Operation Tenley (7 page)

Pennie slipped on the stopwatch.

“Where are my instructions?”

“No instructions.” Tink smoothed down some of her loose red hair.

Pennie blinked at her. “What about clothes?”

“We don’t have access to their wardrobes. You’ll have to figure that out when you get there.”

Pennie shook her head. “That’s it? That’s all you have to tell me?”

“There is one more thing. The stopwatch will buzz sixty minutes before the forty-eight-hour time period is up. And it will do so again at the ten-minute, three-minute, and thirty-second mark. You and your client should be as far away from anyone else as possible when the Fair Force arrives so fewer memories will need to be erased.”

The clock on the wall read: EARTH TIME 7:59 a.m.

Tink pulled the crystal eight off from around her neck and pushed open a door. Behind it was a set of elevator doors. “This is the travel box. Once you step inside, the temporary disintegration will begin. You’ll need to stay completely still during this process. When the doors open again, you should be at nineteen Nathan Lane, or somewhere around there, anyway.”

Pennie’s mouth went dry. This was ridiculous. No instructions, no tools, no pants.

Tink slipped the crystal eight directly into the elevator doors and turned it like a key. As soon as the travel box opened, she ushered Pennie in.

“Earth is a perfectly safe place to be, once gravity is dealt with. Although it is rather hard to stay awake down there. I’ve heard of entire trips spent
sleeping
. Imagine that journey and then never even waking up!” She pointed to the ceiling. “Just remember to stand directly under the laser and stay as still as you can. You’ll want to arrive in one piece.”

“
Code Red. Repeat: We have a Code Red. Irregular activity spotted. Renegade Weathers suspected. All Force in the area to respond immediately
.”

An alarm drowned out Tink’s next words.

“What’s happening?” Pennie shouted. The doors were shutting.

“Security Breach. You better get going before they suspend all travel. Good luck!”

The doors closed.

The stopwatch beeped on.

48:00:00

Fair City

Inside the travel box, a thick beam of light flickered above Pennie’s head. Her fingers and toes started to tingle. The sensation slid up her arms and down her legs. She gritted her teeth, trying not to move. The travel box began to shake and the laser burned hotter. Pennie’s head felt like it might explode. She stifled a scream and then …

The laser blacked out.

The elevator doors broke apart.

Command Center was in chaos. Hologram monitors were blinking and Fair Force were scrambling toward the exit. Everywhere, floors were cracking and walls were crumbling.

Pennie rushed through the elevator doors. “Tink?” she yelled. But Tink was nowhere to be seen.

The stopwatch read
47:59:20.
She inspected it closer. There was no pause button. The floor below her rumbled and buckled. She jumped off just before it cracked open. A meter away, she spotted something glowing under a pile of debris.

Tink’s crystal eight.

“Tink!” Pennie yelled, swiping it up. “Tinktoria, are you in here?”

There was no answer and she couldn’t be heard over the alarm anyway. She slid the crystal eight into her pocket. The wall in front of her crumbled. The exit was blocked.

Pennie fought her way over to center stage where Fair Force were shouting orders at the largest screen. It was a live picture of a building on fire. Surrounding it, trees toppled and roads buckled. Cars sped out of control and everywhere, people were running, covered in dust. Pennie was witnessing an earthquake.

“Has anyone seen Tinktoria?” she yelled.

“
Contact initiated
,” a computer-generated voice sounded over the loudspeaker.

The center screen changed to a busy city sidewalk with a group of businessmen and women walking together. They all popped in earbuds without breaking their stride. “We can hear you, Commander. Go on,” one of the businessmen said.

“Very good,” the commander yelled. “We are seeing heavy fire in an occupied building. We need your group of elementals to deploy to 34.0500 degrees South 118.2500 degrees West immediately. We believe we are having simultaneous attacks both here and in Southern California.”

“We’re on our way, Commander,” the businessman said.

The floor below Pennie gave way. She grabbed onto a wall. On screen, the elementals slipped left down a side street and huddled together. A moment later, they lifted off from the cement. Without propellers. Which meant someone in that group had the wind element. That would have been Tenley someday, Pennie couldn’t help thinking. But now she’d be lucky just to stay on Earth, alive.
If
Pennie could get to her in time.

