The Dealey Five (A Dvorak Novel: Complete)

Chapter 19 (or, "Four Minutes")

The Dealey Five

Chapter 19 (or, “Four Minutes”)

Where We Last Left Off: Didi tried to shut down the program, to no avail.

--

Tama kept his ear pressed against his phone. Didi’s voice hadn’t come through in a couple of minutes, and all he could hear was static, but he wasn’t giving up. “Didi? Are you there? Come on, say something!” He turned to the other kids, who were now all gathered in the bonus room. “Still nothing.”

“Well, you know what they say, dude.” Jason took the phone from Tama.

“Tough luck?” Rosa asked with a skeptical look.

“Nope. If something doesn’t work, just give it a couple of whacks --”

“Woah, woah, woah.” Tama tried to reach for his phone, but Jason held it higher. “Give me back my phone! Don’t break it!”

“Not until I get it working again --” Jason felt the phone get lifted from his hand. He looked behind him to see who stole it. “Hey!”

It was Isabel. “Got it.” She pressed her ear to it. “Nothing. The connection has been severed.” She pressed a button, and the phone turned off. “Didn’t I ever tell you that I’m connected to the Colemak button as well?”

“Uh…”

“Clearly not.” Isabel handed her phone back to Tamasine. “I got your distress signal. What’s the situation?”

“Didi got caught by Dimitri,” Rifka said. “Only I don’t think it’s Dimitri.”

“It’s that freak Carissa and Mac told us about.” Jason gritted his teeth. “What’s his name, Vorek or…”

“Dvorak,” Rifka corrected, the name rolling off her tongue.

Isabel stared back in disbelief. “Dvorak? Here? That can’t be possible. We got rid of him ourselves. I watched it happen. There’s no way he could be back here.”

“Oh, it’s totally possible.”

They turned to find the woman sitting at the kitchen table, Saint Arbucks drink in her hands, staring off into space. She lounged, legs crossed, black QWERTY jacket open at the zipper. “After all, nothing ever totally disappears. The atoms just turn into something else, as people become ash which becomes air which becomes something else. We are all made of stardust, are we not?” She turned toward them, blue eyes set on them. “It is a pleasure to meet you all finally. I would have hoped it would not be under such dire circumstances, but I wanted to make sure your morale is up. You’ve been through much more than what regular recruited units do.”

“This is Sarah Dealey,” Isabel introduced the woman, who notably did not get up from her seat. “She is the one in charge of our faction of QWERTY. I didn’t expect to see you here, Boss.”

“Eh, I was thirsty.” Sarah took another sip from her cold drink. “There’s nothing like Saint Arbucks in the rest of existence. Except for Kalto on Xando, but...that’s another story. Saint Arbucks it is. This city, it…” She didn’t finish her sentence, just sipped.

“You’re with Mick, aren’t you?” Rosa asked, breaking the silence. “We met him at QWERTY headquarters, Tama and I…” She looked over at Tama, who was in a daze. “Tama? Are you okay?”

His eyes weren’t moving from the phone. “He’s my little brother. I let him down.”

Rosa put her hand on Tamasine’s shoulder. “Then we have to get him back. Not only for you, but for all of us. We’re a team, aren’t we? The...the Fearless Five, or something like that.”