. After that, the remaining moves went by quickly. Jane took a left turn off the next platform, which brought her up a bamboo ladder, back to the upper level.

  “Keep going!” Buzz said. “Left to that platform. Then left again. Then right. It’s left, left, right. Then right, right, left!”

  Jane was moving even faster now. She’d always been the best climber, and the most agile. It was becoming clear to Buzz—and to Jane, it seemed, from the way she was picking up speed—that he had her heading straight for the top. His mind jumped ahead three more moves, to the patch of ground at the summit of Cloud Ridge, where Ani waited.

  “Go, Jane! You’ve got it! Right, then right, then left again.”

  It took her down another ladder, across a pair of ropes, back up again, and over a bridge that ended at the far side. Within two minutes, Jane was standing next to Ani, her face beaming.

  “Buzz, I can’t believe it. You did it!” she screamed.

  But there was no time for celebration. Buzz looked back to where Vanessa and Carter were waiting. The good news was that they’d stayed on the first platform near the cave’s exit. That meant there would be no backtracking to do.

  The problem was with Mima. She’d gone way off course, and there was no language Buzz could use to get her where she needed to go.

  “Carter and Vanessa!” he shouted. “Take that balance beam left from your platform, all the way to the next one. Then left again—that means down the pole, and then right off the platform at the bottom. Have you got it?”

  “Got it!” Vanessa said, already stepping onto the beam. When it held, she proceeded across with the confidence of the gymnast that she was.

  “Mima!” Buzz shouted. She looked up from the ladder she’d been about to climb. “Fah! Not that way!” he said, and pointed behind her. She looked back skeptically, but Buzz pointed again.

  “Ah-ka-ah! That way!” he said, with as much strength in his voice as he could muster.

  She followed his direction, but she still had a lot of careful backtracking to do.

  “Okay, Vanessa! Carter!” he said, playing traffic cop now. “You’re doing great! When you get there—go right this time. Then right again. Then left. You see it?”

  “Slow down,” Carter called back. “We’re not there yet.”

  “Well, hurry!”

  Finally, he turned and started calculating his own route. His eyes skimmed the nearest elements, checking for his next best move. As he did, his gaze landed on Chizo, staring back at him from below.

  Chizo was still on the course—and he did not look happy about it.

  Jane threw her arms around Ani. “I can’t believe it!” she said. “I made it across!”

  “You did well,” Ani answered warmly, but without returning the hug. “Now you must keep going.”

  “What?” she said. She looked back to the course, where Buzz was shouting instructions to Vanessa, Carter, and Mima. “I have to wait for them,” she said.

  “No,” Ani said. “It is time for you to claim the seccu that is rightfully yours.”

  “But, I have to wait—”

  “You may not,” Ani answered simply. “Each runner must complete the course in his or her own time. This is your time.”

  He motioned her toward the line of seccu that hung just out of reach behind them. Beyond that, Jane saw, was a vast opening in the ground. It was at least fifty feet across, and filled with the mist that seemed to pour over the landscape here.

  “What’s down there?” she asked. “How can I jump if I can’t see?”

  “Do you trust that you will be well?” Ani asked.

  Jane wanted to say yes, but it wasn’t that easy.

  “What if I don’t do it?” she asked, starting to tremble all over.

  Ani waited for a moment, then spoke quietly while barely moving his lips.

  “Then I will push you,” he said. The words took Jane by surprise. “This is the final test of Raku Nau, and there is only one way to succeed,” he added. At that, his eyes moved to the opening in the ground, showing her the direction she needed to go.

  Jane understood. Once again, Ani was trying to help them in any way he could.

  She looked again, over the edge in front of her. All she saw was twenty feet of rock face, and then nothing but boiling fog. It was going to be like jumping into the clouds from above.

  Her mind felt split in two. There was nothing about this that felt like a good idea. But there was no choice, either. She had to do it. They all did.

  And some part of her wanted—no, needed—to do it on her own, without help from Ani.

  There was no time to find her courage now. No chance to find another way through this. The sound of other Nukula runners approaching the end of the course pushed her mind to race even faster.