Pennie checked the stopwatch.
47:57:50
. She banged on the dinosaur face. “Stop already!” It didn’t.

Pennie made her way over to a Fair Force stationed in front of his keyboard.

“Excuse me, can you help me with that?” She pointed back to the travel box.

The Fair Force scowled. “It’s Code Red. All travel is suspended.”

“Where’s Tink?”

“Who?”

“Tinktoria,” she shouted. “From Room Seventy-one?”

“Not my department.”

Pennie lifted the stopwatch to him. “Could you stop it, please?”

He shook his head. “Don’t handle Fair One equipment.”

“But this is an emergency!”

The keyboard in front of the Fair Force exploded. He flew sideways and directly into Pennie. Before she knew what had happened, she felt herself falling through the floor.

47:50:01

Earth

“What was that?” A girl panicked at the sink.

“It felt like an earthquake,” a voice answered from one of the stalls.

“I’m getting out of here,” the girl said, turning off the water and sprinting for the door.

Unfazed, Tenley picked up the lipstick that she’d dropped and watched the girl go. She smacked her lips and smiled at herself. Then she pushed open the girl’s bathroom door and—
slam
!

“Ow.” Holden Wonderbolt grabbed his head.

Tenley flipped her hair. “Sorry. No pictures.”

“What?”

“Well, okay, one.” Tenley froze in a fierce pose.

Holden stared at her. Then checked behind him. No one taking pictures anywhere.

“Hey, you’ve got a thing?”

Tenley pointed to her sash. “
Vote for Me, Tenley T
. I’m trying … ugh
stop it Tenley!
” She gave herself a mental shake. “
Positive
thinking,
positive
thinking.” She stood straighter and smiled. “I’m
going
to get nominated for America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen.”

“No, I mean—” Holden pointed down. “You’ve got a situation there.”

Tenley looked at the toilet paper stuck to her beige flats.

“Oh.” Mortified, she scraped her foot off on a nearby trash bin and waved. “Thank you, voter.”

“Yeah. No problem,” Holden called after her. “Hey! Was everything okay yesterday? After that Frisbee almost hit you? No bruises or anything? Because I—” He raised his blue cast but Tenley was already halfway down the hall. “Got this.”

The bell rang and Tenley disappeared into the crowded cafeteria. Not even the smell of syrup was cheering Holden up today.

“What’s the face, Wonderbolt? It’s Waffle Day!” Someone slapped him on the back.

“Hey, Coach Bleaker.” Holden jogged to keep up with him. “You think I’ll be okay by play-offs?”

Coach Bleaker noticed his cast. “Geez, I don’t know, Wonderbolt. In a week? I’m not a doc, but I’m pretty sure it takes six weeks for bones to heal.”

Holden’s face fell. He dropped back a few paces.

“But,” Coach Bleaker said, turning into the cafeteria, “tell you what. I could use some help on the sidelines. They don’t pay me enough to be the assistant coach, too.”

Coach Bleaker headed over to the faculty table. Holden stepped into the waffle line. Tenley was four students up in the same line, behind a small redhead.

A boy in front of the redhead stepped back and landed on her foot.

“Ow,” the redhead yelped.

“Omigod.” Tenley hurried over and pulled the girl into a hug. “Are you okay, ginger?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t look like it.” Tenley straightened her sash and prepared for battle. “Hey! Football player guy. Did you just attack this ginger’s lower body?”

“Um, no,” the boy answered with a frown.

Tenley stepped closer to him. “Did you or did you
not
just step on her foot?”

“I dunno. Maybe, I guess.”

“Maybe? Look at this ginger’s face. Look how sad it is!”

“It’s Andrea. And I’m fine,” the girl whispered.

“You don’t have to pretend with me, ginger.”

The boy, definitely a football player, shook his head and moved forward in the line.

“Wait a minute,” Tenley said. “What’s your name?”

“Ah, Collin?”

“Everyone? Can I have your attention please?” A few of the students looked up from their tables. Tenley pointed to her sash. “Tenley Tylwyth, running for America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen. As most of you know, I’m running my campaign on the confidence-building effects of nail art. But I’ve also just, right now, witnessed a real life injustice with this ginger-crusher.”

