X-plosion Read online

  “So that’s it? You’re not guilty because of some stupid sign you left up there?” Joe was still hurt over the “so-called skaters” comment, I could tell. He had a point, though. This was a pretty weak defense.

  “Hey! That banner took six hours to make, and I did a pretty good drawing of Tyrone on it, so shut up. But no, that’s not all I had to tell you. I also found a really freaking important clue, but obviously you don’t care.”

  Lenni started to skate off.

  “Wait!” I yelled. What had she found?

  She stopped and turned back, smiling.

  “I was just kidding. Not about the clue—about leaving. I was there early, to set up the banner, right? Anyway, there was someone else there, skulking around the electricity box. They were pretty sneaky—I ran right into them before I noticed they were there. It was so dark, I couldn’t make out who it was. But they dropped this.”

  Lenni tossed something into the clearing toward us. It was one of the VIP golden keys! Only ten or twenty people had those. This narrowed down our suspect list quite a bit. It also explained how whoever it was got close enough to the rides and events to pull off all their sabotage. With one of these, they would be able to go anywhere in the park, no questions asked.

  I stepped forward to pick it up, and this time Lenni didn’t skate away.

  “I don’t like Tyrone,” she said. “But I don’t think anyone deserves to die because he made some stupid park.”

  With that, she skated off into the jungle.

  “Wait,” I yelled. “What about my phone?”

  Lenni laughed again.

  “This?” She held out the phone. “I think I’ll keep it. It might be good for us to stay in touch. Besides, who knows when I might need you guys to return the favor and help me?”

  With that, she was gone.

  “This is crazy!” Joe said. “Do you think we can trust her?”

  “I don’t know…but where else would she have gotten one of these?” I held the key up in the air and looked at it closely. It was definitely the real thing—it was heavy and smooth, just like the ones Joe and I had been given.

  “If she’s telling the truth, that means the killer has to be somebody we know. We both have keys, and Tyrone and Erica and Nick, Cody and London and David…,” Joe trailed off, trying to think who else might have keys.

  “Bret had one, and the rest of the Nice Guyz too. There were a bunch of other celebrities around—we’ll have to get a list of VIPs from Tyrone.”

  I heard a noise coming from behind us in the forest. I wondered if it was Lenni coming back, or maybe one of the security guards finally catching up with us. I turned, but it was just one of the robot tigers. It emerged from the underbrush and started walking toward us. Then another appeared behind it, and then a third. Something about the way they were coming at us seemed…wrong.

  “Frank?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is it just me, or is something up with their programming?”

  The three tigers had spread out and were now in a triangle pattern. They looked exactly like three real tigers—three real tigers hunting prey! One of the tigers threw back its head and roared.

  “Watch out!” yelled Joe. The tiger in front leaned back on its haunches and leaped at us. We both dived to the side—right into the path of the other tigers! Joe managed to duck beneath the one that came at him, but the second tiger slammed straight into me, sending me flying through the air. Its huge jaws barely missed taking a chunk out of my arm.

  “Someone’s reprogrammed them!” I shouted.

  “Thanks, Frank,” Joe said, as the first tiger swiped at him again, its paw nearly as big as his head. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  For the next few minutes, there were claws and fur flying everywhere. The three giant cats toyed with us like…cats with mice. One of the tigers backed me up against a tree. Its tail was twitching, and I could tell it was just waiting for the right moment to pounce on me. I watched its eyes, waiting, waiting, waiting…then it jumped right at me!

  There were trees to either side of me and nowhere to go, so I leaped straight up. I grabbed a branch above my head and pulled my body up into the trees. The robot tiger slammed straight into the trunk of the tree below me. The little receiver below its ear crumpled on impact. The tiger fell to the ground and didn’t get back up again.

  “The receiver! Joe, hit them in the receiver!” That was the only way to stop them.