  Jane stepped back from the edge several feet. She tried to take a deep breath, but her body was shaking too badly. Ani watched from where he stood, offering nothing more than a steady gaze.

  This was all on her now.

  She set her eyes on the necklace hanging in front of her, and ran toward it until there was no ground left. Pushing off, she leaped as far as she could. Her hand closed around the seccu cord, and it snapped free in her grasp.

  Then she dropped.

  Buzz’s mind surged. So maybe Chizo wasn’t great at everything in this competition, after all. Raku Nau was meant to test competitors in many ways. Ani had told them that, more than once. This course was a whole new kind of challenge—and Chizo wasn’t doing well at it. If he made it to the end, he was going to be among the last. It seemed incredible, but the look of angry frustration on Chizo’s face said everything.

  Still, Buzz had to stay focused. He watched the course carefully, calling out moves to Vanessa and Carter, then figuring his own way to go—left, left, right, then right, right, left.

  At the same time, he shouted to Mima, trying to indicate her path with gestures. The course was so multidirectional, it was almost impossible to communicate effectively from this distance.

  Soon, Vanessa and Carter had begun using the pattern without any more help from Buzz. They were making fast progress toward the top, and toward the last seven seccu that hung there.

  Buzz shouted down to Mima once more, pointing her toward the bamboo ladder Jane had used to climb from the middle level to the top. Then he pulled himself across a swinging log to the next platform in front of him.

  “We’re almost there!” Vanessa shouted back. “Hurry up, Buzz! And Mima! This way!”

  “She can’t understand you!” Buzz said. “Don’t confuse her!”

  “I’m not!” Vanessa said. “I’m just trying to—”

  “Let me do it!” Buzz yelled, cutting her off. There was no time for discussion. Vanessa and Carter were nearly through, and he was headed toward the last few obstacles he would need to cross before all three of them would be in the same spot—and one move away from finishing. Once they got there, they could go after Mima, or shout and gesture to her the rest of the way.

  Buzz stayed low and duck-walked across a narrow bridge, which was really nothing more than half a log suspended between two vines. He ignored the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and focused on one step at a time. If he fell to the bottom now, it would be nothing more than a completely avoidable disaster.

  He reached the next platform as Vanessa and Carter waited on the other side of a bamboo pole that hung between his platform and theirs. It was time to cross right over to them, but the pattern in his head told him otherwise.

  “Go that way!” Buzz said, pointing them toward the right. “We’re almost th
ere.”

  “We have to wait for Mima!” Carter said.

  Buzz knew Carter was right. They couldn’t finish this without her. He looked back, and saw she’d made it back to the upper level again. Now she crouched on a platform, looking left and right.

  “Mima!” he shouted. When she looked, he pointed her to the right, sending her across another swinging bridge.

  “Listen, you guys,” Carter said. “I’m going to go get her.”

  “No way,” Vanessa said. “We’re finishing together.”

  “It’s too late for that!” Carter said. “Jane’s already gone. Go find her and make sure she’s okay. I’ll get Mima. We’ll be right there.”

  Buzz looked at Vanessa, and he could tell she’d already agreed. Sticking together wasn’t even an option anymore. And there were only six seccu left. Another runner had just pushed past them on the course, run up onto the ridge, and disappeared with one more of the necklaces.

  “Buzz!” Mima called out.

  He turned to see her waiting. She seemed to understand he knew the way through. Now it was just a matter of getting her there.

  “I’ve got this,” Carter said. “I can move through this stuff faster than either of you. Just tell me what she needs to do, and then get out of here! Go find Jane!”

  Buzz checked his sense of the route one more time.

  “She has to go right off that next bridge,” he said. “Then left off the platform. Then it starts over. Left, left, right, then right, right, left—”

  “Got it!” Carter shouted after them. “Find Jane! We’ll see you down there.”

  Wherever “there” is, Buzz thought.

  “Be quick,” he said to Carter,

  “You know it,” Carter said.

  Buzz pulled himself the last few feet, rolled onto the solid ground of the ridge as he’d seen the other runners do, and jumped up. Vanessa came right behind.

  Ani was there, watching without a word.