X-plosion Read online

  When the generator was just a few feet in front of me, I dove through the air. I slammed shoulder first into the wires, ripping them out of the machine. All around me, I heard the sounds of carnival music slowing down eerily and stopping. Lights flickered and went out.

  I landed heavily on the ground, knocking the wind out of me. By the time I stood up, Frank and Cody’s car had already begun to slow down. But they were awfully close to the edge already. It didn’t look like they were going to stop in time. I had failed—and Cody and Frank were about to pay the price.

  FRANK

  9

  Leap of Faith

  It was funny that I was going to die on a roller coaster, since I’ve always hated them so much. Motorcycles? Great. Hang gliders? Love them. Riding unbroken horses without a saddle? Lead me to it. But something about roller coasters always icked me out. I tried to hide my happiness when I saw that the Leap was closed, but then that guy had to come and let us in.

  “Hey,” he had yelled. “You’re Cody Zane! For you, all the rides are open.” Then he and Cody high-fived. Cody pulled a marker from his pocket and wrote “Zaniac” on the back of the man’s T-shirt, and next thing I knew we were being buckled into the car. The mechanic assured us the ride was set to go—he had finished testing it that morning. He had just gotten back from lunch and was about to send one final test car around the ride, but we could go along for the ride in a second car.

  Cody was psyched. “I’ve been reading about the Leap for a year—there’s nothing else like it out there. And we’re going to be the first to ride it!”

  Just the thought of it made my stomach churn. I’d have given anything to be down there eating fries with Joe and London. Once the ride started up, though, it wasn’t that bad. Cody was screaming and laughing, and after I managed to stop holding the safety bar so hard my hands hurt, I started to get into it, too.

  Maybe roller coasters aren’t so bad, I thought.

  That’s when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Joe running. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but I knew right away that something was wrong. I tried to stand up as much as I could, to get a better view of the park and the ride ahead of us, but the seat belt had me stuck to the seat. But as soon as I looked, I saw that the problem was the angle of the tracks. It was simple geometry. Simple but deadly.

  “Whoa. Calm down, man—it’s all good.” Cody patted me on the shoulder and laughed. He hadn’t noticed Joe and had no idea that anything was wrong. Then the first car went over the break in the tracks and slammed into the other side. It exploded in sparks and pieces of metal. Cody screamed again, but this time he sounded more shocked and confused than excited and amused.

  Now I understood why Joe was running. I spotted the power generator right ahead of him. But even if he made it there before we went over the ledge, the momentum the car had gathered already would be enough to send us crashing to our deaths. Then I saw it—our one chance of making it off this roller coaster alive. I pulled out my pocket knife and sliced through the restraints that held Cody and me in our seats.

  “Careful, dude.” Cody seemed more worried by my knife than by our impending crash. He still didn’t get it, even though we’d watched the other car explode.

  “On the count of three,” I told him, “we’re going to jump for that scaffolding over there.”

  Right before the break in the tracks, there was scaffolding that extended up above the roller coaster to give it extra support. It would be a dangerous jump, but staying in the car meant certain death.

  “Wicked, man,” said Cody. “Let’s do it!”

  I tried not to roll my eyes at the excitement in his voice. Didn’t he take anything seriously?

  “Ready? One…two…three!”

  Cody and I leaped out of our seats.

  I just barely managed to grasp the metal scaffolding up above. There was a tremendous crashing sound as our car slammed into the other end of the Leap, then an even louder smash as it hit the ground and shattered into a million pieces. Bits of metal were flying through the air. Then my right hand slipped, and I thought I would go plunging down and land on the crushed wreckage of the roller coaster car below. I swung back and forth in midair, my right arm windmilling as I tried to grab hold of the bar. Then Cody reached out and pulled me up.

  “Careful,” he said, and grinned at me.