  I looked over to see if Joe had heard me, only to find the two other tigers had him cornered. One reached out and batted at him. Joe dodged out of the way, and the other tiger took a swipe that sent him to the ground. As one, the two tigers prepared to pounce on him.

  I dropped out of the tree and raced toward him, but there was no way I was going to get there in time. Joe grabbed the first of the tigers by its neck. He’d managed to pick up a rock off the ground, and he was pushing its jaws away with one hand while his other smashed the rock against it, trying blindly to find the receiver.

  The other tiger came up behind him. It reared up onto its hind legs, its powerful front paws getting ready to rip his head right off. I was too far away to do anything.

  Out of the trees, something came hurtling end over end, smashing the tiger in the side of the head. Its receiver exploded in a puff of smoke and blue light. At the same time, Joe finally smashed the receiver on the one he was wrestling. Both tigers fell to the ground. Without their programming, they were just lifeless hunks of metal.

  Lenni strolled back into the clearing.

  “You know, you guys should really be more careful. This place is pretty dangerous these days, and I can’t always be around to look out for you.”

  With that, she picked up her skateboard from underneath the tiger she had hit with it and skated off down the path. Joe and I sat in silence for a second, the only sound our own heavy breathing.

  “You know,” Joe said after a moment of staring at the deactivated tiger that had been about to decapitate him before Lenni broke it, “she’s pretty cute.”

  JOE

  16

  Video Games Killed the Skateboard Star

  “Can’t believe she stole your phone, man. I mean, that’s just sad.” Frank was so organized, I rarely got the chance to tease him for losing stuff, so I was going to make the most of this opportunity.

  He ignored me and continued walking. We were almost back to the Skate or Die Competition area, having safely made it out of the Jungle without any more animal incidents. We’d disabled the zip lines so no one else could get in until we could warn Tyrone about the reprogrammed robots. Lenni, we figured, would be able to get out on her own. She could handle herself.

  “Not only did she take it from you once, but she got away with it again. That’s like losing it twice. Three times, if you count the time she came back when the tigers attacked.”

  “You mean, when she came back to save you from those tigers? And she may have taken my phone, but at least she didn’t completely destroy me during the skating competition.”

  “Sorry, I can’t hear you—I’m on my phone.” I was dialing Tyone to let him know what had gone down. Perhaps now that his security guards had totally failed him, he wouldn’t be so eager to let us go.

  “Talk.”

  That was all his voice mail said. I told him it was urgent that he call me—not Frank, because he’d lost his phone. Frank shot me a dirty look.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go find out if Lenni was telling the truth.”

  We swung by the competition area first, just to make sure no damage had been done by the guards. It was calm now, and it looked as though the guard stampede hadn’t done any major damage. Results from day two of the competition were posted, listing the top five skaters who would appear in the finale tomorrow. I was glad to see Rose’s name among them. After a casual look around the place, we headed over to the stage where the Blastoff had been.

  “Uh-oh,” Frank said. He stopped.

  “Wh
at’s the problem?”

  “We’re not on the case anymore, remember?” He pointed. The stage area was covered in caution tape and surrounded by guards. “I doubt they’re going to just let us in.”

  “Lenni found a way in. If she can do it, we can.” I looked up at the stage. There had to be a way. Then I spotted it. “Follow me,” I told Frank.

  We walked the long way around the stage, careful to stay out of sight of the guards. When Frank realized where we were headed, he paused.

  “I don’t need to use the restroom.” There was a long row of porta-potties ahead of us.

  “Those are our ticket to the stage. Boost me up.”

  Frank made a cradle with his hands and I stepped into it.

  “One, two…three!” On the count of three, I jumped up and Frank lifted with all his might, sending me flying through the air. I landed safely on top of the porta-potty. I leaned down and gave him a hand up. We were now at the back of the stage area, and from here it was just possible to leap up and grab the edge of the beams that held up the wiring and lights. This must have been how Lenni got up unseen.