Andrea and Collin exchanged nervous glances.

Tenley slipped her arm around the girl. “You don’t need to be afraid, ginger victim.”

Collin shook his head. “Hey, I just stepped on Andrea’s foot—”

Tenley glared at him. “Gingers are people too! They have feet that can be stepped on just like the rest of us!”

The teachers were starting to notice them.

Collin abandoned his tray and walked out. Three girls in cheerleading outfits stared at her and whispered to each other.

“Really, I’m fine,” Andrea said. “Collin’s my brother’s friend.”

Tenley took both of Andrea’s shoulders in her hands and shook them. “You have been
far too
brave for
far too
long, ginger. I want you to know that you can count on me, Tenley T. Even when no one else will ‘like’ your Instagrams or sit with you. Or share your hairbrushes. I will. I am Ginger Strong. And if you nominate me,” Tenley smiled to those students still watching. “If
all
of you nominate me as your Hadley Beach representative for ANMIT, I promise I will personally guide the gingers. I will teach them what nail colors they can and cannot wear. I will be their Ginger Ninja.” She looked at Andrea. “Sound good, ginger?”

“Andrea.”

“You’re welcome.” Tenley looked back over to the cheerleaders. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a phone call to make.” She spun around and hurried out the door.

47:36:20

Fair City

Pennie landed on the floor of the Great Hall. No one even noticed. She picked herself up and brushed down her abundant robes. For once, she was glad to have all the extra padding.

The Great Hall was at a standstill. Administrators and Fair Ones were glued to a giant screen where the same building Pennie had seen in Command Center continued to burn. Everyone cheered when—out of nowhere—dark rain clouds floated across the blue sky and hovered above the building. Heavy rain poured down on it. The fire went out.

“Mama N is angry today!” a Fair One whistled.

Pennie tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me. Do you know how to get to Command Center?”

The Fair One looked at her suspiciously. “No. And if you’re trying to get me to admit to something, I didn’t do it and I ain’t guilty of it neither.”

“Right. Okay, is there an escalator around here, maybe?”

The Fair One had already disappeared into the crowd.

Pennie stood on her toes and saw someone she knew—Laraby, walking to the exit.

“Laraby!” She waved.

She rushed through a hologram banner and picked her way around white robes until she came to the Tool Belt Check. The checkout girl was gone. So was Laraby. Pennie searched inside her pocket for the ticket, but it was gone too. Tink’s crystal eight was still there though, so she slipped the chain around her neck and tucked it under her robes.

Making sure no one was looking, she ran behind the counter. There were rows of lockers and no way of knowing which one had her tool belt in it. The sound of a nearby explosion shook the ground. Muffled cries came from the hall.

“She’s attacking City Hall!” a Fair One shouted, running past the counter and out the door. Pennie followed.

Laraby was halfway down the stairs.

“Laraby!”

He stopped, not looking too happy about it, or to be seeing Pennie.

“You’re still here.” She ran down to him.

“So are you.”

“What’s happening? How can
we
be getting attacked?”

“I doubt we are. Could be a crack in the ozone. The effects of the earthquake might be leaking upward. If she was attacking us directly, it would be bigger than a few rumbles.” Laraby started down the stairs again.

Pennie continued after him. “There were explosions in Command Center.”

Laraby stopped. “You were in Command Center?”

Pennie nodded.

“Did you see their equipment? Their 3
^rd
i-Alls?”

“They have so many amazing tools.
Wind seats
, even.” Pennie held out her wrist. “This is official Fair Force equipment. It’s counting down the forty-eight hours for The Right to Delete.”

Laraby frowned at it.

“I know. They want it to look like human technology. Tinktoria in Room Seventy-one started it, but travel’s been suspended. Do you know how to stop it?”

“I’m not privy to Fair Force equipment because I am not yet a Lieutenant Fair One. And the last time I was with you, my chances of becoming one greatly decreased. So if you’ll excuse me.” He turned back for the stairs. His red beard blew over his shoulder.

“Wait!” Pennie followed after him. “I thought you were that guy?”

“What guy?”

“That guy who knows everything. The guy who knows all the rules.”