  There was nothing to be done but hang there until help arrived to pull us down. I looked around at the roller coaster. Without getting closer, I couldn’t see if there was any evidence of who had sabotaged the ride, but I could see how they had done it. Someone had jacked up the other side of the ride using a series of small cranks and pulleys, turning the Leap into the Guillotine. Whoever had pulled this off certainly knew a lot about machines. They must have done it while the mechanic was on his lunch break, which meant they worked fast.

  From a distance I could hear the howling of sirens, and soon I saw a fleet of fire trucks on their way. They had TYRONE written on the side of them in huge red, white, and blue letters.

  Wow, I thought. Tyrone really does own the whole island.

  From this high up I could see that ours was not the only ride having problems. Whether it was because of the electrical cords Joe had pulled or sabotage, rides all over the park were frozen, or moving backward, or had their lights blinking on and off.

  I felt a rush of air at my side and turned to find Cody falling off the scaffolding!

  Or at least, that’s what it looked like. Then he shot one hand out and caught himself again. Then he started doing flips, pulling himself up to the bar and swinging his entire body around. It was like he was a gymnast. And he was enjoying himself He was actually laughing! A crowd had gathered below us, and I could see people pulling out their cell phones and taking videos of Cody.

  “You know,” Cody said, in between tricks, “I bet Tyrone needs to do some commercials for this place. You know, some action shots, something for MTV. Up here would totally be a great place to shoot. Do some skate tricks off the roller coaster track? It would be hot! And I’d love to star in them. For the right price, of course. My agent would have to negotiate that. But I could totally be the face of this place, easy.”

  I felt something buzzing in my pocket. In all the excitement of the past few hours, I’d totally forgotten about Tyrone’s PDA. Carefully I put one hand in my pocket and pulled it out. It was a message from our old friend Sk8rH8r.

  CLOSE THE PARK—OR I’LL CLOSE IT FOR U. 1 RIDE AT A TIME.

  JOE

  10

  Stage Fright

  “Man, could today get any worse?” I flopped down on my bed in the Galaxy X hotel room that Tyrone had set us up in. “Our main suspect managed to totally escape and make us look like idiots, you nearly got killed by a roller coaster. And the screaming. The way Tyrone carried on, you’d think we made the Leap malfunction ourselves.”

  Frank nodded. “Yeah. And don’t forget the part where you totally got your butt handed to you on a platter during the Skate or Die Competition. By a girl.”

  I threw a pillow at him, and he ducked out of the way. We had a little time to relax before the big event tonight: the Galaxy X Blastoff, a giant concert being headlined by Mr. Nice Guyz. Cody was going to be the emcee, and our old friend Kijani and her band the Royal We were also performing. Tyrone had envisioned it as a huge party to celebrate the opening of the park, but the word going around Galaxy X was that most people were attending just to see what would go wrong. Already, rumors of a curse on the park were starting to spread, as one thing after another malfunctioned, got disrupted or just outright exploded. Frank and I decided to spend our free time trying to figure out who could be behind all of it. If we didn’t get a lead soon, I was going to start believing in ghosts.

  “Seriously, though,” I said. “What is going on here? I thought we had everything in hand when we arrested Wallace. He admitted to making that fake bomb and to messing up our dune buggy. But we haven’t been able to catch a break s
ince.”

  I was getting frustrated.

  “Well, whoever’s behind this has to have pretty full access to the park,” said Frank. “Otherwise how would they be able to plant a bomb on Mount McKenzie, or sabotage the rides before the park had even officially opened?”

  “Right. That sounds like Bret Johnston to me. But it also has to be someone who’s pretty tricky. Some of those traps were clever and hard to pull off, like what happened with The Leap.”

  “And that points to Lenni. Bret doesn’t seem like the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean.”

  We were getting nowhere. Both of them seemed suspicious, but neither was the perfect suspect. We needed some hard evidence, or to catch one of them in the act of sabotaging the park or something.

  “Well, if I had to bet on one, I’d go for Lenni,” I said.

  Frank started laughing at me. I realized how that sounded.