  From there, it was easy to climb up the scaffolding and into the ceiling of the stage. No one could see you up here, even in the daylight. Frank and I split up and searched the beams for the banner.

  “Found it!” Frank whispered loudly, after only a few minutes. The banner was huge, probably thirty feet by ten feet, and it had a drawing of Tyrone, complete with devil horns and a tail on one side. There was an image of Cody as well, and in between were the words SOLD OUT? OR SELLOUT?

  “That’s a pretty good likeness,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Frank agreed. “But it doesn’t prove she’s innocent. She could have put this up here any time.”

  “But she had the key—where else could she have gotten it?”

  “True. We need to find out who Tyrone gave these keys to, and whose is missing.”

  “It’s only VIPs, right?”

  Frank nodded.

  “Well,” I continued, “all the VIPs who haven’t left already should be at the PowerUp Play-Off tonight.”

  To celebrate the finale of the competition, Tyrone and Cody were hosting a Skate or Die video game party at the Videodrome, the Galaxy X arcade. PowerUp, the official energy drink of Cody Zane and the Zaniacs, was sponsoring it. Any celebrities who hadn’t taken off running should be there—and I had no doubt Lenni and her friends would probably put in an appearance as well. It was our last best chance to figure this case out.

  We took the banner down from the stage area and carefully snuck it out the back with us. Depending on what we found out tonight, it was either evidence that Lenni was innocent, or further proof that she had been involved with all the troubles plaguing the park. We hid it in our room and got ready, making sure we had our own VIP keys with us in order to get us into the Videodrome.

  Like everything else at Galaxy X, the Videodrome was over the top. It was a giant sphere made of special glass, wired to broadcast the images from the video games being played inside. The pictures moved and shifted. At first, one video game would appear fifty feet tall along the entire side of the building, and then it would break apart into a dozen smaller pictures. It was almost as fun to watch the games as it was to play.

  Galaxy X may have emptied out a little after the last few accidents, but with every person left packed into the Videodrome, it was a madhouse. There must have been a thousand people, easily, playing every video game imaginable. There were first-person shooters, games where you wore virtual reality helmets, games with joysticks, guns, special pads that recorded your every movement. There were racing games with cars built to look like the actual cars in the games, flight simulators built to look like jet fighters, and even one game where players climbed inside submarines that were lowered into a giant aquarium.

  The biggest attraction, however, was the Head-2-Head Arena. Here two players could battle it out in one game, which was broadcast on two giant television screens that floated at the very center of the Videodrome. The winner would receive a lifetime supply of PowerUp, as well as free passes to come back to Galaxy X anytime.

  There was music and noise all around us. Flashing lights, people running, yelling, cheering—it was total chaos. And totally awesome!

  “Would you like a free PowerUp, the official beverage of the Cody Zane Skate or Die Competition?” A beautiful blond woman dressed in the PowerUp colors—bright red and electric yellow—offered us a tray of drinks.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ve never had a PowerUp before.”

  “It’s delicious!” she replied. I noticed she was hiding a bottle of water in her pocket.

  “Then why aren’t you drinking one?” I asked.

  “Uh, well. That’s a good question, but I have to go work the front door now. Have a great competition!”

  With that, she ran off.

  “This place is a nightmare,” said Frank.

  “More like a dream come true! Look, they have ZOMG Kill 4! That hasn’t even been released yet!” ZOMG 3 was my favorite video game ever, hands down. It was like an ATAC mission—with zombies. Zombies make everything cooler. Maybe once we made sure Cody was safe, I could come back and check the game for clues….

  “There are so many fake guns and so much screaming here, if anyone tried to hurt Cody, we’d never even notice.”

  Frank really knew how to bring the fun. But he had a point. It was a pretty dangerous place. Luckily, the VIP area was kept separate from everything else. It was a special glass cube at the center of the Videodrome, on a platform right below the screens that broadcast the games in the Head-2-Head Arena. Everyone could see it, but no one could see into it, because the glass was one way only. It should have been pretty safe, but I wasn’t taking anything for granted.