  “And not just because she beat me! She’s got a better motive, and we already know that there are people out there willing to destroy the park because of how and where Tyrone built it. Maybe she’s in league with Wallace somehow.”

  “Well, whoever it was, it feels like things are getting more and more dangerous. That malfunction on the Leap today could have killed somebody! And Tyrone says it wasn’t the only ride to break. Three other rides stopped working too. We’d better head over to the Blastoff and make sure nothing happens there.”

  “Yeah. If anything else goes wrong, we’ll have at least one death on our hands.”

  Frank looked at me. “Huh?” he said. “Whose?”

  “Tyrone’s—if he gets any more upset, his head is definitely going to blow off.”

  Thankfully, most of the night attractions in the park weren’t up and running yet, so we didn’t have to worry about any other “accidents” while the Blastoff was going on. Our only job tonight was to watch out for Cody and make sure the party went off without a hitch. Tyrone had issued us both backstage passes. As usual, he’d pulled out all the stops. Instead of the usual plastic badges or wristbands, these passes were giant golden keys on long necklaces. They were so heavy, I suspected they might be actual gold. “Subtle” was a concept Tyrone didn’t understand.

  We flashed our keys to the security guards around the concert arena and were quickly ushered past the crowds milling outside, waiting for the event to begin. The backstage was packed wall-to-wall with celebrities, journalists, sound techs, and instruments.

  “Frank! Joe!” A beautiful and slightly accented voice called out to us from behind a ring of reporters and cameras. A hand emerged from the circle, then an arm, and then suddenly Kijani, lead singer of the Royal We, came bursting out. She nearly tackled me with a hug. Within seconds, we were enveloped in press as well, with camera flashes going off everywhere.

  “What are you two doing here?” Kijani asked. Her left hand was holding my hand and her right arm was around Frank’s shoulders. Suddenly the smile left her face. Kijani had been a target in a case we had worked on before, at a big concert just like this.

  “Uh, well, we—I mean, that is…”

  Frank’s kind of like Superman—and girls are his kryptonite. I leaped in to save him, before Kijani said anything about us and ATAC.

  “Oh, you know—we love concerts. Like at Rockapazooma, remember?”

  Rockapazooma was the big rock festival at which we had met Kijani. I hoped she got the hint—I didn’t want her to say anything or ask any more questions in front of all the reporters.

  “Oh! Yes, I remember.” Kijani looked even more worried now. She must have assumed we were investigating another plot against her. I rushed to reassure her.

  “Anyway, we’re just here taking care of our friend Cody Zane.”

  Kijani’s eyes went wide, but the scared expression left her face. “If there is anything I can do,” she began, and trailed off. She knew the kind of criminals we took on. They were pretty dangerous folks, and not anyone people who weren’t ATAC trained should try to take on.

  “Thanks,” Frank managed to squeak out.

  Near the stage, someone yelled Kijani’s name.

  “I must go do my sound check. Keep safe, both of you.” She squeezed my hand, then leaned in to give Frank a kiss on the cheek. Typical. Girls love the silent type.

  Everything was in full swing, and it seemed like the concert was going to start any minute. I could hear the fans in the audience, chanting for Bret Johnston. Mr. Nice Guyz was headlining the show tonight. That would give us a chance to keep an eye on Bret as well as Cody. MNG’s fans were pretty crazy—girls had been showing up with giant signs and life-size cutouts of Bret all day. There were rumors that they might try to rush the stage, which was exactly the sort of chaos that would give Sk8rH8r or 4Real the chance to cause some serious mischief.

  Frank and I were walking backstage, trying to find Cody, when I noticed someone moving in the rafters above us. I squinted up. There were roadies and stage crew everywhere, but something about the way this person was moving made it seem like they were trying to stay hidden. A spotlight was turned on, and I caught just a hint of bright blue hair before the person scurried back into the shadow. It was Lenni!