  We flashed our keys to the guards at the stairs leading up, and made our way to the lounge where Cody, David, Tyrone, Erica, and Nick were hanging out. Once inside the VIP area, the noise died down. The glass must have been soundproofed somehow. Some of Cody’s entourage was there as well, but most of them seemed to have left with London. David seemed his usual surly self, but Cody was smiling. Everyone was holding a PowerUp, but no one seemed to be drinking them.

  Frank went straight to Tyrone to explain everything we’d learned from Lenni. I could see Erica drifting closer to listen in. She had such a crush on Frank. She was always trying to be near him. Lucky Frank.

  I sat down with David, Cody, and Nick.

  “This stuff is disgusting,” Nick said as I came over, pointing to the can of PowerUp he was holding.

  “Yeah,” I said. “So what’s the deal with PowerUp, anyway?” I asked Cody. “You love it that much?”

  “Well, actually…” Cody paused and looked around to see who was nearby, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “It’s kind of gross,” he said. “But they pay me a lot of money to drink it. Usually I just pour it out and refill the can with colored water.”

  Nick laughed. “No wonder you and my dad get along so well. You’re both fake.”

  I couldn’t believe Cody would spend all his time selling something he hated. That seemed way grosser than PowerUp could ever be. I didn’t know what to say.

  David sat up in a huff.

  “I’m going to go play some games,” he said, and stalked off before Cody or I could say anything.

  “So that nut job didn’t have anything to do with the disaster at my concert?” Tyrone burst in on us. Apparently, Frank had managed to give him the important details at least.

  “No,” I said. “And Lenni didn’t kill Bret, either.”

  “Then who did?” Erica asked.

  We didn’t have an answer to that question yet, so I changed the subject.

  “So we’re back on the case?” I asked, enjoying making Tyrone admit he was wrong.

  “What are you talking about? Hello! That’s what I hired you for, remember? Just make sure nothing happens at the competition finale tomorrow. Erica, Nick—it’s
time to go. You both have to look fresh and happy for the press photos in the morning.”

  Apparently, Tyrone didn’t remember firing us—or he wasn’t going to admit it if he did. Erica and Nick followed Tyrone sullenly out of the VIP area, and Frank and I were left alone with Cody and a few bodyguards.

  “Hey, guys,” Cody said to his guards. “Go play some games. Have some fun. Joe and Frank are here, and there are guards on the stairs leading up to the VIP area. Nothing’s going to happen.”

  The guards were reluctant to leave, but when Cody gave them each a hundred-dollar bill to play games with, they went running.

  “You guys want to play something?”

  Cody pointed to the video game console at the center of the VIP area. It was like a smaller version of the Head-2-Head Arena, two screens floating in the middle of the room.

  “Any game in the entire Videodrome can be played on these screens,” Cody continued.

  “Even ZOMG Kill 4?” I asked.

  “ZOMG is, like, one of my favorite games of all time, man,” Cody said.

  “Mine too!”

  “Excellent. Let’s play!”

  “You’re on,” I replied, and we high-fived.

  Frank just rolled his eyes. Cody walked over toward the video screens. As he bent down to the control box underneath, I heard a sharp cracking sound. I looked around the VIP area, but I couldn’t see anything that could have caused the noise. A sudden motion above Cody’s head caught my attention. The screens! They were tipping forward and falling from the ceiling. Cody was so caught up in trying to get ZOMG Kill 4 running that he hadn’t even noticed. In a second, he would be crushed beneath their weight.

  FRANK

  17

  Game Over

  At the last minute, Cody realized something was wrong. He looked up at the giant screens slowly descending upon him. He froze in shock. As one, Joe and I ran forward and tackled him. It was so close, I could feel the rush of air as the screens smashed to the ground behind us.