  I nudged Frank in the side and casually gestured upward with my eyebrows. He understood what I meant. Quickly we split up. I moved to the right. Once I judged that I was out of Lenni’s line of sight, I started climbing. On the other side of the stage, Frank did the same. If we were quick enough, we could have her trapped before she had any idea we were even there.

  Something must have tipped her off, though, because before I reached the top of the pillar she was already running across the rafters. She was incredibly fast and had amazing balance. But Frank and I were on two sides of her, and there was only so far she could go before the stage ended. As soon as she tried to start climbing down, we’d be on her.

  In the noise and the excitement of the concert starting, no one even looked up as Frank, Lenni, and I ran and leaped all over the metal beams above the stage. Finally we cornered her on one long stretch of pipe. I was at one end, Frank was at the other, and we had Lenni in the middle.

  “Give yourself up,” Frank yelled.

  Distantly in the background I heard Cody’s name announced and the crowd go wild. The concert must have been starting. Frank and I edged closer in on the beam, penning Lenni in between us.

  KKKRRRRRZZZZZZZT!!!

  A tremendous electrical shrieking noise came through all the speakers for a second, with a human scream almost drowned out beneath it. The lights and the music cut out all at once, and the entire stage was plunged into darkness.

  One thought raced through my mind:

  Cody!

  FRANK

  11

  Short Circuit

  In the dark, I felt something slam into me. It must have been Lenni rushing past. For a moment I lost my balance. I windmilled my arms, trying desperately to stay upright, but I felt myself start to fall. I couldn’t even make out the stage below me in the darkness, but I knew it was a long way down.

  Thankfully, a hand shot out and pulled me back up on to the beam. “Joe?” I said. I heard a girl’s laughter and a patter of running footsteps, and then Lenni was gone. I started to chase her, but in the dark, I knew it would be too dangerous.

  “Frank?” Joe called out from the other side of the beam. “You okay?”

  “Yeah—but I think Lenni just got away. What’s going on?”

  I carefully inched my way across the beam to Joe’s side. From here, we could see that the lights hadn’t gone out only in the concert arena—the entire park appeared to be enveloped in darkness. All around the arena, people were screaming and running. Even in the dark, the stage looked to be utter chaos.

  “Something’s happened to Cody!” said Joe. “We have to get down there.”

  In the dark, scrabbling down the metal scaffolding was dangerous and slow going. More than once we had to backtrack and find a different way to descend. Joe was g
etting more and more impatient by the second. Finally, when we got about six feet above the stage, Joe leaped right off the scaffolding.

  We raced to the front of the stage, where a circle of people had gathered in the midst of the larger craziness. I saw Erica, Tyrone, Nick, Kijani, and a bunch of other celebrities who had shown up for the grand opening—but there was no sign of Cody. They were all clustered around…something. I squinted, and saw a leg sticking out at a strange angle. Someone was lying on the ground in the middle of the circle, and it didn’t look like they were moving.

  Cody!

  Joe and I ran toward them. We broke past the gathered people to find Cody kneeling over Bret Johnston.

  “He—I mean, I tried to give him CPR, but…he’s not breathing!”

  I led Cody away by the arm while Joe took his place. ATAC trained us in first aid and emergency medicine. If there was anything that could be done, Joe would do it. But I was pretty sure from looking at Bret that it was already too late. Joe was pushing on his chest and breathing into his mouth. I tried to question Cody.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, man. One second they were calling my name and I was walking out on stage. Then, bam! Bret ran right into me and shoved me out of the way. I hit the floor, and the next thing I knew, Bret screamed and the lights went out and—I tried to help him, man, I really did.”

  Erica came over to where we were. She was crying into her hands.

  “He—he—he said that it wasn’t fair and that it was his concert and he should be the first one on the stage. I said he should go for it, because I just wanted him to leave me alone, but he did it! He ran out and grabbed the microphone, and as soon as he touched it the speakers exploded and he screamed.”